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Well, first time I ever try anything like this, and have seen that most stories here are in a downloadable format. This will be a straight-in-the-post story, chapter by chapter. Intervals between chapters will depend on feedback and/or nothing-to-do factor. The latter is quite high as of now...
I do not own Pokémon or any trademarks associated with it. I am not writing this for profit, merely for entertainment. I do, however, own the human characters of the story unless others are credited. If you want to repost this somewhere, ask me first or direct link to this topic. http://www.ninsheetm.us is the only site so far authorised to contain this. Thanks for reading.

Chapter one: Escape of a tyrant

Ask anyone, deserted forest roads are quite creepy at 2AM. Even moreso when you're alone, and you know you should have been in bed, and your only items for protection are a rope and a small Maglite. And you know that there is something out there that you are responsible for, and that shouldn't really be left unguarded, let alone in a forest. Sometimes, explainging your situation in second person makes it easier to cope with. In my case, it didn't.
The lights on the Maglite had already started to flicker, I knew I should have brought spare batteries when I left home an hour ago. Resigned, I turned it off, and let the distant light from the city, reflected in the clouds, guide my way. After all, the light might only drive him away, and I wanted to be done with this as quickly as possible. Get out there, find him, bring him back unnoticed, go back to sleep, and hope that the chains will hold this time. Or at least, that he won't decide to leave again...

Around the bend, something huge and shadowy loomed over the road. With a wheezing sound, the shadow turned, and looked at me, then... turned back. Only a tree bending in the wind. Nothing to fear. Not this time.
"Tree", I thought. "Only a tree. Can't hurt anyone. Unless it falls over". I sighed over my own thought, and remembered my friend's advice:
"You always fear the worst. Where has that brought you today? You're not going to get anywhere with that attitude..."
I hadn't answered, but a polite answer would have been something along the line of: "I have a too vivid imagination, and that has brought me into deep, deep trouble. In my current situation, it's best to always assume the worst"

Of course, there were all the times as a kid, when I had thought my neighbour was a witch, that my entire class conspired against me, that aliens were going to abduct me, etc. On some level or another, all kids get that. But in my case... it all seemed so real. It made sense. I was really believing that stuff. And what happened? Freak stamp and psychologist. This time, I'd keep the products of my imagination to myself. Given that it didn't manage to attract attention on its own.
After some intensive searching on the Internet, and even some mail exchange with a couple of guys who claimed to have seen Bigfoot, I had managed to construct a theory. It turned out that human imagination is a quite powerful thing, and that it has a sort of substance. And sometimes, it appears to be able to blend with reality. Dreams, for example, is imagination messing with your senses. You can see, hear, smell the dreams, and however weird it may be, you'll never stop and wonder. The dreams makes sense, as long as you are dreaming, but the logic falls apart when you wake up.
But not always. Most people have once in their lives woken up after a nightmare, still convinced that the demons are chasing you, or that your loved one is dead. That, I found out, is imagination blending with reality. Your own senses is the first place it connects. Then, in some rare cases, it'll go on to affect your surroundings. A lot of the "real" ghost stories you hear is just the results of a guy having a nightmare. The guys aren't nutheads, but their imagination has gone wild. After a while, usually just a few seconds, things settle, and the connection is broken. Imagination is imagination, reality is reality. But the memories remains.
One of the Bigfoot guys told me that he had woken up with the Canada Ape itself towering over him in his bed. When he woke up, it was appearently startled, broke a window and fled through it. He went back to sleep, but the window was still broken when he woke up. After that, he was convinced that what he saw was real. He, and a few others, saw it a few times in the following months. Eventually, it went off into the forest and disappeared, just as all the stories says it does.
What he didn't know, is that it didn't behave that way because it's meant to. It did because it was how he had expected it to behave. After all, if a thing is the product of your imagination, it has only your mind to base its behaviour on, right? If the guy never had heard of Bigfoot before, it would most likely have vanished the instant he woke up. No stories whatsoever to connect to. But because the world is full of Bigfoot legends, the Bigfoot believed that it was meant to wander off to the woods and hide for humans. Which it appearently did.
I hadn't been that lucky. One fatal night, some weeks ago, I had woken up after a particulary lifelike dream. I had dreamt that creatures had escaped from one of my many games, and that I had managed to get them all back except for one. But my "inner clock" also knew that my wake-up alarm clock would start ringing any moment, and in my dream, I was in my room, desperately trying to remember how I had fitted all the other creatures back into the game, and I had been very short of time. In the dream, it was very important that I got it back in time, but I couldn't. I simply couldn't. Then, the alarm had sounded. And, as I had discovered once I had opened my eyes, the creature still hadn't returned to its game.

And now, twenty-two days and nineteen hours later, I was out in the forest, literally chasing dreams. And for the umpteenth time, I stopped, closed my eyes, and tried to dismiss it as a dream, and no more. What I had seen had just been coincidences, not in any way connected to what I had dreamt. When I opened my eyes, I would go straight back to my house, get some hours of sleep, and spend tomorrow laughing of my own stupidity. Just a short mental peptalk to myself, then I'd turn:
"There. Are. No. Such. Things. As... Holy pancake!" A few steps ahead, lay something big, blue and metallic. And leading up to it, several footprints the size of dinner plates. Almost round, but with three triangular toes. I followed them, and found out that the blue metal sheet had no direct connection to the footprints. On closer inspeaction, it was revealed to be the right sliding door on a Wolkswagen caravan. The rest of the car was scattered in several pieces around the area. No trace of a driver or passengers. No blood. Just a very smashed up car. And footprints leading in a straight line towards the huge parking area, normally used by local citizens as a base for day trips. Most Sundays, the average local would stuff himself and his family in their car, drive out from the city and up here, park the car, and go walking a few hours, then drive back. My dad had dragged me up here countless times, so I knew the area pretty well. Like most local children, I used to have a small area that was "mine" up here. A small ravine between two hills, far from the paths, and never visited by anyone. The perfect place if you wanted to relieve some stress and be alone. A place I'd gladly fight to keep as my own. And I would do anything to prevent intruders from coming there. By all accounts, the creature I had unleashed had thought just the same. On the last five hundred meters of road leading to the parking area, I found four more cars. All seemingly recklessly thrown from where they were parked, and all pretty destroyed from the landing impact. Also, I had to climb over several fallen trees, by the looks of them, deliberately torn uproot and dragged here to block the road. Just like in the games, he appeared to be extremely territorial. And I was intruding his territory. Every possible department of my brain was screaming "Bad idea!", but I had long ago decided that it would be far worse to keep him here, to let him do as he wanted to. With a final sigh, I climbed the final barrier, and jumped down on the other side.

The parking area was, as I had half expected, half hoped, empty. It was about twice the size of a soccer pitch, lined with trees on all sides, and one road going from each corner. I had come from the northeast corner, "my" area was to the northwest from here. That road was not yet blocked, but neither were the others, so there was no reason to believe he had headed off in another direction. Hopefully, he had grown tired of blocking the road from the city, and had then went to the ravine to sleep. If I caught him sleeping, it would be a lot easier to get him home. I hoped. I had long ago realised that I didn't have a plan, but as they say, "it's never too late". I took a deep breath and took the first step into the dark path leading to the ravine. So far, so good...

A thundering thump to my left suggested otherwise and ripped me out of the planning. Startled, I looked at the rock that had crashed down a mere meter away from me. It was about the size of a washing machine, and must have weighed at least a couple of tons. More afraid than I had ever been before, I turned on the Maglite and illuminated the road ahead. In the dim glow, I could see a large tree moving towards me, roots first. Something huge was carrying the tree, appearently without breaking a sweat, and at the same time hurling rocks to build up another barrier.
"Taaaarrr..." a deep, growling voice said. Had to be him. The tree he was carrying thundered to the ground, and I could finally see him properly. Almost three meters tall, a bit bigger than the games said. Well raised, I assume. About one and a half meter wide, the spikes on his back making him look even bigger. Completely covered in green plates, resembling something between green rubber and sheet metal. Only the underbelly was another colour, deep blue. His eyes glowing faintly yellow in the glow from the Maglite. Evidently, he could move silent when he wanted to, but now, he was in battle mode. He walked slowly towards me, ground shaking with every step he took. His entire appearance roared out what my brain had told me all night: "Coming here was a really bad idea".
"Want to... come home?", I said, my voice sounding as scared as I felt. "You... can't stay here, you know". I tried putting my hand in my pocket, to search for a snack to feed him. Some chocolate might calm him down...
Rule no. 1, concerning things bigger than you: While they are facing you, threatening to crush you, putting a hand in a pocket is generally a bad idea. They never know what you may produce from there, and decide to strike before you can pose a threat to them.
TyyyyYYYRAAANniiTAARR!!, the thing roared. Yep, I was out in the forest, at stupid o'clock, facing a Japanese game monster that had escaped from a little electronic plastic device I kept on my bedside table. Now, straitjackets didn't sound like a very bad idea. I could have told everyone, and spent the remainder of my days in some nice place at the countryside, surrounded by friendly people. Instead, half a ton of Animé terror was regarding me like most people regard wasps in their living room.
"Quiet, you'll...", I began. It stopped. Took a deep breath. A small, orange sphere was forming in its mouth. The very air around us felt electrified, the ground vibrated slightly, and a voice in my head said calmly:
"Now, you run".
I ran.
 
About three seconds later, a full-power Hyper Beam hit me between the shoulder blades. The impact threw me through the air, out in the open parking area, and sent me flying across the open space, spinning like a mixmaster out of control. The beam passed me, hit a tree, and everything turned white. I'm sure the explosion could be heard all over the city, and seen from space. Because I had gradually fallen down while the beam continued in a straight line, the explosion started in front of me, the blast wave changing my direction of movement in less than half a second. Every bone in my body shattered from the inertia alone, and I was slammed to the ground, hard. I had no idea whether my eyes were closed or simply torn out, but I couldn't see a thing. Laying on the ground, deaf from the blast, feeling something I hoped wasn't spinal fluid flow from my nostrils, my last thought was:
"Now, how the hell can I explain this..."
Everything went dark.


To be continued... No, he's not dead

That's really a great story, one of the best I've read in a long time in English. Keep the good work up! :D


TYRANITAR

 :P

Well, this is what all you viewers have been waiting for! Chapter two!
Also, I'm thinking about a title to the story. Does "Emergence" sound well?

Chapter two: Back to business

After what felt like a few seconds, I regained consciousness. I was lying on my back, on something soft. I still couldn't see a thing. After another few seconds, I realised that was because my eyes weren't opened. Dreading what sights that could meet me, I kept them closed for now. The last thing I wanted to see now was my own shattered body, or Tyranitar looming over me again. Thinking about it, I didn't want that to be the last thing I saw, either, so I decided to lie still and wait for my life to fade away. It didn't feel too bad, I would have imagined it to be worse than this. The attack should have crushed a lot of body parts that ideally shouldn't be crushed, it was actually a miracle that I was still alive. The only thing that puzzled me was the fact that it was this warm, mid-August nights were usually mild, but... this felt exactly like lying in my bed at home. Was I still dreaming?

I opened my eyes, on impulse. Appearently, more time than a few seconds had passed. I lay in a bed, in a white room, featureless apart from a door, a window, the bed and a bedside table. On it was a candlestake with an out-burned candle in. Outside the window, I could see trees covered in a light drizzle of snow. How long time had actually passed? It was mid-August when I went out in the forest, now it couldn't be earlier than late October. Considering the coma period, factoring in recovery and therapy and all that, I couldn't expect to be out of hospital before mid-summer. At least, I could try to get an overview of my injuries. Sooner or later, I would have to find out, why not now? I tried lifting my right arm, expecting it to ache like there was no tomorrow. It felt all fine. Left arm. No visible injuries. Right leg. Left leg. Not a bruise. All in all, I felt all fine. I tossed the blanket aside and went out of bed. It was no harder than getting up at weekends, when I usually slept until 11. On the floor, near the end of my bed, I found some hospital clothes. Now, time to find someone to tell me what was going on...

There were no one in the corridor outside. Appearently, this wasn't the busiest part of the hospital ("After all," I thought. "this is the vegetable section"), but there should be a nurse on duty at all times. The only door leading out of here was locked. A sign near the door told everyone to keep it locked, because patients who wake up from a coma tend to be a bit delirious and may walk out of bounds. Frowning at the sign, I thought about battering the door until someone opened, but realised that that would only get matters worse. Instead, I found a door labelled "office", and knocked it gently. A middle-aged woman opened, a bit puzzled from the fact that a comatic patient had woken up like that. I spent the next hour explaining the doctors that I was all fine, but couldn't remember anything except from going out in the forest. "A bet", I told them. "See if I could manage to survive the weekend in the forest. I remember that I got to the parking area, then... nothing" In this situation, putting "being attacked by a game monster" in the "nothing"-category felt pretty normal.
Then mom and dad showed up, both in their working clothes, and I spent the next hour insuring them that I was fine, again telling the white lie about the bet. After I was finished, we sat in silence until I asked:
"What happened?".
Dad explained that there had been a meteor impact in the forest, and that the parking area was obliterated. They had seen that my hiking shoes were missing, and feared the worst when they heard the news. Luckily, they had found me in a makeshift shelter in "my" ravine, a couple of hours later. I had been physically all fine, but my clothes were torn, and I didn't respond to any stimuli. A doctor interrupted and said that was propably because I had panicked after the explosion, and thrashed about until my brain simply shut off. "Logical," I thought. No mention of mysterious footsteps or green monsters. I listened carefully to the doctor and what he said about the body's ability to hibernate, and wake up all fine afterwards. They had fed me well (intravenously), so I should be in such a good shape that I could return home tomorrow.

That night, as the clock ticked over to October 26, I found it difficult to sleep. Someone had appearently found me and made me a shelter, and I assumed that Tyranitar was still on the loose. Hopefully, he hadn't been found by some scientists, or the army or similiar. I don't know which om them who would suffer the most, but either way...
And what more could have happened? My very vivid dream was about Pokémon being able to escape the game, and me forgetting how to return them. Would I find my room in ruins when I came home, and be responsible for more monsters? What if Tyranitar was waiting for me when I came home? After all, I had kept him in our basement for about two weeks before he escaped. What would he be like now, when no one fed him? And what if creatures started to emerge from other games as well? I tried hard not to think about F.E.A.R., or, perhaps more family-friendly, the Chain Chomps of Mario fame. I think the sun rose before I managed to sleep, which takes a lot in October.

At home, nothing seemed to have changed. My DS still lay where I had left it, and there were no signs of activity in my room. Even if something minor had emerged, there would have been some signs. As soon as my parents were out of sight (they had to go to work, after all), I rushed down to the basement. Our house was quite old, and one of the rooms down there had a hatch in the floor, used as a refridgerator before someone invented just that. It was a small, moist hole in the ground, where I had tied Tyranitar the morning he emerged. Already when I came home from school that day, he had dug the chamber a lot bigger, and now there was a corridor running down from the hatch, down to a main chamber under our garden somewhere. I had no idea where he disposed of the soil, but appearently that was no hinder. Fully knowing that I would risk another few months as a vegetable, I climbed down the hole, listening carefully for any sounds. Tyranitar was of the Dark-type, and could see very well in this darkness. I only had a small pocket torch, that might enrage him if I shone in his eyes, but it had worked before. But not last time...

At least, someone had been there during the time I had spent in coma. The floor in the main chamber was littered with spruce needles, and a half-devoured tree trunk lay in the tunnel. Some parts of the chains I had tied him up with last time were still scattered around, appearently broken up in as many segments as possible. But there was no sign of him now. The chamber was roughly crescent-moon shaped, the one end ending in the tunnel up to our basement, the other appearently leading to the forest. I had spotted the latter the evening he disappeared, and assumed that it led to the forest somewhere. In which case it would have to be about a kilometer long.
"Anyone there?", I shouted and directed the torch at the tunnel. No reply. "Tyranitar?"
A low, distant growling. It might have been a car, on the road about six meters over my head, but I knew deep within that this was not the case.
"Tyranitar, come here", I shouted. then added: "I brought cookies!"
Louder growling this time. Then, a few seconds later, a deep, whoshing sound. I peered into the dark tunnel again. Another tree was heading down towards me, top first. Appearenly, this was his preferred food. After another few seconds, Tyranitar appeared, and I lowered the torch. He walked towards me, stopped, and looked at me with a corious expression.
"Do you understand me?", I asked firmly. He nodded.
"Am I your enemy?", I asked again. Curious expression, as if that was a really dumb question. Then he turned to the wall, stretched out a finger and drew a figure in the soil. A lage circle, divided in two halves by a straight line. Another circle, much smaller, in the center of the big one. A Poké Ball.
"Do you regard me as your trainer, even in this world?" (I had come up with those questions that night). Another nod. He drew eight more shapes in the wall. Badges, I guessed.
"Why did you hurt me?" He looked at the floor, growling lowly. When you look at the artwork, it seems like Tyranitar can't have other expressions than angry, but this one was definately deeply ashamed. I gave him a pack of cookies I had found in a drawer in the kitchen, to comfort him. He took it and ate it whole, appearently not having second thoughts about eating plastic.
"Do you know anything about what happened?", I asked. He shrugged.
"Do you know how I can get you back?" Another shrug.
"Ok then. Listen carefully. I give you permission to stay here, and to go get food when you need it. But only at night, and no hunting. Regard this room as your Poké Ball, if you wish. Let no one see you, except for me. Hide the entrance to the tunnel. I'll visit you every day. Do not attract attention. If I manage to get a proper Poké Ball out of the game, I'll let you have it. Understood?"
He nodded again. The case seemed to be solved for now, but something deep within told me that this was only the beginning. Oh, how right I would be...

Very good. Really well-written, keep on writin' please :) Kudos

^Your wish will be granted. Actually, I wonder if anyone besides you actually have read this, but it's fun to write, so I'll continue.
So yeah, here's:

Chapter three: Trouble doubles

I didn't sleep very well that night either. I had Tyranitar's respect, that was one thing, but what if someone found him? Would they take him away from me? Could they? What if he decided to stay with me, and went on a rampage as soon as they came to get him? Would he attack others? Nighttime is an excellent time for questions, but not for answers. I had no idea of what he'd do all day either. Sleep, I presumed, as he was a Dark-type, and at night, he would go up all that tunnel and get a tree if necessary. But it would be a life in solitude, and I wouldn't be much of a company for him. In the Pokémon world, we could have spent the day training, but here, he could barely walk without causing suspicious damage, let alone use an attack. And I was pretty sure that more Pokémon had emerged in my dream, without my interference, but only Tyranitar had managed to stay here long enough to cross over to reality. Were others still able to emerge? And if so, what would happen? Sometime between 2 and 3 AM, I finally fell asleep.

Like most dreams, this made no sense. No story or logic, but for once I was aware of that. All of a sudden, it switched over to my room, where I stood watching a picture on the wall change, telling some absurd story, like a TV on drugs. Suddenly, the story ended, and I was facing a picture of a well-known creature. A bird with a green head, big eyes and a yellow beak. A single, long feather hung from the back of its head, but as far as I could tell, the rest of the head was covered in fur. If the frame hadn't been in the way, I had been able to see the same face pattern, as if tattooed to its chest. The bird was eyeing me cautionously, but said nothing. I stared back.
"You have questions", a voice said. Neither I or the bird had opened the mouth (or in his case, beak), but I was sure it was him who had spoken.
"This is all in my mind, what?", I said back. The good thing about dreams is that you don't have to open your mouth to speak.
"Of course", it answered flatly. "This is your imagination speaking all the time. However, I am as real as you are"
"This is absurd", I said.
"It's no more absurd than you expect it to be."
"Anyways, you said something about questions. You can see the future, right? Can you answer?"
Xatu, also known as the Mystic Pokémon, nodded. "The future is of no use right now. But I can tell you, in less than a minute, you will wake up. We should have plenty of time"
"But what can you tell me then, that I don't know already?"
"Nothing. But I can tell you things you know, but have forgotten, or things you won't acknowledge. After all, I know nothing that you don't, and you know nothing that I don't. In dreams, I am only a part of your mind. It's not before the cross over to reality that I am Xatu to the full extent. You know all this already. More things you need to be reminded of?"
"Are any other games affected than my DS?"
"Only your Pokémon game, to be specific. Other games would be separate stories, other dreams, other crosses. So far, I'd only worry about Diamond"
"Can they cross freely?"
"They can, but only if you want them to. When Tyranitar emerged, you wanted him back, and fast. You were, in that moment, so obsessed with getting him back that there was no question whether or not he was out. You were so sure that he had emerged from your game, that your mind wanted him to be out. Otherwise, nothing would make sense. Understand?"
I nodded. Xatu continued:
"Your dream was not about Pokémon emerging. It was about Pokémon being able to emerge. There's a huge difference. When it became reality, it didn't mean that you had gotten a Tyranitar. It meant that your game was affected, and that Tyranitar had seized the moment. Taken advantage of the situation. The conditions are just the same now, as when he emerged. We are able to emerge at will, but it's your will."
"You're my Xatu?"
"I am. This dream would have been just the same if your game hadn't been affected, but it wouldn't have been me talking to you. It would be a product of your mind, not a product of the game code."
"Can I order, or want Tyranitar back?"
"The choice of emergence or not, return or not, is taken by your subconsciousness, not by you. You have control, but you cannot control."
"How do I reverse it?"
"I don't know, as you don't. Time to wake up". He said the latter very abruptly, and the dream vanished and was replaced by the sight of the inside of my eyelids.
I had never been so completely puzzled upon waking up before.

The next morning was time for my return to school. I didn't exactly look forward to it, I had never been particulary fond of school, and I had missed a lot of classes. There weren't many friends to come back to either, I was a guy who was at my social best on the Internet. I was a gamer type, not a party type. LOL over talking, etc. Xatu had also scared me, for all I knew, Pokémon could emerge from my game at any time. So, while socially not the smartest thing to do, I had decided to keep my DS with me at all times. Just hope that the bullies wouldn't find out...

"Hey, look, the vegetable's back!"
"Where have you been? Have they released a new Pokémon game?"
"Meteorite, huh? What I've always said, that guy is so big that he has his own field of gravity"
That last one wasn't one of the smartest guys around. Okay, I really sucked in P.E., and gamed a lot, so I didn't get a lot of exercise, but I wasn't overweight. It's just that everyone assumed so, judging from my lifestyle, thus I only got clothes that were too big. And as everyone in my family kept giving me clothes, I saw no reason to buy even more myself, even if they would suit me better. Thus, I kept walking around in too big clothes, making me looking a lot fatter than I actually was.
"What's the lesson plan for today?", I asked one of them I got best along with.
"English, Maths, P.E. You'll survive", he answered.

In some sense of the word, I did. English is never hard to catch up on, and in Maths, I had missed the entire subject of vectors. But as my teacher said: "It's equal parts of algebra and Pythagoras. You'll catch up in a week".
P.E. was a tad worse. As I've said, I sucked at it. To make matters even worse, most of my class were exercise fanatics. I still can't see a reason why I was placed in what essentially was a sports class. Even the girls beat me in almost everything, which was really annoying. I was seriously considering skipping PE today, but I had missed too much, so I decided to give it a go. I had second thoughs about leaving my bag (with my DS) in the wardrobe, but I left it near the door so I could easily sneak in and get it, in case I decided to leave early. After all, what was the worst that could happen? I was sure that the teacher wouldn't go too hard on me, first day and everything.

Wrong. Appearently, our sports freak of a teacher meant that if one has lain down, for any reason, in two full months, one should have more than enough energy to give everything. So one hour later, I found myself in the midst of the class, being the last one to complete the 50 situps that we were assigned.
"Higher up!"
"That one didn't count!"
"You'll have to start from 25 again if you take a break!"
And that was after the pushups, hang-ups, and some running exercises that made me feel like amputating my legs, so that I wouldn't have to do them again. Surrounded by the class, critizising my every move, and a yelling teacher, I rememberred why and how much I hated PE.
"Fourty-eight, fourty-nine, fourty-nine and a half... fourty-nine and three quarters..."
"They're right, those last ones didn't count. Come on!"
Finally, fifty. Heart pounding, panting heavily, I lay on the floor, silently cursing them all.
"Pretty useless, that", our teacher said. "Who's in for sixty next time?" The latter, he yelled to the entire class. Cheerful agreement from everyone.
"Two minutes break first?"
"Nah, we've waited... four already for him to finish."
And so, a few of them laid down and started, perfect situps in a perfect once-a-second-rythm. I was about to protest, when a loud noise was heard from the basement, where the wardrobes were.
"I'll go check", I volunteered, fearing the worst. The teacher nodded, but added "A hundred and twenty next week if you run away!".
The 120 situps weren't my main concern at the moment, rather what was the cause of the noise in the wardrobe. I dashed down the stairs, heart pounding even more. Another loud noise could be heard, and I slowed down. Rather nervous, I stretched out my hand to open the door to the wardrobe. It was one of those heavy fireproof metal doors, for some reason abundant in every school basement.
A second before I reached it, it burst open. Something huge, like a metal battering ram, smashed through the door, and I jumped. The heavy object pressed on the remains, tearing the pierced door from its hinges, tossed it carelessly out in the corridor, and I could see what was inside.
"Wow, it's huge", was my first thought. Filling nearly half the room, was a gigantic, four-legged metal creature, resembling a four-legged spider robot. The round, flat body, about one and a half meter across, was suspended from the legs, each of them tall enough to scrape the ceiling. A couple of lamps had already been torn down and lay in pieces on the floor. Its feet were steel plates, twenty centimeters thick and as big as manhole covers. The legs were thicker than most tree trunks, connected to the body by relatively thin metal poles. Its most prominent feature was the large silver X covering most of its face, earning the Pokémon its name; Metagross. Two large red and blak eyes stared at me, appearently not recognising me. I quickly dashed into the room, grabbed my bag, and threw myself back out, taking advantage of its confusion.
"GROOOSS!", it roared, and lashed out a leg at me from inside the room, not minding to aim through the hole the door used to be in. It smashed through the concrete wall like nothing, but missed me narrowly. I praised the fact that Meteor Mash only came with 80% accuracy, and took a few steps backwards, towards a door leading out to the schoolyard. I should be safe at this distance, it seemed to be trapped in the wardrobe, too big to get out through the doorframe.
"Don't be a fool, you saw how easily it broke that wall", a voice said in my head. Nope, trapped was appearently not the word.
"Calm now, calm now", I said, not feeling calm at all. I heard someone in the stairs, coming to see what the noise was. From the stairs, around the corner, they couldn't see the damage, but as soon as they came around it, my secret would be very obvious. Appearently Metagross had heard too, he stopped the rampage, and lifted a leg. The top of it pierced the ceiling as if it wasn't there at all. Then another. Bits of plasterboard rained down over the body. When it lifted a third, and then a fourth leg without toppling over, staying afloat in the air on psychic power alone, it became obvious what was about to happen. I turned around, darted through the door, and ran out in the schoolyard. Behind me, I heard the thundering crash of the four legs hitting the ground, Metagross' roar, and the violent sound of an Earthquake. The shockwave spread through the ground, hurling me several meters up in the air. My screams drowned in the sound of the school building collapsing, the asphalt being torn to pieces, and cars parked along the wall falling into pieces.

I landed face first on the asphalt, outside the very limited range of the shockwave. As I spotted on the way down, it simply stopped after a few meters, there was a clear border between very messed-up asphalt, and perfectly fine asphalt. Luckily, I hit the latter. My arms broke from trying to catch the impact, my nose hit the ground half a second later, about the same time as my jaw. Falling from a height of about five meters, your face will stand no chance against the familiar mix of gravel and tar. I was literally smashed to the ground, but managed to stay conscious. I felt that I had missed teeth in the upper jaw, I couldn't feel the lower jaw. The nose was broken, quite badly, and I had a couple of nasty wounds on my arms. Me knee bled quite a lot as well. Still, I managed to get up in a sitting position, watching the damage. The air was thick with dust, but it rained slightly, letting it settle quickly. Through tearful eyes, I saw that the entire PE wing was levelled, my entire class buried in the ruins. Apart from the two gymnastics hall, there were also three classrooms in the wing, on the third floor. In total, about one third of my school was ruined, in the junction over to the next wing several rooms were torn in half, horrified pupils were clinging to the walls, their classmates somewhere in the rubble below them. Water flowed freely from the pipes between the second and third floor, soaking the ruins. Then, the pain from my own damages struck me. I bent over, every inch of my face hurting like it was on fire, my arms useless, the right leg numb below the knee. Suddenly, the numbness spread. It felt like my bones were rearranging themselves, wounds closings like ziplocks, new teeth growing back, the old ones vanished where they lay on the asphalt. An invisble hand dragged my nose back in place, where the fractures cracked back to normal. The blood stains on my clothes disappeared, though the tears and holes remained. I was still aching all over, but appearently, everything had gone back to normal. Shaken, I stood up, clenching my bag in my left arm. Everyone was too shocked by the collapse to notice my mysterious regeneration, so not an eyebrow raised.
A creaking sound from the ruins revealed that Metagross was on the move. I ran over to the nearest manhole cover, bent down, and heard the sound of something flying, or rather levitating through the sewer tunnels, scraping the walls in the flight. I considered going down there and chase him, but realised that he was way too fast for me. Pretending to be one of the many who had panicked, I ran in a seemingly random direction, towards home.

The word spread pretty fast. I had hardly managed to change clothes and take a shower when mum called, asking if I was okay. I decided to tell the most likely-sounding cover story, that I had ran off during PE class and was home early. Given that noone had noticed me in the schoolyard, it gave me perfect alibi, I had done so before.
I managed to act like normal when she told me that the schoolbuilding had collapsed, with over a hundred persons missing, among them the entire rest of my class. After the conversation, I walked calmly up to my room, a hundred different plans forming in my head. I would need to check my game better, I could put Tyranitar on the task of trailing down Metagross, I...
I saw my bed, where it had all started three months ago. Suddenly, I felt exhausted, so small, so helpless. More than a hundred people were dead, damage for millions, mosters on the loose. And it was all my fault. I collapsed on my bed, crying like I had never done before.
I needed help.

You're gettin' better and better, man. Keep writin', it's a shame nobody but me seems to read it :(

Thanks again for your feedback! I really hope someone else reads this too. But without further ado, on to:

Chapter four: Hope?

I was pretty much crushed the rest of that day. My parents assumed that it was because of the incident at my school, so at least, they didn't suspect me of anything. However, in my state, I couldn't see the bright side of it. I stayed in my bed until stupid o'clock, mostly with my face buried in the (more and more soaked) pillow. I think my mom was in to look for me a couple of times, but I didn't respond to her.
Sometime around 2AM, I decided to go to sleep. I got up, still shivering, threw my pillow in the laundry, washed my face and undressed. As always, I threw my clothes on the floor, a bit careless where they landed. Unfortunately, my jeans hit a pile of game covers mid-flight, and toppled it. I sighed, and started tidying. A couple had landed in my bag, and were grey from building dust when I got them out. While searching the bag for more, I found my DS too, with the cursed game in. Out of curiousity, I opened it and turned it on. The game functioned normally, but my Tyranitar and Metagross were nowhere to be found in-game, as expected. After Tyranitar had emerged, I had written down a list of the Pokémon I had in-game (all 364), and concluded that I missed a Tyranitar (I had three, all of them level 100). By comparing now, I could see who had emerged. Luckily, only Tyranitar and Metagross so far. Hopefully, there wouldn't be more...

Still tears in my eyes, I put the microphone to my lips, and whispered:
"I need help. Please, help me". No sign of any reaction. Almost crying, I tried again. Still no response. Irritated, I considered for a second to break the game, delete the file, or release all the Pokémon. I had thought of it before, but had concluded that I might lose control of my Pokémon, maybe there would be no place for them then, and they would all emerge. In that case, I'd rather have nuclear war. Sighing, I turned the DS off and lay it on my desk. Then, realising how tired I was, I collapsed on my bed again, sleeping dreamlessly.

The next morning, I didn't feel much better. While turning off the alarm clock, wondering what to do now that the school was destroyed, I noticed something different. My DS still lay on the desk, but there was more. Eight decorative pins were scattered around it, and a backpack of unknown origin lay upside down on the floor.
"It must have fallen from the desk", was my immediate thought. I went to pick it up, wondering where it might have come from. Then I noticed something more: On my desk were three small orbs, or balls. Two of them red and white, one black and white, with a yellow pattern on the black half. They were no bigger than regular pingpong balls, but I knew that a press of the button between the white and coloured area would make them about twice as big. Poké Balls. Well, two of them at least, the third was an Ultra Ball. I picked one up to inspect it. Everyone knew what a Poké Ball looked like, but very few have ever held one. The regular Poké Ball was made of sturdy metal, not very heavy, and had what I first assumed was a serial number engraved on the back, near the hinge. Then, I noticed that it was the OT number, or Original Trainer. I tried to open it, and surprisingly, it popped open. The inside seemed stuffed with sensors, and a diode of sorts. No sight of any Pokémon. I pressed the button, and it shrinked back to normal size, in a way we were told at school that matter wasn't supposed to behave. Curious, I examinated the Ultra Ball next. It was empty too, so I assumed it belonged to Tyranitar, whom I had caught as a Larvitar ages back. Other than being a different colour, and a bit more heavy, it didn't seem different to the Poké Ball.
"Okay. One for Tyranitar, one for Metagross", I thought. "But what about the third one?"

This one was harder to open, and I gave up after a few tries. Also, a small strip near the hinge glowed faintly, possibly an indicator of sorts. Halfway excited, halfway terrified, I assumed there was a Pokémon in there, put it carefully in my bag, and went to have a look at the pins. It took me about two seconds to identify them as the Gym Badges of Sinnoh. No fancy case, like they had in the Animé, though, so I put them back on the desk. Then onto the backpack...

A knock on the door.
"Are you there? They called from school. Memorial service in the town hall at 9 o'clock". My mum. Hastily, I stuffed the Poké Balls and badges under the desk, and put the bag under my bed. "I'll go", I called back, frustrated, excited and sad at the same time. The most awesome gear any teenager had ever owned had literally dropped into my room overnight, but I had been interrupted.
"Come down within ten minutes if you want to say goodbye", mum said. "We're leaving for work".
A quick shower later, I waved them goodbye. A thousand different emotions were colliding in my head, this sure was confusing. And awesome. And sad, I had a memorial service to attend. And terrifying... Walking up to my room again, I wondered what to do the next hour (School usually started at 8, so I was an hour ahead of schedule). I wanted to check out the last Poké Ball, but what if it contained something dangerous? A Magmar could set the entire house ablaze by its prescense alone, a Weezing could poison me just by breathing, Whismur could reveal itself to the entire neighbourhood, and make me deaf in the process...

Passing the mirror in the corridor, I realised what poor state my clothes were in. The jeans were torn, the rest dirty from dust and tears. I put them in the laundry and searched my room for other clothes. Everything I found was too big, as usual, and one of the socks were missing. As the Universal Law of Teenager Rooms said, what was missing could always be found under the bed at some point. I bent down, dragged out the backpack, and found the missing sock in the farthest corner, grey from dust, and a hole in the heel. Useless. Now what? The backpack caught my attention again. I had a look in the largest pocket, and found a small soft package, not larger than a lunchbox. Curious as to what awesome Pokémon stash it might contain, I opened it, and found, to my surprise, several items of clothing, a full set compressed to a size not larger than my fist. It seemed like all the sets were identical, so I chose a random one and decided to try it on.

A pair of jeans, a long-sleeved white T-shirt, white socks with a Poké Ball emblem, a red waistcoat and a sweatband. I knew null about clothing, but I suspected that I had never looked this good before. That might as well be because these clothes fit me, for once. They were also surprisingly warm, I wouldn't even need a jacket with this on. In the backpack, I also found a belt and a couple of running shoes. The latter made me smile; they were comfortable, but the Devon Corp. logo might raise suspicion.
"Another day", I thought, putting on my old shoes. I had pinned the badges to the inside of the waistcoat, and put the Poké Balls in the backpack. They could be attached to the belt quite easily, but that would look too suspicious. Finally slipping the DS down in the backpack, I decided to go pay Tyranitar a visit.

I quickly found out that the Devon Corporation Standard Trainer Bag (^TM) contained "...everything a trainer needed on his journey to become a Pokémon master". The wash label also revealed that they were manufactured in Rustboro City, from there on shipped to every major city in the Pokémon world, and sold for an unspecified price. Continuing the search through the pocket (It seemed to be a lot bigger on the inside), I came across a collapsable camping bed, a bug lamp, a tent (could hold up to five people, but was smaller than a football when compacted), and finally, a flashlight. I jumped down the hatch in the cellar floor, walked down to Tyranitar's cavern in a way lighter mood than last time. I had plundered the kitched cupboard a bit better this time, not taking the entire package of cookies, and brought a variety of fruit as well. I had forgotten to visit him yesterday, so I wanted to be sure that he was still happy. I had seen his grumpy side, not wanting him to be like that again.
"Tyranitar?" No reply. I suddenly feared the worst, what if he had escaped again? After all, Tyranitar was often portrayed as quite selfish, he might have decided to escape once he was sure that I expected him to stay here.
"I brought you some food!" Still no reply. Had he really gone?
"Come here!", I shouted. Something large arose from a hole in the floor. I hadn't noticed it earlier, assumed it to be a rock or another tree trunk, but it turned out to be a rather sleepy Tyranitar.
"Woops, forgot your time schedule", I apologised. "Breakfast?". He grabbed the apple I handed him, and ate it whole. I dimmed the light slightly, allowing him to look directly at me. He examined my clothes, my backpack, and the bag I held in the left hand. Taking the hint, I produced another apple from it, tossing it to him. Like a dog, he caught it mid-air with his mouth.

I got an idea standing there. I had gained his loyalty, and Tyranitar was one of the strongest Pokémon around. Whatever was in the final Poké Ball, it couldn't harm me with him around, or what? I decided to give it a go. I found the Poké Ball, cleared my voice, and tossed it through the chamber, shouting:
"Poké Ball, goooo!" Too cheesy, I knew, but I assumed it would need some sort of call to open. It flew in a gracious arc, hit the floor, and bounced back towards me. I failed to catch it, all my attention was focused on the emerging Pokémon. At the moment, it was only a fog of light, then it gathered to form a shape, and the glow fainted.

It seemed a lot whiter than in the artwork, but it was pink as expected. About half a meter tall, standing on all four. Huge blue eyes, and a red jewel embedded in its forehead. A lot less intimidating than expected, I was looking at my very own Espeon.
"Do you understand me?", I asked. A voice in my head answered calmly:
"I can do better than that" I beamed.
"Finally, something to communicate with! Like Xatu, do you share my knowledge?"
"Outside your dreams, no. Here, I know what the world expects me to know"
"So you can help me?"
"Depends on what you want me to do"
I quickly explained the situation with Metagross.
"Ahh", it said. "I can help you find him, but battle him? I'd be a poor sight in that battle"
"Would I have to battle him to get him back?", I asked.
"Not necessarily, if you have his ball", it replied.
"I think I have it. When can we start?"
"You need to know a few things first. I sense you are upset, sad, confused..."
I interrupted her (I think it was a female Espeon I had):
"Okay. Tell me, why did Tyranitar attack me, and not you? Is it the badges?"
Tyranitar growled slightly, making me feel uneasy. He stood so close to me that he easily could reach me, and Espeon wouldn't stand a chance against him in battle. Espeon merely looked at him, listening.
"He's sorry for attacking you, but also slightly disappointed. We thought you had enough common sense to not invade a Tyranitar's territory at night, then blinding him without announcing yourself? You're his trainer! Had you told him, he would have listened! But no, you never spoke to him, just stuffed him around. He thought you were giving him no restrictions"
I blushed. Of course, I didn't give him any chance to see who I was, and was blinding him too. Of course, he would attack. Afterwards, he had propably seen me, decided to shelter me, then gone back to stay low.
"But why didn't the attack kill me?"
Espeon didn't answer. Suddenly, my left arm started glowing blue, and was strecthed out before me, out of my control. Espeons eyes also glowed, the same blue colour. Suddenly, her eyes flashed, and my lower arm was bent ninety degrees upwards. With a loud crack, the bone broke, and I screamed in pain. Then Espeon let me go, my arm fell down, hurting like it hadn't done since yesterday. Then it turned all numb, just like what had happened yesterday. With a series of smaller cracks, it was repositioned, and I could suddenly feel my fingers again. The hurting stopped abruptly too. Then Espeon said, still in the same flat voice:
"Any damage done to humans or other animals, directly or indirectly caused by Pokémon, will revert after a few seconds. We can make you faint, but not give you long-term damage, or kill you. I could have torn that arm off, you'd have it back by now. Under normal conditions, it would not heal further by itself, you will have to rest. You're weaker now, but a good night's sleep will cure that. Or a couple of these."
Three glowing, small orbs flew out from the backpack. I stretched out my hand, and caught them. Three small berries, like miniature lemons. Sitrus berries.
"They're quite tasty", Espeon said. Tyranitar made a grimace.
"Soo...(chew)... my class?", I said, trying one of the berries. Espeon closed her eyes, and the memory of the school building collapsing yesterday flew before me like a film projected on my retinas. Then I was back in the cavern.
"They will be fine, once they wake up. Like I told you, we can't kill, just knock out"
"And when will they wake up?"
"Hmm... not at this side of Christmas. Metagross has a wicked Attack stat, and the collapsing roof didn't make it much better"
I shivered with relief. Okay, they weren't dead, just KO'd for a while.
"Will the building rebuild itself too?"
Tyranitar snorted. Espeon said:
"No. Some changes can't be reverted that easily."
I remembered the memorial service, glanced at my watch, and realised that I didn't have a lot of time.
"Would you like to return to your balls?"
Tyranitar nodded. I didn't know much about Poké Balls, but they were appearently made to "provide maximum comfort for the Pokémon inside" - to quote the Silph. Co brochure I had found in the bag - and this cave wasn't very comfortable.

Ten minutes later, I found myself jogging towards the town hall, whistling the Route 12 theme. My merry mood was maybe not suitable for the situation, but I didn't care. Things sure looked a bit brighter now. I had a team, a means of communication, and a way of hiding the Pokémon. Now, I was sure I'd be able to cope with anything my game decided to throw at me. However, something deep within me suggested otherwise...

This does look quite good. I'll be sure to read it once I have the time.

Haha this story is so freaking cool :D

Woo! More feedback! Well, at least, it's more than the two of us now who have posted here. And thus, Chapter five commences the story.

Chapter five: When it could be worse...

The town hall was crammed with people when I arrived, the entire school was here, along twith the families of the victims. Several news teams were also at the spot, treating the service like a press conference. There were also some guards, checking that the journalists stayed outside the building. Being the sole escapist in my class, I had no one to meet up with, but the guards let me in after having checked the lists.
Two classes in my year had been in the collapsed wing, we were told by the headmaster when the service started. In total, seven classes had been involved in the incident: five in the wing, the two other in the junction over to the next wing. 118 people missing in total. On the bright side, the headmaster noted, was that none of the 23 people found so far were dead. However, they were all knocked out, and nothing seemed to wake them up. I felt a strong urge to stand up and say:
"They will, give them enough time to rest, and they will all wake up", but for obvious reasons, I didn't.

The rest of the service was the usual faff with two minutes of silence and all that. As I had no class to go with, a teacher dragged me aside and said that I would be with them from now on. Her class wasn't a full class either, they had had classes in one of the junction classrooms, and about half the class was missing. So I had to be with them for an extra service later, which was much, much harder for me than the other one. I could see that none of them had slept well that night, and all the girls were constantly crying. I knew that they were all fine, that all wounds would have healed almost instantly, but couldn't tell them. There was a lot of talking about death and losing near ones, and all that, in the end, I felt almost as bad as the rest of the class. Many of the others were going to yet more memorial services later, with the families and friends of the victims, but I barely knew any of them, and knew that they were all fine anyways. Around noon, I felt done with services, and walked home.

A quite surprising sight awaited me when I came home. My parents' cars, and another car. Upon inspection, I found a siren and a badly concealed blue light system in the front grill. Civic police car. I felt a sudden urge to run away, but stopped. After all, that would only make matters worse, if I was suspected of anything, it would be even stronger if I ran, and I remembered that mom had a cousin who was a policeman, maybe he had dropped in for a visit? Shivering, I walked in.

It wasn't mom's cousin. I was met by dad as soon as I walked in the door, and he didn't seem to be in a happy mood. Without a word, I followed him to the kitchen, where mom was sitting by the table, and besides her, a policeman was sitting. Neither of them seemed very happy either. I sat down, and the policeman started speaking:
"Hello. I would like to have a word with you concerning yesterday's events..."
I nodded, but said nothing. He continued:
"Two witnesses saw you running from the school wardrobes, in the exact middle of the collapse area, a mere second before it collapsed. According to them, you looked... 'panicked, like you were running away from something'. Your mother has said that you left the class early, to go home. Now, skipping classes isn't illegal, but I advice you to refrain from doing so in the future. Anyways, don't you think it sounds a little suspicious that you, the only escapist of the accident, was running away from Ground Zero just before the building collapsed?"
My heart was beating so fast and loud that it was strange that no one had commented on the sound yet.
"Your parents have told me about your situation at school. Few friends, moderate grades, behind the entire class in all subjects, and they suspect that someone's bullying you. I've met kids in that situation before, and many of them have done very stupid things"
I didn't say a thing.
"Also," he said after 30 seconds of silence. "They say that you spend a lot of time playing games and surfing the Internet. And in games, the solution to all problems is violence, right? And a teenager can find anything on the Internet these days..."
"Are you...", I said, terrified and angry. "...implying that I, a sad, bullied school-hating teenager, has got enough, found bomb recipes on the Net, and done like they do in all the games, blown the school up?"
He didn't answer me, but from the looks of mom and dad, that was exactly what they had discussed before I came home.
"May I see his room?"
We walked in silence up the stairs, up to my room. As always, it wasn't a pretty sight. The bed was a mess due to my bad sleeping, clothes lay practically everywhere, save for the space occupied by piles of game covers or comics. A full bookshelf was partially obstructing the window (the only place in my room with enough room for anything besides the bed and the desk), and most of the desk was filled with my computer and a TV. Four game consoles were plugged to the TV, so the floor beneath the desk was a mess of wires. The policeman inspected every bit of my room, and put my schoolbag in a plastic zipper bag.
"Evidence", I thought. After he had continued searching for a few more minutes, he asked my parents if it was OK that he took the PC's harddisk. I protested, but dad nodded, and the policeman produced a screwdriver from his pocket and removed the disk, which he put in another plastic bag.
"Are there other rooms in this house he uses regulary?", the policeman asked.
"Not that we know of", dad answered. "We rarely use the basement, though, you can check there"
I was very, very afraid, and very, very angry. How could they allow him to sneak around my private life like that?
"It's to your own best", mom said. "We just want to be sure"
"You'd be better off without knowing this", I thought, fiddling with the thought of releasing Tyranitar on him. A single Stone Edge or Brick Break. No evidence. And when he woke up, next February or so, everyone would be up and running again, no case against me. If mom and dad hadn't been here, I would have done that. Knock him out, put him in his car, and fake an accident. Pretend that he had crashed on his way here, and seal Tyranitar's cave and hide all the Pokémon gear before they put a new investigator on the case. But now, it looked like he would find the cave and the tunnel, link the explosion in the forest to his "teenager messing with bombs"-theory, and I'd be in Guantanamo before I could say "objection", faced with mass murder or attempt to do so. I was desperate. We walked down to the basement. Mom, dad and me watched him go from room to room, presumably searching for explosives. Finally, he found the room with the hatch.
"What have we here", he said triumphing, opening the hatch. "Find me a flashlight"
"You. Are. In. Deep. Trouble.", my mom said, almost crying from rage and sorrow. Dad looked about the same, and without a word, he went upstairs to find a flashlight.
I was broken as well. The day had gone from bad, to good, to very bad. And it wasn't 1 PM yet. Dad returned with a flashlight, and we all climbed down the hole, and started walking down the tunnel.
"Only a miracle can save me now", I thought.

Sometimes, miracles come in small packages. Other times, they are quite big. Nightmares may also come in big packages. Nightmares can be about four meters wide, two and a half metres tall, and made out of blue metal. Finding Metagross here was one of the last things I had expected, but still, here he was, halfway down the tunnel, the cross on his face shining brightly in the flaslight's beam.
"What is that?", the policeman said, terrified. "A robot?"
"I've seen that one before...", mom said. "On the poster in your room. It's..."
"A Pokémon", dad finished.
"METAGROSS!", Metagross roared. The roar made the tunnel tremble. My ears hurt tremendously.
"Calm down!", I shouted. I still had the backpack on me, I hastily took it off, dug out the empty Poké Ball, and yelled:
"Metagross, come back!"
A narrow red beam flew from the Poké Ball, and hit Metagross, which instantly turned red and transparent. Then it vanished. A light strip on the Poké Ball lit up, indicating that there was something inside it. I put the ball back in the bag, and found another ball.
"Mom, dad, unknown-policeman-that-never-told-me-your-name, I'm sorry", I said, a plan forming in my head. I activated the Poké Ball, and thus the microphone embedded in the hinge, and murmured "Espeon, your go". The three of them watched carefully as the ball opened, the cluster of light finally forming the shape of a creature.
"Espeon," I sighed, trying to find any flaws in the plan before it came to fruition. "Hypnosis"
Around me, mom, dad and the policeman collapsed on the floor, sleeping deeply before they hit the ground.

Half an hour later, we sat at the kitchen table again. Espeon had helped me get them up from the basement, and had given them false memories of the last hour. They all now fully believed in my cover story, and the policeman was "just dropping by to hear your version of what had happened". Coincidentally, both mom and dad had decided to leave work early today, and the cave in the basement was never there. Actually, it still was, it was just that they were unable to see it. The door to that room was also, just in case, firmly locked, and the only key lay twisted at the bottom of the litter bin in my room. A Psychic Pokémon wouldn't need a key to open it anyways.
We waved the policeman goodbye after a final cup of coffee, and I went back to the basement while mom and dad were watching sports on TV. Well back in the cave, I released Metagross again. I had brought a couple of speakers from mom's iPod set (never used), hoping that he could connect to them somehow.
"Are you with me?", I asked Metagross (some readers will recognise this as the short version of the questions given to Tyranitar in chapter two). After a whooshing sound in the speakers, the reply came in a very deep voice:
"I am"
"Why did you attack me?", I asked, fearing that this way of greeting would become standard procedure.
"I needed to get out, and you wanted me to get out"
"I can understand the earthquake, but then, why did you try to hit me?"
"I panicked", he said calmly. No emotions whatsoever, a panic attack seemed quite unlikely. He continued:
"Suddenly, I was there, in that far too small room. I wanted to get out, and then someone appeared. You. I didn't recognise you at first, and I knew that it would be very bad if anyone saw me. Thus, I tried to knock you down."
"You're a supercomputer", I said, a bit irritated. "A hundred and whatnot trillions of calculations every second. You had a year ro recognice me, so to speak"
"You were sweaty, red-faced, scared, and dressed weirdly. Not exactly like in the game", he replied. "Still, I wasn't sure. If I had been determined on knocking you out, I'd have used Psychic, or just demolished the place before you got a chance"
"Do you have any idea on how many people you crippled in that single attack?"
"Not at the time, but now, I see that 82 people are still trapped in the ruins." I was about to correct him to the latest number I had heard, 95, but he said: "Internet newspage. Still no casualities"

I sighed. "Can we say we're even now? If you just help me getting the harddisk back in my PC, I will forget that you put my school in ruins and sent a hundred people to dreamland for the remainder of the year. OK?"
"I'm sorry", he said in a completely different tone. "I can help you wake them up, if you like. There is a very easy, and in fact quite obvious, method..."
I listened to what he said, his "very easy and in fact quite obvious" method. Actually, that didn't sound that far-fecthed.
"We'll deal with that tomorrow", I said, smiling. Things were going up again. And still, it hadn't passed 2 PM. I was convinced that things were getting better from here on...

Well, I know there has been no feedback lately, but I know that at least one person has read the previous chapter. Besides, the nothing-to-do-factor shoots through the roof now. This will be the longest chapter so far, but I've got plenty of inspiration to continue, so I think this is the best chapter so far. Here goes:

Chapter six: Change

The twentyninth of October. Time to get back to school for me. Like yesterday, I was dressed in a trainer outfit, they fitted a lot better than my old clothes, and were a lot more practical (you could swim with them, they would be dry ten minutes later, if the brochure was to believed) anyways. I still brought the trainer bag with me, if mom decided to sneak around my room and found it, I feared that she would deliver it straight to the police. Besides, it when dealing with Pokémon of this size, it would be a lot safer to always know where they were.

When I approached school, the damage didn't look that bad. The entire area was fenced off, with guards and everything, and a lot of cars were parked in the school yard, mostly ambulances, fire trucks, and equipment trucks. On the other side of the road, several news team vans were parked, but no one had begun work yet today. From this angle, one couldn't see the collapsed section, only a corner of the huge tent they put up over the rubble to cover the area. But as I came closer, I could clearly see that an entire wing was missing, with scaffolding put up to prevent more from falling down. The morning news stated that the theory everyone went by, was that a water pipe had sprung leak, and washed away a lot of soil, down the sewer pipes. A cavern had gradually formed under the wing, and eventually, it couldn't stand the pressure from the building above anymore. With such a feasible theory, no one would even consider the "monster causing an earthquake"-explanation. I was happy.

I met the rest of the class at the maksehift bus stop outside the school. Most classes were scattered around the city now, as the building here was declared unsafe. There weren't many here today, about five or six people, but I had expected to be the only one to show up. After all, half their class were listed as missing when I checked last night, and I wouldn't expect anyone to get over the loss so quickly.
"They've found them!", a girl beamed when I approached the small group. I think her name was Greta. She smiled, so either were they all OK, or she had unexpected tendences of sadism.
"Who?", I asked, "The rest of the class?"
"They're OK!", another girl exclaimed happily behind her. "Unconscious, but alive! All of them!". I smiled, trying to act surprised.
"How? Wasn't your classroom on the third floor?"
"I don't care if it sounds impossible!", the second girl yelled. "I've talked to the folks at the hospital! I know they are alive!"
"That's great!", I said, carefully. I had absolutely no experience with girls, and in a time of so much emotions, talking to them was like playing Russian Roulette.
"How many are still missing?", a boy asked. I recognised him as one of the players on the school football team. He must have been 1.90 tall, and didn't look like the most emotional guy around, but he sounded like he was on the edge of crying.
"About thirty", Greta answered flatly. "They dug out the upper floor classrooms tonight. The roof was in one piece, and when they lifted it away, they found fifty people underneath. Two classes, two teachers. I talked to the guard over there".
She turned towards me.
"The gym halls are still buried quite deep. It's been nearly 36 hours, and the expectations of finding your class alive is..." she didn't finish the sentence. I forced myself to forget for a moment that they could in no way be harmed, to put up a sorrowful face.
"They weren't that nice to you, were they?", another girl asked. I looked at her, not answering. She continued, now blushing a little:
"Ive heard horrible stories from them, but didn't believe any of it. I think you look nice". I smiled. I had seen her before, but didn't have a clue about her name. She smiled back, and some tickling feeling spread through my body.
"I'm Emily, by the way", she said, blushing even more. "Rob", I answered, not knowing what else to say. My real name, of all things, was Roberto, but no one used it. Even when reading my name, most people referred to me as Robert, assuming that the second O was a typo. I never protested, to this day, I hadn't got a good explanation from my parents on how they came up with that name.
"John", the football player said, and we shaked hands. "Nice to meet you".
"Miley", the girl behind Greta said, she who had yelled at me. "No Disney jokes, or you'll regret"
"Hannah's a bit grumpy today", another boy smiled. "Edvard, nice to... -ouch". He rubbed his ribs, appearently Miley could punch harder than it seemed at first.
"Bus", Greta said calmly. We stepped aboard, I got a lone seat as usual, but John and Edvard in front of me were happy to include me in their conversation.
"Wonder where we are going to have classes?", John said
"I hope it's somewhere downtown", Edvard said "Where things happen, you know"
"I'd be perfectly fine without more happenings now", John and I said, nearly in unison.
"Oh, right", Edvard said. "Knocked out for that long, and the first thing that happens after that is that the school goes to gravel. Are you cursed or something?"
"Maybe...", I said. "But it can always get worse"
"Hey, cheer up! Where will that attitude bring you? Get out a bit, enjoy life!"
"Someone with an @ in the name asked me the same", I replied. "Didn't go too well, I mean, I went out to the forest to escape the dangers of sitting passively by a computer, and what happened? A freakin' mo...-meteor"
"Ohh... Edvard said, luckily taking no notice of the near use of the word "monster".
"Well, I was lucky. Caught a cold a week back. Was supposed to be back on Tuesday, but skipped. Then mom called, saying that the school was destroyed. Heck, I never want to feel like that again"
"Were you there?", I asked John.
"Yeah", he said, his tone getting more serious. "It was awful. Suddenly, that sound, and then the roof disappeared, and the floor, like, tilted, and the wall and the rear end of the classroom just fell down. Dave, just a meter behind me... I can still hear the scream ringing in my ears. I can't remember exactly what happened aftewards, but it was awful. Then I heard late yesterday that they had found them. Never been so relieved before, and that includes that time in Morocco, when I finally found that toilet when... Anyway, I decided to give school a go today"
After a minute of silence, Edvard broke the silence by starting a discussion about foreign food, and the mysterious absence of toilets in cities abroad, which kept us busy the rest of the trip. And I didn't give my Pokémon a thought.

Our makeshift school was a small section of a conference center near the woods at the other end of the city. The six of us were assigned a few tasks to do, but no one really cared. There was only one teacher on two classes, and we were put in different rooms that, to our amusement, were located two floors and a really long corridor apart. As the other class was a year six class, the teacher spent most of the time there, as the office neighbours started complaining about the noise over the intercom even before she reached our room. At the end of the day, we had done next to nothing, but I had got to know this part of the class a bit better.
As expected, Edvard seemed to be the clown of the class. He always had a witty comment ready, didn't take anything too seriously ("Ruins the fun", he said), but got solid grades and got along with everyone. John was the sportsman, didn't say too much, but was kind to us. According to Edvard, he was a lot chattier when his friends weren't buried under a collapsed school.
Greta, Miley and Emily were usually part of a larger gang ("I think they're seven or eight, too many to count", as Edvard put it), but had their individual traits. Greta was usually the informed one, always knowing what to do next, had always done her homeworks, and had always a plan ("Wait until you see her in an unexpected situation. Freaks her out completely"). Miley was appearently a skilled singer, but had stopped taking lessons a couple of years ago ("Guess why"). She didn't always take jokes, and could seem a little snappy at times, but was nice when you got to know her. Emily was more mysterious, she was always the one you noticed last, and said nothing if you didn't ask her. Didn't bother others, no one bothered her. She seemed nice, though, and smiled a lot ("In my direction?", I wondered. It may have been wishful thinking, or coincidence, but it seemed like she paid more attention to me than the others).

As we waited for the bus to bring us back to the school, the girls suddenly walk over to where I stood. Following a couple of seconds of awkward silence, Emily said:
"Umm... we were thinking about having a Halloween party, but then the school collapsed and we kinda cancelled it, but now that they are OK, we thought... well, we wondered if..." Greta rolled her eyes and continued, while Emily turned a deep red:
"What she said. Halloween's on Saturday, you know. We had a party planned, but... yeah, you know. But now, as there really is no reason to depress like that, we decided to bring the plans back on track. What little blushy was supposed to ask you about, we wondered if you wanted to come too? Half past eight on Saturday, at Miley's place (no jokes about Disney, please). No alcohol, her parents are quite strict about that. Dress code: costume fit for the occassion. Want to come?" Emily hadn't moved, but seemed a lot smaller and didn't say a word, appearently carefully examining the ground.
"Umm... yes, thanks", I answered. Something like that had never happened before. Except for that time in year seven, when someone in my class invited me, and gave me a false adress. I had recognised it as the adress to a burial bureau, and didn't go.
"See you, then", Greta said, and she and Miley walked away again, leaving me and Emily here. John and Edvard were a few meters away, and hadn't heard us talk.
"So... where does she live", I asked her gently. She startled, and turned an even darker shade of red, before she quickly recovered and said she should look it up later. The bus arrived, and John and Edvard dragged me with them to the rear end, whereas the girls chose seats near the front. The year six class filled the rest of the bus, and made quite some noise, but I was near oblivious to that. Emily sure was kind to me, but she was the kind of person that could naturally treat everyone like that. Then again, why all the blushing? I had been lost in questions many times before that week, but this was something different. And, I hoped, this kind of questions was a tad more normal than the others.

I was happy to discover that Emily didn't give me trouble sleeping, as I could do with a few nights of proper sleep now that I finally had sorted out my main problem. Friday we were about twice as many from the class, there were only a couple that still stayed at home now that everyone had heard the good news. Unfortunately, that broke up yesterday's mood a bit; now, John was hanging out with a couple of friends, he introduced me to them at the bus stop, but I didn't really fit into their conversation, so I left them to find Edvard. His usual gang was much easier to talk to, I met Matt and Andy, who were considered the "geeks" in class. We had a lot in common, so the talk went on without many interruptions most of the day. Every now and then, I glanced over to the girls, but Emily was on home turf now, with her friends and proper school work to do, and didn't look back as far as I could see. After we had come back to school, however, I suddenly bumped into her when we got off the bus.
"I forgot to give you this", she said in a more sassy tone than yesterday, the shyness was appearently gone. I took the small note she handed me. "Her adress, and her number in case you can't come", she explained. "See you there, then!"
A short smile, and she was gone. I read the note. Just as she said, only an adress written in capital letters, and a phone number. No further message.

"Forgot something?", a voice said when I got home and up to my room. I turned around, and saw Espeon lie on my bed, staring blankly at me. She held her Poké Ball in her paws.
"I escaped - yes, we can if we will - last night, hid under your bed, and you didn't check if everything was there this morning. Stupid."
"I...", I muttered, and the answer was in a different tone:
"I can read your emotions, you know". I could feel my face getting redder.
"Anyways, Metagross wonders when you want to resurrect your friends. I suggested waiting until we know where everybody is"
I nodded. "Better not do it now, they who are still trapped in the ruins would be squeezed to death a few seconds later"
"But either way", Espeon said. "Be more careful. This time, I avoided attention, next time, I might not be that lucky"

The remainder of the day was spent gaming, a thing I hadn't been able to do for a while. I even turned on my DS, equipping all my Pokémon with stuff that might come in handy in case any of them emerged, and filled the in-game bag with medicine. Another quick check showed that no one had slipped out without me noticing, something I took as a good sign. After a few hours, I lay down on my bed, thinking, trying to reconstruct the week:
Sunday - woken up from coma.
Monday - gotten home. Settled things with Tyranitar.
Tuesday - started - and demolished - school.
Wednesday - Found Metagross, received Espeon.
Thursday - met Emily (worth listing as major event?).
Friday - day off. Lovely.
Future - as uncertain as always.

Part 2 to follow shortly.

Chapter six, part two:

Then Saturday came, and I started wondering what "fit for the occassion" meant. Something scary, I suspected, but what? I chatted a bit with Matt, who already had a costume ready. I had told mum and dad about the party, and thought that it couldn't hurt to ask them for ideas.
"The people from the government, they are scary, aren't they?", mum said.
"Yeah, every time I see one of those tax-people, I break a sweat and grab my wallet", dad chuckled. "Want to borrow a tuxedo?"
I sighed, but, in the absence of better ideas, never mind time, I agreed to give it a try.
"Not exactly James Bond", I thought after trying it on. It fitted, but I looked like a boring government official on my way to work. Still with the tux on, I decided to go down to the basement and ask my Pokémon, they looked scary enough to perhaps provide some tips. Well back in the cavern, Metagross and Tyranitar looked at me. The sight of them together in the semi-darkness was enough to wet most people's pants, they were both huge, and with a naturally angry expression. The cavern had widened a bit, though, and I could see a third tunnel in the wall behind them. I guessed I would find some broken sewer pipe if I went to explore it, but no time for that now.

"Attitude!", Metagross made the iPod speakers roar after I had explained the situation them. "You look like an insecure teenager on the way to a school ball", It snorted. "Which, given the situation, isn't half bad, but you need the little extra, if you don't want to be made fun of". Tyranitar nodded.
"Tar", he snorted, and handed me a pair of sunshades. Blackglasses from the game, by the look of them. He must have been holding them when he emerged.
"Enchances the Dark-moves of the holder", I remarked. "Should make me appear more scary, at least"
"Not without the attitude!", Metagross roared again. "Straighten up! Be on the alert! Black suitcase! Profession! Look like you're there to spy on somebody. Like in the movies. Mr. Green!"
I recognised the Matrix reference. After a bit of instructions, and borrowing a suitcase from dad, I didn't look half bad. A bit small to look dangerous, maybe, but as Espeon said, a bit of confidence would cover that up. I stuffed the suitcase with contents from the trainer bag, handcuffed it to my wrist ("Adds to the effect"), and tried to fake an emotionless voice. Now, I was ready.

The party was like any other party, I guess. I didn't have the best costume around, but I got a few compliments (most notably from Emily). No one had gone for anything gory, everyone was still touched by the school-collapse and the image of half-crushed bodies, the state they thought the rest of the class was in, was still on everyone's mind. There were a few witches, a couple of girls had gone for the vampire look, Andy had gone for the toilet-paper-mummy-solution, and Matt didn't look half bad as an alien. Edvard had was simply dressed in a police officer outfit, and was taping parking tickets to everyone's backs when they didn't notice. After the initial pizza and something to drink, the four of us sat down on the sofa, talking about the usual everything. Someone put on a CD, and the loud music made it difficult to talk, but we kept going. None of us liked dancing much, and Matt's costume made it harder for him to move as well. When the clock passed ten, Edvard said he was going to sprite things up a bit. He had appearently brought a CD himself, and sneaked over to the stereo. The sight of him running like crazy, chased by Miley, while the tones of "Best of both worlds" blasted through the house, made everyone bend double with laughter.

"Wanna dance?", a voice said behind us a few minutes later. Greta, Emily and another girl I couldn't remember the name of stood regarding us with mild interest. Andy stood up, leaving strands of toilet paper in the sofa.
"A pleasure. Greta?"
They walked off, arm in arm, in a way that showed that both took it as a joke. Matt murmured something about the costume hurting his legs, but the girl I couldn't remember the name of dragged him with her anyways.
"Now?", Emily asked.
"I really can't dance, sorry", I said, aware that I was blushing quite badly.
"It's really easy", she said. "Boring, even". She sat down. "So I prefer talking to you instead".
I looked at her through the glasses. "She doesn look half bad", I thought, for about the hundreth time that evening. Not that tall, without being small either, skin that was a few colour tones away from being pale, brown hair, and eyes I couldn't see the colour of with glasses on. For the occassion, she was dressed like a vampire of sorts, long, black and red dress. She looked about as scary as your average running shoe.
"What's in the suitcase?", she asked, mostly to have something to talk about.
"Stuff", I said and shaked it. "Looked just stupid not having one". Awkward silence followed. We were only interrupted by Edvard passing by, muttering something along the lines of "How can they run that fast with those shoes?"
"Always the funny one, that guy?", I asked her.
"Usually", she said. "You got a parking ticket again..." she bent over and removed the note from my back.
"Turtledove #1", she read and blushed. "Umm... we're just friends, right?"
"Yeah", I said, having expected the question to come sooner or later. "If you say so, and want to, then I'm fine with that"
"It's not that I don't like you", she said in a low voice. "But I have a lot to think about at the moment, and..."
"I see", I said and smiled. "Just friends, it is. Looks like you got a parking ticket as well". I removed it. It read "Yeah, right".
"Did he expect us to have this conversation after finding yours?", Emily exclaimed after reading it.
"You're sooo predictable, you know", Edvard said, fluttering by, a huge grin on his face.

About half past eleven, this final night in October, the party slowly burned out, guests starting to leave. Emily and I decided to walk toghether, we had largely the same route to go home. The air was chilly, but it wasn't that far to go. Just before we split up, I noticed someone was alking towards us. Taller than most men, it looked like a scarecrow from this distance. A scarecrow with a wide-brimmed hat, and a way of walking that could only be described as "dangling", he was lifting his feet way higher than necessary, and didn't bend the knees. He waved his arms around a lot too, it looked like he struggled to retain balance.
"A drunkard?", Emily whispered.
"I think I know him", I whispered back. "Stay here"
As we both approaced a street light, it came clear that my assumption was right, my stomach knotted in fear. This was no man, no drunkard walking home in a scarecrow costume.
"Cacturne!", I hissed. This one night was luckily one that people would expect creatures like him roaming the streets. It stopped, looking at me. I whispered:
"Has anything happened?" It nodded
"Have more Pokémon emerged?". It grinned eerily, nodding again. Fear and shock spread through me like wildfire.
"Listen to me. Pretend that you're a human in a costume. Speak to no one. Do not follow me, but be back at my house in half an hour. Understand?" Another nod. "Good, now, walk away"
"Who was that?", Emily asked.
"Distant cousin", I lied. "Recovering from celebral parecy. Was on his way home too". All I wanted now was to get home and see what had happened, but I had to say goodbye properly first.
"See you on Monday, then?", I asked.
"Guess so. Do you live far from here?"
"Just follow the noise", I joked. A short giggle.
"See you, then!", she said, and gave me a hug.
We then walked off down each our road, my heart thundering in my chest. As soon as I was sure that she was out of sight and hearing range, I started to run.

The sight was overwhelming, to say the least. Terrifying wasn't even a covering word, this was far beyond any of my wildest nightmares. The street and my garden was literally crammed with Pokémon, dozens of them. I stopped stiff, looking at what would have been the weirdest Halloween party ever. A huge Steelix, at least twenty meters long, loomed over our house. Most of it looked all right, but a gaping hole in the living room wall showed clearly what had happened. On the neighbour's roof, I saw Sceptile and Garchomp examine the chimney. A Hitmonchan and a Blaziken was in the middle of a playful fistfight on the road. A Venusaur and a Meganium were standing around the remains of our garden greenhouse, the plants inside had grown to huge proportions. The garden was a mess, a Dugtrio plowed around in the soil like a duck would swim on water. A Feraligatr, more than three meters tall, was sniffing at the neighbour's litter bins. I could see our neighbour himself, lying face down on the road, a huge slash in his shirt hinting at what had happened. A barking sound from inside the house, and their dog, a large doberman, ran out, appearently furious, teeth blotted, ready to attack Feraligatr. The huge blue croc in turn stood up, waiting for the canine's attack. The dog leapt at him, going for the throat. Feraligatr raised a clawed hand, clenched the fist, and lashed out at it mid-air. The dog flew across the road, hitting a cluster of thrash cans like bowling pins, and smashed hard into the wall of the house behind.
"STOP IT!", I shouted. They stopped what they were doing, and formed a crowd before me. They were all a lot larger than their Pokédex entries stated, I guess being at lv. 100 affected the size as well. I suddenly realised how much skill it took to handle these, how much they were expecting from me.
"Stay here!", I yelled, then ran for our house.

I found mom in the kitchen. Here clothes were burned to singes, as was the refridgerator behind her, and there were scorch marks in wide arcs on the floor. Charizard, I guess, that tail was really dangerous in small rooms. Still, she was all fine, if KO'd. Dad was in the living room, which was in a far worse state. Most of the ceiling had huge slashes in it, the furniture was shredded to pieces, and the aforementioned hole in the wall was threatening to widen any second, I could tell that what was left of the wall barely hung together. I found dad in a pile that also consisted of the remains of our TV, a cupboard, and something I guessed used to be our sofa. Whatever had hit him, had hit him hard, there was a bulge in the wall above him. I ran out to the crowd of Pokémon again; angry, confused, and sad.
"Clear up this mess immediately!", I shouted. The wall to the living room straightened up a bit, broken planks flying back into place. Still, it looked terrible. I could see several psychic Pokémon with their eyes glowing, doing what they could to repair the damage. The greenhouse was bent back into position, but the glass plates remained shattered. The neighbour and his dog flew back into their house, carried by an invisible force. The garden was largely evened out again, grass springing back up. Most of the Pokémon stood gazing at me, awaiting a command. I had no idea what to do next. I was tired, afraid, all that. Then, in the distance, I heard sirens. Appearently, someone had called the police. I panicked.
"Get away! Hide! Run!", I shouted, hearing the sirens come closer. "Stay hidden until I come get you!"
The Pokémon scattered in every imaginable direction. Steelix dived head first into the asphalt, tearing it apart like nothing, burrowing away at speeds no one was able to match. A few flying Pokémon, among them Pidgeot, Dragonite, Salamence, Beedrill and Staraptor, flew off and into the darkness, most of the Psychics teleported away, and some plainly ran, most of them heading for the manholes, escaping in the sewer tunnels. After a few seconds, I was alone in the streets.

Then I realised what I had done.

I'm really glad to see you continued writing while I was in Greece. It's a great story man, especially his feelings for Emily and the messy house at the end.

Thanks for more feedback! Now, I hope to hit another page soon, this topic kills my scroller wheel each time I add a new chapter.
Like now.

Chapter seven: Mass outbreak

I was stunned. Still standing a bit pathetic on the road, debris scattered around me, I couldn't understand how much of a fool I had been. If my assumptions were right, I would find a bunch of Poké Balls in my room, it would have taken me five minutes, and I would have had control of everyone. Instead, I told them to go hiding, all over the city as well. The sirens in the distance came closer and closer, I might as well turn myself in, admit everything, live the rest of my life in prison while the government took care of the Pokémon. Or?

I opened the suitcase and took out the Poké Balls. After all, I had control over some pretty awesome creatures here, and they had to be of some use.
"Go!", I shouted, a bit annoyed over the fact that I still hadn't found any alternatives to voice activation. Metagross, Tyranitar and Espeon leapt out on the road.
"Metagross", I asked. "Can you jam the police signals, mess with their GPS a little? Buy us some time?"
"Order, not ask", Metagross answered in my headset. "You won't get any respect that way"
"Do it, then!", I shouted, then turned to Espeon. "Get inside and find some clothes for mom and dad. Get them dressed, I'll come assist you soon. Tyranitar - try to fix this". I pointed at the hole Steelix had left in the road. Then I ran after Espeon, back into the house. The hole in the wall was partially fixed, at least it didn't threaten to collapse anymore. I tried not to look too much at the living room, and ran up the stairs. They were quite narrow, there were claw marks in the walls on both sides, pictures lay shattered on the floor, and several steps had deep slashes in them. The corridor outside my room was in a similiar state, the door to my room was torn of the hinges and lay inside the bathroom. I wondered how Steelix had managed to get out without crushing the entire house, but no room for questions now. I peered inside my room, which weirdly enough wasn't much damaged. There was the occassional claw mark in the floor, and the window was pushed further open than it used to be, but oddly enough, the Pokémon had left it without doing much. The most obvious sign of Pokémon activity was the jumbled heap of Poké Balls that lay all over the floor. I searched the room a bit, and found the trainer bag on my bed, exactly where I had left it. I took out a few objects, then ran downstairs again.

Espeon had cleaned up pretty well, considering the circumstances. Mom lay in a chair, still black from soot, but dressed acceptably, even though all the clothes were found in the laundry and about half of them were dad's. The clothes dad had been wearing were all intact, so Espeon had simply lifed him out of the rubble and laid him on the kitchen table. I decided to wake mum first, she was the one who tackled shocks best. I held up one of the objects I had found in the bag. It was prism-shaped, a bit larger than an ordinary chicken egg, and wrapped in brown paper.
"Can you assist me here, Espeon?", I asked. "How do i use it?"
"Take off the wrapping", she answered. "Then just press it against her skin. Couldn't be easier"
The object - a Revive - was slightly glowing in the dim light. According to a brochure I had found, the Revives were actually organic, and grew much like potatoes, in the ground. No one had any idea on where they came from, nothing happened if you buried one, but in certain places, they were to be found all over. Very rarely, a mutation happened so that several Revives were fused together, to form a Max Revive. This never happened in the greenhouses, though, only in the wild. Thus, the brochure stated, Max Revives couldn't be bought, only found by those who were lucky.
"Will it work on humans?", I asked Espeon.
"Time to find out", she answered. "Revival herbs definitely do, but they're not as easy to cope with"
I pressed the Revive against her cheek. It suddenly started glowing intensely, becoming all white, then it simply disappeared, seemingly melting into her. Mom twitched, and her eyes opened.
"What? Rob? What's happening?", she asked. "There was some noise, and a dragon. Am I in hospital?"
"No", I answered. "We have little time. Could you help me wake up dad?"
She rose from the chair, shaking slightly. Espeon lifted dad over from the table, and into the empty chair. I opened another Revive, and pressed it against his right hand. The same glowing, and he too woke up.
"Where's the bear?", he said puzzled. "There was a huge bear here. With a weird ring on its belly. Am I dreaming?"
"Yes, you are, both of you", I answered, getting an idea. "Right, Espeon?"
"You are dreaming", she repeated. I was sure that everyone could hear her telepatic voice, which had gotten a strange whooshing sound added to it.
"Go to bed now, it's late. Never mind the damages, you are only pretending it"
Without knowing why, I felt very tired, and started to walk for the staircase along with mom and dad. Espeon sighed, and pulled me back.
"Resistance!", she whispered. I suddenly felt all awake again. "I'm going to keep them in bed all weekend. I can't erase the memories of the outbreak, they were too much of a shock, but I can make them believe it was only a dream. Help the others in the meantime"
"Are you still there, Metagross?", I whispered in my headset's microphone. I had snagged it from my computer and used it in my costume, but it wasn't connected to anything. Still, I could get a reply.
"Can't confuse them much longer now", he said.
"Can you withdraw the call? Call them back?"
"I can, but it will only raise suspicion. Get Espeon out here."
I ordered her to come with me, and went out. They had done a good job with the road, it was a little patchy, but still in better condition than most roads around here. The garden didn't look too bad either, the neighbour's trash cans had been put back into place, but our house was still a mess.
"We need illusions", Metagross explained to Espeon. Normal roars sounded, but he translated in my headset . "Lots of people, slightly drunk. Make the house look ordinary smashed up, like a party gone wrong. Get his parents as well, explaining it to the cops. Very few of the neighbours saw what actually happened, we'll deal with them tomorrow. Espeon, do your best". Espeon looked at me, awaiting confirmation.
"Go", I said. Suddenly, the garden was seemingly filled with partygoers, decorations and empty beer bottles. Not exactly the kind of party mum and dad would have, but it would do. I found the Poké Balls again, withdrew Tyranitar and Metagross, and let Espeon direct the scene from underneath a bush. Then I ran into the house, up to my room, and watched the images of my parents explain the situation to the police. They seemed to accept it as another party getting out of control, and drove away. I had gone promptly to sleep after that if it hadn't been for another thought hitting me. I ran downstairs again, and unleashed Metagross.
"We need to keep the illusion", I explained to him.
"Put up some screen that shows the house in this state, and keep it there. Just so that it doesn't raise suspicion. We'll fix the house tomorrow, I have an idea of sorts"
"That was more behaving like a trainer", its voice huffed in the headset. Something that looked like a huge bubble suddenly encased the house, like a snowglobe.
"Now, finally time to get some sl...", I started, then remembered Cacturne. I told Metagross to keep an eye out for him, and went to fetch all the Poké Balls in my room. I made a quick count as I collected them in a plastic bag, and stopped on 87. Three Pokémon should be manageable. I could perhaps control six without getting problems. Ten if necessary. Ninety, however, was more of an issue. The now so familiar feeling of helplessness struck me again. Fighting to hold back tears, I went back to the garden and waited for Cacturne to show up, which he oddly enough did after five minutes, without much trouble. The clock showed twenty to one AM, he was half an hour late, but it was OK, I had had enough to do in the meantime. One hour ago, I had been a normal, happy teenager on my way from a party. Now, I felt like the guy who had invented dynamite, responsible for a lot of trouble and suffering already, with plenty more to come. I left it to Metagross to find the right Poké Ball for Cacturne, and went back in to sleep, tears flowing freely.

It was eleven o'clock the morning after. I sat on the veranda, a half-eaten breakfast lying beside me. Metagross was still standing in the same spot, motionless, maintaining the bubble around the house. I had already done quite a bit of tidying, most of the rubble now lay in a neat pile near the back of the garden. Espeon and I had paid all the neighbours a visit as well, erasing and replacing memories of last night. I felt a little guilty for doing so, but as Espeon put it, they wouldn't be much happier knowing the truth. Cacturne was sleeping now, I had taken him out of the Poké Ball this morning, but he had just found a place in the sun and slept standing as I hadn't given him other orders. Metagross had also shown me how to see which Pokémon each ball belonged to. There was a button that, when pressed, produced a small hologram of the residing Pokémon. Handy to check which Pokémon who had emerged. However, I found it easier to use the DS, and now sat scrolling through the PC boxes on my game. The results weren't very uplifting. All the Pokémon who had emerged were at lvl. 100 (I had about 300 of them), but luckily no legendaries. Still, there were quite a few Pokémon on the list that would be a pain to get back: Scizor, Aggron, all the starters apart from Torterra and Blastoise, Dragonite, Hippowdon, Weavile, Exeggutor, Machamp, Alakazam, Gengar, Mismagius, Electivire... 86 missing in total. I had no idea where to start, hopefully, a few of them would return on their own, like Metagross did.
"Metagross!", I shouted. It turned around, slowly, looking at me.
"Why did you come back?", I asked.
"Meta!", it roared back. No speakers to connect to. I went and found mom's iPod speakers, and asked again.
"I had no other option", it answered "I scanned your cellphone, found the numbers to your parents, checked the online phonebook for the adress and went here."
"So you can connect to the Internet?"
"I am a computer after all", it chuckled.
"Check the Internet papers and see if there have been any encounters"
"Nothing so far", it answered a few seconds later. My gamer self envied Metagross the connection speed it must have possessed.
"But, they have dragged out all the vicitims after the school collapse. We should go pay them a visit tonight"
I nodded. "Are they all in the same hospital?"
"Yep, we'll have an easy job reviving them. Just to crush a few Revives to pieces and put it in the ventilation system. Not optimal, perhaps, but it will seem less suspicious if they wake over a longer period of time. We won't heal them much, so they may get quite a headache, but that's just fine. People would start asking questions if they all woke up all fine."
"Tyranitar, how's brickwork going?", I asked. Around the corner of the house, Tyranitar had dug a tunnel down to his cavern. From there, he had found a lot of rocks, and now he was cutting them to bricks, with his claws alone. He scraped the sides even like people normally slice cheese, the strenght of that Pokémon was immense. We had decided to rebuild the wall with bricks, it seemed easier and sturdier than replacing the planks.
"Tar", it answered, as always. That could mean anything in my ears, but to the others, it was a language as good as English was to me.
"We only need a few more", Espeon said. "Could start putting them in place in half an hour's time"

Metagross interrupted, his voice didn't seem to be as confident as it used to:
"I've checked the military radar", he said, voice shaking slightly.
"They have found Salamence."

No feedback?  :'( Nothing to do?  ::) Let's write another chapter. I know that someone has read the last chapter as well, so this isn't as fruitless as it may seem.

Chapter eight: Flight of the dragon

"WHAT?!?", I bellowed. Metagross didn't say anything.
"Could you connect to a TV or something? Let me see the radar images?"
"I could, but your TV lies in a pretty bad state in the back of the garden. Do you have something else?"
"My computer! Connect to that. Let me see the radar, and hear what they say. Now!" I sprinted upstairs, sliding on broken picture frames and torn pages of books that lay in the staircase. When I reached my room, the screen already showed a radar image, and voices were coming from the speakers. A lot of techical fuzz, I couldn't make much sense from it, but I understood one thing. They had sent a jet fighter after Salamence.
"Where is he?", I yelled out of the window.
"Somewhere over the mountains. East of here", Metagross answered. "And get your headpiece on, no need to scream then".
"Espeon!", I shouted. "Come up here, please. Could you put me in contact with Salamence?"
"He's too far away", she replied. "A Darkrai or Mewtwo, perhaps Mismagius, could do it, but not me"
"Any help there, Metagross?"
"No", he answered.
"Espeon, find me Salamence's Poké Ball", I said.
"They have a range of 150 - 200 meters", she answered. "We're dealing with distances a thousand times that."
"He could maybe recognise the signal", I said. "Go, find it"

The next ten or so minutes went painfully slow. Salamence had been circling around for a while, seemingly aimlessly, and the plane was slowly approaching him. We found out that the jet had cameras, so Metagross put their readings on my other computer screen. I had sent a Poké Ball return signal out of the window a few times, but according to the radar, Salamence didn't notice.
I sat trembling in my chair, watching the jet come closer, then, suddenly, it appeared that Salamence noticed too. It changed course drastically, flew towards the city, the jet started to pursue.
"We have visual contact", a voice in the speakers said. I could see a small red and blue dot on the camera screen.
"It looks like a dragon from here. Blue, not that big, perhaps five meters long. Red wings. Speed about 200 and increasing. 250. 250 and steady."
From what I could understand, they used meters per second as speed unit. 250 m/s, that was about 900 km/h. Salamence flew very fast, but the jet outspeeded him by far.
"Heading for the city. I repeat, heading for the city, course 90."
"It may be dangerous. You are cleared to shoot to destroy. We repeat, shoot to destroy"
"No!", I screamt. "Can they kill him?"
"They can", Espeon answered. "But remember who they are messing with. He can fight back, and he fights hard"
On the screen, I could see that the jet fired a missile. He wouldn't have any chance. A few seconds, then an explosion.
"Salamence!"
"He's still there", Espeon said. "Watch the radar".
Truly enough, Salamence was still strong. "Must have been Protect", I whispered. "Can he outstall them?"
"Perhaps, but knowing Dragons, he's angry now."
The cameras suddenly showed Salamence split into two. Then four. Then even more. In a few seconds, there were a dozen Salamence flying in a steady formation.
"Double Team?"
"Doesn't trick the radar, nor the heatseekers", Metagross snorted. The formation broke, Salamence were everywhere around the jet. The true one had found a position just beind it. The jet banked and turned sharply, took a large turn and was soon behind it again.
"What can he do?", I asked as the jet fired another missile. Protect has a larger chance of failing the more you use it, so I was starting to worry. Still, the shield went up, and Salamence flew on unharmed this time as well.
"He's about fifty kilometers away", Metagross said. "Espeon, use Flash, he might see us"
"Worth a try", I agreed. Espeon leapt to the windowsill, I turned away and closed my eyes. A bright flash, brighter than any camera's, lit up the room, even the reflection from the wallpaper blinded me through my eyelids. According to Metagross, it was visible at the jet's camera, but he had been kind enough to scramble the signal at that moment, so the guys guiding the plane didn't see it.
"He's heading towards us", Metagross said.
"I'll connect to him", Espeon said. Then a few seconds later: "I have contact. I'll tell him everything you say".
"Salamence, fly over the forest, but keep within two kilometers from here", I said. "We're going to take him down"
Outside the window, I could see Salamence as a small spot on the blue sky, with the fighter jet a few hundred meters behind. The Double Team copies had appearently vanished.
"Do a loop", I said, remembering a trick from a plane simulator. "At the apex, fire a Draco Meteor. Then, use Aerial ace on any tree out of sight from the footpaths. Land in the forest, near the small ravine. We'll meet you there"
After a few seconds, I could see Salamence plunge towards the ground, the jet following. About a hundred meters above the ground, Salamence started to climb again, the jet copying his moves.
"Metagross, give them some error messages", I said. "Preferably the missiles, tell them that they explode too early. Should cover it. Shut down the cameras as well"
Outside the window, I could see Salamence and the jet, upside down a couple of kilometers above us. Then, above them, a small cloud formed, then solified and rushed down ("Like a missile", I thought ironically), towards the jet's underside. Contact.
Salamence plunged, while the jet exploded in an enormous fireball behind him. The impact of the meteor had obliterated much of it, detonated the missiles and ignited the fuel. A few hundred meters above the ground, Salamence vanished from sight, Aerial Ace kicking in. I left the room, running down to the garden.
"Tyranitar", I said. "I need a ride. To the forest, through the tunnel".
Tyranitar nodded and smiled. I climbed onto his back, clinging to one of the many spikes. He runned to the hole in the ground, bent down, nearly throwing me off, and climbed head first down the hole.

It didn't look much like it, but Tyranitar could run. It was hard to hold on, being thrown from side to side with every step. I bent down, trying not to picture low-hanging stalactites and sections with lower ceiling. It was completely dark in the tunnel, but Tyranitar didn't slack off or cut the speed because of that. I had no idea of the speed we were travelling at, but we reached the end of the tunnel in a few minutes. Tyranitar stopped outside the tunnel, which ended in the ravine. The opening was hard to spot if one wasn't down here, but it was really obvious from here. We had to cover it better later, I bet the military would be all over the forest in a few minutes, searching for wreckage and the pilot's body.
"Salamence?", I shouted. No answer. I climbed out of the ravine, looking in all directions. Loads of trees everywhere, a few holes where Tyranitar had uprooted trees, but no sight of a dragon.
"Keep out of sight!", I hissed to Tyranitar, then shouted again. "Salamence!"
Still no answer. I ran towards the footpaths, going for a spot with a better view. Luckily, I knew this area pretty well, and after a few shortcuts, I stood on a spot overlooking the forest, the city, and in the distance, the ocean. It was a cold, clear autumn day, I could see pretty far here.
"Salamence!", I shouted. Nothing happened. I found his Poké Ball in my pocket, stretched it out at arm's length, and shouted again: "Salamence, come back!"
"What on Earth are you doing?", a voice said behind me. I turned around. Behind me, two joggers were standing. I had been careless, hadn't checked around the bend for people before I started yelling. And now, here I stood, dressed as a trainer, with a Poké Ball in my hand. To make matters even worse, the two who were standing there looking at me were Miley and Emily.
"Freak", Miley muttered. Emily said nothing, but the way she looked at me made me feel wiltered inside.
"Let's go", Miley said.
"I'll catch up with you", Emily answered coldly. She waited until Miley had cleared the bend before she started speaking, with a trembling voice:
"What are you doing?", she said. "I had heard the stories, but I thought you were normal! I...I... You better have a good explanation for acting this childish. Now!"
"I..." I muttered, my mouth was dry as sandpaper. "I can't tell you"
"You can't!? Lost your mind, have you?!" She started crying. "Listen. I didn't believe you were that much into it. I know you have gone to psychiatrist and stuff, but I didn't think... Please realise, Pokémon aren't...." She stopped, looking at something over my shoulder. I turned around. Something was flying straight towards us. A dragon, mostly blue, with a white underbelly and red wings. It head looked like a star from this side, six spikes were protruding from the back of its face. Its long tail was flapping from side to side, like a wagging dog. Salamence slowed down, then landed a few meters beside us. It turned towards me, bowed down, and sniffed at my face, like a dog. It was about as big as a large car, and nearly two and a half meter tall with his neck stretched out. The tips of the halberd-shaped wings were about four meters apart. I gave it a short hug, to demonstrate that it wasn't dangerous. Emily was speechless.
"Please... this isn't... oh..."
"It's not dangerous", I said. Salamence yawned, showing fangs larger than a man's thumb. Emily took a few steps backwards.
"Am I dreaming?"
"Nope, I'm afraid", I said, trying a smile. "If anything, this is my dream. Or rather, a product of it". She looked puzzled.
"Never mind", I said quickly. Then, in a more serious tone: "How much can I trust you?"
"I'm... not sure...", she answered. "What is the alternatives to not telling anyone?"
"Well, then I'd have to subdue you and get someone to erase your memories. Much less trouble for you, but I don't know if I'd be able to do that to you"
"Are there more of them?"
I sighed. "Ninety or so. I kinda had a mass outbreak last night"
"So the school..."
I felt really embarrassed. "Yes, unfortunately. On the bright side, they are incapable of killing anyone. Just knocking them out for... well, a few months." She was shocked.
"There are ways to revive them before that, though. No harm done."
"I don't want to have anything to do with this, I'm sorry", she said bluntly. "I... I just don't want to... play... with those... things." She waved a hand at Salamence.
"Just keep me out of this, OK?"
"If you don't tell anyone, then OK"
"What if I do?"
"I don't know. I like you too much to punish you for it, but it would put me into a lot of trouble. And if any authorities come to claim them, I'll happily fight them for it. And trust me, that would cause a lot of unneccessary damage"
She nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face, but she didn't say anything.
"And sorry if this sounds a bit childish, but the Poké Balls are voice activated. Salamence, come back."
Emily blinked a few times as Salamence disappeared into a cloud of red light, that flew back into the ball. Then we heard Miley shout from somewhere around the next bend.
"See you at school tomorrow, then?", I asked.
"Bye", she said stiffly, then ran off.
I put the Poké Ball back into my pocket, and started to walk back to Tyranitar. Whatever it was between Emily and me... it really was balancing on a knife's edge.

It's so stupid to only be able to say the same thing all over again.

But it rocks =).

Please go on.

I just finished the first 3 chapters. This is excellent. I'll be sure to read the rest, but it might take me a while.

I'm up to chapter 7 now. Introducing the other charactors was great, but between all of the humans and all of the pokemon, it's a bit tough to keep track of. Still, it's excellent.

I can't stop reading...

Ok, please write more now, I'm addicted to this story-I finished everything you had written.

Quote from: SirIngusBingus on April 30, 2009, 06:43:51 PMOk, please write more now, I'm addicted to this story-I finished everything you had written.

Haha it's addictive isn't it :P Very good that you read all these chapters, must have been quite a job ;)

ARGGGHHH. When I saw a new post, I thought it was another chapter!
ARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

Wohoo! More feedback! And someone who has read it as well! Thans a lot, Ingus!
Yeah, I'll keep on writing. Here comes

Chapter nine: Up and down

We spent the rest of the day fixing the house. I couldn't really say I was a good carpenter, nor that any of the Pokémon were, but Metagross searched the web for tips, and we managed to build an OK wall. At least, it was solid, half a foot of rock and cement. Then, we had to replace the staircase, as several of the steps were torn pretty badly, some had huge dents or slashes in them. We reused some planks from the wall, made some new, and the end result was usable, at least. The furniture was worse, I wondered how I could explain that. All in all, we had lost a sofa, a table, a TV, a refridgerator, some carpet, about twenty pictures with frames, three lamps, and two chairs. I was pretty sure we could replace the table, but when the last piece of rubble was carried out, the floor swept and the kitchen cleaned (believe me, melted refridgerators leave quite a smell), the time was already half past eleven PM. We had managed to practically rebuild the house in fourteen hours, but now I was pretty tired.
"One more thing left to do before bedtime", Espeon reminded me.
"Huh?", I said, desperately needing sleep.
"Salamence told me what happened when you retrieved him. I bet your little friend would be very disappointed if you didn't revive your fellow students, after you told her that it was done in the blink of an eye"
"Great", I muttered. "But the hospital is on the other side of the city. It would take all night to walk there, and it would be too suspicious to take a taxi at this time of the night."
Espeon nodded in a certain direction. I groaned.
"OK. But this is madness", I said, walking over to Salamence.

"This is madness!", I repeated, in a more squeaky voice than before. In most of the movies, the hero always rides on the dragon's back, like a horse. Salamence and Espeon, on the other hand, insisted that it was too dangerous, I might fall off. Thus, Salamence held me in a tight grip around my waist, standing on its hind legs for takeoff. My feet dangled freely, so did my arms. Except from the huge claws that held me in place, I could move an part of my body as I liked to.
"This would either make the world's best, or worst rollercoaster", I thought. "Ready?", I asked Salamence. "Are we still concealed, Espeon?"
"We are", her telepatic voice said from my backpack. I hadn't brought a full trainer kit, only Espeon, Metagross in his Poké Ball, a dozen or so Revives, and Salamence's Poké Ball, all neatly packed in a large backpack.
"We're concealed by a bubble", Espeon said. "We should be invisible, but not unhearable. Salamence, no roaring, Rob, no screaming. Or swearing."
"Ready for takeoff", I muttered. Salamence hissed, bent down, and kicked off. Suddenly, we were several meters off the ground, Salamence spread his wings, and started flapping. I could feel the acceleration come in tugs, one for each flap of the wings. The neighbourhood spread out below us, and due to my face-down position, I could see everything. Houses as small as model houses, roads in neat lines below us, a few cars driving on them. The school, a huge dark building. Now that all the people were rescued from the ruins, night-time activity had stopped completely, so the place was desolated. And if I lifted my head a little, I could see the skyscrapers downtown, ahead of us. It was a marvellous sight, but also slightly uncomfortable. I knew Salamence wasn't halfway to top speed, but we were still doing a good 200 km/h, and the wind was roaring in my ears. Also, it was November after all, and pretty cold, even though I had my best winter clothes on.
"Where are we heading?", Espeon asked.
"Head for the football stadium over there", I tried to answer, but I couldn't even hear my own voice over the deafening wind.
"Try to think hard about it", Espeon said. "Picture it in your head, somewhere we can see from here. We'll repeat the process until we're at the hospital". I had another look at the stadium, and pictured the donut-shaped arena with the huge light masts in my mind. Appearently, Espeon told Salamence telephatically, because we changed direction and headed north. We circled the arena for a couple of minutes, while I tried to come up with another checkpoint. Appearently, there had been a game this evening, because a few guys were walking among the seats, cleaning up and collecting rubbish, and someone had put a huge sheet of canvas over the grass by the goal. We were about half a kilometer up, the field looked small from here, and the light masts were like candles on a cake.
"The Royal Observatory", I thought. "The huge dome on a hill northwest of here. The hospital is right behind it".
We continued circling another few times, before Salamence caught sight of the building.
"He asks if you are ready for some action", Espeon suddenly said.
"I'm what?", I thought, but didn't get to answer, because Salamence suddenly had started a barrel roll. I got a short glimpse of the starry sky, before I realised we were in the middle of a plunge. We were falling head first towards the field, the sky seemed further away, the stadium falling down towards us. Light masts, seats, field...
And we were even again, flying over the field at speeds I was sure I hadn't travelled at before. The grass was a mere meter below me, I was sure I could touch it if I bent my legs down. Suddenly, everything went dark, for a second I thought we had crashed, but then I realised we were flying through the northeast access tunnel, the one they use when they want vehicles out on the field for any reason. Then we were out in the open again, flying over a fence, then cruising along the roads in the inner city at more moderate speeds, about three meters above ground.
"Why the maneuver?", I thought, hoping that Espeon still was reading my mind.
"You didn't really pay attention to your game, did you? Salamence love to fly, it's the very goal of their evolution chain after all, to sprout wings. It's in their nature to seek adrenaline kicks by flying like that. We're going up again, mind the forces please"
And suddenly, we were darting upwards again, towards the dome of the Royal Observatory, now a museum. We circled the dome once, then headed for the hospital complex.
"Land on the roof", I thought. Salamence braked down, coming to a standstill above the air vents, then he dropped down carefully. Still hanging in the air, he let me put my feet down, let me go, and flew off. He circled the hospital a few times, while I found his Poké Ball.
"Salamence, return!", I said, and put him back in the ball.
"And may you never fly me like that again", I muttered.

A few minutes later, Espeon, Metagross and I were standing in front of an open air vent. The vent cover was lying in pieces on the ground beside us, Metagross hadn't bothered to screw loose the bolts, but simply ripped it out. I was sitting with a large kitchen knife in my hands, cutting the Revives to small pieces before crushing them to dust with a mortar. Espeon was maintaining the invisibility bubble around us, while Metagross was studying the layout of the building. We had quite an easy job, really, as all the collapse victims lay in the same wing, which fitting enough had a separate ventilation system.
"Will this have an effect on the regular vegetables as well?", I asked Metagross, pointing at the jar of revive dust.
"Maybe", it said. "But I doubt so"
"Done!", I said after a few minutes. "So, are we just pouring it into this shaft?"
"I'll guide it to each separate room", Metagross said. "That way, we won't end up with half the powder lying in corridors and offices"
"Twelve Revives, about 120 people, that's one tenth of a Revive to each?", I said. "Should heal about a twentieth of the total health to everyone, right?"
"It doesn't work like that", Espeon said calmly. "No maths involved, a different set of laws of Physics than you're used to"
We sat in silence as Metagross guided the Revive powder down the ventilation system.
"What will happen to them now?", I asked after a few minutes.
"They will wake up, slowly", Metagross said.
"With one hell of a headache", Espeon added. "They will still be on the brink of fainting, but they won't be KO'd any more. From there on, they can heal the natural way, through lots of resting. I think a few of them may be up and running by the end of the week."
After another half an hour, Metagross was done, and we had another rollercoaster flight home.

After six hours of much-needed sleep, I was sitting at the breakfast table, hearing mom and dad discuss the carpenting work. The memories they were induced with told them that the TV had short-circuited on Saturday, starting a small fire in the living room, and damaged the kitchen circuits as well. As far as they were concerned, they and a few carpenters had been busy tidying and repairing the house yesterday, and couldn't understand why I was so tired, "I had barely helped them take out the trash".

Part two will follow shortly

Chapter nine, part two:

Emily didn't show up at the bus stop that morning. According to Andy, she and Miley had had a huge argument yesterday, which struck everyone as quite odd. As far as anyone was concerned, Emily had never ever gotten into an argument, and very few people had the guts it took to argue with Miley. Everyone concluded that whatever had happened, it must have been serious. Miley didn't speak to anyone either, and she clearly avoided looking at me, though no one else noticed.
Apart from Emily's absence, the school day was pretty eventless. Not even Greta appeared to have heard the news of people starting to wake up in hospital, but there were a few discussions about the downed plane. Like Metagross had told them, the official conclusion was that the missiles had detonated at random during a test flight, and that the jet had to fire to prevent being blown up. However, one of the missiles had jammed, thus detonated while still attached to the jet, sending it down. The pilot had miraculously survived, though, and was now in military hospital. He had tried to shoot down my Salamence, so I didn't intend to help him. He would be all fine in about ten months anyways.

As the teacher issue became more of a problem, the school had decided to have a forest trip the day after. One teacher simply couldn't teach two class in separate parts of the building, and they couldn't get vicars before Thursday. So, Tuesday morning, at nine o'clock, we were all walking through the woods, our class in one group, the year six class in another. I was quite nervous, there were still 85 Pokémon on the loose, about 50 of which had a forest as their natural habitat. Still, there hadn't been news about any encounters, no mysterious damage, no missing hikers, so I guessed the Pokémon managed to stay hidden.
"Rob?", a voice said behind me, and I turned around. It was Emily. I had been walking with Matt and Andy, but they seemed to be fine with me dropping out now, and caught up with Edvard instead.
"What?", I asked, knowing exactly what she was going to ask about.
"Sorry, I have been a bit... troubled, and have to ask. Were you in the forest on Sunday? I..."
"I see. Yes, I was in the forest. Yes, we met. Would you like to hear the rest as well?"
"I got into an argument with Miley. She thinks you're a freak", she said, then added: "And I haven't decided yet if I disagree with her or not."
"Let me put it like this", I said, aware that others could hear what I was saying. "If I told you the most likely thing, you would be right to call me a freak, and live on with that. The truth is a tad more complicated, and may require something in return"
"Rob, I...", she started. Appearently, she had trouble finishing sentences in such situations. "Can I hear the truth, please?"
I sighed.
"OK, if you want so. What you saw, was technically impossible according to our laws of physics. Yes, it was a Pokémon, yes, the ones from the games. And, as I said, there are about ninety of them still on the loose. I have control of a few, but I need to find and retrieve the rest before they do any more damage. You saw the school, that was the result of one single attack. I have, however, started reviving the victims, I heard Greta telling you that a few had started to wake up. I guess they're all OK again in a couple of weeks, if not, I'll take direct action to wake up the rest."
Emily said nothing, just stared at me in disbelief.
"Do you believe me?", I asked.
"I have problems accepting it, but I guess I'll have to", she answered. "But if you want to go hunting Pokémon, keep me out of it. That's your business, not mine"
"I can still give you advice, I hope?", I asked. She nodded slowly.
"Good. If you ever encounter one of them - let's hope you don't - do not try to fight them, or confront them. Believe me, they can and will knock you out if they feel threatened. Try to back off slowly, don't run away, most of them will pursue you or strike you from a distance"
"This is absurd", she muttered.
"It's-", I started, but we were interrupted.

"Look at that!", someone shouted ahead. A fence was running along the path, on the other side was a railroad. But about 200 meters ahead, a section of the fence was ripped to pieces, bits of it were lying everywhere. A long strip of barbed wire hung on a tree branch not far from where we stood. I rushed over to the hole, Emily following suit. There were no footsteps here, just shredded roots and torn trees, but I was pretty sure this was a Pokémon's work.
"Propably one of those tree-cutting machines", someone said. "Someone must have driven while stoned".
Laughter and nodding showed that the explanation was commonly accepted. Someone took photographs of the hole in the fence, where one could simply walk out to the railroad tracks, but most people kept walking.
"What do you think?", I asked Emily.
"This is not exactly Pikachu's work", she answered. "Looks like one of those machines he spoke about".
"Maybe", I said, not wanting to argue. We kept walking, talking about school, life and other stuff, and for a while I completely forgot my Pokémon problem.

We reached our destination at lunchtime. It was a particulary uninteresting clearing in the forest, where we were supposed to go looking for animals, our class versus the year six class. The teacher didn't mind that none of us "wanted to bother Bambi", as Edvard put it. Emily had bought her camera and wanted to go take pictures instead of just sitting down, from what I understood, she was a quite skilled photographer. Without anything better to do, I followed her. We left the paths, waking about taking pictures of red leaves, patches of snow, and mossy stones. None of us said much, but Emily showed me her pictures from time to time. I knew nought about photography, but thought they were quite good. Suddenly, we heard a sound in the distance.
"What was that?", I said.
"Locomotive horn", Emily said without moving the focus from the wiltered plant she had found. Another similiar sound, much closer, replied to the call.
"But what was that?"
"I don't know", I replied. "Didn't sound like a horn to me. More animal-like. It may be... oh, no!"
"What?", I heard Emily say, but I had already run off, heading for the railroad.

A creature was standing on the railroad tracks. Its appearance was similiar to a rhino's, except that it stood on its hind legs, and was clad in very heavy armour. Its skin looked like rough-hewn rock, with shiny metal plating in places, especially on its head and down its back. It looked like it was wearing a helmet, from which two half-meter long horns protruded. The monster was about three meters tall and had a long, powerful tail, looking like a huge snake made of rock. If someone had designed an animal to hunt and eat cars, it would have looked like this. In the distance, the locomotive horn sounded again. "AGGRON!", it roared in response, its tail smashing the concrete elements between the rails to pieces. I was petrified, even in broad daylight, this monster far outscared Tyranitar. Where Tyranitar had relatively smooth rock skin, this one was just spiky plate upon spiky plate, and had a saw-like jawbone instead of teeth. It also had a third horn, its entre forehead extended to a long, sharp spike. Its blue eyes weren't fixed on me, but the bend the train would be coming from. I had no clue about its plan, but I feared that this wasn't going to end with "live happily ever after". I hadn't brought any of the empty Poké Balls, so I couldn't just call it back either...

The train came around the bend. Luckily, it wasn't a passenger train, but on the other hand, these goods trains were a lot heavier. It approached Aggron at a speed of about 150 km/h, and there was no chance of braking, impact was inevitable. Aggron leaned towards the train, a spiky shoulder pointing at the engine. It braced, and with a roaring sound, brakes screeching, the train met the Iron Armor Pokémon.
The sound of the crash was like an explosion in a glass store. The train hit Aggron right in the face, pushing it several meters along the track. Still, Aggron stood firm on its feet, sliding like a surfer without a board. Its claws shattered the concrete cross-ties between the rails, and the force of the impact pressed Aggron into the engine. Several carriages derailed, some tipped over. After about 20 meters, the train came to a standstill. I was shocked, this couldn't be good for anyone. As Espeon had said, Pokémon could be killed just like anyone else, just not by Pokémon moves. If Aggron had survived this, he definitely needed medical attention. I ran alond the fence until I reached the locomotive, my heart sounding like a drum at a rock concert.

Aggron was embedded into the front of the train, standing still halfway buried in the engine. I wasn't sure if it was still alive, but suddenly, one of the eyes opened, the small black pupil stared directly at me. Then Aggron shook loose, ripping the metal to bits. Pieces from the locomotive rained down all around us. It bent down, gripped the engine with its mighty claws, and lifted the locomotive up. I was shocked even more, this thing must be ruthlessly strong. The locomotive was about 20 meters long, surely weighing more than a hundred tons, and Aggron simply lifted it off the track and dropped it. I jumped backwards as the locomotive fell over the fence, a few meters away from where I stood.
"Why?", I thought, looking at the scene. The train had almost eighty carriages, most of them were derailed, some were destroyed. The train was appearently taking lumber down to the harbour, lumber export was a major trade in this area. Tree trunks lay everwhere. Aggron bent over, ripping loose a long sheet of metal from the engine, eating it like I would eat a sandwich.
"Rob?", Emily said behind me. "What happ- Oh, my goodness..."
"Agg... ron?", Aggron said, now appearently taking notice of us. It didn't stop tucking metal into its mouth, just stared at us with a pair of very blue eyes. It must have been really hungry. As soon as it was finished with the sheet, it ripped loose a wheel from the locomotive, and started guliping it down. Neither Emily nor me could say anything, we were merely having a staring contest with Aggron.
"So this is a Pokémon...", Emily said, taking a photography. Aggron squinted due to the flash, and stared hatefully at the camera. Like most Rock-Pokémon, who were used to dark subterranean tunnels, it had very sensitive eyes.
Voices in the distance.
"Yep", I said, dropping my packpack to the ground. "Go, Tyranitar!". The large rock lizard stood before us, I noticed that Emily instinctively grabbed my arm.
"We don't have much time. Aggron, Tyranitar, go to the tunnel, get home. The parking area is about three kilometers in that direction. Stay hidden, and and don't make any noise. But first, I need you to leave an alibi for this" I looked at the remains of the train. Tyranitar looked at the sky, a small glowing sphere formed in its mouth. I was halfway expecting another Hyper Beam, but the sphere shot up to an altitude of about ten meters, expanded, and a huge stone fell down and landed rigt before the train. Not perfect, but it should do.
"Now, run!"
The two of them ran off, Aggron still carrying the half-eaten wheel. The rest of the class were coming, but there would still be another minute or so before they were here. So in the meantime, we were standing here alone. The only audible sound, apart from the voices coming closer, and the wind through the trees, was Emily's sobbing. I felt really sorry for her, and wondered what to do next...

That was awesome.

Quote from: Cobraroll on May 03, 2009, 07:38:13 AM"With one hell of a headache", Espeon added.

lqtm

^Thanks a lot? But what does the abbreviation stand for?

Chapter ten: Good times, bad times

It was a Sunday, the 29th of November. Four weeks had passed since the night of the outbreak, and I was standing in Tyranitar's cavern, putting together a table from spare planks. Things had changed a lot since that night, on nearly all fields. The cavern itself was larger now, and more reminiscent of a nuclear bunker than a hole in the ground. We had decided to dig it deeper, and get in some proper floor and walls. Using the same technique as we had used to build the living room wall, we had clad the walls with rocks and homemade cement. There was still no proper ceiling, though, but it was in the planning.
Since the Aggron incident, things had gone by far less dramatically. I had to be questioned by the police, but we had once again made a solid cover story, and according to their database, I wasn't accused of anything other than "first witness".
I had started to get a proper grip of things when Metagross introduced me to the Poké Radar. In the games, this handy little gadget seeks out Pokémon hiding nearby. Its range may seem limited, but evidently the games operated more on a map-like basis than a rendering of the real Pokémon world. Even if it takes you a few seconds to go from battle to battle in the games, it may take hours in real life. Thus, the range of the Poké Radar proved to be about one kilometer.
Socially, things had gone forward as well. I had started to spend more time with Edvard, Matt and Andy, introduced them to my parents, and generally started to hang out with them a bit more. A few times, I had used the excuse "Going out with the guys" to leave the house with the Poké Radar equipped, searching for runaway Pokémon. Which fortunately had proven fruitful. I couldn't carry with me more than ten Poké Balls at the time without looking suspicious, but it was a fairly large chance that the Pokémon I encountered had its ball among the ten. So far, I had found a few easy pickings; Gardevoir, Beautifly, Manectric, Houndoom, Umbreon, Leafeon, Swampert and Hitmonchan, and it had gone quite smoothly. Well, apart from the fact that Swampert was found after three hours of searching in the sewers, and I smelled quite badly when I got home around midnight. Those Pokémon were now stored in their balls, lying on homemade shelves in the cavern. Thanks to Manectric, we had power to run a lamp down here as well, so I didn't have to bring a flashlight.
Emily, however, was the big downside of this. We hadn't spoken to each other since Aggron and Tyranitar ran off. We had walked in silence back to the bus, chose seats quite far from each other, and she seemed to completely ignore me at school. On the bright side, she had cleared up with Miley. I had decided to wait another week, or maybe until the Christmas holiday started, if she still didn't contact me, I'd be pretty sure that there was nothing between us. Any more.
But now, everyone had been declared healthy enough to get back to school. According to the letter I had received, that meant that I wouldn't be going with Emily's class anymore, but back to my own. I didn't exactly look forward to it, but with Houndoom and Espeon by my side, I wouldn't be the class' official punching bag anymore. Those two Pokémon were the only ones I always kept with me, Espeon for communication, Houndoom for security. So far, I hadn't released them outside our house, but in case of emergency, they would be good to have with me.

The morning after, I jogged to school. It had become drastically colder lately, and a thin blanket of snow covered everything. The trainer outfit wasn't designed for these temperatures, so I had to go in my old, misfitting clothes. I took a different route than before, not all the buses ran from the school, this one went from the town hall. It wasn't really the town hall anymore, not since this area became a part of the city and under a different jurisdiction, but everyone still called it the town hall. As I approached it, I could see a cluster of people standing by the bus shed. Several heads turned as I came closer.
"So here comes the coward", someone said. "Ran off, did you? Lucky idiot."
"So what have you been up to, while we were fighting for our lives? Derailed a train, I heard?"
"I heard he got a girlfriend. She left him, of course, after two days"
I felt my face turn red, my hand twitching towards the Poké Balls in my pocket. What on Earth had I been thinking when I woke them up? I swore to myself, if they ever were knocked out again, I'd leave them sleeping. I tried to calm my voice, thinking of something to say back, but didn't come up with anything. The torment kept on until the bus came, I chose a seat far from the rest of the class as we drove towards our temporary school.

All in all, the day didn't turn out to be half bad. Our classes were held in a half-empty office building. A room was simply cleared of cubicles, filled with desks, and equipped with a whiteboard, this would be our classroom from now on until the summer holiday. We were in the middle of an industrial area as well, there were three kilometers to the nearest store, so nothing to do in the breaks. Apart from Rob-bullying. But all in all, I had defended myself well enough, and wasn't offended or anything. Even though the others in my class were training maniacs, they lacked in the brain department, so their insults grew repetive very quickly.
When I got home, I chatted a bit with Matt on how their day had been. As he stated, the return of the rest of the class had been the biggest event. Dave had come back, a guy Matt was sure I'd like when I got to meet him. Then he changed subject:
"Emily asked me where you were", he said (or rather, typed). "I thought you had told her. To be honest, I think she misses you as much as you miss her"
I answered with a quick "?"
"Come on, everyone can see that, if they bother to pay attention. I don't know what happened with you two, but she appearently cares about you"
My stomach felt like it was filled with butterflies.
"And, Edvard thought it would be for the best if we gave you a little push. He wondered if you wanted to come with us to the cinema tomorrow. Don't tell him I told you, but Greta will ask Emily about the same. None of us will turn up, but two tickets are ordered and pre-paid in your name. Seven o'clock, better turn up ten minutes early. Good luck"
Then he logged off.

I felt terrified, similiar to when I went out to fetch Tyranitar, but much more scared. Handling monsters was one thing, I could cope with that, but this? Parts of me wanted to back off, fetch Salamence in the basement and move to Timbuktu, but other parts told me that it would be a very bad idea not to go.
After a night and a day of more thinking, I decided to go. Anything else would have been stupid, I concluded. I just hoped that Emily had come to the same conclusion, but after all, why wouldn't she? If everything went according to the plan, she thought that she would see a film with Miley and Greta, and wouldn't even know that I would be there.

Ten minutes to seven, I was standing outside the cinema, feeling like a prisoner before the sentence is announced. I had decided to keep Metagross and Espeon with me now, only two Poké Balls fit in my pocket, and when I had to choose between extra moral support and a watchdog, the choice was easy. I had also brought the Poké Radar, as I had decided to spend the time searching for Pokémon if Emily didn't show up. Then I heard someone come around the corner, I turned around, and stood there face to face with Emily.
"Hi", I said, trying to sound normal. "Have you seen..."
I couldn't finish the sentence, didn't bother to either. We weren't exactly a couple yet, but this reunion hug was as good as a kiss would ever have been.
"I have missed you", I said, wondering if that really was my words. After all, I had last seen her on Friday.
"I too", she replied. "By the way, Greta told me that none of the others would show up. Appearently, they bought tickets..."
"...in my name", I finished. Hand in hand, we walked in to see the film.

About three hours later, we were walking on our way home. I won't tell much about the past hours, but I think I had discovered a new level of happiness that evening.
"Done anything exciting since... you know?", I asked.
"Not a lot. School, photography, the usual stuff. How about you?"
"Well, I've had these issues to solve...", I said, knowing that she didn't like the subject. "...and of course, school, friends and that"
"How's your class now?", she asked.
"As friendly as always", I said gloomly. "But it's less than three weeks until the holiday, I'll survive that."
"I hope so", Emily said. "I was starting to worry yesterday, that the Pokémon had..."
"Nah, they listen to me. And even if they don't, they can't harm me physically, don't be afraid. I have caught a few more of them as well, and the more I have, the more effectively I can catch the rest. And I may soon find a way to put them back into the game as well."
"Good", she said. "How do you find them? Follow the noise? Fly around until you hit someone?"
"Radar", I said, finding the Poké Radar in my pocket. "I don't know exactly how it works, but anyway, I just press this button and..."
On the radar's screen, a small glowing dot appeared.
"Looks like another one. Do you want to come with me?"
She hesitated. "Well... OK, go for it. Just promise that you'll do better than last time"
"I promise, no train wrecks", I smiled. We started to jog in the direction of the glowing dot.

Ten minutes later, we found ourselves in a small park. The dot was now in the middle of the screen, the Pokémon had to be nearby. Hopefully, we would be done with it quickly, in the distance, I could hear police sirens. I just hoped they were here for some completely different reason.
"I hope that's not dad", Emily said. "He's a policeman. It's not that he doesn't like that I'm out late, but... I never mentioned you at home". She blushed. "Guess I'll have to soon"
The police car rounded the corner, and stopped. Two policemen came out of it, carrying guns. Emily and I stopped.
"Stay back", I whispered and took a few steps forward. Then I spotted the Pokémon.
Beedrill is often described simply as a huge bee. In reality, it also looks like a huge bee. However, it only has two pairs of legs, and the front legs are tipped with huge pike-like stingers. It looked like it had daggers welded to its hands, and a third welded to its pelvis. Its wings looked more like transparent butterfly wings than traditional bee wings. Add a size of about one and a half meter from foot to antennae, and you have quite a monster. It was hovering peacefully around the top of a pine tree, appearently eating cones.
"Dad!", Emily whispered. She pointed at the policeman closest to us, about twenty meters away.
"Holy..." the other policeman suddenly shouted, pointing his gun at Beedrill "Look at that! What is it?"
"No idea, but it looks dangerous. We better shoot it", Emily's dad said, lifting his gun.
"NO!", I shouted, finding a Poké Ball in my pocket. "Metagross, stop them!"
The ball flew in a wide arc, landed in front of the policemen, and Metagross emerged. It didn't waste time, the policemen's guns suddenly glowed blue and flew out of their hands. I could hear them rattle as they hit the asphalt a good fifty meters away. Emily's father ran back to the police car, dragging out a radio, but I knew he wouldn't get contact with anyone. The other policeman ran towards Metagross, appearently too shocked to see the dangers. He too started glowing blue, and was thrown several dozens of meters through the air. Emily's dad came back from the car, carrying what appearently was a tazer gun. He looked like he realised that it wouldn't do anything to the six-ton metal crab, but still boldly walked towards it. Metagross snorted, and stretched out a two meter long metal leg. Three claws dug into the man's chest, piercing his bulletproof west like paper. The man was lifted up, almot three meters into the air, and I could hear Emily scream behind me. I was stunned, couldn't utter a word. It felt like Metagross held him there for an eternity, but it was most likely an illusion. Like in slow motion, I could see Metagross smash the unfortunate policeman to the ground, pinning him to the asphalt. He hit the ground hard, the impact shattering his body, his chest was pressed flat by Metagross' foot. A squirt of blood flushed from his mouth, like a grotesque fountain. Behind me, I could hear Emily run away, crying and screaming.

Metagross stepped away from the body, which was already starting to restore itself. I sighed, realising that tears flowed from my eyes. This evening had started so well. Now, everything seemed hopeless again, there was no way she was going to forgive this. Cursing and crying, I kneeled at the man's side, searching my pockets for a spare Revive...

Yeesh. Dark ending to that chapter, huh? Very good though, as usual.

LQTM=Laughing Quietly To Myself

Been a while since last update now, I have been busy. And Ingus, I'm afraid that it gets darker from here. At least, in this chapter.

Chapter eleven: Aftermath

The street once again fell silent as Emily ran out of hearing range. Now, time to clear up. I called out Espeon, and told her to lift the other policeman back into the car, while I concentrated about Emily's father. His body was all fine again now, but he was still KO'd, and I had no way of waking him up without a Revive. And all the Revives I knew of lay in a certain chamber a few meters below my house. I emptied my pockets again, to see if I had missed anything, but I hadn't even brought a bag tonight, so all I found was the Poké Balls of Espeon and Metagross. Feeling quite angry with Metagross, I called him back. He had left quite a few dents in the asphalt, most notably a rather large crater under Emily's father, and was too big not to raise suspicion if anyone even glanced in our direction.
"Beedrill!", I shouted at the bee who was still peacefully eating cones. "Fly to the forest, find a ravine near the large parking area. Stay there until someone comes to get you. It may take a while. Be careful not to be seen by anyone"
Beedrill buzzed something and flew off. I turned to Emily's father again. His clothes were badly ripped by Metagross' claws, the baton in his belt was bent after the impact, and his belt was about to fall off, but he could pass as conscious if we put him in the right position behind the wheel. Espeon lifted him too into the car, adjusted his seatbelt, and made it look like any other police car with two cops in.
"What now?", she asked after she was done. "We can't leave them like that, can we?"
"I suppose we could...", I said. "Pretend it was some sort of gas attack, or something"
"That would work, until they see his clothes. Gas rarely tears bulletproof vests open"
"Could that be covered up with fake memories?"
"Doubt so. I can't remove memories of such shocks, but they can be dismissed as dreams. Still, that is quite difficult, and messing too much with someone's mind isn't too good either"
"So what do we do, then? Simply lift it home, get a Revive, and un-KO them? Even if you could carry it all the way, the blue glow may seem a little strange. Never mind the fact that it's hard to get a police car past mum and dad without them noticing. And I guess you can't both maintain an invisibility bubble and at the same time carry it"
Espeon sighed. "Too true. And even if we got Metagross to carry it, I can't make a bubble big enough to house us all. Metagross can't make good invisibility bubbles, so that option is excluded. I guess you'll have to walk to get the Revives, I'll stay here and keep this hidden until you get back."
We agreed to follow that plan. I got home, pretended to go to bed, and waited for mum and dad to do the same. It took a while, they had started spending more time watching TV late evenings now, as we had got a new TV after the old one was smashed up. When I was sure they were both sleeping, I got down to the basement, and stopped outside the door to the room with the hatch, swearing under my breath. We had locked it and bent the key, I had to call out Metagross to open it. This room wasn't very big, so he toppled a few piles of old books before he opened it. I called him back as soon as possible. I was still angry with him after what he had done, we both knew that simply knocking both cops out with Psychic would have been sufficent. I put his Poké Ball on the top shelf in the cavern, found the trainer bag, and jogged the two kilometers back to Espeon, determined not to release Metagross again for a long time.

It was late night when I finally got to bed. We had revived both policemen, hypnotized them, and told them to drive home, get to bed and not mention the incident to anyone. The replacement memories we had put in were quite vague, but I hoped it would be sufficent to say that they had both passed out after a gas leak. We had removed their bulletproof vests, it would have been to hard to come up with a story that explained the tears in them. They were now both lying in the cavern, along with the remains of their guns. This was our worst cover story to date, but could have passed as plausible if there were no witnesses. Speaking of witnesses, I still needed something to say to Emily...
I had been very close to actually get it going with her, then this had happened. If I only hadn't told her about the radar... we would never have met the policemen... but they would have shot Beedrill, we came the last minute... What if I hadn't brought Emily, then, we could have said goodbye and I would still have had to spend half the night clearing up, but Emily wouldn't have noticed...
I fell asleep around 5AM, after deciding that I would skip school tomorrow.

I pretended to be ill, and slept until 12. I had intended to stay in bed longer, but my SMS warning tune woke me up. As I got up to see what it was, I was halfway hoping, halfway fearing that it would be Emily. It turned out to be Matt:
"Emily's not at school today. Neither are you, I've heard. Did anything happen last night?"
"It's complicated", I answered, leaving it to him to decide what that meant. At least, "complicated" was a fitting description of the situation.
After an hour or so of careful thinking, I decided to call Emily. I had gotten her number last night, but had never expected to call so soon, and under these circumstances. One beep... two... three... then, answer:
"Hello", I said, trying to sound as normal as I could.
"YOU?!?", Emily's voice sounded from the speaker. "You... you..." Her tone was unnaturally hostile and furious.
"I can explain...", I said, noticing that I was almost crying.
"YOU KILLED MY FATHER!", she bellowed. "And now... you dare call me... trying to EXPLAIN?!"
"I'm sorry...", I said, now crying for real.
"YOU BETTER BE!", she interrupted me.
"He isn't...", I tried after a second of silence.
"I saw him", she interrupted me again. Her voice was calm, flat and icy cold. "He was here this morning, acting like normal, going to work as usual. But I saw him die last night. No man can survive that. Whatever you have put here in his place, you can come get it and stick it up your..."
Silence again. About ten seconds passed, I couldn't hear anything. Had she hung up on me?
"Hello?", I tried.
"IT'S OVER!", she roared back, obviously crying. Then she hung up.

I can't remember much from the rest of that day. I recall lying on my bed, thinking, but that couldn't have taken that many hours, could it? For some reason, time had decided to slip by unnoticed, and the clock showed 22:58 when mum called me down to get some food. I realised that I wasn't particulary hungry, despite not having eaten in more than thirty hours, but I went down anyways. I warmed up some leftover soup, and sat down in the sofa to watch the evening news with dad.
"...and last in our program today, we have this picture sent to us from an unnamed source, regarding the train accident on the Stoneforest railway last month. The picture has been circling the Internet for some hours now, and conspiracy theorists claim that it shows a prototype military robot, and that the boulders that were found on the track were planted there to cover up a test..."
I was shocked. The entire TV screen was filled with the picture Emily had taken of Aggron. I had to admire her skill, even though she had just lifted the camera and snapped a picture, it was sharp and focused, clearly showing Aggron eating the train.
"Witch!", I shouted, without realising what I was saying.
"I beg your pardon...", Dad began.
"Sorry, I burned my tongue on my soup", I said, trying to hide the anger that built up inside me. Fair enough, Metagross had overdone it, and I hadn't stopped him, but she must have realised how shocked I had been? And she didn't even let me explain, just sent in the picture for everyone to see. Now, half the country saw my secret broadcasted to their living rooms. The Internet was against me as well, I bet Aggron was already identified by anyone who had a clue about Pokémon. Even though it didn't look excatly like its game counterpart, it was easy to recognise. And who knew how much money Emily had got for that picture, profit made on my behalf? Revenge and money in the same move? That girl surely knew how to kill two Robs with one stone. Struggling to keep my shock and anger under control, I went back up to my room, declaring to my parents that if I went to sleep now, I would be well enough to get back to school tomorrow.

I was in a bad mood the next day. Weather-wise, it was a beautiful day, a hefty snowfall had taken place yesterday, unnoticed by me, so there was snow everywhere. But now, the sun was shining, showing the city under a blanket of glittering snow. But nice weather or not, I felt like a thunderstorm inside, furious and sad at the same time. Betrayed by a friend. My only secret revealed to the world. And to make matters worse, there was my class again, meeting me at the bus stop...
"Now, where have you been?"
"Don't you remember, it was Tuesday yesterday! He was skipping P.E.!"
"Whimp. Can't tackle..."
"SHUT UP!", I bellowed. They all fell silent. For two seconds.
"Playing tough, are we? Or just in a bad mood?"
"You know, they said on the news this morning that Pokémon might be real..."
"Yeah! I saw, they say there was a Pokémon present when that train derailed"
"Hey, he was there too!"
"I bet it was his picture", someone said. "He edited it, and sent it to the news"
"Little attention seeking coward", someone said and pushed me from behind. I fell, over, and everyone suddenly fell silent. A ball had rolled out of my pocket in the fall. A Poké Ball.
"What have we here", a girl said and picked it up. "Ben, catch!"
"Got it!"
"Hey!", I shouted. "Give it back!"
"Or else what?", Ben replied. "To you, Tom!"
They tossed it around a few times. I was starting to get desperate.
"Will you fight me for it?", a girl said. Her name was Julia. She was among the five best at karate in the country, in her age class. I knew she could hurt me, but I leapt at her nonetheless. She stepped aside and kicked me hard in the stomach. I fell over, my stomach hurt like hell. Over the sound of blood rushing in my head, I could hear the others laugh.
"I bet he has more of them!", a voice said, and I felt someone try to drag my backpack off.
"No!", I shouted, and tried to get on my feet. I got another kick, this time in the back of my head, and fell face down again. I was a little alarmed by the cracking sound I heard.
"Kicked down by a girl, Robbie?", Ben said, standing in front of me. "What is the brave trainer's next move?"
"Houndoom", I spat, still lying on the ground. Something was running from my right ear. Julia, still holding the Poké Ball, was standing beside me, preparing for another kick. The microphone was hopefully sensitive enough...
"Go!", I shouted. I could hear the click of the Poké Ball opening, then a scream. Then, a howl that was certainly not human.
"AAAOOOOOOOOOO!", Houndoom howled, followed by the sound similiar to a jet engine. The temperature rose drastically, I could feel the snow melt around me, and something fell to the ground beside me. Whoever had tried to drag off my backpack, released the grip and ran off. So did the rest of the class. I got to my feet, picked up the dropped Poké Ball, and called Houndoom back. On the plus side, Houndoom hadn't hit anyone, no scorched bodies to be seen, no other people were in sight either. On the downside, my stomach ached quite badly, and my vision was blurred. I thought I had read somewhere that kicks to the head was prohibited in most combat sports, for a good reason. I had almost no balance, and my legs felt weak. Before I knew it, I lay on the ground once again. A plan slowly formed in my head.
"Espeon, go", I whispered. A few seconds later, I could feel her standing beside me. I tried to look at her, but saw nothing. Everything had gone black.
"KO me. As hard as you can. Then take the Pokémon gear, and get home"
"Espeon", she said, not communicating telepathically this time. At least, I couldn't hear anything. Hopefully, she agreed, I'd be finished if she refused to hurt me.
"Es...pe...on!" I suddenly felt a hard grip around me, and was dragged away, tossed into the air, flying towards the town hall, like squeezed in a giant's fist. I hit the wall at second floor-level, back first, my spine making some quite nasty sounds as I hit the bricks. Then I fell, landing head first on the ground. I could hear a cracking sound between my ears, then everything fell silent.

Quote from: Cobraroll on May 13, 2009, 12:12:27 PMBeen a while since last update now, I have been busy. And Ingus, I'm afraid that it gets darker from here. At least, in this chapter.

No lies there.

That's just freakin' dark :o
But sooooo cool ;) :D

Thanks for the feedback! Now, remember that I'm a roller coaster fan, and that when a coaster goes down low, it'll soon get up again (Never mind the opposite). So who knows, maybe this chapter will be a little brighter than the previous one? Read and find out!

Chapter twelve: From all of us, to all of you

When you're fainted by a Pokémon move, you lose all consciousness, all senses, all everything. When I was knocked out by Tyranitar, I thought I was still lying on the ground in the forest when I woke up, but almost two months had passed. This time, it was a bit different. I didn't regain all consciousness at the same time. It was a feeling very hard to explain. Imagine waking up after a long night's sleep. Still with your eyes closed, you are lowered into a perfectly temperate bath. This was almost the same. I lay there and couldn't move, but I felt a tickling warmth spread from my face, down throughout my entire body. Then, I regained control over my movements, but i still didn't move anything, or open my eyes. I was lying in a bed, dressed in something that I guessed was the standard hospital gown. It was warm, but with a cold gust from time to time, a window must have been open. And I could hear faint sounds to my right. I opened my eyes.
I was right, I was in a hospital. The room seemed familiar, but it wasn't the same as last time, I was pretty sure of that. All hospital rooms looked about the same, I guess. It was dark, it must have been in the middle of the night. But what caught most of my attention was the figure standing at my bedside. My eyes weren't adjusted to the darkness yet, I could only see the silhouette. A girl, appearently dressed in thick winter clothes, her hair in a ponytail. I couldn't recognise her immediately, but I saw that she was looking at me.
"Who's there?", I asked.
"It's me", a very familiar voice said. Emily! Of all things...
"What are you doing here?"
"Waking you up, of course", she said. I could see some brown paper in her hand. Revive wrapping.
"Why? I thought you hated me?"
"Can't torture you when you're fainted like that, you know", she said and smiled. "Just joking. It's a long story"
"Umm...what time is it?"
She looked at her wristwatch. "2:36 AM, December 21st. A Saturday, the first day of the Christmas holiday"
So I had been out cold for three weeks, almost. Not as bad as last time, but still a fair bit.
"Would you mind telling me the 'long story'?", I said. "I know it's late, but of all random things that have happened this year - and it's been a lot of them - this takes the prize"
She sat down on my bedside, as if she was going to tell a goodnight story.
"Guess I can start with the beginning", she said. "As I hope you understand, I was pretty crushed that night. Seeing my father like that..."
I felt like comforting her, but didn't come up with a word to say.
"I ran home, and went straight to bed. I thought dad was dead, and I couldn't bear to tell mom. I hoped that someone better fit for the task would come and do it instead. But I didn't hear anyone call, or ring the doorbell with bad news, and I fell asleep. I tried to act normally the next morning, expecting the news any moment, but when I saw dad sit at the breakfast table... I guess that was when it snapped for me. I thought you had dumped the body and put in a mirage or something to replace him. I had never thought you would be such a coward, but... So I went upstairs, and sent that picture to all the news corporations I could find the contact info for."
"So... there are Pokémon hunters all over the place now?", I asked.
"No, I managed to convince everyone that it was a hoax. I'll get back to that later", she said, then continued:
"The following days were terrible. I heard that you were in hospital, the official story is that you were attacked by your class"
"They did hurt me", I interrupted.
"That's what they have admitted as well. Julia is charged with violent assault, and she's kicked out of the karate club as well. Everyone thought you'd end up as a vegetable. I thought so at first too, but then Matt said to me that the doctors couldn't see any reason why you shouldn't be up and going. I also met Bella, the triathlete from your class, and she said that you had unleashed a Pokémon on them. It wasn't hard to understand what had happened, and from then on, I didn't feel the least bit sorry for you. I thought you had a plan to get revived as soon as possible, and would fix it yourself"
"I thought about that", I said, my mouth dry. "But I couldn't bear them any more. And when you were angry as well, I thought it would be for the best if I just skipped a few weeks, hoping that you would have come over me by then. I chickened out, I'm sorry."
"I didn't forget you", Emily said. "I hated what you had done, but I still... had feelings for you. I was torn between just forgetting you, and to come back and ask if we could be friends again. I wanted to get revenge, but also, I still liked you. I... I..."
I sat up, and gave her a hug. We were sitting there for a few minutes, holding hands. Emily cried a bit.
"Ready to continue?", I asked.
"Ready", she confirmed. "Anyways, it changed now on Tuesday. Dad had kept asking me if there was anything wrong. I thought that he really wasn't my dad, just some replacement thing you'd put there, so I had refused to answer until then. But now, I couldn't bear any more questions, so I said it had something to do with a boy. Then, dad asked: 'that boy who... No, that was just a dream'. He told me of a dream he had had, where he had been on a police mission, and met me with a boy. He said it had been so lifelike that he had been sure that it was real, hadn't it been for a monster that suddenly appeared and attacked him. Then he said the boy had woken him up and helped him home. He couldn't remember when he had dreamt that, but since then, he had been missing a lot of gear.
Anyways, I decided to check if this story could have some truth in it. I went to school, and interrogated Matt until he told me your adress. After nightfall that day, I went to your house to see what I could find. I found a tunnel beneath the floor planks in your garden shed, you really need to hide that one better. Either way, the next night, I brought a flashlight and went to investigate the tunnel. It went down pretty deep, but the end was blocked by a large boulder. I could hear sounds on the other side, though. I shouted to hear if anyone could hear me, and everything went silent.
Yesterday... No, wait, Thursday, I got the weirdest phone call ever. It was the Pokémon who had attacked dad who called, and he explained everything, and asked for forgiveness. You can't imagine my relief, I'm sure you're innocent now. Also, I was invited to you, or rather, that cave underneath your house. I don't know why I agreed to come, but that night, I went to your garden shed again, the boulder was gone, and I was greeted by a bunch of creatures I only thought existed in video games. We made some plans, I borrowed a few Pokémon, and tonight, I waited until mom and dad were asleep, and... well, here I am!"
"Thank you", I said. "But what about that picture?"
"Ah, yes. We hacked it onto your computer, and made a story on how you made it, for showoff and attention seeking. I'm afraid it will make it to the news..."
"So I guess I'll have to live with an 'attention seeker'-stamp for a while, then", I said. "At least, it's better than the alternatives"
A few seconds of awkward silence followed.
"Well, I can't stay here all night either", Emily suddenly said and got up. "The others are waiting on the roof"
She produced a Poké Ball from her pocket. "Gardevoir, go!", she whispered and threw it lightly to the ground. A second later, a creature resembling a green woman in a white ball gown stood before us.
"Hello", its telephatic voice said in my head. "Nice to see you again"
"Again?", I thought, before I remembered that Gardevoir had spent most of her life travelling with me in the game.
"Guess it's... Merry Christmas, then?", Emily said, in a voice that was a little higher pitched than normal. She looked a little disappointed as a bubble started to conceal them both, and they began to fade away.
"Wait!", I shouted. "There's one more thing to do first." The bubble was suddenly gone. I got out of the bed, walking towards her. She faced me, smiling. Gardevoir politely turned away.
"Thank you", I said and took another step closer.
I'm hopeless at describing kisses. All I can say is, it was wonderful.
"Not 'Merry Christmas' yet", I said. "I'll call you when I get time"
The bubble started to conceal them both again.
"One last thing", Thin air appeared to say. They were completely invisible now. "Where did that dragon of yours learn to fly?"
"Umm... Route 228, I think", I answered.
"I'd demand my money back, if I were you", Emily's voice said outside the window. "Goodbye, then"

I found it surprisingly easy to sleep after this. One might think that I hadn't done anything else the last three weeks, but after all, a Revive only fills up half of full health, so I felt pretty exhausted as I went back to bed. I slept until 11, and spent the rest of the day convincing doctors that I was well enough to go home. As they said, a kick in the head could be fatal, but Espeon had managed to out-crush the damage done, allowing the body to restore itself after the attack, so I should be safe. In the evening, the doctors finally concluded that I didn't have to stay at the hospital another night, and I was sent home.
I got up a bit earlier than usual the next day, to check the cavern. Not only did I need to hide the shed tunnel better, I found out. The place needed proper insulation as well. It was quite cold down here, and a foul smell came from the tunnel that led to the sewers. The place was also quite miserable to look at, the floor was littered with spruce needles, the walls were a dull stone grey, and the single lamp didn't provide much light. A Christmas tree would be great, but Tyranitar would propably just eat it, I found out. Food was an issue as well, sooner or later, we would hit a point where fecthing trees to eat wouldn't be sufficent. Manectric could feed on electricity, so he was fine, but Aggron was a problem. As a... steelivore(?), he ate iron, and was dependant on me finding bicycles thrown in the river, smashed-up shopping trolleys, and the occassional dumped household appliance for food. We had gone to a scrapyard and found a car once, it held for about two weeks. But now, three weeks had passed, and I hoped he had stayed in his Poké Ball all the time. It provided nutrition, the brochures stated, so he should be safe. I had considered digging this place a lot bigger, put in some greenhouse lamps and perhaps grow our own food down here, but that would require a few more Ground Pokémon and more electricity.
But there was also another reason why I was here. I checked the shelves for Poké Balls. As expected, Gardevoir and Salamence were missing, Emily had mentioned both of these. She had appearently also taken Umbreon with her, its ball was missing as well. Finally, I found Metagross' ball, and unleashed him.
"I heard from Emily that you had explained the situation to her", I said. "She seemed very convinced, so that story better be good. I think I owe you an apology, but to be sure, I want to hear why you went so hard on her father first"
Mom's iPod speakers were standing in a corner here, as usual. We had decided to keep them here, and as far as I knew, mom had completely forgotten them. They were not plugged into anything, but Metagross got sound in them nonetheless.
"We can begin where you forgot the game mechanics", his voice said. "You know about the Battle Palace in Hoenn?"
I nodded. "Where the Pokémon select their own moves for battle?"
"Yes. The Battle Palace is usually known for being the only place where trainers and Pokémon have no contact during the battle, but actually, you can play that way anywhere. A Pokémon can act without a trainer's orders if it's trained well enough. And what moves it choses, is dependant on its nature. You told me to 'stop' the policemen, but gave no further orders. At first, I disarmed them, as I thought would be the natural thing to do. After that, the two continued the battle, and you gave no further orders. So I kept on as well. The first guy was in shock, I went lightly on him. But the other one wanted to fight, you saw his tazer.
Here, we have to have a look at your battle strategy. You've always said, at least in the games, 'it isn't over until it's over'. You've never played with the opponent, always made sure to win, even when you had no chance of losing. Even when the opponent was struggling to stand upright, you still used your strongest move. So as the command you gave could be interpreted as 'win, no matter how', I took him down the most effective way, Hammer Arm. And you didn't protest."
"I was in shock!", I protested.
"One of the first things to learn if you want to be a good trainer: Never let anything put you off. It's the trainer's job to observe and make strategies. If the trainer doesn't give orders, the Pokémon will have to do everything themselves. Most battles are lost the moment the trainer gives up. When you have no control of the battle's flow, you have no control of the outcome. Or the other way around, if you want to control the outcome, you'll have to control the flow"
"I understand...", I said slowly. I appared to be as much my fault as Metagross', then. I called him back, checked the watch and went with Espeon to get Beedrill. We found him near the end of the tunnel, in a cocoon in a crack in the ravine. He was icy cold, and we couldn't wake him up, but according to Espeon, he was just hibernating, and would wake up after a while in his Poké Ball. Then we walked back home, and I spent the rest of the day preparing the hourse for Christmas.

Part 2 will follow shortly. Darn the word limit, it's actually far less than the announced 20 000 characters. This chapter is 19 600, and still won't fit.

Chapter twelve, part two

The next morning, Emily called. I had forgot that I had promised to call, but she had been busy anyways. She asked if she could come visit me, to return the Pokémon, meet my parents, and deliver a present.
"...see you at 12, then!", she said, and hung up.
12! Just one and a half hour... I had missed her, hadn't really talked to her since last month, not about the usual everyday stuff. But I'd be happy with a little more time as well, I hadn't mentioned her to mom and dad yet, and I didn't have any present for her. I had bought some for Matt, Edvard and Andy yesterday, and had thought about buying something for Emily too, but I had no clue about what to give her. As this was the day before Christmas Eve, the shops hadn't opened yet, and I was still clueless. I decided to give the present top priority. If Emily turned up unannounced, so be it, I could handle grumpy parents, but getting Emily angry again was one of the things I least wanted to happen. However, I still had no clue...

"Gift, eh?", Espeon said.
"Preferrably in half an hour or less", I answered. "Do you think I could give her..."
"This should do", Espeon said and found something in my bag. It was a small black case, about the size of a shoe. It looked like it was made out of plastic, but felt like some sort of stone to the touch.
"You haven't used it yet, and the case hasn't got many scratches either. I'd still wrap it up, though"
"What is it?"
"Open and see for yourself".
I did. The case contained a small glass flute, looking like it was carved out of amber. It was a transparent golden colour, and looked extremely frail. No wonder why I hadn't used it - it looked like it would break if I played it.
"A Yellow Flute", Espeon said. "Hand-blown from ash falling from Mt. Chimney. Its tune will cease confusion. You won't get a better gift in any shop in this city."
"Wow", I said. "But... if all the flutes are made from the same ash, how come they are in different colours, never mind the effect?"
"You see", Espeon said. "The glassblower will require 500 units of ash to make a flute. That's about two and a half kilogram. The flute itself only requires a kilogram. He'll keep the rest of it, usually making ornaments he can sell. The guy needs a living as well, you know. He'll also mix in some ingredients to make the colour, and the reel is made from Persim wood. Whether or not it adds to the effect, I don't know"
"I'm sure Emily will like it. I hope so, at least. Anyways, better get started wrapping", I said and ran upstairs, not even bothering to put Espeon back in her ball.

I had to ask mom to find the gift wrapping paper. I had never been any good at wrapping up things, this year, I had tried to be smart, and bought some fancy gift-bags, but typically enough, there was none left now.
"I thought you were done with the presents?", mom said. Typical. You ask a question, get an interrogation.
"I had forgot one", I said.
"Don't you have more bags?"
"No. And I don't have a lot of time, she'll..." Darn.
"I had waited for that one", mom said. "You know, I saw you that night you went to the cinema. I had to get something at the office, and drove past you on your way home. It didn't seem like you saw me. I think you make a nice couple, and was wondering when you'd introduce her"
I felt my face get red and hot. "Mom..."
"Bottom drawer, next to the fridge. Use the red paper, and don't forget a ribbon. You'll find tape in the drawer above"
Mums. You can always count on them.

Emily greeted me with a kiss on my cheek as she crossed the doorstep.
"Nice to see you again!", she beamed, acting like she hadn't seen me in weeks. She introduced herself to mom (dad wasn't home), and talked a lot more than she normally did.
"Here's your present. I hope you like it, I've travelled across the land, been searching far and wide to find it.", she said as we handed each other the Christmas presents. It was nice to be together with her under normal circumstances again, once again being able to talk freely to her. I think she, mom and me spent two full hours just sitting in the sofa, talking. Then mom had a few more errands to run, and had to go.
"So it's official, then?", I asked Emily as I heard mom drive close the door behind her.
"Unless I was just dreaming that you kissed me, I guess so", she giggled back.
"Not sure if it was more than a dream, myself, actually", I said.
"I have a witness, remember", Emily said. "Here, not sure which is Gardevoir's"
She handed me four Poké Balls.
"Four? I only missed three of them"
"Do you think you're the only one who can track down these? Gardevoir is fairly adept in finding things, and a Grass Type in the winter isn't that hard to catch up with", she said with a huge smile.
"But when...?"
"Thursday night. To get out of here unnoticed a little easier, we went under Gardevoir's invisibility bubble. We had walked a few hundred meters when we found this one sitting in a tree, freezing its tail off. So we simply went back and found its ball"
"Which one is it?"
"No idea. Looks like a green dinosaur. Septic-something"
"Sceptile", I said. "Thanks for finding it, I thought it would be a nightmare to track down. You didn't see it jump, did you?"
"It didn't look like it was in a jumpy mood. More like 'sitting-in-a-tree-looking-grumpy-and-waiting-for-spring'-mood"
We both laughed. And like that, the conversation went on...

"I'm happy", I thought as I lay in bed that night, and December 24th, Christmas Eve, was less than five minutes away. My stomach feeling had betrayed me before, trouble had always lurked around the next corner, but now, I was perfectly sure that it would take a lot more than game monsters to separate Emily and me again. OK, we might run into a few obstacles along the way, but I was sure we could handle everything now.
Together.

(End of chapter 12)

Last, a personal note. This would have been up yesterday, if I hadn't accidentally changed page without changing tab. I had to look up a word in the last paragraph, and everything was gone when I clikced "back". Thus, this is entirely rewritten from memory. From now on, I'll write this in Word before copypasting into the reply box.

Now well. We learn from mistakes, after all.

This story deserves more than an obscure internet forum. You should try to circulate it a bit.

My only criticism is the pacing-it seems like this is still the introduction, but we're in chapter 12. Try to make a main conflict clear, and have the main character actively work at resolving it. (I know that the main conflict is that the Pokemon need to be recaptured, but it's not...enough. You need an antagonist.)

Note: Just because I'm criticizing you doesn't mean I don't like the story; I love it. But from a critic's point of view, it should be better, with your awesome writing skills. Right now, I'd give it a 7.5-8/10 (Which is good-compare that score to, say, The Chronicles of Narnia.) Add that negative force, and the score would jump easily to an 8.5.

By the way, your character development on Rob is top-knotch, but perhaps you could do something to cause the Pokemon to develop more distinct personalities? They're all very similar-formal and emotionless. Just because they're Pokemon doesn't mean they can't show emotions-think of, for example, Meowth or Pikachu on the TV show.

Once again, I want to make sure you understand that I, myself, love the story, and I'm rooting for you. I just figured I'd try to be more helpful this time, by critiquing you. Don't you dare take it personally.

The shitty thing is this story deserves a place where more people come. But if you place it under Cobrarolls Submission, the thread will be removed.

I think Bingus is right with the things he says, but actually I wouldn't mind if this was just the introduction, because it means I can read more of this fantastic story :D

I'd give it a 9 ;)

 

I really like it, well done!

HEY COBRA! YOU HAVE 3 FANS NOW!

Just read the frst part of it and so far its really good.

4! ;D

All the people who read it, liked it a lot so kudos :D

Cobra, put this on a fan fiction site or better yet. When you have completed it, unless your are already done with it, tweak it some and send to a publisher or agent to let them take a look at it.

Woo! Many new readers! And constructive critisism! Thanks a lot! May I adress some of the things you said before I continue the story? I find your feedback very helpful.

First, what you said about the Pokémon being too formal. I have seen that too, but I found it a bit hard to cope with. You see, the Pokémon he's able to communicate with are all psychics. And I've always pictured those as being cold and calm, formal if you like, all the time. Metagross in particular looks and behaves quite seriously in canon, and I couldn't really make him any different here. Espeon as well, I tried making her a bit less "stiff", but again, she's a top trained Psychic type and not really very emotional. Also, they are used to Rob as a game character, compared to him, the real Rob knows very little about training, which the Pokémon see as a little helpless.
The other Pokémon can only speak a few words, this isn't really enough to describe their behaviour on. They are also a little limited in usability, partially because of this, so they don't get as much "screen-time" as the others.
See the Pokémon animé, for example. None of the main characters ever owned a Pokémon that was able to communicate with the humans. If any of them had one, if would completely overshadow the other Pokémon, or behave just like a human (Meowth). They managed it well with Lucario in the 8th movie, but in the long run, it would never work. The animé is dependant on the Pokémon not being able to communicate to make them interesting, but this story would have been hopeless to write without anyone to tell Rob what to do.

Then, the pacing/main problem. I have also seen this, but it's been kinda hard to come up with an antagonist. The Pokémon are strong and determined enough to take out any single person or secrecy leak quite easily, and a full leak would put the entire story to a turning point too early. And as for main problem, I hoped that the mass outbreak would do as main mission. For a while...
And as the entire story is told from Rob's point of view, it's hard to tell whether someone has found out or not...

And as for publicion (sp?), well, Pokémon are copyrighted, so I could never get it out in physical form without giving all the rights to Nintendo through an awefully complicated juridical process. And on fanfiction sites, there are lots of stories that are tens of times better than this, so this would be pretty average if I brought it to a story-dedicated place. I think it would be best if I kept it to NSM for now. Perhaps it will draw a few people here as well?

P.S.: Please tell me if you find any plot holes or similiar, dates not aligning, or contradicting statements. For example, I've found a few places where names are wrong, and am working to fix these. I guess getting the number of Pokémon right will be a pain later in the story, but other things may screw this up even worse, so I need your help to spot any mistakes before the story relies too heavily on them to be correct. Also, I have started writing this in Notepad, to have backup, but Notepad screws up line breaks big time. So if you see anything looking a bit awkward (line breaks in the middle of sentences, paragraphs split a sentence too early, etc.), tell me and I'll fix it. Contact me through PM or post it here.

P.P.S.: Is it OK if I reply to this topic from time to time without adding a new chapter? It's a bit easier that way, but it clogs up the topic more. Have your say!


Chapter thirteen: Red alert

Christmas Eve. That day when people without a family to celebrate with become painfully aware of just that. Both mom and dad were lone children, so was I. All my grandparents were dead as well, so it was just us three who sat in the living room eating the Christmas dinner. Again. It had started to become a tradition, but none of us really liked it, just being the three of us. But this year, we were all happy that I had woken up before Christmas, so the mood was a little lighter than normal.
As the carol CD mom had put on played over again for the third time, we all agreed that we had had enough food, and turned on the TV to see the usual Christmas programs. I might have seen it fifteen times already, but Dinner for One still made me crack up.
"Should I freeze the leftovers, or put them in the fridge for anyother day?", mom said from the kitchen.
"Fridge", I replied. When mom put something in the fridge "to have for dinner tomorrow", we usually found it covered in green fur six weeks later. Still, I didn't protest, as I had started bringing it down to the Pokémon. It wasn't a mouthful to everyone, but still better than whatever they ate inside the balls, and I felt that food should be my responsibility.
"I'll fix it tomorrow", I thought. Tonight was not a time to think about the Pokémon. We sat talking, watching TV and eating until around midnight, then, I went to sleep.

I found myself in a small, brightly lit chamber. It was featureless apart from a hatch in the ceiling, and a firmly locked door in the back wall, otherwise, most of the walls were a bright white. The chamber wasn't big, only two meters square, with one and a half meter under the ceiling. One of the walls was transparent like glass, but a lot harder and it hurt to touch it. On the other side of it, in a corridor filled with similiar cages, stood a man dressed in a black suit.
"A dream", I thought. "But a very lifelike one". Because of my previous experiences with dreams, I had read a bit on the subject and found out how to distinguish them from reality. In this case, I could move my arms, and I could feel my pillow if I concentrated hard enough, but nothing happened in the dream.
"Release me", a voice said. It was appearently I who spoke.
"Release you?", the man said, acting surprised. "Why? Your lot is the most interesting thing that has happened to our agency since... Tim, when did Bigfoot die again?" He turned away from the cage to hear the answer from someone out of sight, giving me a moment to rest and think. Agency. Of course, the man was the very stereotype of a Man In Black. Even the sunglasses and a gun in his belt.
"...since 1994. Now, tell me?"
"Release me", my voice repeated. "Release all of us. You will regret"
"The 'aliens' threatened with the same things in 1947", the man whispered. "They were from a highly developed race. But there were only three of them, and one was dead when we found them. Someone should have told the dreamer, saucers can't fly"
"I'm no alien"
"They weren't either. Like you, they were the result of someone's fantasy. And even if their civilisation had developed those powerful lasers... they had none with them"
"I don't need weapons", I said. The man started glowing blue, rising slightly from the floor. He reached for something in his pocket, and the entire dream started to flicker. He dropped down again.
"You don't like electricity, do you?", the man said, smiling. "Good"
"Who are you?", I asked.
"As if we're telling you that", the man snorted. "To you, we'll be your hosts for the rest of your life. To your dreamer... we're bad news"
"Dreamer?", I thought.
"That means you", a voice in my head said.
"Who are you?", I thought again. The image of the man disappeared, leaving me in complete darkness.
"At the moment, I'm your eyes and ears. I'm the one going through this. Right now"
"What kind of a workaholic works at this time of Christmas Eve?", I blurted out. Perhaps not the smartest question to ask, but it was the first thing I could think of.
"You may wonder. Something sounds fishy here. Him, and the entire agency, is kinda surreal"
"Who are you?", I repeated. "A Pokémon?"
"Correct", the voice said, clearer than before. I was now standing on a dark floor, surrounded by darkness in all directions. I could see my body as in bright daylight, but nothing illuminated the surroundings. And a few meters in front of me, something was floating in the air. This "something" could be described as a purple head wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a very torn dress. Actually, it was little else than a green or purple-ish hat with a head wearing it, and something that resembled a dress hung from the head. It had huge yellow eyes, a small mouth shaped like a W, and no nose. It was a bizarre, and quite eerie sight.
Mismagius.
"What happened?", I asked. "How did they catch you?"
"From behind, that's all I know", it said. "I was hiding in an abandoned building out in the forest, and suddenly, everything went black. Next thing I knew, I was in that cage"
"You're a ghost, can't you escape?"
"I suppose so", Mismagius replied. "But others are caught as well. I'll be of more use like this. I can tell you what's going on here, if only when you're dreaming"
"Others?"
"A few other Pokémon. No idea who. I can't get contact with them. But I know there's about a dozen of them"
I was in shock. It was hard enough to retrieve the Pokémon alone, but when someone else wanted them as well...
"I'll come get you. I promise. Keep me updated", I said.
"He has gone now", Mismagius said. "I couldn't get more out of him. I have nothing more to say now. Good night"
Everything went black.

The dream - or rather, vision - had really scared me, but next morning, I had other things to think about. It was Christmas Day after all. I rushed downstairs to find my presents. I got a few books from Matt and Andy, and a 50-kilogram sack of dry cat food from Edvard ("This was on sale. No idea what you may do with it, but you can join forces with Matt, Dave and Andy to find out. They have also gotten one. Because I'm like that", a letter taped to it wrote).
"Out of ninety Pokémon, at least one is bound to like this", I thought. Edvard hadn't bought me an as useless present as planned, then.
Mom and dad had bought me various clothes (too big), and a new mobile phone. And last, but certainly not least, the present from Emily. It was a rather large parcel, held together by strands of tape practically everywhere. The first thing I found when I opened the outer layer of paper, was a card saying: "That cave desperately needs a woman's touch". Smiling, I browsed through the rest of the items laying in a heap inside the wrapping: A series of framed photos, a large roll of duct tape, some cleaning eqipment, paint, and a small lamp. And at the bottom, a card with the text "We'll buy some more later, when I come over to help you". All in all a nice present, but I wondered what to tell mom I got from her. Now well, there was a time for every problem. Right now, I had something to tell someone.

"This place really needs expansion", was the first thing I managed to say. The cavern was chock-full of Pokémon, a few had to sit in the tunnels, the Eeveelutions were lying on the shelves, and I was sitting on the stool that I had had to put on the table to make room. Tyranitar, Aggron, Salamence and Metagross took most of the floor space, and the rest had to find room wherever it was.
"We know that", Espeon said. "This was the big announcement you had to make?"
"No", I said, then took a pause. "We've been discovered. Mismagius contacted me in my sleep tonight. About a dozen Pokémon have been caught by some unknown agency, and I don't think they have good intentions for us". There was a general noise of snarling and gasping from the crowd.
"Which means, we'll have to work quickly to find the rest of you before they do, and to find out as much as possible about them. There's no way I'm going to let the government take you away from me"
Everyone was silent, looking at me.
"Any questions?", I asked. Hitmonchan raised a gloved hand. "Yes?"
"Mon-mon-mon chan. Chan chan chan mon. Hit. Mon. Chan"
"Translate, someone", I sighed.
"He asks if you think they have discovered us here. If you have been marked, you may need bodyguards. And a good escape plan"
"I have thought about that. And I have no idea if they've found us or not. But my belt takes six Poké Balls, I have decided to keep a full team with me at all times. With a jacket on, no one will notice. And if they do..."
"Peeeeerrt", Swampert said.
"Who'll be with you?", Gardevoir translated.
"Depends on the situation. Someone who can fly, someone who can talk, a heavy fighter or two, and someone to deliver messages. Ideally"
"Taaarr", was Tyranitar's usual entry to the conversation. This time, it turned out to mean: "What about this place?"
"We need someone on guard, at all times. Given the amount of Dark types we have here, it shouldn't be a problem with an around-the-clock-system. We should also reinforce the entrances, but I guess that'll have to wait until we get hold of a good digger"
A low, humming tone. It was Umbreon.
"He asks about Emily", Gardevoir said. "Should we guard her as well?"
"I'll have to talk to her about it first", I said, noticing that the thought of the men in black abducting her made me shiver.
"But we have to act, and soon, if we want to be the ones getting to the Pokémon first. Who of you can travel undetected in broad daylight?" Umbreon and Sceptile raised a limb.
"Sceptile can search the forest, Umbreon can manage the sewer system", Espeon explained "Both are experts at traveling stealthly"
"Good, but I need you to travel in pairs. If one is detected, the other gets home. If you're convinced that you can take the fight, ambush", I said. "Beautifly, you go with Sceptile, Swampert, you pair up with Umbreon. Espeon and Gardevoir, have contact with them at all times. Do you all go well together?"
Nodding from the six I had adressed.
"Good. We'll start early mornings, and around dusk throughout the holiday. Short but intense periods, we need to avoid being out at the most crowded times, and you have to be back regulary, so that we know early if anything goes wrong. I'm sure we will find something. But not today. It's too late to start now, and I have other things to take care of this evening". I took a pause when I saw the disappointed looks of the search teams. I continued:
"So for now, it's hackertime. Metagross, find out everything you can about these folks. We know they have a physical HQ somewhere, and that they speak the language of this country. I've been told that telepathy adresses people's own speech center, so that the person being talked to always hear words in a language he knows. The guy replied to Mismagius in this language, so he's from here somewhere"
"Confirmed", Metagross said. "You've started to learn"
"Go through the government files first, start with the budget. They need contractors to supply materials for any evil lairs, and money to pay them, so check out for orders that seem suspiciously large for the scale of the assigned project. If you find any orders for a $1000 hammer, we've got them"
I had another look at the other Pokémon, who in turn stared back. Obviously, they hadn't much of a clue about what I was talking about. The air was starting to dense as well, so I took a pause to call them all back to their balls.
"And what if it isn't governmental?"
"Then start to look at architect companies. Someone has to draw the plans for an evil lair, or what? If that fails as well, money transactions. I'm sure you'll stumble across a lot of economic crime here, but keep looking anyways. Unless that artist who sings in the new candy commercial is involved, of course. Feel free to wreak havoc with him" Dang. Now that song would be on my mind for the rest of the week...
"I'll do my best", Metagross replied. "But it will take a lot of time"
"Take your time", I replied. "I may find out more tonight. But I have to go now. Breakfast"
"By the way", Metagross said behind me as I walked up the tunnel. "What are those 'other things you had to take care of' tonight?"
"Dinner with some of mom's friends", I said. "And they're boring as last week's 'What's on TV tonight'-magazine"
"Best of luck, then", Metagross chuckled.
"It's not like there's a lot to do down here either", I replied. Metagross shrugged.
"Unlimited Internet access, you know", he said. "I have plenty of entertainment thanks to your extensive piracy"
Laughing, with the image of Metagross searching PirateBay for movies in my head, I went upstairs to fulfill the rest of today's chores. Tomorrow, we would start being serious. Stereotypical secret agency or not, these guys had no idea about what was expecting them. And vice versa.

Short, but great. I can totally depict the cavern with all the Pokémon, which means it's well-written.
No strange things with line breaks or stuff.
And maybe it's for the best if this story stays within NSM indeed...

I am very glad you took my request for a bit of emotion into account, particularly with Metagross at the end. He's already a lot more likable.

The whole 'secret base' that Rob has going is very vivid, and really cool. One question, though: do you think you could occasionally give an approximate number of pokemon he's caught? I was unsure in that last scene there.

The dream with Mismagus was a bit hard to follow (it wasn't always clear who was talking). But the addition of antagonists is awesome! I'm happy you decided to do that. I'm thinking the Agency needs to have a Pokemon or two working for them. Heck, you could turn the Agency into Team Rocket or something and it would probably work really well.

There was a typo or two, but nothing major.

QuoteP.P.S.: Is it OK if I reply to this topic from time to time without adding a new chapter? It's a bit easier that way, but it clogs up the topic more. Have your say!

Of course it is! It's your thread, after all!

^Typo? Where? Tell me! (It sucks not to have a spellchecker, but a spellchecker in my browser would be a pain, due to the amount of "un-checked" words I write every day. Perhaps I should get OO3 to write in, after all)

And the captured Pokémon so far (in chronological order) is:
Tyranitar
Espeon
Metagross
Salamence
Cacturne
Aggron
Gardevoir
Beautifly
Manectric
Houndoom
Umbreon
Leafeon
Swampert
Hitmonchan
Beedrill
Sceptile

As far as I can remember. Adds up to 16 if my "counting at the same as I scroll the mousewheel"-skills don't fail me.
As for the agency, their intentions or organisation is still not revealed. I can tell you this much, they know that it's Pokémon they have to deal with, but I can't say much more. Until next chapter (read: somewhere next week if everything goes well).

P.S: I had some trouble posting this. Beware of double posts!

I went back and looked for the 2 typos, but I couldn't find them again. Sorry...if I come across them, I'll let you know.

Quote from: Cobraroll on May 21, 2009, 12:38:59 PMAnd the captured Pokémon so far (in chronological order) is:
Tyranitar
Espeon
Metagross
Salamence
Cacturne
Aggron
Gardevoir
Beautifly
Manectric
Houndoom
Umbreon
Leafeon
Swampert
Hitmonchan
Beedrill
Sceptile

As far as I can remember. Adds up to 16 if my "counting at the same as I scroll the mousewheel"-skills don't fail me.

I respect you can remember that.

Finally up to date on the chapters. Great so far!

I've read everything up to this post, and it flows pretty well as a story. Perhaps a few typos and strange vocabulary usages, but generally as a story it keeps the reader interested.
And I must say, I also used to always imagine what it would be like if all the Pokémon "escaped". xD Hehe...
Keep writing, it's a pretty good story. (: Also, it's pretty easy to get a spellchecker for your browser- or to paste each chapter into a spellcheck box or something... didn't Firefox used to have a dictionary built in? ...but not any more... ah...
(If you want some more constructive criticism please PM or something. xD But I won't nitpick your story right now, ehe.)

I would like to see a rebel uprising of Pokemon against the trainers personally.

Sorry for the delay, I have been kinda busy. But, excuses aside, here is

Chapter fourteen: Encounters

It was the following night, another dream. I was once again standing in the black void, with Mismagius before me. It was a weird experience, I was dreaming after all, and it felt like none of the laws of physics were applied to this dark space. Things always seemed to slip away in the corner of the eye. According to Mismagius, that was just dreams that I would have dreamed if I wasn't here. Just images of the mind flaring past, that he blocked to keep me focused on this.
"Any news?", I asked, noticing that my mouth didn't open. Sign number one of dreams, you can speak without opening your mouth.
"I found out who a couple of my fellow prisoners are", Mismagius replied. "I saw Infernape and Rotom as the people moved their cages past mine. Whether they just arrived or were simply moved, I don't know"
"How do they treat you?"
"Not bad. We get food, but also a solid burst of electricity if we try anything. You saw last night. They've also tried to test me, but I have refused. I didn't get any punishment, but I fear I won't be that lucky if I continue"
"Don't let them know anything. If they try to sedate you or anything, fight or flee. If they as much as think about trying to cut you open..."
"They won't do that with me, not that easily. I'll let the knife pass right through me"
"Others might not be that lucky", I said. "We don't know what they want with you, but I understand it's important to get the Pokémon before they do. We try to find out more, hack their systems or something. When we find out where you are, we'll come and get you"
"Good. We'll try to endure this in the meantime. If I manage to get into contact with anyone else, we'll make a plan"
"Be careful, though. Try to pull out time. The longer time we get, the better". Mismagius nodded, but didn't say anything.
"I'll let you dream on then", it said after a long pause. "If there isn't any more you want to say?"
"One question:", I said. "Do you think you - or any other of the Pokémon - could take out armed guards in a fight?"
"Depends", it answered slowly. "I think I could handle them well, mere bullets can't stop me. But if they have any other trick up their sleeve, I'm not that sure. And these folks seem to have very large sleeves"
"I see. Well, only fight if it's absolutely necessary, then. Good night"
Mismagius faded away, and the dream went seamlessly into another one...

The alarm clock ripped me out of my sleep at 7 AM. I hastily turned it off, got on some clothes, and went downstairs. It was still dark, with another hour and a half before sunrise. Good. I continued down the stairs to the basement, and got into the room with the hatch (we had simply changed the lock there now. It had seemed like a good idea to only let in someone who could unlock the door without a key, but that meant that I needed to have a Pokémon with me at all times). Once inside, I locked the door again, and went down the tunnel. It was icy cold here now, had to be a few negative degrees Celsius. Still warmer than outside, but we really needed to insulate this place better. I found the guard on night duty, Houndoom, curled up in a corner. Even as a fire type, he was freezing his tail off. I gave him a pat on the head, and scratched him behind the horns, before I got on to work. I picked six Poké Balls from the shelf, and called out the two search teams.
"Ready to run, everyone?"
"Ready when you are", Espeon answered.
"Good. Team one, Espeon, Sceptile and Beautifly. You'll take the forest. Here's a map of the route, it's basically to go one kilometre at the time, and alternate between turning left and right. You'll end up following a cloverleaf shape. Sceptile, you'll take care of the running, Beautifly, take the inner turns, so that Sceptile goes in arcs around you. Espeon, you'll run directly to the center of the search area, to stay within telepathy range at all times. If anyone notices anything unusual, you get back here, or tell us. If you find any Pokémon, take them back here immediately. Got it?"
The three of them nodded, and looked briefly at the map. I had drawn it last night, it was really just a basic run around a part of the forest.
"Team two, you'll get the dirty job. The sewer system. Follow the large pipes along this route (another map). You'll have to do Albert Street twice, but there are a lot of pipes running from there. Umbreon, you do the running, Swampert, follow behind, act as a ferry if you have to swim. Gardevoir, you go directly to the intersection between the High Park pipe and the Ironhill pipe. Again, return if you suspect danger or find anyone. I have a feeling that you may encounter a few Water- or Poison types there. Beware of maintenance workers, and please try to clean yourselves before coming back. Ready?"
More nods.
"Then off you go", I said. Sceptile, Espeon and Beautifly ran/flew into the darkness of the forest tunnel, while Umbreon, Swampert and Gardevoir headed for the sewers. After a few seconds, it was just me and Houndoom left down here. I sat there freezing for a few minutes, then started to walk back and forth to stay warm. Time went by quite slowly in solitude here, and Houndoom wasn't the best of company. He was very loyal, would do anything I asked him to, but couldn't speak, and was a watchdog on duty now, fully concentrated on his job. After another few minutes, I decided to call out Metagross, to see if he had found anything.
"Depends", the speakers said. "Not governmental or military, it seems. I haven't found many possible locations either, but when going by the elimination method, such things take time. On the bright side, I have seen quite a bit of surveillance camera footage, and have noted that no Pokémon have been caught on camera so far"
"You said 'not many possible locations'. Are there any?", I asked.
"A few, but they are all unlikely. Most notably the nuclear missile facility in Esta Mountain, near the border. Far away, not known to many people, deep underground, etc, but a few logistical problems"
"Nuclear? I didn't think this country had..."
"Not many knows, as I said. But as I also said, I think we can rule that one out, no one in their right state of mind would place nuclear warheads and hostile creatures in the same building"
"Any more places?"
"There's a submarine base deep under the sea a few kilometers off the coast here", Metagross continued. "But it's not very big, and built for sub-sea survival in case of emergency. You'd have trouble getting any Pokémon there as well, it's only accessible by small submarines.
Also, you have a nuclear bunker below the parliament building, but I seriously doubt we'd find anything there. So I guess it's privately owned, built in secrecy - which certainly means illegal - and with no Internet connection"
"But why?", I said, puzzled. "Without connection to the outside world, your command center won't be much effective. And I don't think anyone would build that sort of lair only to capture Pokémon. Or wait... the guy mentioned Bigfoot. And some aliens..." Something was very suspicious here, but I couldn't find any words yet.
"One more thing...", Metagross said after I had spent a few minutes of walking up and down the chamber, thinking. "You never told me there was made a Pokémon TV series!"

After what felt like an eternity, I heard some noise coming from the tunnel leading down to the sewers.
"Hello!", I shouted. Houndoom had gone off duty, now it was Manectric who was standing by my side, ready to bring down anything that wasn't welcome here.
"Peeert!", a croak echoed in the cavern. It was them. They were still somewhere down there in the darkness, but I could see a faint glow indicating that Gardevoir was coming up. I could also see Umbreon's glowing rings moving towards us. Suddenly, some black fluid began to seep from the crack in the wall.
"Wait! What did I say about clea-" The fluid started flooding the corner. Had they clogged a pipe? Was the chamber being filled with sewage? And why didn't it smell worse...
"Gah!" I jumped back as what looked like a pile of sludge squeezed through the crack. And as if the sludge wasn't disturbing enough, a pair of bright white eyes were staring at me from inside it. After a few seconds, it became clear that this was another Pokémon. t was huge, about two meters in diameter and more than a meter tall, appearently not being anything else than a heap of sludge with two eyes on. A crack opened in the heap, soon widening to a huge mouth. Sludge dripped from the upper jaw, joining in to the lower jaw. I couldn't see any windpipe down there, or any place for food to go, but this thing could appearently speak.
"Mmmoukh!", it said.
"Hello, Muk!", I said, slightly uncomfortable. I had just swept the floor, and now black sludge was everywhere! "Want to go back into your ball?"
"Muu!", it said, appearently nodding. It looked more like someone was inflating and deflating a balloon inside it. I hasted over to the ball bag and found its ball, a Great Ball.
"Return!", I said, and the sludge turned red, and vanished. Not a stain on the floor was left. Perhaps it wasn't that bad after all?
"Now, where did you find every mom's worst nightmare?", I said to Gardevoir.
"He was eating some stuff the paint factory was dumping", she answered. "Had been there ever since early November, sucking at that pipe"
OK. I usually felt responsible for bringing the Pokémon food, but if Muk ate toxic waste, he would have to go get it himself.
"Any news from team one?"
"It hasn't been an hour yet", I said, looking at the watch. "We haven't heard from them, they should be OK"

"OK", was true, for most of them, at least. Fifteen minutes late, they came back, Sceptile carrying a frozen Beautifly in his arms. It had been negative twenty out there, absolutely no fit temperature for butterflies. I rushed over to Sceptile, taking the poor bug from him, cradling her in my arms. Her wings were cold and stiff, and there was specks of frost on her body. I took of my sweater, wrapping her gently in it.
"Are you OK?", I asked the rest of them. Sceptile also seemed icy cold, and Espeon had snow in her fur.
"It's too cold in here", Espeon answered. "We need heat, now" The rest of the Pokémon nodded, agreeing.
"I'll see if I can find something", I said, and went up the tunnel. Our basement was filled with lots of old stuff, and after a few minutes, I found an electric heater. As I dragged the thing down the tunnel again, I could hear snarling from the cave. I left the heater, ran down, and was met by the sight of the Pokémon standing around the opening to the forest tunnel, peering into the darkness.
"What is it?", I asked.
"Something", Espeon replied. "There's something in there"
"We'll take no chances", I thought. Then shouted: "Manectric, use Thunder!"
The other Pokémon jumped back after the blast that lit up the entire cave for a second. Something that looked like a horizontal lightning darted into the tunnel, singing the walls around the entrance. After a second or so we heard a deep rumbling sound from the tunnel, indicating that we had hit something. I ran over to the shelves, finding Tyranitar's Poké Ball.
"You go in there", I said to him as I called him out. He went into the darkness of the tunnel and came back a minute later, carrying a small fainted body in his arms. At first, I thought it was a child. It was approximately one and a half meter tall, and black. It seemed to wear a red cap, grey from dust in places. Parts of the tunnel must have collapsed.
"Put him down. Espeon, go search for his pare-" I stopped. The claws on his fingers were certainly not human, and he had a short tail as well. His face was also a lot more feline than any human's.
"Weavile?"
"He must have followed us", Espeon said. "No wonder why we didn't see him, if there's any Pokémon that can travel undetected at night, it's this one"
"Yes!", I thought. Finally a decent searcher that could cope with the temperature. I turned to the shelves, picking a Revive from the depths of my Trainer Bag. We didn't have very many of them left now, I had to find a way to stock up on them. After reviving him and calling him back to his ball, I would have to deal with him later, I finally got the heater working. The Pokémon gathered around it, but I ordered them to save some space for Beautifly.
"Much better", Espeon said. "And all in all, this went quite well. Two new found. Now we're eighteen. twenty percent, if you want to put it that way"
"Seventy-two to go", I replied gloomily. "A dozen of which who have been captured by someone else. And a whole search team is down due to weather conditions"
"On the bright side, you can't get a better hunter than Weavile", Espeon said. "He can match Sceptile in terms of moving fast in the forest"
"That's a plus", I said, then looked at my watch. Half past eight already! I had to go, better be back in bed before mom and dad woke up. Saying goodbye, I went back upstairs, already dreading the next go, around eleven that night.

I went straight to sleep when I got up, and didn't get up again until 11. When I came downstairs for breakfast, I was greeted by a surprising sight: As usual, mom sat by the kitchen table, having her morningly cup of tea, but there was also someone else there. Emily.
"Good morning!", she said, smiling at me. "Up late?"
"Early bird gets the worm, you know", mom said. "She's been here for half an hour already"
"Second mouse gets the cheese", I replied. "Good morning, Emily!"
"Any news?", she said as we went to the living room to talk, well outside mom's hearing range.
"Good and bad", I replied. "To start with the bad ones, I've found out that someone else are hunting down Pokémon as well. I only have dreams to build evidence on, but if you think dreams are irrelevant, go down to the basement and give Tyranitar a kick"
"I see", she said slowly. "Governmental?"
"Maybe. We've hacked the government's systems, but found nothing".
We sat in silence for a few seconds.
"On the happy side, I found two more Pokémon today. Got up at seven to do an hour's search. I plan to go again tonight. What about you? What have you done the past days?"
Never ask a girl that question if you don't want to spend the next hour talking. Luckily, I really liked talking to Emily, we just sat there for almost two hours before I remembered that I hadn't eaten breakfast yet. It was already so long since Emily's breakfast that I decided to invite her to lunch in the cavern.
"You're back early", Metagross voice said as we entered the cave. "And nice to see you again, miss"
"You've taught it manners?", Emily said to me, acting surprised.
"You did", Metagross said and nodded towards Emily. "I may not understand human emotions, but your face after I..." This was interesting. Metagross not finishing a sentence?
"This whole affair could need help from a woman", Emily sighed. "Gray walls. Nice to see the paint bucket I bought here, though. The furniture, ever heard of sand paper? Poké Balls scattered on the shelves, the empty ones in a plastic bag? And the rest of this stuff... dumped in a corner. Well, at least you've got a heater down here"
We ate lunch/breakfast at the table. I only had one stool down here, so I had to sit on the floor, but that was okay. Emily kept looking around the room, grimacing at the dirt roof and uneven floor.
"Pen. Paper. We need make some plans to sort out this place", she suddenly said. I didn't bother to argue, and went up to the basement to fetch some. When I got back down, she was already busy measuring one of the walls.
"You need to expand here", she explained. "It'll be crammed if all the Pokémon are out at the same time"
"I've thought about that", I said, trying not to sound like a clueless idiot. "If, or when, I find a good digger, I think I'll go deeper. A few dozens of meters or so, then expand horizontally. It's too cold here, and there's a house on top of it, after all"
Emily took a few steps away from the wall she was measuring, turning towards me.
"It could work", she said. "But aesthetically, you'll make this the most depressing place on - or at least in - Earth"
"At least, it'll give you lots of walls to put pictures on", I said.
"Thinking about that, why aren't the ones I gave you on the wall already?"
Thinking fast, I came up with a proper excuse:
"I needed some help on where to put them"
We spent the next hour or so putting up Emily's pictures on the walls. Several times, we moved a picture a few centimetres to the left or right because Emily declared that "It doesn't really fit right there".
"What happened to the being of modesty who tried to invite me to that Halloween party?", I asked her after moving a picture a centimeter for the fifteenth time.
"Gone with the wind?", she smiled. "I don't know, actually. The past two months have been an emotional rollercoaster, maybe I'm just in a good period?" She turned silent, then sat down. "Before I met you... things were different. Easier, sort of. I only had school to worry about, and didn't want anything more either. Do my best at school, don't stick out, and get good grades without making a lot of hassle about it. But then... a lot of things has happened since October. Sometimes, I wonder if it is all a dream. All logic tell me that this-" she pointed at the cave in general "-is plain impossible. I still can't believe what happened to dad. Or that you... or anyone, for that matter... actually..." Emily had trouble finishing sentences in pressed situations. I couldn't even get them started. However much I wanted to say something to her, I couldn't.
"...and if it's all a dream... I don't know if I want to wake up or not. It would be the most logical thing, just wake up in late October again and go to school like normal, keep meeting friends, only have school to worry about, just be my old self... but lonely"
"It's not a dream", I said, finally managing to open my mouth.
"convince me", she answered, tears running down her face. "If it isn't, what is it then? Both you and I know that Pokémon is a Japanese phenomenon that started in the 90's some time. When you introduced this agency, I almost took it as evidence that this was my mind making fun of me. And even more unlikely..."
"What can be more unlikely than a band of agents trying to take your real-life Pokémon away from you?"
She just looked at me, saying nothing. I could see more tears in her eyes.
"Come on!", Espeons voice echoed in my head. In the corner of my eye, I could see her sitting on a shelf, looking at us. "What?", I thought. "Is it a riddle of some sort?"
"Boys..."
I heard a short scream from Emily, and we were suddenly suspended in mid-air, facing each other.
"Now get on with it!", Espeon said once again.
"What?" Something invisible slapped me across the face, and Espeons mightily irritated voice said:
"Just kiss her, you idiot"
"No time for that, I'm afraid", Metagross interrupted us. Still floating about a meter above the floor, we turned towards him.
"Oh yes there is", Emily said, irritated.
"Now, what was it you wanted to say?", she said a few seconds later. I was speechless still, Emily's kisses had that effect on me.
"I have found another Pokémon", Metagross said. "Near your school, Rob. Surveillance cam"
"Then let's go", I said, trying to reach the floor.
"The problem is, he's not alone. They have found him as well"

great edition to a great story. Keep it up!

 ;D Muk ;D

Awesomely awesome. Metagross is a great character.

I hope their's an intense battle between Rob and the other people capturing Pokemon.

Wow... This is great! If you get it published you might make a fortune :o

Quote from: triforced1 on June 01, 2009, 03:24:07 PMWow... This is great! If you get it published you might make a fortune :o

might? WILL :D

You would need Nintendo's approval first though.

No offense, but I don't think many people would read it if it were published. I myself always skip over the fan fiction at Barnes&Noble. Keep it online!  :D

^No problem Ingus, I have no intention of publishing this any time soon. It will be exclusive to NSM unless someone pirates it (if they do, tell me). Legally, it's best that it is like this too, as SFK pointed out. But enough faff. Onto:

Chapter fifteen: Blazing fury

"Now, when are we going?", Emily said as we were lowered to the floor. "And where?"
"Immediately", I said, picking equipments from the shelves. "But you have to go home, it's too dangerous to join me"
"You asked me to come with you last time"
"Last time, I thought it was just to go into a park and call the Pokémon back. This time, we're up against dedicated hunters who have managed to capture several Pokémon already. Here. Take Gardevoir and Umbreon, for protection". She didn't protest any more, just took the Poké Balls and stuffed them in her bag.
"I've been thinking", I continued. "I may not be able to beat them to the Pokémon if I just do this two hours every day. I want to go away for a few days, for dedicated hunting"
"Agreed, but there's no time to pack now", she said. "We'll have to give this top priority at the moment. I think I have a cover story for you in the meantime..."

"Mom?", I called into the living room a few minutes later. "Umm... we have a question..."
"My family is going away for a few days, and my parents wondered if Rob wanted to join us", Emily said. "We'll go over to me to plan some, we leave tonight. He'll have time to pack later today, but we have to go now"
"Okay, if you want to", mom said, a bit surprised. This was the first time I had ever been asked to come with a friend on vacation. "When will you be back?"
"That's one of the things we'll plan now"
"I meant tonight"
"Umm... about six o'clock", I said, hoping that the Pokémon capture would go smoothly.
"Six sharp, then", mom said, looking at me strictly.
"I'll try to", I said. We got our winter clothes on, and Emily and I walked down the street. As soon as we was out of vision range, we stopped. Ensuring that no one saw us, I released two of the six Pokémon I had brought with me; Espeon and Salamence.
"We'll have to fly", I said. "Espeon, get that bubble up, there's a car coming"
Emily squinted at the point where I was standing. She was outside the concealing range.
"I'm still here", I said and dragged her closer. To the outside world, it must have looked like she had vanished.
"Guess it's goodbye then", she said. "Unless you want me to come?"
"I'm afraid not", I said, patting Salamence on the head. "He can only hold one person at the time, and as I said, it's dangerous"
"Take this, at least", she said, taking her scarf off. "Makes you harder to identify". I started wrapping it around my head, like a ninja. It smelled just like Emily did, I noted. Emily found a safety pin in her bag, and fastened the scarf.
"When will I see you again?", she asked.
"If I'm not back by New Year's Eve, start looking for me. You know where to find the entrance to the cavern, but bring Gardevoir, I'll make it a lot harder to get into it. From there, gather a team and try to find me"
"Be careful", she said. Behind me, Salamence got up on its hind legs. Espeon was already lying in my backpack, maintaining the bubble.
"I'll try", I said. Two very strong claws locked around my waist, and lifted me a few centimetres off the ground.
"Don't do anything stupid", she continued. Why so overprotective?, I thought.
"Have you ever seen a movie?", Espeon's voice said in my head. "It's at this point that the hero usually announces something to the girl"
"By the way", I said to Emily, who had taken a few steps backwards. Salamence bent its knees.
"I just remembered that I have never said this to you", I continued. Deep breath.
"I lov-" Salamence kicked off. Half a second later, Emily was twenty metres below us, still looking at the spot where I had been. My field of vision was very limited by the scarf, but I could see her lower her head, and look at the ground as she walked away, towards home.

Ten minutes later, we stood on the roof of a factory a few hundred meters away from my makeshift school. The area was empty, everyone was home on holiday. Behind me, guarding my back, was Tyranitar, Salamence kept a lookout to the sides. Fitting all four of us into the invisibility bubble was a tight squeeze, but necessary. I held Espeon in my arms, and Weavile was already sneaking around, scouting for signs of the Pokémon, or the agency. So far, no sign of either.
Suddenly, a shadow moved to my left, and I turned. Weavile stood in the shade of a ventilator a few metres away, having got there without any of us noticing. He started murmuring as he walked towards us, Espeon translated rapidly.
"They are in a car park a block away. He's at gunpoint, but hasn't seen them yet. We have to hurry"
I called back Tyranitar, and put the ball in my belt as we ran across the roof. Salamence flew just above my head, ready to snap me up if we came to an obstacle. Too soon, we hit the edge of the roof, and I jumped into the air. Salamence caught me and carried me across, Espeon and Weavile took the six-meter leap with little effort. At the edge of the roof, we stopped.

The creature scavenging a trash container down there could have been a very big human. As in, mostly humanshape, but three meters tall. It looked like it was covered in red and orange fur, but closer inspection revealed that it was actually feathers. Its arms were skinny, but strong, and its most prominent trait was the long white feathers on the head. Blaziken.
There were few people in sight, but I could see someone on a rooftop a few hundred meters away, and a couple of black vans were parked in a side street. Ahh, stereotypical, I thought.
"Can you make contact with him, Espeon?", I whispered. As I saw more of the area, I could count six men on various rooftops, each with a long rifle. Hopefully, they were shooting with tranquillizers. We needed to take action soon, I bet there was another team ready with cages somewhere.
"Blaziken, Detect!", I shouted. In my head of course, I didn't feel like revealing my position now.
Blaziken nodded, and his eyes started to glow a bright white.
What happened next would have fit better in a Matrix movie than it did in this sleepy industrial area. The guys with the rifles opened fire. Tranquillizers, just as I had hoped. But Blaziken saw them come. He jumped up as the first dart flew past him, stretched out an arm letting the second pass right below his elbow, bent backwards as the third came, and so forth. Six darts were avoided like that within the space of a second. Then, he decided to fight back. With a kick that would have made any pro footballer nod in respect, he sent a fully loaded trash can flying up towards the nearest building. A sniper was hit, and sent flying across the roof. Blaziken bent down again, narrowly avoiding another dart from a guy who had reloaded, picked up a manhole cover, spun around and threw it like a Frisbee into a huge billboard mounted on a warehouse. Under normal circumstances, the sniper hiding behind it would have been decapitated by the iron dish, but due to the altered physical laws Blaziken operated with, he was merely flung off the building. Blaziken picked up and tossed another trash can, but didn't have time to aim properly, there were appearently more snipers around than we thought at first. The can missed by several meters, but shattered against a concrete wall, sending trash flying everywhere. Blaziken kept on jumping around like a possessed breakdancer, sometimes missing the darts by millimetres, but I saw that he couldn't keep it going for long. He was merely awaiting another command.
"Time to leave the arena, Blaziken!", I thought. Blaziken stopped, bent his knees (luckily, all the snipers were reloading), then leapt. And what a leap. I was unsure on how he did it, but a second later, he was more than fifty meters up in the air, jumping in a wide arc over the building I was standing on.
"Let's go!", I shouted, and Weavile darted after him. Espeon jumped into my backpack, and Salamence flew up, grabbing me. We heard the sound of engines been kicked in, and the whine of tires against road revealed that the agency was after him as well. As we flew over the abandoned factories, we could see him ahead of us, jumping from roof to roof with incredible leaps. Weavile was behind him, in theory a faster Pokémon, but he couldn't match Blaziken over long distances. Salamence increased the speed, and we closed in on the running duo.
"Hide!", I shouted to him, and Blaziken took a somersault towards a huge building a block away. He hit the window panes feet first, Salamence headbutted another window to shards a second later. We landed inside a huge factory hall. The old locomotive factory, a behemoth of bricks and concrete, of use to no one these days. Abandoned twenty years ago, and nowadays, it was just a huge manifestation of "eyesore". A wart on the city's face, as some politicians put it.
"Do you think they saw us?", I asked Espeon. With a low thump, Weavile landed behind me.
"I guess so", she answered gloomily. "At least, they'll see the windows"
"Tyranitar, Metagross, go", I said and let them out. "We can put up a fight against these folks, they didn't expect resistance"
Blaziken nodded, eager to fight.
"Metagross, jam whatever communications you can find within a radius of 200 meters. I don't care if it's radio, television, phones, radar... just block everything. If they call in reinforcements, this will get far too nasty. Espeon, you stay behind, maintaining the bubble. Thinking about it, everyone can stay behind, we can make this an ambush. Weavile, guard our back from up there, if they sneak around us, take them down. Metagross, Tyranitar, I want you hidden in the shadows, just try to stat boost and fire with maximum power if necessary. Just don't level the building, or use anything that can damage us as well. Salamence, you stay here for a quick escape... Blaziken, you'll act as bait"

About two minutes later, we could hear the sound of the factory doors being battered open. The building consisted of six halls, only two of which had exits to the outside. Luckily, we weren't in one of them. From where I lay, behind a rusty control panel that appearently controlled the ceiling cranes some years ago, I could hear the sound of vans being driven into the hall beside us. There were luckily no other ways into the hall, except for some doors leading to a small office section. Because of the lack of exits, this building couldn't be made into a museum, as originally planned, or into anything, for that matter. Fire regulations. Right now, I was unsure if I regarded this building as a trap or a fortress. Hard to tell.
"They are coming", Espeon whispered in my head. As if I needed to know that.
"Blaziken, Detect", I thought. In case they tried something, he would manage to avoid the first strike.
"Are there anyone in there?", a voice said from the next hall. The three meter tall doors opened with a creaky sound, and a couple of what looked like grenades was tossed in through the crack. One of them landed near Blaziken, who kicked it back. It flew into the door like a projectile, shattering like an egg, and making quite a dent in the metal. The contents of the small container hissed and sparked, but nothing more happened. Blaziken turned away from the other one, and Espeon dragged me backwards as it went off. Flasbang grenade, appearently, the entire hall was lit up. When I looked around the booth again, Blaziken had got up, unaffected, growling at the doors. They opened further, and half a dozen policemen (or at least people dressed like policemen) in bulletproof vests ran into the hall, all with guns pointing at Blaziken. Then the two black vans drove into the room, going in wide arcs around him.
He was surrounded. He turned slowly around, looking at each of the policemen, and the vans.
"Don't do anything stupid, these are top-trained men", a voice said. A man in a black suit stepped out of one of the vans. It was not the man I had seen in the dream, but he too looked like he was dragged out of a spy thriller. Even the headpiece, black sunglasses and a gun.
"Do you want to come with us voluntarily, or do we have to fight?", he said. "You're ours either way"
Two men in hazmat suits came out of the other van, carrying a large cage.
"Now?"
Blaziken roared, his voice echoed through the hall.
"OK, I'll show you who you're trying to mess with" The man in the suit walked towards Blaziken, who stood in a combat position. Suddenly, the man moved unnaturally fast, and gave Blaziken a roundhouse kick to the head. He followed up the combo by placing a solid fist in his chest, then tried to tip him over. Appearently, this was no normal man, no one could move that fast. He rolled around Blaziken, ready for another kick, when Blaziken's instincts kicked in. He ducked, the agent's foot passed a few centimetres above his head. Blaziken growled loudly, then punched him in the ribs. And again. He proceeded by juggling the man across the room, alternating between punches, headbutts and knee kicks. Each blow sent him flying for about a meter, before the next hit smashed him right to the floor. He didn't have time to hit the floor either, before another blow sent him flying again. Then the cycle repeated, Blaziken danced
after the man. I had seen people being beaten up quite badly before, but nothing as hard as what Blaziken did to the agent. Finally, after fifteen meters or so, Blaziken grabbed the man by the collar and lifted him up. For some reason, he was still conscious.
"Shoot it!", he bellowed to the puzzled policemen. Blaziken used the agent as a shield, letting him take all the darts that came flying, before tossing him about twenty metres into the nearest wall.
"Quick attack!", I thought. It looked like Blaziken disappeared, he went that fast. The second later, a policeman was flying across the room, Blaziken had slammed into him, shoulder first. He simply took the rifle from the next man, letting them all stare as he bent the weapon double. Then he roared. The policemen took several steps backwards.
"Don't run, cowards!", a voice said. The agent had got to his feet again, and was walking towards us, pulling darts from his chest. How much beating could that man take? He lifted his gun, pointing it at Blaziken. No kind words and tranquil darts now...
We were interrupted by a thumping sound behind us. I turned around, everyone in the room stared at the spot where the sound had come from. A man lay face-down on the floor, dressed like the policemen, with a long sniper rifle beside him. His clothes were ripped from his right shoulder, all the way down his back. A second later, another man fell down a few meters away. Everyone looked up, and Espeon and I walked around the booth to see better. We were concealed anyways.
On a windowsill, twenty-five meters above the floor, stood Weavile. Another sniper lay unconscious behind him, he had almost fallen out of the window we had entered through. Bulletproof vests or not, they were like paper to Weavile's claws.
"More of them!", the agent shouted. "Call reinforcements!" One of the hazmat guys with the cage ran towards one of the vans.
"Salamence, Dragon Pulse!", I shouted. Espeon only had contact with Blaziken, and there wasn't time to change that now. Who knew how fast these guys could communicate with each other? A bright orange energy ball flew from somewhere in the shadows, and hit the van. It behaved like a small cardboard box does when kicked. The van was tossed across the room, badly dented, and on fire. It rolled over a few times, before stopping a few meters away from the agent.
"Who shouted?", he roared. "There's someone here! Find him!"
The other Hazmat man held up a small device resembling a camera, and swept it in wide arcs around him. He stopped when it pointed at me.
"He's-" He couldn't finish the sentence. It looked like a landmine had gone off below him, the floor suddenly exploded and he was flung up in the air. "Earth Power", I thought. "Well done, Tyranitar"
"What the...", the agent exclaimed.
"Meteor Mash!", I bellowed as the first hazmat guy climbed into the other van. Metagross, appearently having used Agility all the time, leapt out from the shadows at incredible speeds, his right foreleg lifted, and smashed the van like a piano dropped on a watermelon. The entire floor was filled with cracks and debris, the walls shaked, and I found it difficult to stay upright for a second or so. The agent looked around, almost panicking.
"What... where..." He pointed the gun in random directions. While he turned his back to the Pokémon, staring at the room he had entered from, I called Weavile, Metagross, Blaziken and Tyranitar back, then released the sixth Pokémon I had taken with me. Salamence grabbed me again, Espeon leapt into my backpack. Ready for takeoff.
"Over here", I shouted. "Manectric, Discharge!"
A bright flash, sparks flew everywhere. The remaining policemen fell like bowling pins, the agent covered his eyes. I called Manectric back, and we took off, leaving it to the agent to clear up the mess. Appearently, the agency had a plan for such situations. If not, this was their problem.

A few hours later, I stood in the doorway, having said goodbye to mum and dad. As far as they knew, I would be going on holiday with Emily's family, and come back the day before New Year's Eve. As far as I knew, I would be lucky if I came back at all. I had only brought a small bag with me, aside from a pair of skis, just like one would expect from one who was going skiing in the mountains. What mum and
dad didn't know, was that the trainer bag lay inside the bigger one (The Poké Ball emblem would have given too much away), and that it was stuffed with equipment for about a month of trekking. I had no idea how that much equipment could fit in that small bag, but the most important was that it worked, not that I knew how. I had checked that I had everything I needed; a tent, a sleeping bag, food, dry clothes, some tools, first aid equipment, and a camping bed beside all the stuff the bag is filled with in the games, plus all the Poké Balls. For some reason, if I had less than six Poké Balls with me, they didn't use any space, but more than that, and they filled the bag as quickly as any other bag would have been filled. I had brought Emily's scarf as well, as a reminder of her. I felt a strong urge to go visit her before I left, but resisted it, it would just have been worse to say goodbye one more time.
The cave was firmly sealed as well, I had made Aggron and Tyranitar fill the tunnels with rocks, and Swampert had cemented it with mud later. When I came back, they could simply make the rocks vanish (Pokémon physics worked like that. If someone could make something appear, they could make it go away as well), but until then, the secret would be well hidden. I had even reconstructed the original hatch in the basement, a three meter thick wall now separated it from the tunnel, which was even more filled up further down.
As the sun set, I pulled my jacket tighter around me, and started walking up to the forest, the same route I had taken that fatal night in August. This had already been the weirdest year of my life by far, time to top it off. Squinting into the darkness for men in black or creatures from another world, I entered the forest, leaving the safety of civilization behind me.

Wow, that's sick.
Great chapter, lots of action. 'though I'm not a huge fan of action, this one was seriously good :D
Well done Cobra ;)

A great action filled edition. I'm lovin every paragraph.

A superhuman secret agent? Sounds suspiciously like a Mewtwo plot...
The action is very well written.

I caught a typo:

Quote"Are there anyone in there?", a voice said from the next hall.

GAH! It's been 10 days!

^I have a major exam tomorrow! Bear with me!

The next chapter will propably be up by Wednesday. I'm sorry for the delay.

Ah, no problem.

IT'S JUST THAT IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY!!

Good luck man, we're all Emergence-addict ::)

Quote from: SirIngusBingus on June 03, 2009, 03:48:52 PMA superhuman secret agent? Sounds suspiciously like a Mewtwo plot...

Or it's an agent from the Matrix. :P

That doesn't fit in here :P
But it seems like it.

I know it's been a long time, but I've had exams, as well as some idea issues. Hopefully, this chapter is good enough to be worth the wait. I'm afraid it may be even longer before the next one, if I don't get it up before I go to this year's scout camp. So enjoy this in the meantime!

Chapter sixteen: Dashing through the snow

It was around midnight that same day. I had put up the tent a few kilometres into the woods, far off from any path. It was a bit harder to put it up in knee-deep snow than I had anticipated, it had taken more than an hour before I got it up, and most of my clothes were wet. The tent seemed awfully big as well, about six by two and a half meter.
"Impossible to get it warm in here", I thought. I lay in my sleeping bag, on a camping bed, and couldn't sleep. It was icy cold, and very lonely. After turning over to the other side for the sixteenth time, I resigned, and found three Poké Balls in my bag.
"Espeon, Tyranitar, Metagross, go", I whispered. The three of them were enough to fill the tent, at least making it less lonely here. I just hoped that their claws wouldn't tear the fabric. Metagross immediately sunk thirty centimetres down in the snow, dragging with him the entire tent, put not penetrating the canvas. It appeared that Devon had thought of that scenario as well.
"It's freezing in here", Espeon said. "Didn't you bring the heater?"
"It weighs thirty kilograms and can't be compressed, I answered, while searching the bag for the iPod speakers. "I couldn't bring much that isn't... Pokémony?"
"I can see you're not used to sleep in tents at wintertime", Metagross said through the speakers.
"First, put your shoes under the sleeping bag, under your knees. That will keep them from freezing. Second, have all your items in your bag at all times. Third, you need to have something on your head when you sleep, or your ears will keep you awake all night"
"Do we have guards?", Espeon said. "Weavile loves forests at this time of the day and year. He'll be an excellent lookout, as long as you don't exhaust him during the day"
"I thought about it, but found out that I'd give him some rest, after what happened today", I said.
"Pfft, knocking out three men who didn't fight back is hardly worth a mention for a Weavile", Metagross snorted. "We'll let him out" A Poké Ball flew out of the bag, revolving slightly, as if awaiting my command.
"Weavile, go", I said. A second later, he stood before us.
"Would you mind having the night shift, Weavile?", I asked. He nodded, smiled (the sight of a smiling Weavile is slightly creepy, you normally can't see its teeth), and walked towards the entrance, trying to open the zipper. I sighed (those claws must be a proper pain sometimes), went out of the sleeping bag, and opened it for him. I really felt the cold outside as he jumped past me and up in a tree. It must have been negative twenty again. I hurried back to the bed, dragged on me a pair of woollen socks and a toque, then hasted down into the warmth of the bag.
"Are you comfortable?", Metagross asked. I nodded.
"Then we can talk"
"Talk?", I said, sitting up. "It's past midnight, it's been a long, hard day, and so will tomorrow be, and you want to talk?" Tyranitar growled at me. I understood that he was talking to me, but I couldn't understand what he said.
"Exactly", Metagross said. "We need to go through what we saw today, in order to be prepared for next time. If we lower the guard now, we'll lose before we even realise that the battle has started. A simple brainstorming session may change the entire outcome of this"
"Well then, first, who were those guys?", I asked, resigned.
"I know about as much as you do", Metagross answered. "But I'm positive that the guys with the guns were ordinary policemen. Maybe the special forces, but still ordinary men employed in the ordinary police forces. I'm not that sure about the Hazmat guys, they might have been people of the agency, but if so, just mere grunts. The agent, well you saw him"
"Yeah. But... how could he move that fast and take all that beating?"
"That's where I'm stuck as well. I can understand his stamina, Blaziken didn't hit him that hard, and the darts may have been faulty, but his speed really puzzles me"
"Could he be supernatural as well?", Espeon suggested. "I couldn't read his mind either, he blocked me"
"That's weird", Metagross said. "Normal people shouldn't be able to do that"
"I don't think it's normal people we're dealing with", I said. "One of the grunts had a scanner of sorts, I'm sure he saw us under the invisibility bubble"
Tyranitar nodded.
"Which means", I continued "That we can't really hide from them. Without the moment of surprise, we'll be done for"
"Don't forget that they are in the same situation", Espeon said. "You saw how easily we beat them today. We have the power to beat them down in direct confrontation, if they don't surprise us"
"Taarr", Tyranitar said.
"We need to act quickly and effectively", Metagross said. "Find the remaining Pokémon as soon as possible, then concentrate on freeing the rest"
"How are we going to do that? Sneak into a base we don't know where is, and walk out again the same way? If we, against all odds, managed that, they'd hunt us down, and not give up until they found us.", I protested.
"We don't know how many they are either", Espeon said. "If we're really lucky, there were only the three of them. If so, two thirds of the organisation is down counting now. However, I think they we met were just a simple operation group. They might be several hundred people, with a well-sized budget and maybe governmental contacts as well"
"It's too early to draw conclusions now", Metagross said after half a minute of silence. "It's time to sleep". Espeon jumped over to the bag and started dragging out red blankets from it. I had noticed that there were a few in the bag, but now how many or how big they were. She handed me one, took one herself, and gave Tyranitar and Metagross two each.
"Hope you don't mind in real life either...", she said, and jumped up in the small bed, lying like a cat beside my sleeping bag. Using her psychic powers, she arranged the blanket around herself, and helped me wrap mine around the sleeping bag. Metagross and Tyranitar had already laid down on the floor. Metagross looked like a tent or a clothed table with the blankets on, Tyranitar resembled a rock wrapped in red cloth.
"Aren't you going back to the Poké Balls?", I asked.
"Good luck heating this place alone", Metagross' tired voice sounded from the speakers. "Nope, we're staying here for the night. Good night"

It felt even colder the next morning, but at least it was bright and sunny outside. I got up before Espeon, and managed not to wake her up when I climbed out of the sleeping bag. Tyranitar and Metagross had gone out of the tent already, both were standing like statues on the outside, looking at the sunrise.
"Slept well?", I asked.
"Gross", Metagross answered. It could mean anything, but I took it as a "yes".
"Anyone want breakfast?", I answered. Tyranitar pointed at a stump standing where there had been a ten meter tree last night. I looked around trying to spot Weavile, and found him sitting on a branch eating pine cones. Appearently, the Pokémon had eaten already. I went back into the tent, found some canned cereal from the bag, and ate my breakfast in silence.
"What now?", I asked, trying to determine what sort of nuts they had used in the cereal.
"Eat, pack, action", Metagross' voice sounded from inside the tent. "I guess you could use the Poké Radar here now, but no point in that. The most effective way of doing this would be to fly, with Weavile as a scout on the ground. I think most of your Pokémon are somewhere in the forest, we just need to find them"
"That sounds like an easy task", I groaned. "Do you know how big this forest is? It goes all the way to the mountains in the west, there are no cities for several hundred kilometres in three directions here"
"Don't forget that you told them to wait for you", Metagross reminded me. "They won't go very far, they know that you will come and get them, eventually"
"Better get going then", I said and hurried to eat the rest of the cereal. Metagross showed me how to pack down the tent (it was really easy in broad daylight), and not long after, I was once again standing with only a small bag on my back.
"What do we do with the skis?", I said. I had agreed to search the forest by flying over it with the Poké Radar, but there were a few practical issues.
"I could have them on me, like a ski jumper, but I don't know how good the bindings are. I could perhaps attach the poles to my bag, but it would be a little awkward to fly like that"
Salamence, who stood beside me, nodded approvingly. Metagross looked like he was frowning (no facial muscles, no movable parts of the face, it was a tad hard to tell).
"I guess...", he said slowly "That we could leave them somewhere, but it's too risky. Weavile can't carry them, and you can't take them with you"
"Vile?", a voice said behind me. We all turned around. Weavile stood just a meter behind me (I swear, he was sitting on that branch just five seconds ago!), raising a clawed hand. He started to chatter (mostly repeating the word "Vile"), and Espeon's voice sounded in my head.
"He suggests burrowing them here, and pick them up later"
"Sure we can find them again later?", I asked. Weavile looked deeply insulted.
"A Weavile can leave a grain of sand in a desert and find it again two weeks later", Metagross said. "If we camp somewhere around here tonight as well, it won't be too hard to drop by and pick the skis up"
"Burrowing it is, then", I said. I watched in silence as Weavile dug a trench in the frozen ground with his bare claws, and expertly camouflaged the place with soil and snow. Two minutes later, it was impossible to tell that there lay something under the snow.
"Now, what are we waiting for?", I said. I called Metagross back, and managed to stuff Espeon in the backpack. I had also taped the Poké Radar to my arm, ready to use it once we got up in the air. Salamence grabbed me, and we kicked off. Time to track down some Pokémon.

Part two will follow shortly

Chapter sixteen, part two:

Two hours later, my fingers were almost frozen, and I couldn't feel my toes. We were flying about 100 metres above the treetops, scanning the forest for Pokémon. The Poké Radar was quite useless in this sort of searches, as it operated with bursts of signals that covered a limited area, then it had to be recharged. At first, I had thought we'd practically be wading in Pokémon, but the first search did not provide any results. So we flew over to a new area. The second search wasn't more fruitless than the first. Neither was the third. Nor the fourth.
"No signs of Pokémon here either", I thought as the screen remained blank after pressing the button once again.
"Twenty-sixth time is the charm, you know", Espeon said. "We have plenty of time, it's still only one o'clock"
I started turning the small swivel that charged the battery. "Easy for you to say, you have those blankets and no wind. Salamence and I have to endure the temperature out here"
"Salamence can fly like this all day, he loves it", Espeon said. "But tell me if you get too cold, we can take a break"
"One more go", I said. "We haven't been over there yet"
Salamence turned over and headed for the cliff I had pointed out. The forest was full of such cliffs, gigantic rocks that protruded from the otherwise quite flat forest, like giant city blocks built of rock and moss, scattered over the forest. This one wasn't particularly spectacular, only sixty or so metres tall and quite chunky. Most people headed for the larger cliffs on their daytrips, or the ones near the city. Which hopefully meant that we could find some Pokémon near this one. We flew up to it, and I pressed the button. To my great surprise, two white blinking dots turned up on the screen. One on the other side of the cliff, and one in a seemingly featureless area some hundred meters away.
"We'll land there", I thought, and pointed at the featureless area. We could easily find back to the cliff afterwards, but when the dot disappeared from the screen, we'd have a hard time finding this area again. Salamence flew straight above it, I thought he would be going down in spirals like he used to, but took a nose-dive instead. We plummeted to the ground, face first, then a few metres above the ground, he spread his wings again, slowing the descent. As usual, we got a soft landing, but my heart was still beating like a drum.
"Mence", he growled.
"Nothing like a good shock to get the blood circulation running", Espeon translated. I glared at Salamence, but noticed that I wasn't that cold any more. Adrenaline and a high heartbeat rate had done wonders.
"So..." the Pokémon should be around here somewhere?", I asked. The snow around here was smooth and spotless, not a single footprint or signs of activity since the winter's first snowfall.
"Nothing in the trees", Espeon said. "Could be a ghost"
"Or something floating. Weezing, perhaps Magnezone", I said, taking the Poké Radar off my wrist. The white glowing dot on the screen faded away.
"If it was a Weezing, these trees wouldn't have been here any more, simple as", Espeon said. "And trust me, you'd noticed it if Magnezone was nearby"
"Porygon Z?"
"That one doesn't like forests. If there's any on the loose, it's in the city somewhere"
"A ghost then", I sighed. "And they can be invisible, not?"
"Mence", I heard behind me. I turned around. Salamence was staring intently at a small hill a to our right. Between two frozen bushes, I could see a crack in the hillside, a meter or so wide. It kept going into the hill, like a cave.
"Something hibernating?", Espeon guessed.
"It's dark in there", I said, peering into the cave. "And it's deep. Silent as well"
"Wobbuffet or Dunsparce?", Espeon suggested. "Those thrive in darkness, and rarely leave their area"
"Cool. Easy match", I said. "Back in a minute, I'll go fetch it"
A little too confident, I squeezed in through the crack. The cave looked every bit as dark from the inside, and it didn't help that I blocked most of the light.
"Anyone in there?" A couple of meters away, near the end wall, something moved. It took a few seconds for me to realise that this was definitely not Wobbuffet or Dunsparce. It looked like the wall caved in, whatever it was did take up most of the space in here. I slowly backed away, one step at the time. the thing in the cave let loose a vicious roar, and I turned and ran. I darted out of the crack much
easier than I went in, and dived for the bag with all the Poké Balls. Salamence growled, charging up a Dragon Pulse to fry whatever emerged from the opening. Another snarl from the inside told me that the thing inside it was coming out. The first thing I saw, was a pair of massive, brown hairy arms, with sharp claws on the fingers. Then, a large head appeared in the opening. It looked a bit like a bear's head, but at the same time, it didn't resemble a real bear at all. To put it this way, if a theme park had had a cartoon bear as its mascot, the guy who walked around in the park scaring kids would have had a costume looking just like this, maybe except from the yellow ring on its belly.
"Ursaring" I whispered. It looked like it had lost its temper now, and walked slowly towards me. It stopped three or four meters away, as if awaiting a command.
"Ursaring, back!", I shouted. "Gah, that roar shocked me"
"Proof that it works", Espeon answered. "Roar is meant to scare the opponent away, anything that can hear will be scared by that. During our travels, I have seen several Nidoking running away from roaring Vulpix. Pure instinct, and quite annoying afterwards"
"Well, I'm anything but annoyed. I was a meter away from a huge bear, and I think that being scared was a perfectly sensible reaction to that roar", I said.
"After a while, you learn that it's nothing to fear. After that, it just becomes annoying when you realise you've ran away from an opponent ten times weaker than you"
"Speaking of running, we have no time to lose", I said. "Another Pokémon awaits! Get back in the bag, Espeon. Salamence, you get us up in the air again"
Salamence walked behind me, got up on its hind legs, grabbed me, and kicked off. As usual, it felt like my stomach was left on the ground after the initial tug. We headed for the cliff again, almost skimming the treetops, no need to go high up now.
"We should be able to find the Pokémon quite quickly", Espeon said. "Just go down on the other side, we'll walk from there"
Salamence put me down at the foot of the cliff, I let Espeon out of the bag, and we waded through the snow. I didn't bother to charge the Poké Radar again, the Pokémon should be easy to find. We had to climb a small hill, then we should get a good view over a small valley I had seen here on a map.
"Oh no", Espeon said. She was the first one to come up.
"What?", I said, and dragged myself up the last bit by a frozen three. "Oh no"
The valley wasn't more than 30 or so meters wide, and only a few meters deep, but left quite an

impression. The trees were scorched, all the snow here was melted, the bottom of the valley was just a puddle of black water. Smoke was still drifting from tree stumps, something had happened here not too long ago.
"What has happened?", I asked no one in particular. I walked down towards the center of the valley, passing burnt trees on the way.
"Look", Espeon said, and I turned towards her. I didn't see where I was going, stumbled, and fell. I landed face first in a puddle of soot-stained water. A couple of seconds later, I got up, and saw what I had stumbled over.
"Wah!" I jumped backwards. It was, or had at least once been, a person. He was lying spread eagle in the snow, completely toasted. I couldn't even recognise any facial features, he was black as coal all over. Lying besides him, I could see a partially melted rifle.
"Is he... dead?", I asked, my heart clapping. Espeon walked up to him and lay a paw on his chest.
"He's breathing, I think", she said. With her tiny claws, she ripped open a bit of the black soot that covered him from head to toe. Underneath it, I could see pink skin, looking a bit sore, but okay, as if the scorched cover only had been a shell.
"Hazmat suit", she said, and removed the remains of it from the man's face. He looked all fine underneath it, as if he was sleeping. I could hear his breath. He looked like he was in his mid twenties, with short brown hair and a small moustache.
"That reminds me of something...", I said, unnerved.
"Look over there", Espeon said. I turned around. Some twenty metres away, a large snowcat was tipped over, and completely burnt out. I could count four or five burnt men lying around it. As I walked up to it, I saw another one a few metres away, it had been stopped when it drove up the hill we came down. Half of it was missing, the other half looked nearly melted, like a candle that has burnt for a few hours. It looked like it had been caught as it drove away from the scene. Shrapnel and bodies lay scattered around that one as well.
"The agency", I whispered. "They have been here"
"I count eighteen people", Espeon said. "Weavile is on his way. He can help us finding out what happened"
I inspected the snowcat closer. It was armoured, the back half was separated from the rest by a thick metal wall. There were (once) six seats in the front half, and some boxes whose content was burned to singes. I could see fried electric circuits in one corner of the cabin, but it was impossible to see what they were once connected to. It oozed of burnt plastic, and was still hot to touch.
"What do you think happened?", I asked Espeon.
"I think whatever Pokémon - presumably a fire type - resided here, got attacked by the agency. Because of the burns, I'd say it happened less than an hour ago", she answered. "And that the attack went really bad"
"Any signs of an agent?"
"Weavile", a voice said just outside the snowcat. I startled, and jumped out of it. Weavile was sitting on its roof, pointing a clawed hand towards the puddle in the bottom of the valley. Upon closer inspection, we found a body in it, lying under a thin cover of ice. Unlike the rest of the people, who all had had full-body suits, this man was wearing a military camouflage outfit, but no headwear. His hair was still intact, but his eyebrows were burnt off. He had lay in the middle of the puddle, completely submerged, so there was no sign of burns on his skin. Espeon lifted him out.
"So they can be defeated", I said. "We can knock them out after all"
"He must have been hit pretty hard", Espeon said. "His bulletproof vest has melted, that requires quite a temperature"
"His legs", I said. "His trousers aren't burned, he must have been hit in the chest or the face. Weavile, search his pockets, we might find something useful"
As Weavile did so, I took a closer look at his face. For some reason, I couldn't remember what the agent from yesterday looked like, but I was sure this was not him. Like the other one, he had no distinct features, he was the sort of man you forgot while you looked at him.
"Vile!" Weavile held up a small card, just like the police shows to the convicts in the movies. It had appearently been tucked down his boot. I took the card, and looked at it. It was made of stiff plastic, waterproof in other words, and looked official. The emblem on its backside was an ellipsis with five short lines sticking out under it, spaced evenly along the bottom half of the ellipsis. The letters TLA were written underneath the emblem.
"TLA?", I said and turned the card. It had the agent's picture on the front side, and some indecipherable text.
"Lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet?", I said. "What does that mean?"
"I don't know, perhaps Metagross does", she answered.
"It looks oddly familiar", I said, and put the card in my pocket. I could look it up later.
"Vile!", Weavile said. In the mud, a few metres away, was a footprint. It was round, about the size of a dinner plate, with three long claws. The claws were pressed deeper down in the frozen mud than the heel, as if the owner of the foot had been standing on its toes.
"The frozen mud must have melted in the apparent firestorm in here", I said. "And frozen over just after this was made"
"Charizard", Espeon said. "No other Fire Pokémon have a footprint like that. Well, perhaps Magmar, but then the mud would have been black and singed, and we'd have far less whole trees around here"
"It must have flown off then", I said, looking at the sky. "Who wouldn't, the agency may send..." I stopped.
"Agreed. Let's get away", Espeon said. "We won't get much more out of this place anyway"

Not wasting time in case the agency had sent reinforcements, we walked back to the cliff, to find an open area for takeoff. I was icy cold now, my clothes were wet and heavy. I had presumable been frozen all day, but it was first now that the adrenaline rush disappared that I started to feel it.
"I'm freezing", I told Espeon as we searched the bag for Salamence's Poké Ball.
"We must put up the tent again, but not here. If more agents arrive, we're doomed", she answered. I released Salamence from its ball. No need for commands (my teeth were chattering too much anyways), he stood up and picked me up once I had got the backpack back on. As we flew over the forest, it felt like we were swimming through a block of ice, I was that cold. Espeon didn't bother to ask me for directions, she let Salamence decide where to land. Some time later (Minutes? Seconds? Hours?), he dropped me down, and I fell face first into the snow.
"Rob?", I heard Espeon say. She leapt out of the backpack, and dragged me up. I tried to stand, but collapsed again. I couldn't feel my legs.
"Metagross... go...", I whispered. Espeon dragged me back up again.
"Get the tent up, and..."
Metagross didn't waste any time. Using his own psychic powers, he dragged the tent out of the bag. It was halfway erected already when it hit the ground. Espeon held me suspended in the air, but had to let me go to put up an invisibility bubble. I couldn't move my arms or legs, and I didn't feel the cold any more. As far as I knew, that was seriously bad news.
"Oh no...", Espeon said again. Then I blacked out.
Next thing I knew, was that something was forced into my mouth.
"Eat", Espeon's voice said. "Hurry".
I took a bit of the object, which felt like a nut at first, it had hard, rough skin. Then I noticed the juicy inside, and how sour it was. I almost bent over double where I lay, taking my hands to the mouth to take out the object.
"Swallow!", Metagross' voice shouted from somewhere down the bag. I noticed that I lay in my sleeping bag inside the tent, wearing only my boxer shorts.
"Whassisish?", I said.
"An Aspear Berry", Espeon answered. "Cures freezing. But don't eat too many of them, the juice is closely related to alcohol"
"Awwonth", I said, swallowing. "I won't. Too sour"
"Each one to their taste", Espeon said. "but you feel better now, right?"
"Yeah, I can feel my limbs again", I said. "They're aching"
"Oh, you'll be better tomorrow, we'll take care of that", Metagross said. "We have things to discuss, but that can wait until tonight"
"Why not now?"
"Because", Espeon said. I looked at her. "You need rest. Time to sleep"
The last thing I noticed was that her eyes glowed brightly blue. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Nice one Cobra, and I love Latin expressions.
Can I tell the people what Lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet means?

^If you want to, please do. The important question is "why does it say that?", not "what does it say?".

By the way, I didn't think Lorem Ipsum was proper latin, I thought it was cropped words from a regional Italian dialect, from medieval times.

It isn't proper Latin, but it's a saying from Cicero in his book De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (which I have to read next year for my finals...)

"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit" (My translation: no one loves pain, nor looks for it nor wants it, simply because it's pain).
If you omit the do in dolorem and some words, you get dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet.

Well this isn't about pain, but it's an odd thing. It's being used by publishers to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document. They use something no one can understand, so you don't get distracted by the text itself, and you have to focus at the font, size etc. So it's used as a test how the design looks like.

Clear?

I finally read it. Veeeerry interesting at the ending. Not quite as groundbreaking as some of the other chapters, but the way you introduce something new each chapter makes your story quite the page turner, erm, page-scroller.

Just had the chance to read the latest chapter. Fairly good. Not the most exciting one yet but this is probably going to build up to something awsome.

^Yeah, I know, not that exciting, but I sort of ran out of ideas. But don't worry, I'm fairly happy how this chapter turned out, and I have ideas for the next one as well.

^^Thanks! You also reminded me of something I should have done chapters ago:
Warning: The author is not responsible if your scroller wheel goes bust reading this.
There! Thanks!

^^^Thanks for the explanation, I'll try to see if I can use it somehow...

And please welcome:

Chapter 17: Pacing up

It was dark when I woke up. There were no one in the tent, but I could hear someone outside. I had a brief look at my mobile phone that lay beside me. 1:23 AM, December 29. I had slept for ten hours or so, didn't remember what the time was when I fell asleep. Still a bit achy in the limbs, I climbed out of the sleeping bag and got on a dry set of clothes. Where were the others? We hadn't had time to find a particularly hidden spot earlier, maybe TLA had found us? Did they stand just outside the tent now, forcing the Pokémon into cages, ready to ambush me? Taking a deep breath, and with Aggron's Poké Ball in my hand, I opened the zipper and went out. If anyone was here to bully, I'd like them to have a word with the Iron Armor Pokémon first.

I hadn't really prepared for the sight that met me, but then again, no reason to. Espeon, Tyranitar, Metagross, Houndoom and Salamence stood outside, their backs to the tent, looking at the full moon that lit up the forest.
"Why are you out here?", I said. "Why aren't you asleep?"
"Listen", Espeon said. I listened. Nothing.
"I think it's gone", Metagross' voice sounded from the backpack inside the tent.
"Tar", Tyranitar objected. I listened again. A faint howl, like the wind far away.
"It's just the wind", I said. Then, the howl, or a very similar one, sounded again. Much stronger and seemingly closer this time. It was a wild, spine-chilling scream in the night, like the wolf screams in horror movies.
"What's that?", I asked. "Has to be a Pokémon, no animal howls like that. Metagross, what Pokémon howl to the full moon?"
"Houndoom", he said. But he sits here, and has been silent for minutes now"
"Any others?"
"Umbreon and Mightyena are both known to be active during the full moon. Lunatone as well, but Lunatone don't make sounds like that"
"I have checked, no Mightyena escaped, and Umbreon is supposed to be with Emily", I said. "Ursaring? Doesn't the pattern on its belly symbolize the full moon?"
"Listen", Espeon said. "Does that resemble the roar you heard earlier? Whatever this is, this is no Pokémon, I'm afraid"
"Which leaves us with quite few alternatives", Metagross sighed.
"Could it be wolves?", I said. "There are wolves in the forest here"
"This is a deeper sound, I looked it up", Metagross said. The howl sounded again, in the distance. A second later, it was answered by several others, luckily all from the same direction. Then, another sound. A piercing scream, like an eagle's, only wilder. And it sounded furious.
"Now, what was that?"
"That could be a Pokémon, on the other hand", Metagross said. "Notice the difference?", he added dryly.
"No need for lessons now", I said. "Houndoom, and Weavile - I know you're around here somewhere - go check that out. If that's a Pokémon, it needs our help. If anything threatens you, take it down or call in reinforcements. Go!"
Suddenly I felt something heavy land on my shoulders, and panicked for a second, before the thing leapt further and into the darkness. Apparently, Weavile had been standing right behind me, and had used me as a spring board. The eagle scream sounded again.
"Tar..."
"What does he say?", I said to Espeon. Tyranitar kept speaking, with his gaze fixed to a spot a few hundred meters away. Even though the moon shone brightly tonight, I couldn't see anything unusual there.
"He saw something", Espeon said. "But has a too bad eyesight to tell what. It was a change in the shadows, at least. Right by a cluster of tall pine trees, he said"
"I can see them, barely, but it's all dark there"
"No, something is moving there. Again, according to him"
I peered towards the cluster of trees. It was just a small hill with pines on, didn't look anything unusual, at least not at a distance of half a kilometer. Still, I could hear faint sounds from there, grunts and sneering.
"Weavile and Houndoom should be there any moment", I said. "Let's hope it isn't TLA"
"TLA?", Metagross asked.
"We found the name of the agency", I said. "Forgot to tell you, but we'll take that later"
A new sound was heard from the cluster of trees. A flapping sound, like someone was closing and opening an umbrella very fast. Quickly after, the sound was deafened in the roar of wind through trees. Suddenly, we had a strong breeze around us, making it even colder.
"This is nothing compared to what they have over there", Metagross' voice shouted. "If this is what I think it is, there's a hurricane blowing there now"
I could hear trees splintering in the wind now. Snow was whipped up around us, making it hard to see and hear. Trees swayed, cones and needles rained all over the area. Then, it suddenly stopped. Everything fell silent again.
"Now what?"
"We wait", Espeon said. "Houndoom and Weavile should be there now. If they need help, get ready to run. If not, they'll be back any moment"
Luckily, it was the latter. Houndoom came running out of the woods a little later, with Weavile following closely behind. And flying silently over the woods, was another Pokémon trailing them. It was a huge, brown bird. Huge. It had a wingspan of about six metres, its feet were half a meter long and clawed, and it had almost two meter long, red feathers on its head, like a long hair. Its beak looked razor-sharp and was bigger than my head. It looked large enough to crack open a coconut with a single bite. It landed on a branch above us, and folded its wings together. Like a hawk monitoring its prey, Pidgeot stared down at me. Even if I had stood on the same branch, it would have been taller than me.
"Espeon, translate", I said. "Pidgeot, what was those howling things?"
"Chott!", the answer came.
"Something", Espeon translated.
"You didn't see it properly?"
Pidgeot shook its head.
"Did you?", I asked Weavile and Houndoom. Weavile answered something Espeon translated to "Everything was blown away and there was no one there when we met her"
"I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later", Metagross said "One way or another"
"Everything's quiet now", Espeon said. "Let's go inside and sum up the day"

"...so all in all, that's what we did. As well as almost freezing my arms off", I concluded ten minutes later. We had filled the tent with Pokémon again, but this time, Metagross sat just outside it, he didn't mind the cold and had an invisibility bubble to maintain. This opened up a lot of space, and I had crammed as many Pokémon in here as possible, starting with the smallest ones, excluding those that smelled or couldn't handle the cold.
"We don't know much more about the TLA, other than that they have - or had - snowcats as well. And that they count more than the three we met yesterday"
"And that a Charizard is able of knocking out an entire team of twenty people single-handedly", Espeon added cheerfully.
"I'd be worried", Metagross grunted. "Last time, they sent an agent and two grunts, assisted by a police team. Now, they sent twenty, and no civilians. They are being more careful, and probably they won't regard us as easy pickings any more. They will be prepared to fight back, and fight hard, next time"
"So we have to hurry even more?", I asked the set of iPod speakers.
"Of course. Luckily, you found a bird of prey tonight. Let her rest for now, send her and Espeon out tomorrow. Espeon will provide invisibility, while Pidgeot searches the forest. If there's anything larger than a beetle moving in this forest, Pidgeot will spot it"
"Sounds like a good idea. But what about the Poké Radar?"
"It won't work half as good as Pidgeot will. But if you want another near-death-from-freezing experience, I won't stop you"
"Any more questions?", I asked everyone in general. No answer. "Okay. Go get a blanket in the stack over there, or return to your balls. Good night, then". The Pokémon went for the stack of blankets, or the small heap of Poké Balls that lay in a bag in the corner. I searched my own bag for the remote control to the lamp (everyone who has been in a tent where it's below zero degrees, and you're lying in a warm sleeping bag, know that you'll do anything to avoid going out of it again). On top of the small remote, I found the contents of my trouser pockets neatly stacked. Amongst it, the TLA agent's card.
"By the way, Metagross...", I said. "What does 'Lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet' mean? It looks Latin"
"It isn't proper Latin, but it's a saying from a certain Cicero in his book, 'De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum'", Metagross answered. "Incredible what you can find on the Net, or what? Anyway, the full text goes: 'Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit'. My translation would be something along the lines of 'no one loves pain, nor looks for it nor wants it, simply because it's pain'. If you omit the do in dolorem and some words, you get 'dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet'."
"What does that have to do with people chasing Pokémon?"
"Well this isn't about pain, but it's an odd thing. It's being used by publishers to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document. They use something no one can understand, so you don't get distracted by the text itself, and you have to focus at the font, size etc. So it's used as a test how the design looks like. Clear?"
"I think so. Filler text, in other words? Just nonsense?"
"In short, yes. But I don't know why they put it there. Perhaps it's a motto to them?"
"Better sleep on it. Goodnight, then!"

The next day turned out a lot more fruitful than the previous one. Pidgeot and Espeon searched the forest from above, while Houndoom and Weavile ran around searching caves and dense vegetation. As Espeon was the only Pokémon I had that could provide invisibility and fly with me, we could only have one "flyer" in the air at a time. However, while Salamence could fly at about 400 km/h with me in his
claws, Pidgeot easily managed Mach 1.5 with Espeon, so we could cover a much larger area in a shorter timespan. While the two of them were out flying, I sat in the tent with Metagross, who communicated with them. Occasionally, they would report that nothing was in sight, but as the day went, we got a few hits. Then, the duo would fly back here, and I took Espeon and flew with Salamence back to the spot, picked up the Pokémon, and got back. Longest time spent on this was half an hour, but only because Venusaur was quite hard to distinguish from the rest of the vegetation when he was burrowed in snow. The other Pokémon we found all came without problems.
The clock showed ten minutes to nine PM when we got what I decided would be the last call of the day.
"Nearer the city. Confirmed hit", Metagross suddenly said. "They are on their way back"
"What Pokémon?", I asked
"It's dark outside, but they say it was big, and white or pink", he answered. "Guess yourself"
I picked up Salamence's Poké Ball, got dressed, and put my boots on. Well outside, I waited. A minute or so later, I heard a thump to my left, and a huge bird and a psychic rodent apparently materialised from thin air.
"Go get some rest now, Pidgeot, we'll call this a day", I said. Espeon got into my backpack, I released Salamence, and a minute later, we were on our way, flying over the forest.
"Over there", Espeon said. I groaned. A lit-up ski trail, which certainly meant that people were nearby.
"Put me down here", I ordered Salamence. In its usual sense of humour, it dropped me four meters down into a pile of snow. I got up, called him back, and sent Espeon up in a tree to scout for skiers. After crawling out of the pile, I activated the Poké Radar. Usually, I had found the Pokémon after a few minutes of walking around the landing spot, but I wanted to be done with this as soon as possible. On its small screen, a white dot appeared almost in the center. The Pokémon was very close, in other words.
"Skiers", Espeon suddenly hissed. I turned around, and heard voices around the bend. I didn't have time to hide before a group of people were all around me.
"Look who's here!", a voice said. I groaned.
"Isn't it Robbie? Got lost, have you?"
Of all persons who are out skiing in the evenings, why did it have to be about ten people from my class I encountered? I knew a fair few of them were excellent skiers, and that they trained as often as they could, but why here and now?
"The city is that way", a girl said and pointed in the exact opposite direction of the city. "Start walking now, and you may get home before mommy starts to worry"
"He's forgotten his skis!", someone laughed. "Jerk!"
"Listen...", I said, trying not to panic. "You better get going. I'm here for a reason, and for that same reason, you better put as much distance between here and yourself as possible"
"Out playing with Pokémon again, are you? Afraid that someone will discover you?"
"Just run", I said calmly. Someone started poking me with their ski poles. I sighed. "OK, stay. Fine for me, they'll find you when spring comes"
"What?"
We were interrupted by a splintering sound, and the ski trail suddenly became all dark. I turned around, and could see the shadow of something tearing down the nearest light pole, snapping the power cables. It was only a few metres away from me, and even closer to some of the others. They apparently saw it as well, one of the girls started screaming.
"Calm down!", I shouted. "It won't hurt you if you-"
I was interrupted by a loud thump. Someone was flung about twenty metres down the trail, and crashed into a tree. I could hear the sound of his skis breaking. Even more screaming ensued.
"You're enraging it!", I shouted, searching my backpack for a flashlight. Another crash and someone was thrown into a tree behind me.
"Zangoose?", I tried, holding up its Poké Ball in the creature's direction. No response.
"Blissey?" A deafening roar told me that this wasn't Blissey either. I put down Togekiss' Poké Ball as well, and finally found the flashlight.
"Over there, people!", I roared and pointed the flashlight at a tree. A broken ski hung in one of the branches.
"What is it?", someone cried. "Light it up!"
"I don't think it will be worth the trouble if I point the light towards its face to find out!", I shouted back. "Gather over there!"
A few people rushed over to the spot I was pointing towards. One of the others had a flashlight in his headband, which he now turned on.
"Turn it off!", I shouted. "If you blind it, it may-" He looked at the shadow, who was now walking towards a girl who had tripped and fallen. She had apparently fainted from fear, and the creature was curious. But now that the light shone brightly in his eyes, it's attention was detracted. The guy with the light was in a very bad situation, but we could at least see the Pokémon clearly. It was about three meters tall, and not much less wider, standing on two legs. Its body was covered in white and green fur, which partially obscured its face. It seemed to have a large moustache and even larger bushy eyebrows. Its eyes were quite small, with tiny pupils. It had long arms as thick as tree trunks, its short green fingers almost touched the ground. It also had a rather small tail, which I really couldn't see any use for, and several spikes on its back.
"Abominable snowman!", the boy shouted.
"ABOMASNOOOOOW!", the Pokémon corrected him. I turned away, I had to find a ball before-
I could hear a sound similar to a waterfall or a jet engine, and the temperature fell drastically. It felt like my eyes would freeze, but I had to keep them open. The bag wasn't that big, why couldn't I find its Poké Ball?
"Noo!", someone shouted. I directed my flashlight at the guy with the light. All I could see was a block of ice, with a faint glow inside it. Behind him, several trees were capsuled in ice.
"He'll be okay", I shouted. "All fine"
"You killed him!", someone cried. A whooshing sound, and chunk of ice narrowly missed me.
"Don't throw stuff at me, you're making it worse!", I said, with my head buried in the bag. Finally, I found its Poké Ball!
"Abomasnow, back!" It turned red and transparent, and vanished. We were left in silence and darkness.
"Ben!" Someone ran over to the block of ice containing their frozen classmate. His flashlight still lit up the area from inside the ice, like a beacon.
"We have to get him to hospital!"
"How? The snowmobile central is several kilometres from here! And there's no phone coverage here!"
"Listen!", someone shouted. "A motor! Someone is coming! Help! Over here!"
My intestines froze. Lights lit up the trees above us, and a snowcat came crawling over the nearest hill. It was hard to see the emblem on its front because of the headlights, but I could make out three letters:
TLA.

Very good. I like the cliffhanger.

A direct quote from GreekGeek was used. That gave me a laugh.

I really enjoy how you describe the Pokemon before you reveal it, as we can try to guess what it is. I usually end up being wrong, but keep it up!

Great cliffhanger, great story.
Nothing left to say.

Seriously, man, this is too awesome for its own good. If I were you, I'd take this right off the internet, print it off and send it to a publisher. But I guess that just shows what a frugal, money-seeking bastard I am. ;) Good stuff right there!

Sorry but we had this discussion a lot of times =P
I think we should keep it NSM-exclusive as Cobra likes to call it properly.
And it isn't finished at all, so I hope it'll be years for it's finished ::)
Then send it to a publisher maybe :P

Quote from: GreekGeek on July 01, 2009, 11:53:02 PMSorry but we had this discussion a lot of times =P
I think we should keep it NSM-exclusive as Cobra likes to call it properly.
And it isn't finished at all, so I hope it'll be years for it's finished ::)
Then send it to a publisher maybe :P

Yeah. It's much more special that way.  :D

I'm sorry to say that it will be some time before the next chapter is written, maybe as much as four weeks, but I'm going on holiday soon, and even though I'll be home for a day or two before leaving again, I won't have time to write much then. So enjoy this in the meantime, I'm, quite happy with it.

Chapter eighteen: Drawback

I was shocked, didn't see what I was doing. I heard voices. Shouting, crying, and commanding. Everything went past in a blur of panic. They were here, the TLA. I acted somehow, shouted something (I think), and next thing I knew, I was tugged off the ground. I screamt, I had no idea what happened. Something threw me to the right, while holding me in a vicegrip. After a few seconds, I realised that I was flying with Salamence again. He flew even more erratic than usual, I was really scared. My backpack flapped about behind me, it seemed emptier than usual.
"Where's Espeon?", I shouted. "Espeon!"
We dived sharply to the left as something whooshed past us in the air. Salamence said nothing, concentrated all he could on dodging the incoming tranquillizer darts. Below us, I could see three or four snowcats and several snowmobiles. Besides the my classmates, there were a lot of other people there, many of them pointing guns at us. We circled the area for a minute, before I realised that Salamence was awaiting a command.
"Over there!", I shouted and pointed at a cliff some kilometres away. We flew over to it, landing near the top of the cliff.
"Are they following us?", I asked Salamence.
"Mence", he said. I felt like kicking something, without Espeon here, I had no idea what he was saying. And I hadn't brought any other Pokémon, all I had was him and Abomasnow, who I couldn't understand any better. We waited. I could hear the sound of snowmobile engines, and a little later, the ski trail was lit up again. Apparently, the TLA was busy covering all the traces of Pokémon activity, but that was not to say that they weren't following us still.
"I wonder if they knew we were here?", I said to break the silence. Salamence said nothing, he had apparently realised that it would only make the situation darker. I tried to ask a yes/now-question instead. "Do you think it's safe to return to the tent now?"
He nodded, slowly.
"They may have some kind of radar", I continued. "We need to stay close to the treetops, fly between them, when we can. Could you do that?"
He shrugged.
"Then let's go. No time to waste!"
We were in the air a minute later. We flew slowly, barely above the treetops. It was a bit harder to navigate here, and every now and then, we dropped down into a valley or had to dodge trees. We also took a few wide turns to shake off eventual pursuers. After what felt like an eternity, we landed beside the tent. I didn't call Salamence back yet, it was silent here and I was expecting agents to jump out of every shadow.
"Who's there?", Metagross' voice sounded from inside the tent.
"Me, Rob", I said. "Who's there?"
"Metagross, Manectric, Houndoom and Pidgeot", he replied. I ran into the tent.
"We've been discovered!", I shouted. "They got Espeon. And..." I stopped. Sighed, dropped down on the bed. "I met a few from my class. Abomasnow sent a couple of them to dreamland. And the TLA came. They..." I felt like crying. We had lost. "My classmates was very angry with me when we left. They may tell TLA everything. They can identify me, mom... dad... We've lost, folks. Busted"
"So what do we do? Give in?", Metagross said. "Not a chance"
"We go home", I sighed. "We'll wait until tomorrow, mom and dad expects me to be back by then. If, for some reason, the TLA hasn't found our house by then, we can continue living like normal until they come and get us. It will give us a few days, at least"
Houndoom started barking, I understood he was saying something.
"What if we encounter the TLA on our way back?", Metagross translated. "Give in early?"
"Never", he snorted. "Fight to the last, Rob! That's what you always told me!"
"Why?"
"They may be clutching their last straws for all we know. The team you encountered may have been the last few agents, hitting you by
pure coincidence. Until we lose, we still have a chance of winning. Until we know that they have identified you, we assume that they don't. You said Espeon was left behind, and remember, she is an amazing battler. She could in theory have knocked your classmates flat, that would keep the agency at bay until they wake up again"
"That's true", I said. "But isn't it dangerous to assume the best?"
"We have no alternatives. We could keep on hiding, living like outlaws in constant fear of being found, but honestly, I think you'd break down before spring comes. Too little food. And it would be a boring story to tell if you survived. No, for the sake of the general atmosphere, I say we go home and keep fighting"
"Yeah, I've also read that book", I said. "We'll sleep now, take it calmly tomorrow, and go home around midday. Good night"

I bet I wasn't the only one with trouble sleeping that night. TLA had Espeon, I was pretty sure. But what had she accomplished before they got her? Would TLA be waiting at me when I came home? Or were they still unaware of my identity? And how many Pokémon were still roaming free? I had about thirty Pokémon here, I guess TLA could have a dozen or so, which left us at about fifty still roaming. I had done well today, one more day of hunting, and we could have swept in on Pokémon. But without Espeon, not a chance. None of the Pokémon I had caught today could fill her role. Pidgeot was a great find, really effective, but without invisibility, we'd be easy pickings. Today, I had got in Pidgeot, Donphan, Venusaur, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Hitmonlee, Politoed, Gallade, Golem and Abomasnow, but lost one of my trump cards. And a great friend. What could I do...

Around three o'clock I finally managed to fall asleep. I slept until Metagross hauled me out of bed around noon.
"No need to waste the day by sleeping", he grunted. "Get some breakfast - we've eaten already - and give the team your instructions"
"What?"
"Just get out"
I went out of the tent. The sight that met me was overwhelming. Metagross had released all my Pokémon outside the tent, and the gang now stood awaiting my commands. I counted 29 Pokémon, all at level 100 as far as I could remember.
"Say something", Metagross hissed.
"Good morning!", I tried. "Nice to see you all awake..."
Silence.
"Umm... today, we're going back home. We only need to get past TLA, out of the forest, and..."
"Tar!"
"He has a point", a voice said in my head. I was confused. I didn't think I had any Pokémon left that could communicate by telepathy? I looked closer at the crowd, and saw a Pokémon that looked a lot like Gardevoir at first. But the hairstyle/helmet (It looked a lot like both) was a tad different. It also had a pair of strong legs, and blade-like fingerless arms. Even though Gallade didn't have as much psychic power as its ballgown cousin, it could apparently speak to me. "It's not 'only to get past' these guys. I've talked to the others, and they seem dangerous"
"But so are you!", I said. "Come on! You've battled many strong opponents before, and beat them!"
"Those times, we were fighting under strict rules, and had nothign to risk. And we have never battled humans before"
"And these aren't regular humans either", Metagross said. "But that's not saying we can't beat them. And if we're lucky, we'll just sneak straight past them"
"And if they find us?"
"Like we said tonight, we'll fight", I said. "Can I count on you then?"
"To the last", Gallade replied and bowed, but with a little bitterness in his voice.
"Pack down the tent", I ordered. "We leave in half an hour"

The atmosphere was almost apocalyptic the following thirty minutes. I ate my breakfast in silence, trying to figure out how much the TLA could possibly know about us, and how prepared they were if they met us. So far, we had steamrolled them in open combat, but when possible, they had tried to avoid open combat. If we saw them first, we'd certainly win, I figured out. But if they spotted us before we spotted them...

After a while, the tent was down, and I put all the Pokémon back in to their balls, except Salamence. It was too far to walk back home, we had decided to fly almost to the border of the forest, and pick up my skis there. Weavile had ran over and moved them last night, to a place closer to the city. Now, everything was ready for departure. Hopefully, the TLA was busy searching the remote corners of the forest, and we'd pass unnoticed. As soon as we were back in the city, they couldn't possibly harm us. I hoped.
"Time to fly", I told Salamence.
"Mence", he answered and nodded in the direction of Emily's scarf, that had almost fallen out of the backpack. He bent down and snapped it, and tried to wrap it around my head.
"Thanks", I said. "They may see us, but not identify!"
Salamence roared cheerfully. He grabbed my waist again, and off we went. We flew quite slowly over the treetops, skimming the pines here and there. We tried to avoid the ski trails, followed the most dense forest we could find, and kept away from the restaurants,
roads and popular view spots. If as much as one person saw us, we'd be doomed.

Part two will follow shortly

Chapter eighteen, part two

After an hour or so, we dropped down near the parking area just outside the city. I was frozen, shaking a bit, but relieved. I took off the bag to find Salamence's Poké Ball, and bent down to open it.
"Mence..."
I turned around. Salamence fell to the ground, I could see a dart sitting in his skin just under his right wing. I panicked. All thoughts of the cold disappeared, being replaced by sheer terror. Luckily, I had a cluster of balls in my hands at that very moment, and knew exactly what to do with them.
"AGGRON, GO!", I roared, and threw his Poké Ball to the ground just before me. The iron dino appeared before me, and I could hear the sound of tranquillizer darts pelting against his armour a second later. He covered me well, not a single dart found its mark.
"Tyranitar! Metagross!", I shouted, calling them out. They positioned themselves in a triangle around me, stopping darts coming from other directions.
"This is the TLA. Lay down on the ground, limbs spread", a voice shouted from somewhere. The pelting of darts stopped. "You are surrounded and strongly advised to follow our instructions. We will not be responsible for any damage you may suffer if you resist"
"Never!", I shouted. "Come get us, then!"
I could see them now. Several people, many in hazmat suits, a few vans and snowcats, and some people that could only be soldiers. Most of them carried dart rifles, but I saw a few people with machine guns as well. They spread around us, taking positions behind trees and rocks, but didn't attack us. I called out a few more Pokémon: Nidoking, Blaziken, Nidoqueen, Golem and Gallade. I checked that the scarf fit right every few seconds. If they saw me and could identify me, I'd be done for.
"Listen", a voice said. A man came walking towards me. He was middle-aged, but well fit, wore a black suit, and held up an ID sign to me. I could barely see the words "Lorem ipsum" on it if I squinted. "You've caused us a lot of trouble already, and I'm sorry to say we have done so to you as well. Why not surrender now? End the fighting? Hand them over to us, we know what to do with them"
I said nothing. Nidoking growled beside me, his thirty-centimetre horn pointed straight towards the man. A leap or two, and the man would have that horn stuck deep in his chest.
"Listen, you don't want to fight us for this. So much unnecessary pain... and confusion"
"I will if I have to", I said, trying to keep my voice as deep as possible. No way they were going to identify me by my voice. "I've seen the outcome of a few battles, and I can't say I'm impressed by your guys"
"Don't be a fool. You have no idea what we are capable of"
I looked around a bit. We really were surrounded, I could count about a hundred people pointing stuff at us. Water cannons, dart guns, machine guns, and one guy even had a flamethrower. There were also several agents here, none of them yielding anything, just looking ready for fistfight. The Pokémon stood like statues in a circle around me, only their eyes moving. Suddenly, a whooshing sound. I was encased in a blue bubble, and panicked for a second, even more so when several darts hit the bubble. They bounced off, like fleas on a windshield. Gallade nodded in my direction, and I understood that he had saved me from an attack from behind. Now, their moment of surprise was lost, and the friendly talk gone. The man before me produced a tazer gun from a hidden holster, lifted it towards Nidoking and fired. He had aimed well, two needles hit cracks in Nidoking's otherwise unscratchable armour. He still didn't flinch. The agent pressed a button on the gun, and I could see the wires going from the gun to the needles glow. A short bang, but nothing happened. Nidoking growled, and let loose a roar. The others followed up, soon all the Pokémon roared in unison, a deafening sound. Many of the soldiers took several steps backwards or clenched their guns tighter. Time to break the silence...
"Charge!", I shouted. All hell broke lose. Nidoking was the first to react, he ran for the agent. In two short leaps, he was over him, but didn't ram with the horn. Instead, he grabbed the man by the waist, leapt, and did a somersault. The agent was hauled twenty or so metres before he hit a tree. With a splintering sound, both his spine and the tree trunk broke. The rest of the Pokémon ran in any direction they saw fit. I still stood in the same spot, with Gallade by my side, looking at the battle. We were greatly outnumbered, but far from outpowered. Nidoking proceeded to wreak havoc with the soldiers, who mostly didn't resist, just ran as fast as they could. On other fronts, it was even more chaotic. Blaziken had already ran over to a few of the soldiers, mocking them down like bowling pins. With dance-like movements, he kicked them down one after one, using them as shields when another group picked up the courage to fire at him. That group became Blaziken's next target, he ran over to them, who in turn fled like chased rabbits.
Metagross was still standing in the same spot, apparently doing nothing. On closer inspection, his eyes glowed a light blue. I could see people being thrown from their spots, trees being torn to splinters for no apparent reason, and most bullets fired his way simply stopped mid-air. They who hit their target did no damage whatsoever to the iron crab.
Someone had managed to throw a net over Tyranitar. He ripped it to pieces like paper, and fired Dark Pulses and Ice Beams into the woods. The sound of the explosions and cracking ice deafened most other sounds on the battleground. From time to time he added to the tantrum by roaring hatefully at the TLA in general.
Aggron ran like a loose locomotive, going mainly for the agents. At the moment, he was duelling with two of them. They rolled around him at incredible speeds, kicking or punching him when they got the chance, but he didn't flinch. One of them stopped to pull out a tazer gun. The other tried to distract Aggron, but the Pokémon ignored him, and picked up the man with the tazer. I turned away, didn't want to see what he was doing, but could still hear. Judging by the sounds, Aggron tore him in half, and simply trod down the other. When I turned back a few seconds later, the two were being dragged away by two hazmat guys. Luckily, they were both in one piece, and had got the "sleeping-look" already. They were in for a long vacation to dreamland.
Nidoqueen was the first to fall. She wasn't that big compared to the others, and was shot at with water cannons and beat by agents. She managed to headbutt one of them, but another managed to topple her over. The second after, two hazmat guys came over and put a solid cage over her. Nidoking roared and ran for the spot, but was stopped by a snowcat that rammed into him, full speed. He was thrown to the ground and rolled around until he hit a tree. He then got up again and completely fried the snowcat with a Hyper Beam. Only the caterpillar threads were left, the rest of it was blasted into the woods. However, he had to recharge, stood at the spot and panted for several seconds. By the time he could move again, the cage with Nidoqueen had been loaded onto a snowcat that drove away.
Golem fought like a hero, if a little slowly. Hazmat guys were all around him, just outside his reach, but they couldn't do anything to him either, so the situation seemed a little comical. Six or seven tazer shot wires hung useless from his body.
"Rock Blast!", I shouted to Golem, to speed up the situation. He nodded, and produced a stone the size of a basketball from thin air. He spun around like a discus thrower, and threw the rock at the closest guy. He was flung into the forest along with the rock. Golem continued spinning, and managed to hit three men before the fourth rock missed. However, Golem had gained the upper hand again.
"Blaze!"
I turned around, and saw Blaziken duel with two agents. It was clear that he was on a losing front, the two avoided his punches and kicks, while constantly hitting him. He'd lose if I didn't help him. I dived for the backpack and found a Poké Ball.
"Houndoom, assist him!", I shouted. The hell hound leapt from the Poké Ball, and while still in the air, fired a Flamethrower. The three duellists were encased in a vicious firestorm, trees near them collapsed to ashes, and soldiers ran in all directions to avoid the heat. After the flames had settled, only Blaziken was left standing. The two agents looked unscratched, if one forgot their singed clothes and faces for a second. Funnily enough, the fire had burnt away their eyebrows, but their hair was still intact.
"Blaziken, back!", I shouted. Even though he left the firestorm without major damage, he was too tired to continue. Houndoom continued the battle in his place, chasing soldiers while breathing fire now and then. However, even though we seemed to win on all fronts, the overall picture didn't look too good.
"We're losing", Gallade said. I looked around. Nidoqueen and Salamence were taken away, and the others were struggling. Even though most of the soldiers had panicked and fled, the TLA forces were still strong. Aggron was battling two hazmat guys with flamethrowers, both moved too fast for him to catch them. It was clear that the fires caused him great pain. Someone had managed to wrap thick metal cables around Tyranitar, and were trying to pull him over while blasting him with water cannons. Metagross still stood strong, but was tired, I could see that. A snowcat rammed into him from behind, but didn't achieve much. Metagross turned around to mash it, but
moved too slowly. Another snowcat drove into him from the left. Hazmat guys jumped out of them with tazers. Metagross roared.
"We should flee", Gallade said. "Call back as many as you can, Metagross will provide a distraction"
"No!", I shouted. "I can call out more, we can beat them!"
"Look", Gallade said and pointed. In the distance, someone was carrying a limp Houndoom into a van. I could see the tranquillizer dart still sticking out of his neck.
"Without armour, they're chanceless. We can run, get away. But we have to act now, before it's too late"
"I see", I sighed. "Aggron, back!"
Aggron was really tired, and hazmat men already stood ready with cages when he disappeared.
"Tyranitar! Over here!"
He looked at me, then took a firm grip around the steel cable and snapped it. A final Dark Pulse obliterated the water cannons, and he ran over to me. I called back Golem as well, but decided that Nidoking would be fast enough to run with us. I didn't have time to find his ball anyway.
"Ready when you are, Metagross!", I shouted. The remaining TLA forces concentrated on attacking him, and tried to stop Nidoking and Tyranitar from reaching me.
"We'll run for the ravine", I told the three Pokémon by my side. Gallade and Nidoking seemed unsure, but Tyranitar nodded. I climbed up on his back, clinging to the spikes. I could see deep scratches and dents in his armour, the battle had really hurt him.
"Run!", I shouted. Tyranitar ran. We stormed towards a lone agent that held out his hand in a pathetic effort to stop us. I could hear a "squash" as Tyranitar ran him down. I had great trouble holding on, as Tyranitar jumped and dodged trees a lot. Several snowmobiles and snowcats followed us, they were apparently expecting us to try to escape.
"When's that distr-" I was interrupted by the sound of a deafening explosion. Tyranitar stopped abruptly, Gallade put up a bubble around us. Half a second later, the blast wave hit us. Trees were flattened, snow swept off the ground, and bushes and stones flew like confetti in a hurricane. A snowcat on fire flew over our heads, hit a tree and shattered like a glass hitting a concrete floor. I could see people being flung around like ragdolls, and splinters of trees and rocks rained down for several seconds. The explosion had flattened about a square kilometre of the forest, and the former battlefield was reduced to a smoking crater the size of a football field.
"Metagross!", I roared.
"He'll be fine", Gallade said. "Explosion may look like the brutal end for all parts involved, but the explosion itself happens just above the Pokémon in question, not inside it, so it's not like he blasted himself to pieces. Keep running!"
"We can go back and get him!"
"No way. They were too many. I guess reserve forces are on their way too. Even though they expected to take us down in an ambush, they still had brought a full army. And I think they called in even more when we resisted them"
Tyranitar kept running. A few minutes later, we came to the parking area, which was surprisingly empty. It appeared to be blocked off or something... We stepped out on the gravel.
"Ahh!", someone shouted. It was me, I found out. In best Team Rocket-style, the ground collapsed underneath us. We fell down a hole, five or six metres deep. Next thing I knew, we lay in a heap at the bottom. I could hear voices at the surface.
"Dig out of this", Gallade said and got up. "I'll delay them"
Nidoking nodded, and started to scratch the wall, as if testing the soil. Gallade leapt out of the hole, and the voices began to shout. Seconds later, it was all dark. I could feel soil rain down above me, and hear the sound of claws meeting rock. Nidoking dragged me after him into the tunnel, Tyranitar collapsed sections behind us. It really hurt to be dragged along like this, but I had to concentrate on keeping the bag with me. No time for pain. Minutes later, we broke the wall of what I recognised as the well-known ravine. We tumbled out, all looking pretty grimy. The backpack was torn, but the trainer bag inside was intact. Emily's scarf wasn't as snowy white any more, but it was still firmly wrapped around my head. Nidoking lay beside me, panting heavily, Tyranitar stood as a silent guard. We sat still like that for a minute, waiting. No sounds except for the wind through the trees. We had escaped, it seemed like. But at what cost?

Amazing.

Wow.
Speechless.

Sorry for the long drought. I've been away several times over the course of the past few weeks, and with only a day or two at home between the travels, I haven't had time to write much. However, I've had time to work out a plot, so I have plenty of ideas for the next few chapters. And I promise, it won't be this long between chapters next time.

But that's of the future, for now, enjoy:

Chapter nineteen: Homecoming

When you have spent several days in the forest with minimal sets of clothes to change into, it's kinda hard to give the impression
that you have just been at a cabin for the time. Still, I managed to pluck most of the twigs out of my hair, straighten my clothes, and wipe the worst mud and snow off the backpack. When I rung the doorbell at my house, I was quite confident that my parents wouldn't see where I had been. Well, almost.
"Where are your skis?", mom asked as soon as I got in.
"I forgot them in Emily's car", I lied. Most likely, they were TLA property by now, given that the ambush had taken place right where they had been buried. "Got to call her"
I took my bag up to my room, made sure dad was also out of listening range, and called her number on my mobile phone. Hopefully, she was alright...
"Hello?", her voice sounded after the third beep. We both said in unison "Are you all right?".
Silence.
"Yes, I am", she said, her voice shaking slightly. "Even more if you tell me you are"
"Barely", I replied. "We were ambushed. I managed to get a few Pokémon the past few days, but lost some just a few hours ago. It was a huge battle, and..." my voice was all shaky. "They got all my Psychic Pokémon. I really need Gardevoir back now, I can't communicate with the rest otherwise"
"Oh...", Emily said. "I'm so sorry..." she started sobbing. "As for me, we really went to our cabin, I had no idea we were going. Anyway, yesterday, dad was called back from his holiday. Special assignment, they say. Just three hours ago, we got a call. He and a few others had been assigned to disarm a bomb they had found in the forest, from the war, and..." she started crying. "...it went off. He's in hospital, apparently badly injured. Mom and I had to rush back home, and I... completely forgot to bring the Poké Balls."
"It's OK", I said, feeling her sadness. If her father was dying, it was a lot bigger problem than my Pokémon lying in a closed cabin some two hundred kilometres away. At least, the TLA would never find them there.
"We're just outside the hospital now", she continued. "You... called just... when we were about to go in..."
"Oh...", I said, having nothing else to say.
"Mom's calling", she sobbed and hung up. However much I wanted to comfort her some way, a cold, calculating side of me calmly thought that I couldn't count on her help for a while. And now, I had no means of two-way communication with the Pokémon. I sat down on my bed. TLA had gotten a lot of Pokémon that could speak. Bad news for me if they tortured them for info. Also, their use of dart guns meant that all Pokémon without a full armour or ability to shield themselves would be in danger if we met them. This wasn't going to be any easier, despite the fact that I knew more now...
"Rob?", mom's voice sounded from downstairs. I took my backpack with me, and went back down.
"What is it?", I asked.
"Don't you want to tell us how it has been?", mom asked.
"Later", I said. "Tired"
"You've said that a lot in the past few weeks. You know, lately, it feels like you have been avoiding us"
"I've... had a lot to do", I answered, a little nervous. Were they suspecting anything?
"Like what?"
"Friends and school and... stuff"
"What 'stuff'?"
"You know... games...", I said, trying to keep a casual tone.
"Listen, your dad and I downgraded our Internet connection because we think you spend too much time playing games. We can still use it to work, but it's far too slow to play any games on any more", mom said. "That was in October. We haven't heard you complain yet, so I don't think you have played in a while. What are you doing?"
"I...", I said, really struggling. Cover stories need time to make up, and I didn't have more than a few seconds. Mom saw that I was on very thin ice here.
"Is it anything illegal?", she said, her voice shaking. It felt like she saw right through me.
"No...", I replied, pretty confident that there were no laws prohibiting the use of video game monsters in the woods. If they had anything on me, it would have been illegally uprooting trees. Using my pet Godzilla. Yep, if I told the authorities, the legality of the action would have been the least of my problems.
"So what is it? Tell me!", mom half cried. I was cornered. No way to solve this, either tell the truth or downright refuse to speak. The latter was not an option, I must have seemed crazy enough to begin with. Seeing mom like this, with tears in her eyes, I decided that she would find it out sooner or later anyway. No way back now. I took a deep breath and started to reveal the secret:
"You probably wouldn't believe it, but..", I started.
"Enough", she interrupted me. "I don't want to hear it. A lie always follow these words, I know it"
Without a word, she walked past me and up to her bedroom.
Mumbling something along the lines of "going to put my clothes in the laundry" to dad, who was half-sleeping in front of the TV, I walked down to the basement. After sorting out my backpack, I went to check out my cave. The solid door to the hatch room was firmly locked, and we had destroyed the keys, so it took a few minutes to figure out how to open it. After some thinking, I decided to give Weavile a go. He was strong enough to break the door, and small enough not to topple anything over in the process. I told him to "open the door", upon which he picked the lock with a hairpin he found on the floor. The door swung up without a sound. I had used half a bottle of olive oil on those hinges, fearing that mom or dad could hear the creak when it opened, and it had really paid off. Using Swampert, we cleared the mud from the tunnel, and went down to the chamber. Finally climbing over the doorstep, I lifted my flashlight to find the light switch. The sight that met me, however, was totally unexpected.
The place was a mess. Half the floor was missing, and the makeshift stone walls were shattered. The chamber had gotten larger, though, by about six metres to the north. Now, part of it was under the neighbour's garden. The shelves were relatively intact, but the table and chairs were useless.
"What on Earth has happened here?", I asked Swampert and Weavile. It looked like someone had used a giant mixmaster in here, the floor was churned to bits. Swampert croaked something, and Weavile nodded approvingly. He barked a few "Vile!" into the silent darkness. After a few seconds, a low rumbling was heard. It slowly grew stronger. I almost expected it to grow into a loud roar, like it always does in the movies. However, it stopped, and I was half expecting the roof to fall in (the other thing that always happens in movies), or the floor to give away. However, all that happened was that a small brown thing sprouted from the floor. It looked like the tip of a large brown finger, half a meter tall and some twenty centimetres wide, just protruding from the dirt floor. It slowly turned around, and just as I had thought, it had a large red thing on its side, looking a bit like a huge wart, but smooth, and long, narrow eyes.
"Diglett?", I asked, seeing as the thing was alone.
"Trio!", it grunted back. Its voice was surprisingly high-pitched, it sounded like it spoke through its nostrils. Two identical, albeit lower, heads sprouted beside it. I could now see that all of them had a set of bushy eyebrows above the slit-like eyes, making them look like a set of stereotypical finger puppets.
"You've really messed up this place, haven't you?", I sighed and took a step out on the floor. It was firm, but covered in a good decimetre of dirt and dust. Dugtrio, the three headed Mole Pokémon, seemed a little unhappy.
"I suppose there was nothing else to do while waiting", I said, trying to comfort him. "And you had to find roots to eat as well"
I walked over to the shelves and straightened them, then put the trainer bag and the plastic bag of Poké Balls there. I tried to fix one of the chairs, but the nails were dragged out and bent, so I would have to rebuild it to be able to sit on it. Slightly frustrated, I tossed it into a corner, where another leg fell off as it landed. Then I released all my Pokémon into the cave.
The next twenty-five minutes were spent telling about the battle, and a short update on what we knew about TLA. I had to stop occasionally, because a Pokémon wanted to say something, and it did me slightly nervous not to know what they were saying. Were they questioning my leader abilities? Discussing whether or not they would be better off without me? Or how to dispose of me the most effective way? As demonstrated by Tyranitar, these monsters could knock me flat for months if I upset them enough. And the attack Tyranitar hit me with, was far from his strongest. If they tried, they could probably knock me out for a year or more, and down here, no one would find me in the meantime. I was interrupted more and more often, and it seemed like the cackle went on for longer each time. As soon as I was finished talking, the air seemed filled with noise. Screams, roars, croaks, hissing, snapping, you name it. The discussion was raging with all sounds imaginable, but they could all understand it. I couldn't. I felt like some child who had stumbled into a snake nest. My heartbeats were faster and louder, my knees like jelly, and my vision got blurry. I was trapped underground with about thirty monsters who did or did not hate me. I had lied to my parents. My classmates hated me even more, and I was chased by men in black. Things couldn't really get any worse from here. I panicked.
"Tar!", Tyranitar suddenly roared. Everyone fell silent, and looked at me. "Tar?", he repeated again, in an almost concerned voice.
"I'll... be back later", I said, my mouth was dry as sand paper. "Fix the cave in the meantime"
Then I dashed for the tunnel, sprinted out of the room with the hatch, not bothering to lock the door, and ran up from the basement. I managed to hide my dirty shoes in a cupboard (didn't have any memories of it later, I just found them there one day), and went straight to bed, my heart beating like a jungle drum.

Despite being back in my own, comfy bed, I had trouble sleeping. The day had been very long, and not exactly the best day of my life either. After the battle, Tyranitar, Nidoking and I had waited in the ravine for hours before we crept out of the forest, but the tension hadn't given me time to think about the events of the day. Now, the dark silence gave plenty of room for doubt to sneak in.
Could I have won the battle if I had released all the Pokémon? Perhaps we could have steamrolled the TLA, and recapture the ones they took? Or would I have lost it all then? Most of their forces were brutally mowed down in the battle, but they had gotten the upper hand in several cases. And I would have had trouble controlling and looking over everyone, it had been hard enough with the few I had used. Actually, I hadn't managed that either, I hadn't seen that they took Houndoom before Gallade pointed it out to me.
Could I have saved him? I hadn't even looked his way before they took him away. Perhaps I could have seen the danger, warned him, or called him back. Why didn't I call him back? I had his Poké Ball at the top of my bag! I saw him! And Nidoqueen? I could have saved her too! I was cursing myself under my quilt. What a bloody idiot I had been! My thoughts kept churning around for what felt like an eternity...

It was dark. Complete, merciless darkness. Not a trace of light anywhere. It felt like I was standing somewhere in the void, but I couldn't tell what I was standing on, or what was beside me. The thought of standing on the edge of a large abyss made me dizzy, but where I was standing seemed sturdy enough. I kept my feet rooted to the spot.
"Welcome back", a voice said. Mismagius?
"Yes", it said, even if I had just thought it. "You probably wonder why it's so dark here. Nothing is wrong, this is my work. This way, they can't see you"
"Who's 'they'?", I said, with a bad feeling rising in my stomach. "The agency? The TLA?"
"So that's the name? What does it stand for?"
"No idea. The A is probably 'agency', but I have no clue on the other letters", I said. "But why would they see me? They can't monitor dreams, can they?"
"That's exactly what these guys are doing", Mismagius sighed. "They are probably listening to this conversation now, so keep sensitive information to a minimum"
I looked nervously around. I imagined men in suits sitting just beside us in the darkness, hearing every word I said or every thought I thought.
"I'm trying to block them out", Mismagius said in an attempt to comfort me. "They can't see us, that's for sure. And as you may have noticed, I even changed your voice"
Now I noticed that my voice was a lot thinner than it used to be. It was quite unnerving.
"How?", I said. Or squeaked.
"It's just how you hear your own voice. It's got something to do with... never mind. On to business"
"By the way, I haven't heard from you in a while, why haven't you contacted me?"
"You've been away", Mismagius replied. "I need to know your exact position to establish contact with you. The TLA knows that as well, they keep moving our cages around every day so that we can't talk to each other. And I might contact an agent instead if I keep trying random spots around the base, so I haven't made any efforts at organizing anything with the others yet"
"Have you seen more Pokémon arrive lately?"
"Not seen, but heard of. They say they have almost forty here now. Apparently, they've been emptying the forest, I wouldn't go there any more. Search the city instead"
"Are they that successful? I hoped they...", I started. Forty? That was more than I had!
"Don't forget, that's what they say, it's not necessarily the truth. And... well, they have had certain problems", Mismagius said. There was a trace of a laugh in its voice. "The oceans. They keep sending divers down, they come back more or less shredded. Apparently, we've sunk their boats as well. Human world or Pokémon world, water is water, and that's where quite a few of us belong. The TLA don't stand a chance down there"
"That sure is... good. But..."
"Yes, you have little time", Mismagius said, becoming serious again. "They are many, and well organized. Take precautions, use what you have, and act soon. Or else, they will come and get you"
The last words suddenly echoed in my ears. Come and get you. The voice changed too, to a creepy man's voice: Come and get you. Come and get you. Come and get you.
"We've been intercepted", Mismagius' voice croaked. It drowned instantly in a roaring "Come and get YOU!"

I woke up, shivering and soaked in sweat.
"I need help", I moaned into the darkness. I tried to get to sleep again, but the fear of someone catching me by my dreams kept me from falling asleep until early morning.

Worth the waiting ;)
Wow

As I promised, I won't let you wait for several weeks for the next chapter. This has really been finished since Tuesday, but I figured out that it could need a little polish, and have been adding sentences here and there since then. Constructive critisism, or any feedback in general, would be deeply appreciated.

Chapter Twenty: The three little fairies

Exactly one hour and thirty-two minutes later, I woke up. It was still dark, but I could clearly see a figure looming over me, so close to me that it almost touched my nose.
"Wah!", I screamt and lunged for the light switch. As my bedside lamp went on, I could see the creature more clearly. It looked like a blue fetus of sorts, only a lot larger, about half a metre tall if it was standing. It had two tails, about half a metre long, and two huge eyes with yellow retinas. A large red gem, the size of a chicken egg, was embedded in its forehead. And it was floating in the air.
"Oh no", I groaned. Another emerged Pokémon. It looked curiously at me.
"We're here because you called for help, so don't 'oh no' us", a voice said in my head. Another being, similar to the first one, but with a distinctive yellow helmet of sorts, was sitting on top of my bookshelf. Its eyes were closed, but I had the feeling that it could see me anyway.
"Are there two of you?"
"Three", Uxie replied from the bookshelf.
"Do you really think only two of us would appear, if we were to appear together?", another telepathic voice said. I pointed the bedside lamp at the dark corner by my desk. A third being, this one had a pink face and four weird appendages from its head, was floating above my computer. Apart from its head, it was almost identical to the other two.
"Uxie... Mesprit... Azelf, what are you doing here?"
"You called, we came", Uxie sighed.
"You are the trainer, you should know what to do next", Azelf said. It still hadn't moved from its position ten centimetres away from my face.
I sighed. "Better start with the beginning, then..."
"We know", Uxie said.
"And no, we won't help you rescue them", Azelf said.
"Why?", I said, trying to keep my anger under control. First, they wake me up at stupid o'clock, and now they say they won't help me?
"We don't think you have proven your worth", Azelf continued.
"You struggle keeping a Weavile under control, what makes you think you can control us?", Mesprit said.
"I can control him... I just lose track of him some times", I tried to defend myself. "Just because I don't know where he is all the time, doesn't mean he doesn't listen to me"
"I have plenty of other examples", Azelf said. "You wandered straight into Tyranitar territory, pointed a light in his eyes and expected him to come with you. Even after being told that the Pokémon will listen to your orders, you can't stop a Metagross from ruining your school. Or maiming your girlfriend's father. Twice"
"Twice?", I thought, but they continued before I got to try to recall the second time.
"Said Metagross also took half the decisions and kept your gang under control. When you had all the Pokémon at your disposal, you told them to run away. Some of them have paid dearly for that decision. You haven't found enough food either, they are starving down there. And don't even get me started on your battling strategy", Uxie said.
"And you both feel and are pretty hopeless without a Pokémon to translate for you", Azelf concluded. "None of us expected you to be that green in your own world"
"You're not exactly helping me here, you know", I almost shouted.
"Why would we help you?", Mesprit said.
"For the time being, you would actually be better off by losing this", Uxie said. "With the Pokémon out of the picture, you might even be able to convince your parents that you haven't gone crazy"
"What?"
"Shouting into the darkness at 6:14 AM doesn't exactly help your situation", Azelf sighed. "If you wake up your parents, which actually is very likely if you keep going like that, they will only hear what you are saying"
"What do you mean?", I hissed.
"Just think about what your mother said last night", Azelf said. Its voice was as calm as if I had asked him about the weather.
"They think you have started to lose your grip on reality", Uxie said. "They are not the only ones either. Your girlfriend has problems too, you know. Half the class think you are a weirdo, and she is also questioning her own sanity. You have made her promise not to tell the truth to anyone, so she can't explain why you are acting like that. Being away for so many weeks and come back without visible damages also implies to them that you haven't been away because of injuries"
I noticed that my eyes were watery.
"Should I... give in, then? Just burst the bubble? Reveal everything to everyone and let the TLA take care of the Pokémon?"
"No", Azelf said. "Of course, it is an option, but you would be responsible for the consequences"
"And they won't be pretty", Uxie added.
"So what do I do, then?", I said.
"You have to fight"
"HOW?!"
"First of all, get to know your team. They won't hurt you, there was no reason to panic like that. They've all known you since they were little, and owe you for their training. Second, fix some food. They know how to, just let them improvise. Third, try to fix your image. Don't involve your parents yet, but if they discover it, it's not the end of the story. Fourth, you have a lot of insiders over at TLA now. Use them. It's of vital importance that you know what they are up to-"
"Aren't you supposed to know everything? Can't you just tell me?"
"Why should we?", Mesprit said. I buried my face in my pillow and screamt in frustration.
"Fifth, you can't handle this alone", Azelf continued. "Emily may be a remarkable person, but she knows nothing about battle strategy. You need someone to discuss with"
"Matt, Andy and Edvard? Should I involve them?"
"They barely know anything about Pokémon", Uxie snorted. "I suggest you talk to your Pokémon yourself"
"I don't have anyone to translate, and I don't know their language", I said.
"Who said you can't learn?", Mesprit asked. Uxie looked at it.
"People have been in need a lot of times before, but we have never Taught anyone, no matter their situation"
"We shouldn't", Azelf said stiffly. It floated a metre or so upwards, allowing me to sit up.
"Why?", Mesprit said.
"More has been at stake earlier, the danger has been greater, and battles have been lost because humans couldn't Understand", Uxie said.
"But the wars have been won", Azelf interrupted.
"But in those cases, the humans knew what to do, didn't they?", Mesprit asked again. Even when arguing, it kept speaking in rhetorical questions.
"It's true, they could work as a team with their Pokémon", Uxie said.
"As opposed to this boy", Azelf finished. "But he could learn teamwork himself, no need for us to interfere"
"By the time he has mastered the art of training, it will be far too late!", Uxie said. "If we give him a shortcut, he will be able to work more effectively, and he may win this. Happy ending!"
"Or peril", Azelf said. "They'll regard him as a tougher enemy if they get to know. We may just put him in even greater danger"
"If he can't win when he Knows, he certainly can't when he doesn't", Uxie said. I was starting to wonder which side it was on in the debate. Were they going to teach me Pokémon language?
"But he can win if he Knows, and he is totally lost otherwise. He's all reliant on translators to keep them under control, but he actually manages quite well once he know what is being said and done"
"True", Azelf sighed. "But why would we make an exception for him? We've been watching peril before, fully knowing that we could stop it, and we didn't. Survival of the fittest. If he's lost, so be it. The world goes on anyway"
"We've never sided in a battle before, why should we do it now?", Mesprit said. What side was it on? I thought Mesprit was the one who had suggested to teach me? It seemed like everyone changed side in the debate at random.
"Because the battle is entirely unbalanced?", I suggested.
"Again, survival of the fittest. If the TLA finally have got what they have been looking for for so long, why should we hinder them from getting their deserved victory?"
"Because it was him who gave it to them", Uxie said. "Hadn't he been a Dreamer, they would have kept on grinding. With the Pokémon out, they will grab the chance and turn the tables. Perhaps they would be able to cross dimensions as well, even hunting us down eventually..."
"The end of it all", Azelf sighed. "And we can prevent it here and now. Besides, it's much more amusing to watch an even battle. Go for it"
Uxie turned towards me. "We're going to teach you how to understand and speak Pokémon. It will only take a few seconds, but may feel a little uncomfortable"
"Speak Pokémon?"
"Conjugation is very easy concerning Pokémon", Azelf giggled. "Our language is built on meaning, not words. Anyway, let's get going"
I was still sitting in my bed. Uxie hovered down to the spot Azelf previously had occupied, in other words right before me. I braced myself as it moved its face so close to me that we almost touched each other. Then it opened its eyes.

They were the deepest azure blue one could imagine. It felt like I was sucked into them, floating around in a void of liquid crystal. In every direction, the blue continued as long as imagination allowed. Here and there, a small bubble floated around. They seemed to be gathering in a cluster some centimetres - or light years - ahead of me. Each one seemed to contain some silvery white smoke. For some reason, it became obvious to me that even a single bubble contained just about all the information in an universe, now they were all joining together to form something that made the entire Internet seem as informative as a graffiti scribble on a toilet wall. Here was the life story of everything that had ever lived. The precise placement of every electron in the universe. Everything that ever had been said, written or thought. And everything that hadn't. The answer to every question. The number 42 could be seen somewhere in the cluster as well.
And from that huge mishmash of information, a small bubble detached. It could be the size of a ping pong ball or a large planet, it was impossible to say before it vanished. For a second or to, it felt like I was shrouded in the white smoke. Then slowly, the blue void faded away, and I realised I was staring at Uxie's closed eyes.
"What did it feel like?", Mesprit asked me.
"Of all beings on Earth, you should be the one to know", I replied, understanding that it was a joke.
"Pass", Azelf concluded. Then I realized that Mesprit hadn't spoken to me through telepathy. All I had heard was a low "Ooooo?", but I had understood it perfectly.
"Wow", I whispered.
"That's it, then. We're off!", Azelf suddenly said. "Don't forget our advice!"
"You're going? Where? Back into the game?" I was puzzled.
"Not at all. There's an entire world out there, waiting to be explored", Uxie said.
"We'll drop in from time to time", Azelf said. "Whenever we feel like it"
"But what if the TLA catch you? I mean... the strategy analysis on the Net doesn't rank you three very high in terms of..."
"We know, being in a Poké Ball restricts legendary Pokémon's potential", Uxie said with a sigh.
"And we've been free, more or less, since August. I'd like to see them try to catch us now", Azelf finished. "Goodbye!"
Then, they flew out of my window, seemingly through the glass pane. For some reason, I suddenly felt very tired, and fell to sleep.

Had it all been a dream?

Part two will follow shortly

Chapter twenty, part two

I woke up half past nine and realised it was New Year's Eve later today. Keep sleeping would have been a very good idea, but I was eager to find out more about what Uxie had learned me. Pokémon language seemed so logical now. As Azelf had said, it was all meaning, no words. You could say whatever you wanted, it was the deeper meaning that counted. A slightly elongated sound, an extra roll on an R, the tone it was said in... it seemed perfectly logical that a language only needed a single word to express everything, and it didn't even matter what word you used. There was simply no grammar. It also explained why Pokémon can't write.
If Azelf was to be trusted, I didn't have to fear my Pokémon either. Best to go down and apologize. On my way down the stairs, I met mom. I gave her a large hug and proceeded to make breakfast. The Pokémon could wait, I could use a few minutes to improve my image first.
"You know... last night...", mom started as we sat eating. My happy mood vanished.
"What about that?"
"Your dad and I think you could need to talk to someone. Someone professional, about... whatever you are doing"
"I guess you're right", I sighed.
"You still don't want to say what it is?"
"As I said, you wouldn't believe it if I told you. But honestly, it has something to do with a game", I said. She fell silent.
"Like Samantha's boy? Roger, you remember him? Six years older than you. He was doing some... what did they call it... role playing?"
"Exactly!", I said, beaming over that she had practically made me a cover story. The next ten minutes were spent "admitting" that I had sneaked out a few times, playing role plays with Matt and Andy, and that it had gotten a little out of hand. Mom decided to cancel the psychiatrical session for now. As she said she had a few errands to run, I got down to the cave again after breakfast.

I was in for another shock as soon as I entered it. The cavern was smaller, almost back to its original size, but completely empty. The shelves were taken out, the lamp was nowhere to be seen, but the old stone floor was back in place.
"Hello?", I said, taking a step out on the floor. The flashlight revealed a stone frame a few metres before me. Like parts of Stonehenge, two vertically placed rocks with a horizontal beam on top of them. All the rocks touched the walls or ceiling. It looked remarkably like a doorframe.
"Anyone here?"
"Tar!", a voice echoed from somewhere beyond the door frame. "Down here", in other words. I smiled.
"Rob!", I bellowed back. "Good morning!" I stepped over to the stone frame. On the other side, there was a gaping hole in the floor. It was about two by two metres large, and quite deep. About twenty metres down the shaft, I could see torches embedded in a wall. Every two metres or so, a boulder was pressed into one of the walls, then another two metres further down, on the wall to the right of the previous one, a new boulder was sticking out. It looked remarkably like a giant winding staircase. Between each large boulder, three smaller boulders were dotted into the wall, forming a stair. The shaft could have been sixty to eighty metres deep.
"It wasn't exactly this I meant when I said 'fix the cave'", I shouted.
"Not?", Tyranitar's voice answered. It was lovely to finally understand what he was saying! "You said to Emily you wanted to expand. Umbreon heard it. She told us. We expanded" His sentences were quite short. He had just kept saying "Tar", but every time it had a different meaning, making each word a sentence of its own.
"Is it safe to go down?", I asked. Tyranitar nodded, from a platform a few dozen metres further down. I stepped out on the first small rock. It held my weight well enough. Tyranitar assured me that he had gone up and down a few times to test it. I started the long and dwindling journey down the shaft.
"You must have worked all night...", I said.
"More or less", Tyranitar replied. "Dugtrio digs fast. Golem and I find rocks fast, and slam them into walls fast. Caves go fast to build" He looked curiously at me. First now, he realized that we had had a conversation, and that I could understand him. I finally got to the platform he was standing on, and explained the events of the night as we walked down together. He said they had been discussing a handrail, something I said I'd be very grateful for. Even though we were deep underground, it was quite a plunge down here, and I'd very much like something solid to grip.
We reached the bottom sooner than I had expected. If Tyranitar was to believe, we were seventy-six metres below the surface now. Further down, and we'd reach solid rock. Which, he said, was no problem digging in either. From the shaft, another doorframe lead us into a corridor. Ten or so metres to the left was a dead end, while the other apparently lead to a larger chamber. It was completely dark in there. According to Tyranitar, everyone was sleeping now. We walked in anyway. I could hear the echo of my footsteps here. This room was apparently huge. I kept my flashlight low, not to wake anyone. The stone floor here was quite even, and seemed to follow a path between areas with just a soil floor. I assumed that they weren't finished paving yet.
"How large is this room?", I asked Tyranitar.
"Perhaps twenty metres tall, about forty wide, and a hundred and twenty long", Tyranitar said. "We weren't exactly measuring"
"Why that big?"
"Wait and see", he said. "We put your equipment over there, by the way" He pointed into the darkness. I couldn't see a thing.
"Where did you get the torches from?", I asked.
"Trees and some stuff Muk got. Very smelly, but it burns well"
"What about the air?"
"Photosynthesis", he said. The word sounded even more complicated in Pokémon language.
"You have planted things in here?", I asked. Then I took a look around. The beam of the flashlight caught a few sprouts coming up from the soil floor a few decimetres from the path. "So this is... an underground garden?"
"You got it", Tyranitar said. "In a few weeks, we will have a forest down here"
I was tempted to ask how they got light down here, but wouldn't wake up the sleeping Pokémon. From all sides, I could hear snoring. They must have been working all night, and judging by my own experiences, they would be a little grimpy if we suddenly turned on light strong enough to grow plants under. No, I'd let them keep slee-
"Wake up!", Tyranitar roared behind me. "Visitor!"
The snoring stopped abruptly. A loud scraping was heard beside me, and several deep thumps, as if someone was battering the rock floor right in front of me with a sizeable ram.
"Get that light on!", Tyranitar continued. "Golem, you're almost stepping on him!"
"Here goes!", Venusaur shouted from somewhere in the crowd. The ceiling above us was suddenly filled with intensely glowing orbs of pure orange light. There was about a dozen of them, shining down from various points in the ceiling.
"Creative use of Sunny Day", I mumbled. Then I lowered my gaze, and saw Golem's craggy hide less than half a metre away from me. He had really almost stepped on me. His short arms were still red with dirt, and his eyes were sleepy. None of the Pokémon seemed very awake, but they were all present, lying in the middle of the room. Some had got to their feet, while others tried to shield themselves from the light and keep sleeping. Among them were Nidoking and Aggron, both were dirty with soil still. They had been digging like heroes all night.
"Can you dim the light?", I asked Venusaur. He shook his head. "Either on or off", he mumbled.
"Nidoking, Aggron, Golem, Donphan and Dugtrio - wherever you are - just keep sleeping. Well done everyone", I said. "For the others, I have great news..." I started telling about the encounter with Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf. "...so now that I'm able to understand what you are saying, I think we can get things going a litter easier", I said about a minute later. Cheers of agreement sounded from all over the place. "I also got to hear that we should focus more on the city", I continued. "The TLA have been emptying the forest, more or less, and any remaining Pokémon have taken to the sea or the city. As you may know, I'm not an adept swimmer, and the sea Pokémon apparently manage well on their own, so we should concentrate on beating TLA in the city. You can rest for now, but from tomorrow on, we'll start searching. Great job on the cave, too"
The Pokémon nodded. I felt a little like a military general briefing my troops before a large battle.
"Well then, I guess mom is going to miss me if I'm away for too long", I finished. And smiled, a general would never have said that.
"You can go back to sleep now, except Tyranitar, you can come with me. I still have a few questions"
As we walked out of the room, I noticed the size of the cavern better. The place where everyone had been sleeping was about halfway down the length of it, positioned in the middle of the chamber. On all sides, a green carpet of tiny sprouts spread all the way to the walls. I couldn't recognise the plants, or imagine how they were this large already, but I figured out that Venusaur must have played a large role in it.
"What did you do to the other tunnels?", I asked Tyranitar.
"Separate shafts", he answered. "Unchanged, except the entrances to the upper cave has been sealed off. We dug straight down instead. Here is the entrance to the forest tunnel" He pointed at a hole in the wall, barely larger than a beach ball. It looked more like a fireplace with a chimney than a tunnel. "There is no way up yet", he added.
"And the tunnel under the shed?"
"Blocked off. If a teenage girl can sneak in here without problems, how can it work as a secret base?"
"No vertical tunnel?", I asked. If Emily tried to go in that way once more, and didn't see the shaft...
"No tunnel at all", Tyranitar assured me. "We blocked the sewer tunnel as well. Didn't smell very good. We may dig a new one eventually"
"Do you have plans for more rooms down here?", I said and started climbing the steps in the shaft. Each stepping stone was placed half a metre higher than the previous one, so this would be a tough climb.
"Definitely a dormitory. And we need water. Swampert says he has found a stream. It's not a water pipe, by the way", Tyranitar said apparently without breaking a sweat. I was panting already.
"What is the chance of getting an elevator here? Or at least a ladder?", I mumbled. We weren't halfway yet, and my legs were aching. Tyranitar walked slowly behind me, apparently with no effort.
It took me about five minutes to climb the 70 meter staircase. As I said goodbye to Tyranitar, and walked up from the upper chamber, I couldn't help but smile. A mere twelve hours ago, I had regarded the situation as desperate. Now, all arrows were pointing upwards. Could this have a happy ending after all?

I just love the Legendary Trio! I miss Metagross though.

Well done :D

Well, I scrolled through all of this looking at the feedback, and it seems hugely positive, so I think I might have to read this. :)

Quote from: Nintendude73 on August 16, 2009, 07:22:53 AMWell, I scrolled through all of this looking at the feedback, and it seems hugely positive, so I think I might have to read this. :)

Way to go! It'll take ya some time though.

A new reader? Woo! For you regulars, feedback is greatly appreciated, be it positive, negative or constructive. By the way, you'll notice that today's chapter is "slimmer" than the previous ones. That's because I copypaste it from OpenOffice, and won't bother fixing all the line breaks. Hopefully, you're OK with that.

Well, without further ado, let's get onto:

Chapter twenty-one: Knights in shining armour

All in all, it was a lovely day. Chilly, but the sky was crystal clear. Mom had suggested inviting Emily and her mom to celebrate New
Year's Eve with us, seeing as their celebration was been dampened a bit due to the issue with her father. They had accepted the
invitation, and were to come to us sometime in the evening. In the meantime, Emily suggested that  could come over to them. After
all, I hadn't been inside her house before. As I walked along the streets of my neighbourhood, I tried to take a look at the
situation. Twenty-four hours ago, I had been fighting the battle of my life. Now, I was walking carefreely through the streets like
any other normal boy. Even though TLA's threat still loomed over me, I felt calmer than before. For all I knew, Uxie, Mesprit and
Azelf was making hell for them now. Or if they met them, I'd bet that the TLA wouldn't be able to do them much. Actually, I halfway
wanted the two groups to meet, just to see what would happen.
As I crossed a road, I could see the school a few hundred metres further down the road. From this angle, one couldn't see the
collapsed part, that now was just a hole in the ground, but the cranes were still visible. Metagross had been able to flatten a four
-story brick building, but the TLA had still got him. Though, it should be said that he could easily have gotten away if he had
tried. Instead, he had blown himself - and a pretty large area of forest - up, and given me a chance to get away.
Salamence as well... he had downed an aircraft, but was still captured. Or ambushed, was the more correct word. In the game, that
Salamence had been a formidable attacker, able to sweep through an opposing team with minimal set-up required. I had won Pokémon
battling tournaments before, and in a semifinal once, I had used just two Pokémon. Salamence was one of them. But in real life, he
was vulnerable as well as destructive. I hadn't seen the danger, and Salamence was lost.
A car passing by dragged me out of my line of thought, and I stepped up the pace. A few minutes later, I found Emily's house. It was
a nice house, a bit bigger than ours, with a garden that appeared to be filled with flowers when the seasons allowed it. Now, a lone
snowman greeted visitors as they approached the door. It struck me as a little odd. Emily didn't seem to be the kind of person to
build snowmen. For all I knew, someone else could have built it. It was long since I last was here, and then, I had just seen the
house from the outside. I rung the doorbell, and tried to straighten my clothes before the door went up. The person opening the door
looked remarkably like a younger version of Emily. She could have been about ten years old, and even wore clothes in Emily's style,
but unlike I had ever seen Emily, she had her hair in a ponytail. She looked at me for a second or two, then yelled over her
shoulder:
"Emily! It's your boyfriend!". Then she disappeared. Moments later, Emily appeared. We looked at each other for a second. Emily
looked over her shoulder to see if her sister was gone yet. Then she leapt towards me and gave me a big hug.
"You've never told me you had a sister", I said, trying not to get too much of her hair in my mouth.
"You didn't tell me about the Pokémon before I saw them either", she replied. "Now, we're even"
We went in, through a small hallway, and up a staircase. I could see bags lying everywhere on my way.
"We had to rush home, and didn't have the mood to unpack when we got home from the hospital", Emily explained. "Normally, it's not
this untidy here"
Well up the stair, we went to the left, towards two doors. I could hear tween pop music coming from one of them.
"Please say that the other thing you haven't told me is that you listen to Jonas brothers", I said. Emily made a grimace.
"No, that's Anna. I don't listen much to music. Particularly not Jonas brothers"
"Never thought I'd met a person with the same music taste as me", I said. We went in through the other door.
Emily's room was the polar opposite of mine. Mine was small, cramped and as untidy as if I was trying to win a prize for it. Emily's
was quite large, with bright colours and a tidiness that bordered on perfection. The furniture was mostly white, and all surfaces
were almost shining. Books were perfectly ordered (by colour, I noticed) in the shelves, and there was not a trace of dust anywhere.
Two large windows provided lots of light here. We sat down on her bed, and I started to tell the story of what had happened, from the
moment I took off last time we met, until this very morning.
"So now you've got even more Pokémon to worry about?", Emily said.
"These are a little weird. I don't know whether I should relax about them or panic. On the one hand, they seem to manage well on
their own. On the other, the thoughts of what they may do...", I said. "But enough of that. How is your dad?"
"Not too good", she whispered. "His heartbeat rhythm is fine. Breathing is fine. He's got some nasty bruises on his back, but they're
not fatal. The doctors think he's got some kind of shock, and the brain just shut down..." she leant on me, and dried a few tears on
my sweater. "...possibly for good!"
We sat like that for a few minutes, in a silence only interrupted by a few muffled sobs from Emily. So far, our relationship had
contained quite a lot of crying, but I hoped it would get better eventually. Also, somewhere in my brain a few neurons were
scrutinizing Emily's words. Something didn't seem right about her story.
"I'm sure he'll be all fine", I said. "He looks like a tough guy, and people do wake up from coma unexpected all the time"
I just got another sob as an answer.

The rest of the day isn't really worth telling about. We decided to watch a film, then I went home to help mom clean the house. Emily
and her family arrived at seven. I was in the living room, stacking today's newspapers into a cupboard, when the doorbell rang. For
some unknown reason, mom knew very well that Emily had a sister.
"And you must be Anna", I heard. "My, you look exactly the same as your sister" I straightened up as they entered the living room.
Emily looked gorgeous in her new dress. It was sparkling with colours, but still very elegant. I wore a stock black tuxedo, and must
have looked quite boring beside her. After eating, us "kids" were sent to watch a film. Anna chose some Disney cartoon she found in a
shelf, and Emily and I just accepted it. We talked through most of it anyway, while Anna didn't seem to notice us.
As the evening went on, I started to become increasingly tired. I had gotten very little sleep that night, and it had been a long
day. Emily noticed it too.
"Sleepy?", she said and looked at her watch. "Two more hours until the rockets go up. You'll have time for a little nap"
"No thanks", I replied. "If I fall asleep now, I won't be able to wake up before tomorrow morning. Which reminds me, I have to get up
early tomorrow"
Emily glanced at her sister, who had fallen asleep in the sofa beside us. Mom, dad and Emily's mother were in the kitchen, out of
hearing range.
"You can't go out hunting like that. You need to be awake, or else you're not going to accomplish anything. I won't let you get up
before eleven tomorrow, at earliest"
"The TLA doesn't cease activity because of holidays", I whispered back. "In this very moment, they may be loading another unfortunate
Pokémon into a van. Give them more time, they'll get more Pokémon. And according to Uxie, that's not good at all"
Emily was about to answer when my mobile phone rang. I picked it up. Nothing. Then, a woman's voice, sounding just like an automatic
phone answerer:
"Please log on to your computer" Then the phone hung up on me.
"What was that?", Emily asked. She had been sitting close enough to be to hear what had been said.
"Smells like a trap", I said. "But it might be the opposite as well. I bet TLA won't try anything extensive tonight. Everyone's at
home and awake, and if they sent me the call to spy on my computer, they won't find anything there. Whoever made the call wouldn't
have anything to win or lose on it. Perhaps they want to help me. And in times like these, I need every bit of information I can
gather. I'll do it"
Emily seemed nervous, but decided to come with me.

"Sorry it's a bit untidy here", I said as we entered my room.
"Crammed", she replied. "But cozy, at least to some extent"
"I keep it clean, at least", I said. "It's just that there isn't room for everything"
I dumped down on my chair and turned on my computer, while Emily sat down on my bed. I regretted that I hadn't made it this morning,
but she didn't seem to care. About a minute later, my computer displayed my desktop. I was wondering "now what", when the screen
suddenly went black. The PC shut down.
"What's happening?", Emily said. "Is it broke?"
"I have a feeling we'll get to know soon", I replied, a bit nervous. If the TLA could travel through screens The Ring-style,
we might have a problem. The PC went back on, but appeared to run in DOS-mode. Just a black background with a text marker. Nothing
else. Suddenly, the word "Hello" turned up on the screen.
"Who are you?", I wrote back.
"Metagross", it replied "I emerged during your PE class on October 27, met you the 28th, and was captured by the organization we know
as TLA yesterday". The sentences came almost as soon as I was finished typing my entries to the conversation. It now struck me that
speaking must be a frustratingly slow way for Metagross to communicate.
"I believe you", I wrote. "By the way, Emily's here with me. Are they tracking this?"
"No chance, Metagross said. "I had to construct not only a new operation system for this conversation, but a new way for your
computer to read signals. A trinary code"
"Don't computers only understand 1 and 0? Power on, power off?"
"Ever heard of complex numbers? Anyway, never mind. Given the time and date, I suspect you can't be away for long, so we have to keep
it to the essentials here. I have managed to hack their systems, but I haven't been able to read much yet. They're encrypted, and I'm
weakened from yesterday"
"Shouldn't you be very fainted now, after using Explosion?"
"There's a difference between 'fainted' and 'unable to battle'", Metagross replied. "Battles keep going until the Pokémon faints.
Usually, it will wake up a little later, but won't be able to battle again before it has rested properly. So until then, they're
weakened, but conscious and able to perform basic moves. So far, I've managed to get into their internal communications. Been busy
working today, I see?"
"I have barely left the house", I wrote. "Why?"
"Their internal messages keeps mentioning 'resistance' in certain parts of the city. They've lost two teams today, it appears.
'Tracking unsuccessful', they keep saying. Do any friends of you know about TLA?"
"None other than Emily", I replied.
"Then there might be someone else who's after the Pokémon", Metagross said. "The industrial area near your school, that's where the
TLA appears to have gotten trouble. You should go check it, but be extremely careful"
"I will", I answered. "By the way, how do they treat you?"
"They ask questions, and want to test us, but we refuse. We haven't been punished for it yet, but the atmosphere gets more
threatening each time. If we try to escape or resist them, they electrocute us. It really hurts. It's only a matter of time before
they will lose patience"
"How many are you there?"
"Somewhere between ten and forty. I try to hack the registries, but it will take time"
"Good luck", I wrote back. Then, as we heard others call for us downstairs, I ended the conversation with a quick "gtg". The computer
shut down immediately, leaving us both puzzled and relieved at the same time.

About twelve hours later, I stepped off the bus. To outsiders, I probably looked like any other teenager looking for windows to break
or walls to spray down. For once, my saggy clothes actually helped me, no one gave me a second look as I walked through the streets
like so many others around here used to do when they got bored. I even wore a large hooded sweater to fulfil the stereotype. In
reality, I was armed to the teeth with Poké Balls. Workers were still on vacation, so the area was empty. An eventual battle with TLA
could get noisy without turning too many heads, in other words.
I walked around seemingly at random, activating the PokéRadar every now and then. It gave no response, and the area was silent, but I
wanted to check everywhere around here. If there was anything here that had hindered the TLA, it could be of great help to me, and I
wanted to find it, as well as possible tracking down a Pokémon or two in the process. About half an hour after leaving the bus stop,
I found myself in a road between two empty warehouses. I turned on the Poké Radar  again. To my great surprise, two dots started to
glow on the screen. There were Pokémon here, only 300 metres away according to the radar. I started to walk casually towards the
spot. The dots faded out after a minute, but I registered that both Pokémon apparently hid in an abandoned warehouse across the road.
I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone were nearby, and walked in through an unlocked side door. I got into a small room only a
few metres square, with lots of thrash lying in heaps. Apparently, some hobos had emptied a few beer cans (and their bladders,
judging by the smell) here not too long ago. Another door lead into a larger room. It was completely dark, wooden boards were
plastered over all the windows. I put my hand in my bag to find my flashlight.
Suddenly, I saw stars. Something had smacked me hard in the head, making me drop my bag. I was dragged around, and the door slammed
shut. I was pinned to the wall, and felt something very sharp against my throat. The flashlight rolled out of the bag, and somehow
turned on, so I could see what had ambushed me.
It looked like an ant of sorts, but red, shiny and taller than a full-grown man. It had only four legs, two of which it standedon,
with the two others being full-developed arms. Each arm ended in a pincer the size of my head. One of them was closed, pushing my
back against the wall, the other was open around my neck. I knew it had a pair of wings on its back as well, but I was too busy
looked at the scissor-like pincer to bother checking.
"Sci...zor", it said. The meaning was obvious, even to one who didn't understand Pokémon. "Friend or foe? The wrong answer will make
you a head shorter"
"It's me", I harked. It's amazing how fast mouths can dry when you're in a pinch. Literally speaking.
"It is him. Release him", another voice said. I felt the pincers move away from me. "Finally found us, huh?"
I picked up the flashlight and directed it towards the voice. A creature looking remarkably like a cross-breed of human and jackal
appeared from the darkness. The size of a human child, it stood on two legs, with its right arm stretched towards me. It looked like
it was wearing a blue shorts, and a khaki vest, but I knew that was just its fur being like that. The furless spots; its legs, paws
and parts of its head, were black.
"We've been awaiting you", the Lucario said in a telepathic voice. "Done a little bit of work ourselves in the meantime"
He turned on a small lamp that was placed on a crate in the middle of the room. It looked like they had been busy, oh yeah.
In a crate under a boarded-up window lay a dozen or so dart rifles, and as many tazer guns. A similar crate beside it was filled to
the rim with bent rifles, broken tazer guns, torn bulletproof vests, broken goggles, and a few crushed walkie-talkies. On the wall
behind me hung five or six hazmat suits, all seemingly intact. About twice as many lay in a heap on the floor. They were torn almost
beyond recognition. There was a stack of bulletproof vests lying in a corner as well.
"A little bit?", I muttered. "How many people from TLA have you taken down, really?"
"Sixty or so", Lucario answered. "They travel in small teams, and fall easily to ambushes. It's not rocket science, just use your
fastest attack at the people with guns, and the rest lose their heads as soon as they see the armed squads are down"
"Of course, the heads grow back after a few seconds", Scizor giggled. I looked at him, quite shocked. He didn't know that I could
understand him.
"The vans may be solid, but the windshield falls to a single Brick Break. Takes out the driver as well. Then loot what you can before
the vans disintegrate themselves", Lucario finished. "For some reason, they do that. Rinse and repeat when reinforcements arrive,
usually the next day"
"And where do you dispose of... the bodies?", I asked. "Do they disintegrate as well?"
"Sleeping with the fishes", Lucario said. I was terrified. Did they throw them off a pier? He giggled, and continued. "The fish
storehouse a few blocks away has terrible security. We dump the guys in the same place after every attack, and the guards are as
shocked each time they find a new batch of unconscious people in the underwear. Still, they don't improve security"
"You're playing with high stakes here", I said. "If they catch you..."
"We weren't going to keep going for much longer anyway", Lucario said. "When they discover our hideout, we'll get away. The useful
stuff is hidden elsewhere anyway"
"This looks useful enough", I said and lifted a hazmat suit off its hook on the wall.
"A good decoy, at least", Lucario said. "We want it to look like this is a human hideout. Hopefully, we'll be away when they find us"
"You look well prepared", I said. "You'll be fine"

That's when a flashbang grenade came flying in through an air vent.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Not a CLIFFHANGER!!!!

Quote from: SuperFireKirby on August 24, 2009, 07:07:04 AMNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Not a CLIFFHANGER!!!!

Welcome to Emergence my friend.

I FORGOT ABOUT THIS!!

Wow, I have a lot of catching up to do...

^And there's more to come! Welcome back, by the way!
Sorry this chapter is a little shorter than usual, but I couldn't add another scene without splitting the chapter into two parts, which is a proper PIA to submit, and I don't want to broaden what I have any more (also note, it doesn't fill the page width fully. That's a pain to fix, and the result doesn't get better in the end anyway). It's been too long since the last chapter as well.

Comments and critisism is as always deeply appreciated.

Chapter twenty-two: The first outbreak

While I was almost stunned, Lucario was certainly not. He spun around and kicked the grenade hard into a concrete wall. It broke into
fizzing pieces that rained down all over the room. I stood rooted to the spot for a second, before my brain started working.
"Make a bang, someone", I whispered. Scizor opened its right pincer, and snapped it shut. It was so fast that I couldn't make out any
sort of motion, one moment it was open, one moment it was closed. The sound made was similar to that of a gunshot.
"Now set up", I continued in a low voice. "Boost stats". Then I shouted: "AAAHH! What was that?! My eyes!" To whoever had thrown the
grenade, it should ideally sound like a success. But even though I screamed a lot, I bent calmly down and picked up Emily's scarf
from my bag. One day, I would have to return it, but in the meantime, it could help hide my identity again.
As I wrapped the scarf around my head, I could see Lucario breathing deeply with its eyes closed. Weird lights appeared around his
head. Scizor spun around on the spot, smoke was whirling around him. Something that resembled scimitars could vaguely be seen inside
the cloud. I crouched down behind a crate and waited. The two Pokémon stood back to back, Scizor with its gaze fixed at the door,
Lucario looking for boards to give in, or hearing for sounds from the air vents. Suddenly, the sound of a beer can being trampled
flat indicated that someone was in the small room with the door to the outside. The door handle was pressed down, and the door flew
open.
"What have we he-", a woman's voice said. the rest of the sentence disappeared in a loud gurgling. Scizor was upon her, and had gone
for the throat. I heard shouting, the sound of something solid falling to the floor, and several thumps. Lucario still hadn't moved,
they could possibly be trying to attack us from both sides. I peered over the crate, and could see splatters of blood shrinking and
eventually vanishing from the walls and floor. Scizor was a merciless battler, and even though the TLA grunts were well trained, they
were no match. The occasional clanking from Scizor's armour told me that they were shooting darts at him.
It appeared that all fighters were knocked out now. Scizor went calmly back in the room again, with darts ricocheting from his
armour. He pushed the fallen woman out of the room with his leg, and slammed the door shut.
"How's the situation?", I asked.
"TLA. They are many. Perhaps twenty. Three vans. I took down four people", Scizor said, mostly to Lucario. Lucario turned towards me.
"No need to translate", I interrupted him. "Long story, but I can understand you. Now. They will probably try to get in here once
again. Until then, repeat Calm Mind as long as you can. Scizor, cover the door"
I had a look at the contents of the room. It was quite large, about ten by twenty metres, but had only one entrance. There were
boarded-up windows on two sides, the other two were plain concrete walls. This room was apparently one of four identical rooms that
made up the building. Scizor and Lucario had stuffed most of the loot in a corner by the door, while the rest of the room was empty,
save for a sofa and a fridge in the far end. After all, they were trying to make it look like humans lived here.
"They might use gas", Lucario said. "We are immune, but you should try on one of these" He nodded in the direction of the hazmat
suits hanging on the wall. I found the one that seemed most intact, and got it on. The minutes went by surprisingly silent.
"They may be calling in reinforcements", I said after a couple of minutes had passed in silence. My voice was wheezy through the gas
mask, and I could hardly see through both the scarf and the visor.
"And our situation isn't ideal either", Lucario said. "We could do with some action. Remember, you trained us to attack, not to hide"
"True", I said. "Are there any other ways out of here?"
"No", Scizor said. "The building is surrounded either way"
Suddenly, we heard a sound. Apparently, someone were placing something that looked suspiciously like gas canisters in the same air
vent the flashbang had come in through.
"Here comes the gas", I said. "Time to see if this suit works"
The room was filled with a white smoke that drifted off after a few minutes. I didn't feel any difference breathing. While not
extremely Pokémon-proof, the hazmat suits certainly excelled in what they were sewn to do. Lucario and Scizor, being Steel types,
were both immune to poison, and just kept boosting stats. After a few more minutes, it seemed like they had become a little tired of
waiting. I walked over to the door and opened it slightly. A man's voice was heard:
"Still in there? We can wait all day, or all year for that matter. You can give in, or starve to death in there. We won't come and
get you. There are no other ways out of there, and you don't have water or sanitary systems. Come out, and we'll take care of you"
"Or we can walk away ourselves. Do you really think you can stop us?", I shouted back.
"Don't be silly. I have a dozen trained men with rifles here, all with the finger on the triggers and aiming for you", the man
answered.
"Idiot", Lucario muttered.
"Agreed", I said. "There's only one angle from which you can see this door from the outside, and he practically told us that he has
all of his men there. Have you boosted enough now?"
Lucario nodded. Even though his mouth was hidden from my view, I could swear he was smiling.
"Then take out the wall. Focus Blast. Bring them down", I said.
"Find cover first. This will be a pretty large bang", Lucario replied. "Counting down from ten!"
I crouched down where the roof seemed least likely to fall down on me. Lucario turned towards the corner, clapped his hands together,
stretched out his arms, and took a step backwards. Without warning, something that looked like a cloud of solid smoke was shot from
his hands. It went straight for the wall like a cannonball, going through it as if it was made of paper. Pieces of concrete flew in
every direction, and the windows shattered behind the boards. Through the subsequent dust cloud, I could see the riflemen the agent
had spoken about were scattered like bowling pins. The roof didn't fall down, but creaked slightly.
Scizor was on the move again, giving the surprised agent a Bullet Punch to the chest. The man was flung through a factory window on
the other side of the street. The area outside was a mess of rubble, and one of the vans was severely damaged. Lucario stepped out to
the street, forming a large black blob between his hands. He turned around a few times to look for targets, but no people were
standing upright. The ones who weren't taken out by the Focus Blast, had taken cover behind buildings or the trademark black TLA
vans. Lucario's gaze swept over the scene one final time before he unleashed the Shadow Ball at the nearest van.
"Run!", he barked as the van was thrown down the street. I picked up my bag and did as he had told me. The hazmat suit wasn't easy to
run in, and I was by no means a good runner, but I managed to cover quite some distance in a few minutes. I found a shed on an empty
parking lot, and hid in it. I dragged off the hazmat suit, and sat there for a few minutes, until I was absolutely sure that no one
came after me. I had put the scarf away, but still wore the hood when I went back out to see if I could find Lucario and Scizor. It
didn't take too many minutes before I found them, leaning on an overfilled container between two warehouses. Lucario looked
exhausted, while Scizor's usually shining body armour was smeared with grease and oil.
"They had cameras", Lucario panted. He was too exhausted to use telepathy. "Had to destroy the computers and communications. I've
never torn apart a car that quickly before"
"They were shooting at us as well", Scizor said. "And paid dearly for it" I could see pieces of what looked like shredded hazmat
suits being stuck in various cracks in his armour.
"You've done a great job", I said and found their Poké Balls in my bag. "Let's get going before reinforcements arrive"

The roads were as silent as earlier, but seemed way more threatening. Each time I heard a car approach us, I ducked down and put my
hand in the bag. We were in the more modern part of the industrial area now, less than a kilometre away from my school. There were no
small warehouses or detail shops here, but large industrial complexes behind tall fences, each of them a few hundred metres square.
As the fences ran alongside the pavement on both sides of the road, there were no places to hide here. I felt like a mouse crossing
an open field, knowing about but not seeing eagles fly far overhead.
Then something appeared out of the blue. Surprisingly, I saw it long before it came close to me. It was Azelf, just floating down
from the sky like a leaf in Autumn, though he held a steadier course.
"You didn't do too bad", it said as it approached me. "Though, I expected you to do it a bit cleaner"
"I escaped unharmed, at least", I countered. "So did both my Pokémon, but none of the TLA people. We destroyed a lot of their
equipment as well"
Azelf looked at me. "Yeah, you did", it said. "Congrats. Too bad you weren't there to see it. They pretty much did all by themselves"
"He told me to run!", I said.
"You don't have to listen to him, planning is your responsibility. But it worked this time, yes. Lucario saved your skin twice",
Azelf said. It hovered beside me as I walked down the road. "The survivors were shooting for you. Or at least, they thought they did.
Some random troublemaker dressed more or less like you happened to be at the place at the wrong time, and he was hit. That suit saved
you. They thought you were one of their own"
I shivered. "What's going to happen to him? Do I have to save him?"
"He'll wake up tomorrow with his latest memories wiped. Will encourage him to quit drugs, at least", Azelf said casually.
"Thanks for what you did yesterday", I said. "I have a feeling that things go a lot smoother now. I may be able to win this, and if I
manage to tell Mismagius about it, there's no chance they'll understand our conversations from now on"
"They've put Mismagius under constant surveillance", Azelf said. "They had a scientist to interrogate her, threatening with various
ghost busting equipment. Mismagius twisted his neck when things started to go nasty. Apparently thrashed the whole room as well"
"Interrogate?", I said.
"They're getting more determined on catching you after they intercepted you last night"
"Is anybody hurt?"
"No, they shout and plea to the Pokémon, who refuse to cooperate, but no physical harm is done yet. And you already know that in the
long term, the Pokémon can't hurt them either"
"By the way, where are the others? Uxie and Mesprit?"
"Knowing them, Mesprit is on a school somewhere. Or a hospital, given the vacation. Those are usually blooming with emotions. I guess
Uxie's found a library somewhere..."
We were interrupted as a car came driving down the road. I didn't pay attention to it before it stopped. It was a military-type
truck, but without the national emblem all military vehicles in the country had on the front grille. It stopped a few metres before
us, and a dozen armed men jumped out of it. However, I could see they were no ordinary military. Black featureless suits indicated
that these were TLA grunts, but without the usual hazmat suits this time.
"Stay still. I'll take care of this", Azelf whispered. I was frozen with shock, couldn't move either way. Guns have that effect on
some people.
"Hey! That's a Pokémon over there!", one of the men shouted.
"Take it down!"
"You kid! Come over here!"
A man pointed an automatic gun at me. "Get over here! Away from that!"
"Pokémon! Stay still, come with us, and no one will get hurt", another man yelled.
"Send a message to the others! I think we've got him!", the man with the gun pointing at me said.
"I beg to differ", Azelf calmly said and stretched out an arm. Its tiny palm started to glow. Then, a small dart, no larger than the
ones used in the game of the same name, emerged from its palm. I saw the scene as in slow motion. The orange glowing dart shot from
Azelf's hand towards the truck at bullet speeds. As it did so, it glowed increasingly brighter before it burst into a large five-
armed star of pure fire. A fraction of a second later, it hit the truck in the front grill.
The explosion was tremendous. A large fireball engulfed the truck, and the blast wave put all the soldiers on fire and threw them
around like rag dolls. The road was scorched, and the scarce grass between the pavement and the fence was put ablaze. I felt the heat
hitting me like a burning blanket being wiped over my face. As the truck collapsed in another fiery explosion, Azelf turned towards
me.
"Now, where were we? Let's go"
"What about... tidying?", I shouted over the roar of the fire.
"That's their problem. And a speciality field of theirs. I wouldn't be overly concerned that this ever will hit the news", Azelf
said. "As I suppose you know, they won't be physically damaged either"
I looked over my shoulder as we left the scene. Bodies were lying motionless on the road, their clothes were still burning.
"Are you sure they...", I began
"Of course", Azelf interrupted me. "Now, let's find a bus stop"

Some ten minutes later, I dumped down in the back seat of a bus. Azelf had vanished right before I came to the bus stop, but it
didn't take long before he contacted me telepathically from wherever it was. I sat there, trying to look like a normal guy, looking
at the buildings the bus drove past, and all in all succeeded at looking uninteresting. But inside my head, I had a vivid discussion:
"Now, time to sum up the events", Azelf's voice said in my head. "First, how do you think they found you?" He sounded quite like a
teacher hearing his students sum up the homework.
"The area was probably swarming with TLA", I replied. "Metagross said they had had trouble in that part of the city, so they were
most likely all over the place to begin with"
"Still, what attracted them to that specific warehouse?", Azelf asked.
"Umm...", I thought, trying to recall anything I had done out of the ordinary. "I timed it bad, and dumped into the place minutes
before a planned attack was to happen?"
"A good guess, but wrong nonetheless", Azelf said. "You emitted a quite powerful signal this morning, that was easily backtracked to
you. And gave away the location of two Pokémon. They snapped up the signal, saw from it that you met up with the Pokémon, and decided
to strike"
"The Poké Radar?", I thought and instinctively held my bag tighter to me.
"Yep", Azelf sighed. "A great tool for finding Pokémon, but the signal can be tracked as well. If you use it to find Pokémon, catch
them quickly, then get out of there as fast as you can. And if you don't find Pokémon, the signal can be tracked either way. Then,
you better run. Far and fast"
"So... it's practically useless unless I know roughly where the Pokémon is in the first place?"
"Or you know that the area is TLA-free", Azelf finished. "Which, I have to say, is not true for most of this city. They have called
in all branches of the organisation to this city, they have people practically everywhere now"
"What do they want with the Pokémon, anyway?", I asked.
"You'll find out, soon enough", Azelf said. "I can't tell you specifically, but they're dangerously close to achieving it. Come next
month, and the guys will be damn hard to take down"
"If I don't do something?", I guessed.
"Either way, really, but if you act, they will only be hard to beat because there's so many of them. If you let them achieve their
goal, you'll get trouble with each one of them"
"What do you mean?", I thought, my mind working hard to try to fit the pieces of the puzzle. "They're... trying to use the Pokémon
against me?"
Azelf said nothing.
"It is true, isn't it? How can we stop them?", I thought.
"It helps a lot that a certain iron crab is able to access and delete their research data from the past thirty years if need be",
Azelf's voice giggled. "Still, there's a lot left to do. But you can figure out that yourself, I've said too much. Good luck!"
Then the connection was interrupted. I got up from my seat and went off the bus with an expressionless face, but a very bad feeling
in my stomach.

Just read the first chapter, and I love it. Anything with Tyranitar is guaranteed epic.

well done man. Como dicho: you have to publish your stuff!

^As I've stated somewhere, I won't update with a new chapter before I know that someone has read the previous one. Now I know you've read it, time to submit!
Chapter twenty-three: Midtown Madness

I slept a dreamless sleep that night, and was quite concerned for Mismagius when I woke up. It was the second of January today, the last day of the public holiday. Come tomorrow, and people would get back to work. The city would be swarming with people. Well, it would be a Sunday tomorrow, so there wouldn't be very many people around, but still too many to keep a Pokémon hunt a silent affair.
So I had to use today for all it was worth. I got up early, went down to the cavern and chose a team to come with me: Tyranitar, Lucario, Scizor, Weavile, Swampert and Pidgeot. I put their Poké Balls and the bag containing the empty balls in a bag, that I hid in the garden shed. Then I went back to bed, and slept until mom called me down for breakfast. I had done this quite a few times now, and it felt equally strange each time. Eating breakfast with mom and dad, tell them I'd go to Edvard/Emily/Matt and then hunt Pokémon, fully knowing that it got more dangerous by the day. Perhaps I'd never come home, perhaps the I'd come home accompanied by the TLA, or I'd be very lucky and survive. And they knew nothing. At times, I felt a very strong urge to tell them everything, maybe even ask for help. Other times, I almost panicked thinking that they might suspect something. After breakfast, I went out, got the bag in the shed and went for the bus stop. I planned to search the areas downtown today, as I wouldn't get another chance to see the place as empty as it would be today. With my bag stuffed with Pokémon gear, I walked towards the bus stop.
I walked a little faster than I thought I would have, and arrived at the bus stop a few minutes before the bus was scheduled to come. There was only one other passenger there, a lonely figure who seemed quite frozen. She turned around, and I saw it was Emily.
"Thought I'd find you here", she said.
"You could have called, I could have come over to you, or you to me", I replied.
"No, I know you had other plans for today", she said and nodded in the direction of my bag. "I want to come with you"
"Don't you know how dangerous that would be? I told you about yesterday, remember?"
"Exactly. I know you're risking a lot by doing this, and I don't want to sit at home being concerned for you", she said. "Do you have any idea what that is like? I know you're out there, playing hide-and-seek with some people we don't know who are, but I have no idea how you are doing before you call me. Do you have any idea what it is like sitting at home waiting for that call? I can't concentrate on anything, mom asks me of anything's wrong, and I generally feel miserable. I don't know what would happen if one day I didn't get that call. It's much worse to sit safely and wonder what is happening than it is to be there, in danger, but knowing. I'm coming with you"
I sighed. "Okay, but if anything happens to you, I don't know what I'd do"
"I'll be careful, and stick to you, I promise", Emily said. "As long as you know what you're doing, I'll do fine"
"That's the issue. If I tell you to run and leave me, you'll do that, right?"
"Nope", she said. "We're in this together"
"And what if you get caught because of a mistake I make?"
"Then so be it"
"You know, I love you", I said. Emily beamed.

"Now what?", Emily said half an hour later. We were standing in what used to be a busy shopping street, watching the bus go away in the distance. The street was practically dead, with closed shops and over-filled thrash cans.
"This is as far as I've planned as well", I said. "I guess we can walk around a bit, see if we hit any Pokémon, catch them if we do, and go home when we get tired of it"
"And the TLA?"
"Then we'll improvise"
Emily sighed. "You're not serious, are you?"
"Do you have a better plan?", I asked. "I planned on letting Weavile do some of the work for us as well. Let's find a manhole, and Swampert can sure help us too"
We found a quiet side street and did just that. Weavile leapt off to the roof tops (about fifteen metres up - from a standing position), while Swampert went down a manhole. After that, we wandered around, seemingly aimlessly.
"Let's find a café or something", Emily said two hours later. We had been walking up and down streets, the weather was grey and it had started to snow slightly. "I'm freezing"
"I almost froze to death when tracking a Charizard last week", I said. "Didn't find it either, but I kept going"
"There weren't any cafés around in the forest", Emily said. "It wasn't like you had anything else to do"
"Have you seen any open cafés around today?", I said. "If you see one, we can-" I stopped mid-sentence. Something, like a bird's cry, was heard over the faint sound of the wind.
"What is it?"
"Listen!", I said. "It's in Pokémon. I think it's Weavile"
"It's only a bird", Emily said.
"It says 'east'", I said and looked in said direction, to the left. On the other side of the road, the Modern Art Museum was looming over us. Between the statues from the museum's first years some time in the 1700s, a lone figure was standing. I could hardly make it out, but it had to be Weavile.
"We should go", I said. "One block to the east. I'm sure he has seen something"
We said nothing as we crossed the street and walked through the metro station under the museum. Weavile hadn't shouted any warning, so it should be safe. Or appear safe from the rooftops, at least.

The other side of the museum was totally different from the west façade. After a fire thirty years ago, the entire building face was modernized, later inspiring the city planners to level a few other buildings damaged by the fire and make Millennium Square. A gigantic open space with a post-modern obelisk in its centre. MaMoPho, a major mobile phone company, had later built its headquarters in an L-shape on two sides of the square, leaving only one side open apart from a minimal gap between the HQ and the museum. This effectively made the area it a dead end for cars. Due to traffic issues, the Millennium Street was made a pedestrian zone, and shops were blooming on both sides of what now was one of the most lucrative shopping streets in the city, despite it being only a few hundred metres long. Even today, there were quite a few people in the area, mostly skaters who took advantage of the heater system on Millennium Square now that the rest of the city was blanketed by snow.
"I don't see anything unusual", Emily said as we emerged from the metro station. "Are you sure you didn't accidentally learned to understand seagulls too, and just overheard one shout out where there was food?"
"I'm dead sure", I said, looking up towards the roof of the Modern Art museum behind us. This façade was mostly steel and glass, and it was way harder for a humanoid figure to hide here than it was between statues of roughly the same size. I guessed Weavile was still standing among them on the other side.
"Besides, where would a Pokémon hide here?"
Suddenly, we heard sirens. There was always an ambulance or two driving around downtown, but this was different. Wilder, sort of.
"Hood on!", I hissed, not a moment too late. Ten seconds later, a huge black helicopter came flying over the roof of the Modern Art Museum. Underneath the copter hung a couple of speakers and what clearly was a machine gun. It flew in a wide arc over the museum again, and I could see people being dropped onto the roof by ropes.
"Look", Emily said and pointed down the road. At the very end of Millennium Street lay a huge shopping mall. Just in front of it, there was a large roundabout mostly used by taxis.
"Oh no", I groaned. Three large vehicles were driving up the street from the roundabout. They looked like huge, black fire trucks, with orange lights and sirens that screamt out warnings to everyone who were in the way. They didn't slow down as they hit the concrete car stoppers and crushed them beneath large wheels. Following the three trucks were two large semi trailers of the same fashion. Huge, black, noisy and powerful.
"A tenner for guessing who we're dealing with", I whispered. Voices from the metro station indicated that something was going on down there as well.
"We should walk down the street", Emily whispered back. We left Millennium Square and started walking down the road. The trucks had stopped now, and dozens of people clad in black and grey were swarming around them. The helicopter was now hovering over the obelisk in the middle of the square.
"Your attention please", a loud voice said. A man had emerged from the metro station a hundred metres behind us. He spoke into a small black device in his hand, and his voice was broadcasted from speakers on the trucks and the helicopter. He wore a featureless grey tuxedo, black shoes, and black sunglasses, even though the sun was blocked by heavy clouds. His voice sounded as plain as Microsoft Sam's.
"Everyone stop at the spot and lie down. This is nothing to worry about"
Not to raise suspicion, we did as he said. My heart was thundering in my chest, and I heard Emily murmuring something that resembled a prayer. From where we lay behind the base of a statue, we could see one of the skaters trying to escape the scene, rushing towards the gap between the museum and the MaMoPho HQ. The man who had spoke produced a gun from his pocket. Emily pressed her face to my jacket. There was no bang as the skater was shot, only a click, so I assumed it was just a dart gun. The skater nose dived into the concrete nonetheless, and we didn't see him get up again.
"We're done for", Emily whispered.
"I don't think they're here because of us", I whispered back. "I just hope it's not Weavile", I thought.
We lay like that for less than a minute before something happened. Said something seemed to appear out of thin air, hovering out of a window in the MaMoPho HQ. It could best be described as a glitch. I don't know what else to call it. A cluster of four or five white and blue smooth shapes that were floating around, spinning and constantly revolving around itself, ignoring gravity. At times, it resembled a duck, only with the head put upside down on the body. Other times, it was just a flurry of dislocated body parts. Every few seconds, it appeared to dissolve, like a hologram from Star Wars whenever the connection was bad. Sparks were constantly flying from its neck, like blood from a dismembered head. Sometimes, it appeared that the sparks were coming from its eyes as well.
"Oh no", I groaned.
"Is it Missingo?", Emily said.
"Not MissingNO, this time. Worse. You see those glasses orbiting... it could be its left leg?", I answered. "Those are Choice Specs. Boosts the power of the bearer's Special moves"
"And?"
"What you see over there is Porygon-Z. Yielder of the eighth most powerful attack in all of Pokémon. Trust me, this thing is devastating. I often used it to end battles. With a bang"
The helicopter turned around mid-air so that it faced the Virtual Pokémon. It then backed to get it at a better angle.
"I thought Porygon used to be red?", Emily said. "I've looked up a lot of Pokémon lately"
"Alternate colouration", I said. "Incredibly rare, this one"
"Freeze, Pokémon", the agent said and stepped out on the square to face Porygon-Z, that had now come out to the square as well. A loud scraping sound was heard.
"What was that?", Emily asked.
"Mainly... code", I said. "Untranslatable, but bad news, that's for sure"
The trucks started driving towards the Pokémon, that had now come out in front of the obelisk. The helicopter dropped down between the buildings, not to attract attention. About four dozen TLA-grunts were walking beside the trucks, guns pointed at Porygon-Z.
"Stay still, and you will not be hurt. You can not win this battle", the agent shouted. Porygon-Z answered with another cry.
"Now... hell will break loose", I whispered.

A small glowing orb appeared in front of Porygon-Z, who had gathered itself to its usual pose. It shone with a dull orange colour, and slowly grew in size and intensity.
"Stay as close to the statue base as you are physically able to", I whispered to Emily. A couple of TLA soldiers approached us, but stopped as they noticed Porygon-Z. The trucks stopped as well, and the soldiers raised their guns. The vast majority of them had dart guns, but there were quite a lot of regular automatic weapons there as well.
"Stop that!", the agent with the microphone said. "Or you'll pay for it"
The sphere was now roughly the size of as basket ball, and still growing. It started to revolve slightly.
"Is it me or is it darker here?", Emily said, pressing her body against the base of the statue.
"It is", I said and peered around the corner. "It's taking energy from the surroundings"
Light appeared to gather into fine strings that ran through the air into the sphere, which now was doing about one rotation per second. The very air seemed to vibrate even here, more than a hundred metres away.
"Shoot it!", the agent shouted. About half of the dart gun-yielding soldiers fired at the sphere. With a fizzing sound, the darts were absorbed by the rotating whirl.
"Where are those snipers?", he yelled. Probably, they had all fallen to Weavile moments after the drop-off at the museum roof. There was a deep humming noise in the air now. Manholes rattled, and window panes where shaking. The cobblestones near Porygon-Z were trembling violently.
"Take it out!", the agent bellowed. Porygon-Z was hidden completely behind the sphere now, and the spray of bullets and darts that followed had no effect.
"Close your eyes, and hold on!", I shouted. My voice seemed tiny over the hum of the charging attack. I held my bag as tightly to my body as possible, and tried to find a safer position. Still, I had to see this. Though the sound was deafening now, the loudspeakers on the trucks allowed me to hear the agent say a not so family-friendly word to himself.
Then Hyper Beam was unleashed.

A beam of intense yellow light, wide as a road. The roar was tremendous, and windows all the way down the street were shattered. The beam first hit the middle truck and obliterated it completely. The trucks on either side slowly moved sideways into the vortex, like plates on a table when you pull the tablecloth. Eventually, they tilted over and were ripped to pieces that were sent flying. Cobblestones were torn up from the road and flung down the street along with the beam. I didn't see what the beam eventually hit, but there was a terrible explosion down there. The beam made quite a vacuum as it passed, and the helicopter stood no chance. It was sucked into the vortex, and sent spinning down the street. I raised my head a little to see what happened to it. It was a really stupid thing to do. I was yanked from the spot, and hurled down the street. Most of the beam had worn off by now, so I wasn't burned to bits like the rest of the stuff that was hit. Still, I was whirling down the street in the vacuum after the Hyper Beam at a speed most cars could only dream about reaching. I spun too fast to see much, but I understood that Millennium Street itself was pretty ruined. I tried to spot Emily, what had happened to her, but then I hit something. I blacked out.

Surprisingly, I was still lying in the ruins when I woke up. The blood pouring from numerous wounds all over my body indicated either that I hadn't been out for long, or I had hit something a little too hard. I held my breath as I waited. My clothes were soaked with blood. If those wounds didn't heal, I'd be done for. Suddenly, I felt very cold, then very hot. A wound at the back of my hand closed itself, and the blood vanished. I sighed with relief and got up. Every inch of my body was aching, and my vision was blurry. I wasn't KO-ed very hard, but that didn't mean I was all right either. From the looks of things, I was in a book store in the mall at the end of Millennium Street. I had been thrown through all the shelves before I hit the concrete wall, that must have softened the impact. Now, books lay everywhere, and the shelves were either tipped over or broken. Among them lay my bag, miraculously undamaged. I picked it up, wrapped on Emily's scarf, and went out. It was first when I saw what was outside the store, that I realised how powerful the attack had been. The entire front facade of the mall was ruined. I was on the third floor, looking down on a pile of rubble, in the midst of which lay a thrashed helicopter. The remains of a truck lay scattered down a hallway to the left. The two other trucks were nowhere to be seen, and the trailers were completely gone. To the right, I looked out to Millennium Street. Or rather, a huge trench running where Millennium Street used to be. The buildings were largely intact on both sides of the street, apart from the pulverized windows. There were a few TLA people running around still, but they seemed to have no clue what to do. About half a kilometre away, Porygon-Z had disassembled again, and drifted down the ruined street. I had to stop it. As Choice Specs only allowed the Pokémon to use one move each time it was brought to the battlefield, there would come another Hyper Beam if it was provoked to another attack. And it would be as strong as the first one. I had to climb and jump down the rubble piles to get down. There lay bodies all over the place here. I think I had thrown up if I hadn't know that they would be all right, given enough time.
Agent had arrived on the scene, and the grunts weren't running aimlessly around any more. I stopped, and released Scizor and Lucario from their Poké Balls. The collapsed mall had blocked the road here, so there were no drivable ways out of the street now. However, there were several side streets running from Millennium Street, and as demonstrated earlier, the heavier TLA vehicles didn't care about obstacles. I started to run for the spot where Emily had been, with Lucario and Scizor following closely behind. Everyone's attention was focused on Porygon-Z again, but no one made any effort to stop it.
"Where is she?", I murmured. The TLA had gathered all the people in the street to a small crowd. If Men in Black was anything to go by, they would have their memories modified now. I would not allow that to happen to Emily.
"Vacuum Wave!", I shouted to Lucario. He stopped, and sent a shockwave from his palms towards an agent who was in the midst of finding something in his pocket. Without warning, he was tugged from the spot and sent flying toward us. Everyone's heads turned.
"You...", the agent said and got up. He was only a few metres away from me. "...are so in trouble. You are surrounded"
"By who?", I taunted back. I knew for sure that I had the upper hand now. "The guys in the mall? The ones on the roofs? Perhaps those trucks? Or the helicopter?"
"Reinforcements are on the way", the agent grunted. "We'll have a thousand men here in five minutes"
"Ooops", I thought. Time to come up with a plan B.
"Nine hundred and ninety-nine", Scizor murmured behind me. I nodded. The agent probably didn't see the Bullet Punch coming. The crowd split, everyone ran in different directions as the unconscious man was sent flying above their heads. Scizor's intimidating appearance made most people choose the opposite direction, but Emily took advantage of the confusion and ran over to me. I called Porygon-Z back while everyone was looking a different way.
"OK", I said. "He got a point. We are surrounded"

The scene with Porygon-Z was epic.
Well in fact, every bit of it was :)
Go on ;)

HYPER BEAM FTW! I love how you brought the attack to life with such vividness.

Actually Emergence will be the only reason for me to visit this site once in a while :P

Oh wow, it's been longer than I thought since last update. Time really flies when the teachers start giving tests to rehearse to.
But I'm still here! I've written a little now and then, and eventually polished it and made it ready for update. Please enjoy:

Chapter twenty-four: The chase

We stood rooted to the spot. There really was no way of knowing when and where the TLA would arrive, and even though all exits were
open, we didn't know if any of them were safe. Not to mention, after being hit by the Hyper Beam, I was not fit for running.
"I suppose we can give up battling our way out of this", I said and called Scizor and Lucario back. "We'd lay half the city in ruins,
and cause mass panic. The best we can hope for is... well, I don't know, actually"
"So it's over?", Emily said. "Are we giving in?"
"Do you see any other option? The TLA are all over the city, heading this way. We could try and mess up as much as possible for them,
but it wouldn't be a silent affair. The secret would be busted already on the first Pokémon move used"
We could hear sirens in the distance. The TLA grunts were starting to gather people again. The remote "chug"s from a helicopter also
grew in intensity. A grunt pointed a gun at us and told us to separate. Several more grunts started surrounding us where we stood on
the side of the street.
"It was fun as long as it lasted", I said. Emily didn't answer. I could see tears running down her cheek. With a screeching sound, a
van came driving in through a side street, turned sharply and barely avoided falling into the trench. It stopped, and a TLA agent got
out through a side door. He didn't look at me, but smiled nonetheless. I stared hatefully at him. Going by the stereotype these guys
seemed to follow, he was going to gloat for a few minutes before capturing us. He walked around the area for a few minutes, giving
commands to the grunts. The rest of the people in the street was gathered in a large group about a hundred metres away. Finally, he
came over to us.
"So this is the one who has caused us so much trouble...", he said. "A pity that it should end like this, not? Surrounded without
chance of escaping or fighting back? Now, put that bag down, demask and lay down"
"I dare you to make me", I replied.
"Not that difficult", he responded and produced a gun from his pocket. "Your girl is of no use to us, and we can easily make her
'disappear' from all official records"
I laid down, but still with the scarf on and clutching the bag. Emily sobbed loudly.
"And the cloth?", the agent said. "Remove it, or..."
"I get the poi-GAH!" The nearest manhole cover suddenly sprung open. A huge blue arm appeared from it. I was grabbed by the leg and
pulled down, still clutching to my bag. I prepared for a wet landing, but was caught by another arm and carried away screaming. After
half a minute or so, I was put down. A loud croak told me to stay still and not panic.
"Swampert?", I said and tried to get to my feet. My head banged into the ceiling immediately, and I sat down again. The floor was wet
and slippery, and it smelled awful here. "We have to go back to..." I stopped. "It's too late, isn't it?"
"Wise move", Swampert croaked back.
"No, it isn't", I said. Due to the complete darkness here, I couldn't see her face, but I imagined its expression to be quite
puzzled. "Emily is a good bait. They will use her to get me. But they can't keep her here! We can..."
Loud splashes and shouting told me that we had got company. Apparently, the TLA wouldn't settle with the fact that I had escaped
their clutches.
"I'll save the plan for later", I said. Swampert helped me climb up on her back, and started to run. Sewage splashed over my legs and
back as I clung on to Swampert. The tunnels were about two metres in diameter, and halfway filled with sewage. Swampert apparently
had no problems navigating them, and managed to run quite fast even though she was halfway submerged in water. After a few lefts and
rights, we stopped.
"What is it?", I asked. I opened my (quite grimy) bag, found a flashlight, and lit up what was ahead of us. A set of solid steel
bars, spaced about 20 centimetres apart. Behind us, the shouting got louder.
"Uh-oh...", I said. "Looks like we're in a dead end. Is there anything to do?"
Swampert nodded, and turned around, so that she stood with her back to the bars. Then she told me to hold my breath. I hurriedly
closed the bag, and hoped that its contents were waterproof. I had tested all the trainer equipment, but not the Poké Balls yet
(didn't want to risk one of those on such an experiment).
"Hey!", a voice shouted, just around the bend. "I heard a sound!"
I heard a sound as well. A rushing sound. I closed my mouth and eyes, and clinged to Swampert's back. If this was what I thought it
would be...
"Flush!", she croaked. The second after, I was hit in the back by a large wave of water. It filled the tunnel completely for several
seconds, then the level fell back and the water was calm once again. I was completely covered in brown mud (or worse), and it smelled
terribly. Swampert looked another way as I slipped off her and threw up. I decided to toss my bag as soon as I got home, there was no
use of it now. Also, no way I could put my clothes in the washing machine without leaving traces of this.
"Surf", Swampert explained. I nodded, and continued to empty my stomach. I felt terrible, sick and tired. Yet, there was about 50
kilometres to go home, and I had to save Emily. It took a lot of effort to get back up on Swampert. I hardly noticed, but didn't have
energy to be impressed, that she simply bent the steel bars and squeezed between them. We had to swim through overflown tunnels at
times, other times we could walk beside the underground river of goo. Probably less than ten minutes after the encounter with the TLA
soldiers, we got up through a manhole in a side street. I passed out behind a garbage container while Swampert got up and put the
manhole back in place behind us. Mere seconds later, I was woken by a loud sound, like a train rushing past me. I opened my eyes
again, and saw Swampert standing roaring into the air a few metres away.
"What are you doing?!", I hissed. Swampert sheesh-ed at me.
"It's Weavile", she said a few minutes later. "Are you ready for a run? The TLA have modified the memories of most of the people
there, but taken Emily into a van. They'll drive past two blocks from here"
"How can you hear that from that distance?", I asked
"We haven't really gone that far", she replied "But again, Emily will drive past just over there quite soon"
"It's our only chance", I said and got up. Swampert pointed to the left, and I started to run. My heart felt like it had just started
beating again, and the adrenaline rushing through my body gave me the energy to keep a steady pace. I almost forgot to call back
Swampert before I left off.
We were in a side street in a residential area. An ambush here would be risky, but we didn't have time to find a better place along
the route. Not that we knew the route either, I only had to trust Swampert when she told me that Weavile had snapped up parts of it.
I was standing between a huge pile of dirty snow and a couple of overfilled thrash bins. It was cold here, and I was drenched with
very smelly sewage. If it hadn't been for the adrenaline rush, I would most likely have been on the brink of dying now. I had
released Lucario here, and he kept me somewhat warm by Fire Punching the air. He almost scorched my clothes, but at least they dried.
As we stood there, several TLA vehicles passed us in the other direction. First came two regular black vans, then a black fire truck
and two more vans, next a bus without windows. I exchanged worried looks with Lucario.
"Who should we attack with?", Lucario asked.
"I think Tyranitar would be best suited for the job", I replied. "We'll wreck the van, and revive Emily later"
"You better hurry", a voice said behind me. I turned around, and faced Weavile. "They are coming in less than half a minute", he
added.
I dived for the bag and unleashed Tyranitar. Being bright green, he was sticking out like a sore thumb in the empty side street.
Still, with the crash that inevitably would follow the interception of the van, we would be noticed by anyone in the area anyway. We
all turned towards the sound of an approaching engine.
"Ready to run", I whispered. A black TLA van passed us out on the street. It had to be this one.
"Pursuit!", I shouted. Tyranitar kicked off, and started to run. In seconds, he was beside the van, which was accelerating. Tyranitar
gave it a slap on the side, and it started to spin, then swerved over and crashed in a wall on our side of the street. I ran out of
the side street, towards the van. They hadn't been driving at very high speeds as we stopped it, so we hadn't knocked them all cold.
The driver and an accompanying agent jumped out of the wreck, guns ready. Tyranitar grabbed the driver by the shirt collar and threw
him into the concrete wall with a nasty sound. The agent gave more of a fight, at least he managed to aim his gun before Tyranitar
shoulder-tackled him.
"Get her out!", I shouted, fearing that we might have gotten the wrong van. "Is she in there?"
"Yes, but this looks a little nasty", Tyranitar said after tearing the side door off. "She wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and..."
I rushed over to see, but Tyranitar pushed me away. He dragged Emily out of the car, I could hear her neck make several snapping
sounds as the spine rearranged itself. I shivered.
"This was the easy part", Lucario said. "I suggest we run"
"There is a metro station not far from here", Weavile said and started to jog. "It's closed for rebuilding"
"Should we hide there?", I asked. Tyranitar run behind us with Emily in his arms, and Lucario covered our backs.
"We can access the tube network", Weavile shouted, now clinging to a lamppost some twenty metres ahead of me.
"Still, isn't there a pretty busy street just outside the station?", I said, looking to left and right as we ran across a street. Not
a car in sight. Still, once we got out to the street, it would be impossible to miss us.
"We'll take shortcut", Tyranitar said. I could see the building housing the metro station now. We were approaching it in a straight
line, what shortcuts were there? Tyranitar sped up, passing us as he increased the pace to a spurt.
"The entrance is on the other-", I started, then realised what he was up to. "Emily!", I bellowed.
"Oh, right. Take her", Tyranitar snorted over his left shoulder. Then he simply threw Emily over his back like another rag doll. Her
arms and legs were flailing about. She was all limp. Lucario leapt up and caught her mid-air.
"That's a human being there, not a basket ball!", I shouted to Lucario. He ignored me, and ran carrying Emily over his shoulder like
a sack of potatoes. Tyranitar lowered his head and rammed into the wall. Weavile followed before all the debris had even hit the
ground. I hesitated for a moment, then dived in through the hole. It lead in to a quite smashed up ladies' rest room. I was a bit
surprised by the lack of graffiti on the walls.
"No time for standing about", Lucario told me by telepathy. Tyranitar had already removed the door, and squeezed through the
door frame. The spikes on his head dented the air vents and lamps in the ceiling. I followed him out to the large grey entrance hall
of the station. It was divided in two by two meter tall construction fences. Most of the floor tiles were removed, shoving the bare
concrete underneath. The lamps in the ceiling were taken down, the only light in here was the dim sunlight shining through the semi-
transparent plastic that covered the fences. Luckily, the construction workers were also still on holiday.
"Don't you think anyone will notice?", I whispered. The hall was empty, and the echo made everything we said appear very loud.
"We're already being chased. In terms of attracting unwanted attention, it can't really get any worse from here", Lucario replied.
Even his telepathic voice sounded like everyone on the street outside could hear it. "Also, the TLA will gladly cover our tracks.
They want this to be known to the public even less than we do"
Tyranitar started walking down an escalator leading down to a lower level. It shook heavily for every step he took. Weavile was
nowhere to be seen, but knowing him, he was probably just checking out the route ahead of us. I ran down the escalator with Lucario
in tow.
"When should we wake her up?", I asked, referring to Emily. Lucario still carried her over his shoulder like a bundle of sticks.
"No time for that now", Tyranitar said. "We have a long way back home" He was already halfway down another escalator, and I could
hardly make him out in the darkness.
"We have to go north", Lucario said. "That's what the maps say, at least"
"Vile!", it sounded from the darkness a level below us. Weavile had found a sign.
"I can't see it, never mind reading!", I shouted back. I had to cling to the handrail to even see where I was going. Even though
common sense said otherwise, one part of my imagination, shaped from years of playing video games, vividly projected the image of an
endless abyss in my mind where the next step in the escalator should be.

Part 2 will follow shortly

Chapter twenty-four, part two:

"Can someone get a light on, so I can read it?", I asked as I reached the bottom. We were in a tunnel leading to the platforms.
Lucario stretched out his left arm and lit it with Fire Punch. In the dim glow from his burning paw, I could see that the sign
Weavile had found was just a billboard.
"Weird...", Lucario said, looking around.
"What do you mean?", I asked.
"Look at the place. Even though they are supposed to refurbish the whole place, it's completely untouched"
"So? They probably want to be done with the upper level first", I said.
"Then why would they close off the entire station? Couldn't they just close off half the hall, refurbish, and then do the other half?
That way, passengers could still have used the place while they fixed it"
"Vile", I heard from the shadows.
"You're right", Lucario nodded. "Rob, look at the escalators. The tiles on the floor. The thrash bins. This place was refurbished not
too long ago, probably less than three years. Why would they do it again so soon?"
"Something wrong with the circuits? Or water pipes?", I suggested. My stomach feeling screamed "suspicious!".
"This place is not damp, nor does it smell burnt", Tyranitar grunted. "But there is a different smell here..."
"I don't smell anything", I said, feeling a little like an idiot seconds later. Of course Pokémon had to have a better sense of smell
than humans.
"Look", Weavile said. Just outside the ring of light streaming from Lucario, a yellow band ran from one end of the tunnel to another.
I took a few steps closer to it as Lucario turned around to light it better. A repeated string of six words in capital letters ran
the length of the band:
GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATION SCENE DO NOT TRESPASS
And between the sentences, a familiar symbol was stamped in black: An ellipsis with five vertical lines running from the lower half.
"TLA!", I shouted and took a few steps backwards. Lucario seemed as shocked as me. "Hey! Watch out!", I yelled. The fire had spread
from Lucario's hand and over to Emily's jacket. Lucario put it out, but a large scorch mark was still left.
"It's stronger here", Tyranitar said. He had walked all the way up to the band. Then he lifted it up and walked under it.
"Agreed", Weavile said. He jumped into the tunnel. I sighed, and Lucario and I followed them into the tunnel.
"Look", Tyranitar grunted as we caught up with them. A sign told us that the tunnel to our right lead to east- and westbound trains.
Just a few metres further into the tunnel, the wall had collapsed. Soil and rocks were dragged out on the floor. A shallow trench ran
from the north wall and into the south, which had also collapsed. The holes in the concrete walls were about three metres in
diameter, and filled with soil and debris.
"Steelix, no doubt", Lucario said. Weavile and Tyranitar nodded. "We saw these every other day that autumn we explored the Survival
Area"
I vaguely recalled that the Survival Area was the only place where wild Steelix roamed the surface.
"It's weeks old", Weavile said. "He's anywhere but here now"
"Do you think they have got him?", I asked.
"Nope. They would have rebuilt this wall by now, if so. I guess they are investigating the area hoping to find any clues on where it
is now, and covering it up with a refurbishment in the meantime. Reminds me of that old saying: Pokémon can tell you where they
have been, but not where they are heading. They won't find anything, neither will we", Lucario said.
"I bet the hall up there is swarming with TLA now. Better get going", I said. We turned and walked into the other tunnel. After what
seemed like an eternity, we reached the platforms.
"Do you see well in the darkness?", I asked Lucario.
"Light or darkness is no hindrance if you know how to use the Aura", he replied.
"Good. I know you two others do as well. Lucario, keep the light on until I've mounted Tyranitar. We need to keep a high pace through
the tunnels, and I can't run that far, especially not now"
A minute or so later, we went off. I was clinging to Tyranitar's back, Lucario still carried Emily, and Weavile ran by himself.
Tyranitar ran straight through the glass panes separating the tracks from the platform. He narrowly avoided landing on the
electrocuted rail in the middle of the track. The two others followed. We wasted no time, and Tyranitar slowly accelerated as he ran.
It struck me that the Speed stats in the games must reflect the Pokémon's acceleration and reaction speed, not running speed.
Tyranitar was a fairly slow Pokémon, yet he managed to run at speeds that must have been close to fifty kilometres per hour.
"Left", Weavile muttered. We turned as he said. Weavile ran first and kept track of the direction, we followed on his orders. We kept
on like that for about twenty minutes:
"Right"... "Right"... "Left, then right"... "Left"... "Straight ahead"... "Train"...
"Train!?", I shouted.
"Should we stop it?", Tyranitar suggested, slowing down and bracing himself.
"Rather hide", I said. I had read somewhere that the tunnels in the metro system offered ten centimetres of clearance on both sides
of the train. "But where?"
"What about straight down?", Tyranitar said. I thought he was joking, then he stopped and bent over. I was almost flung off, and had
to climb down from his back. Lucario and Weavile stopped as well. I couldn't see a thing in this darkness, but felt a faint drag of
wind. Most likely the air that the train pushed in front of itself. A loud scraping and scratching sound was heard from Tyranitar.
"Beware of the electric rail!", I shouted. The other rails started to hum.
"No problem", he said. Judging by his voice, he was at least a couple of metres down a hole already.
"We better get in", Lucario said. I heard the sound of something hitting the floor in the hole.
"Was that...?", I asked.
"Never mind", Lucario said and pushed me down. Then he and Weavile followed. The hole widened out about a metre down. It was about
two metres in diameter and more than three metres deep down here. Tyranitar caught me and put me gently down.
"What's that sound?", I said. It sounded like someone squeezing egg shells in their fist.
"Probably just her legs mending themselves, she landed a little hard", Weavile said. There was no need to question who he was
referring to. "And if you are going to throw up, please wait until we get out of here"
I didn't listen to him. As I wiped the remains of the breakfast from my mouth with my sleeve a few seconds later, I heard a whooshing
sound above us. Then, it grew to a loud roar as the train passed. Tyranitar threw me out of the hole, and Lucario pushed him up after
me. Then Weavile got up, and Tyranitar caught Emily as Lucario threw her too. It hurt thinking about what state she must have been
in.
"Let's get going, shall we?", Lucario said and got Emily again. I didn't even protest as he flung her over his shoulder. I just
mounted Tyranitar again, and we kept going. Behind us, the hole somehow filled itself.
I had lost track on how long we had been running when we again saw light in front of us. The tunnel opened up, and we found ourselves
in broad daylight. It took me a few minutes to realise where we were; about three kilometres from home.
"Weavile, you stay. Lucario and Tyranitar, good job", I said and opened the bag. The trainer bag inside was waterproof, but the
plastic bag containing the Poké Balls was not. The forty or so balls were floating around in really mucky and smelly water. Trying to
pick out the correct two wasn't exactly tempting.
"Do I have to remind you that we're standing on train tracks?", Lucario said. We climbed over a fence, and hid in the snowy bushes
beside the tracks. Emily looked more dead than alive when we put her down, but I didn't want to carry her all the way home, so we had
to Revive her here. Weavile was kind enough to find the correct Poké Balls for me, while I searched the bag for a Revive. This was
the second last I had. A little nervously, I removed the paper wrapping, and lay the Revive on her forehead. It glowed brightly, and
disappeared. A second later, Emily woke up, coughing.
"You look terrible", she said as she opened her eyes. "Did we get away?"
"We did", I said and gave her a hug. "Do you think you'll manage to walk a few more kilometres?"
"My... everything... aches", she said and got up. I scowled at Lucario. "...but it'll go... oh wow, I must look terrible myself, or
what?"
"Never", I said. "But I have to admit, you're usually cleaner than this"

We started to walk home as if we were walking back from school. I decided not to ask her what had happened since I was taken away, we
were both too exhausted. Nothing happened on the way, though I don't think I could have handled ten more minutes in the cold. When I
got home, I walked straight down to the basement, got off all my clothes, and put them in a thrash bag together with my ordinary bag.
For some reason, I managed to keep an everyday face as I got up, chatted a little with mom and dad, and made me a sandwich. I told
them I had already eaten dinner, and brought it with me upstairs. As soon as I got into my room, I put the plate on my desk and
collapsed on my bed. Sleeeeeep.....

Cool! Lot of hot action, lovely :D

Thanks for the comments.
Now, thanks to an unusual amount of spare time this week, I managed to finish this in considerably less time than the previous chapters. Please welcome:

Chapter twenty-five: Two unusual visits

I woke up as mom knocked on the door to my bedroom. I opened an eye and looked at the clock on my desk. The handles pointed at 9:27.
I had been out for more than three hours. Then I realised that it was bright and sunny outside. Make that fifteen hours, then.
"Are you all right?", mom asked. "Can I come in?"
"Give me a second to get dressed first", I lied. I took off the clothes I had changed to yesterday, which I was still wearing, and
threw them on the floor like I used to do with my clothes when I went to bed. I then put on a new set of clothes, and hastily hid the
sandwich under my bed.
"Come in" I said. Mom entered the room.
"What happened yesterday?", she asked. "You just left us, and the light was off when I went up to check around eight"
There was a quite long and awkward conversation that I had to admit didn't make much sense. She did let me go around 10 o'clock, and
I went straight down to get some breakfast. As I sat there chewing through a toast, I went through yesterday in my mind. The
positives first, I had managed to get hold of a new Pokémon, and escaped the clutches of TLA yet again. I had also gotten indications
that Steelix was still on the run, and both Emily, all the Pokémon and I escaped unhurt.
On the flip side, I had ruined a bag and a set of clothes. I guess I'd have to burn them in case mom or the TLA spotted them in the
thrash. Also, they might have interrogated Emily. I figured out that I should go visit her, and bring a team of my toughest Pokémon
in case of an ambush. On last detail flew through my mind. I only had a single Revive left. Hopefully, I wouldn't need to use if, but
still, if I had to choose, who would I revive and who would I leave to several months of unconsciousness? Would it be selfish to keep
it for myself? Or what if mom or dad got knocked out? Or Emily? Or her sister? Or her mom? Or her...
I stopped chewing. Her dad was in hospital. Knocked out. Heartbeat rhythm and breathing were fine. No visible injuries. But no brain
activity. Also, he was injured the day I... That couldn't be...
I got up, forgetting about the toast. I ran down to the basement, found a hairpin on a shelf, and picked the lock of the door to the
hatch room (I was really getting good at it now). I almost jumped down into the hatch, sprinted through the dark tunnel, and climbed
down the shaft to the cave. I was so upset that I didn't notice the sound before I was three quarters of the way down. It sounded
like someone was using a sledge hammer to crush porcelain or glass, a series of bangs which were followed by a shattering sound. A
loud scraping was also heard, and heavy pounding. The very ground shook. I reached the bottom of the shaft, and looked out to the
brightly lit tunnel outside. Dugtrio was digging around, stirring the floor like a mixmaster in a cake dough. Several large stones
were scattered all over the floor, and Dugtrio dug around them so that they disappeared in the trench behind her. What happened to
the leftover mass, I didn't know, but it appeared that all the rubble was mixed into the floor as she stirred it. Behind him, Donphan
levelled the floor again by rolling over it. The corridor was longer now than it had been last time I was here, and at the left end,
there was a hole in the wall through which rocks were thrown out at regular intervals. The pounding and smashing must have been
Pokémon digging out a new cavern. Dugtrio apparently noticed me, and stopped.
"Are you expanding?", I asked.
"Yes", her middle head answered. "Looking for something?"
"My bag, a few powerful Pokémon and someone to talk to", I said.
"Storeroom, dormitory, dormitory", Dugtrio's heads answered in rapid succession. They nodded at two holes in the wall to the right.
"What?", I said.
"You'll find your stuff in the storeroom", the left head said.
"And powerful Pokémon...", the middle head continued
"...among them someone to talk to, in the dormitory", the right head finished. Then they set off digging again.
The room closest to the shaft was apparently the storeroom. It wasn't bigger than three metres either way, including the height of
the ceiling, but my stuff still didn't fill more than the furthest corner of the room anyway. The shelves, somewhat repaired, leant
against the left wall. They were filled by surprisingly clean Poké Balls, all of them empty. I had left the responsibility for the
bag to Weavile yesterday, and he had apparently cleaned and sorted my stuff. The trainer bag still looked brand new, while the other
bag lay as a brown heap in a corner. It wouldn't even do as a doormat in this state. I brought the Poké Balls of Aggron, Scizor,
Lucario, Tyranitar, Weavile and Pidgeot, almost the same team as yesterday. Then I checked the contents of the bag, if anything was
ruined yesterday. Apparently not. I started taking out items, but the bag was still as full as it had been. After a while, I dug out
things just for curiosity. Was there even a bottom of this bag? The collapsible bicycle should have taken half the space in there,
but somehow it didn't. I found bags of Stardust, Tinymushrooms, a Choice band, and what looked like some sort of corn cob. Though,
where corn had leaves, this looked more like an overgrown pistachio nut, with a hard shell encasing the core. Could it be... I turned
it around and found a stamp on the shell. "Revival Herb", it read, along with a price. Great! These worked in a similar fashion to
Revives, with the drawback of making the patient unhappy. Now well, no need to be picky with the Revives if we could manage to grow
one of these! I put the items back in the bag (which still didn't get any fuller) and went into the room next door. It was lit as
well, and about 30 metres long, fifteen metres wide, and between six and eight metres under the ceiling. The room was filled with
Pokémon, apparently in the process of making breakfast. Most of them were cutting out stones and leaves from berries and vegetables,
and mixed them in several bowls apparently carved from rocks. Lucario was sorting out the trash, putting it in  bags he apparently
had taken from our basement. Blaziken fried some of the food, and distributed the bowls on the floor in a corner. I saw that most of
the Grass and Bug Pokémon were missing, and guessed that they had to be in the garden.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I need a word with a few of you", I said and pointed out Lucario, Weavile, and Pidgeot. They came over to
me. "I think Emily's father might have a connection to the TLA", I said to them "At least, I'm pretty sure that he's knocked out by a
Pokémon, about the same time as the battle in the forest"
"So we're going to spend the last Revive on waking him up and ask him?", Lucario said. "Honestly, we..."
"Revival Herbs", I interrupted him. "They can be planted and grown, or what?"
"So can cauliflower", Lucario said. "But that doesn't mean you'll happily eat it, even if it's good for you"
"Either way, we're not necessarily dependant on Revives", Weavile said. "But why not use a Revival Herb on the guy, and save the
Revive for later?"
"Two reasons, really", I said. "One, using it now won't lead to arguments later. Two, we only have one Revival Herb and we need that
for planting. Its offspring won't be ready for at least a couple of weeks, and we don't have that much time"
"So we're off to Emily, then", Lucario said.
"Plant this, get Tyranitar, Scizor and Aggron, and meet me upstairs in ten minutes", I concluded, gave Lucario the Revival Herb, and
left.

I was walking through the neighbourhood with my hands in my pockets half an hour later. I had a firm grip around Tyranitar and
Aggron's Poké Balls, and Weavile followed me somewhere out of sight. As I approached Emily's house, I became steadily more cautious.
Should I release Aggron or Tyranitar, just to be sure? Were the TLA hiding in the bushes? Or inside? Was I going into a trap? Or just
turning paranoid? In the end, I just rang the doorbell. Emily's sister opened. Like last time, she stared at me for a second or two,
then ran back into the house. It took almost a minute before Emily showed up. She was limping slightly.
"Has anything happened?", I asked, forgetting to even say hello.
"My body is aching all over", she answered. "Really, what happened after you crashed that car yesterday?"
"Umm... we were in a hurry, so I left it to the Pokémon to carry you", I said. "Sorry that I didn't call you before I came, but I
need to talk to you now. I hope you don't have any appointments?"
"I had planned to go jogging with Miley, but had to pull out of it. Can hardly walk now"
"The Revive only heals half of full health", I said. "You need a good long rest to heal fully. Did you sleep well tonight?"
"Not the least bit", she grunted. "And school is starting tomorrow as well. Oh, the joy..."
"I'm sorry, but it was you who wanted to come with me", I said. She wasn't in her usual mood now.
"Well, I was fine until you rescued me, it wasn't the TLA that knocked me out. I had hoped that you'd treat me with a bit more care"
"I didn't have many alternatives. I was hit by one of the most powerful Pokémon moves there is, pulled through a couple of kilometres
of sewage, and had to come up with a rescue plan in five minutes and twice as many negative degrees, still drenched. Then it turns
out you didn't wear a seatbelt, and we had a ridiculous amount of TLA on our necks", I burst out.
"There were no seatbelts", Emily said in a low voice.
"Can you tell me what happened after I was taken away?", I pleaded.
"Come here", she said and went back in. I hesitated.
"I'm sorry, but...", I said
"Ahh, getting paranoid, or what?", she replied. "Come in, it's completely safe"
I coughed, signalling to Weavile to rip the house to shreds if I wasn't back in ten minutes, and went in after her.

Part 2 will follow shortly

Chapter twenty-five, part two:

"You really are getting paranoid", Emily said a minute or so later. We sat in the living room, Emily on the sofa on the opposite side
of the table to me.
"Better safe than sorry", I replied. "Until I know what they did to you yesterday, I..."
"I'll tell", she started. "But it's not an interesting story. They ran around for a while after you disappeared, then some agents
jumped down the manhole. Judging by the sound, you flushed them out. I laid there on the pavement for a couple of minutes before I
was yanked into the back seat of that car, where I sat for a while before they drove off. They didn't say or do anything to me at
all"
"No cameras or anything?"
"I didn't see any"
"How do I know if I can trust you?", I thought. She was right, I was getting paranoid.
"You can", a voice in my head said. Uxie?
"Yes."
Then the voice was silent again. So was Emily.
"I believe in you", I said. "And you probably want to know why I'm here as well"
"Wasn't it because of this?"
"No, not only. I think I know what happened to your father"
"You mean, it wasn't a bomb?"
"It was an explosion, that's almost certain. But from there on, what you've heard is a lie. I'm sorry to say I think it was Metagross
who knocked him out again"
Emily scowled, but said nothing.
"I promise it won't be a third time. And this also means that we can wake him up", I said.
"But why would the bomb squad be anywhere near the place where you were ambushed?", she said. "You aren't saying that he..."
"No, he's not with them. But there was a lot of soldiers in that battle. I think the TLA hired a military battalion or two, and
possibly a few people from the police as well. They can modify the memories of people, so they don't run any risks when calling in
such external help"
"Do you think they...", she said. "I..."
"Still, we'll run a risk by waking him up", I said. "I think Metagross mowed down maybe several hundred people with that attack. Your
father was probably among the reinforcements, I didn't see him at the start of the battle, at least. The thing is, if only one of
them wakes up this early, they may suspect him for having any link to me."
"So we should just let him lie there until the summer holiday ends?", Emily said.
"No, as long as there is a possibility that he knows anything about them that we don't, I'll run the risk. We're going tonight"
"I'll be coming with you", she said. "But if you beat me up like this again, I'm going straight to the newspapers"

Several times as I sat on the bus, I had to remind myself that this was a regular hospital visit, and not anything anyone would find
suspicious. Still, I felt extremely vulnerable as I sat there without anything to cover my face. Still, I had Weavile to cover me,
but I still expected to run straight into the arms of the TLA. The hospital was on the other side of the city, and it was quite a
trek by bus.
"At least with Salamence, it didn't take half the day to get there", Emily said. She was sitting beside me, looking out of the
window. I think she was still angry with me.
"This is a lot safer", I whispered back. "And warmer as well"
"Observatory road. Almost there", she said.
"Feeling nervous?", I asked.
"A little", she replied and looked at me for the first time since we sat down on the back seat of the bus. "what if he doesn't wake
up? Or if he's with them? Or... if they are waiting at us?"
"I don't think they'll have set out guards for every participant who was knocked out. Remember, they probably scattered the victims
on a lot of hospitals, so that it wouldn't raise suspicion"
"I hope you are right"
"This time, I promise I'll stay with you", I said. "Even if it involves getting caught"
"Exactly the same as I said yesterday", she replied. "And I don't have a bunch of fancy monsters to carry you home after I've knocked
you out trying to save you after they catch you while I get away"
"We'll be in a hospital. Leave me there, and let me find the way home myself"
"You're serious? OK with me", she grinned. I instantly felt a lot better about the situation. The bus stopped, and we got out.

He looked like he was sleeping where he lay. He was a big guy, almost two metres tall when he was standing, with the same hazel hair
as his daughters, though he kept his short. For the occasion, he was dressed in a light blue hospital gown. He had a few scars and
bruises in his face, but nothing major. He must have gotten them as they dragged him away from the scene. Knowing the TLA, they
wouldn't hesitate to drag anyone face down across a forest.
"Now or never", I said as the nurse who had accompanied us into the room left. I dragged out the Revival herb, packed in brown paper,
from my bag.
"Is he supposed to eat it?", Emily said and looked at the twenty centimetre long fruit.
"I don't think so", I said and cracked the shell open. The core looked a bit like a peeled potato, only bigger and smoother. It was
hard as a rock to the touch, and covered in a thin wax-like layer. I managed to peel it off like plastic. "Guess it works somewhat
like a Revive", I continued and gently poked his chin with it. It started to glow, and melted away in my hand. I took a step
backwards. Emily's father coughed and opened his eyes slightly.
"Emily?", he said. "Where... what..."
"It's all right", Emily said. "You've been out for a week or so, but don't worry, they say you'll get all well again" I took a chair
from the furthest corner of the room and gave it to her. She sat down and stroke her father on the forehead.
"Can you tell us what happened?"
"There was an explosion", he said. "We were called out to disarm a bomb, but it went off when we... are the others okay?"
"They're alive, but knocked out", Emily whispered. "Where did this happen?"
"The other side of the city, near Blackwater", he replied. "It was an old, big bomb from the war. It lay in a bog, and the frost had
pushed it up to the surface"
"Were there any others there?"
"Some soldiers, I think", he said. "Blocking off the area"
"How many?"
"Can't remember"
"Were they armed?"
"I... think so... but I can't remember why..." Then he noticed me. "You... must be Rob, am I right? Emily has talked a lot about you"
"Hello", I said, trying to look like I hadn't expected him to wake up. "I'm sorry, I haven't heard much about the incident... can you
tell me what happened?" He fell back on the pillow.
"Hard to remember", he groaned "It all feels like a dream..."
"What about starting with what you remember?", I said. "When you met the others, for example"
"I remember we met at the police station... but it's completely blank from there until the bomb went off. We sat in a car... I don't
think it was the car we used to use..."
"So you never saw the bomb?", Emily said. "Why did it go off then? Did anyone tamper with it before you arrived?"
"I don't... wait, yes, they did. Someone detonated it to... that's why there was soldiers... no, wait, it was just a routine mission,
no soldiers, just bad luck..."
Apparently, whatever memories the TLA had put in place of his real ones, they hadn't done it too well.
"Nothing unusual happened", he concluded. "Nothing at all. Just bad luck"
"Are you sure?", Emily said "What about the sol-"
"There were no soldiers, I dreamed", he snapped. Looked like TLA had got the better of him. The negative effect from the Revival Herb
didn't help either.
"Would you excuse us for a second?", Emily asked. I nodded, and left the room. As I stood there, I heard some faint whistling from an
air vent. Weavile was an expert at mimicking sounds, and it felt like it was a meaning behind the sound.
"There's a Pokémon in the building", the whisper told me. Had to be Weavile. "One floor down, a corridor parallel to the one you're
in now. A small side room"
"Is it safe?", I whispered to the vent
"I think so. I'll back you up"
I looked through the window in the door, and saw Emily talking to her father. They would probably be busy for a few minutes. I
strolled down the corridor, and found a set of stairs. This Pokémon could be anyone, possibly even Mesprit, but hopefully it wasn't
dangerous. I was running quite a risk. What if it was an Electrode, who would blow itself and possibly the entire hospital to pieces
as I opened the door? Or Weezing, with all its poison gas? Anything yielding Earthquake would also be very bad news.
"I'm not sure about this...", I whispered as I found the corridor and approached the door. It was labelled "Archive" by a sign next to
it.
"No risk, no gain", Weavile murmured from a vent further down the corridor.
"Can you hear the cries?", I whispered. "Those are newborn babies in another wing. I can't hear them, but you should be able to. What
do you think happens to them if the Pokémon decides to level the entire complex?"
"I'll go in first. The door is locked anyway", Weavile sighed. I heard a scraping sound above me, sounding suspiciously like claws
cutting through a ventilator shaft. Five seconds later, the door swung up.
"Vile!", I heard over the creeks of the hinges. "It's safe"
What met me was quite a weird sight. A huge something lay on the side in the furthest corner of the room. It looked like a vastly
overgrown pink egg, with several white fluffs on it. From the sounds of it, it was sleeping, but waking up. I took a step backwards
as it rolled over and stood up. Its front side was even weirder. It had two incredibly short arms and small feet, and a face on the
top half of the body. What looked a lot like feathers sprouted from around its arms and waistline. On the belly, it had a small
pouch, in which it lay an egg the size of my head.
"Iiiiiii", it said. "Oh! It's you!"
"It's me", I said to Blissey. "We don't have much time", I continued and dumped my bag on the floor. I had brought a few Poké Balls,
but not all of them. Luckily, one branded "Blissey" was among them. It was black, with red stripes running horizontally around it.
Unlike most other Poké Balls, its button was a golden yellow colour.
"I hear footsteps", I said. "Blissey, come back"
Blissey turned red and transparent, and vanished seconds before a doctor appeared in the doorway.
"Oh, sorry, I thought I heard a sound in here", I said. "Turned out to be the copy machine"
"Why wasn't this door locked?", he murmured. I went back upstairs, satisfied with the catch. Emily met me outside the room where her
father was.
"Toilet?", she asked.
"Pokémon", I said and pointed at the bag. "One less to go"
Emily smiled. "In a hospital? Much"
"It was Blissey", I said. "You know, the nurse"
"Hmm... I believe you", she said, not sounding much like that.
"How is he?", I asked.
"He needs rest. At least, that's what he says. He doesn't want to talk about the incident"
"He's brainwashed", I said. "Once I get hold of a Psychic Pokémon again, I'll see if I can lift it"
We walked out of the hospital. At first, side by side, then, holding hands. Blissey was the Happiness Pokémon, and we were influenced
by her presence. We sat in silence on the bus ride back home too, but this time we weren't looking out the windows or at the floor.
School would start tomorrow, and we wouldn't get much time together before Friday, which to both of us seemed like an eternity, with
five boring, repetitive school days to come first. At that moment, none of us knew that the days would neither be boring nor
repetitive...

Yeah, I made up the title :D

Another great chapter, good work Cobra!

I was expecting Vileplume. Great chapter anyway.

Quote from: SuperFireKirby on October 25, 2009, 05:50:36 PMI was expecting Vileplume. Great chapter anyway.

Why Vileplume :D?

A voice somewhere saying Vile.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll probably use Vileplume at some point too, though it will get a minor role. With more than 90 Pokémon to mention, not all of them can be in the picture all the time.

This chapter is a rather short one, just short of my usual minimum lenght (15,000 characters), though it passes if I count line breaks (which the post character limit does). Still, I hope it's satisfactory lenghty and exciting anyway.
Also, just to mention it, I've updated the first post with some legal stuff (weeks ago).

Anyway, here it is:

Chapter twenty-six: Support and opposition

The morning after, school started again. They still hadn't finished rebuilding the old school as they had promised, but we'd be ready
to move back in there some time next week. So ten minutes to eight January 4th, I found myself walking through the dark streets of
our neighbourhood, towards the town hall. It would be interesting to see what had happened to the rest of the class. What would the
official story about Ben be? Would those who were with him remember me? Would they try to attack me again? If so, bad news for them,
I had a full team of my six most powerful Pokémon with me. Weavile covered my back as usual too. As I approached the town hall, there
were no one there. For once, I was first to the bus stop. Seven minutes to go. No one here. I stood there in the freezing cold,
walking around in small circles to keep warm. Six minutes. A car drove by. Five. A group of people came out from a side street.
Judging by the shiny new jackets and their attitude, it had to be my classmates. Almost fifteen of them too, and some of them were
clearly not people I had seen being with each other earlier. They came towards me, but no one had started shouting insults yet.
"Happy new year, freak", one of them started. Here we go again.
"Happy new year to you too", I muttered back. These sessions were never nice, but I had quite some firepower behind me this time, and
felt a lot more confident than usual.
"Is it true that you got a girlfriend?", a girl asked.
"If so, why would I tell you?"
"I've always wondered if there are more people as stupid as you in this city", she replied. Usually, she was too dim-witted to come
up with a reply, and I was a little astounded. "How else could you have gotten into a relationship?"
"He's lost some weight", one of the boys commented.
"I bet he got anorexia", another one said.
"Or his mother couldn't afford feeding him anymore"
"Keep my family out of this", I said. Laughs from the crowd followed. I was seconds away from shouting the code word, and releasing
Weavile on the guy who had spoken, but I managed to restrain myself.
"Looks like we hit a nerve here", a girl said. Julia, she who had kicked me that time before Christmas. "What is it that your mother
has told you this Christmas? That they found you in a container and adopted you?"
"I... usually don't hit girls..." I started.
"You usually don't hit anything", Julia interrupted me. "Too intellectually challenging"
"Bus", Tom said. "Too bad, this could have become quite fun"

The school day was a contender for the worst in my life. Usually, I had the upper hand when it came to theoretical subjects, but
something was eerily different today. Even the blondest of the girls managed to answer the teacher's hardest questions, some even
solved polynomial equations without using a calculator. What had happened to them? And of course, they didn't let me forget it.
"Got a knock too much to the head?", Tom asked me. "Really, you're just slow in every sense of the word today" We had been writing
for five minutes, and he was two thirds through the tasks already. I had barely done one, and I considered myself to be quite good at
maths.
"Today? Always been", someone whispered behind me. The teacher seemed to notice this.
"Anything down there you want to share with the class, Bella?", he said.
"I think Rob forgot to shower today", she said without hesitating. The entire class burst into laughter. Really, if it had been
Tyranitar I had used as backup, I'd have ordered him to tear the building apart this very instant. I somehow survived English,
history and geography after the maths class, and was in a terrible mood as I entered the bus heading home. First day of the year, and
I was already more sick of them than I had ever been. Still, I was determined not to lose my temper. I endured the constant torment
on the bus ride, and almost ran out of the bus the moment it stopped. I was on the edge of burst into tears as I went home. The...
idiots! Though, that was perhaps not a fitting word any more, it felt like I was eternities behind them in every subject. Was
anything changed with them? Did they really do so much better without me? Or had I fallen behind? There were no one at home when I
came home. If mom and dad worked for as long as they used to, I'd get an hour or so to myself. I dropped my bag at the foot of the
stairs, and went down to the basement, all the way down to the Pokémon cave. I had been there just briefly the night before, and
hadn't seen how big they had managed to make the cave. The entrance tunnel now spanned a good fifty metres from end to end. To the
right, I could see the plants in the garden bloom in the artificial sunlight. Hadn't it been for the gray/brown ceiling, it could
have been outdoors. To the left, the corridor still stopped in a dead end, but apparently, they had added a huge side room there as
well. Several large tree trunks lay in the middle of the tunnel, all the branches were fletchedoff and lay in a heap around the
entrance to the store room. I released the Pokémon I had been carrying with me from their balls.
"You've done really well on this", I said. Tyranitar and Aggron growled proudly. It sounded like a lawnmower starting up.
"But what are the trees for? Food?"
"Planks", Weavile said as he emerged from the shadows behind me. "We need some more shelves here"
"Anything wrong?", a soft voice said behind me. I turned around. Blissey was wagging towards us. "I sense much unhappiness here"
The Pokémon looked at each other, then at me.
"It's his classmates. Worst scum I've seen", Weavile said. I couldn't help it. I started to cry. Aggron and Tyranitar seemed really
uncomfortable, even Lucario didn't seem as calm as he used to.
"We need to talk", Blissey said. "Off you go"
The Pokémon hastily vanished, as if the last one to the door had to stay. Blissey told me to sit down on a rock that protruded from
the wall. I sat down and started to tell her what I'd never told mom and dad. Not to say that the years of tormenting had gone by
unnoticed by them, but I had never told what I felt before. Not even to Emily, she made me forget about all that when I was with her.
"You've become their punching bag", she said after what felt like hours. "You need to stand up to them"
"I tried. They just seem too tough for me. Today, they..."
"Remember, people often do this to hide that you are better than them"
"In what? I used to be the only person in the class to understand what cosine meant, but today, they just... seemed like human
calculators! And for everything I said to them, they had an insult to throw back!"
"Hmm... maybe... you need a little happiness", she said, apparently giving up logical argumentation. Despite having arms less than
thirty centimetres long, she managed to pull the egg our of her belly pouch and hold it up to me.
"Here, have a bite. I've saved it for too long anyway"
"Your egg? But... don't you have only one of those?"
"I can't have two at the same time, no", she said. "But a new one will show up in an hour or so, and grow to full size overnight.
don't worry, these are more expendable to me than words are to you"
I took the egg, which was surprisingly light given its size. It didn't really feel like a real egg, more like styrofoam. I had a bite
of it. As soon as I swallowed, a warmth spread throughout my body. It wasn't as powerful as the one Emily's kisses gave me, but it
certainly did its job. It felt like I was several kilograms lighter, and I almost felt like singing. All dark thoughts vanished
instantly, and I couldn't help but smile. Perhaps the situation wasn't as hopeless after all?
"wow, do you think I could have that on my sandwich tomorrow at school?", I said.
"I'm afraid they have to be very fresh to work", Blissey said. "In very rare cases, an old egg may shrink to the size of a chicken
egg, and becomes a powerful luck amulet, but that's not common at all. A very happy Blissey may keep her egg for so long that some of
her happiness goes into the egg, and it starts to shrink. But that process takes a year or so.
"A Lucky Egg?", I asked.
"Indeed. Though, they are nowhere near as powerful as the fresh ware. Have another bite, then pass it to the others! Egg for
everyone!"
The effect of the last cry was similar to tossing chocolate into a kindergarten (except for the bit when the police turns up). The
Pokémon rushed out from the garden, the dormitory and the new room, and gathered around me for a bite each. We spent some minutes
just relaxing, discussing some plans for further expansion of the cave, and we got to hear Blissey's story. She had gone through the
sewers and ended up in the hospital a week or so later, where she had been hiding since then, often helping patients at night.
Suddenly, a glance at my watch showed that mom and dad could be home any moment, and I had to go. Weavile followed me up the shaft,
and I just managed to get up from the basement when I heard mom enter the door.
"How was school today?", she asked.
"Terrible", I replied.
"Oh, just don't care about what they say. You need to stand up to them", she said.
"Yeah, I'll do my best"
That was all there was said about that. I spent the next five hours catching up with homework, apart from a small break when Emily
called. Her father was back home, and she had had a great day, she said. I said nothing about mine, didn't want to ruin her mood.
After closing the mathss books at about 9:30, I picked up my DS. I hadn't played the game much since the first emergence, but I checked
for more escaped Pokémon every now and then. This time, I stocked up on items I thought might come in handy if anything more emerged
one day. For some reason, the bag with all its contents was still in-game, even though the same bag lay down in my basement this very
moment. I checked the PC once more, then turned off the game. Then there was suddenly time to go to bed. Another day was over.

It would be a lie to say that the day after was worse than the previous. There were no abusive comments this time, but the silence
that replaced it was equally disturbing. None of my classmates said a word to me throughout the day, but I felt that they stared at
me. If they tried to appeal to my paranoia, it certainly worked. As I found out in English class, everyone had suddenly got a talent
of writing poetry. Their newfound calculating skills also shone throughout Math class, but there was no bragging any more, just ice-
cold profession. It was not as annoying any more, but rather extremely creepy.
The last class of the day was PE. As the building we stayed in didn't have any training facilities, we had to do running. After we
had changed clothes, we were given a route to run, and supposed to run three laps around the industrial area near the "school". As we
got outside, I started to jog in my usual slow tempo, expecting the others to sprint off and catch up with me twice before I had
finished one lap. But no, they formed a cluster around me, and adapted to my tempo. I didn't say anything to them, and they didn't
say anything to me, nor to each other. We ran in silence, one big group. I started to pant rather quickly, while the others were as
calm as if they were just sitting down.
"Hey, let's take a shortcut", someone suddenly suggested. The others answered positively, and went into a side street just ahead of
us. I had no choice but to turn the way they did, and run through a backyard until we came to an empty parking lot. There, we
stopped. The others formed a circle around me. My heart was thundering in my chest now.
"Now, you're in trouble", Tom said and broke the silence. I backed off away from him where he stood, and almost bumped into someone
who in turn pushed me forwards. I managed not to fall, but lost my balance for a split second. What were they going to do? Beat me
up? I'd say it would be hard, even for them, to forget what Houndoom did to them last time they tried.
"Not so tough now, huh?", Tom continued.
"We've got you now", someone else said.
"Got me?", I thought. Then I realised what was happening, and hastily put my hand in the pocket.
"Protect!", I shrieked, throwing Swampert's Poké Ball to the ground. A transparent bubble appeared around us, just as my classmates
threw themselves down and tranquillizer darts rained all over the area around us. Swampert, who appeared behind me, croaked in agony
as they hit the bubble. I was shocked, but furious. My classmates were cooperating with the TLA! I had never regarded them as
friends, but I hadn't gone down to their level by taking revenge either. But this was it. From now on, we were definitely enemies.
"Weavile!", I shouted. "Night Slash!"
I was about to call out more Pokémon when I saw how many they were. The roofs around us were filled with TLA grunts yielding dart
guns, and several more of them with hazmat suits and cages came out of the buildings surrounding the parking lot. Several black vans
also followed, and agents jumped out of them. The TLA had apparently mobilized a small army to take me down.
Regardless, Weavile leapt into the action like a hero. Tom was the first to be hit as he stood up. I didn't see him being hit, but I
saw him go down gurgling, his running suit turning rather red before the stains vanished. Weavile proceeded to mow down a few grunts
in hazmat suits, before he fell to a barrage of darts. This time, I kept my mind calm enough to call him back into his ball.
"How are we doing, Swampert?"
"I can't hold it much longer", she said. As my classmates disappeared among the ranks of grunts, I cursed myself for falling to this
trap. The grunts on the ground had stopped, but the ones on the roofs kept firing. We didn't have a chance, that was for certain.
Aggron, Nidoking and Tyranitar might have managed to knock out a couple of dozens of them, but we'd lay the place in ruins in the
process, and the TLA just seemed too numerous. I was tempted to call them out regardless, if only for revenge on my classmates, but I
wouldn't have anything to win by doing it.
"I will not let them harm you", Swampert said. She was struggling to keep the bubble up, and droplets of sweat ran down her face and
fins. Protect must have been a very exhausting move to use.
"And I won't let you harm yourself", I said. "Just let it go. Ice Beam instead. We'll go down either way, but not without resistance"
The bubble vanished, but only a single dart from the subsequent barrage hit me, I felt it smack into my hip. Swampert, on the other
hand, took 10-15 of them, and went down before she managed to fire off the attack. I heard her fall to the ground behind me, as my
vision got more blurry.
"They'll pay for this", was my last thought before everything went black. I didn't even notice that I hit the ground.

Another great addition.

^Thanks a lot.
Wow, did it really go almost a week since last update? I wrote most of this chapter this weekend, but didn't want to submit it too soon after the previous one. I didn't have time to do it on Monday, forgot it yesterday, so well, here it is!

Chapter twenty-seven: The lion's den

I felt a sharp sting in my arm. A soft pain spread from the sting and throughout my body. I felt sick, and had a terrible headache.
Still, whatever it was made me regain my consciousness, slowly. I didn't open my eyes at first, instead I tried to make out as much
as possible using my other senses. I felt that I lay on something soft, a couch or similar, and that I didn't wear my usual clothes.
The air was cold, and had a faint smell of... nothing. My immediate thought was that I was in a completely sterile place.
I opened my eyes slowly. The ceilings and walls were all white. A lamp in the ceiling shone with a painfully sharp light. In the far
corner, by a white door, stood a single man, dressed in black to form a stark contrast to the bright white of the rest of the room.
"So you're Roberto", he said. I sat up, holding back the urge to throw up. "You've been a nuisance to us. A minor one, but still a
nuisance"
The man was, as most TLA agents, pretty featureless. He could be aged anything between twenty and fifty, with a dull hair colour and
a skin that was neither pale nor dark. I tried to shed my eyes from the light with my hand. It felt awfully heavy to lift.
"Where am I?", I asked. My mouth was completely dry. As far as knockouts go, being hit with a Pokémon move is actually pretty
comfortable. TLA dart guns come a few steps further down the ladder.
"That information is classified", he said. His voice could have belonged to a robot, there was no tone or mood in it, just a cold,
matter-of-factly voice.
"What are you going to do with me"
"That information is also classified"
"Will I at some point be able to leave this place"
"Depends on your willingness to cooperate"
"Cooperate with you? Never", I said. "I'm getting out of here, try to stop us. And believe me, my friends can really screw up things
for you"
The agent looked at me.
"We have taken care of your 'friends' for now. They are far better off this way"
"With you experimenting with them? You're not going anywhere, their loyalty stays with me. I raised them"
"That's where you enter the picture", he said. "We think you could make... cooperation with them a little easier"
"As I said, not an option. Dream on"
"Exactly. Come with me"
It didn't look like I had any options, so I got up from the couch I had been lying on, and took a few unsteady steps towards the man.
They had changed my clothes while I was knocked out, I was now walking around in something that resembled a paper-thin cotton
pyjamas. I had no shoes, though, and the floor felt cold under my feet. The agent opened the door, which lead out to a completely
featureless corridor. It had no windows, and apparently no doors either. Apart from the lamps that hung from the ceiling at regular
intervals, there was not a single object to see here. Luckily for my sore retinas, the floor was a matt black colour, so it eased the
strain a little. The agent walked past of me, and turned straight to the wall, where a hidden door sprung up. It lead into a
completely identical corridor, this one was as featureless as the previous one. The doors leading out of this one were also hidden,
but opened automatically as the agent approached them. The door lead into another corridor, and we kept walking like that for some
time. The length of the corridors varied, but they were all identical in appearance, an immense labyrinth for anyone who didn't know
the way. As we walked down the thirteenth or fourteenth corridor, we met a woman in a lab coat. She was standing in the middle of
the corridor, looking through what I first thought was a window. Then I realised it lead into a cage, and the glass pane was its
fourth wall. I stopped as we passed it. A large, red chimpanzee was standing inside. It was about as tall as me, though it appeared
smaller as it stood slightly bent over. On its joints, it had some weird golden plates, made out of thick hide. It looked like the
protection gear skaters wear. It had thick white fur on its body and the legs below the knees. Its head appeared to be on fire. And
it had a look of sheer agony on its face. Thick metal bands were clamped around its wrists and ankles, chaining it to the walls. Its
movements were very restricted. I could see electrical wire twirled around one of the chains, ending in a box strapped to his waist.
The cage was about 1.5 metres big in every direction.
"Infernape!", I gasped.
"We don't have time", the agent said. "Come with me"
"You're torturing him!", I said.
"Only if he misbehaves", the woman in the lab coat said. "Thanks for confirming its gender, by the way"
The agent grabbed my wrist and almost dragged me further down the corridor. Behind me, Infernape nodded slowly, and I could swear I
saw a trace of a smile on his face.

We passed one more Pokémon before we reached our destination. They had chained up Aggron in a large cage in a corridor. The glass
pane went from floor to ceiling, and the cage was even taller than that. Still, his head almost touched the ceiling more than three
and a half meter up. He stood quietly, with his eyes closed. Heavy chains around his writst, feet, tail and neck bound him to the
walls. He didn't resist, but rather looked like he was sleeping.
"We've managed to sedated him", a man in a lab coat said to the agent as we passed.
"Why are you telling me about our standard procedures?", the agent asked.
"Because the weird thing is, we had to use five litres of DS to put him out", the lab coat guy said.
"Five litres? Remarkable", the agent said without showing any interest at all. "Write it down"
"What's DS?", I asked
"DeepSleep. There's 15 milligrams of it in the tranquillizer darts", he replied as we kept walking.
Then we went through a few more doors and corridors, until we came to a large room. Here, everything was white, even the floor, and
all angles were rounded off. In one end of the room, there was a large glass dome with some advanced-looking machinery attached to
it. In the other end, several people in lab coats carefully scrutinized monitor readings. There were also a few grunts in hazmat
suits here, standing by with fire extinguishers and various weaponry.
"Roberto, do you have any idea how dangerous you are, to yourself and the people around you?", the agent asked.
"How come?"
"Please look. This man you see here..." he waved in the direction of the glass dome. At closer inspection, it wasn't a dome, but
rather a full sphere halfway submerged in the floor. we went closer to it, and I could see what was at the bottom. It looked like a
dentist's chair, in which a man was firmly strapped. His head was shaven, and he wore the same kind of cotton shirt and pants as I
did. Several wires were attached to his head. He looked like he was sleeping.
"...this man is a Dreamer, just like you. On the night of October 30 this year, he had a nightmare, which resulted in a demon being
let loose in a city in one of our neighbouring countries. He managed to hide it for about a day, then it ran off and killed five
people as it broke into a Halloween party next door. We spent all night covering up its tracks..."
As he spoke, the light in the room was dimmed.
"We have REM", someone said from the monitor end of the room. Everyone's heads turned to a smaller sphere submerged in the floor next
to the one where the man was sitting.
"Ahh... perfect timing", the agent said.
"Specifications set... positive results so far..." the voice from the other end of the room said.
A monitor on the wall behind the sphere showed a black-and-white image of an indescribable creature. It was literally all slime,
teeth and claws. The image seemed to be somewhat out of focus, and at times, the creature disappeared completely. The man was
writhing in the chair.
"And... go", the voice declared. The sphere was soundproof, but it was clear that the man screamed at the top of his lungs. Something
that looked like blue smoke appeared in the smaller sphere, then it disappeared again. Silence filled the room, suddenly broken by a
long beep.
"He's dead", a woman in a lab coat said. "A shame, we were close to achieving it this time"
"Why did you bring me here?", I asked the agent, who had watched the incident without moving a muscle.
"We wanted to give you a little demon-stration on how dangerous your powers are", he replied. "A shame the test subject couldn't
dream what he was told to, when he was told to. We tried to help him as well..."
"You...", I said, but stopped. They had tried to force the unlucky man to true-dream something, and he had died in the process. I
looked at the body in the chair. That would be my fate as well, if I didn't do something.
"Guess we'll have to show you the consequences of your powers instead", the agent said. "Come with me"
We went out through another hidden door. After a few identical sets of corridors, we came to a staircase. Another cage was embedded
in the wall halfway down the stairs, and I could see Weavile firmly strapped to a wall in there. He too looked like he was sleeping,
probably due to sedatives. The agent dragged me past the cage, and we walked through even more corridors. I tried to get a sense of
how big the place was, but I simply couldn't. The corridors seemed to go on forever, and there appeared to be no way out, no main
hallways or grand staircases. All of them seemed to only connect two floors. And even if the place was as featureless as the people
who inhabited it, the agent never hesitated or slowed down. He knew the way perfectly.
"In here", he said and whisked me through a door. We were in a small room with a proper door in the far end. The room was perhaps six
by ten metres big, and contained twelve hospital beds. There lay a person in each bed, each of them dressed in the same cotton
pyjamas as I wore.
"All these people are civilians who fell to your Pokémon", the agent said. The persons were of all ages, both genders. "The ones here
were in Millennium Street during the incident a few days ago. Innocent people, maimed by the consequences of your bad judgement"
"What about their relatives?"
"The information we give them is classified to you. Follow me"
We went across the room, through the door and ended up in a long corridor with doors at regular intervals. The agent opened a door
six doors further down the corridor, across the main hallway.
"These people were at the wrong place at the wrong time. A bit more than a week ago, at that metro station in Eastwing. They were
brutally knocked down by that terrible iron snake of yours"
We didn't enter more rooms, but the agent pointed at the doors as we walked down the corridor.
"The couple in here was tenting in the woods and attacked by a manic monkey. Them in here drove that train you devastated. These
worked at a sewage plant, we found them badly maimed one morning. A night bus driver. A homeless person who crossed the wrong
stag beetle. A policeman and the elderly lady he tried to rescue from that flying scorpion. A scuba diver. You haven't heard about
half of them. On average two persons per day your creatures have been roaming free, not counting our own people. Damage for millions,
even more if we count Millennium Street"
"How can I know that you speak truth?", I said. All the rooms could have been empty for what I knew. I stretched out a hand and
opened the first door we passed. The room contained thirty beds, all filled with seemingly identical people... no, wait, they
were identical! All of them had the same unremarkable facial features, they were all men and all bald. They looked like thirty
mannequins where they lay, the only sign of life was the occasional breath.
"Who are they?"
"Hard working labourers devoting their time to stop the onslaught you started", the agent said. I figured out he meant the pathetic
TLA grunts. They usually covered their faces with helmets, ski masks or the dark plexiglass visors of the hazmat suits. Come to think
about it, I had never seen their faces before. It was kind of disturbing to actually see them up close.
"Onslaught? None of these people are dead", I said. The agent made a dramatic gesture and opened the door behind himself.
"Meet a person who begs to differ", he replied. The room looked a bit like an office space, there were separate cubicles for each
bed. The agent went in, and told me to wait. Seconds later, he came back with a bed. I looked at the body in it. It looked like a
statue of a TLA agent, perfectly carved in grey stone down to every little detail. Even his clothes were petrified. His face was
twisted in a grimace of pain.
"No heartbeat rhythm, no breath. No sign of life whatsoever. He was hit by the monster in Millennium Street", the agent whispered.
"It... supposedly happens sometimes", I said, trying to remember what they said in Mewtwo Strikes Back. "If a person is hit by
a particularly powerful attack, it may... not kill them, but... this. Turn him to stone. He won't wake up, there's only one thing
that can cure him: Heartfelt Pokémon tears. And no Pokémon will ever cry for one of you guys. He's effectively a door stopper", I
replied.
"How far will you take it?", the agent whispered. "Would you like to see your classmates end up like that?"
"Frankly, yes", I said without hesitating.
"You don't feel any sorry about ruining the lives of these people?"
"No, as they will be all fine, I know it", I said. "If there is any long-lasting effects, they're your work"
"We're wasting time here", he muttered. We left through a door and another sequence of identical corridors with hidden doors
followed. The doors probably only opened for authorized personnel, so this place would be a nightmare to get out of. You would have
to force your way from corridor to corridor, while the TLA could just follow the trail of broken walls to track one down. There were
probably cameras everywhere as well.
Suddenly, we came to a corridor that differed from the others. There were about half a dozen agents standing in there, all armed and
with helmets. I knew they weren't grunts from their intimidating appearance and attitude. These guys were professional. They seemed
to be guarding something. It looked like the agent following me hesitated for a moment, then we went on. Two of the guards pointed
their weapons at us as we walked past. I glanced at the cage embedded in the wall behind them. It contained a cluster of electrified
barbed wire, in the midst of which a purple wide-brimmed hat was suspended in mid-air. Then I saw the face under the brim of the hat,
and what resembled torn remains of a robe hanging from the short neck. This was where they kept Mismagius.
"Don't stop", the agent whispered. "And don't look at it!"
Too late. My eyes met Mismagius' for a brief second. Suddenly, vivid memories of the trail we had followed from my cell, via the
dream research room and the hospital wing, to here, flashed before my eyes. The second after, they were gone. We kept walking, and I
did my best to make it look like nothing special had happened. I still hadn't got any idea on how big this place was. I was pretty
sure we were underground, no buildings could ever house this mass of corridors. We could have been taking massive detours to
disorientate me, but somehow, I got the feeling that we were taking the shortest "corridor-only" route all the time. Each corridor
probably contained a lot of doors, but they were all invisible to me, and the agent always chose the one leading into another
corridor. It might have been faster to go through some offices, store rooms or something, but I guess the agent wanted me to see as
little as possible. The span of the lair might also provide some trouble later, as I wouldn't leave this place without the Poké
Balls. If would be a pain to track down the one place in the complex where they were kept, but I would do it, I promised myself.
Without their Poké Balls, my backup team would be useless. I couldn't let Tyranitar walk around behind me, just in case I got into a
pinch. Having a two-ton green monster following you around will certainly bring you into more troubling situations than it will save
you out of. That was, if I ever got out of this place. It just seemed so huge, with all its corridors and hidden doors, several
levels and probably a ton of battle-ready agents and grunts were never far away. Half an eternity later, we were back at my cell, and
the agent left me. It was the same cell as I had left... actually, I had no idea on how long ago it was. An hour? Three? Anyway, it
had a soft and comfortable couch to sleep on, and someone had brought in some food; a sandwich packed in plastic lay on a small
bedside table. I ate it, laid down on the couch and tried to fall asleep. It seemed impossible with the light on. As I looked through
the room for a light switch, I noticed a small brass plaque by the door. Tiny letters were engraved on it. I got up from the couch,
limped across the room and read it. It simply said:
"This is the first day of the rest of your life"
I stared at it for a moment. It was certainly meant to demotivate prisoners, but it had a different effect on me.
"Hell, yes", I muttered, laid down again and fell asleep in seconds, new motivation coming as I drifted into sleep. I didn't know
what time it was, if it was the middle of the night or high noon, but once I got up again, I would have a long day ahead of me
regardless.

Not as much as action as we are used to, but still great.
And I love Infernape smiling.

What will happen to our hero next? How will he ever escape the cluctches of the TLA? Find out next time on the Amazing adventures of Robert and his Pokemon!

Wow, did I really delay this for two weeks? Time flies....

Anyway, I wanted to take a little more time than usual with this chapter, as it's a bit important to the story (and because I don't want inconsistencies). Whether or not it actually affected the overall quality, judge for yourself:

Chapter twenty-eight: The Second Outbreak

That entire night, it didn't feel like I was in control of my body. The Rob from six months ago would have spent the night crying in
a corner, but for some reason I managed to get a proper sleep, even though the light was still on. When I woke up, I lay entirely
still on the couch and tried to make a plan. It basically ended up saying: "Seize the moment". I got another while of resting before
the door opened and an agent entered the room. I wasn't sure if I had seen him before, or if it was the same man as yesterday, these
people were extremely easy to forget the looks of. If somebody had asked me to describe any of them, my best answer would be: "a
man", or perhaps "a mystical man".
"Come", he said. I did as he said. When you're alone in a locked room with a couch and a table, you'll hardly get many seizable
moments that can help you out.
"Alpha wants to see you", he continued. I held back a shiver. It didn't take a genius to figure out what kind of man a guy with a
name consisting of a single Greek letter was. Either a mad scientist, or as Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet, the very
leader of the TLA. Either way, I was very curious and very scared. A part of me wanted to see what their leader was like, another
part calmly stated that if I didn't do something before the meeting, I would never get out of here. And I had very limited time to
come to a decision. We left the room, headed down the corridor outside and took a different way than we had yesterday. After a few
minutes, we hit one of the rare staircases and went down a level. This entire complex seemed to me as a logistical nightmare. The
doors were invisible, the stairs only spanned two floors, everywhere looked the same and there were no signs anywhere. I would need a
lot of cunningness and/or raw power to get out. And at the moment, I was short of both.

Another level down, we entered a corridor where three people in lab coats stood looking at a window. Or rather, a large glass pane
covering a niche in the wall. The agent seemed to want to turn to the wall before we got over to them, but I ran towards the glass
pane to get a look of what was inside. It looked like a breed of the abominable snowman and a tiger. It was a humanoid troll-like
creature, more than two metres tall when standing upright. With its arms outstretched, it was even wider than it was tall. Its arms
were thicker than my waist, and each of the hands were the size of roots of old pine trees, the clenched fists were more than half a
metre in diameter. Its entire body was covered in yellow fur with black patterns, save for its fingers, which were a leathery black
colour. Red eyes the size of tennis balls looked at me through the glass pane. A black stripe ran around his head, making it appear
blindfolded when the eyes were shut. Thick electrical cables were attached to its back and head, and heavy chains held its arms and
legs in place.
"Electivire!", I said. The agent looked at me like he wanted to say "come, or I'll force you". The people in lab coats scribbled
something on their notebooks. Apparently, they were testing him.
"Look!", one of them suddenly said. Purple smoke appeared to billow from Electivire's fur, all over his body. His eyes were closed,
as if he was sleeping. The smoke didn't fill the cage, but vanished after it had risen about half a metre. Nonetheless, it completely
encased the Pokémon. One of the researchers produced a device from his pocket, and pressed a button. A loud buzz was heard, and
Electivire writhed in pain. Still, the smoke continued to rise from his fur.
"I'll increase the voltage", the researcher said and turned a knob on the device. Another loud buzz, and Electivire's arms and legs
twitched. Still, his eyes didn't open, and the smoke didn't stop.
"Don't give him bursts, but a steady current", the agent ordered.
"You're torturing him!", I shouted. Or rather, that was what it sounded like. Pokémon language had the advantage that it didn't
matter what words or sounds you spoke with, it was the meaning that counted. Effectively, that meant that you could speak two
languages at once. And as Electivire hopefully heard through the glass pane, what I really was saying was: "On my signal"
"That's because he misbehaves", the agent calmly said. A long, loud buzzing sound filled the corridor. "We'll have to go, Alpha is
waiting".
"I'll stay with him", I shouted, trying to sound desperate. It wasn't hard at all. "You're going to kill him!" Electivire was in
spasms by now.
"His heartbeat rhythm is fine", one of the researchers said, looking at a small Palm PC. "His breath as well. It appears that... he
is faking"
"NOW!", I bellowed. Electivire sprang to life and pulled his arms together. The chains and cables snapped like spaghetti. He clenched
his gigantic right fist, and gave the glass pane a battering punch. The glass was obliterated by the impact. I didn't stand directly
before it, and the spray of glass missed me. The researchers weren't so lucky, they were hit by the wave of glass like a blast from a
shotgun.
"He's not only immune to electricity, he benefits from it", I said to the baffled agent. "You were only boosting his speed, while he
himself boosted his attacking power. Good luck stopping him now"
"Close your eyes", Electivire grunted to me. I did as he said, thus I didn't see the Thunderbolt, but I felt the heat. The sound was
no question, it shattered my inner ear so fast that I didn't hear a thing. The discharge was so great that the walls were scorched
black and the floor shattered. The agent, who took the attack, went down fried to crisp.
"Now, all hell is loose", I sighed as soon as I got my sense of hearing back.
"What's your plan?", Electivire asked. "You must have one"
"Up and out", I said. "We need to find a staircase"
Electivire disagreed on the last bit. He jumped to the ceiling, fist first Superman-style. The steel and concrete shattered like
glass.
"There may be cameras up there", I said to Electivire as he fell back down along with most of the ceiling.
"Maybe", he said and jumped back up, through the hole. It sounded like he punched his way through a wall up there, before a loud buzz
was heard. The lights went out.
"Now, there is not", he said and jumped back down the hole. His fur glowed a faint green in the darkness. "There's a storage room up
there", he added.
"Can you toss me up there?", I asked.
"I'm too static for you", Electivire said. "However..." It felt like I was being slowly lifted off the ground. Electivire's eyes shone
a bright blue colour. Then I realised I was being lifted off the ground. I flew up towards the hole and into the room above,
where I was dropped down.
"Completely forgot that I once taught you Psychic", I said.
"Those days...", Electivire replied. "You taught me almost everything I could learn, only to test it out"
"Shouldn't you have forgotten it by now? I thought we settled with Thunderpunch, Ice Punch, Earthquake and Cross Chop?"
"Do you really think our memory is that bad? That we can only use four moves? Apparently not"
"No time for that now. Could you provide some light here? No, wait, found a torch"
The room was quite big, and appeared to be filled with agent equipment. There were racks with guns, walkie-talkies, neatly-folded
suits, dull-coloured ties, sunglasses and other gadgets. The far end of the room resembled a clothes store, with several shelves
filled with various outfits in different sizes. I didn't know what to make of the kid-sized hazmat suits, or the apparently cute and
girly earrings which were branded "surveillance". Nonetheless, the implication that there were also child agents scared me.
"Mind to turn around while I'm changing?", I asked Electivire while I stretched to the upper shelves for a battle uniform in my size.
"I'll take care of these in the meantime", he replied and started picking guns from the gun rack. He bent each of them double and put
them carefully back. I got the cotton pyjamas off and put on the marine blue body suit, a bulletproof vest and a helmet. It was nice
and warm, while still providing complete freedom of motion. After some hurried searching, I found a cupboard filled with boots in
nicely aligned rows.
"We don't have much time", Electivire said. "We need to get going"
"How much have you boosted?"
"Enough, I think, to take on anything in hand-to-hand combat"
"That should do", I said. "Now, to find a door..." I ran along the wall searching for cracks or openings, when a door suddenly sprang
open a metre before me. I jumped backwards, and Electivire hastily turned to mow down whoever entered the room. Nobody came.
"I think it's the suit...", I said and took a step backwards. The door closed. A step forward. It opened again. "Lovely. No need to
waste punches on the walls now".
Electivire growled. I had a feeling that a satisfactory amount of punches would be thrown nonetheless.
"Let's find the others, shall we?", I said. We ran out to the corridor outside and kept to the wall on the other side. I was right,
this place was impossible to navigate. We found a cantina, some offices and more corridors, all empty of people. After a while, we
reached rooms where the lights were on, but we still didn't find anyone.
"Where are everybody?", I asked myself. Immediately I remembered that this was often the line that signalled the start of an ambush
in the movies. The TLA didn't disappoint me. A door some twenty metres ahead of us opened, and several agents yielding automatic guns
leapt into the room.
"Everybody freeze!", one of them roared. Something yellow zipped past me. It was Electivire, who had taken him quite literally. A
single Ice Punch later, and the agents lay scattered all over the corridor they came from, covered in a centimetre-thick layer of
solid ice.
"I suggest we speed up", he said, and so we did. Thanks to the multiple speed boosts Electivire had gained from the electrocution,
his reaction and movement speed were far greater than any of the agents'. They appeared by the dozens now, and fell like bowling pins
to whatever attack Electivire felt like using. Each room we entered contained a crowd of people intent on taking us down, and each
room we left contained a pile of people regretting that they had tried to take us down. We eventually reached a staircase where
Electivire had to plough his way through the crowd, shocking everyone he touched. Believe me, climbing over piles of bodies is as nasty
as it sounds, even when you know they are still alive and well. The random bursts of sparks added to the effect as well.
"Aggron, Mismagius and Infernape are on this floor somewhere", I said as we got out to the corridor.
"There are at least five floors", Electivire grunted. "They've moved my cage a fair few times, and when you're strapped up like that,
counting is one of very few things to do"
"which floor are we on now?"
"No idea. I lost count"
"We'll go find the others, then keep going upwards. Sounds like a good idea?"
Electivire roared and started running down the corridor.

Part two fill follow shortly

Chapter twenty-eight, part two:

The first Pokémon we found was Aggron. Several agents guarded his cage, and he was chained up even more than he had been yesterday.
As we entered the corridor, half of the agents pointed their weapons at us. Electivire got up a Protect bubble just to make sure they
didn't harm us.
"Behind you", I grinned to them. None of them turned. That is, not before Aggron snapped the chains, broke the glass, and roared. And
what a roar it was. It was as if a jet plane flew by just over my head. An ear-splitting sound, like what the inside of a thunder
cloud must sound like. It echoed through the hall, and possibly the entire complex. The agents ran like scared rabbits, and Aggron
trampled out of the cage.
"Nice to see you again", I said to Aggron. "Let's wreak some havoc, shall we?" I knew that the Dream Research room was somewhere
around here, and was eager to try to destroy some of the cruel equipment there, but I would most likely waste too much valuable time
trying to find it.
"Let's wait here first", Aggron said.
"His roar was probably so loud that you didn't listen to him, but he did actually say 'To me'", Electivire explained. "We'll wait and
see who shows up, or what?"
Seconds later, what sounded like a distant thunderclap was heard. Another roar echoed. Then another faint rumble. Something was on
the move, all right, but not exactly the amount I had been expecting, given the number of Pokémon who apparently were caught here. As
we stood there listening, TLA agents and grunts emerged from every door in the corridor. All of them yielded some sort of firearm.
"Protect", I whispered to Electivire. The two of us were once again encased by a bubble. "They're yours", I told Aggron. He roared
happily, a sound similar to a locomotive horn, and went for the nearest cluster of people to the left.
You can say much about Aggron. It can be described as "a Rhydon in battle armour", "a tank on two legs", or just "six tons of very
angry steel and rock". Either way, you can't harm it with hand-held machine guns. Ricochets flew everywhere after the bullets hit
him, making each shot effectively a really stupid move, given this narrow corridor. Most of the grunts retorted to fleeing, while
some of them kept firing until the gun was out of bullets. Some of the agents engaged Aggron in hand-to-hand combat. He either
ignored them, gave some a lazy punch, or trod them down. His tail, smashing into the walls on either side, made sure no one passed
him. The people in the other end of the corridor steadily aimed their guns at Electivire and me, ignoring their comrades further down
the corridor.
"I don't think I can handle that many bullets", Electivire whispered, glancing at the newcomers. "If they start shooting at us, we
can't hold the bubble for long"
I was about to comfort him when the crowd split like bowling pins. A glowing orange ball the size of a small car zipped through the
corridor, sending the people flying, and narrowly missed Aggron. It hit the far wall, where it exploded with quite some force. Aggron
punched down the last standing grunt and turned around to see what had sent the ball of energy. Electivire and I stood at an angle
where we couldn't see through the door to our far right, but Aggron apparently could. He roared happily.
"Agg...ron!"
"Meeence", the answer sounded. The far wall was blasted to pieces, and Salamence came walking through the hole. He limped slightly,
and there were torn pieces of agent suits stuck in his claws and teeth, but overall, he seemed to be of good health.
"You're wasting time waiting for the others", Salamence said. "They're all sedated or bound by electric wires. I was lucky enough to
be on the move when I heard you".
"Let's go, then", I said, a little disappointed. With a full team of Pokémon, we could have got out of here for sure, but now it
didn't seem as easy any more.
"All hope is not out", a voice in my head said. I turned around to look for the source. Something came flying out through a door some
metres further down the corridor. It was a box of sorts, perhaps forty by eighty by sixty centimetres big, and it glowed slightly
blue. "Help me out of this, will you?", the voice said.
"Espeon!", I cheered. "Aggron, help her"
Aggron caught the box mid-air with one hand, and used the other to claw through the glass pane on one side. Espeon jumped out, and
walked a little stiffly over to me. I picked up and gave her a proper hug.
"No time for stories now", she said, reading my mind before I got time to ask 'What happened?'.
"I really hope you had a good plan when you said all hope wasn't out?", I said.
"But all hope is out", a man's voice said. An agent climbed over the pile of rubble Salamence had made when he tore the wall
down. "You're surrounded. Really, get back here before you destroy more property paid for by tax money"
"No way", I said, spitting in his direction. Why were all the agents acting like they had the upper hand when they were on their own?
"You've really done it", he answered coldly.
"Oh yeah", Espeon said. What looked like a giant glass bell appeared over our heads. It slowly tilted over, and rang once. A clear,
soothing sound followed by a hum that seemed to last forever. Then it disappeared. "Now, we've done it"
It sounded like an earthquake was starting somewhere in the building. A piercing screech sounded not too many rooms away. Loud
explosions could be heard on the floor above us.
"Heal Bell", I nodded to Espeon. "Clears all status of all friendly Pokémon"
"I need backup!", the agent shouted into a walkie-talkie he had produced from a pocket. "Now!"
"Your communications are jammed at the moment, as to not interfere with escape plan. Please try again later", a familiar voice
gruffed from the 'talkie. The agent dropped it, as if he had burned himself on it.
"We should go", I said. "Straight line, this direction. Aggron, you first"

Within minutes, the entire complex was a chaos. We hit rooms filled with smoke, some rooms had gaping holes in the floor or ceiling,
and there lay grunts everywhere. Apparently, several Pokémon had begun to fight their way out by now.
"UP!", Aggron roared as we passed another room with tracks of Pokémon activity. We didn't want everyone to get lost trying to find
each other down here, so the roof or surface would make a good rendez-vous point. Espeon had also got a Safeguard up, so we weren't
affected by the DeepSleep darts everyone eagerly pelted us with as we passed. It hurt a little when one hit my neck, just below the
helmet, but I didn't fall asleep.
"Where are all the stairways?", I muttered. Another explosion made the floor shake. This was very close.
"Hey! Over here!", I shouted, hoping that a Pokémon had caused the noise. A door was kicked off the hinges further down the corridor,
and Tyranitar appeared in the doorway.
"Tar!", he exclaimed happily. A whirlwind of sand followed him into the corridor, but it faded away as he approached us. "No
resistance in these guys", he continued. "I'm at 242 and counting"
"251", Aggron said "Try harder"
"319", Electivire added. "I got a head start"
"Let's find a way up first, shall we?", I asked.
"Follow me, there's a staircase right here", Tyranitar grunted. We went into the room he had emerged from, which was filled with sand
in which KO'd grunts were halfway buried. There were bullet holes in the walls in several places. We were met by a dozen or so grunts
as we entered the staircase a few rooms further, but they didn't try to stop us. Instead, they turned and ran back.
"I wonder if we're deep underground, or in a really big building", I said as we climbed the stairs. "Maybe even a space ship of
sorts"
"Give me ten seconds to Hyper Beam the ceiling, and we'll find out", Salamence said, folding his wings to avoid getting them stuck in
the doorway out to the corridor. "Or we can just keep going until we find a window"
"What about asking some of these people before we knock them out?", Espeon suggested.
"Girls", Aggron muttered and slammed through the the wall on the opposite side of the corridor. We were in a lab of sorts, with
monitors on three walls and something resembling a dentist's chair in the middle. I did not want to know what the huge apparatus
hanging over the chair was used for. A few people in lab coats fled through hidden doors, while grunts and agents appeared through
others.
"Anyone here knowing the way out?", I shouted to them. The only response we got was a barrage of bullets, which bounced off Aggron's
Protect bubble.
"So much for being nice", Electivire grunted and fried the entire room with a Thunderbolt.
"Great, now the lights are out as well", Espeon muttered. Electivire responded by starting to glow brightly, and the room was filled
with eerie green light.
"Calm down", I said. "We can take the discussion back home. First, we get out of here. What door should we choose?"
"There's nothing of interest this way", a voice replied from the shadows. "We took with us everything that was"
Lucario stepped out of a broken door, with Infernape in tow. Lucario was carrying a bag with six Poké Balls in it, and Infernape was
carrying something in his arms as well. It looked like a child, entirely black, with a large red hat.
"They got him", Infernape gruffed. "Shot. Bullets, not darts. I had to scorch his entire body for the wounds to heal. I think he'll
get fine eventually. But that's if... well, he needs help"
I looked at the body once more. It was a very limp Weavile. His eyes were closed, and the expression on his face was one of pure
agony.
"Can he... die?", I asked.
"He can", Espeon said. "So the quicker we get out of here, the better. No time for premature mourning now" I got the Poké Balls from
Lucario, and called Weavile back into his ball. I noticed that the Pokémon had treated Weavile much more carefully than Emily.
"How come?", I whispered. "You broke Emily's neck a few days ago. She's all fine. Metagross tore down my school, buried people in the
ruins for weeks... all fine. You crashed into a train, and the drivers will be all fine. You..."
"That's our laws of physics, Rob. We can't kill in that sense, if we play a direct role in the incident. But... we can be killed. Not
by each other, but we can be killed", Espeon said. Silence followed.
"Look", Electivire said as we left the room. Due to the explosions, the roof had fallen in. About ten metres above us, we could catch
a glimpse of a starry sky through a small hole in the ceiling. There was one more floor above us, but after that, ground level.
"No deaths today", I said, lifting the helmet's visor to wipe a tear away. "We're almost out of here. Let's go"

We want more, we want more :D!

^Then more is what you get. Hopefully, this will satisfy your needs, everyone (or both?).

Chapter Twenty-nine: Getting home

The upper floor seemed to be almost empty of people. We met very few grunts or agents, and most of them we met, simply fled. The
layout up here was still the same; identical corridors with hidden doors leading to rooms of little interest. There were kitchens,
some wardrobes, a lot of offices and the odd storeroom, but fewer labs than we had seen further down. We kept walking in a straight
line, and only changed course if we found a nearby door that lead into an interesting-looking room.
"This place is extremely big", I said. The others nodded. Aggron, who walked first, went through another wall as if it was made of
paper. Electivire, following behind, covered him, and then the rest of us followed, with Tyranitar as last man in the group. The room
was a small storeroom, with several surgeon coats hanging in a cupboard, and shelves with medical equipment. Aggron didn't even slow
down as he strode through them and the wall behind.
"Strange", he said as he reached the room on the other side of the wall. It was a regular corridor, all white, and only a few metres
wide. Aggron was scraping at the opposite wall with his right claw. "This wall is a lot thicker than the others"
"Have we reached the perimeter wall already?", I asked. I found that a little strange, as I was pretty sure we had been going the
opposite way of the way we had gone on the floor below.
"Look at the corridor", Salamence said as he struggled his way through the hole in the wall. Those wings must have been quite a
nuisance underground. I turned around and looked down the corridor to the left. It was longer than any of the corridors I had seen so
far, and slightly curved. If it formed a circle, like I suspected it to do, it must have had a radius of several kilometres.
"Reminds me of pictures I have seen of that particle accelerator", I mumbled. The corridor went on for several kilometres to the left
as well. It was completely empty.
"Look!", Espeon said. "There's a door over there"
It was a door all right. It looked like a blast door, or a vault door as in movies about bank robberies. It was circular, about three
metres in diameter, and made of solid steel. Nevertheless, getting past it wasn't a problem. It was rather a question of punching
through it, ripping it off the hinges or melting it down. Aggron went for the fourth option, he bent down and bit a chunk off it. The
sound of his powerful jaws chewing through the steel made me instinctively put my hands over my helmet. He continued to eat about one
third of the door, then knocked over the rest. The room beyond it looked like a concrete bunker, about ten metres long and five or
six metres wide, with an identical door in the other end. A small side room contained a set of showers, a shaft labelled
"contaminated equipment", and a cupboard full of hazmat suits.
"This door looks more solid", Electivire said as he examinated the door.
"Probably built to withstand a nuclear blast", I said.
"Wonder if it can withstand this?", Lucario said. He positioned himself in the middle of the room, stretched both arms forward, and
fired off a Focus Blast. The missile of solid smoke hit the door with a thundering boom, and cracks appeared in the walls all around
it. Still, the door itself didn't budge.
"Apparently, it can", I said. "Anyone else want to give it a try?"
Salamence walked up to it, scratched a little on it with a claw, as if to test its durability. He then took a few steps backwards,
took a deep breath, and sent off a Hydro Pump. The high-pressure stream of water punched the door straight through the wall, and a
few meters into the room beyond it. The room was filled with mist as the water settled and evaporated. The next room was almost
identical to this, but with an even stronger door.
"This is getting ridiculous", I said and stepped carefully through the hole. The wall looked like it could crumble any second. "Just
get us past this as fast as possible, OK?"
Aggron walked past me and tore down half the wall around the spot the door had previously occupied, strode across the room, and
ripped the steel door out of the wall without much effort. Finally, behind this door there was nothing but a white corridor.
"Not again...", I sighed, then I noticed that there were signs on the walls in this corridor. Aggron and Tyranitar went out through
the newly created hole, and safety-checked the corridor.
"Different lamps in here", Tyranitar grunted. I followed after Electivire through the hole, and had a look. Not only did the lamps
look like they were designed to actually not look horrible, there were also signs directing potential visitors to other parts of the
complex. A small brass plaque next to the hole we had just made read "Vault 52C-A".
"A vault?", Espeon asked.
"Hardly", I said. "I think there are lots of such doors in here, but only a few of them leads to the deeper parts of the complex. The
rest might be genuine vaults"
"What do you mean?"
"I've thought about this, and I don't think there are that many places on Earth where you can build a complex like this without
getting a lot of questions asked", I said. "So I think they have built an 'official' lair first, in secrecy. If anyone ever ask
questions about it, the TLA will just present to them this. A not very suspicious underground research complex, by stereotypical
villain standards. The real goodies, which we've just left, are hidden within this 'legitimate' lair, but when people see this part,
they think they have got it all and leave satisfied"
"Which hopefully means the security isn't as strict up here?", Espeon asked
"I wouldn't take anything for granted", I said and lead the group in the direction of an "Exit"-sign. The corridors here were a lot
easier to navigate, and we didn't have to take short-cuts through side rooms any more. Compared to what was on the lower levels, we
wouldn't have found anything useful in there either.
"The exit can't be too far away now...", I mumbled. Aggron still lead the group, looking really out of place in the seemingly
ordinary office-like setting we were walking in. His head constantly scraped against the ceiling, causing a small shower of plaster
and dust to fall down behind him. His wagging tail smashed big chunks off corners, and his feet left deep tracks in the floor.
Electivire followed behind him, letting off sparks when he passed too near lamps or metal objects. I was third, walking beside
Lucario, with Espeon in tow. Just the three of us would have looked out of place everywhere, but in these corridors and with
Salamence right behind us, we really looked absurd. Infernape balanced on Salamence's back, scouting forward or backward. He didn't
move a muscle even when Salamence turned around sharp bends or up and down steps. Last came Tyranitar, who walked silently behind us
and added to the collection of tracks in our wake. He was slightly lower than Aggron, not as wide and had a lot more control of his
tail, so he didn't bump into walls nearly as much.
"Almost there...", I said, just to comfort the others. We had been walking up and down empty corridors for some twenty minutes.
Suddenly, the corridor widened, and we came to an intersection. Signs politely pointed out what was in each direction. The one we had
came from simply said "offices". The three others said "labs", "living quarters" and "hangar". I read them loud for the Pokémon, we
all looked at each other, and started a semi-spurt in the hangar direction.

We found it after less than two minutes. It was an immensely huge dimly lit room, with trucks, helicopters and vans neatly lined up.
We entered through a small door on the short wall, and just stood in awe looking for a few seconds. There were rows of large trucks.
Even black planes and snowmobiles were parked here. There were a good fifteen metres up to the ceiling, and the room was several
hundred metres big in the other directions. By the look of the mechanisms in the ceiling, parts of it could slide open so that one
could take off from in here. In the other end of the room, large doors undoubtedly lead out. We were almost free now... We started to
walk across the room, past rows upon rows of black vans. I stopped counting them when I came to 250. There also appeared to be an
aircraft carrier-style runway in here.
"They even have tanks here", Lucario said and pointed at some huge black behemoths of steel parked behind a transport plane.
"Those jet fighters...", I said. "Look familiar, Salamence?"
"The one I shot down was grey. These are black", Salamence replied.
"We're not alone in here", Infernape interrupted us. "I can see them in the shadows. We should stop, and prepare for battle"
"What?", I whispered. There appeared to be nobody in here. "Lucario?"
"He's right", Lucario's voice said in my head. "Keep going until we pass that plane. We'll be out of range from many of them there"
"FREEZE!", a voice suddenly shouted. We stopped, and the Pokémon formed a circle around me. Lucario and Infernape immediately put up
Protect bubbles. That was really bad news, as they were the ones who knew who many they were. Espeon followed up with a Safeguard.
"You are surrounded", the voice continued matter-of-factly. This must be the thirtieth time I had heard that sentence today, but this
time, I had a feeling that it was they who had the upper hand. Agents and grunts started to appear from the shadows, and formed a
perfect circle around us. There were several hundred of them here, and it worried me slightly to see that none of them were yielding
nets or cages. These were prepared for a fight to the last, catching us alive would be a second priority. There were also several
dozens of people positioned on top of the many vehicles in the room.
"Surrender or die", the voice said. A single man emerged from the rows of people. He was dressed in a tuxedo, and unlike the other
grunts, his face was scarred, and his hair had a gray tint. He had a face that was also possible to remember. I didn't know whether I
should be comforted by this, or just very afraid.
"You're outnumbered 150 to one...", he started.
"Perfectly fine odds", Tyranitar snarled.
"... and I suggest you come with us", the man continued. "That will save us both from so much trouble. You can't win this. You can't
fight yourself, and you only have seven monsters with you"
"Thirteen", a voice gruffed from the walkie-talkies all the agents had strapped to their chests. About one third of the agents
pointed their guns into the darkness to my right.
"Protect", I whispered. I heard clicks from guns all around us as the shields sprung up. If something didn't happen soon, we'd be
completely lost. A faint whooshing sound to the right made my heart beat a lot faster. Come on, come on, come on...
The agents who had turned around opened fire, and the room was filled with noise from machine guns. But not seconds later, the sound
was literally drowned in a tremendous roar. A small tsunami emerged from the darkness, it was a good five metres high and moved quite
fast across the room. The crowd split and people ran. The wave hit our Protect bubbles and washed right over them, but none of the
Pokémon budged. A few seconds later, the room was dry again, but most of the grunts had been knocked out.
"You will pay for-", the man in tux began. Like the agents, he was tough to knock out. He slowly got to his legs, and reached for
something in his pocket. A split second later, he lay on the floor again, with Scizor on top.
"FIRE!", he shouted before Scizor slashed his throat. Its thick metal armour protected it well from the oncoming storm of bullets
from the agent who had interpreted the order as "shoot Scizor". Three quarters of them, however, apparently took it as "shoot
everything that moves". Bullets flew in every direction, but few of them actually hit our shields. Unsure on what to do, Scizor
walked over to where I stood.
"On your signal...", Aggron said, eager to fight. He was virtually immune to bullets, so I was about to let him go.
"STOP!", someone shouted, and Aggron hesitated. The agents gathered again, but their ranks were a lot thinner already. The man, who I
thought Scizor had sent to dreamland for a long time, had got up again. "Just give in"
"Really, you're one to speak", the agents' walkie-talkies hummed. Those that still worked, that is.
"Kill it!", the man yelled. Almost all the agents turned to the right again, the direction both Scizor and the wave had came from.
"All right", Metagross' voice sounded again. "That was a really stupid move"
Someone had got the lights fully on, and I could now see Metagross standing about fifty metres to the right. He was alone, whatever
had sent the Surf had gone into hiding. Like Aggron, his body was covered in thick steel, and the bullets did virtually no damage. He
slowly raised his right front leg, ignoring the bullets that pelted all over him.
"This will be nasty. I suggest we move", I said. Still under Protect bubbles, we started to back off. Metagross raised his second
foreleg.
"He's not alone", Infernape noted. "See that purple thing in the shadows over there? That's a very vengeful Nidoking"
I didn't see a thing, but there was a dark spot between two trucks there that could easily hide him from my view.
"Knowing him, he wouldn't get up here before he'd found Nidoqueen", Tyranitar said. "Which probably means she's around here somewhere
too"
"Swampert as well" Scizor said. "She was also with us"  Metagross was completely hovering in mid-air now, his four legs ready to
hammer down to the ground any second. The man stared coldly at him. He was well inside the range of the attack, so he probably didn't
know what was about to happen. Anyone who's ever played a Pokémon game through knows that Earthquake is one of the most devastating
moves there is, and if you even suspect that your opponent carries it, you should get anything that doesn't resist it out of the way.
Metagross roared. It sounded like a rusty metal plate being dragged along an uneven asphalt surface, but to anyone who understood
Pokémon, the meaning was clear: "Goodbye!"

Part two will follow shortly

Chapter twenty-nine, part two:

One side of the hangar virtually exploded. Vans and people were flung through the air, trucks toppled over, planes collapsed. From
four spots along the right wall, devastation spread rapidly, though within limited radiuses. Swampert, Nidoking and Nidoqueen all
knew Earthquake, and the effects of four simultaneous uses of the attack were apparently more than the hangar was built to withstand.
The floor cracked, the walls were shaken. The very ceiling trembled for a few seconds. Then, a bearing beam snapped.
"Watch out!", I bellowed. One of the sliding panels, probably intended for helicopter take-offs and landings, had broken in two, and
one of the parts was slowly sliding out of place. It was the size of a tennis court. I could see stars through the slowly expanding
hole. The Pokémon stood completely still, waiting for orders. The agents were busy saving themselves. There were remarkably few of
them left now.
"Over here!", I shouted, and ran across the runway for a truck that still stood upright. "Into the cargo hold!"
"Two seconds", Lucario said and fired a Focus Blast at the nearest helicopter. While everything on the other side of the runway was a
complete chaos, this side of the room still contained a lot of equipment that could be used to track us down after our escape.
"You're doing it wrong", Infernape said. This helicopter was obliterated by the blast, but the rest were still standing. Infernape
took a deep breath, and spit out a fiery orb the size of a tennis ball. It zipped through the air towards another helicopter. About
midway, it burstednd changed shape into a five-armed star, about two metres across. The Fire Blast hit the helicopter, and caused a
massive explosion. Salamence joined the wreaking fest, sending Dragon Pulses toward every vehicle he could spot.
"Come on!", I shouted. Electivire crammed his body into the driver's seat. Aggron and Tyranitar still stood outside the truck. Espeon
too jumped into the cabin. Flanked by Nidoking and Nidoqueen, Swampert came running toward us. None of the agents seemed to notice
them, they had more than enough to work with in Metagross.
"Metagross!"; I shouted.
"Don't you worry about me", the radio in the truck gruffed. "Get them doors open, and clear the way, then I'll come"
"Aggron, Tyranitar, you heard him", I said and climbed into the truck. Infernape, Swampert, Lucario, Scizor, Nidoking and Nidoqueen
went into the cargo hold.
"Six in there, two in here, two opening the doors, and two still fighting. I still can't find more than twelve", I sighed and
fastened my seatbelt. "Metagross referred to 13, did he mean Weavile?"
"No, that would be me. Nice to finally meet you", a voice said behind me. Mismagius was floating in the air less than half a metre
away from me. She was a slightly unnerving sight, the W-shaped mouth looked really scary up close, and the fact that she didn't
consist of more than a head and a hat didn't help her appearance at all.
"Where were you in this battle?", I asked after the initial shock had settled. She sighed.
"Why do you think those people don't try to stop us? They think they hear counter-orders, and their leader is too KO'd to be able to
correct them. They'll be running like headless chickens for another few hours"
"Doors cleared!", Aggron bellowed from the other end of the hangar. By the look of the doors, the two had ran straight through them.
"Do any of you know how to drive?", Metagross' voice asked from the radio.
"You're the human", Electivire grunted to me from the drivers' seat.
"Umm... no", I sighed.
"I take it that means a no. I can't hear you, remember", Metagross said. "Just pull down the clutch and turn the key..."
"Do what?", Electivire, Espeon and Mismagius said in unison. Through the window, I could see Metagross hovering toward us.
"Who's driving, anyway?", he asked as he approached us and flew into the cargo hold. I could hear him scrape against the walls in
there.
"Electivire", I replied. This didn't look too good. "But hey! You're on the Net now, right?"
"I read aloud from a guide, yes", Metagross answered.
"Could you try to find any videos? Just use psychic powers to do whatever the drivers there do"
After a few seconds, the key started to glow blue, the engine coughed, and the truck glided forward. Outside, more of the ceiling
caved in, but the pieces didn't fall anywhere near us. A tractor fell down through the hole, followed by a cow or two.
"Are we under a farm?", I asked nobody in particular.
"Yep. Among other things, the TLA actually grow vegetables for self-consumption up there", Metagross said. "I read it in their files"
"Where is Salamence?!", I suddenly remembered. I swivelled down the window and looked where he had been. He was flying in a figure
eight around the room. Several of the agents shot at him.
"Not good", I whispered. "He's sacri-"
"Just making a distraction. He has prepared an epic finale", Mismagius interrupted. "Too bad you won't be able see it"
We drove through the remains of the doors, and up a ramp. The truck was powerful enough to not slow down when Tyranitar and Aggron
jumped into the cargo hold.
"It's crammed in here", Metagross mumbled.
"Still waiting for that finale...", I whispered as we drove up the ramp. Another set of doors swung up before us, and we got out. We
were in the middle of a field, driving among wilted corn plants covered in snow. To the east, a golden strip started to appear on the
horizon. We were indeed on a farm, with a barn and everything. Said barn was slightly tilted, probably due to the massive hole in the
ground just beside it.
"Just a few more seconds", Mismagius hummed. "I have telepathic contact with him, you see. Start looking out of the right window now"
A blue flash could be seen in the hole, and Salamence came flying out of it, straight up. In his wake followed several blue-glowing
rocks the size of basketballs. I could feel the ground vibrate under the truck's wheels as the hangar collapsed, and the entire barn
fell into the hole. Salamence flew an extra victory round above the farm, roaring towards the sunrise. Then, he dived down, and by
the sounds of it, didn't fully manage to land softly in the cargo hold. With a humming sound, the doors at the back of the truck
closed.
"We did it", I whispered to the others as we drove off into the woods. "Guys, we did it!"
Cheery roars were heard from the cargo hold.

"Do you think they'll be following us?", I asked after ten minutes.
"Doubt it", Metagross said. "We've literally destroyed one third of their complex, they'll have more than enough to do saving
themselves"
"We didn't get everybody out, though...", I said. "Gallade, Houndoom... they are probably still in there"
"For how long?", Espeon asked rhetorically. "We walked through rooms destroyed by fire, and Infernape came from a different
direction. There are no other frequent users of Fire attacks among us"
"So he was caught?", I asked. This didn't exactly help my mood.
"Perhaps, but I doubt it", Metagross said. "We've completely destroyed their communications. Huge parts of the complex lacks
electricity. A lot of their equipment is ruined, and I'm willing to bet two thirds of the people in there were knocked out during the
escape. If there still are several Pokémon in there, the TLA won't be able to gather the resources to stop them. Perhaps the rest
just found a different exit?"
"Then how can we meet up with them?"
"Wait and see. After all, they all know where you live"
"So does the TLA, probably", I sighed. "Why are we going home at all? They can just gather strength again and pick me up.
"Just like they gathered strength to stop us getting out of there?", Lucario's voice interrupted. "They were on home turf. They had
all their equipment available. The entire complex was made to keep prisoners inside, and eventual attackers out. We were scattered,
there were a thousand of them for each of us. Still, we're here. There's no way they will dare to attack us at home"
"You're right", I said. "How can you hear us, by the way?"
"I brought a set of 'talkies", Metagross said. "One of you are probably sitting on one, the other lies here. Back on topic, I think
we should be safe in the cave"
"What about Emily, then?"
"Well... I take it you have little contact with your class, Rob?", Espeon asked.
"As little as possible", I said.
"You got together with Emily this holiday. But the latest thing they know about your relationship, was that she dumped you, right?"
"That actually didn't happen...", I said. "But yeah, they believe so"
"Chances are they still don't know about you two", Espeon said. "And thus, the TLA doesn't know either. As long as we're really
careful, she'll be safe"
"I really hope so", I said. The sun was rising slowly, but steadily. We were driving on an almost empty motorway through the woods.
Signs said there was about 70 kilometres to the city from here. We sat in silence, and I slowly drifted into sleep.

"Everybody out, then", Metagross' voice gruffed. I woke up, and climbed out of the truck. "They tell me you've learned a lot since we
last met, Rob?"
"Indeed", I said and gave Metagross a hug. Due to the cold, my skin stuck to the metal cross across his face. "I can understand you
without translation now"
"Great to hear", he said with his own voice. "I was getting tired of finding speakers all the time"
"Why did we stop, by the way?", I asked and looked around. We were on a parking lot behind a gas station at the edge of the forest.
There were a few kilometres left to walk home from here
"Black trucks of this size tend to turn a few heads", Lucario answered. "We don't want attention, so we walk. Under invisibility
bubbles, of course"
"I'll call back those of you who have your Poké Balls here, then", I said. That meant Tyranitar, Aggron, Swampert, Nidoking and
Scizor. The remaining eight had to walk/float after me. There was little room left under the bubbles, so I had to be fully visible.
The marine blue body suit made me stick out a little, but I had left the helmet and the bulletproof vest in the truck, so it could
have been worse after all. The suit was quite comfortable to wear, durable, and warm, all in all ideal for this weather. The sun had
gotten almost completely up by now, and while there was about a metre of snow, it wasn't colder than a few negative Celsius. The sky
was blue, and the city was starting to wake up. All in all a nice day. Still, it bothered me that I didn't know what day of the week
it was. I started to look for a shop or a news stand or anything with newspapers on display.
"Hey! Rob!", someone shouted, and I saw up. It was Edvard and Andy who came walking up the street ahead of me.
"Where have you been lately?", Edvard asked. "Even Emily says she hasn't heard of you since Monday"
"Monday? What day is it now?", I blurted out. Perhaps not the most intelligent question to ask.
"Thursday. Thursday 7th", Andy giggled. "This is planet Earth, if you wonder"
"January?"
"Wow, you've totally lost it", Edvard said. "Yeah, January. Does this sudden amnesia have anything to do with the clothes you are
wearing?"
"And why aren't you at school?"
"Why aren't you at school?", I asked. This was surreal. For two days, I had fought the battle of my life, and now I stood here
discussing the time and date with two friends who didn't have a clue about my secret.
"We're on our way now. Don't have to meet up before ten today", Edvard said. "That's in five minutes, by the way. We really have to
get going"
"Say hi to Emily for me, will you?", I said in a voice that wasn't completely mine. Discussing ordinary matters seemed so totally out
of place right now.
"We will!", Andy said, and we parted. They kept going, straight past the Pokémon, and further up the street. This was surreal. Emily
was apparently less than five minutes away, going by foot. I was tempted to follow them, just to see if she was all right, to tell
her that I was all right...
"We should get going", Espeon's voice interrupted my line of thought. "She can wait until we get home"
Half an hour later, I finally got into my home street. My house looked exactly as it has been when I left... only two days ago,
thinking about it. I wonder what would await me inside? Would I walk into another ambush, and be taken back to the base? Would the
TLA have discovered the cave, and taken the Pokémon away? Or would mom and dad not notice that I had been away? The door was
unlocked. I stopped at the doorstep, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

Lovin' it :D
Great work, especially the battle scene in the hangar.

Wow, it's been a long time, hasn't it? I wrote most of this chapter in just a few days after I submitted the last one, but for some reason, I didn't take it to the polishing stage before yesterday. Also, I'd like to point out that although the dates/week days in this story matches the 2009/2010 calendar, this wasn't done intentionally. Way back when, I needed to have Halloween on a Saturday, without noticing that it would actually be on a Saturday this year.

Anyway, enough trivia for now. Please welcome:

Chapter Thirty: New year, new problems


Home at last. It felt so unreal to walk up to the front door, coming home as if from a short day at school. I didn't have my keys,
but the door was open anyway.
"Hello?", I shouted.
"Rob? Where have you been!", the answer came. Both mom and dad came rushing out from the living room. Mom gave me a large hug, then
she looked angrily at me. "Two days, Rob! Why? What have you been up to?"
"I...", I started.
"There were two guys from the police here. Or so they said, I don't know if policemen wear tuxedos nowadays", dad said. "They said
you had ran away from school, and they wanted us to contact them if you returned"
"Wh... what?", I stuttered. "You... you're not calling them, are you?"
"You bet we are", dad said. "Rob, we... have you done anything illegal?"
"By the way, we let them check your room. We don't know what they took from there, they suddenly left", mom said "Are you hiding
anything there?"
"No", I said. Everything that could be connected to my secret in any way was firmly hidden in the cave.
"You've been acting so strange lately", mom continued. "We called Matt and Andy's parents. None of them are doing role-playing. You
have a lot to explain, young man..."
"Rob... are you going mad?", dad asked. He sounded like he was about to cry.
"Perhaps", I whispered. We went into the kitchen, and mom told me to sit down. She didn't comment on my outfit, boots or how tired I
looked, she just said:
"Rob... sometimes... you have to make decisions that may seem bad at the moment, but you will benefit from them in the long term.
Sometimes you have to ignore what seems logical at the moment, do something that seems stupid or unethical, but it will be for the
better. You have to do it to save yourself, or someone you love, or..."
"Get to the point", I interrupted her.
"Your dad and I have agreed on this. We'll pack your stuff, then it's off to St. Vilhelm's. It will be for the better"
I got up, my chair toppled over. I didn't care.
"YOU'RE SENDING ME TO A MENTAL HOSPITAL?", I bellowed.
"Sit down", dad said calmly. "None of us like it either, but it will be for the best. They are professional, they can help you"
"It's not what you think...", I whispered. Then I remembered what Azelf had said way back when. If I kept saying against them, they
would only get more suspicious. "...but okay. Will I be able to come back once in a while? Will I be able to visit my friends? St.
Vilhelm's is quite far from here". I put my chair back up, and sat down again.
"We're not going to live here any more", dad said. "Your mom and I... well, we..."
"Remember when we refurbished the house last November?", mom said. "None of us can remember why, or what company we used or anything.
But we're both sure that we haven't paid for it. And our finances are... well, we do fine, but we certainly can't afford this. In
short, I can't see how your dad wanted to refurbish the house in this situation"
"I didn't decide on anything!", dad interrupted her.
"You're the one responsible for the house", mom said back.
"You agreed, remember?"
"I can't remember that. All I know is that we did it!"
"So do I! But that's not to say I ordered it"
"I certainly didn't!"
"Stop it!", I cried. "Get to the point, mom"
"We have to move", she said after a deep breath. "When that bill arrives, we'll have to sell the house to cover the expenses,
especially now with St. Vilhelm's on top of it, then we'll see"
"So... where are we moving?"
"You are going to St. Vilhelms. Your dad and I..." She didn't finish the sentence, but I could see on her face what she was about to
say.
"But why!", I shouted. "You've been married for twenty years! From what you've told me, it's been a happy marriage too!"
"Things change, Rob", dad said. "The past months, so much has happened. You've been acting strange, been to hospital twice. The
house... Rob, what did we do wrong?"
"Nothing", a voice said behind me. Instinctively, I turned around. Espeon was standing in the doorway out to the living room. Then
things happened as in slow motion. Her telepathic voice rung in my head, calmly summing up the events of the past autumn. Mom and dad
looked like they had fallen off the moon.

This was indeed the most awkward and absurd day of my life. I showed mom and dad the Poké Balls, introduced them briefly to some of
my Pokémon, and time passed as we sat there by the kitchen table. I gave Weavile's Poké Ball to Lucario, and he ran down to the cave
with it. Then Espeon and I tried to explain this in the easiest way possible.
"But... but...", dad said after we finished, hours later. I could understand him, this clearly violated everything he had ever heard
about the laws of reality. At least, I had been introduced to it step by step.
"Where do you keep them?", mom asked. "We've searched through your room, we found nothing"
"The old boiler room, with the hatch", I said. "We've... done some digging"
"You're saying that you did this?", dad said and waved a hand at the living room. "I've always thought it wasn't completely up
to standards, but for someone your age... that is quite a feat!"
"I did get lots of help, though", I said.
"So... that's where you've been? You've tried to bring them back?", mom asked. They probably had so many questions to ask that they
didn't manage to get any consistency in the conversation.
"Yes. As you noticed, I got properly knocked out on a couple of occasions as well". I decided to keep the TLA out of the picture for
now. It could easily get too far-fetched. "In fact, you were too. Luckily, I found a way to revive knocked-out people"
"How many... Pokémon are there?", dad asked.
"About five hundred if you count alternate forms", I replied "Or do you mean how many has escaped? Umm..." They were not going to
like this.
"Tell us", mom said.
"About ninety", I sighed. Then continued, as I saw their expressions: "Half of which I haven't managed to find. But trust me, they
aren't dangerous, and it's only a matter of time before I find them all"
We sat in silence for a long time. Mom stroke Espeon, who lay on the table, like a cat. She purred.
"This puts a lot of things in a different light...", dad said after several minutes. I looked at the clock at the wall. It was almost
dinner time.
"No St. Vilhelm's?", I asked. "Or... no divorce?"
"Certainly no St. Vilhelm's", mom said, a little baffled. "But, could you leave us for a while? We have a lot of things to discuss"
"I'll go down to the basement, then", I said and got up. My legs were sore from sitting for so long. Espeon jumped down from the
table, and followed me.
"Thanks a lot", I thought. "Hopefully they won't tell the TLA"
"We can hope", she said back, telepathically. "If they do, though, Lucario has a point. They won't dare to come after us here"
We went down the stairs, through the basement, and opened the door to the hatch room. The faint smell of mildew comforted me somehow.
Finally back again. We went down the hatch (which had widened somewhat after Metagross went down there), through the tunnel, and into
the entrance chamber. The torches shone brightly in the shaft, and I heard voices down there.
"Hello!", I shouted. "Are you all all right down there?"
There was no response, the voices kept talking. Though, we were deep underground and the walls were made of rock; this place was as
silent as only caves can be. It was very likely that they didn't hear me. I started descending the shaft, once again swearing to
myself that as soon as I got time, I'd install handlebars here. Espeon skipped from rock to rock with ease, apparently not giving a
thought to the abyss to our right. As soon as we got to the bottom, I noticed there were some slight changes to the cave. Most
notably, ivy had started to cover the walls, thriving in the artificial sunlight. Somebody had put in doors as well; precisely cut
boards of wood were covering the crudely hewn entrances to the side rooms. They were tied loosely to protruding rocks in the wall, as
if the doors were put in before the door frames were ready. Come to think about it, that was probably what had happened. The voices
belonged to the Pokémon, many of them exchanging stories. Tyranitar, Metagross, Lucario and Scizor stood in a corner discussing
tactics. Aggron and Sceptile argued a little, apparently about the ivy. Infernape, Hitmonchan and Blaziken were sparring.
"Why are everybody standing in the corridor?", I asked nobody in particular.
"Weavile is under treatment in the dormitory, and some of the others are harvesting herbs for him in the garden", Lucario replied.
"And progress on the new room hasn't been going very fast, since you took all the good diggers with you", Golem added and waved at
the door to the dormitory. "By the way, we got visitors"
"Visitors?", I asked.
"TLA", Lucario grunted.
"Just two of them, though", Sceptile added.
"Did you... was there a battle here?", I asked again.
"Not exactly", Blaziken said. "We put out the lights when we heard them come. They didn't see the shaft. Blissey has been busy
patching them up since"
I shivered. If somebody fell down the shaft, the Pokémon would have no direct role in the incident. Thus, self-healing didn't kick
in, and the injuries could quickly get lethal.
"How are they?", I asked, feeling a little sorry for them despite having knocked out a thousand of them or so the past twelve hours.
"Okay, I guess. They didn't fall all the way down, and we treated them way better than they deserve. If you want to send them off,
the sooner the better. They don't need our help to survive any more. They're still knocked out, we put them in the storeroom"
"We'll take care of them tomorrow. I want to have a team of you with me to school, and we can drop them off on our way there", I
said. "Now, time for stories"

Some of the Pokémon had much to tell, others very little. After Salamence and I had abandoned Espeon, she had wiped the short-term
memory of my classmates before she was caught. That move had probably bought me several days of time. Electivire had been captured in
early December, after living in the forest for over a month. Infernape was ambushed in mid-November, but proudly claimed to have done
his best to knock out grunts before they got him.
"You've done some great work on the cave too", Salamence said. "This is a lot better than that hole up there. Nice to finally have
some space to stretch the wings whenever I want"
"Still needs some fortification", Metagross grunted. "I'd rather we put in a barrier to make it a little harder to get into this
place. We could also do with some more side rooms to hide in if they find the cave, and a defense system.... possibly divide it into
sectors too, and give each sector its own..."
"Stop it", Sceptile interrupted. "We don't want to trap ourselves in here either. This is home, not a fortress. If you want to build
a fortification, dig deeper. But we want a place to live in as well"
Agreeing sounds and roars were echoing throughout the corridor.
"Okay...", Metagross grunted. "Given that we put up a warning system, so that we have time to retreat. Give me some time, I'm sure I
can come up with something"
We were interrupted by Blissey peeking out of the door to the dormitory.
"Silent", she hissed with her rather squeaky voice. "Nice to see you Rob", she added before she went back in.
"Is he OK?", I shouted. Blissey appeared in the door frame again, one hand over her mouth. It was a rather comical sight, it looked as
if her entire shoulder joint had moved up to her chin.
"He'll be up and running in a few days, if you just let him rest!"

"We've made a decision", dad said about an hour later. I had changed clothes, taken a shower and sent a long text message to Emily
after I got up. Now, I was sitting in the sofa, with mom and dad standing by the opposite wall. I had insisted that Espeon should be
here, just in case they both believed they were both going mad and started seeing things. Telling them the secret would be of no use
if they didn't believe in it.
"First of all, we rather you don't have the... Pokémon... up here", mom said, her eyes fixed at Espeon. "We talked about pets back
when you wanted a dog, remember?" Espeon stared coldly back at her. A Pokémon could be classified as a pet, but with the amount of
time we had spent together, the correct term for Espeon would have been "companion", or at the very least "friend". But after all,
she had four legs and a tail, so I could see where the logic came from. "Second... we don't want to have anything to do with them",
mom continued. "Do whatever you want, but don't involve us. They are your responsibility, and we... we don't want them here"
"They're in shock", Espeon's voice whispered in my head.
"So we're just going to pretend that they were never here?", I asked in a friendly voice. After all, that combined with "do whatever
you want" was the best I could possibly hope for.
"Yes", mom stuttered. "Just like... they were never here. That's it. Don't mention them"
"She thinks this is a dream", I thought. "Rightfully so too"
"What if I have to go away to find more of them?", I asked. "You don't want them running wild, do you?"
"Just... put school first", dad stuttered. "Education is important. Learning the rights and... wrongs, in life"
"Okay?", mom added.
"Okay", I said. "Espeon, you can go back down now"
Judging by the look on their faces, mom and dad would have preferred that Espeon vanished in a puff of smoke, but she calmly walked
towards the door to the staircase.
"Case closed, then", mom said in a completely different voice as soon as Espeon was out of sight. "Time for dinner. What do you want,
Rob?"
"You decide", I replied, suddenly remembering that I hadn't eaten in a long time. "I'm hungry enough for anything". Mom almost danced
out to the kitchen, happy to be able to do something ordinary again, something not involving escaped monsters from hand-held video
games. The rest of the day neither she nor dad even mentioned the Pokémon. They were both pretending that everything was back to
normal. I too would be happy to get back to the ordinary daily routine, but I had one last thing to fix first...

Part two fill follow shortly

Chapter thirty, part two:

It was the day after, two minutes to eight in the morning. As I approached the town hall, I could see my entire class had come
already, and were waiting for the bus. I was later than usual, but disposing of the TLA agents had taken a bit longer than I
expected. We had simply put them in an unlocked car, and littered it with empty beer bottles we had found in a thrash container.
Combined with a short term memory wipe, it should make up for a hilarious cover story for them to tell their boss. Also, I wanted to
be sure that everyone was present before I entered the scene.
"Good morning", I said to them as I approached them. Every person in the crowd turned to face me.
"You?", Tom said. "They've let you out? Are you with us now, then?"
"If you're still with the TLA, then no", I said. I was expecting to sound a lot tougher than I felt, but was surprised to see that I
felt tough as well. Not that hard when you have a backup team. "Now tell me, why did you cooperate with them?"
"Why should we tell you?"
"I'm just curious. I wanted to ask them while I was at their lair, but I forgot it. When I finally remembered, we had already
levelled the place"
"You lie", Julia said. "You escaped either by luck or accident, or they let you go. Either way, the answer is simpler than you think"
"Let me guess... the lot of you used to be practically brain dead. They taught you to use the cells up there?", I suggested. In the
corner of my eye, I saw the bus approaching, and there were many other cars in the street. They couldn't do me anything here, but by
the look on their faces, they sure as hell wanted to.
"More", Tom whispered. "You don't want to fight us now"
"I run the 100-meter in eight seconds now", Julia said. "Without warming up. You can try to run, but you won't get far"
I realised that my insult had been spot on. They really had got at least some of the powers the TLA agents seemed to possess. They
could easily take me out now.
"I've got backup", I replied, trying to keep my voice steady. The bus had stopped, and we got on. "I have a suggestion: You leave me
alone, and I'll not bother you"
"Backup, much. If that doggy of yours shows up again...", someone said from a few rows behind. "He won't last long. Give us all
you've got, if you so wish"
"OK then", I mumbled. "I will".

When we arrived, our teacher informed us that this would be the last day we'd use this building as classroom, as they had rebuilt the
school. From Monday on, we wouldn't have to take the bus any more, and we would get our old classroom back. Then it was time for
Physics. The teacher handled out tasks, and we started working.
"Seriously, why did they let you go?", Tom asked me.
"They were too knocked out to hold me back, so I left", I replied and concentrated on sketching up the pendulum the first task
described.
"We've got our orders. You'll be back there, and soon", Bella said. "You can't hide from us, nor run away. Until we get confirmation
that you should be running free, we'll do our best to put you back"
"Is that a threat?", I asked. In my mind, the answer continued with "I take it as a challenge".
The day passed, with steadily rising tension. The others were constantly whispering, some kept looking out of the windows, and text
messages were sent frequently. In Literature class, near the end of the day, it got to the point that the teacher asked:
"What is going on in here? I want order!" Bella looked at him, smiled, and said in a soft voice:
"Don't you worry. Just relax. Have a nap"
The teacher collapsed on the floor, sleeping deeply. I was shocked. Strength and speed was one thing, but magic? I got up and ran for
the door, but was caught before I got halfway.
"Going anywhere?", Julia asked. The others giggled. "Come with us". Everybody got up from their desks, and marched out of the door. I
was dragged down the hallway and the steps to the ground floor. Tom and Brian were holding my arms in a vice grip. The rest of the
class followed triumphantly.
"Not so tough now, huh?", Bella said.
"There's too much traffic on the road", I replied "Somebody's bound to see you, and take action"
"We're not going there", Julia said calmly. She tried to open a door to our right. I knew that it lead to a corridor used by the bus
company that also used the building. The corridor lead to a back yard used as parking lot for the buses. The door was locked.
"Hmm... shame. Now well, they'll cover that up later", Julia said and shook her head. Then, she gave the solid steel door a
lightning-quick punch. It was dented quite badly, and I heard the lock break. Then, she just pushed it open, using the same hand she
had punched with. There was no sign of pain in her expression.
"Don't you try anything, we can all do that", Brian whispered. Even without looking, I knew he was smiling. I was dragged down the
corridor, and out to the back yard. There were no buses there now, but a single black van stood in the middle of the lot. Two TLA
grunts, their faces covered by balaclavas, jumped out of the driver's cabin and opened the van's back doors.
"Where's you backup now?", Tom giggled.
"I was just waiting for that question...", I started. I didn't get all the way through the sentence before I felt something hit me
like a battering ram at the back of my head. My vision blurred.
"Not so quick...", Julia said. I felt a strong taste of blood in my mouth, and my breath was heavy. That really hurt, but it didn't
knock me out.
"Now!", I yelled. Red droplets fell from my lips. Something zipped past me like a bullet, and Brian released his grip on my right
arm. That was because he was cut in half. I dropped to the ground as Tom too released me. He was the next to go down. His body fell
over me. I could hear him breathe heavily, then suddenly calmer as he fainted. The air was suddenly filled with screams.
"Kill it!", somebody shouted. Another zip, more screaming, and I could see red droplets the size of coins raining through the air.
They evaporated before they hit the ground.
"Get moving", a voice said in my head. It was Lucario. I blinked a few times, and my vision got clear again. I slowly got to my feet,
and could get an overview of the situation. It did not look pretty. Beside me, there were twenty-five students in my class. Nine of
them now lay on the ground, the rest tried to take cover or flee. In the midst of the chaos was Scizor. Lucario stood by the gate to
the back yard, blocking the only way out apart from the door we had came from. Anyone who opted for the door, was mowed down by
Scizor.
"I said get moving!", Lucario repeated. His arms were outstretched in front of him, and it was clear that he was aiming for the TLA
van. "Now!"
I threw myself to the ground, and Lucario fired off the Focus Blast. The smoke missile shot straight through the van, tossed the two
grunts aside and blew a sizeable hole in a wall some metres past them. The three people who had ran to take on Lucario, stopped. He
turned towards them.
"Lay down, and we won't harm-" I started.
Then Scizor appeared from behind. He zipped through them like a scythe in tall grass. Blood rained everywhere around the scene, then
evaporated as the bodies reassembled themselves.
"Scizor, that was really unnecessa-", I started, but Scizor didn't stop to listen. He kicked off again, almost flew across the yard
and grabbed two boys that tried to climb over the fence that separated the back yard from the road. The two were given a brutal
pincer punch each, and fell to the ground.
"Could you just calm down for a second?", I shouted to Scizor. Either, he didn't hear me, or he didn't listen, because he kept the
carnage going. Bella just managed to throw herself out of the way as he zipped past her and mowed down three others.
"Stop it!", I yelled. Another two were knocked out.
"Try to call him back", Lucario suggested. I started searching through my pockets for Scizor's Poké Ball. I had just found it when
something fell upon me, and I was knocked to the ground. At first, I thought I was body-slammed by someone. Then I realised that this
someone did a terrible job at pinning me to the ground. The person just lay still over me, and I had an arm and a leg free too. I
pushed the body over, and realised it was Bella. She was all limp, and breathed slowly. Scizor must have got her at last, then. A
wound in her temple, the size of a tennis ball, closed itself as I watched. The skin soon was as smooth as always, but there was a
large bare patch where her long blonde hair was missing. Judging by the size of the patch, and the speed she hit me at, she would be
out for a loooong time. I got up, found Scizor's Poké Ball, and called him back. He was still scouting for another target when he
went back into the ball. The area he left behind was a mess. I could count twenty-six bodies lying on the ground. None of them moved
beyond calm and steady breathing.
"Behind you", Lucario said. I turned around, and stood face to face with Julia. She looked furious.
"Don't say I didn't warn you", I said. I didn't feel as tough any more.
"You're so dead", she said and punched. I was dragged backwards by some unknown force, and narrowly avoided her fist.
"Not if I can have my say", Lucario said and stepped in before me. He put his palms together, and bowed quickly. He was smaller than
Julia, but not much, and had a lot more battle experience. This would be interesting to watch. Julia didn't answer the introduction,
but tied up her hair in a ponytail. Then, so fast that I couldn't see her hand moving, she gave him a punch, which he blocked. Then
he had to dodge an incoming kick, then another punch. Julia was lightning fast now, and each punch looked like it could shatter
concrete. Lucario had more than enough to do in just blocking.
"Fight back!", I shouted at him.
"We... focused... on the... special... side... of the spectrum... remember?", Lucario replied, dodging her blows between words.
Apparently, he hadn't expected her to be this strong.
"Close Combat!", I shouted.
"I never... learned that"
"Brick break, then?"
Lucario lunged at her, his fist aglow. Julia skipped backwards, dodging it with ease.
"I expected more resistance from you", she teased. "Take... this!" Lucario was hit square in the chest by her kick, and lost his
balance for a second. She took advantage of the moment to punch him in his face, and he fell backwards.
"Counter!", I yelled. Lucario's response move started even before he hit the ground. He used his right hand to cushion the impact,
rolled backwards, bent his knees, then kicked off with both legs. His right hand was still outstretched behind him, and he used the
momentum of the jump to increase the speed of the punch. His hand hissed through the air and hit Julia in the chest. It sounded like
quite a few bones were broken in the impact, and she went down without a sound. Ironically, she landed right beside Bella, so close
that it seemed like they had laid down like that on purpose.
"Let's go", Lucario said calmly as he got up again. "The TLA will tidy up"
I caught a last glimpse of my class as we went through the gate. For years, I had wanted to pay them back for their behaviour towards
me, but as I saw them now, lying scattered on the empty parking lot, I really wished it had been a little less violent. There was no
blood or missing limbs, but the slashes in their clothes and in some cases hair showed how hard Scizor had been on them. I decided to
apologize once they woke up. Which would turn out to be in early August for a couple of them.

Wowie. Good job ;)

Chapter 28 was my favourite so far, the only problem I have I don't know the english names of all the pokemons :(. So I am sometimes a bit confused.

Those kids had it coming to them Great chapters. I finally got caught up again.

Wow, it's been over a month. I'm terribly sorry for this, but this chapter had me dried of ideas, I needed a "bridge" over to the next phase of the story, but had no specific ideas. What I had, on the other hand, was plenty of other stuff to do. So again, sorry that it took so long. I promise it won't be as long until the next one.

I'm not sky-jumpingly happy with the result, but I hope it's okay. You'll have to judge for yourself:

Chapter thirty-one: Visitors

"I must look ridiculous", Emily said. It was the day after, and we were standing in the garden behind my house.
"You never do", I replied, struggling to close a zipper. When you dress a person in three layers of jackets on top of more clothing, the last one is always hard to get on.
"I can barely move in this", she said. "And it's really, really hot"
"It is now. But it's ten negative degrees here, probably even colder up there, and you have a long flight ahead of you. You will need all the insulation you can get"
"Tell me again why you can't go"
"Salamence can only carry one person, and there are so many cabins up there that that person has to know the area to find the right one. Besides, it's your family's, so it would be burglary if I had gone"
"You're invited to come, if you want to"
"But I still don't know the area", I replied.
"What about the TLA? You said there were two grunts there yesterday, they might have recovered faster than we expected" Even though she had two scarves and a pair of ski glasses covering her face, I could see the worried expression on her face.
"Salamence is one of the strongest Pokémon there is, Espeon will keep you invisible, you're flying below the radar waves, and I put Weavile's Poké Ball in the backpack as an extra safety measure. Besides, once you're there, you will have Gardevoir and Umbreon at your disposal as well. I'd say you are safe. All well, Espeon?"
"It's nice and warm in here too", Espeon replied from the backpack. I strapped it to Emily's back, and tightened the rims.
"OK. Departure in one minute, then", I said and found Salamence's Poké Ball in my pocket. Espeon had put up an invisibility bubble here, so even though many people passed us on the street, none of them saw the big blue dragon appear from the ball.
"What will you be doing while we're away?", Emily asked.
"I thought I'd see what Mismagius could do to the mind block they put on your father", I replied.
"Please, don't", she said. "You've done a lot to him already. I think you should let him be"
"What if he can tell us something important about the TLA?"
"Please, just let him be", she said. "I don't want you to do any more to his mind. He might go crazy if you mess with it too much"
"Okay...", I said. I had hoped that she would be a little more cooperative on this subject. I was pretty certain that Joe, her father, knew something important that I really shouldn't miss.
"Ready then?", Espeon asked. Salamence stood up on his hind legs, and I gave Emily a short hug as he walked up behind her. His front claws gripped her gently, but tightly, and lifted her up. She didn't look nervous at all. As Salamence spread his wings, I took a few steps backwards, out of the invisibility bubble. To anybody who looked in my direction, it would appear as if I came out of thin air. I couldn't see Salamence and Emily any more, but I felt the force of the wind from Salamence's wings. Snow was whipped up, and I nearly fell over. Seconds later, it was all calm again.
"Now what?", Lucario asked me. He and Mismagius had been standing under a second invisibility bubble a few metres away.
"We pay Joe a visit", I said, not feeling too well about the decision.

Emily had told me her mother and sister would be away for the day, so I knew for sure that Joe was home alone. I still felt a little uneasy as I walked up to the door and pressed the doorbell. A few seconds later, he opened.
"Hello, is that Rob? I thought Emily went over to you..." he started, before I cut him off. Better get over with it.
"Hi, Joe. Yes, it's me, and yes, she did, but that's not why I'm here. I wanted to ask you about when you were knocked out", I said.
"I've already told you, it's nothing to... speak... what the..."
Behind me, Mismagius had dropped the invisibility bubble. I could see from the reflection in Joe's eyes that she already had started working with him.
"Just come in", he mumbled. I followed him through the corridor and into the living room. As we sat down on the sofas, he started talking again.
"What was that?", he said, completely baffled.
"Never mind, just tell me", I insisted. "What really happened that day?"
"It was December... 29th, I think. We were at our cabin when I got a phone call. I went back home, and was met by a couple of guys in suits as soon as I arrived. I can't remember what they looked like, but they were dressed just like government people in sci-fi movies. Black suits, sunglasses and everything"
"And?", I asked. He had been called back home the day before I was ambushed.
"They told me I was going on a special assignment that day. Then they blindfolded me and drove me to some place in the forest, where I met up with a lot of other guys from the unit. You see, I'm in the bomb squad, but because of budget cuts, I often have to do regular police work. Anyway, this was some temporary military camp in the forest, with several tents and snowcats and trucks and whatnot. It looked like the guys were expecting an attack on the country any moment, and we were called out to defend it. I think we could have been half a thousand men there. Anyway, I was given a backpack with a blanket and a sleeping bag and assigned a small corner of one of the tents. We were given something to eat, and more and more people arrived. We weren't allowed to talk, just listen to the men in suits. The morning after, we were woken up and told to hurry out of the tents. The camp was almost empty of people, and the ones who were left, me among them, were ordered into the back compartment of several snowcats. We drove for a while, then I heard a tremendous explosion, and... well, next thing I knew, I woke up at the hospital. The others are apparently out could still"
"Thanks a lot", I said. "Have you ever heard from the guys in suits before? Have they contacted you earlier? Or since you woke up?"
"I... I... I think I've heard from them before", he said after a long break. "Can't remember when or what we did, though"
"Do you know anything about them?"
"They said they worked for the government. A special branch called... TLA?"
"It's them", I said.
"Who? By the way, why am I telling you all this? I promised not to... I think there is something you have to explain to me, Rob" He suddenly looked a lot more awake, didn't mindlessly tell me everything I asked him about any more.
"Mismagius?", I thought. We had agreed to keep him hypnotized throughout the conversation, to make the task easier.
"I think we should let him know", Mismagius' telepathic voice rung in my head. "He can be trusted, and Emily would not be happy if we interrogated him and then dumped him. To anyone with a slew of mind-reading abilities, it's obvious that she needs somebody to talk to about all this, somebody who knows"
I sighed, and started to tell Joe what I had told mom and dad the day before yesterday. I also told about my encounters with the TLA, something I found much easier to tell him than mom or dad. He listened quietly, nodded a few times where his new-found memories made him remember his previous Pokémon encounters, and sighed when I finally admitted that Emily knew it all.
"Where is she now, by the way?", he finally asked. I hesitated. I had a feeling that he wouldn't take it lightly if I said "out flying with a dragon"
"She said she had a few errands to run", I lied. "Will probably be back soon"
There were no more questions from either of us. I didn't manage to look at Joe, and he probably didn't look at me either. We just sat there, thinking for a long time.
"You won't tell anybody, do you?", I suddenly asked. I was halfway through the sentence before I noticed I had even spoken.
"No. I won't tell anybody", he said. "Should I tell Emily that you've been here?"
"No need to", a voice said to our left. Emily stood there in the door opening, her arms crossed over her chest. She did not look happy.
"How... when...", Joe started. I understood him, I hadn't heard a sound either.
"When I came back, and how? Dad, I suppose Rob has told you what I've been doing. Right?", she said. Her voice was a little higher pitched than usual. That tended not to be a good sign. For how long had she been listening to us?
"I...", I said.
"Apparently not. Anyway, we landed on the roof, and I climbed in through the window to my room"
"Landed?", Joe said.
"I've been out flying with a dragon", Emily said coolly. "Did Rob forget to tell you that?"
"I...", I said.
"And I don't think I have to ask you what you were doing here. I know already, and I'm very disappointed. Just leave. You'll get your stuff back once you return my scarf. Clean and intact, please"
I finally looked at Joe. He looked back, but he didn't seem angry or anything. Just very calm.
"I'll go, then", I said to him. He just nodded. I tried to see if I could read any message in his expression, but got no results.
"I just realised...", I said as we walked back home. "...that I'm losing it. I knew all the time that this wasn't a good idea"
Mismagius, who was floating behind me under an invisibility bubble, didn't respond.

When I came back home, mom and dad met me as soon as I entered the door.
"What did we say about having... Pokémon... up here?"
"What?"
"These two knocked on the door an hour or so ago", dad said and opened the door to the living room with a dramatic gesture. Inside, all doors leading out of the room were closed, and the curtains were pulled. Houndoom lay in front of the fireplace, sleeping with one eye open. He got to his legs as soon as he saw me. As dogs go, Houndoom was quite big, over a metre tall standing up. Combined with his horns, fangs and overall appearance, I could see why mom and dad were upset. The other Pokémon sat in a chair, humming. The chair faced away from me, but I could see its green head and two long, blade-like arms hanging down from the arm rests.
"Gallade?"
"Indeed", he said and was on his legs in a fraction of a second. Behind me, mom and dad jumped backwards. He looked weary and tired, but not hurt.
"How did you... escape? Or were you released?", I thought, hoping that Gallade was "reading" me. If mom and dad heard anything about "captivity", they would start to ask questions.
"The place is a mess. It was easy to escape. They've totally lost control of their own lair now", he replied telepathically. I was relieved, the TLA really hadn't got back into business as quickly as Emily feared.
"Rob, take them away", mom said behind me.
"Okay. I'll be back soon", I said. We walked down to the basement, and eventually all the way down to the cave. The atmosphere down there was calmer today, everybody appeared to be in the dormitory or the garden, save from those who dug out the new cavern. I wanted to talk to somebody, perhaps Blissey, but at the same time, I didn't want to meet the Pokémon again. I just told Houndoom and Gallade to go to the dormitory, and went back up. When I came back, mom was vacuum-cleaning the entire living room, and dad was in the kitchen looking for detergents. I didn't feel like I could talk to them either, so I went back up to my room, and laid down on the bed, thinking. I was definitely losing it, I thought. Since when, I had no idea. First, lying to my parents. Then modifying their memories to fit into the lies. Then, more lies. Cover stories. And the Pokémon had apparently started hurting people. But only the past few days... we had been quite brutal when we broke out of the TLA lair. There and then, it was almost like playing a video game: walking around in corridors, and knock out everybody you meet on your way. To me, they were just my enemies, all I thought about was getting them out of my way. But now, I realised that they were all people. How many had we temporarily crushed, drowned, burned or crashed into walls? Probably a couple of thousands. And did I really know for certain that everybody were going to be all okay afterwards? How many percent would be haunted by the traumas for the rest of their lives? How many families would lose a member for several months? How many hospital beds would be needlessly occupied, beds that could house other patients that needed them more?
The day after, yesterday, hadn't been very nice either. I had never liked my class, and I admit that "hate" was the most recurring feeling I had about them, but they didn't deserve that brutal carnage I had released on them. I hadn't even gone back to help them afterwards. And today, I modified Joe's mind again, just what Emily had forbidden me to do. My parents were going crazy. The TLA were getting angrier, more dangerous. This was not going to end well...
"Don't you worry", a voice said. I opened my eyes. The room was all dark. Apparently, I had fallen asleep at some point.
"Who?", I asked. I noticed that my face was all wet, and my eyes were puffy. I switched on my bedside lamp, and looked at the floating shape in the middle of the room. It had two legs, two arms, two tails, and two large appendages on its head. "Mesprit?"
"Yes, it's me"
"You probably know what I've been up to the past days", I said. "Why shouldn't I worry?"
"We can start with the TLA grunts. Rob, trust me, once you find out the secret of the TLA, you will realise it's nothing to worry about"
"A secret?". This was interesting. "What secret?"
"I can't tell you. And this isn't what the conversation is about"
"All right, back to my demise, then", I sighed. For some reasons, my feelings adapted to Mesprit's whenever it spoke. I wasn't upset any more, just interested in getting to the point. "My parents, then? They are going crazy, aren't they?"
Mesprit said nothing for a while. "They deny the Pokémon. Deny what they can feel and see, but is against everything they've heard is possible. They don't want the Pokémon to exist because it's impossible, so they try to pretend they were never there. Tell them that we were never here, and they will believe it was all a dream and they were right all the time"
"Should I?"
"Up to you. They will eventually start asking questions about your behaviour again. As long as the Pokémon are here, your parents will either think that they are crazy, or that you are"
"What about Joe, then?", I asked. "He seemed to take it quite lightly"
"For five years or so, the TLA have used Joe as "extra help", just like what he told you about", Mesprit sighed. Under normal conditions, I'd have jumped by this fact, but now I just nodded. I found it interesting, but it didn't trigger any emotions. "He has seen demons, ghosts, werewolves, and so forth several times, but the TLA wiped his memories after each mission. When Mismagius undid these mind wipes, he remembered again. Considering all he's been through, he didn't find the existence of Pokémon particularly unlikely. He didn't tell you about the other stuff, though"
"Why not?"
"The TLA...", Mesprit started "...works with dreams come true, as you might have guessed. Bad dreams. A lot of the stuff is dangerous. You might think the Pokémon are bad enough, but at least we can't harm you. The same cannot be said for anything else the TLA handles. Such things are best left to professionals. You better not seek out the TLA when they're on a mission"
"He wanted me to leave them be?"
"Exactly. You don't want to get involved in the stuff nightmares can produce. And the less you know about it, the better for your sanity. Your mind isn't strong enough to tackle them"
I shivered. "And my class?"
"Frankly, I think they deserved it. And you probably saved them from being demon food on a future TLA mission. Their agents are skilled, but deaths happen. While your friends are knocked out, the TLA will probably find somebody else for high-risk missions. They have most of their free will left too, so I think most of your class will pull out when they wake up"
"Free will?"
"The TLA doesn't like people telling their secrets, or dissidents. Once you join them and learn their secrets, there's no way back. None in your class have gone as far as joining yet"
"But... they know stuff, or what?"
"Mind wipe", Mesprit just said. "They won't remember any of it. It has happened dozens of times before. The TLA contacts somebody knowing somebody they're looking for, gives them powers to ambush the subject, and later remove them and wipe their memories. Not a too big deal"
"Okay...", I said, still feeling a little bad about it. Mesprit didn't say anything, so I figured out it was waiting for any questions I might have had. "Any advice?", I asked after a few seconds.
"Use what you've got, and take advantage of the situation now that the TLA is temporarily down. They don't have the resources to track you down at the moment. Use tomorrow for all that it's worth. In other words, you should get some sleep now"
"Emily, then?"
"I have already talked to her. She will be fine"
I sat up and looked at Mesprit, widely awake. "You've talked to Emily?"
Its eyes started to glow a dull, orange colour.
"Good night"
I didn't even notice that I hit the pillow, or that the blanket in my bed was wrapped around me by an invisible force. I was far, far into dreamland.

Excactly one month and one day since the last submission, I bring you chapter 32. Feedback would be deeply appreciated, I write a lot slower without it:

Chapter thirty-two: On mammoths, birds and motorways

"Not today. Give me some time. I'm not angry with you."
Eleven words, black on white on my phone display. It was the response to a rather lengthy text message I had sent to Emily that same morning. I read the message once more, then put my phone in my pocket and went into the kitchen to have a snack. I had been up early today, as I had fallen asleep early the day before, and even though it was barely past eleven, it was already several hours since I had breakfast. Mesprit had said that I should use today for all it was worth, but I didn't have any idea on what to do. Walk randomly around in the city until I found a Pokémon? Walk randomly around in the forest until I found a Pokémon? Swim randomly around in the sea? Emily still had Salamence, so I couldn't fly today. I still had Pidgeot, but I had understood that riding a Pokémon, as opposed to being carried by it, was incredibly difficult, not to say risky.
"Could you help us keeping the house clean today?", mom mumbled from the kitchen table. She and dad were still eating breakfast "If you could vacuum the basement, that would be fine"
I sighed. What was it with moms and their desperate need to vacuum clean everything every other day?
"By the way, we had a look at the hole you've made down there", dad said. "You've dragged up a lot of dirt in the boiler room"
"You've been to the cave?", I said, a little shocked.
"Is there a cave too? We just saw the tunnel", mom asked . "Don't say you've dug under the neighbour's garden, we can get trouble"
I laughed, nervously. The cave was probably stretching a few tens of metres in every direction under us.
"Don't worry", I said. "Okay, I'll go and clean now"

After vacuum cleaning, doing the laundry, changing bed sheets and taking out the thrash, mom still had more tasks for me. The short handle of the wall clock in the living room was pointing at four when I finally sat down in the sofa and switched on the TV. Way to use the day for all it's worth. I watched the last half of a sitcom episode for a few minutes, then a news broadcast took over. I was already slumbering when the reporter presented the last news segment before the break
"...and today, there has been reports of sightings of a woolly mammoth near the A35, just past the off-ramp to Cascilla. Biologists think that this might be a large bear that..."
I was widely awake again. I ran up to my room, flicked through a drawer and found the list I had compiled of emerged Pokémon. Then I ran down the stairs again, so fast that mom yelled as I passed:
"Rob! Slow down!"
"No time, I...", I said.
I didn't give mom time to answer before I left off. I ran through the basement, into the boiler room, took a flashlight I had placed on a shelf in there, and almost jumped into the tunnel leading to the cave. I had to stop and calm down when I reached the "staircase", as the Pokémon called the vertical shaft leading to the main cave.
"One day, soon, handlebars", I muttered as I jumped from rock to rock, protruding from the walls in spirals. At least, I would install a safety net. It took me a full two minutes to reach the bottom of the shaft. I sprinted down the hallway, noticing that the entrances to the various chambers had been chiselled out so that the doors fit in them.
"Is Metagross here?", I asked nobody in particular as I opened the door to the dormitory.
"In the garden", a voice grunted. I opened the door a little more, and stood face to face with Ursaring. "He said he expected you here any moment. What is happening?"
"I think I've got the location of another Pokémon", I said. "Want to come with me?"
Ursaring nodded, and we went to the storage room. In there, we met Lucario. He had found a backpack, and was stuffing various equipment into it.
"You ran past me like Master Balls were on sale", he remarked. "I take it you watched TV as well?"
"Where did you find all that?", I asked him. Among the items he had put in the backpack were a pair of woollen socks, a set of binoculars, two walkie-talkies, flash lights, and thermocans.
"Got some from your basement, scavenged these from the visitors who dropped in a few days ago" - he pointed at the walkie-talkies - "And Metagross is in the garden, finding berries"
"Back now", Metagross' voice echoed from the hallway outside. "Have you assembled a team, Rob?"
"The three of you are certain", I replied. My trainer bag came flying in through the door, glowing a light blue colour. Lucario snapped it and stuffed it into the larger backpack.
"We need transportation", I said. "You can hover, can't you? I could sit on you, with Mismagius providing an invisibility bubble..."
"It's minus twenty outside. Coincidentally, that's also how fast I can go. About twenty kilometres per hour"
"Guess I'll have to ask for somebody to drive me, then", I sighed and started browsing the Poké Balls that laid on the shelves.
"We need Abomasnow, he's probably an excellent battler in this cold. Mismagius could come in handy too, if somebody spots us and we need mind modification. Gallade too, for backup. Sounds okay?"
"Tar?", I heard behind me. Tyranitar was standing in the doorway. He had a thick layer of dust on his armour, and there was dirt on his claws. He had evidently been digging.
"Sorry, not this time", I said. "We need speed this time, and discretion. Besides, you need a break"
Tyranitar gave a disappointed sigh.
"There won't be any TLA people to knock out this time", I tried to comfort him. "We're just going to go get a Pokémon".
"Fine. But promise to bring me next time!", he replied.
I took off my shirt and jeans, and swapped them for the TLA suit. It was quite comfortable to wear, durable and warm. The fact that it belonged to the TLA didn't bother me much. In all the books when the hero wears the clothes of the "bad guys", they usually remark on an evil aura or similar. I didn't feel that the slightest. All in all, it was perfect for small trips like these. I called back the Pokémon who were going with me, and went back up. Mom looked slightly surprised when I came up from the basement with a stuffed backpack and wearing a battle suit, a buff and a pair of ski glasses..
"Could dad or you drive me to Cascilla?", I asked her. She looked quite perplexed.
"We... Rob... we... don't want to have anything to do with that", she mumbled and pointed a shaky finger at the Poké Balls strapped to my belt. It hurt seeing her like that, she was definitely not all right. "No, we can't. That's the way it is"
"I need to go there", I said. "Trust me, it will be all over the news tomorrow if I don't"
"Sorry", she said and left the room without any further discussion. I sighed. Without Salamence to fly me, I would have to find another way to go there. Perhaps I could ride a Pokémon, but that would take too long. Most of them weren't used to the cold anyway. No, I had to drive, but if mom or dad couldn't, who could? They were the only ones who knew about this, and a taxi driver might start asking questions about my outfit. Or... wait, there was one more person...
I put the backpack down, picked up the phone, and called Emily's number.

"Hello, Joe here" Hooray. The one person I wanted to talk to. If Emily had picked up the phone, or her sister or mother, I wouldn't have had a clue on what to say.
"It's Rob. I need some help", I said.
"Oh? Should I ask Emily?"
"No, I need you. Could you drive me to Cascilla? I think a Pokémon might be on the loose there. Don't worry, I'll get it myself, but I need help to get there"
"That's a good half an hour's worth of driving", he said. "Each way"
"I'll pay for the fuel expenses", I said.
"Is that Pokémon dangerous?"
"Very, if angered", I replied immediately. Actually, I didn't know for sure, but all the other Pokémon I had encountered were. "If anybody finds it before us, the entire secret will be busted"
"Okay", he sighed. "And I shouldn't tell Emily?"
"Preferably not", I said. "I'll guarantee your safety, by the way. No more explosions or slamming or bitter herbs or anything"
"I'll believe that when I see it. I'll pick you up in five minutes"

Forty or so minutes later, the car stopped at a gas station at the outskirts of the city. I got out, and Joe helped me get the backpack from the trunk.
"I'll manage my own from here", I shouted, my voice almost drowning in the roar from the motorway. "I can get back by myself, too. You can go back home"
"Sure?", he asked. I thought for a few seconds. This man had faced monsters before, and probably had skills that could be of help, but if anything happened to him, Emily would hate me for eternity.
"Sure", I replied.
"How do I know if anything goes wrong?"
"Umm...", I said. Actually, I wasn't sure. This Pokémon could knock me flat without making a noise that would alert the entire city, and mom and dad were probably too afraid to go looking for me if I went missing. "I'll be fine. I know how to handle them, so don't worry"
Joe didn't look all that convinced, but he did as I said and drove away. Now, I was on my own. I made sure my boot laces were properly tied, then I climbed over a pile of snow and sneaked out to the forest. It was about half a metre of powdery snow here, and an older layer of harder, crispier snow under it. I realised this was going to be more wading than walking, but the TLA outfit kept me warm and dry. For now, at least. It snowed lightly, and every now and then, a snowflake hit the bare skin of my neck. But all in all, that didn't bother me much. I had a much bigger problem than freezing a little...

The borough of Cascilla is like an urban peninsula in a foresty ocean. While the city's border to the forest is generally quite straight from north to south, Cascilla is sticking out into the forest. It houses largely only apartments, not many stores and a huge school or two. It isn't much to do there, and it doesn't have many jobs for the inhabitants, so most people who live there commute to places all around the city. And even though it was a Sunday, there were still quite a few cars on the motorway. I walked through the forest parallel to the motorway, but a hundred or so metres into the forest. When I was sure that I was out of sight from any house nearby, I stopped and released Lucario.
"What do you say?", I asked him. Lucario sniffed.
"Hard to say. Pine trees smell a lot, cars smell a lot... I can't smell anything unusual, at least..."
"I wish we still had Weavile", I said. Weavile had been really fit for fight yesterday, so I had sent him with Emily. She was still keeping him.
"...on the other hand, you should check out that trench", Lucario said. I looked where he was pointing. There was a deep trench in the snow, running parallel to my path a few tens of metres to my left. I had seen it earlier, but had assumed it was just a stream filled with snow. We waded over to it.
"Tracks, and quite fresh tracks at that", I remarked. The trench looked like it was made by something that had ploughed its way through the snow. It was a good metre deep, and about two metres wide. I couldn't see any footsteps, due to the powdery snow having fallen back into the trench after whatever made it had passed.
"If this is heading towards Cascilla, we're in for trouble", I said.
"It's not", Lucario calmly stated. "Let's follow it"

About half an hour later, the tracks got notably fresher. We had passed a place where the snow was scraped off all the way down to the ground, and roots were torn up. It seemed like the creature had made a long pause here, as the layer of fresh snow in the ditch was notably thinner after that. The tracks made a wide arc, first moving away from the motorway and closer to the houses of Cascilla (as we walked that way, my heartbeat rate increased significantly, every moment it looked like it would turn straight for the houses), but later it made a wide turn and headed towards the motorway again.
"We're close now", Lucario suddenly said, telepathically. The rush from the motorway would have drowned his voice.
"Dangerously close", I thought, referring to the motorway. Only twenty metres to our right, and down a small slope, was the motorway. We didn't have much space to move on.
"Over there", Lucario said, and I froze. Indeed, there it was. From this angle, it looked like a huge ball of fur, more than two metres tall and about as wide. I could see its gigantic tusks sticking out on the other side of it. We were right behind it, about twenty metres away. I couldn't see its face, but I knew that it mainly consisted of a pig-like snout, and big eyes with blue markings around them. Mamoswine was pretty easy to recognise.
"This will be easy", I said and got the backpack off. That was a really stupid thing to say; by now I should have known it brought bad luck. Just as I was searching the bag for Mamoswine's Poké Ball, a helicopter came flying right above us, so low that it almost skimmed the treetops.
"TLA!", I shouted instinctively. The sound from the road was distinctively lower here, as the motorway had split, and the most trafficked branch headed another way, but it was still enough to camouflage the noise of the helicopter.
"Not this time", Lucario said. "This is grey, and with a corporate logo on the side. Apparently a news helicopter"
"MmmmmmMMMMMUUUU!", Mamoswine roared. It appeared that it didn't like helicopters. A small, white orb made of thin smoke appeared in front of its face. Snow whirled up around it. It looked very much like he was going to shoot the helicopter down. Then I made my second mistake in twenty seconds.
"Hey, stop!", I shouted and ran towards Mamoswine. What an idiot I was. My face was covered, and I was wearing TLA gear. Mamoswine turned for me instead. Luckily, Lucario understood the situation and pulled me aside with Psychic. Just as I flew through the air, I heard the deafening sound of an Ice Beam being fired, the trees around it cracked and fell as they froze solid when the beam passed. Lucario took the full blow of the attack, but he wasn't seriously damaged. I wasn't either, as I landed quite soft in a pile of snow. As I sat up, I saw Mamoswine turn and run in panic...

Part two will follow shortly

Chapter thirty-two, part two:

I almost panicked too. He headed straight for the motorway. I got up from the pile I was sitting in (now first, I noticed it was a snow-covered anthill), waded through the snow, picked up my backpack and ran back to the edge of the forest. Mamoswine slid down the slope like a small avalanche. There were three lanes in either direction here, divided by a fence, and not as much traffic. However, there was still more than enough to scare the panicked mammoth even further. A car swerved at the last second, and narrowly avoided hitting him. However, Mamoswine fired an Ice beam after the car, which milliseconds later was encased in a solid block if ice.
"Stop!", I yelled. He didn't hear me. Several drivers stopped their cars to look at him. I needed help here. "Go! Abomasnow! Mismagius! Gallade! Metagross!", I shouted and threw their respective Poké Balls down at the road. They landed a few metres off the road, at the bottom of the hill, then flew back up to my hand as the Pokémon emerged.
"Abomasnow, stop Mamoswine. You others, start covering this up!", I yelled hysterically. Even more cars stopped as the creatures emerged from the forest. Mamoswine looked around himself in panic. The cars had formed a circle around him. Curious drivers started taking up their phones for taking pictures.
"Get away before he...", I shouted at the cars. So far, no drivers had gone out of them, so they couldn't hear me. Suddenly, an ice block the size of a regular thrash bin was fired from Mamoswine's mouth straight through one of the cars. Debris flew in all directions, and the driver was flung down the road. A few of the drivers revved the engines, realising that stopping by here had been a really bad idea. The didn't calm down Mamoswine at all, he tackled a car so hard that it split in half. Then Abomasnow was upon them. He landed on the roof of another car, squeezing it quite flat in the process, and attacked Mamoswine with an Ice Punch. Mamoswine backed off, then retaliated. Sharp rocks suddenly flew in the air around him. They hovered and grew in size for a couple of seconds, then hurled themselves at Abomasnow. They all hit, and pretty hard too. Abomasnow fell back, over the car he had crushed just seconds earlier, and lay still. Mamoswine turned and slammed a tusk into a van behind him. The car was torn up like it was made from paper.
"Abomasnow, back!", I shouted and pointed his Poké Ball at him. Mamoswine's Poké Ball was in my other hand. "Lucario, stop him somehow!"
A beam of pure light passed my right shoulder just a split second later. It hit Mamoswine like a truck, tossed him over to the side, and caused him to slide over the dividing fence into the other lane. Then suddenly, the road was clear. No traces of the Pokémon. No crashed cars. Just an empty motorway.
"What the...", I mumbled. I hastily turned around to see if Lucario was still there. Luckily, he was. "What happened?"
"Invisibility bubble", he replied. "Let's go down and help them clear up the area"
I slid down the slope, and soon entered the bubble so I could see again. Mismagius and Gallade were running/floating from car to car, holding a couple in place while they modified the memories of some of the drivers. One car floated in mid-air, the wheels running like there was no tomorrow. The driver inside was hysterical, he looked out of the window, screamt, and hammered the steering wheel, as if that would make the car go forward. It made the car wobble slightly, but it was still firmly suspended.
"Could you thaw that car over there?", I asked Lucario and called Mamoswine back to its Poké Ball. The car he had frozen was still encased in ice.
"I've messed a bit with the radio signals", Metagross said from where he stood at the edge of the road. "According to all radio stations, there has been an accident here, and all traffic is directed elsewhere"
"What about the news people? Ambulances?", I asked back
"We need to hurry. I can't fake all that"
"What he said, guys!", I shouted. The man in the floating car was now tapping hysterically on his phone.
"His signals are blocked, he can't tell anyone", Metagross said. "Still, if we don't calm him soon, it will be pretty bad for his psyche in the long term"
"Go easy on him", I told Mismagius, who was floating over to the car. The man looked out the window, and his eyes rolled in their sockets. He fell backwards.
"I did nothing", Mismagius said. "Promise!"
"Whatever. Just be finished!", I shouted. Metagross and Gallade were arranging the cars so it looked like an accident had taken place. Mismagius was working on the memories of the hysterical man in the car, which had now been gently placed on the ground again. Lucario had managed to melt most of the ice encasing the other car. With a little bit of luck, we would be able to leave in a minute or so-

Suddenly a piercing screech echoed from the forest: "A-aaaa-iiiII!"
"What is that?", I said and turned over. It came from the other side of the motorway. I could see snow fall from the trees over there.
"Should I send a Focus Blast, just to be sure?", Lucario asked.
"No, we can't camouflage broken trees as an accident. Instead, keep Protect ready", I whispered back. Bushes were shaking now. Suddenly, a creature emerged from the forest.
It looked like an ostrich, silvery grey and shining, as if it was made of metal. In fact, it was, its entire body was covered in thick metal plates. Its legs and neck looked like metal rods, and its head was like encased in a helmet. All in all, the bird stood more than two metres tall. Its tail, being a half-metre long knife-like blade, waved back and forth. The only spots on its body that weren't metal grey, were the blade-like feathers on its wings. These were a deep burgundy colour. The bird looked at me with large, yellow eyes as it walked down the slope to the road.
"A-a-ii!", it said again. "You!", if translated to human speech.
"Skarmory, do you want to come with me?", I asked. Its feet made loud clanking noises when it walked across the road.
"Rather you than the other bluesuits", it replied. "Are you with them? I might have knocked a few of your friends out"
"Nah, I just took this from them", I said and realised how screwed I would be if I wore the TLA suit and met a strong Pokémon with bad eyesight.
"Sirens", Lucario said. "We have to go"
"Back to the balls, everybody but Mismagius", I said. "Keep that invisibility bubble up"
"How do you suggest we get away?", Mismagius asked. "I can use Psychic to levitate you, but I can't maintain the bubble at the same time"
I nodded in the general direction of Skarmory.
"Flying?", Mismagius asked.
"Too risky, and you can't keep pace", I replied. "But running, on the other hand..."

Even though Skarmory's Speed stat is pretty low, it can still run quite fast. Mismagius floated in the air just behind us, and struggled to keep up the pace. I'd estimate our speed to be close to 70 kilometres per hour. And yes, riding on a big steel bird was very painful. For a start, I kept bouncing up and down with every step it took. Second, I had to hold on to its neck, which consisted of several sharp plates of metal. Before five minutes had gone, my gloves were cut to pieces, and after that, the constantly opening and closing cracks kept cutting off my fingers. They grew back within seconds, but it was painful. Its wings were stretched out to the side as it ran, and when it turned to avoid cars, my legs hit the razor-sharp feathers. I think I got a cut down to the bone on a couple of instances. The wounds healed, but the legs of the suit had deep, irreparable slashes in them. And it was still minus twenty degrees. I had to bite my lip to avoid screaming in pain, and the cold wind made my tears freeze on my face. I closed my eyes. This was by far my least favourite mode of transport ever. The rush from the cars on all sides mixed with the "clang-clang" of Skarmory's feet made my ears hurt.
"I'll take care of the navigation", Mismagius said. "You know the way, I read your mind and tell Skarmory"
"Thaaa... AOUCH!", I said. My lips were almost frozen.
My vision had become quite blurry by the time we left the motorway. I felt my grip around Skarmory's neck was starting to loosen, and it didn't hurt as much when my fingers or legs were cut. My face felt all funny too.
"Stay awake!", Mismagius' voice hissed in my head.
"I'm cold", I tried to say, but no sound came.
"This might hurt a little...", Mismagius murmured. Suddenly, I felt a gentle poke in my back, and I felt a lot warmer and stronger. I sat up, and tightened my grip again.
"Didn't hurt the slightest", I thought happily.
"Not for you...", was the answer I got.

After another ten or so minutes, we were home. Skarmory walked up our driveway, making large footsteps in the snow. It stopped just before our front door, and I tried to climb off it. However, I realised that my suit had frozen stuck to Skarmory's back.
"Could somebody ring the doorbell?", I asked. Skarmory raised a foot, staying in perfect balance on the other. "On the other hand, no, don't", I said before Skarmory got the chance to kick in the door. "Mom and dad would freak out if..."
I was interrupted when the door swung open. Dad looked quite surprised when he saw me.
"You're back", he whispered, staring intently at me. This was probably because he tried to ignore the two meter tall steel bird I was sitting on.
"Could you help me off this? Go get mom's hair dryer, or I'll have to ride this thing in and get it myself"
I had to wait a few minutes before he came back. Meanwhile, I promised myself that I would never ride Skarmory again. Another (rather painful) ten minutes later, I could jump off it. I landed, but my legs couldn't carry me any more. I collapsed on the doorstep, and had to crawl in.
"Rob!", mom said as I came in. She sat in the living room, obviously waiting for me to come in instead of going out to meet me. I couldn't blame her, as Skarmory was quite intimidating. "You look terrible! What have you been up to? Have anybody hurt you?"
"No, I just have to practise my riding technique", I replied. My legs felt like they were on fire, even though they looked quite the opposite. Mom helped me get off the backpack, and climb up in the sofa.
"Your legs...", she said. "Those are some nasty frostbites you've got there. And your face... and your fingers... and your clothes look like they've been ran through a lawnmower!"
"I'll be fine", I said, mostly to comfort her. The skin on my legs, face and hands was all white and wax-like. It felt like the skin had hardened, but it wasn't frozen to the bone. "Find the berry pouch in my bag. It's in the smaller bag down there. Never mind the Poké Balls. Now... good, can I have one of those white round ones. No, the one with the markings"
Mom handed me the Aspear Berry, and I took a bite of it. It was extremely sour, but the frostbites didn't hurt as much any more. Another bite almost killed my taste buds, but I felt a lot better elsewhere. I tried to put my feet on the floor and stand up. It worked fine, though my legs still ached. I stumbled across the room and threw Lucario's Poké Ball down the stairs to the basement.
"Take this, and get Skarmory's Poké Ball", I mumbled and threw him my bag. "I need to take a bath"
Lucario nodded, and went off.
"Go get some rest", mom said. "You're exhausting yourself, those... things are not good for you"
"Rest? You bet", I replied, went up to my room, and collapsed on the bed.

Just got caught up again. Very well done chapters(yet again). Can't wait for the next one.

Hey, I miss this story. I think I'm about 10 chapters behind, though, so I'll have to catch up. Are you still writing it, Cobra?

^I am. Hopefully, I'll get the next chapter up tomorrow. And dang, it's been a looong time since last update. I'll keep writing immediately!

I think he said something about being in the military and that he won't be able to write anymore for a couple months. I thinks its in the random thoughts thread somewhere.

^No, I'm still around. I will leave for military service in August, and it's after that there will be a hiatus. But don't worry, I'll see if I still can update every now and then (we're allowed to bring a PC there, but we don't get as much spare time. And I don't know about Internet access).

Update will be tomorrow.

As promised, here it is. However, my main revisor hasn't had time to read it this time, and I'm leaving for a week in a couple of hours, so I don't have time to proofread this (I did at about 11PM last night, but my English tends to go all shoddy after 9). Anyway, please enjoy:


Chapter thirty-three: Old friends

My alarm clock dragged me out of sleep at half past six in the morning. After a few hard hits on the snooze button, I got out of bed, wondering what I'd do today and what had happened yesterday. The ruined TLA suit lay on the floor beside my bed, and I vaguely remembered mom almost pushing me into the shower at some point the previous evening, and something about my whole class being knocked out by food poisoning...
The details became clearer in my mind. I had been extremely tired, but I recalled eating dinner and mom telling me that I would join Emily's class again. I felt a sting of happiness, followed by a sense of uncertainty. If she was still angry with me, I would not like to meet her so soon. If she had forgiven me, on the other hand, I would look forward to see her again. Either way, most of her class didn't hate me, so it was definitely an improvement. Then I suddenly realized I was sitting on my bed, dangerously close to lie down and sleep further. I hastily went out the door to take a shower.

Ten minutes to eight, I was walking through the new entrance hall of the school building. It still smelled faintly of fresh paint, and it looked unnaturally clean, but I liked it. They had put in new elevators (or elevator doors, at least), a fountain and a few fancy plants. The place looked more like a mall than a school at the moment, but come a couple of weeks, and there would be posters all over, overfilled litter bins and the like. A crowd of students was looking for their classroom on a list that hung in a corner. I found a place in the queue. I was a little shorter than most of the others, so I couldn't see what the list said through the crowd.
"Rob?", a girl's voice said behind me. I turned around.
"Greta? Nice to see you", I replied. "Do you know which classroom we're supposed to be in?"
"Room 224. Floor two, room 24. Simple enough", she said and pointed at the stairs. Then she lowered her voice: "Are the rumours true?"
"Rumours?", I replied. Greta was the kind of person who seemingly gets correct information from thin air. Had she heard from somebody that I was involved in the incident with my old class? Or worse, the Pokémon?
"You and Emily? She said you're together now"
Ahh... of course. "Did you doubt her?", I said.
"Well, it was kinda obvious from the start, but I had to hear it from you too", she replied. "Now that I know from both of you that it's true, it's safe to spread the news"
I sighed. "Girls", I thought. At least, with Greta telling everyone, I wouldn't have to answer all the questions myself. Anyway, time to find that classroom. I walked up the stairs, down a few corridors and found a door labelled 224.
"Hey, it's Rob!", a voice said as I entered. It was Edvard. "How are you?"
"Not too bad", I replied and found a desk near him. "Where are Matt and Andy?"
"Probably just late. Where is Emily?"
Coincidentally, Emily entered the room in that same moment. There was an idle desk beside me, but she chose one at the other end of the classroom instead, next to Miley. Then the teacher arrived.
"Good morning", he said. "There has been an accident in one of your parallel classes, as you might have heard"
Many around me nodded. "I don't know the details, but there has been a case of severe food poisoning", he continued. "Most of the class is in hospital. They are okay, but in coma. Because Joan and Henry moved away a couple of weeks ago, we have room in our class for the two who weren't affected. You already know Rob. Please also welcome Julia"
I was shocked. Julia entered the classroom, smiled to the class and sat down next to me. She didn't say anything, but the look she gave me gave a clear message: "You'll have to hit harder to knock me out".
Thinking about it, it was no surprise that she wasn't as badly knocked out as the others. Scizor was tremendously powerful, as I had given him a Choice Band to work with, but the only blow Julia received was the Counter attack by Lucario. And that was by definition only twice as powerful as the damage Lucario had taken from her kick. Now well, she probably wouldn't try anything here. In this class, I had friends who would support me. That thought alone made me feel great.

Still, it soon became apparent that Julia would leave quite an impression on the class. Using whatever tricks she had picked up from the TLA, she showed her skills as a human calculator through the maths class. When the break finally came, almost half the class crowded around her desk to talk to her. I walked over to Emily.
"Umm... good morning", I said.
"Dad told me", she replied without looking at me. "Seems like you are capable of seeing him without beating him to death, after all"
"It would have been a lot worse if I hadn't called him", I whispered, then looked over my shoulder to see if anybody were listening. "The Pokémon I was chasing was literally seconds from running rampant in Cascilla"
"Got my scarf?", she suddenly said, still looking the other way.
"Umm... I forgot it. You will get it back someday"
"You know what that means. I'll keep your stuff"
"Remember that my main means of transportation is among it", I said. "Which leaves me with two choices. Either, calling your father again, or only being able to search for Pokémon within walking distance from my house. The latter method will sooner or later lead to the TLA finding the Pokémon before me, and you saw what that Porygon-Z was able to do. Imagine that in a packed street or a shopping mall, or..."
"I get it", she replied, sighed, and finally turned around. "If you don't risk your life - or other people's life - by running after them, they will attack somebody else instead"
"Somebody without any idea on how to cope with them", I added. "A TLA guy told me of several instances of civilians bumping into the Pokémon. They all ended up in hospital"
Behind us, everybody laughed of a joke Julia had made.
"All right", Emily sighed. "I'll give them back after school. But remember my scarf tomorrow"

When school was over, Emily and I walked home together with Miley. She was Emily's best friend, but wasn't too fond of me, so she didn't say a word to me as we went. As a result, Emily stopped talking after a while, so it was up to me to break the silence.
"Have you noticed that your names are anagrams of each other?", I said.
"Three hundred and sixty-two, fifty", Miley replied with a smile. I was puzzled.
"If we had gotten a fiver to share every time somebody said that...", Emily laughed.
"Most people notice it once they meet us both at the same time, but it took you a few months to realize", Miley said. "I thought you were a nerd and all"
"I take that as a compliment", I replied. Then I suddenly had to jump to the side, as a pizza delivery truck drove past us.
"You even dress nerdy. Look at that belt, for instance", Miley continued.
I looked down. My jacket had slipped a little when I jumped, so a couple of Poké Balls were visible underneath it. I hastily pulled the jacket down over them again.
"Honestly, Poké Balls?", Miley said. "Emily, are you sure he is okay?"
"Leave him be", Emily said in a cold voice. "His hobbies are not your business"
"He brings toys to school! At age fifteen!" She suddenly bent down, put her hand under my jacket, and yanked a Poké Ball out from my belt. "Look at this!"
"Give it back!", Emily and I said in unison. That Poké Ball contained Scizor, not exactly the Pokémon you would want to upset.
"Don't worry, I won't break it", she said "Looks sturdy. How much money did this cost? It looks almost functional"
"Collector's edition", I mumbled. "Got it from an aunt"
Fortunately, Miley didn't know that I didn't have any aunts. She handed the ball back to me. I quickly attached it to the belt again.
"See you tomorrow", she said and turned left into a side street.
"Good thing she didn't try to throw it", I whispered to Emily as soon as Miley was out of hearing range.
"I don't think that belt is a very good idea", she whispered back. "No doubt more people will notice"
"I had the balls in my backpack before", I said. "Didn't help me much when my class attacked me. I didn't have time to retrieve them"
"Exactly what is the chance of that happening again?"
"Not sure, but that's a risk I'm not willing to take, especially as long as Julia is in our class"
"Are you going to... you know...", Emily asked.
"Knock her out? I've thought about it. I regret waking her up back in November, but I don't want to fall down to that level by knocking her down in cold blood. However, if she tries to attack me, I'll introduce her to Tyranitar"
"She can be useful as well. We were on the same football team a few years ago, and I know her well enough to know that she's terrible at keeping secrets. If you ask her the right questions the right way, she can give a lot of useful info on the TLA", Emily said.
"I know, she's been in my class for ten years"

Part two will follow shortly

Chapter thirty-three, part two:

We soon arrived at Emily's house. Joe was at home, sitting by the TV in the living room.
"So you managed to get back in one piece?", he asked as we went by. I stopped to reply:
"Nah, I lost close to sixty fingers, but I'm okay now"
"What are you talking about?", a voice sounded from the next room. It was apparently Anna. "You only have ten fingers, you know".
"It's a joke from an old TV program", Joe hastily said. "You're too young to remember it"
"Be careful", Emily hissed. "That girl is worse than Greta when it comes to finding out stuff"
"I'm not!", Anna shouted.
"And she has very good ears", Emily whispered. We hasted up the stairs to her room. Emily shut the door and climbed up to stand on her desk. There, she yanked a picture frame off the wall, and revealed something resembling an air vent.
"Hasn't been in use for years. Once, there was a stove in here, and this is the pipe that lead to the chimney", she said. "Useful for hiding stuff"
She pulled a bag out of the opening.
"Still sealed, I see. Good. Here's your stuff", she mumbled and threw the bag to me. I noticed that the zipper was covered in wax. "A technique I learned ages ago. You've never had younger siblings", she added.
"I could make use of that", I said and opened the bag. Five Poké Balls were neatly packed in a shoe box inside it. My jackets were bundled together, and I found my backpack at the bottom of the bag.
"You'll remember my scarf tomorrow, then?"
"I will. Now... ehh...", I asked. This was a kinda hard question to ask. "Are you still angry with me?"
"Well, I... at first, I was, because you told dad, but he... well, he knows my situation, and I feel a lot better about having somebody to talk to, so... thanks for telling him" A small pause. Then, she added hesitantly: "Are you angry with me?"
"Why would I be?"
She burst into tears. "I was an idiot, keeping your stuff. It made your job a lot harder. I was angry with you for no reason. I avoided you at school. I yelled at you, I sent that picture to the newspapers, I..."
"That was months ago", I said, wondering if I should give her a hug or something to comfort her, and whether that would help or worsen the situation. "And as you know, that was before we got together. I'm not angry for that at all"
"I thought you perhaps could have got enough", she snivelled. "I'm..."
"...the most wonderful person I know", I interrupted her. "I would never, ever leave you for something like this"
"Thanks", she said and sat down on her bed, wiping away tears. I took a chance, and sat down next to her and put my arm around her. She didn't push me away, at least. Why did our relationship contain so much crying? I had thought about that earlier. It was obvious that the Pokémon played a huge role in this, but if it hadn't been for them, I would still have gone in the other class, and never met Emily. At times, I had even questioned myself if that would have been for the better. My entire class would have been awake now, blissfully unaware of the TLA. Emily would have kept going in her usual pace, which based on the marks she got at school, wouldn't have hurt her. Her friendship with Miley wouldn't have struggled either. My parents wouldn't have gone weird like that. Not to mention the millions of tax money that had been spent repairing the damage after the Pokémon. All in all, I was the only one who had benefited from the emergence.
"You're crying", Emily suddenly said. "Is anything wrong?"
I told her my thoughts.
"Rob. Trust me, I was really lonely before I met you. I would have gone insane if I had kept going like that. Also, you made dad aware of what the TLA is using him for"
"Remember what Azelf said. They think I've provided the TLA with some sort of weapon as well. Something they will use for something evil"
"Also remember, you broke your way out of the TLA base. You've proved that they are scary, but not invincible. If you do the right things, they won't be able to carry out their plans. If you hadn't provided them with whatever evil weapon this is, somebody else would, and they might not have had a clue about what to do when the TLA shows up on the doorstep. You can fight back, and even threaten them"
"Haven't thought of it that way...", I said. "Thanks"
"I'm with you on this", she said. "Dad too. But I really think we should keep it to the three of us"

I felt a lot better as I walked home. Emily was right, we could do this. It was just a matter of being prepared. When I came home, I was going to...
Suddenly, a honk from behind, and I jumped to the left by pure instinct. A pizza delivery truck zipped past me from behind, driving at about twice the speed limit, and I could swear I saw a flash coming from its back compartment, through the windows in the back door.
"Crazy...", I mumbled and kept going, at a faster pace now. I wanted to be home before the dinner went cold. Just as I walked into our driveway, the pizza delivery truck appeared again. It slowed down and stopped right outside my house. The window on the driver side was rolled down. The driver, a young man with a white t-shirt and a blue cap, leant out and waved at me.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for an address... could you help me find it? Do you live around here?", he asked.
"Yes, I live right here in fact. What ad...", I started. The back doors on the truck swung open. I dropped the bag I had been carrying, and my hand found the right Poké Ball in my belt before I fully understood what was going on. Two bald men, with dark suits and sunglasses, jumped out of the car and ran towards me.
"Scizor!", I bellowed, probably turning heads all over the neighbourhood. The man-sized red ant/mantis hybrid appeared from a cloud of white light, and was mid-flight even before the Poké Ball hit the ground. It clipped down both men without slowing down, and headed straight for the truck. I saw the driver panic and untie his seat belt, but he didn't have a chance. With pincers aglow, Scizor cut the truck in half, and debris were sent flying in all directions. The neighbour's dog had heard the noise and ran to see what was going on. It stopped the moment it saw Scizor, and seemed to shrink as the two made eye contact. Three seconds later, the Doberman laid curled up inside its doghouse, which it wouldn't leave for four days.
"Espeon, I need a bubble! Now!", I shouted as I bent down and unzipped the bag. I didn't even have to touch her Poké Ball before she leapt out of it. She stood confused in the snow for a split second, then a large, semi-transparent bubble encased us both.
"Bigger, we're in the middle of a fight here", I hissed. One of the TLA agents had got to his feet again. His suit was torn at the upper arm, and I could see bulging muscles through the slashed clothes. His companion lay flat on the road, his clothes had wide slashes across the chest. The truck driver lay somewhere in the wreckage.
"Iron Head!", I shouted to Scizor. It kicked off, and its forehead started to glow. Scizor hit the man square in the chest, and he was flung far into our garden. Scizor followed eagerly, but returned a few seconds later.
"He's knocked out", he said.
"Get him over here", I replied.
"No hands", Scizor said and held up a pincer.
"I'm busy with the bubble", Espeon said. I sighed and waded through the snow to get him. The agent would have flown far longer, hadn't a small spruce stopped him. His left arm appeared to be impaled on one of its branches, but the wound closed itself as I pulled him off it and dragged him back across the garden.
"Mom and dad would freak out completely if they saw this", I mumbled. Luckily, they didn't come out of the house, even though I was sure they would have heard the noise. A truck being cut in half isn't the most silent thing around, after all.

I called out all the Pokémon I had on hand to help me, and ten minutes later, we had piled up all the debris in the garage. Salamence and Espeon were off to dump the unconscious TLA people somewhere. It turned out that there was actually a couple of pizzas in the truck, as well as plenty of surveillance equipment and cameras. We had, of course, scavenged all of it that wasn't smashed to pieces. Now, we sat in the garage, sorting out the remains of the truck. Disposing of bodies was easy, but a smashed up car might raise some questions. I gulped down the last slice of pizza and turned to Metagross.
"What are we going to do with the remains of the car?", I asked him.
"Carry it down to the cave", he replied.
"Why? We've emptied it of everything that might be of use"
"Neither Aggron nor I can digest organic material. And believe me, while rocks are nutritious and somewhat tasty in their own way, they become quite boring very quickly"
"You're going to eat it? You should have told me earlier, we have smashed up a few of these the past month or so"
Some of the data equipment that laid piled in a corner gave off random sparks and funny noises even though it wasn't plugged in.
"Incoming message", Metagross suddenly said. "Wait, I'll tune this"
"What?", I said and turned around as both Metagross and the equipment started to glow blue.
Seconds later, a man's voice was heard through a speaker. Just hearing it gave me creeps. It was the voice of an old man, but a confident old man at that. One who was used to be in command, and who did his job exceptionally well.
"Hello, Roberto", the voice said. "Looks like we found you this time"
I didn't reply, but I noticed that I felt uneasy, as if TLA agents were going to storm the garage any second.
"Do you want to save everybody the hassle, and just surrender now?", he continued. "We have the resources to drag this out forever, and you will lose eventually"
"Not without a fight", I said. "You didn't seem so tough when we smashed up your place a few days ago"
"We've made a few mistakes", the man replied. "And you've been lucky. We were going to catch you already on Halloween, but another mission bound up resources. And some idiot cancelled the entire operation when he thought an agent had blown it all and started too early. You were very, very lucky with that costume, Roberto"
Now I remembered. My outfit that day had been almost exactly the same as the one TLA agents wore.
"Luck doesn't last forever, Roberto. We have people everywhere. You are bound to lose this, it's just a matter of time"
"Come and get me", I replied in a voice that wasn't all mine. "If it's war you want, you'll get it, Alpha"
"So you remember my name too. Charming. I look forward to meeting you in person, Roberto. You sent all my seconds in command to hospital last week, so I'll be on the battlefield myself. Do not disappoint me. Goodbye"
Then, the connection was lost.
"You heard him, everyone", I said as I turned to the Pokémon. "It's getting serious"

Nice chapter, but I need to ask (I forgot) what's TLA?^^

Quote from: dahans on March 31, 2010, 01:32:47 PMNice chapter, but I need to ask (I forgot) what's TLA?^^

Erlend is off for a week, so I might answer that.
It's a secret organisation that has been tracing Rob since he got the Pokémon.
They have a huge HQ, with some nasty stuff.

Quote from: GreekGeek on March 31, 2010, 11:17:16 PMErlend is off for a week, so I might answer that.
It's a secret organisation that has been tracing Rob since he got the Pokémon.
They have a huge HQ, with some nasty stuff.

Thanks mate.

^You're welcome.

Finally caught up! Cost me about two hours of practicing, but it was worth it.

I agree.

So at the Halloween party, did you always intend for him to be mistake as a TLA agent, or did you throw that in later because it worked?

^It was actually thrown in later. The TLA wasn't even invented at that time, and now I regret I didn't introduce them earlier. However, I think I have found ways to imply that they were there all along...

I think I'll manage a new chapter this weekend. Stay tuned.

EDIT: Work with a school assignment took longer than expected, so I won't be able to finish it today (or, well, I would, but I can't proofread it). However, I'm set on doing this by Tuesday.

Woops, did I say Tuesday? It turned out that I had term tests on both Thursday and Friday (today).

However, I managed to squeeze in a little writing, and here's the result. Please welcome:

Chapter thirty-four: Preparations

I found mom and dad in the basement, just standing in our storeroom, the room in our house that was farthest away from the driveway. They were sitting on a heap of old mattresses, seemingly shaking in terror. They must have heard the noise after all.
"What's wrong?", I asked. "Sorry if I'm late, but I was over at Emily's. Oh, by the way, there was a tree that fell down up the road. Did you hear the crash?" It was a very thin story, but in this state, they would believe anything as long as it didn't involve something irrational, like the Pokémon. Mom gave a small laugh.
"Sure we did. Right?"
Dad nodded.
"They have cleared it up already, though", I continued. "No traces of it left. They were just finished when I walked by"
"Right. Right", dad said. Neither of them sat up.
"What's for dinner, by the way?", I asked. I had already eaten pizza, but I needed to get their minds back on everyday things.
"There is some spaghetti left", mom replied. She got up from the stack of mattresses. "Go eat what's left, and I'll do the dishes before the 6 o'clock news"
"Better hurry, then", I said and pointed at my watch. "Dad, you won't miss the news, will you?"
We got up to the kitchen. As long as mom and dad focused on ordinary things, they would do all right.
"Also, at school, we're... setting up a show", I said as I filled a plate with spaghetti. "I'm responsible for the props, and will be a little busy for a few weeks from now. Expect me to come home late from time to time, and work in the weekends too"
"Ahh... well, as long as you don't work too much, I guess that's okay", dad said. "Remember, you need some time to see Emily too"
"Exactly. Is it OK for you if I use the old boiler room too? The one with the hatch? To store materials in? There's nothing there now anyway"
"Nothing?", mom said. Then it looked like she woke up from a trance of sorts. "Ahh, it's been all empty for years. Of course you can use it"
"By the way, the basement is filled with old stuff we never use anyway. Can I borrow some of it? It might come of use in the... apartment scene", I continued.
"Take whatever you need. We'll have to tidy up everything down there anyway", dad said in his usual 'I'm listening to what you say, but I only reply when I feel like it because I'm watching TV right now'-voice. I hastily ate as much of the spaghetti as I could, put the leftovers in a box, and went down to the basement. Once there, I released the Pokémon again. Espeon seemingly appeared out of thin air beside me.
"Good job", she said. "They are suppressing the memories of us, but every slight hint of our existence make their minds go haywire. You did just the right thing now"
"And gave us permission to empty these rooms of everything that might be of use", Metagross added. "Human equipment, mostly, but it doesn't hurt to have it in our cave"
I gave the shelves in the room a quick glance. They were stuffed with things in various states of brokenness. The basement consisted of one large room with several smaller rooms around it, and the hatch room was the only one that didn't connect to the main room. As the house's footprint wasn't that big, all the rooms were very small, and stuffed from floor to ceiling.
"Leave the food, but get whatever else you want", I said to Lucario and Weavile. Metagross could hardly turn around in here, he had to retract his legs and hover slightly above the ground to avoid crushing the concrete floor. I helped Scizor open the doors so he could go down to the cave to get the others. I then helped Lucario, Espeon and Weavile search the various rooms. We started with the camping gear, which we hadn't used in years anyway. Four sleeping bags (I even took my old, child-sized one) with mats, dad's old camping bed, two lamps, a small fuel burner, two tents, some binoculars and some backpacks.
"Take the shelves as well", Metagross said. We had completely emptied a couple of them.
"What about these?", Weavile said and pointed at a few old bedside lamps.
"They require electricity to work", I said.
"Let Electivire take care of that. We take them", Metagross said. Weavile took a lamp in each hand, and leapt out of the room. He disappeared into the boiler room, and was back before a minute had passed. Sceptile came through the door behind him.
"There are lots of pipes in here", Espeon said from one of the smallest side rooms.
"How much?", I replied.
"Ten metres or so"
"We need pipes, for ventilation, water and such, but that's not enough", I sighed. On my past two visits, I had noticed that the air was a little hard to breathe, except for in the garden. "We could buy more, but my savings can't give us more than ten-fifteen metres or so"
"We also need electrical wires, preferably Internet connection, a proper phone line, spare batteries and food", Metagross added. "I've done some calculations, and the costs run into the tens of thousands already"
"That's where the TLA has an advantage", I said. "Seemingly endless resources, and nobody asks questions on where they get them or what they use them for"
"That gives me a few ideas...", Metagross said. "But give me some time to think it through"
I had to step aside as Sceptile squeezed past Metagross, carrying a table. Weavile had already went off with another load of lamps. I took it the conversation was over for now, grabbed a couple of chairs, and walked down to the cave with them. On my way down, I met several other Pokémon going the opposite way. I had to stop on a rock to let them pass. As I stood there, the torches flickered, and something rose up from the deep. Huge tentacles, thicker than my arm, and there were a dozen or so of them. I was petrified, to say the least. Could this be some monster the TLA had smuggled into my lair? An emergence from another of my games? One of the tentacles came closer to me, and wrapped around one of the chairs I was holding. It was yanked out of my grip.
"Do something!", I shouted to Hitmonchan, who came up the shaft below me, seemingly unaffected by the tentacles. "Mega Punch!"
"Why?", he replied.
"The.. waaah!" One of the tentacles had grabbed me around my waist. I was pulled up, and was dangling over the shaft. It was a good forty metres down to the bottom. Hitmonchan shrugged, and continued his climb up the shaft. Beneath him, Weavile leapt from rock to rock, dodging the tentacles as he went.
"Are you going to hang there all day?", a voice in my head asked me. Espeon was standing on the rock I had been taken from.
"I'm...", I started. My mouth was all dry.
"Put him down, Venusaur", Espeon sighed. "He hasn't seen it's you. He's scared out of his mind"
Venusaur. Of course. These were vines, not tentacles. Several of them were holding items the others had sent down the shaft. I looked down as I was lowered, and saw a gigantic toad-like dinousaur-thingy standing underneath a large plant at the bottom of the shaft. All the vines appeared to grow out from under the plant, but they grew and retracted back seemingly at will.
"Where should we put all this?", Swampert croaked as I approached the ground. "The storeroom is starting to fill up"
"Put some of it in the main hallway, as a temporary solution", I said. Venusaur put me gently down.
"Things get very dusty in here, as we're not done digging yet", Swampert continued. "Do you have something to cover it with?"
"Should be some old blankets in there somewhere", I said and started going through the pile of items that had been put along a wall. While I dragged them out of the pile and draped them over the items, Lucario appeared in the doorway.
"We've emptied the basement, so to say", he said. "Now what?"
I hadn't thought of it earlier, but the answer appeared glaringly obvious to me.
"I think we should go looking for some Pokémon", I replied. "Lucario, Espeon, Salamence, Tyranitar, Weavile, Scizor, you're with me"

Some ten minutes later, we were in the garden. Espeon was lying in my backpack, along with the Poké Balls of the rest of my team and twenty random empty balls I had taken from the store room. Salamence was standing behind me, shrugging a little in the January air. A few stars were visible, though a little distorted through the invisibility bubble Espeon had provided.
"A cold night. Nice and clear", he said. "Where are we headed?"
I had to unwrap a few layers of clothing off my face before I could answer. "Downtown. Even if we don't find anything, it would be nice to fly there. Just head for the skyscrapers. Espeon, you take care of the communication from now on, okay?"
"Sure", she replied from the backpack. I had stuffed a walkie-talkie underneath the balaclava I was wearing, in order to communicate with Metagross. These were scavenged from the TLA, reprogrammed by Metagross, and claimed to have a range of about ten kilometres. He could alert me if anything happened, but only about halfway to downtown. Now well, I didn't plan to be away for long. Salamence stood up, grabbed me around the waist, and off we went.
I had to admit, once I got over the initial motion sickness and fear of falling down, I really liked flying. That was mainly the reason why I wanted to fly downtown tonight, I had always wanted to see the skyscrapers from up in the air. But there was something else too, a desire to go there regardless of means of transportation or what I would get to see there. The large residential areas sped past underneath us, steadily faster as we accelerated. Salamence decided to stay less than 100 metres off the ground, and I could see everything in clear detail.
"How is the airspace, Metagross?", I shouted, hoping the roar of the wind didn't drown the sound of my voice.
"Nice and clear. I have no indications that anyone knows you're up there", his voice replied in my earplug.
I relaxed a little, and decided to enjoy the trip. The world appeared tinted yellow through my ski glasses, and in the darkness, it gave everything a dull brown colour. Salamence did not fly at an even speed, it was more like bursts of acceleration every few seconds. Below us, the roads became more gridded, and the houses were larger. We were approaching the city centre now, and the walkie-talkie warned me with a beep that we were out of range to any other transmitters operating at this frequency.
"Salamence asks if he can do a dive", Espeon said in my head.
"Go for it", I thought. The initial adrenaline kick of flying had ceased a little, and I started to feel the cold in my legs. Salamence roared happily, and rolled over, so I was facing the sky. The next thing I knew, we were plummeting towards the ground, picking up speed. We dived towards a large black area, split in half by a track of light. A park, with a single lit path going through it. It hadn't snowed for a couple of days here, so the trees were black against the white ground. We were diving straight for them, so steep that I was effectively completely upside down.
"What about going level again?", I thought. Salamence pulled out at the last second, almost skimming the snow. The draft behind us whirled up a formidable cloud of white powder. He did a few steep turns, narrowly avoiding hitting trees. My need for adrenaline was definitely satisfied.
"Up again, we're going in the wrong direction!", I thought. Salamence pulled almost straight up. I nearly blacked out from the G-forces as all the blood in my body was pulled to my feet. We headed straight up for more than half a kilometre, then stopped flapping his wings. He went all limp, apart from the strong grip around my waist. I had been worried if it hadn't been for the sound he made; almost like a kitten purring, only way deeper. For a few seconds, we were in free fall, then he started flying again, and headed for downtown in a straight line. I was shaking, and fell a strong urge to scream something.
"Think that was bad? At least, you could see what's going on!", Espeon said in my head.

A few minutes later, we were circling a cluster of skyscrapers in the business district.
"Where to go now?", Espeon asked.
"Up", I replied without thinking. A second or so later, Salamence started to rise.
"Up where?", Espeon said. "There's nothing up there"
"I don't know...", I started, then I got a strange feeling, and answered before the words had even formed in my head: "Central Bank Plaza. The observation deck"
"Which building is that?"
I had to think for a moment. "That big white there. The tallest one"
Central Bank Plaza was a quite new skyscraper, opened only five years ago. With 85 stories, it was almost sixty metres taller than any other building in the city, and was very impressive up close. To add to that effect, only the bottom half of the tower was lit at night, so you couldn't see the top from the floodlit streets. Only the side facing the brightly lit Royal Insurance Building next to it was visible, and revealed how tall the skyscraper really was. As we got higher, even rising above the building, it appeared as a black mass against the ocean of light that spread out beneath us. Salamence slowed down, it would be difficult to land here. Eventually, we came to a standstill, and Salamence landed slowly and carefully on the open-air observation deck. The flapping of his wings was really loud, and it felt like the entire city heard us. Even in the total darkness, it would be hard to miss us in case of an ambush. For safety measures, I slid off the backpack and released Weavile. Then I took off the headgear. It was warm enough all right, but kinda uncomfortable to wear for extended periods of time.
"So, here we are", Espeon murmured. "Now what?"
"Over there", Salamence growled. "Look"
A lone figure was standing on the handrail a few metres away, completely still. At first, I mistook it for a pole, but I could see it shifting its grip on the rail when a strong gust of wind came.
"Come, you have at last", a voice said in my head. It had to be the figure on the rail speaking.
"You didn't speak like that last time I talked to you", I replied. I recognised it now.
"A dream, that was. Confused, you were. More confused, I did not want you to be"
It turned its head around, without moving a muscle in the rest of its body. The head was green, as round as a ball, with large black eyes and a yellow beak. Two long feathers grew out at the back of its head. The rest of its body was shaped almost like a bullet.
"If you want to see the sun, a good place this is", it continued, now with its own voice. It sounded like a flute of sorts; a deep, humming sound. "But the stars hide. Sad, this place is at night"
I looked up. The sky was all black, all the stars drowned in the light of the city.
"Shall we get going?", Salamence mumbled behind me. I could see that he was uneasy. I silently agreed. Black helicopters could be approaching us as we spoke, agents could already be climbing the stairs of the tower, or even parachuting from the night sky. We were very exposed here.
"Haste, tonight there is none", Xatu said. "Rest, we can"
"Listen, Yodabird. Cold, it is. Tired, I am. Dangerous, the TLA out there somewhere is. Etc, etc", I sighed, a little frustrated.
"Yoda?", Xatu asked.
"Forget it. Do you want to come with me?"
I started checking the Poké Balls that lay in the backpack.
"Of no use, that is", Xatu said. "Among them, it is not"
"Am I the only one starting to become a little irritated?", I mumbled.
"Hear you, I-"
"I get it", I interrupted him, after finding out he was correct. None of the balls belonged to a Xatu. "If you want to come with me, you'll have to fly. If not, I or the TLA, whichever of us finds you first, will come to get you another day"
I called back Weavile, got my backpack on, and Salamence grabbed me. As he stood ready for take-off, I could see Xatu slowly tilt over the edge of the handrail, still as stiff as a pole. Salamence kicked off, hovered a few metres above the platform, then followed Xatu. The walls of the tower were almost completely vertical, and so was our dive. Below us, I could see Xatu spread his wings as quickly as if they had been spring-loaded. Then he apparently vanished, putting up an invisibility bubble of his own.
"He knows the directions, and we're faster than him", Espeons voice said in my head. "Which way will we take?"
"Straight home", I thought. "We can call this a day"
Salamence pulled out of the dive, now flying only mere metres above the ground. It was quite a rush to zoom through the well-lit streets at this velocity. It was also funny to see how the invisibility bubble reacted to the light. It was like having an umbrella between the light and us. It was as if the light was dimmed when it passed through the bubble, so it was always a little shaded here. Combined with the ski glasses I wore to keep my face warm, it meant that I couldn't see very much, especially when Salamence took turns into side streets. However, I soon registered that the houses on either side of the road became smaller, and the walkie-talkie started to buzz.
"Report, Metagross", I shouted. Time to see if my suspicions were right or not.
"Nothing to report. You're not on the radar, the airspace is clean, and the TLA appears to be busy", he replied. "Even the police radio reports a calm night. There's no haste tonight. We can rest"
Rest was probably the last word running through Salamence's head at the time. I knew he absolutely loved to fly, but living in a cave sixty metres under the surface somewhat limited the amount of flight time he got. So now, he was making the most out of it, by taking small detours or doing huge loops, or zigzagging through the streets. When we finally landed in our garden after a hundred-metre dive, I almost couldn't walk. I had to lean to the garage wall for a few seconds while I regained balance. A few minutes later, Xatu arrived. He landed on the garage roof, and tilted his head so he looked directly at the moon.
"Living underground, we are?", he asked with a sad voice. "No sun, no stars?"
"Correct, I'm afraid", I replied, feeling a little bad about it. "It's the only place you can hide in safety"
"If you so approve... stay here for the night, I may?"
"You can make yourself invisible, so why not", I answered. "Actually, that ability can be of use. I need a scout, somebody who can fly, be invisible and communicate with telepathy. Would you want to do that?"
"A pleasure, that would be", Xatu said. "Now, get some rest, you should"
"Goodnight", I said, and went in. Mom and dad were still up, which made me wonder how late it really was. I looked at the wall clock, and concluded that I'd been away for less than half an hour. Still, after the flight, it felt like an eternity.
"You better get used to this", I told the Pokémon later as I released them in the basement. "Because we'll do a few trips a week from now on"
"Always ready", Scizor and Salamence replied in unison, though I could see they were talking about different aspects of the hunting.
"I'll see you tomorrow", I replied. "And Wednesday. Actually, we'll get time to take a trip every evening this week".
If I live that long, my mind added at the end of that sentence. The TLA were out there somewhere, and while they were dangerous, one small part of me was eager to meet them again.

Nice! I really like how you explore his parents' reactions. I found the Yoda reference oddly hilarious.

A nice addition. I have a strange feeling this story will never end. Which would be awesome.

Finally I had to time to read the WHOLE chapter, nice 1 Cobra!

love it!  Oh my god, it's the best thing ever!  I really hope you'll continue!  I'm dying for another chapter!  No rush - do your best!

^Thanks a lot!

Sorry, I'm into an exam period, with various other things to take care of in my spare time, so I don't get as much time to write as I used to. Unfortunately it will be a while between updates from now on (though, I try to keep it under a month). My main revisor (thanks for all help, GreekGeek!) is also busy with school, so even the polishing process takes a little longer.

Also, thanks to JaMaHa doubling the character limit, I have space to write a few notes of thanks before the fun starts. My deepest thank yous to:
 - GreekGeek and dahans, for support, ideas, revision and constant feedback
 - All the other readers, for reading (that includes YOU!) and feedback (might include YOU!).
 - JaMaHa, for doubling the character limit, eliminating the need to cut chapters short or posting in two parts (which is no fun).
 - Bulbapedia (http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Main_Page), for information. I spend about an hour on Bulbapedia for each chapter I write, mostly to check if I'm contradicting the canon when I write. Though I ignore the "four moves only"-rule, all moves used by Pokémon in the story can be used by Pokémon in the games. Item descriptions and effects are also taken from here.
 - Smogon University (http://www.smogon.com), for saying which moves are viable on this and that Pokémon, and which items Rob would give to each Pokémon as a competitive battler. Their damage calculator also helps me a lot (I used it extensively in this chapter - trying to be realistic, you know!).
 - Wikipedia (yeah, I dropped the URL), for other info. I try to put in references to popular culture here and there, and I get the source from good old 'pedia.
 - Nintendo, Game Freak, and all those folks for making Pokémon (and not finding this story and sue me for copyright infringement).
 - NinSheetMusic, for existing, and hosting the story.
 - Once again, YOU, for reading it.

Have a nice day.

Chapter thirty-five: Sparks fly

I was not alone as I went to school the day after. Xatu was slowly circling above me, hidden by an invisibility bubble. Espeon walked
beside me, also invisible. Weavile followed me too, but I didn't know exactly where he was. Today, I had dropped the ball belt, and
instead crammed the Poké Balls into different pockets. It still looked a little awkward, but I needed to have a fighter team ready at
all times, and it looked better than the belt after all. It felt a little weird to walk around like this, as if I had a pair of
bodyguards that only I could see. I felt secure and vulnerable at the same time. Somebody was after me, somebody only I knew about.
Each time I heard a car in the distance, I jumped, and each time one drove by me, my hand reached for the right jacket pocket. Am I
becoming paranoid?, I asked myself. The answer was that I had been it for quite some time. I was almost surprised that I made it to
school without anyone trying to kidnap me. I looked over my shoulder one last time before I went through the front doors. There were
plenty of people in the lobby. I was safe here.
"Hey, who's chasing you?", a voice asked as soon as I got in. Edvard was sitting on a bench, apparently failing to rehearse for the
upcoming History test.
"Nobody. I just thought I saw... no, never mind"
"Are you going to play tennis after school?", he asked and pointed at my jacket. Damn, I had accidentally pushed the button of
one of the Poké balls, and it had swollen up to full size. It was now clearly visible to everybody.
"Forgot to take it out of the pocket last night", I replied. "Played a little with Emily"
"In January?"
"She's training to stay in shape during the off-season"
"Funny, I thought she hated tennis. Looked a lot like that back when we had it in PE in November"
"So much for that cover story", I thought. Luckily, Edvard didn't follow it up.
"Anyway, you're free this evening?", he continued.
"Umm... yeah"
"Want to go see a movie with me and Matt and Andy? You've spent too much time with the girls lately"
"Okay", I said, thinking it would sound suspicious if I said no. We eventually agreed to catch the seven o'clock bus from the town
hall, and have a pizza later.

The school day was, all in all, quite event-less. I had difficulties catching up in Math class, seeing as I hadn't had any time to do
homework the past few days. I had to copy Emily's notes for History, but I thought I'd do well enough in English. Julia arrived just
in time today as well. She chose the desk next to me on purpose, so that my struggling became all the more obvious compared to her
brilliance. What was worse, though, she started making subtle jokes about me, jokes that quickly caught on due to her popularity. This
started to feel more and more like my old class. Luckily, I got support from Edvard and the gang, as well as Emily and Greta.
"What do you have against him, really?", I could hear Greta hiss to Julia after a not-so-subtle suggestion that I had been responsible
for the fate of my former classmates, just ten minutes into English class. Julia didn't answer her, but turned over to me and
whispered just loud enough for everybody but the teacher to hear:
"I think she likes you. Does Emily know about you two?"
Greta's face turned red, apparently with anger. The rest of the class giggled.
"Shut up", Emily whispered to her.
"Can't you come up with anything more original?"
"Hey! Silence!", the teacher shouted from his desk. "Emily, this is your last warning..." I could see Julia stared hard at the
teacher, muttering some words under her breath. Her lips barely moved. The teacher continued. "Actually, you've disturbed us too much
already. Just go home. Come back tomorrow"
Emily got up from her desk without a word. I could see she too was shaking with anger as she gathered her stuff and walked out of the
door. To my left, Edvard muttered:
"Crazy guy". Matt, who was sitting in front of us, nodded. I was angry as well. My fingers twitched in the general direction of my
right pocket, where a battle-eager Scizor lay ready in its Poké Ball. But there were too many people here, it would be foolish to
summon a Pokémon now. Besides, most of the rest of the class were on Julia's side; I would have gotten a lot of new enemies by
knocking her out. For now, I'd just have to tolerate it.

"Say whatever you want about her brains and looks, but that Julia is a bitch", Matt said as we sat on the bus later that
evening. We all agreed. It had taken me a while to comfort Emily afterwards. The teacher had always liked her, so she thought the
reason why he became so angry was that she had totally failed on the last test, or that she had done something very wrong. The
argument she had had with Miley yesterday didn't help her mood either. Greta and I had visited her, and I couldn't explain the real
reason behind the teacher's temper before Greta went to the bathroom.
"Can she use magic?", Emily had whispered. I thought that sounded unlikely, but couldn't see any other explanation.
"Luckily, so can we", I had replied. "With Espeon around, and a little planning, I guess we can counter emotional spells"
This fact disturbed me a little. If Julia was able to alter people's emotions, she could set everyone up against me. I had never liked
the thought of mind control, but always discarded it as science fiction. Okay, the Pokémon could do it to a certain degree, but they
were products of my imagination and didn't have to follow the laws of reality. However, the thought of Julia pulling a trick like that
made me uneasy.
"Is Emily okay, by the way?", Andy asked and dragged me off the trail of thought.
"I think she is fine. She's tough when the situation demands it", I replied. "She sounded all right when I talked to her"
"I didn't quite get why Mr. Robinson got so angry", Edvard said. "He's always been an old git, but he's never gone mental that fast
before"
"He was probably just having a bad day", Andy said. We didn't speak more about that subject. Instead, they started asking what I had
been up to the past week. I had to improvise a little. Come to think of it, it was only a few hours more than a week ago that I was
kidnapped by the TLA and only five days since I got back. The story I told the guys involved lots of gaming and catching a cold, so I
had had to sleep a lot. Luckily, I managed to change the subject before they asked too many questions. I made a mental note of making
a proper cover story to use in future situations like this.

The movie we saw was okay. Sort of a "leave your brain at the door" action movie. Neither the best nor worst I had seen, but we all
enjoyed it regardless. After that, we went to have pizza. I knew I missed out on a night of Pokémon hunting, but the social, relaxed
atmosphere made me feel a lot better than I had even after yesterday's success. My life didn't seem like a hopeless struggle any more,
and there was a feeling of friendship I couldn't get from the Pokémon. Lots of talking later, we were walking back towards the train
station, where we would catch a bus heading home. The night was clear and calm, but very cold.
"Nine forty. We could catch the 55 bus", Matt suggested. We were walking beside some large storehouses now, all boarded up and shut.
This part of the station was used as a storage and maintenance area for unused trains. It was very large, more than a kilometre of
dead-end tracks, with several track switches and buildings all over the area. Even though we had reached the station area, the
terminal building was another kilometre away.
"That bus doesn't stop at the town hall", Edvard said. "What about the 57 bus?"
"Sounds like a good...", I said. Then my voice drowned in the roar of a large engine. We all turned around to see what it was. It
turned out to be a monstrous black truck, resembling a fire truck, with a ladder on the roof and all. Behind it followed several black
vans, and a semi trailer, black as well. They all had the same emblem in big yellow letters on the side: TLA.
I froze, my hand automatically reached for the right pocket. They were many, but I would not go down without a fight. I was about to
shout for Espeon and Weavile when I realised the convoy didn't slow down. The TLA vehicles just drove past me, and up a road between
two buildings to the right.
"Hey, there's nothing but a gate up that road", Edvard began. "I saw it when we walked past earlier. That road only leads to the
maintenance area. I thought that gate was chained shut, as nobody's been using that area for..." He was right. We could hear a
crunching sound as the truck drove straight through the gate.
"Do we have time to check this out?", Andy asked.
"Should we?", I said, but nobody replied. They were already jogging up the side road.
"What's that noise?", Matt asked as we got closer. I stopped. It sounded like electrical sparks. Lots of them. Then Xatu's voice in my
head informed me what it was. I stopped abruptly. The boys turned around to see why.
"Seriously, guys", I said. My voice was shaking. "We shouldn't be here. Get the hell away from here. Run. Catch the 49 bus instead.
Just get away"
"Why?", they all asked, almost in unison. Then a sound like a lightning strike pierced the night.
"Just trust me. Get away"
Edvard was about to protest, but somehow he shut his mouth again. "What about you?"
"I'll take care of this" I think there was something in my voice that made them all stop. Or it might have been Espeon, who had been
walking ten steps behind us all the time.
"You heard him. We can still catch that bus", Matt suddenly said. They started jogging back down the road, with no further questions
asked. I felt very hypocritical about mind control, all of a sudden.
"Call us if you get into trouble!", Andy shouted over his shoulder. A few seconds later, they rounded the corner of the nearest
buildings, and were out of sight. I started walking up the road, past the remains of the shattered gate. The road widened out to a T-
intersection and went parallel to the train tracks, but the tracks of the trucks showed that they had headed straight forward, through
a small fence and out to the train tracks. The sound of sparks was even louder now. It appeared to come from behind a section of cargo
carriages a few metres ahead. A TLA van was parked in front of it.
"Hey! You!", a voice suddenly said. A TLA grunt appeared from behind the van. "Get away!"
I noted that his face was unconcealed. He had the same featureless face as the other grunts I had seen at the TLA base. This was a
little creepy, to say the least, but it also took away any hesitations I had about bringing him down.
"Take him out, Espeon", I whispered. The man suddenly started to glow blue, was lifted about half a metre off the ground, and flung
into the darkness to the right.
"Lay down, you're surrounded", another voice said. I turned around. Behind me, another van had slid out of the shadows. A number of
grunts were already securing the gate. Six others were standing in a semi-circle around me. Two of them were carrying guns. I put my
hands on my head, and dropped down on my knees. These were too many to engage in open combat. The backup kicked in when Weavile, only
visible a black mass, darted out of the shadows and passed straight between us. One of the armed grunts collapsed. All the heads
turned to the spot Weavile had emerged from. Problem was, now he was behind them. The other armed grunt dropped to the ground without
a sound. Then a third and a fourth went down, and Espeon took care of the remaining two. I got up again, looking around for more.
"More are coming!", Xatu's voice echoed, as if he had read my thoughts.
"Better get going, then", I said, and jogged around the carriage that blocked the view to the source of the noise.

I almost bumped into a grunt as I turned the corner. He was holding a large machine gun, firing at something obscured from my view by
a burning black van. The area was still lined with rails, and surrounded by various train carriages and vehicles. Large floodlights
atop the vans lit up the place. There were several dozen other grunts here, and some agents as well. They were all yielding firearms,
firing at the same spot. However, I didn't hear any sounds that might indicate a hit, or any ricochets for that matter. I laid down
and crawled past the back of the grunt, so I could see what was behind the van. I stayed as close to the carriage as I could without
crawling underneath it.
In the middle of the large circle of TLA people was something that greatly resembled a UFO. It was a large disk or flat sphere, about
a meter across, hanging in mid-air. On what I assumed to be the front of it, a lone large lens-like red eye shone brightly. It had a
smaller orb hanging on each side, each of them had a single, black eye on them. One small and three large horseshoe magnets were swirling around it in a cloud of dust. A yellow antenna was sticking out of the top of the main disk. This was a really weird Pokémon to see in real life. Occasionally, a shower of sparks was emitted from the magnets. The Pokémon rotated slowly around, as if it was scanning the area. Come to think about it, it probably did just that. It looked like a very easy target, but for some reason, none of the TLA people were able to hit it directly. I knew from experience that the grunts couldn't aim for two cents, but not even the agents seemed to hit it, even at a distance of fifteen metres.
"Why can't they hit it?", I thought. "And why doesn't it do anything?"
"It's charging", Espeon said. "And they are hitting it. Look at the bullets"
Then I realised the dust cloud floating around it wasn't dust at all. It was bullets. They were slowed down and orbited the Magnezone
in mid-air. Now and then, sparks flew between the bullets. I guess we were speaking of a very large electrical charge here. Even the
train rails underneath it looked bent and twisted. A continuous buzzing sound filled the air, like the sound high-voltage power lines
give off, only louder.
"Can this possibly end without a lot of destruction?", I thought. The answer gave itself a few seconds later, when a large black truck
arrived at the scene. A large machine gun was mounted on top of it. The TLA agents put down their own guns. I could see a smile on the
nearest one. With a sound like a chainsaw, the gun roared to life. It looked like they had given up catching it alive. But before any
shots could be fired, Magnezone replied with its powerful signature move. A small yellow orb resembling a tennis ball appeared in mid
-air right above the top of its antenna. The orb hovered in front of Magnezone for a split second, then it was fired off towards the
truck like a cannonball.
The following explosion was tremendous. Lightning bolts flew in every direction, bridging between train carriages, vehicles and people
all over the area. The noise shattered my eardrums. The rails closest to Magnezone glowed blue for a second, then turned a faint red
as the discharge calmed down. Everything that touched them was burnt to crisp. TLA grunts and agents alike were fried or flung in
every direction. The floodlights flashed brightly for a split second before they turned dark. The people who weren't hit got up and
started shooting again. The chaos seemed complete, but Magnezone was unaffected. It turned around and fired off another Zap Cannon.
The orb missed its intended target, continued in between two carriages, and hit a service shed. It was blown to pieces.
"We should get away", Espeon said. I agreed, I could hear the sound of boots against gravel from the other side of the carriage.
Reinforcements were obviously on their way.
"Where?", I hissed.
"Just away". I started crawling towards the truck Magnezone had hit. It was twisted beyond recognition, as if it had been dropped from
a great height and then put on fire. It did not look like the best hideout around, but there were nobody around it, as opposed to
everywhere else. Grunts now appeared from every direction, more vans arrived, and I could hear voices talking about a helicopter.
"Not good", Espeon suddenly said. I looked at her. Her tail was pointing to the right, towards some carriages on the other side of the
open area.
"Oh no", I groaned. The carriages were loaded with large tanks labelled "Plane fuel", and large, red warnings with a flame on them.
Some of the TLA grunts tried to move the heavy carriages, but it looked like they were stuck. Magnezone had switched attacks now,
instead firing beams of light that sent whatever it hit flying. The TLA people kept shooting at it, but they still weren't able to
hit. We had reached the truck now, but realised that it was too hot to even touch, never mind hiding inside.
"They have seen us", Espeon said. I decided I couldn't rely on a sneaking strategy any more.
"Lucario, Metagross, Scizor, go!", I shouted as I got up and threw the respective Poké Balls. The mere sight of the Pokémon made the
grunts flee in horror. I ran past the truck and found a gap between two carriages about thirty metres away. Good to have the back
against something.
"Lucario, keep the TLA people away. Scizor, calm down Magnezone. Metagross, stay here", I shouted. Now, several carriages near
Magnezone had derailed, the rails were twisted, and there were considerably fewer TLA people out in the open. I guess the magnetic
field alone would have been lethal under normal conditions, and the TLA people had retreated a little. Regardless, Magnezone kept
shooting everything that moved in a display of furious frenzy. Hopefully, Scizor would be able to knock it out with Superpower, and we
could make a hasty retreat. Now, Scizor was darting towards Magnezone, barely touching the ground, with the pincers aglow. Magnezone
was turned the other way, searching for more TLA people to knock out. As Scizor approached it, he lifted the pincers, ready to
strike...
There was a bright flash and a sound like a thunderclap. Scizor was thrown backwards, and I could see scorch marks all over his shiny
red armour. He landed with a crash a few metres away, and lay still with his eyes closed. Magnezone had spun around at the last
moment, and fired off a Thunderbolt.
"A one-hit knock-out", Metagross remarked. "And now you made Magnezone angry"
"Lucario, take care of it", I shouted as I pulled back Scizor. "Focus Blast!"
Lucario ran towards Magnezone, arms outstretched forward. He stopped about fifteen metres away from it, and fired off a projectile
looking like solid smoke. Magnezone did a barrel roll and barely avoided the attack. The Focus Blast hit a carriage instead, blowing
it off the tracks and tearing it in half. Pieces of it flew in every direction, and a large bar hit a fuel tank on another carriage
with a loud clang. It was seriously dented, but luckily not torn open so much that fuel would be spilled. The sound Lucario uttered
was untranslatable, but would be roughly the Pokémon equivalent of swearing. Then Magnezone retaliated. The Thunderbolt hit Lucario
square in the chest, and he too was flung backwards, knocked out in a single hit.
"Why is it so angry?", I asked Metagross.
"Panic", Metagross replied. Then his eyes turned a bright blue. I could hear a scream in the darkness as a TLA grunt was thrown away.
I had almost forgotten their presence; there was no time for small talk now.
"Weavile, how is the TLA doing?", I shouted. Weavile was sitting atop a carriage, with a clear view of the gate a hundred metres away.
"Cars everywhere", was the reply. "Some hospital cars. Black cars. Big red cars. Flashing lights. Blockades"
"Civilians", Metagross muttered. "We have to find another way out. The area has another entrance over there. Check that as well"
"We have to stop Magnezone first", I said. "The news will be here any second, and we can't risk a full attack on TV"
"I can do it", Metagross said. "It won't take me down in a single hit. If it has sustained any damage before we got here, I might be
able to knock it out"
"Helicopter!", Weavile suddenly shouted. Oh no. Now, the chaos would be complete.
"Civilian or TLA?"
"TLA!"
It was flying quite high above us, but even at this distance I could see that the TLA helicopter was equipped with a large machine gun
and a floodlight. This was going to hurt, regardless of how the events played out. The helicopter stopped in mid-air, and turned so
that the side with the machine gun was facing Magnezone. Magnezone tilted backwards and looked directly into the floodlight. The
bullets that were still floating in the air around it clustered around the magnets. Sparks flew everywhere.
"Oh-oh...", Xatu's voice echoed in my head. Then, hell broke loose.

If you sort the Electric attacks by base power, two moves come out on top of the list. Which of them is the strongest is a matter of
heated debate. Zap Cannon will always paralyse, but has an accuracy of a mere fifty per cent. The other move, Thunder, will hit its
target seventy percent of the time, but won't always paralyse However, it has a distinct advantage: It can hit targets high up in the
air. This was probably the reason why Magnezone used it now. The helicopter was blasted apart by a bolt of electricity. I could see
the gunner and the pilots fall out of the wreck, and the rest of the helicopter body rained all over the area. Most of it was burning.
"Xatu is down", Espeon said. I found its Poké Ball in my pocket, and pressed the button. A red beam zipped skyward, then retracted
into the ball again. Luckily, I got him before he fell into the crowd or something.
"Metagross, now!", I bellowed. The sound of sirens was getting louder and louder, even hearable over the sound of chunks of metal
hitting train carriages. Metagross ran towards Magnezone, taking a Thunderbolt without slowing down. He stopped ten metres away from
it, and several red glowing orbs formed in the air above him. They grew to the size of basket balls, then flew into Magnezone one by
one, each hitting with a flash and a burst of smoke. Magnezone was thrown backwards for each hit, eventually coming to a halt above
the wreck of the carriage Lucario crushed. Then it retaliated with another Thunderbolt, which hit Metagross right in the face.
"Come on, Metagross!", I shouted. Metagross stood still for a few seconds after the sparks died out. Then, it looked like his right
foreleg couldn't bear him any longer. His enormous disk-shaped body crashed to the ground. Weavile shrieked, then leapt out from the
shadows behind me. He was upon Magnezone in a second, with claws aglow. He hit Magnezone in the eye, and the Magnet Area Pokémon
slammed into the ground. I called Metagross too back into his ball, and turned toward Espeon.
"We have to run!", I shouted. "Can you carry Magnezone?"
"It weighs almost a quarter of a ton!", Espeon replied. "No problem, in other words"
"Where do we go?", I asked Weavile.
"People everywhere. Some police, some TLA, some-"
We were interrupted by a loud whooshing sound, and a flash of orange light. Parts of the helicopter had landed on the battered fuel
tank, which had caught fire. The heat was intense even here, fifty metres away. Great. At least, now it couldn't be any worse.
"Over there!", Weavile said and pointed. We ran between two carriages, going towards the main station area, but away from the road. I
could see flashing lights in every direction, but there were no TLA people to be seen. We made an easy target, with a blue, glowing
Magnezone floating a few metres behind us. With five out of seven Pokémon knocked out, we wouldn't be able to battle our way out of
here. Unless we found an escape route, fast, we would be done for.
"There is a road up here. I saw nobody there five minutes ago", Weavile mumbled. I followed him between two empty passenger carriages,
and found myself at the edge of a forest. A small road twenty metres to my left led up to a gate. Just a few more steps...

Then suddenly, two headlights lit up the road, and two people appeared behind the gate. Police. They had seen me.
"Espeon, Hypnosis!", I shouted. Magnezone crashed to the ground behind me. Espeon's eyes glowed yellow for a second, and one of the
police men collapsed.
"Rob! It's me!", the other one shouted.
"Joe?", I replied.
"What are you doing here?"
"Never mind", I said. "I need to get out of here. Can you unlock the gate?"
"Running won't be any good. We were just sent up here to open the gate for the rescue team. There are dozens of cars coming up the
road"
"Please, help me!", I shouted, a little louder than I had intended. Joe unlocked the gate, and swung it open.
"I suppose I could drive you down the road, but I can't leave the area", he said.
"We can hide in the car!" I was desperate now.
"Get in, then", he sighed. Weavile was first, jumping into the back seat. Instead of going in, I ran around the police car, and opened
the back compartment.
"Put Magnezone down here", I shouted to Espeon. Its large body floated around the vehicle, and was put gently down. The car suspension
protested heavily, but the crank shaft could bear the weight.
"Is that a UFO?", Joe asked, baffled.
"Nope", I replied and closed the cover, barely missing Magnezone's antenna. "Now, we have to go. Questions just delay us"

The next two hours went by painstakingly slow. I had to lie down behind the driver's seat, completely still. The other policeman woke
up five minutes later, but Joe convinced him that he had inhaled too much smoke, and should go home. Then Joe drove back to a parking
lot down the road, and left the car. I could hear voices all around the vehicle, the sirens never stopped, and several helicopters
passed by above us. After an hour or so, Joe came back to turn on the radio, so I could hear the official story of what had happened.
Apparently, some local youths had been testing home-made explosives near the service depot, resulting in a fire. The helicopter crashed
due to static electricity built up in the smoke. A TLA spokesperson was interviewed, denying the reports of gunfire. As he spoke, for
some reason I thought the rather poor cover story sounded extremely convincing, and almost forgot the real line of events for a
second.
It was past midnight when Joe was dismissed. He drove me home without saying a word. The radio kept reporting that the fire department
would soon have the fire under control, but there was a risk of dangerous chemicals in the area, so they couldn't go too close. I
guess the TLA wanted them out until they had removed all traces of their presence.
Luckily, Magnezone was still unconscious when we pulled him out of the car. We put it down in the garage while Weavile went to the
cave to fetch its Poké Ball.
"There is a microphone in the car", Joe explained as we stood in the garage waiting for Weavile. "Excuse the silence, but I couldn't
say anything"
"I'm fine with that", I said, realizing how un-fine I really was with everything else. First and foremost, I was extremely tired. My
ears hurt from all the noise, and my clothes smelled of smoke. I was also quite dirty, as I had crawled around on the ground and leant
towards rusty and greasy carriages.
"Goodnight, then", he said, put his index finger to his lips, and sat silently back into the car. I nodded and waved, and went back
into the house. I was badly in need of a bath and a night's sleep. I didn't even want to think about the fact that school started in
less than seven and a half hours. I got a feeling that if the TLA didn't get me soon, exhaustion would.

what was the quote for?  ???

anyway, that chapter was great!  I love how you put in Joe and describe magnezone as a ufo :)  However, I never really understood how Julia and the agent got their "powers".  Was it by a potion?  or something else?  Overall, you did an Amazing job, keep it up!   ;D

^Gah, I accidentally quoted my first post instead of modifying. Sorry!
(It's deleted now)

And the process of getting the powers... well, it involves using a deus ex machina and a few MacGuffins. I may reveal it later.

Quote from: Cobraroll on May 20, 2010, 11:13:11 AMAnd the process of getting the powers... well, it involves using a deus ex machina and a few McMuffins. I may reveal it later.

*fixed

Anyway, great chapter. Can't wait for more.

 :o :o :o :o :o

<3<3<3<3<3

I read all of it in 1 day.  It's so amazing.  wow.  thanks for the story!

I just wanted to point out - after this chapter, it's kinda like the Halo 3.  Lots of firepower, incorporates elements, but nothing new.  TLA battles, etc... you need a plot twist now more than ever.  don't get me wrong, it's still amazing!  But this chapter is basically replaying some of the other chapters. 

Idea: You could write a chapter where you skipped many chapters, and the TLA basically has given up, all the pokemon are caught, etc... because we basically have all we need about catching the pokemon and TLA.  Now we need more like TLA realizing that no more people are being killed (except for TLA agents), and something happening with the parents.  OR: pherhaps  you could have more pokemon escape.  Just a few ideas... You don't have to take in any of my ideas... basically your decision. 

again, :o !

Haha no problem but I think Mark supported you more ;).

I liked this chapter especially the part with the UFO :D. (Magenzone is really ugly IMO)

Quote from: TheLegend on May 24, 2010, 05:55:30 PM:o :o :o :o :o

<3<3<3<3<3

I read all of it in 1 day.  It's so amazing.  wow.  thanks for the story!

I just wanted to point out - after this chapter, it's kinda like the Halo 3.  Lots of firepower, incorporates elements, but nothing new.  TLA battles, etc... you need a plot twist now more than ever.  don't get me wrong, it's still amazing!  But this chapter is basically replaying some of the other chapters. 

Idea: You could write a chapter where you skipped many chapters, and the TLA basically has given up, all the pokemon are caught, etc... because we basically have all we need about catching the pokemon and TLA.  Now we need more like TLA realizing that no more people are being killed (except for TLA agents), and something happening with the parents.  OR: pherhaps  you could have more pokemon escape.  Just a few ideas... You don't have to take in any of my ideas... basically your decision. 

again, :o !

Constructive feedback at its finest there. Thanks a lot for reading!

Indeed, I intend to have a chapter soon that will cover a couple of months. Not the next one, but the one after that, I think. There is still some more to tell before I can let time fly. Hopefully, that will include a plot twist or two.

At the time of writing, 93 Pokémon have emerged. Rob are in control of about half of them. I'd say the rest provide plenty to work with. Though, many will just be mentioned in a side sentence (how many remember Politoed?), and the wpc (words per catch) rate will decline a little soon. Most of the Pokémon not yet encountered are quite boring. There is also a possibility there will come more Pokémon in the future...

In the story so far, only six people have died (all offscreen). They were just TLA grunts killed by their own ricochets. At least one agent is petrified, that is, hit by an attack so strong it turned him to stone (as seen in the first, and if I recall correctly, fifth, Pokémon movie). As mentioned, only heartfelt Pokémon tears are able to revive a person/Pokémon from that state, so that agent(s) can be counted as dead for the time being. As a general rule, the Pokémon can neither kill nor wound, only knock out.


All in all, stay tuned for another chapter. I'm into an exam period now, so I can't write as much at the moment. Still, anybody feel free to PM me if you have any suggestions, questions, or in the worst case lawsuits. Speaking of legal stuff, it's on the first page (just a reminder).

Have a good day!

Thanks.  Exams been pretty hard?  Is it off school for you yet?

School is all over Thursday next week, at latest.

However, my PC has crashed, only works in Safe Mode, and even then it's prone to random crashes. I just haven't wanted to write while the PC is in this condition, due to the chance of losing what I've written.

Anyway, I'm more than halfway finished with the next chapter, so I might just get it done and put up. I'll see if I get time on Wednesday (oral exams coming up...)

Wow, I'm a chapter behind. 

Good to see you back and no rush! 

This. Is. Awesome.

I read chapter one to nine this morning and I'm now officially addicted.

Nicely done, Keep it up

Wow. I stumbled upon the story by chance.
It's rather good. Other than occasional repetitiveness (sorry to echo TheLegend) and a slight amount of cheesiness I like it. Don't get me wrong - the good outweighs the bad.
Keep writing! ^.^

Quote from: SlowPokemon on June 07, 2010, 01:36:33 PMKeep writing and remember to save every ten seconds! ^.^

sorry to double post, but now I'm really anxious.  Are you ok with me writing another pokemon story to write on NSM?  It's not going to be exactly like this one, but it's kind of like the anime... we're in a virtual gaming world.  so.... yeah.

You know, you can edit posts so you don't have to double post right?

Quote from: SuperFireKirby on June 21, 2010, 12:26:30 PMYou know, you can edit posts so you don't have to double post right?

last time slow did it, it wasn't updated, so...

^I have no problem with that. Write whatever you want, it's sure to be better than this.

The next chapter is in the "waiting for approval"-phase. This phase could be significantly shorter if I had got in touch with more of my readers, but in any case, it should be ready by tomorrow. I'm sorry it has been so slow lately, but my PC isn't very well at the moment, so I'm hesitant about writing in case it crashes.

Quote from: Cobraroll on June 21, 2010, 01:22:59 PM^I have no problem with that. Write whatever you want, it's sure to be better than this.

The next chapter is in the "waiting for approval"-phase. This phase could be significantly shorter if I had got in touch with more of my readers, but in any case, it should be ready by tomorrow. I'm sorry it has been so slow lately, but my PC isn't very well at the moment, so I'm hesitant about writing in case it crashes.

I am a big reader.  I've read it over three times already  ;D ok thanks! 

Quote from: Cobraroll on June 21, 2010, 01:22:59 PM. Write whatever you want, it's sure to be betterworse than this.

Can't wait to start it!  But I still have to work on fixing up taser's request, I'm a slow arranger...

Well, I had trouble contacting my "revisors" the past days, so it was a little delayed. If my PC had worked like it should, you would have got this two weeks ago, but anyway, better late than never, right?

I'm afraid this chapter is nothing special, but the next one will be a little different. Be patient, and it will hopefully show up within the next two to three weeks.

Chapter thirty-six: Cold Steel

"Rob! You look terrible! What has happened?" Emily looked terrified. "Dad told me about
yesterday, but he didn't say you got hurt!"
"I'm fine", I said. "Just tired. I've been up since four. Wasn't hurt before then"
"What happened?"
I had a look over my shoulder. The first class of today hadn't started yet, and not many people
had arrived. The ones who had were busily chatting with each other. I was quite sure nobody would
hear us.
"It was about 4AM when I was woken up by a rumbling sound from the garden. Nothing major, just
like a truck going down the street outside, except for that it was in the garden. No big deal, I
thought, so I fell asleep again. Then five minutes later, I heard something banging on my window.
It was as if the window would break. I got up, pulled the curtains aside, and... well, that's
when I fell and hurt this", I started and showed Emily my bandaged left hand. "It was shocking,
to say the least. All I saw was a mouth, large enough that I could have sat in it, with teeth the
size of building bricks. Above the mouth, eyes as large as my PC monitor with red pupils were
staring coldly at me. And the entire face was made of steel. I must have screamed as well,
because my parents woke up and came running into the room. That was when the fun started"
"What happened to your head, then?"
"As I said, it went rapidly downhill from there. First, mom and dad swung open the door so it hit
me in the head. I laid on the floor, remember. Then they saw the face as well, and started
screaming"
"Was it a Steelix?", Emily whispered.
"Correct", I replied. "And you should have seen what it had done to the garden. I ordered it to
dig down into the cave while I got mom and dad away. The rest of the night was spent convincing
them that they had had a nightmare, and repairing the garden. Steelix had taken a good chunk out
of the garage as well, and we had to rob a warehouse to find replacement planks. For once, I
actually looked forward to school, as it would give me a break"
"What is your cover story?", Emily asked.
"I fell down the staircase. That's at least what I told mom and dad", I sighed. "I'll have
Blissey look at it later"
"You should have taken the day off", Emily said. "Stayed home, got some rest"
"I've already missed enough of the school year", I replied. "If I miss just five or six more
days, I'll have to go this year over again. That would mean we wouldn't go in the same class next
year"
"It's more important that you stay alive, Rob"
"I am alive. Just a little beaten and a little tired"
"Just like any other day, in other words", a voice said behind us. Julia had entered the
classroom without anyone noticing. "Just give up, Rob. You have no chance. We'll win, it's just a
matter of time"
"Where were you when we fried a hundred of your helpers yesterday?", I hissed. For some reason, I
knew nobody would hear this conversation if they weren't intended to.
"Elsewhere. By the way, that platypus-pineapple-sombrero-duck-thingy of yours really sucks in
close combat, you know that?", she said with a smile. "Dancing doesn't help in a fight, Rob. Did
you ever learn your Pokémon that?"
I didn't reply. I was shocked. So Julia was involved in the Pokémon hunting as well?
"Take the evening off, Rob. Give in while you're at it. It will make this a lot easier for all
parts. The longer you fight, the more trouble you'll cause to everybody but us before you lose.
If you just give in now, it will all be over", Julia continued.
"Over my dead body"
"We can make it so, if you want", she said in a business tone like she was merely discussing work
sharing in a group project. "But wait for me, please. I want to be there"
"The TLA want me alive", I mumbled.
"Preferably. We only need your brain, but it has to work properly", she replied. I was a little
sick by that thought. "Let's wait and see how it ends, shall we?" She smiled and sat down at the
back of the room, where the others had kept a seat for her.
"I bet that's just empty threats", Emily said. She didn't sound too convinced.

Today, Julia had dropped the direct insults in favour of a lot of whispering and mumbling among
the students on the back row. Occasionally, everybody burst into giggles. It would have been very
unnerving if I just hadn't been so tired. Any other day, I'd have considered calling in Weavile
and silence Julia, then take care of the others later, but today, all I could think of was
sleeping. Emily had to pinch my arm a few times to wake me up. Luckily, Julia had an appointment
with a dentist today and had to go early. I wondered what might be wrong with her shiny white,
perfect teeth, but as long as she had to go, I'd be happy. It seemed like there was less buzzing
and giggling the rest of the day, but I was so tired that I couldn't tell for sure.
"Get home and get some rest", Emily hissed as we parted later, on the way home from school. She
wouldn't have to ask me twice. My entire body felt heavy and sluggish, and my left arm felt like
it was squeezed in a vice grip. Spending the little energy I had left, I almost jogged home,
longing for the comfort of my bed. I slowed down only just before I entered our driveway. Then,
as walked past the garage, I felt a slight tickle on my skin, and there was a small flash. Before
me, Salamence appeared out of thin air. My backpack was lying beside him. He had apparently been
waiting for me, hidden by an invisibility bubble.
"We have to hurry", Espeon's voice sounded in my head. "Metagross just discovered another
Pokémon, and we think the TLA might have seen it too. Leave your school bag in the garage and put
Weavile's ball in the backpack. Quick!"
I stood still for a second as my mind tried to figure out what had happened. So much for that
rest... Then I snapped out of it and did as Espeon said. The Pokémon had brought my balaclava and
some warmer clothes. I hastily changed, strapped on the backpack, and Salamence picked me up. The
adrenaline rush caused by the flying made me a little more awake.
"Where are we headed?", I asked Espeon after my stomach had settled from the rush of the take-off.
"South", she replied. "Jabun's Cross"
"That far?", I thought. Jabun's Cross was a suburb at the very south end of the city, mostly
known for being the place where the intercity motorway split, with the capital in one direction,
and the coast road in the other. As far as I knew, there was very little to do there, except from
driving through it. What had made a Pokémon go all the way down there? The answer almost gave
itself: Nobody would bother going to Jabun's Cross if they didn't have business there. The fewer
people, the smaller the risk of being found. Salamence flew towards the forest and followed the
motorway southward. It was weird to see the cars fly past under us, like they were standing still
or even going backwards. I couldn't estimate our speed, but I knew we went extremely fast. Still,
it took us more than a quarter of an hour to reach the small town.
"So here we are...", Umbreon said. "Metagross said we should look for some warehouses at the edge
of the forest"
"Should be an easy task...", I mumbled sarcastically. Being so close to a major port, about half
of Jabun's Cross was industrial areas. The edge of the forest was littered with warehouses of all
sizes. There could be a thousand warehouses here, all lying in proximity to the forest.
"Black van!", I suddenly shouted. A small black van was driving up a side street. It was clearly
a TLA vehicle, it was obvious even though it lacked the yellow logo on its side. Salamence
descended to an altitude of about a hundred metres, following behind it.
"Look", I said and pointed at a nearby rooftop. A TLA grunt was lying down with a rifle aimed at
something out of view in the back yard of an abandoned factory.
"We'll land there", Espeon said. Salamence glided towards the rooftop where the grunt lay. Over
the sound of wind in my ears, I could hear shouting from the back yard. We eventually landed
behind a chimney less than 20 metres away from the grunt.
"We prepared a team", Espeon said as she climbed out of the backpack. "You only brought Weavile
and Xatu to school today, right?"
"Yes, I... Oh, no. Weavile is still lying in my other jacket pocket", I said. "I was so tired, I
forgot to take the ball out"
"You've got to be kidding me", Espeon groaned. "We took it for granted that Weavile could take
care of the sneaky bits. Now well, one of the others can probably take the guy out just as
quietly"
She pointed her tail at the grunt. Clumsily, as I had to use my right hand only, I found another
ball in the backpack and released the Pokémon inside it. It turned out to be Ursaring.
"See the grunt over there? Subdue him, but quietly", I whispered to her. Ursaring nodded, laid
down, and crawled towards the grunt. He didn't notice the bear Pokémon before she was right
behind him. He looked up, but was too late: With a slap of her paw, Ursaring knocked him
unconscious. I spurted over to them and peered over the edge of the roof.

Down there, I saw several TLA agents, as well as dozens of grunts. Vans were parked in a semi-
circle around the area, and several more grunts guarded the place. It was almost laughable that
they only had placed a single man to keep a lookout from the roof. Everybody's attention was
turned to a creature in the middle of the yard. It resembled a walnut made of metal, floating
freely in mid-air. It was more than a metre across, and looked very heavy despite being able to
float like that. There was a crack between the two thick steel shells, revealing a pair of eyes.
Four hollow spikes, resembling cannons, were protruding from the crack. The Pokémon, Forretress,
was very strong on the defensive, but had few options when it came to offensively battling its
way out of the situation. Four TLA agents, three men and a woman, had surrounded it, punching and
kicking its hard shell. It was like a brutal ball game, Forretress was blown back with each hit,
flying into one of the others.
"Just give up!", the woman snarled. "We'll take you soon"
Forretress gave a buzzing sound, and retracted the hollow spikes into its shell. Then the shell
clamped shut. Forretress started to rotate slowly, but gradually picking up speed. The agents
kept battering it, but it moved more erratically now. Eventually it rose a couple of metres, now
spinning so fast it was just a blur. With a high-pitched scream, it darted towards one of the
men. He tried to dodge, but Forretress changed direction and hit him in the chest. He was sent
flying into one of the vans.
"What should we do?", Espeon asked. "More agents are arriving, according to Salamence"
"We can only wait and see", I whispered back. "Forretress knows Explosion, and we better not be
here if it chooses to use it"
Forretress didn't explode, though, but it kept tackling the other agents. One of them, a bald man
with sunglasses, was hit in the head, and went down without a sound. Another tried to jump atop
Forretress, riding it like a bull on a rodeo. It was a stupid move. Forretress crashed him into a
nearby brick wall so hard that it broke. Then it hit the third agent again. Only the woman was
left now.
"So you can fight after all?", she teased. "Rob must have done something right, then!"
"It's Julia!", I whispered. I hadn't recognised her at first, but it was indeed her. She was
wearing the same type of marine blue battle suit as I had stolen about a week ago. She had no
helmet, nor any gloves despite the temperature, and was fighting with her bare fists. Several of
the grunts in the area put down their guns and sat down to watch the battle. It was either a very
stupid move, or they were convinced that Julia would win.
"What are our options?", I asked Espeon. "What Pokémon did you bring?"
"You left Weavile behind. That leaves us with Xatu, me, Salamence, Ursaring and Sceptile"
"Why not Tyranitar, or Lucario, Metagross or Scizor?"
"The latter three aren't fit for fighting yet. And we hoped we could do this quickly, so we
brought Pokémon with some speed"
I went through the options in my head. Salamence and Ursaring were powerful, and Sceptile could
fight quite well too. Xatu and Espeon were too frail to put up much of a fight. The TLA had a
three-digit number of people here, including several agents. A single Fire Blast to the yard
would create a lot of mayhem, but also knock out Forretress and require us to go down there and
pick it up. There were probably a lot of TLA people all around the factory as well, and we
wouldn't be able to beat them without the surprise factor. And if either one of Salamence or
Espeon were knocked out, we wouldn't be able to get home. Thinking of it, we couldn't bring
Forretress home either way, as Espeon couldn't levitate it while at the same time maintaining an
invisibility bubble.
"We can't win this", I mumbled after thinking it through once more. "There are times to fight,
and there are times to leave, to be able to fight another day. Today, it's time for the latter.
If we fight on, we'll probably lose more than just a single Forretress"
"You say, you're sacrificing Forretress?", Espeon asked. She didn't protest at my decision.
"If you want to put it that way, yes. I just want to see it beat Julia first"
Julia was now in an attacking position, kicking and punching Forretress so fast I could hardly
see her hands and feet. Forretress was blown back several times before it managed to recover. It
fled backwards a metre or two, then rammed into Julia with full power. She was thrown against the
wall behind her, lost balance, and fell. Forretress rammed again. There was a nasty sound as her
chest was crushed against the wall. Julia squeaked in pain as the bones repositioned themselves.
The grunts all stood up, aiming their guns at Forretress again. Julia was near unconscious, but
managed to sit straight. She pulled a cylinder out of one of her pockets, and unscrewed its lid
with her left arm. The right arm looked limp and almost crushed, as if it hadn't healed properly
after the impact. A syringe fell out of the cylinder. She picked it up and put it against her
right arm. Her eyes rolled shut for a moment, before she slowly stood up. When she looked up
again, she seemed as ready for battle as ever.
"Come on!", she snarled.
"Pull back!", Espeon shouted. I was dragged backwards by an invisible force. A jolt of pain went
through my arm as I tried to soften the impact with my left hand. Over the edge of the roof, I
could see Forretress, shield clamped shut, quickly rise about twenty metres to the air, before
ramming down into the ground. There was a loud bang, and the building felt like it was crumbling
beneath us. Cracks appeared everywhere, and I could hear the sound of walls collapsing beneath
us. The outer wall facing the back yard gave in. It crashed down on the two combatants. Espeon
had to hurry and pull the unconscious grunt away from the edge before he fell into the yard. The
Earthquake must have put an end to the fighting, I thought at first. Still, I could hear Julia's
laugh even before the smoke settled. Then there were sounds of boots kicking metal again, and a
squeak from Forretress. Julia shouted:
"There you go, guys. Take it away, and drive me home. I need a shower"
"Let's go", I said as I heard the TLA break up down there. I called back Ursaring, and put the
backpack back on. Salamence, which had been standing ready to take off all the time, grabbed me,
and we flew back home. I was analysing the situation again as we flew. Could we have rescued
Forretress?
"No", a voice in my head simply put it. "Not a chance".
"Why?", my conscious self thought back.
"You weren't prepared", the voice said. I just had to face it. With the right team, I could have
mowed the TLA down, and made a hasty escape before reinforcements could arrive. Now well,
Forretress would be avenged later. Now, it was time to rest...

"Now, it is time to go talk to Metagross", Espeon said as we landed in my garden. I groaned. The
adrenaline rush had gone, and was replaced with more tiredness than ever.
"I want to go to bed", I groaned.
"Come on, we have only been away for... less than an hour", Espeon said. "You need to get that
hand fixed anyway, no way you could sleep like that"
True, the pain in my hand had intensified during the course of the day. It hurt just to move my
arm. I could hardly feel my finger tips any more, either because of the tight bandage, or the
cold, or most likely, a combination of both. Because of the rather thin gloves I had worn, my
right hand was almost frozen, so I wondered in what state the left was. I found out as soon as I
got inside and the heat started to kick in. It felt like the hand was on fire. I tried to hold my
arm as still as possible as I undressed. Espeon simply picked me up and levitated me down to the
basement.

"So, what went wrong?", Metagross asked ten minutes later. I was sitting on a rock in the large
subterranean garden. My left hand was wrapped in leaves and felt absolutely fine. Blissey had
done wonders with what had turned out to be a severe frostbite over a broken bone.
"I was too late, didn't have much time, and the TLA got away with Forretress", I sighed.
"Not today. Yesterday. How come Magnezone swept the floor with us?"
"We were unlucky", I said. "Magnezone is really strong, and none of you resisted its attacks"
"Exactly", Lucario said. He was sitting under a bush full of Cheri blossoms. There were still
some rust particles in his fur.
"You brought three Steel Pokémon to battle a Pokémon designated especially to take out Steel
types", Metagross said. "Poor Xatu didn't stand a chance either. To put it like that, I expected
you to be a lot better at team building"
"You're my best fighters!", I said. "We've swept through the TLA together!"
"We have to be effective, not buddies", Lucario replied. "We like to be with you, and love to get
some action now and then, but so do all the others. And yes, we crushed them on some occasions,
but you could do it faster and cleaner with a better-built team."
"And just because we're strong individually, doesn't mean we work well as a team", Metagross
continued. "You've focused too much on offence, and completely forgotten anything related to
typing and coverage. I resist the same attacks as the others, and we share weaknesses too"
I didn't say anything. Metagross was right.
"So... you say I should just leave you here in the future?", I asked.
Lucario nodded. "Hand pick a team for the job, don't just bring the same old ones over again"
"I didn't have time for that today", I tried to defend myself. "I even ran home from school.
Couldn't have done anything to get home faster"
"Then you should have brought a full team to school, no matter how inconvenient that may seem"
"Why not just bring everyone, then? Six Poké Balls or sixty, I get comments either way"
"Because once you carry more than six Poké Balls, they stop working properly. You might have
noticed that you can't shrink them when many of them are put together. It would be hard to carry
and hide them all. Your equipment is also designed to handle a maximum of six Pokémon"
A lengthy discussion followed. I have to admit, it made me a little shameful. I used to know
everything there was to know about team building, but in real life, it all seemed so different.
But now that I looked at it, I realised it was all the same. I needed a defensive core, coverage,
support and a varied spectrum of attacks. Just like in the games.
"However", Metagross finished some time later. "Be glad that you learn this now, and not after a
fatal encounter. You lost one Pokémon, but Forretress' shell is impossible to pry open. Once in
the base, it can just clamp shut and stay like that for months, and the TLA can't do anything to
harm it"
"Plenty of time to rescue it, then", I said. I had to rest now, but once I had gotten some sleep,
I'd be as motivated for fight as I'd ever been. "In the meantime, we'll avenge it. Everybody, be
prepared to fly tonight"

 :o

that one was very realistic.  I loved it. Not much to say about it, everything was amazing.  LIke with Julia, how she had to go see the dentist when actually working for the TLA, how they didn't capture forrestress... I really liked it.  I guess having lots of time off helps!

Thanks a lot!

Also, sorry for the formatting (all I see is a mess. Does it work for you?). I think it's my PC screwing with the resolution of Office, making the lines too long or something. I tried to fix it, but looks like I'll have to do it manually, something I don't intend to now.

Also, the chapter was nearly finished almost two weeks ago, but it sat dormant for a while. I just finished and polished it recently, and put it up today after receiving feedback.

I personally don't mind the formatting. But the chapter was excellent.

Sorry for taking so long! I've been away for some time over the summer holidays, so I haven't had as much time to write. I'm not sure if I can manage to put up another chapter before I leave for my military service, but I'll make an effort, at least. Anyway, expect some other stuff from me in the coming week...

But for now, enjoy:

Chapter thirty-seven: Bulking up

That night, my new sleeping schedule was established. I was so tired that I went straight to bed after my
short, but - in my eyes - heroic speech, and didn't wake up before almost 3AM. Then we got out and flew
around the city for hours until I had to go back home to eat breakfast and go to school. After school, I ate
a quick dinner, and went to bed again. And when my bedside clock rang at 2:45, I repeated the entire
process. Up early, hunt Pokémon before school, and go to bed as soon as I got home. The weeks passed like
that. I took two afternoons off every week, and usually spent one with Emily and one with the boys. Emily
also got up early to come with me once every week. But even though it was efficient, we didn't catch many
Pokémon. I spent twenty hours every week hunting for Pokémon, but some weeks I didn't find any at all.
Metagross consistently monitored the news channels, Xatu spent most of his time on the lookout post perched
on our house's chimney, and Swampert took patrols in the sewers. All in all, we soon got a complete overview
of what was happening in the near area at all times. Though, sometimes even the local news made it first.
One February evening, I was woken up by Lucario, who dragged me down to the living room to show me a program
on the TV. There, right in front of the cameras was a Tauros, and an interview with a puzzled farmer who
said that "This 'ere bull plainly showed up in me barn tis' mornin'". We got to the farm even before the
reporters left, snagged Tauros and flew away, just before a dozen black cars arrived at the farm. Another
news broadcast in early March lead us to Electrode, but that time, we were too late. Apparently, the TLA had
caught him, and he had used Explosion when they drove him back to their base. He had blasted an entire
motorway bridge to pieces, swept three dozen cars off the road, and attracted every news reporter in the
region. When we finally showed up, there were TLA vehicles everywhere, so we just had to turn around and go
back home.
That being said, we had a few direct clashes with the TLA as well. Twice, we successfully snagged a Pokémon
right from their clutches (Smeargle and Shiftry), and left before reinforcements arrived. Once, we spotted
one of their cars from the air and decided to follow it, just to see if they had found a Pokémon. Instead,
we jumped straight into a demon operation in an unfinished apartment complex. I didn't see the demon itself,
but heard its cries, and they kept me sleepless the entire following night. Though, we managed to snag a few
hazmat suits from a poorly guarded van parked outside the building. We burnt the van afterwards. I despised
the TLA, and did anything to hinder them, if only to stop the smug smile Julia always showed at school the
day following a large operation. I never met her out in the field after that day in January, but she often
implied that she had been hunting Pokémon as well.
Sometimes, though, we picked up TLA signals calling urgently for backup, and arrived at the source of the
signals finding vans, men and trucks thrown about everywhere. Apparently, some of the Pokémon could manage
themselves well in a match versus over a hundred TLA people. In one place, I found more than a dozen agents
lying on the ground, all with the same kind of ripple in their battle suits: a long slash from the left
shoulder all the way to the right hip. It was as if a large knife had been dragged all over the men's
bodies. Some of the vans bore the same mark, a puncturing diagonal ripple going from upper right to lower
left, over a metre in length. The armoured vans had been sliced like paper.
"Could it be a demon?", I had asked Espeon, just to be sure.
"A very cautious one, if so", she had replied. "There's not a mark on any of the people here, as the wounds
have regrown. No, this is Pokémon work".
We also had some rare cases when everything went according to plan. Stantler, Rapidash and Venomoth came
with us without any trouble at all, and no TLA involved.

"You have changed", Emily said to me one evening in late March. We were sitting on the sofa in her living
room, watching a film.
"How so?", I replied.
"You're more cautious than ever before. I see you keep glancing out of the window every few seconds, like a
driver checking the rear-view mirror, and you always stick to the shadows when you're walking. It's kinda
creepy how you move so silent now too"
"I was in the woods with Weavile for a week over the Winter holiday", I said. "We didn't manage to get more
than one Pokémon, but he taught me a lot about stealth moving"
"Also, you look a little different", she said with a smile. "You've got some muscles"
"Must be all the running. Or carrying all that stuff up and down the shaft". At least, we had got the
handrail in place now. Ironically, I was so used to it not being there that I didn't use it at all.
"Why do you bring this up now, by the way?", I asked.
"Just noticed how you didn't pay attention to the movie when the evening news were on", she said and glanced
at the open kitchen door where the radio was playing. "Bet you focused on listening to the broadcast
instead"
"Are the changes bothering you?"
"Not at all", she replied. "But others have noticed too. Miley is starting to suspect something, I'm sure"
"So are the boys, I think. I told them that I've become interested in ninjas, that should ease their
suspicion a little", I said. "I wonder how much longer I can keep going"
"What do you mean?"
"School. It's taking a lot of valuable time, and it puts me - and you - in danger. With the TLA knowing
exactly where I am for seven hours a day, you know. They can easily strike when I'm at school, or make the
police arrest me for something, but I can't strike back because that would bust the secret completely"
"But... you know how important an education is", she said.
"If I don't take precautions, an education will be worth nothing where I'm going", I replied gloomily.
"What about the exams, then? If you fail, you'll have to do the year over again!"
"I'll come up with something. First, I have to get all the Pokémon back. Once that is achieved, I'll leave
the TLA be, and focus on school. Then hopefully, we can go to the same school in a year as well"
At that moment, Joe came home.
"Hello!", he shouted.
"Hi!", Emily and I replied in unison. I added: "Did you get what I asked you?"
"I did", Joe said and entered the room. He gave me a large and heavy envelope. It was labelled "T.
Stephenson", and an address somewhere down town.
"What is that?", Emily asked. "Classified info?"
"Not really", Joe said. "It's just that you have to be 18 or older to order things at the printing bureau"
I opened the envelope and started unfolding the large sheet of paper that was in it. It soon covered the
entire dining table in Emily's living room. Finally, the last fold, and its contents appeared. It was a
large map of the city, 180 X 375 centimetres, at a 1:10 000 scale.
"Perfect", I said.
"North is to the right on this map, to make it easier to read", Joe said. "I hope you have a large wall to
put it on?"
"I have", I said and nodded. West-side up was the usual way of portraying the city on maps, due to its
spread-out nature. The sea was at the top of the map, the forest covering the entire bottom edge. "How much
do I owe you?"
"298,-", Joe replied.
"Let's say 300, then", I said and handed him some bills I found in my pocket.
"Also, I checked your box at the post office", Joe said. "We've got mail", he continued and handed me a few
smaller envelopes.
"Electricity bill, rent, advertisements, water, membership magazines... ahh, the passport has arrived", I
said as I sorted through the mail. Then I opened the smallest envelope, and a blue passport fell out. Emily
snapped it from me as soon as I opened it.
"Who is Theodore Stephenson?", she asked.
"A 34-year old guy living down town", I replied as I looked at the passport again. "No siblings, no uncles or
aunts. Grandparents died before he was born, and he lost his parents in a tragic car accident when he was
two. Grew up in an orphanage. Runs a small graphic design bureau alone, with moderate success. And, of
course, he doesn't exist at all. Meet my alter ego".
"How did you manage to fake that?", Emily asked, very puzzled. She scrutinized the picture, the fingerprint
and the signature on the passport.
"Metagross can do wonders with an Internet connection", I said. "And he's quite skilled at photo
manipulating as well. The handwriting is my work, though"
"You even rented an apartment? How can you afford that?"
"Graphic design", I replied. "I suppose I could have hacked some bank systems and generated some money, but
I feel better about it this way. The Pokémon aren't very imaginative, but getting a Smeargle certainly
helped the business"
"Is this even legal?"
"Nope", I said. "But it doesn't harm anybody"
Emily said nothing. Behind us, the movie credits started flickering across the TV screen. I realized how
late it was.
"I have to go now", I said and folded the map back together. "Got an appointment with the Pokémon tonight"
"Be careful", Emily said and gave me a hug.
"As always", I replied. As I walked down the street, I noted that Emily had been right. I had changed. The
Pokémon trainer clothes had fit me well, but they were a little too colourful for my liking. They had been
lying neatly folded somewhere in the cave ever since I bought a new set of outdoor clothes. These were a lot
darker, and I was near invisible as I kept to the shadows walking back home. I could hear something
following me, and at the corner of my eye, I could see a large dark shape about ten steps behind me.
"Try to move more silently, Houndoom", I whispered. I had given Weavile some days off, in an effort to use
more of my Pokémon. Houndoom was, I had found out, more powerful than Weavile, but couldn't move as
stealthy. He was still able to catch the TLA by surprise, as we had found out one evening when a suspicious
ice cream van had been stationed outside my house. Houndoom had knocked out the crew members one by one when
one of them went outside to ease his bladder, and the others came out (one by one, with two-minute
intervals) to see what had happened. I had learnt one important thing about the TLA, and that was that their
grunts were really, really stupid and couldn't shoot and hit the broad side of a barn from the inside. I
felt less and less sorry for them each time we knocked one out.

We got home without any problems. I went straight down to the cave with the papers. I had to call Houndoom
back in his Poké Ball as I walked through the living room and down the stairs to the basement. Once there, I
let him out again, and together we walked through the tunnels down to the cave. As the months had passed, it
had become a quite nice place. The Grass Pokémon had got it the way they wanted, now vines covered all the
walls, and there grew grass on the floor, save for a narrow path. In a corner lay a stack of tires, the only
part of TLA vans that the Steel Pokémon refused to eat. We had dragged quite a few of those vans down here,
but cutting them up in carryable chunks beforehand was a time-consuming affair. We were considering digging
another shaft through the garage floor, so we could just drop the entire van down and slice it up
afterwards. I had also expanded the storage room. It now held a lot of TLA equipment, as well as sacks of
berries, a bed, a refrigerator, and a very large empty wall (which once was part of a semi-trailer). I went
in there and stuck the newly acquired map to the wall. It was late in the evening, and most of the Pokémon
were sleeping. For a moment, I thought about sleeping down here too, like I had done on a couple of
occasions, but then mom and dad would become suspicious and eventually go crazy again. I had developed a
pretty good routine on keeping them sane, and didn't want to break the month-long peace that had thrived
since a day in late February when a Fearow landed in our garden.
"Want help with putting the pins up?", a gruff voice asked behind me. It was Metagross, speaking through a
set of stereo speakers I had snatched from a recycling centre some weeks ago.
"Thanks, that would be appreciated", I replied. "How many Pokémon have we got now?"
"We know the whereabouts of 68", Metagross said. "25 to go, unless more emerge"
"There hasn't been an emergence since Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf", I said. "I have that under control, trust
me. It won't happen again"
Truth was, I never fell asleep without being deeply concerned about the consequences of dreaming. From what
I had gathered from the TLA, emergences from dreams were extremely uncommon, and it almost always happened
to those with unstable minds. Metagross had told me they had people stationed at psychiatric hospitals. All
the more reason to keep mom and dad sane, in other words.
"Well, let's get started, shall we?", Metagross said. "Do you have any system in mind?"
"The same as the other map", I said and glanced at a tourist map hanging at an adjacent wall. It was less
than one square metre in size, and filled with coloured pins. A red pin for the catch location of Pokémon I
had obtained, blue for Pokémon the TLA had got (the location where we last had seen them), black for
locations we had encountered the TLA at, and yellow for traces of Pokémon we hadn't directly met. Most pins
had a note attached to them. Suddenly, all the pins started to glow with a blue colour, and were dragged out
of the small map. They flew through the air, and hit the big map with millimetre-precision. I picked up a
cluster of black pins from a box lying on a small table underneath the small map, and stuck them at a
location in the middle of the forest. Then I attached another one, with the note "TLA lair" stuck to it.
"Half past eleven", I said and glanced at a wall-mounted clock that hung next to the small map. "I'll meet
you here at four, okay? You, Salamence, Skarmory, Espeon, Swampert and Electivire"
"Four it is. Go get some sleep in the meantime"

A quarter past four, we were in the air. The city was silent, with very few cars on the streets. Sunrise was
still a couple of hours away, and as most lights were off in all the buildings, it was quite dark. We were
flying north, past the city hospital and through the suburbs, zigzagging across the landscape looking for
Pokémon or TLA vehicles.
"Nothing here, let's move on", I said after a while. I had acquired a motorcycle helmet with a built-in
walkie-talkie. Salamence had a similar device strapped to his head. Espeon, lying in the backpack as always,
had one too. It was a lot more comfortable and less time-consuming than telepathy. We flew for more than an
hour, circling through the suburbs, then Salamence caught hold of something. Suddenly, he stopped beating
his wings, and just glided through the air, his body as rigid as a pole. I looked around, confused. Then I
saw it as well. Two black vans were driving up a road in front of us. Then, they turned into an area I
recognized as a shopping mall under construction.
"Let's go there", I said. "Drop me down behind that fence there, and I'll sneak in"
Salamence descended in a large spiral, and dropped me gently down just outside the area. The mud crunched
beneath my boots, and I swore a little. The ground had begun to thaw at daytime, then freeze again at night.
Thus, it made my steps sound like I was walking on a pack of crackers.
"Survey the area, Salamence", I said to him. He flew off without making a sound. I found an opening in the
fence, and squeezed through. It was all silent, and very dark in here. The metal indoskeleton of the
building was finished, but there were no walls yet. A few shipping containers lay about, but they all seemed
empty. This was weird. I had seen quite a few TLA operations, and they were always very noisy. If not...
A split second later, I was slammed to the ground. I heard a ripping sound as the backpack was dragged off
me, then somebody heavy sat on my back. They brutally yanked off my helmet, and threw it aside.
"Like a mouse to cheese", said a very familiar voice above me. I heard Espeon squeak as the backpack was
tossed away.
"Mice aren't particularly fond of cheese, they prefer grain or even meat", I grumbled.
"Always a smartass, aren't you?", Julia replied. "Turn him over, Johnson"
The man who was sitting on me stepped off, then rolled me over. Now, I was lying on my back in the wet mud,
looking up at Julia, dressed in her marine blue TLA battle suit. I could see several TLA grunts there as
well, and some vans had been driven out to the scene and illuminated us.
"He's not alone, is he?", one of the grunts asked.
"It's just that stupid dragon of his. He only uses it to fly around. Either way, you managed to take it out
very easily last time, didn't you? Just don't care about it for now."
That was in December, I thought. When we didn't see the ambush coming.
"It's probably halfway home already anyway", Julia continued. I wondered if she had done any research at
all. She was talking about Salamence, which after all is one of the strongest Pokémon in the games.
"Let's get to business. This is for our dear classmates", she said and spat in my face. "And this is for
Bella..."
"Don't harm him, Julia", a deep voice interrupted somewhere behind her.
"Don't worry, I know where to aim. As I said, for Bella", she said and kicked me in the ribs on the right
side. It hurt like a gunshot, and the pain spread all over my body. My eyes were filled with tears.
"Your Pokémon broke my ribs too, once", she whispered in a soft voice. "All of them. And it really, really
hurt. Do you know what that feels like? No, you don't. You've only broken three now. It won't kill you, mind
you. But it gives you a taste"
"Get him to his feet, Johnson, I want to talk to him", the deep voice said. Agent Johnson hauled me up. My
ribs hurt like they were on fire. I was turned around to face a man dragged straight out of a B-movie. He
was a fat, bald guy wearing a seemingly ridiculously expensive black suit and patting on a cigar. His stubby
fingers were filled with expensive rings. He wore black sunglasses even though it was very dark here.
"You must be Alpha, I presume", I croaked.
"Finally, we meet, Roberto", said the man. "Yes, I am Alpha, head of TLA"
"So I guess you're the person to ask what the does the TLA stand for?", I asked. I tried to not sound
terrified, but it was quite obvious to everyone, including myself, that I was bluffing.
"TLA, without the silly 'the'", he spat. "And we're never going to tell you"
"The A is 'agency', that is obvious", I pondered, still trying to seem unaffected. The pain made me
grimacing, though, so I gave it up. "Never mind... ouch... We'll take that another day. Now, what do you
want? Why are you after me?", I asked. I wasn't sure if he could understand me, as my ribs hurt so much it
was difficult to talk.
"Can't you imagine? I'm sure you can. Three guesses", he said with a smile. It was the kind of smile the
wolf would have in the fairy tale with Little Red Riding Hood.
"You want the Pokémon, I know that. But what are you going to do with them?"
Nobody said anything.
"It has something to do with your... ouch... superpowers, right?", I guessed.
"I thought you said he was unimaginative, Julia?", Alpha said, acting surprised. "But indeed, it's the
powers we are looking for. So destructive, yet non-lethal..."
"Too bad you will never get them", I spat at him. He just raised an eyebrow, dropped the stub of his cigar,
and crushed it under his heel.
"Who's there to prevent us? We've got you, and you won't get away this time"
"I can still get away", I murmured, trying to writhe out of agent Johnson's iron grip. I wasn't sure if he
heard me. Julia did, apparently, because she walked over to me, and stopped merely half a metre in front of
me.
"Sure?", she said and kicked me again, this time in the right leg. It broke with a loud snap. "Oh, you
didn't expect that, did you? All that 'I-want-him-alive'-stuff? We only need your brain, remember"
"Just don't get him mad with pain", Alpha said coolly behind her. As the wave of pain hit me, I almost threw
up. Indeed, going mad almost felt like a good option at this point. Johnson released me, and I fell to the
ground. My entire body felt like it was burning. I had been in a tight pinch before, but this was worse than
I had ever experienced.
"Are you... going to...", I began, looking up at Julia. My throat was all sore.
"Kill you? Nah, don't count on it, chances are you'll die of something else first", she replied casually.
"For now, I'll just-"
There was a roar behind us, and the entire area was illuminated by a burst of fire coming from behind me. I
couldn't turn around to see what had happened, that would hurt too much. However, I could understand the
fire hit agent Johnson right in the back. He was scorched to cinders where he stood. It was like the air
itself was on fire, and Julia was engulfed by flames. Her entire torso was put ablaze, and she ran away,
screaming and burning. I also saw Alpha turn away and run, while the grunts picked up their rifles and aimed
at something right behind me.
"GGRRROOOOO!!", Salamence roared, and fired again. I felt my eyebrows wither and fall off. A nearby TLA van
exploded in a large fireball.
"Get up!", Salamence roared as he dashed past me, headed for a group of grunts who emptied their guns'
magazines in any direction but the one Salamence came from. Up to a second later, I had thought Brick Break
only could take out one target in a single hit.
"Can't... My... leg...", I groaned. I barely managed to get up in a sitting position.
"This will hurt", Salamence said. "Lay down first, and shield your head"
Salamence looked straight up, then made a low gurgling sound. From somewhere deep down his throat, a blue
ball of energy appeared. It was blasted skywards, where it exploded at an altitude of about fifty metres,
much like fireworks. A second later, blue stones the size of basket balls started to rain all over the area.
The TLA grunts ran for cover, while a jet black limousine parked some metres away roared to life and drove
away as fast as the engine could muster. Alpha didn't want to be around to help his men in a dangerous
situation. Salamence darted over to me, and looked at my leg now that we had bought a few seconds.
"This will hurt", he repeated and bit my leg. There was a loud crunch as the bones were crushed, and a
rattle as they rearranged themselves again a second later. The pain was as if somebody pressed glowing nails
into my leg, but it eased within a few seconds. Salamence was off to hunt down some more grunts as I stood
up, shaking. Then my body reminded me that a few of my ribs needed attention too. I bent over, which eased
the pain somewhat. I remained standing there until the last grunt went down, screaming. For a couple of
seconds, everything was totally silent save for the steady breath of agent Johnson who lay in the mud beside
me. His skin was pink and looked sore, and his clothes were missing from the waist up, burnt away. His
sunglasses, which he for some reason had worn, had melted and ran all over his unnaturally generic face. It
looked like he was wearing some morbid slime mask. All of his hair was burnt away.
"We should go", Salamence grunted. "I found your backpack, here" Something dropped to the ground beside me.
It was the backpack, and the shoulder straps were cut off. I opened it to look for Espeon. She was still
inside, but limp. However, I could feel her heart beat, and she breathed. She could have been asleep, but
she was more likely sedated.
"Are you okay?", Salamence asked as I didn't put on the backpack nor the helmet, but stayed bent over.
"My ribs... I think they are broken..."
"You know the procedure. Take your jacket off", Salamence ordered. With a little help from him, I was soon
stripped from the waist up. I couldn't bear to look at my right side, but it felt like a very spiky charcoal
iron was lashed to me with barbed wire.
"Find a Revival Herb in the bag", Salamence told me. "You're gonna need it. This will hurt a lot"
I did as he said, took a deep breath, and straightened up. It will get worse before it gets better, I
thought. The Revival Herb was lying on the ground beside me.
"I'll count to three", Salamence said. He was standing on his hind legs behind me. He put a forefoot on my
left shoulder, and pressed another against my stomach.
"One, two-"
Without a notice, he dragged his claws across my chest. Out of reflex, I looked down, and saw that five of
my ribs were ripped out of the body, three of them in two pieces each. Then everything went black, before I
woke up, lying in the mud with a horribly bitter taste in my mouth. My ribs ached for a couple of seconds,
then it felt just fine again. I didn't feel very well, though, but that was probably just the side effects
of the Revival Herb, the shell of which Salamence had in his mouth.
"Now, let's go", he said as I dressed. I was rather soaked with mud, and so were my clothes, so taking them
on felt freezing. I had to tie the backpack on, and held it in a tight grip just to be sure I didn't drop
it. With Espeon knocked out, we had no invisibility bubble, but the sun hadn't begun rising yet, so I was
pretty sure that nobody saw us. Not that the TLA didn't know our exact whereabouts to begin with. We managed
it home with no further incidents, where I got Blissey to treat Espeon. It took her about fifteen seconds to
wake Espeon up, and she seemed entirely fine, but dizzy. I got up, showered, slept for about 45 minutes,
then got up, had breakfast and left like everything was normal. Julia did not come to school that day.

What to say, great as usual! Especially love the shopping mall scene =D

Hip-Hip-Huzzah!

Quote from: GreekGeek on August 09, 2010, 01:48:51 AMWhat to say, great as usual! Especially love the shopping mall scene =D

Agreed! Very realistic. YOU SHOULD SEND IT TO NINTENDO!

Ohh... another update... so close after the last one? That only means...

Yes, it does. This will probably be the last update for some time. I'm off to serve my military duty, and don't know when, or if, I'll get time and an Internet connection. Nevertheless, Emergence is far from dead, as from here on, I actually have a plan on what to write. Constructive feedback, anything ranging from "it's decent, but..." to full-blown KefkaticFanatic hard-honest bashing, would be greatly appreciated.

While I'm away, please enjoy:

Chapter thirty-eight: Guys in black

March 25 was one of those days when you feel that you should never leave the bed. The rain was pouring down outside, the world was dull and foggy. The few last spots of dirty snow were flushed away, exposing all the gravel and litter that had been hid all winter. The days were becoming longer, but today it was hard to tell if the sun had risen or not as I walked to school. I tried to look up, and my hood fell off. Rain ran unhindered down my face and into my eyes, as my eyebrows hadn't regrown yet. I had told the others it was a frying pan accident, and they seemed to believe me. When you have eyebrows, it's hard to question the usefulness of them. When you miss them, and it rains, you'll immediately realize why they are meant to be there. I wiped off my face with my sleeve, and the world came back into focus. Everything was just different shades of grey, except from one very pink spot a metre or so above the ground some fifty metres ahead of me. As I spotted it, I deliberately started kicking the gravel around to make some sound and announce my arrival.
"Lovely weather, huh?", I said as I approached the pink umbrella.
"Wonderful", Emily replied sarcastically. "I had to fight myself to get out of bed this morning"
"It's worse now than it was tonight", I said as we started to walk. "It was just a drizzle at four"
"Did you find anything today?", she asked.
"Not at all. The only Pokémon which could appreciate such weather are either found by me or the TLA, or hiding in the ocean. There are mostly water types left now"
"How are you going to get to them?"
"Frankly, I have no idea. At least I'll wait until the sea gets a little warmer. We've gathered some info from the TLA, and it looks like they are chance-less facing the Pokémon under water. We have time, at least"
"So what are you going to do? Sit on the beach and wait until they come up to draw breath?"
"Something like that"
We met Miley at the next street corner, and walked in silence to school. For my part, it was complete silence. Both Lucario, Sceptile and Weavile mastered the art of stealth moving, and they had taught me a lot. My boots made virtually no sound against the gravel, and there was no sound of friction from my clothes. All in all, I felt I could fit well into my supposed ninja role.

The biggest surprise of the day came when Julia entered the classroom. She didn't smile as much today, and appeared to be quite grumpy as she sat down by a desk next to me.
"Frankly, I think you looked better with long hair", I whispered. She appeared to have had a hair cut, and was now looking like a stereotypical feminist or punker, with only five centimetres of hair. Her eyebrows were completely regrown, though.
"Next time, I'll break your neck", she hissed back.
"You're free to try. Let's see how far you'll get. And even if you succeed, you'll displease Alpha"
Julia just grumbled. It seemed like she was weighing the pros and cons in her mind. It wouldn't take her a second to knock me out badly, but that was more than enough time for Umbreon, perched on the roof of the school building, to break through the window and subdue her. She said very little for the rest of the day, even her usual gloating had appeared to lose its touch. Not that that bothered me at all. What bothered me was the increased difficulty of all things at school. I managed to sneak in some time to do home works now and then, but the best part of my school work was done at school. The exams were seriously starting to worry me. Then again, I simply couldn't spend more time doing school work. If I cut back on the hunting time, the TLA would get even more Pokémon, if I slept less I'd go insane, and I needed some time off to relieve stress as well. School simply had to be second priority for now.
The last class of today was PE, and we were to have a running test. Even if the rain still poured down, we were sent out to the woods to run along a three-kilometre path. I hated that track. We had to run twice a year, and were graded depending on the results. I had been last by more than five minutes last time I ran it, back in September, and the girl running to second last place had caught a cold. I felt a little bad when I remembered about my class. They were all knocked out now, unable to do sports and probably set years back with regards to training. Not strange that Julia was so angry with me.
"Three... two... one... There you go!", the PE teacher shouted, and we set off. To my surprise, I managed to keep up with the average runners in my class. Julia set off at the beginning and was nowhere to be seen for the rest of the run. But eventually, the other guys started to fall back. I was nowhere near the ones who did exercise on a regular basis, but way more ahead than I had thought I'd be. In the end, I broke my personal best with about six minutes. I even beat Emily, who ran regularly. For once, I felt I had done decently in a PE class.
"What... have you been doing, you said?", Matt gasped as he jogged across the finish line. "I thought you said you never exercised?"
"Umm... I've done some running", I mumbled, then walked over to Emily to stretch the muscles in my leg a little. She was standing under a tree, stretching with the umbrella in one hand.
"Now you really made them wonder. Great job", she whispered. I glanced over my shoulder. Matt, Edvard and Andy had all been minutes behind me, and were now talking to each other, still with their breath running heavy.
"Sorry, just thought I'd do my best, for once", I whispered back. "I wonder how Julia manages to avoid attention? I mean, I looked at the times, and she finished ten minutes faster than Jack, and he's almost professional"
"Magic, probably", Emily sighed. "I bet she did it just to scare you, and the numbers will be edited to something more credible later. That's... oh, what's that?"
I looked in the direction she was pointing. Through the threes, I could see a very large mushroom. It was red with yellow spots, and more than a metre tall.
"Wow. Don't stare at it, and pretend it was never there", I whispered. "I'll take care of it, after the others have gone"
Luckily, not many people were left here, as we were free to go home once we were done running. The rain made most people hurry home, but Edvard, Matt and Andy were still standing under a tree, and a couple of girls were talking to the teacher. Eventually, the girls got their raincoats on and hurried home. The teacher got into her car, but didn't drive away. The boys picked up their back packs, and started walking down the road that lead out of the forest. Andy turned and shouted in my direction:
"Any plans for tonight?"
"Not that I know of", I shouted back.
"Want to come over to my place and see a movie? You can bring Emily if you want"
"Fine with me", Emily said.
"Are you going to go home now?", the teacher asked. "I can't leave before you've gone"
"No problem", I mumbled. A black shape darted out from the brush and jumped up on the hood of her car.
"Umbreon says you can". The teacher stared, petrified, at the dog-sized black creature. Umbreon's eyes started to glow brighter than usual. After a few seconds, it jumped off and the teacher drove away.
"You could have done that easier, you know?", Emily remarked dryly. "Just talking to her would suffice"
"True, but I needed to test Umbreon's hypnotic abilities. I've been waiting for an opportunity for some days now". I whistled, and another creature emerged from a bush right behind us. It was a huge green frog, holding a plastic bag containing a set of Poké Balls in its left hand. Emily stared at its tennis ball-sized eyes and huge mouth. As always, it was stretched out in a large smile.
"Say hello to Emily, Politoed", I said cheerily. Politoed croaked and stretched out the idle hand.
"I didn't think it was so... slimy", Emily mumbled.
"If you're afraid of him, stay here. That Pokémon in there is high-octane nightmare fuel", I said and pointed in the direction of the gigantic mushroom. It had moved a couple of metres closer.
"Is it dangerous?"
"Highly toxic, at least. But don't worry, there are ways to deal with that. Umbreon, Safeguard please"
Blue rings, made of slightly glowing thin air appeared seemingly out of nowhere. They floated around us, and followed us as we moved. They were always slightly out of reach. Emily seemed a little scared at first, then tried to touch one. It slipped away a few centimetres from her fingers. Umbreon and Politoed ignored the rings completely.
"Politoed, follow me", I said and bent a branch aside. The mushroom was now just ten-fifteen metres away, and I could see a pair of large, milky white eyes sticking out under its large cap. On each side of the eyes was a large orange claw, more than half a metre long. Upon inspection, one could see that the mushroom was growing out of the back of a large, beetle-like creature with six legs. It made a squeaking sound as I approached it. The sound meant "don't come closer".
"Don't worry, Parasect. It's me", I said and removed my hood. Rainwater ran down my face and into my eyes again. By my side, Politoad croaked a greeting. I knew that the Safeguard would protect us from its toxic spores, but Parasect also yielded Seed Bomb, an attack that I didn't want to be on the receiving end of.
"We have been waiting", it said at last. Or rather, it didn't say it, but I knew that the clicking sounds it uttered meant that. Some Pokémon spoke in structured sentences, and most telepathic Pokémon could pass for well-educated humans, the way they talked. Others, such as Parasect, was all meaning, no words. I was about to ask it why it referred to itself in plural, but then I remembered: Parasect was really two entities; the crab-like insect and the giant mushroom, the former of which was taken over and enslaved by the latter. It wasn't the insect I was talking to, it was the mushroom, like talking to a puppet. The thought gave me a weird stomach feeling.
"Do you want to come with us?", I asked. The following click seemed positive about the idea.
"OK, then. Dugtrio will show you the way", I said and found a Poké Ball in the bag Politoed had given to me. I released Dugrtio, and instructed her where to find the forest tunnel, which wasn't more than a couple of kilometres away. Her three heads nodded in unison, and then suddenly she was gone. Less than a second later, she sprang up from the ground a hundred or so metres into the forest. Parasect turned and walked after her, and as soon as it was about five metres away, Dugtrio disappeared into the ground again. I couldn't see her sprout up again, but Parasect changed its course and moved further into the woods.
"They will be fine", I said and returned to Emily.
"How long will these be here?", Emily said and waved at one of the Safeguard rings. It fluttered away when her hands was just a few centimetres from touching it. I looked at my watch.
"I'd say about two more minutes, or less. We can go home, they will be gone before we reach any place where we might be seen"
We jogged home in the rain.

A couple of hours later, I found out that I had some time to kill before I went to Andy's. Lucario had found a pair of sticks, and gave me a lesson in stick fighting.
"Good", he said as I blocked all his attempts at striking me. "Now try to hit me"
I did as he said, alternating between using the different ends of the stick, and sometimes striking twice in the row with the same end to break the pattern, and throwing in a jab here and there. Lucario blocked with ease, but he seemed satisfied. Some Pokémon's faces were hard to read any feelings from. Lucario at least had something resembling eyebrows.
"I think it's good enough to show to your friends", he said and dropped his stick. "But remember one thing..." Then he picked up the stick again and swung it fast against me. I managed to block the first strike, but he was lightning quick and beat my stick right out of my hands with the other end. Then he jabbed me with it, and stopped it just a few centimetres from my throat.
"If you encounter somebody from the TLA, or Julia, and they find a stick themselves and toss you another, then run. You're by no means good enough at this to have a chance against them. Okay?", he growled.
"Okay", I squeaked, startled.
"It takes years to master this", a voice behind me said. It was Blaziken, who had stood there watching us. "Let me show you". He picked up the stick I had used, spun it around as if to test the balance and weight, then launched himself at Lucario, who was without a chance. Beating the stick out of his hands took Blaziken about four seconds.
"Now, who wants to challenge me?", Blaziken shouted to the small crowd of spectating Pokémon who had gathered. Lucario hadn't even left the area before Infernape took his spot. It could have been an interesting match to see, but I had to go. I marked a few spots of interest on the map in the storage room, then went upstairs, took a shower, changed clothes, and went out to the rain again. I met Emily at the same road crossing as this morning. It was a lot darker now, as the sun had set, but Emily's umbrella shined the same bright pink as it had always done.
"Really gloomy weather, or what?", Emily said cheerily as I approached her. "Almost nightmarish"
"Indeed, though it's not raining as bad in my nightmares" I replied. "Nor as dark"
"So you dream about the TLA chasing you on a sunny beach?"
"Not quite", I said. "My most recurring nightmare... well, it's the last time I saw my class"
"Oh"
"In hindsight, I realize that they were not all against me. I think a few of them were forcing the others to help catch me, but all of them were just... slaughtered. Time and time again, I see them. Alison, holding up her hands in defence just before Scizor smashes her face. Daniel, trying to climb over that fence. Caroline, who got her neck cut over. It's all so... I feel so... guilty"
"It might be a TLA mind trick", Emily said, trying to comfort me as we walked.
"I've considered that", I said. "But still... I saw them all go down. And sometimes, I can't really believe they will be all fine again. In the dream, the wounds never regrow, and they just lie still..."
"Rob, I... I'm sure they will wake up soon, and be all fine"
"And furious with me"
"That too"
We walked the rest of the way in silence. Andy's family lived in a small house near the school. I had been there a few times, and remembered to jump silently over the sensor that activated the doorbell once you entered through the small gate leading in to his garden. Andy had a large dog that really hated that sound, and it would howl and bark loudly for minutes once it rang. Thus, friends of the family tended to carefully avoid stepping on the broad tile between the gate pillars, and knock on the door once they reached the house. More inexperienced visitors, most notably salesmen, would have to deal with the dog. When we finally reaced the door, it was Greta who opened. I had known that Andy had liked her very well for some time now, and she happily announced that they had become a couple. The cheery mood of everybody took away all my grim thoughts about my class. After some light arguing, the choice of movie was Men In Black. About halfway through it, Matt asked nobody in particular:
"Do any of you really think the Men In Black exist? I mean, some government secret organization who deals with supernatural stuff and aliens and the like?"
"Yes, I met their leader a couple of days ago", a voice in my head said.
"Probably not", Greta said. "After all, it's impossible to employ so many people off the charts, and they sure need a lot of equipment which can't be hid easily. Not to mention, it's impossible to wipe the memories of people". The voice in my head continued:
"One, that just counts if you employ REAL people. Two, three words: Hidden Underground Lair. Three, what do you know about that?"
"I think that all of those issues can be overcome with enough money", Edvard said. "For instance, if you were paid free pizza for the rest of your life, wouldn't you manage to stay silent about that might-have-been-an-alien-thingy that you might or might not have seen crossing a road way out in the forest in the middle of the night?"
"Not if it was pepperoni", Matt said.
"The question is: Why would any government spend a lot of money in secrecy, on things that might not even exist? I mean, the UFO-enthusiasts have been lobbying for years, and they haven't got a single tax coin to fund their research", Greta said.
"There might be a lot of things out there that the public shouldn't know about", I said. My mouth was very dry. Emily gave me a puzzled 'is-it-really-safe-to-talk-about-this'-look.
"Like what? Listen, hundreds of years of looking, and we haven't found a SINGLE-", Greta replied.
"-why? Because there isn't anything to be found, or because the findings have been covered up?", Matt interrupted.
"The former. In the world today, you can't cover up, say, a ghost discovery. If anybody had gotten absolute proof that they existed, they would publish it on the Net and the entire world would know in seconds"
"No.", the voice in my head said. "Their phone and Internet connection would suddenly cut off, and they would get visitors called Mister One and Mister Two, both wearing suits and black glasses"
"One more thing", Greta continued. "Any government being in possession of supernatural or alien technology would immediately turn it against their enemies in war. Or the crime cartels, the mafia or whoever is pissing them off. A secret branch abiding the government would be an ultimate weapon, turning a war in minutes, but it has never been used. How come?"
"Because they secret branch does not abide any government. They accept funding, that's how far the connection goes"
"And if they can't be used for anything, who would fund them?"
"Everybody, as long as they think it might pay back"
"But everybody is talking about them. The secret government guys. That means they have to exist on some level", Edvard said, ending the discussion. And I realized that he was right. The Men In Black existed on the same basis as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, yetis and demons. They were part of the collective mind of people, and behaved just like they were stereotypically supposed to. Just like the Pokémon, the TLA was just a trick of the mind. I could hardly restrain a groan. Faceless grunts, wearing hazmat suits and gas masks, and they couldn't hit anything they aimed for. Generic-looking agents in black clothes and sunglasses. An elaborate underground lair. Black vans and helicopters. A seemingly unlimited budget. Speaking in clichés. Handling the supernatural, but without doing the slightest bit of research beforehand. I had finally understood who I was facing.

As we walked back home later that evening, I told Emily.
"Sounds reasonable", she said. "You mean that they're... some manifestation as well?"
"Exactly. It all fits", I said, excited. "I mean, you've noticed that everything they do is straight out of the movies? That's because the movies define them!"
"I think I understand...", she said slowly. "But still, they give me the creeps. Why can't we talk about something else?" From there on, I let her take care of the conversation. I said "Yes" and "Mhm" in all the right places, but my mind was elsewhere all the time. I think I made Emily a little angry when she said "goodbye", and I replied with a "yes". Still, I think she understood. I was so absorbed by my theory that I almost didn't notice the black van following me. In fact, Umbreon had to tell me before I saw it. I kept walking, pretending that it wasn't there, until I got home. As soon as I was under the invisibility bubble covering our house, I dropped Tyranitar's Poké Ball out of jacket my pocket. To the people in the van, it must have looked like I was just trying to shake some rain drops off it. Just as I had expected, they drove a little closer, and turned into the driveway, as if to turn around. There was a loud crunch as they literally bumped into Tyranitar, who had been standing at the very edge of the bubble, invisible to everybody except those inside it. I heard a smashing sound as he broke the windshield, and muted screams as he dragged the driver through it.
"Was that a Wilhelm scream?", I asked myself. Another identical, high-pitched scream was heard when Tyranitar ripped the roof off the van and knocked out the two men who were sitting in its back compartment. Indeed. I should have excepted them to be that cliché.
"Is there anything useful in there?", I asked Tyranitar. The three men were lying unconscious on the grass of our front garden.
"Surveillance, as usual", he replied. For some reason, the TLA had sent surveillance teams to the house about three times a week the past two months. At least, it provided me with a steady food supply for the Steel Pokemon. Xatu descended from the chimney and helped Tyranitar part the van, while I went inside and found more Pokémon to help carrying the parts. When I returned with Blaziken (who seemed a little happier than usual), Sceptile, Infernape (who seemed a little less happy than usual) and Metagross, they had already thrown away the broken glass pieces, taken off the wheels and removed the tires, and taken out the armoured plating. The others removed the electronic equipment and stripped away the carpets and seats. Infernape burnt what we couldn't use. In the beginning, we had made some furniture out of the seats, but we had gotten enough after a while.
"Fun, all this wiring", Metagross said as he examined the car-cass of the van (haha). "It looks like the car is rigged to explode if it crashes into something"
"It probably is", I said and told him my theory. After hearing it, he started to chuckle. It sounded like a tractor with starting problems.
"I thought there was something strange about the bunch", he said. "And indeed, this explains a lot"
"We're done", Sceptile said behind me. The van was now just a heap of assorted metal. I went inside to keep my parents busy. We discussed today's news, while the Pokémon sneaked past their backs carrying large chunks of plating, tires, wiring and various other things. It was quite unnerving, but with a little hypnotic aid from Xatu, it went fine. They didn't even notice Metagross passing by, and he was large enough to fill half the room, and had to tilt sideways to get through the door to the basement. Sceptile and Umbreon were out disposing of the TLA grunts. After a while I went down to the cave after the Pokémon, to see that everything went fine. As usual, the Steel Pokémon was arguing over the armoured plates.
"You got two last time", Aggron roared to Skarmory.
"But you got the engine", she snapped past.
"The armoured plates are better", Aggron countered. "They crunch so funny in the mouth"
"I didn't get any of them last time", Scizor said, a little calmer than Skarmory and Aggron. Still, he snapped his pincers angrily.
"I'm five times larger than you", Steelix thundered. "I need more food"
"You are also the only one who can find your own ore", Metagross said. Lucario was watching the entire affair from a distance. He was primarily a Fighting-type, and preferred roots or fruits, but he was also able to digest metal. At the moment, he was eating the TLA emblem that had been mounted on the car's grille.
"Always the same, isn't it?", he said. "We get one, two, even four trucks at the time down here, and the arguing starts as soon as the scrap hits the bottom of the shaft"
"With eight armoured plates per car, and five Pokémon to share, it has to be some problems", I sighed. Magnezone, my seventh Steel Pokémon, was happy if we gave it the car battery to suck on. I didn't try to calm the arguing, meaning they had to sort it out themselves. As usual, it was Blissey who ended up taking the final decision. Steelix, Aggron and Metagross got two plates each, and Scizor and Skarmory got one. The rest of the car was divided into equal parts, and consumed with a noise that made my ears ring.
"We're taking it easy tonight", I shouted to Lucario. "Go get some sleep. You'll come with me to school tomorrow, okay?"
"Ready at seven, then", he said back, telepathically. I went back upstairs, read my History homework, and went to sleep, satisfied with another day's business.

A few gramatical errors here and there but overall, another great edition.

Quote from: SuperFireKirby on August 16, 2010, 01:51:24 PMA few grammatical errors here and there but overall, another great addition.

*fixed :P ... I don't see how you could mean "edition".

There were a couple grammatical errors in your post... '-_-

I gotta tell you; Cobra has left for military service so it might take a very long while before he writes another story.
So you know ;)

Here it is! What you've all forgotten been waiting for! The thirty-ninth chapter of Emergence!

I know it's taken a while. To be more or less exact, three months and four days, minus almost an hour. But I have an excuse: the military service. First, six weeks of recruit training. Then, lots of different courses, LAN-ing with friends, and general negligience of any writing projects. But I've put in some minutes of writing now and then, and here's the result: the longest chapter so far, at about 33400 characters (or 33 kB of text). Please welcome back:

Chapter thirty-nine: The dragon trio

It was Monday, March 29, in Geography class. For the first time in ages, I felt bored at school. I had
planned to go Pokémon hunting the previous weekend, but the weather had been so bad that I had spent my time
catching up with school instead. I had even done the homework for today, and for once didn't feel like I
was eternities behind the others in my class. Usually, I spent the Geography classes catching up with Maths
or Physics, but now I had nothing sane to do. So like the rest of my class, I had hid an MP3 player under my
clothes, and sat and listened to something else while the teacher kept talking about various kinds of
stones. However, unlike the rest of my class, I wasn't listening to music. Metagross and I had been working
on decoding the TLA internal radio, and last night, we had finally succeeded in transferring their signal
directly to my MP3 player. In other words, I was now able to monitor TLA activity while doing my daily
chores. I listened to the radio as often as I could, but there was rarely any activity on it, save for a few
connection tests. So for now, I had to listen to the teacher.
"...but this, on the other hand, is a sedimentary rock. See the difference?", the teacher said. A few
people nodded slowly. I had almost forgotten the feeling of boredom, but I quickly realized that I had never
missed it. It was only about half an hour left of the school day, but the past half hour had felt weeks
long. Emily, who sat beside me, didn't look bored at all, but appeared to be the only person in the room
taking notes. Greta, a row behind us, listened intently to the teacher, while trying to keep Andy awake. The
rest of the class appeared to be thinking about anything but rocks. "Something better happen soon", I
thought.
Then, something happened. There was a short buzz, then the radio sparked to life:
"HQ, this is strike team Bravo! Strike team Bravo, van 1 calling HQ, over!"
"Bravo one, HQ here, over"
"We've got contact! Multiple monsters encountered at the Langsford quarry. We're in urgent need of backup,
over!"
I tried to hide my excitement. Something was happening, and Langsford was just a quarter of an hour away, if
I fled.
"Calm down, Bravo one", the HQ operator's voice continued. "Elaborate. What kind of monsters are you facing,
over?"
"Hard to tell. It looks like we've driven straight into some sort of cloud here, with near zero sight. We've
been hit by something big a couple of times, and the car is dented, but we're fine for the time being. I
sent a couple of grunts out to investigate, but they haven't returned yet. Over"
"Do you have any radio or visual contact with Bravo 4, over?", HQ asked.
"Nothing. But it looks like van 7 is on fire, over"
"We're sending an armoured team and a chopper to assist you. They will be there in ten minutes. Good luck,
Bravo. Over"
"We might need special support as well. Is field agent Theta available, over?"
"HQ calling field agent Theta. Are you available, over?"
"Agent Theta is busy for the next twenty minutes, over", a familiar voice said. It was unmistakably Julia
who had spoken, but as far as I could tell, she hadn't moved a muscle where she sat, two rows in front of
me.
"Agent Theta, will you assist us, over?", the man from the Bravo team asked.
"Bravo one, I'll come as fast as I can, over"
I didn't need to hear more to find out that this was more important than rocks. The Pokémon appeared to have
done well out there, but if the TLA got reinforcements, things could take a turn for the worse. I pulled the
earplug out and put my hand up.
"Yes, Rob?", the teacher said.
"May I go to the rest room?", I asked. Emily looked at me, puzzled.
"Hurry, then. I have some pictures to show you later, which might be very relevant for next week's test", he
replied. I got up, trying to signal to Emily to take care of my bag. Then I left the room, walked down the
corridors and out of the building. Lucario and Mismagius were waiting at our rendez-vous point, behind the
bike shed.
"What do we do? We won't be there before them", Lucario said. He had been outfitted with a radio as well,
and spent even more time listening than I did. Now, he took out the earpiece and put it in a small backpack
which he handed to me.
"We'll go there. We might be just the last-minute reinforcements the TLA don't expect", I said as I opened
the backpack. "Besides, Julia is headed there too, but she waits for school to end first. Her new image as a
perfect student has some downsides"
"What if she decides to spend the waiting time messing with Emily again?", Lucario asked.
"Emily has got Gardevoir in her school bag. In a worst case scenario, she can defend Emily until we get
back. But I don't think that would be necessary"
"Let's go, then", Mismagius said. She enlarged the invisibility bubble we had been concealed under, while I
called out Salamence and put on an extra jacket. It was still a bit cold, despite that April was just around
the corner.
"I don't want to miss a minute of this", Lucario said before I called him into his ball. "Send me out as
soon as we get there, okay?"
I nodded and put the backpack on. Behind me, Salamence rose up and began flapping his wings. A minute later,
we were high up in the air. School already felt hours away. I realized that while the predictable safety of
school was nice, it couldn't beat the thrill of flying at several hundred kilometres per hour, held in the
clutches of a dragon.
 
"Are you fine back there?", I asked Mismagius. She wasn't as convenient to bring with me as Espeon; as she
had to hang on rather than being in the bag, psychically attached to Salamence's right hind leg.
"It's awfully windy, but I can manage", she replied telepathically. "Though, bring Espeon as often as you
can in the future"
"I had to test the alternatives, remember", I thought back. "Can't risk being without invisibility if she is
taken out again"
Beneath us, residential blocks fled past in a blur. I was so used to flying by now that almost hitting tall
buildings was an ordinary thing. Salamence loved to fly close to things. Eventually, the houses became
smaller and gathered in clusters, with more and more trees along the roads. Soon, we were flying above a
winding forest road. The town of Langsford was a kilometre or two to our right, and the quarry just ahead us
us, down into a small valley. It took a while before I realised it was not a valley, but rather a hole in
the ground. It was large and square, more than twice as long as it was wide, almost a kilometre in total.
The walls of the hole were completely straight, and almost thirty metres tall (or deep, depending on how you
were looking at them). A tall, graffiti-filled wooden fence went all the way around the hole. Various
"Danger" signs were plastered all over the fence. There might have been barbed wire on the fence once, but
all of it had fallen off by now. Apparently, the quarry had been abandoned for a while, as evident from the
run-down look of the area. But there were someone here today: Even from up here, I could see smoke rising
from the farthest end of the hole.
"Looks nasty", Mismagius said, echoing my thoughts.
"Let's go down at a safe distance", I thought back. "A hundred metres should-"
Suddenly, a large thunderbolt emerged from the cloud of dust and smoke. Parts of the walls near the cloud
fell into the hole.
"Heck, what Pokémon might that be?", I shouted out loud. Salamence ignored my proposal and landed at the
nearest end of the quarry, as far away from the cloud as possible. I released Lucario as soon as I got my
arms free.
"There should be a guard here somewhere", I said. "There's always a guard..."
"Over there", Lucario said and pointed. To our left lay parts of a black van, with three grunts and lots of
debris scattered around it. "Taken out already" For some reason, I didn't quite believe him.
"The angle doesn't match", I said. "Look at how the debris is spread out. The guards are probably up there"
- I threw a glance at the concrete ramp going down the hole, some fifty metres to our right - "The van has
been thrown from over there somewhere" I pointed an arm in the general direction of the smoke cloud, several
hundred metres away. There must have been quite some force involved.
"Guards taken care of", Mismagius' voice echoed in my head. She hated wasting time. "Let's take care of the
TLA now, shall we?"
We started walking towards the cloud. As we approached it, we could hear clanking and scraping sounds from
inside. There lay bits of scrap metal and torn tires everywhere around it.
"Who wants to go in there first?", I mumbled. "I think I've got Aggron somewhere here..."
Suddenly, there was a roar of an engine from the cloud, and a heavily armoured truck drove out of it. It
didn't look much like a TLA vehicle. The windows were a matte white, and the truck was a metal grey colour
rather than the usual black. It drove slowly towards us. As it came closer, I could see that it missed a
wheel on the right side. Suddenly, the engine made a clanking noise, and smoke started billowing from its
front grille. The truck stopped, and the door on the driver's side opened. A grunt fell out, followed by a
cascade of sand. He was wearing a hazmat suit, but the visor was a milky white colour and he obviously
couldn't see a thing. He got up, walked around a little and waved with his arms. I wondered why he didn't
make any attempt to take off the suit. Now well, I thought, it would be easy enough to interrogate him on
what had happened...
Suddenly, something flew out of the cloud at a blinding speed, and stroke the grunt hard. The impact sent
him rolling several metres across the ground. When he stopped, I noticed that there was a huge slash in his
suit, and a deep wound over his back was closing. He was down for the count for sure.
"Who's there?", I shouted at the something, which had vanished into the cloud again. "Lucario, be ready to
take out whatever comes out of there", I whispered. In response to my call, the cloud stopped to swirl. I
could now see that it had been quite a vicious sandstorm. The sand hung suspended in the air for a split
second, then it fell to the ground and revealed a veritable collection of TLA vehicles, some lying on top of
each other. There were regular vans, armoured vans, some vans looking like tanks without a cannon, a few
trucks and the scattered remains of a helicopter. Most of them were slashed open like tin cans, but some
were burning and a few were coated in a layer of ice. None of them were the regular black colour, and every
window I could see was a dull grey - the sand had brushed the glass and torn off the paint. And in the midst
of the heap were three Pokémon.

"Friend or foe?", the closest of them snarled. It didn't sound very friendly. It looked like a hybrid of a
shark and a dinosaur, with blue skin and very long and very sharp claws on its arms.
"Garchomp, don't you recognize me?", I asked.
"Don't you pull that trick", another of the Pokémon said. It was green, with small wings flapping so fast I
could hardly see them moving. Its large eyes appeared even larger because of red half-transparent covers,
making it look like it was wearing goggles. "We've had enough of disguises and tricks"
"He's honest", the last one said. It was an orange and large dragon, and looked way more battered than the
two others. Its skin was full of scraps and dirt. "I can see it on you. You're not one of them"
"Thanks, Dragonite", I said. "But well done, Flygon. Paranoia is good. Now, how are you doing?"
Garchomp replied: "We've spent the past five months or so taking down these wuzzes. We started to wonder
when you'd make contact. We've heard that you've been doing great hunting the black suits, but we figured it
out we could be as effective by operating independently"
"You've become better at organizing, but a lot of potential and time is wasted waiting in that cave of
yours", Flygon said. Its voice was a low hiss, almost snake-like. "We decided that we could go find you, and
spend time digging and waiting, or stay out of your sight, and fight"
"Though, we're under your command, so if you ask us to come with you, we will", Dragonite said.
I was confused. "Wait, how have you found out about all this?" I turned to my Pokémon: "You haven't told
them, have you?"
"Of course not", Dragonite said. "There are plenty of other Pokémon still out there, or what? Don't you
think they could find out stuff? Or that we communicate with each other?"
"Umm... no? I've been doing my best to find you all, and it turns out you all avoid me?"
"More or less", Garchomp said. Dragonite sighed.
"It's a question of efficiency", Flygon said. "If you want to take the black suits out, it's better to work in
several small teams"
"I just want to get you all to safety!", I shouted. "I need to gather you all first, then we'll see what
we're going to do with the TLA. Annoying them more is the last thing I want to do. If you want to help me,
you can tell me what Pokémon are out there, and where they are"
Flygon and Garchomp looked to Dragonite. It sighed again, and started to tell:
"Well, we don't know about every one of them. As far as we can tell, you or the TLA have picked up most of
them. The core gang consists of us, Alakazam, Gengar and.. Magmortar... help me out, please" Dragonite
looked at the two other Pokémon.
"Aerodactyl, Machamp, Heracross, Typhlosion...", Flygon continued.
"Ninjask, what about him?", Garchomp asked.
"The black suits got him, remember?"
"He broke free again. Stupid black suits, thinking they could catch a Ninjask. I think he managed to
liberate a fair few others too"
"So, where do I find all these?", I asked Dragonite. "Would you help me? I know you might be more successful
hunting on your own and all that, but I want to keep control of where you are, then when everyone's back and
safe, we can deal with the TLA"
"We will come, and we will help you", Dragonite said.
"Good", I said. "Now, let's see if we can find anything useful in these vehicles. You can start with..."
I stopped mid-sentence. Mismagius had contacted me telepathically. She had heard a short message, apparently
from Gardevoir, and sent it further to me. It simply said: "Emily. Come now. Fast"
I turned to Mismagius.
"Was that all? Ask Gardevoir what has happened!"
"I do. She says that she's still in her Poké Ball, but that she felt a presence of shock in Emily, upon
which she fainted. There are no other persons in the room, but still a presence of shock"
"We'll leave. Now", I said. "Salamence, or anybody, really: incinerate these" I waved my arm in the general
direction of the TLA vans. "Mismagius, can you make a bubble big enough to cover all of us?"
"I could, but... it would be of no use. They have seen us", Mismagius replied. For some reason, I
immediately knew which way to look. A black TLA van was driving down the ramp into the quarry at breakneck
speeds. The Pokémon all followed it with their eyes. Garchomp crouched down, ready to leap at it. Lucario
raised his right paw, which began to glow slightly. Flygon hovered slightly above ground, its wings making a
high-pitched buzzing sound. Salamence flapped his wings and raised his tail. Suddenly, the van screeched to
a halt, and a figure jumped out of it. It rolled towards us on the ground for a few moments, then raised up.
Unsurprisingly, it was Julia. She had tied her hair in a knot at the back, and wore the standard TLA blue
battle suit. The unusual thing was the object she held in her hand: a gun.
"Don't move a muscle!", she commanded.
"I thought you preferred close combat?", I said, trying not to move a muscle. People had pointed guns at me
before, but those were never people I knew, or expected to hit.
"Fun, but less effective", Julia replied. She almost sounded bored, as if she preferred to listen to the
teacher rather than being here. "Now, want to come with me without any hassle, or should I shoot some of you
first?"
"You wouldn't dare to...", I began, glancing nervously at the Pokémon. They were subject to the physical
laws of whatever hit them, so bullets would harm them as much as me.
"I would", she replied calmly. Behind her, two grunts wearing hazmat suits jumped out of the van, not half
as elegant as Julia had done.
"Julia... I've known you for years. You're mean, bully-ish and a little too violent, but you wouldn't kill
anyone. That's not-"
"Call me agent Theta", she interrupted me. "My old identity has played its role now"
"What do you... 'old identity'? Are you planning on going wholeheartedly into the TLA, now? What about your
family?"
"I have no family"
"Julia...", I said.
"We both know that's not my name. Stop calling me that". She sounded angry now. "Come with me, or I'll have
to make a few holes in your friends first"
"Sorry, but I don't have much time", I said. "I swear, if you've done anything to Emily..."
"Not that I know of", Julia said. "We could use her, of course, but why? I mean, you're high on our
'priority target' list, but you're not exactly that difficult to corner. Besides, we don't want to mess with
your emotions too much. Too risky. As long as you believe you've got control, you're predictable as well.
Now, come with me"
"Not so fast, miss", Mismagius croaked. I was a little shocked. She actually had a voice capable of human
speech. It sounded like a stereotypical witch, deep and rusty. With a screeching sound, the gun in Julia's
hand suddenly bent like a banana. Julia dropped it as if it had been set on fire. The grunts behind her
looked puzzled at each other for half a second. That was all the time my Pokémon needed. To my right,
Lucario fired a large blue ball at one of the grunts, while Garchomp darted past me on the left. Julia
managed to throw herself out of its way, while the other grunt behind her wasn't so quick. In less than a
second, the Pokémon had surrounded Julia.
"Listen: I would gladly have knocked you out, but I don't have time for that now. Dragonite, Garchomp,
Flygon, you guard her, the rest of you: ready to fly off in thirty seconds. Hurry!"
"Why don't we just take her down?", Garchomp growled.
"We can't bring her with us, and the TLA would just have woken her up when they came anyway. They will be
here any moment, and she would just be even angrier once she woke up. Besides, it would be unfair to
outnumber her and knock her out. Julia, I expect you to do the same for me once"
"Fool", she muttered. I unclipped a Poké Ball from my belt, and called back Lucario.
"You can all fly pretty fast, or what?", I asked the dragons as I put my backpack on. Dragonite and Garchomp
just snorted. Flygon, on the other hand, seemed a little unsure. He walked over to me, bent down, and
whispered so Julia couldn't hear us over the sound of his buzzing wings.
"I can move around undetected. I'm good at that", it said, without moving its gaze from Julia, who was
intently staring at an unspecified point in the wall of the quarry, away from me. "While you fly, I can
contact a few of the others, Alakazam's gang, and tell them to find you. Go to your house, or some other
rendez-vous point. I'll be on your doorstep at seven, at latest"
I nodded. "Good. That will add some speed to the progress. Perhaps I'll have you all back in a couple of
weeks. But stay away from my house, please. Long story. Instead, go to the forest, and to..."
"I'll be in the ravine at seven, then", Flygon said. He obviously knew about the place.
Salamence got up behind me, grabbed me, and lifted me off the ground. To my right, I could see Dragonite do
the same with Mismagius.
"Fly off, now. I'll watch her as you take off", Flygon said.
"Don't stay too long. They will have reinforcements here before you know it. And don't knock her out. That
will just piss them off, and intensify their search for me", I said. "Now, to Emily!" Salamence kicked off.
We flew for a few seconds, before Dragonite and Garchomp darted past me at speeds I had thought only jet
fighters could reach. They were hundreds of metres ahead of me within a couple of seconds. Then they slowed
down, allowing me to get within an acceptable distance before Mismagius put up the invisibility bubble.
Salamence flew as fast as he had ever done, still Dragonite and Garchomp appeared to fly in a leisurely
pace, keeping up with us with no visible effort. Dragonite was flapping her wings all the time, while
Garchomp's means of flight was quite mysterious. It looked like it was just lying in the air, floating away,
with no means of propellant. It just flew, and it looked natural to it.
"Mismagius, do you hear me?", I asked by thinking hard.
"Loud and clear", she replied, a little shaky. It was clear that she wasn't quite used to those speeds.
"We're headed for those blocks over there, then we follow the motorway for some minutes before we turn right
at that hill. Tell the others to slow down and circle that hill when we get there"
As we flew, my head was filled with thoughts. I wondered what could have knocked out Emily, and if she was
still all right. I felt both sad, angry and scared at the same time. What if the TLA got her? The anger
built up in me. If so, I'd get all my Pokémon with me, and level their lair completely. Though, for some
reason I felt that what Julia had said was true. If my emotions resulted in another emergence, the TLA would
just get a more difficult job. Using her as bait was not a sensible way to do things. I felt that whatever
Emily had encountered, was not under TLA control... Yes, what if it really wasn't? What if a demon Joe had
helped catch, had escaped and was hungry for revenge? The anger vanished, replaced by fear. "Oh no", I
thought. Demons were more serious stuff than I used to handle. Then again, from what I had gathered, demons
went on killing sprees when angry. Emily was still alive, according to Mismagius. No, it couldn't be that
either. Suddenly, a voice echoed in my head: "You have to hurry. Save the girl". A message? It sounded a
little like either Azelf or Uxie. I was puzzled. Didn't they pay attention? Of course I was hurrying! I
looked down, and realized that we were flying over the motorway already. The train station where I had
encountered Magnezone could be seen not far away. We were twenty minutes away from home by train, which
meant that we'd be at Emily's house in less than two minutes. Whatever she had met... I intended to meet
myself.

"Careful when you land! We must not be seen!", I hissed as we slowly approached the house. "Don't make
tracks in the ground either"
"How?", Salamence grunted. "Land without landing?"
"Just come up with something!", I shouted, probably in a way too loud voice.
"It's the roof, then", Salamence replied. "Looks awfully slippery, but the alternative is dropping you down
from here. I can't go further down without breaking a few branches off the trees in the garden"
"Okay. You two circle the area, ready to pick me up, or take out anything if things go the wrong way", I
shouted to Dragonite and Garchomp.
"There's a problem", Mismagius said. "I can, in theory, make a bubble large enough to cover both you on the
roof and the dragons circling up there. Problem is, it would make every living being within the bubble
invisible to the outside world"
"That's what the bubble is for", I said. "The problem is..?"
"People would notice the birds suddenly disappearing and reappearing"
"Okay, I'll take the chance. You stay with Dragonite. I'll rather be seen crawling around Emily's roof than
you hitting the front pages all over the country"
Salamence dropped down carefully, then hovered still above the chimney. I put my feet down, then he let me
go. I almost lost my balance for a second, then I managed to stay still. My legs were still numb from the
flight, so this was probably not the smartest thing to do. However, I had enough motivation, to put it like
that. I climbed down from the chimney, and crept across the roof. There was a small balcony outside Emily's
room, and I knew Emily had used this way down back when she had received Umbreon and Gardevoir from her
cabin, so it should be possible to get down there. When I reached the edge, I dropped down and landed
quietly, if a little hard, on the balcony. Hopefully, nobody had seen me. I got up and peered through the
window, which was a little open. I could see Emily lying on the floor, still with her school bag in her
hand. My bag lay in a corner at the other end of the room. I couldn't see anything unusual in there. There
was no blood either.
"Good", I whispered to myself. "Now, the door better be open..."
It turned out to be open. I hurried across the floor, and sat down on my knees beside Emily.
"Emily! Are you all right? What happened?" Her face was red, and she breathed in short, shallow puffs. It
couldn't possibly be more than a quarter of an hour since Gardevoir contacted me, but that still meant she
had been knocked out deeply. In most cases, a fainted person will wake up by him/herself within a minute or
two.
"Emily?" I tried to pinch her arm, to see if there was any reaction. To say the least, there was. She
screamed, sat up, and lashed out. She hit me in panic, her eyes completely wild. I was so baffled that I
didn't even try to dodge. Then she jumped backwards, still screaming, and hit the wall. She stared at me for
several seconds, before she jumped at me again, burying her face in my jacket.
"Rob!" She was shaking and crying.
"I'm here", I said, trying to sound calming. "What happened?"
"Didn't you see it? Is it gone?"
"What? Where?"
"Up"
I looked up. And instinctively recoiled in shock. No wonder why Emily was scared. A giant emerald green
dragonfly, more than two metres from eyes to tail, and with a similarly large wingspan, hung in the
ceiling. It had three black backbone fins so large that I would have hit them if I hadn't bent down as I
rushed to help Emily. Its six black legs were larger than the arms of a primary school child.
"It's not dangerous", I said as soon as I had gathered myself. "Not at all"
"How do you know?", Emily cried. She was still shaking.
"It's a Pokémon. And a harmless one at that. Right, Yanmega?"
"Chirp?"
For once, I had a hard time understanding what was being said. It could have been affirmative, or a
question. Or even an excuse for being so scary. Bug Pokémon were hard to understand.
"Make it go away!", Emily squeaked. "Bugs absolutely terrify me!"
Yanmega chirped again. I decided that this was too hard for me to decipher. I reached for Emily's bag and
pulled out Gardevoir's Poké Ball.
"I need some translation help here", I mumbled, activating the ball's microphone. In a brilliant light,
Gardevoir appeared. Her head almost touched Yanmega's wings when she stood upright.
"Yanmega, why are you here?", I asked. A long series of chirps followed. As far as I could translate, it was
all a misunderstanding, but I waited for Gardevoir's full translation:
"Yanmega was out flying, finally using his wings again for the first time since the first snowfall last
year, when he noticed Pokémon activity from this house", Gardevoir eventually said, probably referring to
Umbreon, who spent a lot of time here guarding Emily. "He assumed that it was your house, and crept in
through an open window waiting for you to appear. He didn't know it wasn't you who lived here"
I glanced at the pink wall paper, the near perfect tidiness and the teddy bears residing on a shelf. Yanmega
apparently didn't know me very well.
"When Emily came home, screamed and fainted, he decided to wait until somebody arrived with Pokémon, or flee
if somebody else appeared"
"Good decision", I remarked. Emily made a funny sound. "OK, Yanmega, time to go. If you just fly out of the
door, and straight up, you'll probably bump into some of the others. They will take you back where I live.
Okay?"
Yanmega made a buzzing sound, and let go of the ceiling. He dropped ten centimetres or so, before backing
off. I was pretty impressed that he managed to fly out to the balcony backwards, even upside down.
The next hour or so was spent calming down Emily. Luckily, nobody had been home and heard the screaming.
Eventually, Mismagius joined us, telling that the dragons had gone to the ravine to wait for Flygon and the
others. As the clock ticked towards 6:30, I decided to go home. I would just manage to get down into the
cave and use the old tunnel to get to the ravine, provided that the Pokémon had dug open the shaft again. I
was excited. How many would turn up? How many ticks could I make on my "still left to catch"-list? I broke
into a jog just as I was out of sight from Emily's house. I got home about ten minutes to seven, told mom a
short story on how much I had to work on school stuff, and disappeared into the basement. As I got into the
damp tunnel leading to the cave, Mismagius and Lucario appeared behind me.
"This doesn't sound good", Lucario said. "There is too much panic in the air here. Something hasn't gone
according to the plan"
"What do you mean?", I asked as we exited the narrow tunnel and entered the crescent-moon shaped chamber
before the shaft. The answer gave itself around the bend. There, we met Tyranitar, Aggron and Golem,
stacking huge boulders up against the leftmost wall. Tyranitar had a mere-long slash across his left side,
and it appeared that his arm was hurt.
"Ambush", he gruffed. "They were waiting for them"
"What?!?", I shouted. "That can't be! Nobody knew we were there!"
"Emily", Lucario said. "She was there when you talked to Flygon"
"But I only told him to go to the forest. He made the rest of the suggestions himself..."
Aggron interrupted us. "Luckily, the TLA attacked before everybody had got there. There weren't that many
Pokémon in the ravine, and most of them got away. I think Dragonite managed to warn the rest, so we had no
big losses. Still, we're blocking the tunnel just in case.
"Where are they now?", I asked.
"Down there", Golem said and pointed down the shaft.
"We'll come after you soon. Just a few more rocks, now...", Tyranitar said as he slammed a boulder the size
of a fridge into the wall. I hurried down the shaft with Lucario and Mismagius in tow. Well down to the
cave, I was met by nearly all the Pokémon I was in command of.
"Are everybody all right?", I asked Garchomp, who stood nearest.
"Affirmative", he said. "Though, I wish we had had a little more time. It wouldn't have taken ten seconds to
slash the throat of that girl friend of yours"
"Was Julia there?"
"Among others", Flygon said. His left wing was wrapped in a giant leaf of some plant.
"Tell me everything", I said, and sat down on a nearby rock.
"We got there about half past six, just to make sure to be there first", Garchomp said. "Eventually, some of
the others turned up." He pointed at a small group of Pokémon: Dodrio, Charizard, Ledian, Sandslash, and a
very singed Exeggutor. Two of its three heads were apparently moaning in pain. The third was simply staring
interested at me. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that all the Pokémon in the group had burns of some
kind. Garchomp continued:
"We had spent the afternoon waiting for everybody to turn up. About ten minutes ago, our dear friends, the
blacksuits, showed up. And to say the least, there were many of them. Against us and Dragonite. Luckily, we
managed to make some sort of smokescreen by setting fire to whatever was inside the range of a Fire Blast.
We got back into the tunnel, and Dragonite closed the ravine behind us with an Earthquake. Hopefully, she's
still okay. She was supposed to warn all the others who were on the way, then return some time tonight.
"But how could they know we were there? Only Julia heard us, and she can't possibly have understood what you
were saying", I said to Flygon. "Or...?"
"I'm afraid that's the only possible explanation", a gruff voice said from somewhere in the crowd. "If that
is the case, we have very little time"
"How come?"
"The TLA now knows that the Pokémon are gathering in two organized groups: Us here, and Alakazam, Gengar and
a group of other quite powerful Pokémon. If the groups come together and cooperate, they'll be much harder
to take down. Thus, they put extra resources into taking out the weakest groups, the others, as fast as
possible. I've tracked some TLA traffic, and things don't look pretty. TLA branches all over the world have
transferred their folks to this district by the thousands only today. In terms of countries involved, this
has actually just become the world's largest international conflict. Until a couple of weeks ago, you were
just a routine case. Tons of people all over the world are locked in never-ending conflicts with the TLA.
Then the stuff ran through the paper mill, and you appeared on the list of the top 200 priority targets.
This afternoon, you were bumped from 167th place to 14th. A new post on the list; 'Pokémon_group2', sailed
straight into the 8th place. They have really decided to end this now"
I took a deep breath. "But why just now? I mean, we have made bigger splashes before, for example when we
broke out of their lair..."
Metagross replied: "TLA executive Omega, the international top leader of the TLA, died of natural causes
last night. You're free to guess who replaced him as the leader of the organization"
"Alpha?"
"Exactly. You've been a thorn in his side for too long now. This has become a personal issue, and he's using
all his newly gained influence to clean this up once and for all. Several people from this district have
gotten hefty promotions too. You noted that Julia has been promoted and given a new name?"
"She made it pretty clear, yes"
"Anyway, only today, we've managed to get away from the TLA twice. I think you know Alpha enough to know
what that mea-"
Suddenly, there was a bright flash, and a large floating shape appeared just above our heads. It appeared to
be the head of a Pokémon, though slightly transparent. It was Y-shaped, with large ears and a giant
moustache. A telepathic message from Alakazam, I thought. A booming voice sounded through the cavern:
"They have found us. Hurry"

HUZZAH! Yet another great chapter.

Once again: a very impressive chapter ;).

Dang... just spent 4 hours reading this.

TOTALLY WORTH IT!

Go on... this topic looks as if it's been forgotten  :(

This story is all but forgotten. Cobra has just been to busy with silly unimportant things like working for THE MAN to write anymore.

Yep, still writing! Just now, in fact. As soon as I get somebody to look over it, I'll put it up. No promises, but it looks like the next chapter will be finished this weekend.

Ah... that's great. Best fanfic I've ever seen... ANYWHERE.

I can't wait for this weekend now  ;D

^Thanks for the kind words!

Yep, as I said, the story was finished this weekend. Unfortunately, the ones who usually read through this before I submit it were both busy, so I read it through myself a few more times before putting it up.
Again, a record broken. Or two, rather: It's never been this long between chapters before (and I hope it won't be any more, either), but on the other hand, this chapter is the longest ever, almost breaking the post character limit (which is currently sitting on 40,000 characters). So be prepared for quite a read. Enjoy:

Chapter forty: A long night

The cave was suddenly full of activity. Everyone started chattering (making a little more noise than your
average jet plane) or running about. I had to scream at the top of my lungs to calm everyone down.
"We have to hurry!", I shouted. "Garchomp, Salamence, Scizor, Lucario, Tyranitar, Roserade, you come with
me!" It became marginally quieter in the cave.
"We can operate on our own", Garchomp said. Flygon nodded. "While you can only command six, some of us can
manage on our own too. That way, we can pack more power"
"Scizor and I can form a team too", Lucario said. I quickly considered the best replacements.
"Okay. Electivire, Metagross and Infernape, you replace those three", I said. "Weavile, you back up Lucario
and Scizor. Watch their backs only, and don't plunge head-first into another bullet storm. You might not be
as lucky next time"
"Got it", Weavile mumbled.
I changed into some warmer clothes, filled the bag with everything I thought could come in handy, all the
while talking to the Pokémon.
"Blissey, you stay here, ready to help us when we come back. Espeon, into the bag, I need invisibility
support. Aggron, Sceptile, Nidoking, you stay in the upper chamber to defend it if need be. Somebody,
contact Xatu and get a bubble around the house"
There was a lot of noise as everybody made themselves ready. Mismagius tried to contact Alakazam again to
find out how things went. Not much later, we climbed up towards the house again. Aggron and Sceptile waved
us goodbye as we left the cave system and climbed up the hatch and into the basement. Then, when things
couldn't possibly get more chaotic, my phone rang. It was Emily.
"I'm kinda busy right now", I said.
"They just came and picked up dad", she said, not bothering to say hello either. "The TLA"
"I know, they are going out. Stay at home tonight", I replied.
"I've seen him go to missions before. But this was different", she continued. "A van stopped outside our
house, dad went out, and instead of dad jumping into the back compartment like usual, the driver opened the
passenger door for him, and even saluted!"
"He's been promoted". I realized it just as I said it. "The TLA has got a new leader who holds a grudge
against me. They've put in a lot of resources in this district. They want to take me out before I can gather
all the Pokémon. I'll try to get there before them"
"Right now?!"
"Mhm"
"Rob! Be careful!", she hissed. "Don't do anything stupid!"
"You know me. I will", I said before I hung up on her, not sure of which of her commands I had replied to.

Somehow, I managed to sneak the six Pokémon out of the house without mom or dad noticing. Scizor's feet made
a distinct click each time he took a step, Dragonite had to squeeze through doors, and Garchomp's claws
constantly banged into walls, but luckily, we weren't heard underneath the invisibility bubble. The sun was
setting and a full moon rising as we got out of the house. It was a clear and peaceful evening, not exactly
a classic background for a battle that might affect the rest of my life.
"Now, where to go?", I asked as I released Salamence. Dragonite grabbed hold of Lucario, while Garchomp
carried Scizor. Weavile clung to Salamence's neck as the dragon lifted me up.
"South-west, towards the old harbour", Espeon's voice echoed in my head. Flygon, the one in the party who
couldn't fly as fast, nodded.
"I'll find the way in myself. You'll meet up with me later"
Salamence kicked off. The old harbour wasn't too far away, so this wouldn't be a very long trip. Hopefully,
we had an option to walk back in case anything went wrong, I thought. It turned out to be not as easy: we
hadn't flown for more than two minutes when we saw the first road block. At first, I was relieved to see
that the TLA hadn't gone overboard with security; the block consisted of three police cars parked across the
road, and a single TLA van was parked a little further down the street. However, that turned out to be only
the beginning. A few blocks further down the road, there was a complete chaos. There was a large crowd of
people being herded into buses. People of all ages were escorted away from the area by police carrying riot
shields. Armoured TLA vans blocked the road, and there were both ambulances and fire trucks present. TLA
grunts held TV teams at bay, while a single high-ranked agent held an exclusive interview with a major news
channel.
"They're emptying the area", Espeon said. "This might get messy"
We flew in the direction of a couple of large loading cranes standing on a pier. The sun was gone, and the
entire area soon fell into darkness. The TLA had apparently cut the electricity in the area. There was a
labyrinth of old brick houses underneath us, with narrow streets between them. This part of the harbour had
been used by shipping companies for centuries, but the buildings were only about 120 years old, thanks to a
huge fire that ravaged the timber houses that had used to be here back then. Unfortunately, the city
planners had kept the original road layout from before the fire, so the area was unusable by cars and was
quickly abandoned once they became commonplace. A few roads and modern warehouses were built in an effort to
keep the businesses, but to no avail. Nowadays, the buildings housed shops and other small enterprises.
"Where to begin...", I mumbled. The pier was all calm. There was a few boats patrolling the water, but
otherwise, TLA activity appeared to be at a minimum. The large warehouses were all quiet. The side streets,
the trailer park... the TLA had a few guards here and there, but where were everybody?
"Let's split up", Dragonite suggested. "That way, we can cover a bigger area, and..."
"That very suggestion marks the beginning of every horror movie", I replied. "We stay together as long as we
can"
"Helicopter", Garchomp hissed. Right behind us, two helicopters rose from behind a building. They were pitch
black, and heading straight for us. We kept circling, waiting for them to change direction. However, they
kept heading for us in a straight line.
"Over there", I thought. Espeon picked up the thought, and spread it to the others. We flew over to one of
the cranes. The helicopters changed direction too, and were still heading for us.
"Thermal cameras!", Lucario shouted. "They can see us!"
"Get to the ground! Hide", I thought.
Salamence dropped almost down to street level, and flew into a narrow side street between two warehouses.
Garchomp and Dragonite followed.
"Drop us off here", Lucario said. "We have to split now" Dragonite let go of him, and Scizor slipped out of
Garchomp's grasp. Above me, Weavile jumped from Salamence's neck and into the shadows. The trio climbed into
a warehouse on our left through a broken window.
"I don't like this", Garchomp snarled. "There are people everywhere"
"Where?", I said. "We haven't seen anyone" Garchomp sighed.
"You need to use your ears better. And your sense of smell, if you had one. They are everywhere inside the
buildings. Waiting. People, vehicles, dogs, and... I'm not sure"
Dragonite apparently didn't have as good senses as Garchomp either, but she seemed uneasy. "Waiting? That
means that we..."
"Are trapped", I finished. "You saw the helicopters. They know that we're here. They have road blocks.
Boats. We can't escape"
"So what do we do?", Dragonite said. She sounded worried. Above us, the helicopters had apparently found us,
because the flapping sound of the rotors was now louder than ever.
"Let us end this peacefully, shall we?", a loud voice said. "Come out of there, with your hands above your
heads. And tell the dragons to behave, or we'll shoot them"
I looked up. There was a loudspeaker mounted underneath one of the helicopters.
"Follow the street, around the corner. You will enter a large, open square. Go there, calmly, with your
hands above your head. We have captured all the monsters in the area, and we have people everywhere, so
don't try anything"
Garchomp growled. "I can devastate a pretty large area with Earthquake, and we can use the confusion to
wreak a little havoc..."
"They have got the others", I sighed. "I don't know if that includes Scizor, Lucario and Weavile, yet, but
we'll just have to assume it"
"How do you know he speaks the truth?", Salamence said.
"It's too silent here. We were too late. Let's face it, we lost this battle before it even started", I said.
"Anyway, the helicopters up there can see us, and shoot us if we try anything"
I slowly started to walk down the side street, angrily kicking pieces of garbage as I walked. Apparently, we
had severely underestimated the TLA, and I was angry with myself for doing so. Behind me, Dragonite and
Salamence walked with heavy footsteps. Garchomp, being considerably lighter, only made a steady clack-clack
as he walked. Above us, the helicopters monitored our every move. I didn't even bother to check for ambushes
as I turned around the corner. The side street kept going for some thirty metres, before culminating in a
large square with a fountain in the middle, surrounded by small office buildings built during the last
century. Several armoured semi trailers were parked in the square. A couple of other roads lead out of the
square, but they were firmly blocked by armoured cars, trucks, tanks and concrete barriers. There were TLA
grunts, agents and even some soldiers all around the area. A third helicopter was hovering above the square,
apparently in the midst of landing. It was smaller and sleeker than the two other, but appeared even darker,
perhaps due to the contrast to the full moon behind it.
"I have to say, you disappointed me, Roberto", the voice continued. "I was expecting you to put up a
spectacular fight, but you were sensible and boring for once. Couldn't you at least have told me in advance,
so I didn't have to pay for helicopter fuel?"
It was Alpha's voice, I realized. I stopped at the end of the side street, allowing the dragons to catch up
with me. We stood still while the helicopter landed, and Alpha jumped out at the passenger side. I could see
another familiar figure piloting the helicopter.
"On the other hand, we've shared many fun moments, haven't we?", The TLA boss said as he lit a cigar.
"Perhaps it's best to quit while it's still fun. Now, go away from the dragons, and let us take care of
them. You can lie down over there, and we'll pick you up later" His voice was almost dripping with glee, but
what options did I have? I'd gladly prefer the humiliation and time to live another day than getting one of
the Pokémon shot. I sighed, and walked over to the spot he had pointed at, lying face down with my arms and
legs spread.
"Look at me when I talk to you!", Alpha snarled. I turned over to one side and looked at him.
"Roberto, while you have cost us a lot of money, you have also been very helpful to us", he continued,
chewing thoughtfully on the cigar. "You see, by resisting that much, you've forced us to operate on a larger
scale than usual, and we got a lot of training. And the monsters we already have caught have been very
hesitant about showing us their power and potential. Before you started directing them at us, we had no clue
about what they could do. You've made the extraction process much easier"
"Extraction?", I thought, but didn't say anything. Something right behind Alpha caught my eye. It was the
leftmost of the five semi trailers parked on the other end of the square. It was all black, apart from a spot
on the short end of the back compartment, right behind the driver's cabin, which glowed a faint orange. As
Alpha spoke, the colour of the spot got brighter, and the air around it began to shimmer.
"What are you looking at?", Alpha suddenly said when he realised he didn't have my attention any more. The
wall with the glowing spot - which had now grown to a size of about a square metre - started to bulge. A
second later, the trailer exploded in a roaring inferno. A pillar of fire engulfed the entire vehicle and
scorched a few unlucky grunts who were standing too near. Everybody in the area raised their guns, but
seemed unsure on who to shoot.
"The monsters...", Alpha said. "Fools! You did not sedate them all properly"
"Sedatives?", I thought. I quickly reached for a Poké Ball from my belt, raised it, and shouted at the top
of my lungs:
"Roserade! Aromatherapy!"
Roserade emerged in a flash of light, arms raised. A soothing scent filled the air. The TLA grunts finally
pulled together and aimed for Roserade.
"What are you waiting for? Attack!", Alpha and I screamed in unison. Alpha while pointing in my general
direction, me while releasing all the Pokémon I had carried with me. The sound of several dozen guns firing
wildly is extremely loud, but it was easily drowned in the roar of Pokémon attacking. The dragons all
plunged into the barricade to our left, while the emerging Pokémon headed right. The tension from a few
seconds ago was all gone, now everything was chaos. Alpha looked around, confused.
"Secure the trailers!", he shouted to a bunch of soldiers who had taken cover behind an armoured car.
Himself, he headed for his helicopter.
"Down, Rob!", a familiar voice sounded in my head. I hunched down as a wall was broken to pieces behind me,
and a blue ball of energy thundered into the helicopter. Rotor blades flew in every direction, and Alpha was
thrown backwards. As I turned around, I could see Lucario through a hole he had just made in the wall behind
me.
"I'll see you later!", he said as he darted away, further into the building. Half a dozen TLA grunts came
running after him.
"Look! Over there!", Roserade hissed. She had not left my side, but kept a Protect bubble around us. I
looked where she had pointed. One of the trailers was rocking back and forth. Suddenly, a large bulge
appeared in the side of the back compartment. Then it was ripped open like paper. A steel cage with a large
grey creature inside fell out of the trailer. For some reason, it appeared like the fire retracted from that
area, preventing the creature from being burnt. It had fell over when the cage tipped, but now got to its
legs. The creature looked like a statue of a man at first. It was all grey and extremely muscular, and
appeared to wear black underpants. However, it had two sets of arms, and only two toes on each foot. It had
no hair, but sharp ridges on its head, and instead of teeth, its lips were hardened to form a beak. Tiny red
eyes appeared to shine as it saw the chaos. It looked like it couldn't wait to join the battle. Then it
suddenly frowned, and grasped its neck. A thick, black cord was attached to the back of its head. The
creature yanked it loose and squeezed the end piece in one hand. Purple ooze spilled all over the cage.
"The monsters are loose!", Alpha shouted. The trailer on fire had now melted to a glowing lump. Through the
intense heat shimmer, I could see the bulky silhouette of a Pokémon, both its hands were spewing fire.
"Alpha! Over here!" A suit-clad man standing amongst the vans to our left produced a syringe from his pocket
and ran towards the cage, while Alpha darted in the opposite direction, towards the safety of an armoured
van. The creature meanwhile ripped the metal cage open as if it was made from sugar canes, and loosened a
bar from the wreckage.
"Come get me", it said in a low voice as it raised the bar above its head. The TLA agent hesitated for a
moment, then produced a gun from a holster inside his jacket.
"Give that to me", he said and pointed his gun at the metal bar. The creature nodded, then in a blindingly
fast motion threw the bar at him. It happened so fast that I didn't notice the throw before the bar hit an
armoured van fifteen metres away with a loud "clang". The bar made a significant dent in the armour.
"Dang, he missed", I mumbled.
"Machamp never misses", Roserade said smugly. True enough, the agent collapsed on the spot. Machamp's
throw was so powerful that the bar had gone straight through the man. A large pool of blood formed around
the body, before it suddenly ran back into the wounds, which closed neatly. Behind Machamp, more ooze was
dripping out of the hole in the trailer. Sounds indicated that more Pokémon were on the move inside.
"Send over November!", somebody shouted over by the vans. "They can keep the monsters at bay"
"I think you should get ready to away now", a deep, calm voice said behind me. I jumped. Right behind me
stood a creature that had appeared out of thin air. It looked like a bent, old man at first sight, wearing a
mask and carrying a silver spoon in each hand. However, upon closer inspection, one noticed the yellow skin
and the lizard-like feet. The head, while looking unnaturally big on such a frail body, was real.
"Alakazam! Wh- why that?", I asked.
"A battle will break out here any moment, and it will make a perfect deterrent", Alakazam replied, this time
using telepathy. "Wait for it..."
"Where should I run, then?", I asked. "There are battles going on to the right and left, and the only other
way is blocked by..." - I glanced - "...the remains of a tank, or something. Hard to tell because it's
burning"
"I'll fix that. Just wait for my signal", Alakazam said. "Get ready, here they come!"
I looked where he was pointing. About thirty men came stumbling towards the square up the road to our right.
Their clothes were torn and dirty, their faces seemed filled with fear and despair. Neither of them appeared
to have shaved or cut their hair in the past few months. Or showered, for that matter.
"Umm... those guys don't appear to be very dangerous", I said. A statement I took back once the first of
them was exposed to the light of the full moon. Suddenly, he was all covered in hair, his face had changed
completely, and huge fangs had appeared in his mouth.
"Werewolves?"
"The correct term appears to be 'lychantrope'", Alakazam remarked dryly behind me. The werewolf sprinted in
the direction of Machamp, who had taken a fighter stance. Even outnumbered thirty to one, he seemed to enjoy
the situation.
"Now, where were we... oh, yes, escape", Alakazam hummed behind me as Machamp met the first werewolf. It all
happened too fast for me to catch the details, but suddenly Machamp's right lower arm was stretched out in
front of him, and the werewolf was nowhere to be seen. A couple of the werewolves also climbed into the
trailer, where the Pokémon were still presumably locked in cages. Horrifying screams were heard from it
seconds later, but I couldn't tell who it was. Suddenly, a sound behind me made me throw myself to the
ground. There was a thundering boom, as if the entire building collapsed.
"Get up and come with me!", Alakazam's voice sounded in my head. The hole Lucario had made earlier was now
widened and went all the way through the building. "Shame to do that to such a fine example of late 19th
century architecture", he sighed. Through the hole, I could see one of the large loading cranes collapse
into the sea.
I had a last look at the square. The werewolves were already scattered all over the area, lying beneath
walls in twisted positions or slammed so hard into the ground that the cobblestones were broken. A couple of
large bulges had appeared in the trailers; something must have hit the walls from inside with significant
force. A mess of green vines entangled one trailer.
"What about the others?", I said as I climbed through the ruins. The air was so thick with dust that I
couldn't tell what sort of room this was.
"They will manage on their own for now", Alakazam replied behind me. "You've given them all orders, haven't
you?"
"Ehh... I..."
"You told them to attack, at least. That will suffice" This time, the voice was in front of me. Alakazam was
suddenly standing by the remains of the loading crane. "Follow me" He vanished, appearing again some hundred
metres down the street.
"Aren't there boats in the water?", I asked as I jogged towards him. I felt very exposed here, with the open
sea to my left and dark alleys between warehouses to my right.
"Of course. Have a look", the answer came. I glanced out to sea as I ran. Numerous small boats were floating
around, all with large machine guns mounted at the bow. However, there were nobody in any of the boats. A
few of them missed parts of the railing. A larger boat, all black of course, was put on fire. I spotted what
must have been the crew of the boats, piled up on the pier next to each crane. Something large and blue
jumped off the pier next to a pile in the distance, without making a splash. Unconscious bodies were
floating in the water as well.
"Reinforcements are on the way, but we have time to get away in the meantime", Alakazam said in my head. He
had moved a few dozen metres further down the road, where a black van lay upside down. The dust was still
settling after the impact, but there were no traces of whatever had put the van there.
"Keep to the shadows", he grunted when I reached him, before he vanished again. "A helicopter is coming"
I stuck to the walls as I ran now. Behind me, I could hear the steady chop-chop of a helicopter, flying low
above the pier. A glance over my shoulder left no doubt that it was heading straight for me.
"Alakazam..."
"Just run!"
"I can't outrun it, and you should know! Isn't your IQ like five thousand or something?"
"Six. And if you stop running, the pilot might think you've got a plan, and pay attention to what is behind
him"
"What?"
A loud crunch sounded before Alakazam could explain further. Over my shoulder, I could see the helicopter
slamming into the pier before tilting over and into the sea. A large grey pterosaur fled away from it,
roaring in triumph.
"Now, in here!"
I followed Alakazam into a narrow side street. A black van was pushed halfway through the wall ahead of me.
Grunts lay scattered all over the street, some of them halfway through holes in the walls. I could hear
their steady breathing over the sound of waves hitting the pier behind me, and the gunshots a couple of
blocks away. A battle cry that could only have been Garchomp pierced through the other sounds.
"Come on! We're almost there, now!"
"Right behind you", I panted. I had ran for quite long in clothes that weren't made for running. "Also, is
anybody following us? I keep seeing things in the corner of my eye, but it always vanishes in the shadow
when I look further"
"He's just covering your back", came the answer. I had to tiptoe over a squad of soldiers lying unconscious
on the ground. Their guns were all snapped in half.
"Wait here", a low voice whispered in my ear. I jumped, and turned. Nothing there. A small shadow flicked
away in the corner of my eye. Seconds later, I heard gunshots, a very menacing laugh, and screaming around
the corner in front of me. A hole the size of a basket ball suddenly appeared in the door of a car parked
nearby. The ringing in my ear told me that must have been a bullet. The retributive attack from the shadow
Pokémon thundered back, and the noise indicated that something big collapsed a block or so away.
"I need some assistance here!", the low voice said in my head. Alakazam, standing in a doorway across the
road, fired a green beam towards something I couldn't see. The gunshots stopped, but the screams continued,
now lower. I peeped around the corner. I could see some twisted metal some tens of metres down the street,
but past that, smoke billowed too thick to see through.
"Run now. They will be coming again any minute, and apparently, the battles are coming closer too", Alakazam
said. "Right through this street, now. Spurt!"
He vanished again, and I ran. The narrow street ended in a moderately large open square. Alakazam was
nowhere to be seen. Not any other Pokémon either. Instead, I found about forty soldiers and TLA grunts
pointing guns at me.

"Put your hands up!", a soldier shouted. His gun made a very convincing argument. I looked around,
desperate. Was this another of Alakazam's tricks? He had a plan, right? The square was filled with soldiers,
and contained a couple of tanks and a dozen or so black vans. There were also other armoured vehicles as
well as a few trucks. It was relatively silent, apart from distant explosions and gunshots. Two soldiers ran
over to me, and checked my pockets for weapons. They took my backpack, as well as all the empty Poké Balls I
had on me. Then, they put on handcuffs. Above us, I could hear a low howling sound. I looked up, hoping for
it to be a Pokémon coming to my rescue, but it appeared to be a werewolf in free flight. It flew in a wide
arc and fell down into the sea somewhere. No signs of Pokémon anywhere.
"Lieutenant Omega, we got him!", a grunt shouted. "We got him!"
"Good work", a voice said. It sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't remember where I had heard it before.
"Put him in the car"
The soldiers handed the backpack and the balls to a grunt, who pushed me into the back compartment of an
armoured black van nearby. The door slammed shut, leaving me alone in silence and darkness. I realized that
Alakazam had lead me straight into this. Why? Had he figured out that it would pay off to obey the TLA?
"Stay calm", Alakazam's voice suddenly rung in my head. "Any last orders, by the way?"
"Tell me why you did this!", I thought back, trying to sound as angry as possible.
"Apart from that, I mean. No time"
"I just want everybody to get back home safely!"
"See you, then", he chuckled. I was left to my own thoughts. Either, Alakazam was a traitor of the
"humorous" kind, or he had a plan. I heard a door slam shut in the driver's cabin. The car was set in
motion. This is it, I thought. We had made a great last stand, but it was all for nothing. I would probably
spend the rest of my life under constant TLA supervision, and if I was lucky, I wouldn't die helping them
making their dreams come true. On the other hand, that would mean Julia would be the one to finish me off.
Now well, if I made it that far, I would probably be vegetated and not feel a thing...
Suddenly, the car jerked to a stop. A few seconds later, the back door opened. Were we at some local TLA
camp? We couldn't have driven for more than two minutes.
"Hello, Rob", said a familiar voice.

"You?", I replied. The man standing in front of me was wearing an all-black TLA battle uniform. He had a
gilded emblem on his chest, featuring the Greek letter Ω, Omega. He was leaning towards the open door,
smiling at me.
"You were incredibly lucky this time, Rob", Joe said as he took off my handcuffs. "We had upwards of forty
roadblocks around there, and you found the one I was in charge of. I'll drive you home, come here and jump
in in front"
I hesitated. Going home now would mean leaving a lot of Pokémon in a heated battle versus a small well-
equipped army. Joe apparently noticed this, and said:
"I know that you don't want to leave, but... what can you do? I mean, look at that" He pointed at the sky.
We couldn't see the harbour from here, but a thick column of smoke was rising to the sky in the distance.
Sporadic flashes lit up parts of it, and every now and then, the ground shook slightly. Apparently, a huge
area was devastated and put on fire. "I've listened to the intercom all evening. Smoke everywhere, you can't
see your own nose in there, never mind controlling a group of Pokémon spread across such a large area. It
would be dangerous as well; we've had a few incidents with soldiers shooting at each other through the
smoke. This will take weeks to cover up completely"
"Fine, I'll go, then", I sighed and closed the door behind me, then got into the front compartment of the
car. The interior was all black in here as well, apart from a pair of garish plush dice hanging from the
rear-view mirror. The mirror apparently served no purpose, as the wall behind the seats was solid.
"I know, I don't think they're pretty either, but this little violation of company regulations is my way to
protest against the current system", Joe said, pointing at the dice. Apparently, the TLA hadn't been too
successful in brainwashing him, like the other agents.
"As well as helping the fourteenth most wanted person in the world escape from a major operation", I
mumbled. I wasn't in the mood for small talking right now.
"You're fifth now, actually", he said. "Probably taking the fourth spot after tonight. Alpha sounded really
angry on the radio"
"What if he finds out about you?", I said. "I mean, aren't there trackers in your cars?"
"Conveniently, they can be turned off", he replied. "Being high-ranked gives you certain privileges"
"Did they tell you what TLA stand for?", I asked, hopeful. Joe frowned.
"I asked, but they wouldn't tell me"
A long silence followed as we drove through the suburbs. We spent ten minutes queueing before a road block,
and passed more ambulances than I could count. Joe was listening to the TLA radio through a pair of earplugs
connected to the dashboard. Every now and then, he uttered long lines of letters and digits that made little
sense to me. As we drove into the street outside my house, he said:
"They're apparently calling for an air strike. All our folks have left the area, but they haven't seen any
Pokémon for several minutes. Perhaps they got away..."
He didn't tell me the alternative; I got that by myself. If they didn't get away, they would be toast. My
mood hit rock bottom as the car stopped right outside the house. I got out, grabbed my bag, and slammed the
door shut without saying goodbye. I jumped a little when Sceptile appeared out of thin air just in front of
me, then I realized that I had walked through the invisibility bubble provided by Xatu, perched on the roof
as usual.
"Things went badly", I said to Sceptile and handed him the bag. "And, yes, let him go. It's Joe", I said
when I realized he was ready to take the car out.
"How badly?", Sceptile croaked. His large, yellow eyes looked curiously at me. I didn't answer, just went in
and straight up to my room, where I collapsed on the bed. It might have been tricks of my mind, but I could
hear the sound of fighter jets in the distance.

It didn't feel like more than a few minutes had passed when I was woken up by tapping on the window. I got
up, still completely dressed, and looked out. Aggron, Sceptile and Nidoking stood in the garden, staring
down the street. I could see Houndoom and Manectric lurking in the bushes as well. It took a few moments
before I realized that Yanmega was floating outside the window too. What were they all looking at? Something
big and black turned the corner of the streets. TLA trailers, there was no mistaking them. Big and armoured,
with a machine gun mounted on the roof of the driver's cabin. There were two of them, moving slowly towards
the house. As fast as silent as I could, I ran out to the garden. The trailers stopped just outside the
house, and I raised an arm as a signal to the Pokémon. Aggron flexed his muscles, making a spine-chilling
sound as the metal plates scraped against each other. The sound felt like awfully loud in the total silence.
I frowned. There was no sound coming from the trailers. No buzz of a running engine, no puff from the
brakes. Something was very wrong here. Houndoom was the first to realize. He got up from a crouched position
under a bush, and ran underneath one of the trailers. Enthusiastic barking told me that he was happy. He ran
around an object apparently stuck between a pair of wheels.
"It's...", Sceptile said. He too straightened up and walked towards the trailers. Now I noticed that parts
of them were badly dented, and the driver's cabin on one was covered in soot, barely visible against the
black paint. A pair of green legs were visible between the first wheel pair underneath the lorry. On the
other trailer, a similar pair of dark purple legs protruded from underneath the tractor frame itself.
"Tyranitar?", I asked. The reply was an exhausted puff. There was a sound of crunching metal as he bent down
and climbed out from underneath the trailer.
"Get Blissey", he panted. "Many hurt. Some seriously"
"Did you... all...?"
"Get Blissey!", he roared. Behind me, Sceptile turned and darted into the house.
"Xatu, make sure my parents are still asleep", I said. Then I turned back to Tyranitar. Garchomp, exhausted
and bloody, crept out underneath the other trailer. He didn't manage to get up on his own. I could feel the
scent of Aromatherapy spread again.
"How...?"
"We managed to gather, and attacked a road block", a calm voice said. A large, green sauropod Pokémon had
climbed out of the back compartment. "Then we hijacked these, and Tyranitar and Garchomp pulled us here. I
think somebody used mirages to get past the other road blocks"
"Did you all get away?"
"Most of us, at least. I know Machamp and a few sea Pokémon created a deterrent so we could get away, but I
don't know if Machamp can swim, so he couldn't go with the others..."
"He sacrificed himself, then."
"He's still out there", a deep bass voice said behind me. A Dusknoir, a large dark mummy Pokémon was
hovering just a few centimetres off the ground. Black smoke billowed out of what was unmistakably bullet
holes in his body. One of his manhole cover-sized hands was mangled, and his single eye glowed weakly inside
the slit where his mouth should have been, but he appeared to be all right.
"I would have felt it if he had left this world"
I shivered. Dusknoir was the Gripper Pokémon, said to be responsible to take Pokémon and humans to the
spirit world.
"And... any others? Are they all safe?"
"When they die, I can feel them. I can not feel them before they are standing on the doorstep to the spirit
world, at the point where their life force is ebbing out. They can be in tremendous pain, captured or
tortured, or eating PokéBlocks and watching cartoons in a happy place somewhere. I don't know before they
die"
"But nobody else have died, right?"
"Seventeen TLA grunts ceased to be tonight, shot by their own comrades. A soldier was on the verge of
passing away, but I can't feel him any more"
"Seventeen dead...", I stuttered.
"Not dead. Non-existent. They aren't in this world any more"
Before I had time to ask more questions, Gardevoir pushed Dusknoir aside and started patching the holes in
his body with pieces of a large piece of torn purple cloth. It was as if his body was made of the same
substance as the cloth.
"Can I help you somehow?", I asked Gardevoir.
"Do you know how to apply bandages?"
"No, but-", I replied, but was cut short.
"Clean wounds?"
"No, but-"
"Ground berries for medicine? Apply said medicine? Do you know how to treat a Pokémon - or anyone, for that
matter - with a broken leg?"
"I..."
"Guessed so. No offence, but I think we fare better off without you right now. Just tell us where you want
the trucks" She threw a glance at the dark trailers parked in the street.
"Umm... can you just park them here in the garden, and we'll take care of them tomorrow?", I said, puzzled.
As far as I knew, Pokémon were supposed to assist humans healing wounds, but Blissey and Gardevoir had found
it more effective to break the taboo, and ordered everybody around with various medicines. I suddenly felt
very redundant.
"Okay, now call Emily, and go to sleep. It will be a long day tomorrow, and..."
"That's no problem, I've decided to quit school", I said. "I've realised that I can't fit both hunting and
Pokémon into my life, and while quitting school will impact my life, it won't threaten it, like the TLA
does. If you don't mind, I want to sleep in tomorrow"
Gardevoir sighed. "Just go and make that phone call, now. If you want to convince Emily that this is a good
idea, you're going to need all the time you can get"

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Alakazam is such an intellectual  ;)

*dies at seeing too much awesomeness*

Another brilliant chapter. Had a crappy day today but this cheered me right up.

Hi again!

I kinda pulled myself together this time, it only took a month and a day to get this written and approved (many thanks to GreekGeek). This chapter isn't as long as the previous one, but it will tie in to the next one instead.

Enjoy!
P.S.: Spot the sentence that was added as an afterthought.


Chapter forty-one: The day after yesterday

"Ice Beam!"
Mamoswine let out a low growl, scraped the ground with his right front hoof, and sent a super cold beam of
frigid air towards Tyranitar, who braced himself. The beam hit its mark, a ragged scar in Tyranitar's
armour, about the size of a manhole cover. Tyranitar groaned in pain, and took a couple of steps backwards
as the beam hit. A frostbite as large as a basket ball had appeared in the centre of the scar, and parts of
the armour fell off in large flakes. Within seconds, the armour had grown back, and the centre of the scar
was nice and smooth again.
"I think we got it this time", I shouted. Pokémon battles in an enclosed space was a noisy affair, and I had
to wear ear protection to avoid headaches. "Are you okay, Tyranitar?"
"Fine", he grunted, massaging the spot where the beam had hit him. "Looks better now"
"Let's wait a while before we take on the rest", I said and patted him on the back. It was like touching
metal, all hard and cold, yet Tyranitar was able to easily flex and bend the solid armour that had saved his
life tens of times yesterday. His back was scarred with marks from low-calibre bullets, and we still hadn't
picked out all the splinters and armour-piercing bullets that had stuck in it. The scar we had just removed
apparently stemmed from a direct hit from a 107mm tank projectile.
"Who wants to be the next?", I asked a group of Pokémon that had taken shelter behind one of the rocks in
the battle room, in the cave underneath my house.
"Better get over with it", Lucario grunted and took Tyranitar's spot. His right hand was a nasty mess to
look at; he had been hit with an anti-tank round. "The hand has kept me awake all night. Knock me out hard,
please"
"Charizard, then", I said. This method of healing was brutal, but effective. Pokémon were after all
susceptible to wounds of all kinds, and while they didn't grow very well on their own, wounds caused by
another Pokémon would heal in seconds. Thus, all we had to do was inflict worse damage than the original
wound, using a Pokémon move, and it would regrow. The downside was that the Pokémon were often knocked out
badly by the treatment, and it was exhausting for all parts involved. We couldn't use it on the most injured
Pokémon, though, as the exhaustion would kill them, but those with relatively minor injuries could handle
it. Lucario had closed his eyes, and stood in the middle of the room with his right arm stretched out to his
side. Charizard had taken a position a couple of metres ahead of me.
"OK, Fire Fang on my signal. Ready, Lucario?"
"Just do it!", he growled.
"Go!"
Charizard's mouth was suddenly full of flames, and he darted towards Lucario. I could hear a crunch and a
sizzling sound as his powerful jaws closed around the mangled arm. Lucario howled in pain, and collapsed on
the spot. Charizard walked off, and left Lucario lying on the back, stretched out like the classic da Vinci
sketch. Puffs of smoke rose from his hand, which looked all fine again, if a little singed.
"Ouch", Charizard remarked, and wiped soot off his snout. "That must have hurt"
"I'll take him to the nursery", I said, and helped him to his feet. Lucario was almost as tall as me, but
his skeleton was apparently some sort of metal, so he weighed a little more than an average human, quite
contrary to what the Pokédex stated. By now, I had completely discarded the Pokédex weight data. Eventually,
Gallade assisted me, dragging and carrying Lucario into the nursery room. The room was filled with wounded
Pokémon, some of them critically. For once, Weavile hadn't been hit, but Salamence and Scizor were in a
terrible condition, and Infernape could barely breathe. Heracross, another Pokémon that had arrived tonight,
had his horn broken. Dusknoir looked more pale in the bright artificial sunlight, and Electivire's torso was
bandaged. He lay on his back on a bed of leaves, eyes closed.
"Any news?", I asked Blissey, who scurried across the room from Pokémon to Pokémon. My wristwatch told me
the clock had passed 5PM, it had been sixteen hours since the trailers arrived. They were now buried in the
garden, as Steelix and Venusaur had dug up the entire lawn before my parents woke up. I had slept well past
ten this morning, and when I turned on my phone after I got up, I had 39 missed calls from Emily. She had
not taken my decision lightly.
"Rob! You're wasting your entire life if you skip your education", she had hissed to me when I called her
last night.
"I prefer to have a life to waste in the first place", I had replied. Then she had hung up on me. At times,
I didn't understand how she was thinking. Would the TLA somehow just leave me in peace if I stopped caring
about the missing Pokémon? Would they forget and forgive what had happened if I stopped provoking them? Or
was she just angry because I couldn't spend as much time with her? On the other hand, what if she was right?
How could I possibly get the TLA to stop following me, if not by giving them what they wanted? The thought
made me shiver: It was me they wanted. Nope, this seemed to be the only way to keep them at bay.
"How are you, Metagross?", I asked. Metagross' metal body was scarred from countless impacts. Although he
was able to reflect some bullets with a combination of psychic and magnetic powers, most of them had found
their marks. The large white X across his face was bent, one of his legs looked limp, and one of his eyes
was darker than the other. Still, being made of steel meant that he had taken most of the bullets quite
well.
"I can manage", he grunted. There was a scraping sound in his voice that hadn't been there before. "We took
a lot of damage yesterday, but it doesn't seem like the TLA have caught any more of us. I've been listening
to their radio, and they seem to believe that most of us were killed yesterday"
My pocket radio was balanced on a rock next to Metagross. Connected to a pair of speakers, it continuously
spewed out most of the radio transmission between most TLA field units in the city.
"Do they have anybody stationed near the house?", I asked him. Gardevoir, being nearby, answered:
"According to Xatu, an ice cream van has been stationed for some time at the bus stop down the street"
Metagross continued: "And this house is under satellite surveillance. They seem pretty intent on not letting
you go again"
"Have you done anything about it?"
"The ice cream van does not receive any signals, thanks to Magnezone. As a bonus, the car battery is dead
too. And we froze the satellite image. With any luck, they won't notice before night falls"
"By the way, we're getting visitors", Gardevoir said.
"More TLA?"
"No. Looks like Emily is here to pay you a visit"
"She has tried to call you all day", Metagross grunted. "While you get no phone coverage down here, I can
still track the signals"
"I'm going up, then", I said. I didn't want to show Emily the results of the battle yesterday. Also, I
wanted to breathe some fresh air again. The plants that covered the walls of the cave produced sufficient
oxygen, but it was hot and dense down here, and the air was damp. I had spent most of the day in the cave,
and longed to see real sunlight as well. As I climbed the shaft, it went colder and the air was drier. It
was darker here too, as the shaft was lit only by torches that for some reason didn't burn up. Finally, I
got to the ladder that led out of the hatch in the house basement. I stopped to listen in case mom was doing
the laundry. She didn't know I was home, and it wouldn't be too good for her mental state if I bustled
through the door with dirty clothes. It was all silent, so I quickly emptied my pockets on the floor, pulled
off the clothes, and changed to a clean pair from the dryer. Then I grabbed my school bag from behind the
old boiler, went up, and silently sneaked out to the entrée. I could hear mom and dad in the kitchen, and
didn't want them to see me now. When I saw Emily walk up to the house, I opened the door and met her
outside.
"So there you are", she said bluntly as I came out. I didn't quite know what to say.
"What... on... Earth happened yesterday?!" she continued in an increasingly higher-pitched voice. She pulled
a newspaper out of her handbag. "Most of the old harbour in ruins? Fire-fighters are still on site,
trying to prevent it from blazing up again? Neighbours heard mysterious roars?" She quoted headlines as she
flipped through the pages. "And not a single picture or proper explanation. Do not tell me you weren't
there"
It was as if her eyes looked straight through me.
"We were there", I admitted.
"Dad too?"
"He got me out of there. Uninjured, I might add"
"Did he? He went to work early today. 'Important meeting', he said. Probably about what happened last night.
If they find out that he helped you..."
"I said that too, but he seemed very confident that they wouldn't", I said. To be honest, the thought
worried me as well.
"And you... don't you DARE to try anything like this again. Putting yourself, other people, and the Pokémon
in danger by battling the TLA. They will escalate the conflict as much as they can - and that would be a
lot -  until they get you. And who knows how many will be dead or injured for life by then?"
"Emily..."
"Listen, I can live with it if you drop out of school. But that's on the premise that you don't do anything
stupid, and care for yourself until they lose interest in you. After that, it's right back to school"
"Do you really think it is that easy?", I asked. "I decided to quit school so I could get more time to get
the rest of the Pokémon back. After that, we will see"
"You aren't planning your future at all, are you?"
"That's because I have to focus on the current first!", I shouted. Emily looked furiously at me.
"You're going to get yourself killed!", she whispered. She was crying now.
"What alternatives do I have? Emily, the TLA is very intent on catching me. If I hide, they will wait. The
choice is between taking the chance and fight, or live in solitude like a fox trapped in its hole. And to be
honest, I prefer dying to protect my friends than sitting passive until the day they get me"
"You're mad", Emily whispered. Then she turned away and ran, leaving me standing in the doorway.

I was restless the rest of the evening. My mind played the conversation with Emily over and over again,
especially that last part with her running away in tears, but still, I wouldn't have changed a word if I was
allowed to travel back in time and talk to her again. I truly wanted to go out again, to bring more Pokémon
to safety or at least prevent the TLA from getting them. However, I wanted to avoid causing havoc in a full
-scale battle again. This time, I wanted to get a better overview of the situation before I plunged into it.
I was confident I would make it. Late in the evening, I sneaked down to the cave to hear if Metagross had
heard anything.
"You're in luck", he brummed after I asked him. "I was just about to send someone to get you. There has been
a lot of chatter on the TLA radio that they are 'going out' tonight. Apparently, they want to pick up
something in the forest, not too far from here. Doesn't look like they will bring many troops either.
Apparently, the military isn't to eager to support them again"
"Sounds nice", I said. "I'll go. However, I have learned from yesterday. I'll only bring a couple of
Pokémon, it's easier to keep track that way. Also, the TLA are probably there for Flygon, Machamp,
Typhlosion and the like, and they can help me make an escape. Good think it's within biking distance, as the
flying Pokémon big enough to carry me have been knocked out"
"Sounds risky, but that's your decision. If you are careful, it might work. Who are you thinking about
bringing?
"Weavile. I need a good scout. Also, somebody to ride on in case we need to get away quick. What about
Rapidash?"
"I don't think so. All those flames make it impossible to go unnoticed"
"Dodrio, then?"
"Impossible to keep silent. The three heads don't talk to each other via telepathy, like Exeggutor, for
instance, so they chatter all the time to get their individual points across"
I looked around the big room. Who else could I ride on? Most Pokémon were either too spiky, too slow, or
couldn't carry me. After some thinking, I got an idea and decided:
"I'll bring Tauros"
I went to the storage and picked up the Poké Balls for Typhlosion, Machamp and Flygon, changed clothes, and
we were ready to go. Mom and dad had gone to bed already, and would usually go to work before I got up in
the morning, so they wouldn't miss me before they came home tomorrow. Even then, I could call them and say I
was with Emily. Perfect. Ten minutes later, we were on the move. I biked up the road leading to the forest,
with six Poké Balls in my belt, four of them empty.

The forest was unusually quiet, like that August day I had been knocked out by Tyranitar here. I had
encountered the TLA roadblock some twenty minutes earlier. The grunts stationed there hadn't seen me, so I
left the road and let my bike lie behind a big rock. Weavile was jumping from tree to tree above me, but he
appeared to be the only creature around at the moment. I walked parallel to the road towards the big
parking area. If the TLA were in this part of the forest, that would be the only logical place to have some
sort of command centre When we were about half a kilometre away, I asked Weavile to go ahead and scout the
area. He returned about five minutes later.
"It's weird. There are several vehicles there, some with large floodlights and speakers on them", he said.
"As well as many dumper trucks and excavators. They are yellow"
Weird, I thought. As far as I knew, all TLA equipment was pitch black. And what were the floodlights for?
"What about guards?", I asked as we walked closer.
"Not many. There are lots of people around the lights, but nobody around the perimeter of the area. We can
safely walk all the way up to it, if you want"
"Any armoured cars, vans, such things like we saw yesterday?"
"There are a couple of vans there, but they only seem to carry people"
This was beyond weird. Poor guarding, few weapons... I knew that the TLA had a tendency to underestimate the
Pokémon, but this was downright stupid. Weavile found a mossy rock with a good view of the area. Indeed,
there were several dumper trucks and some excavators parked on the large open area. Around them in a
semicircle were several vans, some armoured, with large floodlights on the roof. A couple had enormous
speaker sets instead of lights. Several generators mounted on trucks were buzzing, giving power to the
lights and the speakers. I could see a vaguely familiar person standing in the midst of the semicircle,
giving orders to agents and some grunts. Where had I seen that guy before...
Then I shook the feeling off. I blinked, and looked again. The man was not only familiar, it was Joe. When
he was wearing the TLA uniform, I seemed to be unable to recognize him at first glance, like all the other
agents. We were too far away to hear what he was saying, but he was gesticulating and pointing in one
direction all the time, in the direction away from the city.
"It looks like they have localized the Pokémon", I whispered. "I think they are somewhere in that direction.
Let's go and have a look"
We walked along the perimeter of the area, all the while looking for guards. The forest was as silent as
ever, and I was a little nervous. I knew that nothing could hurt me with Weavile here, but the darkness had
a threatening feel to it.
"Hey!", Weavile suddenly hissed.
"What?, I said and turned as I walked. Suddenly, I stumbled into a stump ahead of me, and took a few loose
steps to regain balance. Several twigs snapped under my feet.
"Who's over there?", a voice not far from me shouted. I could see the silhouette of a man with a large set
of binoculars standing up between two bushes. The bushes were covered in camouflage netting, and a foul
stench oozed from them.
"Him!", Weavile hissed. "We should get away!"
"Working on it!", I hissed back, found Tauros' Poké Ball and called him out. The three-tailed bull appeared
out of a bright white light in front of the man. Tauros snarled deeply, and the man ran away into the
forest, screaming. I got on Tauros' back so we could get away, as noises from the command centre indicated
that they had heard what had happened. A deep, gurgling noise boomed from the area, probably broadcast from
the large speakers.
"That was quite an alarm", I remarked dryly.
"It calls for us", Weavile added. He had jumped onto Tauros as well, and was sitting behind me. Indeed, my
ability to decipher the true meaning behind sounds told me that the noises were a language of sorts.
"'Come... we are here for you'? What does that mean?", I mumbled. "They probably know that we are here. We
should go deeper into the forest. If we don't find the others within the hour, we'll go back home"
Tauros made good speed as he ran. It wasn't a comfortable ride, with a jolt every time he had to dodge
trees, jump over rocks, or leap across streams.
"What is that smell?", Tauros grunted after ten minutes or so. "Ouch. It's..."
"Eugh!", Weavile added. I couldn't smell a thing myself.
"There is something ahead", Tauros said and stopped abruptly on a small bog in the middle of the woods. "I
can smell it, hear it, and feel it, but not see it. I'm scared"
"And that sound... 'we have food for you'?". I'm not feeling too good about this either", I mumbled. We
could still hear the messages the TLA were broadcasting. Suddenly, two trees in front of us were bent aside
and fell towards us. They slammed into the peat only a few metres ahead of us. Tauros roared in surprise,
and tossed himself away.
"Hey!", I shouted, but too late. I was thrown off, but got a soft landing in a smelly puddle. Tauros had
panicked, and darted into the forest. "Come back!", I shouted as I got up, but it was to no avail. He was
already far away.
"At least go home when you've calmed down!", I bellowed at the top of my lungs.
"Rob...", Weavile whispered behind me.
"What?", I said and turned. The ground shook a little. The fallen trees appeared to be dragged from side to
side. "Do you see... any... Oh! what the..."
There was a large looming figure standing where the trees had fallen. The sky behind it was dark, but I
could still make out the outline of a titanic humanoid creature, more than fifteen metres tall. It appeared
to have two disproportionately large heads, both of which sat very low on its shoulders, as if it had no
necks. Its arms, thick as tree trunks and longer than telephone poles, ended in massive hands somewhere just
below its knees. It was barrel-chested, with long arms and legs. Its fur was clustered in dots, giving the
impression that the creature was covered in moss. It also had a tail, ten metres long and ending in a
tassel. The smell it gave off would have made me throw up under other circumstances.
"This is no Pokémon", I whispered. Weavile took a few steps backwards.
"What do you call those?", he whispered.
"If I'm not mistaken, this is a troll. Bad news. Very bad news". I suddenly realized that the TLA hadn't
been here for any Pokémon at all. It was this guy they were calling for back at the parking area. It was a harsh reminder that the TLA dealt with things out of the ordinary in general, and not just Pokémon.
The rightmost head of the troll looked straight at us. Its huge nose was twitching, as if it was trying to
identify a faint smell. All the time, it appeared to be mumbling to itself. It took a hesitant step in our
direction, and was suddenly only ten metres away. I looked up at the rough-hewn face, with the humongous
nose and tiny eyes.
Then Weavile darted past me, his right arm raised for a punch. It hit the troll with an Ice Punch right in
the chest, just below where the ribcage would have been on a human. The attack didn't seem to affect the
troll much, but it swayed a little and flailed in the air with it arms, and I heard a squeak as Weavile was
caught between two fingers. He struggled to come free, but the troll had him in a firm grip between his
massive fingers, of which it had only four of on each hand. It lifted Weavile high up in the air, and looked
at him in contrast to the moon. It must have had a really bad eyesight. All the time, Weavile was shouting
and spitting furiously. He tried to bite and claw the hand that held him. The troll decided that eating
Weavile wasn't worth the hassle, and simply tossed him over its shoulder. I heard a high-pitched scream as
Weavile flew through the air, in a wide arc over the forest. I was alone with the troll now. I would ideally
have hid under a nearby bush, or behind a tree or something, but I couldn't move. It was as if my feet were
stuck in this small puddle of smelly mud. I was petrified. The troll came even closer, and I felt something
warm run down my leg on the inside of my pants. A foot as large as a family car slammed to the ground only
metres away. The right hand of the troll was swinging in the air right above me. The sniffing noise from its
two noses made me shiver violently. I knew that I was just a small step away from being crushed under it
gigantic feet, or eaten. Then the TLA would find my mashed remains, and the newspapers would probably blame
a bear. It felt like hours before the troll finally walked away. The gurgling noises from the TLA's speakers
could be heard here as well, and the troll probably wanted to respond to the promise of food if it showed up
at the parking area. I could hear its thundering steps for over a minute. Then there was some terrible
noises in the distance, roaring and loud crashes, a flash of light, and then silence. I slowly got out of
the puddle, silently praising its smell. It was probably the mud that had saved me from being troll food;
the smell of human was easily drowned by the stench of this goo.
Now what? I would have to go in a wide arc to avoid the TLA. I couldn't use the same road out of the forest.
The ravine would have been an option, but Dragonite had collapsed it yesterday. I knew about another way,
but getting there would take a lot of time. It was way past midnight already, I wouldn't be home before
sunrise, at earliest.
"Now well, better get going", I mumbled to myself. I had an approximate idea of where I was, and the stars
pointed out North for me. After some hesitation, I decided on a direction, and started walking. Tauros had
been a fast runner, and we had gone a couple of kilometres into the forest. In this tough terrain, and no
light, it would take me three hours just to get as far as the parking area, and even then I would hardly be
halfway to the edge of the forest... "If only I had brought more Pokémon!", I thought angrily. Now Tauros
was somewhere out in the woods, and he would hopefully turn straight home once he got to his senses. Weavile
was even further away, possibly hurt as well. But on the other hand, he had been able to scream as he was
flung, and he could easily outmatch any cat in a soft-landing-competition, so hopefully he was all right
too. With a little luck, we would all be home before breakfast to hear Metagross' lecture on what we could
have done better...
A distant thunderclap, like an explosion, broke the silence. I jumped, the sound had been so sudden.
"What was tha- aaaahh!", I said to myself. That last bit because I stumbled. My foot was caught between two
tree roots, and was badly twisted as I fell.
"Ouchouchouchouch! Gaaaah!", I shouted. It hurt, but it didn't feel like I had broken anything. I slowly got
up again, cursing a little. A careful step showed that the foot could still bear my weight, but it hurt, as
if a piece of glass was stuck between the bones. A sprained ankle was the last thing I needed now. I was a
long way from home, alone in the dark forest, with the exception of the TLA.