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[GreekGeek]

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

But it rocks =).

Please go on.

[SirIngusBingus]

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.

[SirIngusBingus]

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...

[SirIngusBingus]

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

[GreekGeek]

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

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

[SirIngusBingus]

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

[Cobraroll]

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

[Cobraroll]

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...

[SirIngusBingus]

That was awesome.

"With one hell of a headache", Espeon added.

lqtm

[Cobraroll]

^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...

[SirIngusBingus]

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

LQTM=Laughing Quietly To Myself

[Cobraroll]

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.

[SirIngusBingus]

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.

No lies there.

[GreekGeek]

That's just freakin' dark
But sooooo cool

[Cobraroll]

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.