The Twisted Fields

[Neo Emolga]

http://pirate.shu.edu/~rodmanjo/TFLogo.bmp

Yes, this is the sequel to The Gray Battlegrounds (http://www.empireirc.net/pokemonelite2000/showthread.php?t=15) and continues with the third and final installment The Blazing Skies (http://www.empireirc.net/pokemonelite2000/showthread.php?t=860). The adventure of Jake Kossak continues here! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Chapter 1
Odd Reoccurrence

It had seemed only like a week had passed. I was able to focus more on school and less on playing around. Frank no longer hanged around Randy like he used to. In fact, he pretty much kept to himself. But I could see in his eyes he wasn’t the same he used to be either. He ate less, talked less, and stayed away from people like they were a plague. I never bothered him anymore, but something else must have been bothering him.

Jeff was too much involved with sports now, always saying to Randy that he had to get to practice for one of the many sports he had signed up for. I had looked at him for the longest time, and all the while it looked like nothing had ever happened. And then again, maybe because he was the one least affected by the whole thing after all.

But I would never forget the awful mistake Randy made only a week ago, using a magical necklace to create his own world. Supposedly, Jeff’s father had found this necklace, once owned by some guy by the name of Quista. After Jeff gave it to Randy, he used its power to create his own world, just for one purpose…

Randy never used to be good at Pokémon, and the three of us, Alex, David, and myself used to brutally pick on him, and beat the stuffing out of Randy’s Pokémon for sheer pleasure. Once Randy had created his own world, he gave himself the most powerful Pokémon he could think of, as well as giving them the power to use any attack he could think of. After Alex and David had lost to him, he made the two of him his servants, leaving me alone. The only way I could get the three of us out of Randy’s world was to prove to him that even in his dream world he couldn’t beat us. The only one who had helped me with this was Coldblood, who gave me the power to put me on the same level as Randy. It was then decided that I would go in disguise, so Randy couldn’t tell who I really was. Coldblood had decided I would disguise myself as a Pikachu, the one Pokémon that Randy had always wanted but had been unable to catch.

But in Randy’s world, this Pikachu already existed. Randy would have called his Pikachu “Juno” if he had ever caught one. Since Juno already existed, when I took his place, I was stuck as Juno until Randy’s world was destroyed and the real world returned. But Randy never knew I was Juno. I didn’t tell him either.

After a brutal battle, I had won against Randy and it was all over with. I would never forget what I had done, putting even myself into such a harsh situation. But it was over with. I would never battle Randy ever again after that. And, I didn’t talk to him either.

In fact, for a week I had completely avoided Pokémon battling. For some reason, I just did, maybe because I wasn’t so ready to do it again. Still, I kept telling myself that I would get back into it soon enough. It wouldn’t be long until that happened.

It wasn’t until I had gotten home one afternoon that things really went wild. I hadn’t even been thinking of the incident only a week ago, I was just trying to get back on my feet and keep going on. For once I was able to grab the time to be by myself.

I had gotten home, grabbed my belt with my Pokéballs, and had headed out to the small, grassy backyard we had in the back of the house. Then, we I reached the white, stone patio, I had looked at my belt. While I had all five of my Pokémon, something confused me. I had originally had four while I was in Randy’s world, but while I was there, I had obtained another one.

How was I able to pull something from Randy’s world into the real one? That didn’t make sense. Anyway, I had grabbed my fifth Pokéball, and tossed it into the air, where it hit the patio stone and released the Pokémon inside, my Latias.

She had emerged from the bright flash, and immediately looked around. She then found me.

“Where are we?” She asked.
“This is my home, as well as yours.” I told her.

And I could have slapped my mouth. How on Earth was I still able to understand what she was saying…?

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 2
The Other Side

But I kept myself quiet. I simply showed Latias around, and then put her back into her Pokéball, and didn’t say another word. How was it even possible? Something was seriously wrong.

I then, I thought of something. If I had pulled something from Randy’s world, Randy must have had to as well. I had decided I would talk to him tomorrow, yes, the very person that had once been my worst enemy. But something was telling me he wasn’t going to be anymore. I just had to know something.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted, and I didn’t know what it was from. I hadn’t been running around, everything had seemed normal. When I finally settled down to go to sleep, I tried to get my mind off the events of last week. They shouldn’t have been haunting me like this. It was nice to be in a bed again, for once. After I got comfortable, I shut my eyes…

And suddenly I felt like I had been thrown on the floor, which felt like cold, diamond metal. I couldn’t see anything for a harsh, chilling moment, but then I was able to open my eyes.

All around me was metal, cold and dark. It had felt like I was in a normal hallway, only I could barely see anything. And then I certainly realized I was not myself. I was Juno, as if I had been Juno this whole time. This was crazy.

Then, a bright red light had emerged from the end of the hallway, and a silhouette of a dark, tall figure was slowly walking toward me, holding some sort of large, blunt weapon in his hands. I put my tiny hands behind me and slowly crept away on my back.

Pipes were blowing steam in front of him, and I had trouble trying to recognize who it was. Still, I frantically tried to crawl away, but I wasn’t getting very far. Then, I had stood up, and began running in the opposite direction, but I didn’t get very far. I had been running in pitch black darkness until I slammed right into a wall. I frantically looked behind me only to see the figure move closer and closer.

He was going to kill me, and for reasons I didn’t know why. I had stayed in the darkness, thinking he wouldn’t see me, but it seemed like he already knew where I was, and he began to approach me. Then, he was standing right above me, and he took his weapon, raised it in the air, and it forcefully came toward me at a feverish pace.

I nearly woke up screaming. I had thrown off my bed covers, and looked at my hands to make sure I still wasn’t Juno. I had sighed in relief when I realized I was still normal. I checked the clock by my bed and it was only four in the morning.

But I didn’t dare go back to sleep…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 3
The Meeting

That next morning, I got dressed, ate breakfast, and walked to school all in complete silence. I barely said anything to anyone, I just went to school and wanted to keep quiet. I didn’t want anyone to assume anything by looking at my face either, so I tried to keep a calm expression.

I barely paid attention in class, now unable to get my mind off of just trying to meet Randy when we were let out. After four long classes of complete bore, I dashed out the back exit.

“Man, aren’t you in a hurry.” I heard a familiar voice say right behind me.

I turned around and looked back into the stairway to see Alex, one of my best friends. He seemed a bit shocked.

“You were dozing off in class this morning, Jake.” Alex told me, “Have you been thinking about something?”
“It’s about Randy.” I told Alex, knowing exactly what that would remind him of, “I think it’s about time we talk to him, and find out how exactly this all happened.”

The two of us headed out the door and found Randy in the one place where he always hung out after school: on a black, metal bench completely by himself. The two of us approached him, and he looked up at us.

“Randy, we need to talk.” Alex said firmly to him, “We could really use some answers.”

Randy had already known what Alex was talking about, and he didn’t look like he wanted to fight about it. Instead, he stood up, and looked at Alex in the eyes.

“Look, let’s go some place where no one is going to see or hear us, okay?” Randy asked Alex, “I don’t want this to go floating around.”
“Fine, Randy.” Alex agreed, “How about we talk in one of those dugouts in that old, abandoned baseball field?”

Only about a half a mile away was an old baseball field that hadn’t been used in nearly a decade. After Randy had said yes, we simply walked our way over there. Randy moved in a very stiff fashion, seeming like he was very uncomfortable at the moment.

When we had arrived, we stepped inside one of the concrete dugouts and sat down on the old, wooden bench inside. Meanwhile, Alex sat down on the concrete stairs leading out into the dusty field.

“I want to know something Randy.” Alex told him, “You know what happened just last week. You gave us the nightmare of our lives.”
“What… is it that you want to know?” Randy asked Alex, feeling very uncomfortable.
“Who is Juno?” Alex asked coldly, “How was a normal, everyday Pikachu able to beat you?”

I was silent. I already perfectly knew the answer to that one, but I didn’t want to say anything at all. Neither of them knew it was me.

“I really don’t know.” Randy asked, “I couldn’t understand his commands, and after he decided to enter the fight himself, he just never seemed to go down. I hit him with everything I could. I just don’t know how Juno was able to do it…”
“No, really Randy.” I asked him, trying to cover my tracks, “Just who is this Pikachu?”

Randy looked at me for an instant, and then started to look toward the ground by his feet.

“I always wanted a Pikachu.” Randy said sadly, “Juno is the name I would have given him if I ever caught one. Juno was a side of me that was a burden that wouldn’t go away no matter how hard I tried. It wasn’t any surprise he decided to battle me and he was the one who won. It seemed like he was always doing that.”

Interesting. I never thought of it that way. I was just about to say something when…

“You’re about to see the truth…” I heard a cold voice say in front of us.

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 4
Shattered Secrets

Randy and I had looked up in complete shock, and Alex frantically turned around to see who had snuck up on us. Before us stood a brown haired man in black cloth pants and a black shirt. He was wearing sandals, and had a very dense look on his face, as if he was ready to fight at any second. He spoke very quickly and aggressively.

“Who the hell are you?” Alex asked in surprise.
“I want to know who the three of you are.” The fair-skinned man said, “Only now have I been able to track down the location of one of my most prized possession, only to find it has been completely destroyed…”

He was obviously talking about the necklace. I don’t know how it ended up breaking, but there was something else I really wanted to know.

“You’re Quista, son of the Phoenix?” I asked the man.

He started snickering. I felt like I had said something extremely stupid.

“So that’s who they think I am?” He asked mockingly, “My real name is Zander. I’m not Egyptian either, someone had stolen that necklace from me thousands of years ago, and I didn’t even get the chance to use it. And no, I’m not a real human either.”

Now we were beginning to freak out. I thought this guy was going to murder us after we smashed his necklace.

“You’re…” Randy stuttered, “Not human…?”
“I don’t care about that right now.” Zander replied with a cold stare, “One of you used my necklace, and created your own world. That necklace was meant for me. My long search for it had ended in its destruction, and I want to know who’s responsible!”

This was far worse than getting sent to the principal’s office for getting into a fight. This guy looked ready to kill us, and no one would ever find us here for days. Still, we were silent. Something in me said to point to Randy, but I never ended up doing so. Yet, just a week ago, I would have been fingering him like crazy.

“So who was it!?” Zander shouted angrily.

We were still silent. Then, he gave us a really sick stare, and I was quivering. I thought my life was over at that moment.

“I can make you all become sunken with fear.” Zander glared, “You think I don’t know what happened? One of you became frustrated, another created an alter-ego for himself, and the third was a servant for the first. The first of you used my necklace to create your own world, for only one pathetic purpose.”
“Stop it, please…” Randy begged.
“You couldn’t tolerate your companions’ endless defeats, so you created your own companions and made yourself a champion.” Zander growled at Randy.

Randy was shaking his head. He didn’t want to believe this was actually happening.

“I couldn’t stand losing at Pokémon battling.” Randy complained, “I needed something to help me win for once.”
“But that isn’t all.” Zander said, “You were able to pull these Pokémon out from your dream world and pull them into reality. They currently remain with you at this moment.”

My question had been answered. Randy really had been able to do the same as I had, pulling something from his world into reality. Just like I had…

“I was going to use that necklace to go to the place of my desires so I could summon them into reality, but instead it was wasted on you!” Zander shouted angrily, “Your purpose for using it was meaningless! It took my nearly a lifetime to craft that necklace!”

I kept my mouth shut. Now I knew why he had come to us from out of nowhere. We used his necklace for a stupid reason, stupid compared to what really could have been done with it. I could see what this guy was angry.

“You…,” Zander said harshly, now facing me, “You are a completely different story. You wanted to free yourself from this maggot’s world by defeating him. The only way to do it was to hide yourself.”

Now Randy was looking at me in curiosity. Randy was going to find out everything in a matter of moments. I really didn’t want it to turn out this way.

“You disguised yourself from this maggot by turning into his own, living desire.” Zander said with a hint of laughter in his tone, “So you became a Pikachu by the name of Juno, and you defeated Randy. When his world had vanished, you awoke to find yourself as normal human being. But by becoming another living creature in his world, you took his essence with you. The only reason why you’re not Juno any longer is because your purpose in this world is to serve it as Jake Kossak. But you won’t believe how easily this can be changed!”
“You were actually Juno?” Randy asked me in complete shock.
“Randy…” I whispered to him, “Just shut up…”

From the way this guy was sounding, it seemed he only needed a bit more than a snap of a finger to turn me right back into a Pikachu, and this time it would be permanent…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 5
The Only Solution

Man, as if Randy’s first mistake hadn’t been bad enough, we were about to suffer a second time for it. I was wondering what the hell I had done to deserve this. I didn’t even know what Zander was if he wasn’t human. The only thing I was aware of was he was angry at us for destroying his priceless necklace. What was to stop him from just making another one? Besides, making our lives a complete misery wasn’t going to help him get it back anyway…

“I don’t see why you would want to turn me back into a Pikachu.” I told Zander honestly, “It’s not like that is going to change anything. Why don’t you just make another necklace?”
“It took me thousands of years to make that one!” Zander shouted in fury, “I would force you to make a replacement, but you wouldn’t last long enough and you don’t even have half the power to do it. The only thing I can get from you is revenge.”

I thought Randy was going to be furious when I told him I was actually Juno. Instead, he had looked at me, and almost began to feel sick.

“I can’t believe…” Randy stuttered softly, “You went through all that trouble to just beat me. You almost killed yourself out there… I’m really sorry, Jake. I… never meant for you… to go that far.”

He certainly wouldn’t have said that a week ago. It seemed when we were in Randy’s world, all the suffering we encountered wouldn’t have been enough. Now, it seemed like he was truly beginning to regret it. Better late than never I suppose…

“That doesn’t matter now.” Zander said in a serious tone, “You’ve taken something from me that I’ve spent my whole life making and looking for. And here, after all these years, I find the three of you are the reason why that necklace no longer exists.”
“Hey man.” Alex told Zander in a casual tone, “I wasn’t any part of this. I’ll tell you right now…”
“You were an accomplice!” Zander shouted, totally interrupting Alex, “You’re no better than the others. For this, all three of you will be punished. I know only of a few torments that would accurately represent the pain and frustration you have given to me.”

From my side, this all sounded like serious lunacy. He obviously sounded like he had no interest in actually killing us, seeming like that was just an easy way out of it. I couldn’t imagine what this guy was thinking.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re even talking about.” Alex said straight to Zander’s face, “Let’s face it, the necklace is gone, pal. It’s over with. Maybe you should have made it more durable, ever think of that, genius?”

Zander stood there looking very infuriated at Alex. I honestly didn’t fear this guy. I had stopped feeling so afraid, and knew there was little this guy could really do to us. This guy didn’t have his necklace anymore, so what did I care?

“You destroyed my only possession, utterly wasting it on mere, pathetic desires that you didn’t even bother of preserving by making them real.” Zander growled in fury, “You wasted it. Now, I’m going to make the three of you suffer for what you’ve done. You’ll see what happens to those who infuriate me!”

Then, he outstretched his arm, opened his hand, and showed us his bare palm. I might have burst out laughing from that gesture, but seconds later the whole sky went black and the whole baseball field became a sick, crimson red. I felt nauseous and shaky as everything in front of me swirled like mixing paint. Everything slowly became black, and I passed out…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 6
The Cage

I had awoken, but had not opened my eyes. The air around me was cold, and I could feel a faint breeze coming from above. The floor felt cold and stiff, and only then did I open my eyes and take a look around me.

I then realized it was completely impossible for me to still be on Earth. The room was completely made of metal, mostly rusted scrap. Everything seemed so giant until I realized why that was…

I had become Juno again, a sight too familiar. Those moments of horror were slowly coming back to me now. The fighting, the suffering, the loneliness…

The room was a jail cell as I quickly realized the only window had bars around it, and the only exit was a circular, reinforced steel security vault door. There was no chance of getting past that thing. After looking around, I saw I was alone in this cold cell with no one but myself.

My curiosity had taken a hold of me as I slowly climbed on top of the single, rickety metal bunk bed and made my way toward the window. When I slowly approached it, I had seen what was outside. It looked like hell itself.

The sky was a horrid mixture of red and gray with passing black storm clouds that were constantly moving and mixing. Thunder and lightning were always occasionally lighting up dark patches of sky, but the crashing of thunder was very faint.

Meanwhile, on the ground it looked like fields upon fields of grassless land of twisted, dying trees had covered the landscape. In some places, fissures had opened up, seeming to be endless pits waiting to swallow up anything that had fallen in. But nothing was moving, except for the flashing thunder, swirling of clouds and the swaying of dead trees from a lonesome wind that quickly came and quickly passed.

Randy’s world was a play land compared to this place. I sure didn’t want to stay in this prison, but something kept asking me if going outside was any better. From what I saw, it seemed I was probably better off inside. Even if Randy, Alex and I had gotten out, there wasn’t any chance we could possibly travel on that type of landscape. It seemed the land itself had gone mad…

As I looked at my tiny, yellow hands again, I tried to wonder why Zander thought it was better for me to be a Pikachu. Did he think the whole thing was amusing or something? But no matter what, that wasn’t going to change anything. There probably was no place for Jake Kossak in this world. After all, my strongest belief was that this was a representation of Zander’s mind. Why oh why did I feel like I’d rather be off in Randy’s world? I had only been here for a few minutes, and I already wanted to get out of here.

I already knew the cast iron bars blocking the window were too thick and too close together to bypass, but even if I could, I don’t think I wanted to be walking in that geographical nightmare. I was hoping the other side of this prison wouldn’t be as freaky as the other, but I wasn’t going to place my bets on that.

I had approached the vault door, and tried to see if there was any lock whatsoever, but instead, all I saw was a back of the circular vault door, no keyhole or anything. Obviously, the only way to get out of here was if someone opened the door from the other side. I had no idea how long it was going to take before that happened.

After looking around, I truly saw no way out at all. I knew I wouldn’t get out of this nightmare if I just stayed here and waited to rot away. Someone was going to have to come and at least feed me something, or I would just die of starvation. Then I thought rationally. If Zander really wanted us to die, he would have killed us in that abandoned baseball field. He wouldn’t have waited for us to fall over, rot, and stink up his whole jail.

The floor was made up of solid metal panels of an array of grays, browns, and silvers, all secured with extremely heavy bolts. They were nice and tight on the floor, and they weren’t going to come up without some sort of heavy tools, which of course I didn’t have. Plus the bolts were mostly rusted over, which meant there was pretty much stuck in there.

I had looked up at the ceiling, now seeing smaller square panels of a deep bluish metal, with smaller bolts on each corner that hadn’t been rusted over like the ones on the floor. I had looked up at all of them, and saw out of the corner of my eyes, there was a panel in the corner on the right side of the window, with one of its bolts missing on the right corner next to the wall.

If I were to remove that panel, it might just be a way out of here…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 7
The Midnight Struggle

The only problem with removing that panel was it was fifteen feet in the air, and there was nothing for me to even get close to it. I had turned to the bunk bed unit, which would reach high enough for me to remove the panel, but how would I be able to move it? If I were still human, it wouldn’t have been a problem, since the metal bunk bed wasn’t exactly the most sturdy thing in the room. But as a little Pikachu, it might be too hard.

Suddenly, to my surprise, the vault door had clicked, and slowly swung open. By the time I had turned around, I had seen a hand holding a pewter bowl just drop the bowl it was holding by the door, and then just like that, it was quickly shut again.

Just for curiosity, I had walked over to the bowl, and I could have puked. It looked and smelled like hot, salty vomit. It was a musty brown and orange color, like somebody tossed their cookies in it, as well as took of dump of diarrhea all over what was there already. I didn’t care if it took me the rest of the week to move that bunk bed, there was no way in hell I was going to stay here.

I had grasped one of the metal poles supporting the upper deck and tried to pull as hard as I could. I must have pulled it five feet away from the metal wall before falling on my hands from exhaustion. I then tried pushing to see if that would change anything. It was a bit better, and I went a few more feet, but it was still at least twenty feet away from the wall, and I needed rest. It felt like pushing a truck in neutral…

After a few hours had passed, I gave it another shot, only to go seven more feet before my hands and feet were aching. I couldn’t go on, and I needed rest. But for now, I needed to get rid of that vomit soup, before they began to assume I was going to starve myself…

So, I grabbed the bowl, walked with it across the room, and dumped the stuff out the window. It was disgustingly lumpy and it smelled even worse as I poured it out, like real barf. I then promptly took the bowl, put it by the door, and then headed for the lower bunk of the bed. I didn’t care for the fact there weren’t any pillows and only one sheet. I was too tired…

The next morning, I was rudely awaked by the door opening again, and other bowl of morning puke to greet me. After the door was shut again, I quickly headed back to try and move the bunk bed. I pushed as hard as I could for as long as I could, and soon enough, I made it to the other side of the wall. I then climbed my way up to the top bunk, which wasn’t any better than the first. I had made my way to the loose panel, and saw there were only three bolts I had to remove. I had put my hands on the first of the three, and turned it counter clockwise. This one hadn’t been in too tight either, and after about twenty spins, it came out. The other two were a bit harder, but after I tried hard enough, all the bolts came out, and the panel fell from the ceiling and onto the top bunk.

The hole that was left was only a foot by foot square. While I might have had an easier time pushing the bunk bed as a human, there was no way I could fit through that hole as one. But now, being a Pikachu made all the difference. I ducked, positioned myself under the hole, and looked up.

It appeared to be some sort of ventilation duct of some sort, which was surprising since I didn’t see any vent grates in my cell. How considerate of them…

I put my hands on the edge, and hoisted myself into the duct. It was very dimly lit, so I had to first get adjusted to the darkness, and use the dim light coming from the other vents to see. I slowly moved my way through the vent, making sure to be as quiet as possible. As I made my way about twenty feet, I had come across a vent leading to another room. When I looked through the vent grill, it looked like a guard’s lounge. I could see what appeared to be a young, tan skinned man with a blonde crew cut and wearing a black tank top. He was sitting, drinking a cup of black coffee, while an Ampharos and a Skarmory stood by the table, talking to each other.

The room was completely metal as well, only it looked much cleaner than my cell. The table didn’t look in tip top shape however, having rust patches all over the surface. The metal seats were crudely made, and two vending machines in the corner were on and humming but duct tape was all over the plastic window of the snack machine.

“I can’t believe they’re going to do it again…” The Ampharos said to the Skarmory, looking exhausted for some odd reason.
“Doesn’t matter.” The Skarmory quickly replied. “You know what happened to The Bend and Cyphex. Those cities lie in ruins now. This used to be their city too, until we trashed it and took it over…”

I was deeply wondering who they were talking about. Obviously, the guy at the table didn’t understand what the two of them were saying. I kept away from the grate so they wouldn’t see me, and I listened in…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 8
The Word Let Out

They kept talking for over an hour, and I sat there listening to every bit of it. It sounded like they were talking about a war, one between a league called the Silver Rebellion and the Crimson Stars. It turned out this was a jail run by the Crimson Stars. It made me wonder. Why would Zander want to wage a war in the realm of his mind? Or maybe I was assuming the wrong thing? Maybe this wasn’t his world at all… But if that was the case, then where was I really?

“When do you think we will fight again?” Skarmory asked, looking curiously at Ampharos.
“It won’t be long before it’s all over.” Ampharos told him with pure confidence, “The Silver Rebellion doesn’t have any leaders left, they’ll all dead or in jail. Once we attack their capital of Septa, it isn’t even going to matter any more. The rebels are fading.”

Who were the rebels, and what were they rebelling for? I was just about to leave when I realized something. My belt with my Pokéballs was hanging from a nearby rack, along with many others. How could these maggots steal my Pokémon? I sure wasn’t going to let them get away with that. I moved right up to the grate, and kicked it as hard as I could.

Perhaps a little too hard. The grate popped out like there it was only leaning against the vent hole’s rims. I didn’t care. Those Pokémon were mine, and no one was going to take them from me. I had looked out the vent, and jumped out, landing on a metal shelf unit that was right below. The Ampharos and the Skarmory immediately looked up at me.

“Who the hell are you!?” The Ampharos exclaimed, looking up at me in shock.
“You’d better give back my Pokémon,” I told them both, “Stop this nonsense now, if you don’t want to have to deal with me…”
“Oh man.” The Skarmory snickered, “You are so dead for picking a fight with me.”

Just then, the man sitting up at the table had noticed me, and I didn’t want him to be a part of this. I shut my eyes, clenched my fists, and my cheeks fired up with electricity. Then, I focused hard on his location, directing the massive wave of thunder right at him. I felt the thunder make contact, and then I released the power, and opened my eyes to see the man fall back out of his chair and onto the floor, knocking over two other chairs with him and shifting the table, spilling his coffee cup. As the coffee trickled to the floor, the Ampharos charged up his own electric attack, and just before he fired it at me, I jumped off the shelf unit, and landed firmly on the table. Just a second later, the shelf was blasted with electricity, sending dozens of metal cans flying in all directions.

I shielded myself from the barrage of metal cans, and seconds later they had all hit the floor, creating a loud, clanging noise. When it was all over with, Ampharos had turned to me, not looking very happy at all.

“Boy, you are one dead puppy.” Ampharos sneered, “Do you really think you can take us down?”
“Yep, simply for the fact your electrical power can’t hurt me and your Skarmory friend can’t even take flight in here, so it’s going to be your loss.” I told him, saying it right to his face.
“That’s what you think.” Skarmory said in a cold tone, spreading his silver blade wings, and leaping right at me with steadfast determination.

And I don’t know what happened right after that, but I instantly felt myself go flying backward right of the table, and I saw the table was sliced in two equal pieces. I had hit the wall, and soon slid down the wall and onto the floor. I looked down and saw my chest had been badly scratched. I could feel the burn of pain.

The two halves of the metal table had laid flat on the floor, and Skarmory had been right between them. I then realized what he had done. I never imagined a Steel Wing attack to be so strong…

“You are nothing.” The Skarmory told me, looking at me in the corner, “I’ve fought much tougher Pokémon from the Silver Rebellion than you.”
“I’m not part of the Silver Rebellion.” I told the Skarmory as I got up off the floor.
“Really?” The Ampharos asked in surprise, “Then where the hell are you from?”
“Heh, don’t bother.” The Skarmory said to his companion, “He doesn’t know.”

That punk. I immediately charged up as much electricity as I could and directed it right toward Skarmory. He only had a split second to react as he saw the incoming thunder, but it wasn’t enough…

Skarmory had been struck hard, and he glowed like a light bulb from the blast. After about ten solid seconds of generous toasting, I released my power, and Skarmory stumbled over and fell to the floor, flying on his chest with his thin, metal wings spread out.

But, even as that happened, the Ampharos looked to his fallen companion, and knew Skarmory had the disadvantage. But taking down Ampharos wasn’t going to be as easy…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 9
The Contra Conflict

Everywhere, the room was a mess, with coffee and cans laying all over the floor, as well as the three metal chairs that had been knocked over and the two pieces of what as left of the metal table. I had looked over to the shelf unit and saw it was still smoking from Ampharos’s lightning blast.

“I don’t know who you are, but you’re asking for a lot of trouble.” Ampharos sneered, “This is a prison for the Silver Rebellion. The security protocols are unimaginable. Do you really think you can get out of here alive?”
“If it’s composed of worthless thugs like you and these two other chumps, it shouldn’t be a problem.” I told him, looking right into his black eye.

Ampharos sure hadn’t taken that comment lightly. He had frowned upon that, showed his gritting teeth and was twitching with anger.

“I am going to tear you to pieces, you runt!” Ampharos shouted angrily, “You’ve had it!”

Ampharos charged at me in a berserker fury, and lunged toward me, and I jumped into the air to avoid his grasp, sailing right over his body and landed right behind him as he slid through the slick of coffee on the floor. Ampharos had realized he had missed me, and after he got up, and turned around, I jumped into the air, turned myself in the air and smacked him right in the face with my sharp, jagged tail. Ampharos was sent stumbling backward, trying to grab on to something before he fell on his back.

Ampharos quickly got back up again and gave me a nasty glare. He began to sway his tail back and forward, quickly gathering up a harsh amount of electricity. Then, he released it, and I was surprised when practically the whole room lit up with an intense electrical power. Everything in the room except for the two of us had been deep fried. Behind me, the two vending machines had exploded, and a barrage of soda cans had blasted right out and went rolling onto the floor. The floor was dripping wet with root beer, cola, and orange soda. A can that hadn’t been destroyed had rolled right next to me, and I thought of an idea.

“You just messed with the wrong people pal.” Ampharos growled, “I hope you enjoy pain.”

Ampharos came rushing toward me, and I quickly grabbed the nearby soda can and shook it as hard as I could. I then pointed the mouth of the can at Ampharos and pulled the tab, spraying him with a cloud of amber-colored root beer, blinding him for an instant. I tossed aside the half-filled can and struck Ampharos with the hardest punch I could muster. Ampharos was sent flying backward, and then violently hit the back wall. After he slid down, he landed flat on his face, and he didn’t get up again. I was glad that was over with.

I had no idea where Alex and Randy were being held, and I still needed to find a way out of here. I made my way toward the rack of Pokéballs, and saw somehow they were spared from Ampharos’s electrical attacks. I looked for my belt, the glossy leather one that had my initials “JCK.” craved into its leather. Once I found it, I tied it around my waist, and headed toward the door. I jumped up to grab the metal latch, pulled it down with my weight, and kicked against the wall to swing the door open. I then moved my way into the dimly lit hallway.

The hallways were completely metal, as if this was a submarine. Pipes and wires ran across the ceiling, while metal panels similar to the ones in the cells covered the floor. My first objective was to find Alex and Randy, and hopefully get our butts out of here. I headed to the right, knowing I would be heading back in the same direction that my cell was. I had made my way down, knowing if anyone were to come down this hallway, there was no way for me to hide, and I would have no choice but to fight. I had come across another rusty, metal door that had a pull latch for a handle. I jumped, grabbed the metal latch, and kicked back to open the door.

My assumption was correct. I had seen rows upon rows of heavy steel, circular vault doors. The room was much larger than the hallway, but I saw something that made me jump. A single guard had been on patrol, and when I opened the door, he spotted me. He was wearing a light blue uniform, and his face was scarred and ugly.

“Well, it looks like we have an escapee.” The burly man laughed, looking at me, “I’ll show you what we do to anyone who thinks they can get away from us!”

Heh, great. This was just what I needed. The burly, dirty man had plucked out one of his Pokéballs, and threw it only ten feet away from me. After the white flash had begun to take shape and become colored, I saw what had emerged from his Pokéball. A dark brown, lethal-looking Ursaring. Upon seeing me, he took his sharp-clawed fists and punched them together, and I didn’t want to imagine what would happen if I got between those fists...

I could tell this wasn’t going to be pretty…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 10
Overwhelmed

The giant, dark brown bear with his beige ring on his chest and razor-sharp teeth had growled at me, even though I hadn’t even done anything to infuriate him yet. The burly man had rubbed his hands together, thinking this was going to be an easy picking.

“Ursaring, use your Slash attack!” The burly man shouted.

Oh no…

Ursaring came stomping toward me, and outstretched his arm. I felt paralyzed with fear, and suddenly and swiftly, I thought I saw everything in front of me suddenly split in three as Ursaring’s claws tear into my face, and I found myself flying backward, and smacking my head right against the metal door. Boy, did that hurt like hell.

“Heh, heh heh.” The burly man snickered.

I quickly got back up, however. After getting hit with Skarmory’s Steel Wing and Ursaring’s Slash, I was cut up pretty badly, but not enough to stop me. I had been through far worse than this.

I focused my attention, and began charging electricity. I then sent the massive wave of electricity right at Ursaring, and struck him in the chest. The giant bear Pokémon staggered back, grasping his chest.

Then, I had crouched down and lowered my head. Ursaring wasn’t going to move now that he was paralyzed. After he had shook off the pain and began to approach me, I blasted right off the ground and everything around me became a white blaze. I slammed right into Ursaring’s chest, sending him flying backwards. After he had hit the metal floor and landed on his back, he appeared too weak to get back up.

“Err, Ursaring, return.” The burly man said as he pulled out Ursaring’s Pokéball, aimed the red beam upon Ursaring’s body, and sucked him back into the Pokéball.

He gave me a glare, and then he was ready to pull out his next Pokémon. I was not enjoying this at all. He pulled out a second Pokéball, and threw it vigorously.

“Nah ha!” The burly man shouted, “Go Seviper!”

The Pokéball had struck the metal floor, and long and behold, the light that spilled out of the Pokéball had begun to form into the black snake with a yellow diamond pattern running along his body. Seviper had one hell of a face, with long fangs and menacing eyes, along with a tail end that looked like a knife. Once he had fully emerged, he glared at me and hissed.

“Nah ha ha!” The man laughed, “Seviper, use your Poison Tail attack! Finish off this annoying Pikachu!”
“You are finisssshed!” The Seviper hissed at me, just before blasting toward me like a bullet.

I couldn’t even see Seviper it was so fast. For a moment, it seemed like it just disappeared, and then a split second later, I felt an intense spark of pain suddenly slide down my back. Only then could I see Seviper, only it was too late. I felt so much pain coming from all directions. And then, I started feeling terribly sick and nauseous, and it only got worse every passing moment. I was too weak to continue fighting, and I could barely move.

“Ha! Ha!” The burly man laughed, pulled out a third Pokéball, “Now it’s all going to end right here! Nah ha!”

I could only just forlornly look up as I saw him holding his third Pokéball. I couldn’t believe it, what was he going to do, send out a third Pokémon on me? Couldn’t he see I was already pretty beat up?

“Pokéball, go!” He shouted as he tossed the Pokéball hard.

And just when he threw it, I realized he wasn’t sending out a third Pokémon. Just when I figured out what he was doing, it was too late. The Pokéball had slammed hard right on my head, and then I felt everything turn white, and felt like I was being pulled hard and fast, and then everything went black…

I tried harder and harder to get myself out of that Pokéball, but I wasn’t sure if I could do it…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 11
Recovery

It was then, that time itself seemed to slow to a crawl, where mere seconds felt like minutes. All I could do in that dark chamber was to try and push myself out. I struggled and struggled and then, something happened. I suddenly could see the blinding light again, and then, I felt like I was being pulled out of that chamber. Suddenly, when the blinding light had ended, everything came back into view, as if I had just pulled myself out of a daze.

The burly man and his Seviper had appeared again, along with the rest of the room. I don’t know how I did it, but I somehow managed to get myself out of that Pokéball. The burly man was surprised, looking at me like something had gone terribly wrong.

“What!?” He shouted in frustration, “Why didn’t that work!?”

I gave him a dark stare, and then Seviper looked at me, ready to start fighting again. The man had just snickered and was ready to start again.

“Forget that.” He said, shaking off his anger, “Seviper, use your Bite attack!”

Seviper had lunged toward me like a bullet, and then I had remembered something. Even with Seviper dashing toward me with its mouth open as it readied its fangs, I concentrated and began to focus. Suddenly, Seviper’s speed had slowed to crawl, and then I dashed toward him, still rushing at my normal speed. Seviper moved around like it was crawling through tar, so it made it easy for me to get right on its back. I then charged my electricity, and send the forking thunder and lightning right into the back of Seviper’s head, and kept it going until I figured he couldn’t stand having his brain continuously fried.

Then, everything had returned to normal speed, and I jumped off of the collapsing Seviper, and faced the burly man, who just stood there in disbelief.

“How did a little Pikachu like you just suddenly move so fast!?” The burly man asked in shock, “That was no Quick Attack…”

No, it certainly wasn’t. It was something far more powerful than that. The man had recalled his Seviper, aiming the red beam at Seviper and returning him to his Pokéball. But to my surprise, I had suddenly realized that was his last Pokémon.

As he began to back away, I had remembered he came with seconds of screwing up everything. If he had caught me with that Pokéball, I would have been stuck here, as his Pokémon. I didn’t look very lightly upon that at all.

“No,” He said as he backed away, “Don’t do anything funny…”

I needed him out of my way if we were going to have any chance of getting out of here. I focused my energy, and my cheeks flared up again with electricity. Just as he turned around to try and get away, I directed the wave of thunder right into his back, shocking him powerfully just before he collapsed and was out cold. He lay there, completely still. I had approached his fallen body, and found a cloth bag he had been carrying. Since I couldn’t pull it off, I opened the flap and looked inside.

Inside was a stockpile of healing items, antidotes, potions, and loads of other stuff. Right now, I had no choice but to use them, or otherwise I was going to collapse because of the harsh poison that Seviper injected into me.

Ugh, I hated using antidotes on my Pokémon, just because the things look so darn painful. It was a hypo with scarlet liquid it. All I could do was expose the needle, prick myself with it, and release the scarlet liquid. Never once did I ever imagine I was going to have to one day use this on myself. Despite that, I had to hurry, or I wasn’t going to make it…

I removed the plastic covering on the needle, tossed it aside, and pricked myself with the sharp needle right in my side. Well, without a doubt, it sure was painful. Next, I put my tiny yellow hand on the release button on the top of the hypo, and pressed down. I didn’t want to watch as the scarlet liquid left the hypo’s container and entered into me.

But, amazingly, the sting from the poison was quickly flushed out and gone within only a few seconds. I pulled the hypo’s needle out from my side, and tossed it away. I was not looking forward toward doing something like that again.

I had gone back to the bag and looked around for a Hyper Potion. After digging around for it, I found one and pulled it out of the bag. I removed the cap that stopped the potion from accidentally releasing the spray within the bag. I then pointed the nozzle at myself and pressed down on the spray level, showering myself with tiny droplets. I was amazed how this stuff worked, it healed cuts in bruises within seconds. When it was finished, I felt completely refreshed.

Next, I found the man’s belt along with the ring of keys he had been carrying. I unloosened his belt, slid the metal key ring along his belt and removed them.

Now I just needed to find Alex and Randy…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 12
Crossing the Threshold

I had realized that in order to find Randy and Alex, I was going to have to go through cell by cell, and since I couldn’t see into them, I didn’t know who’s cell I was going to open. I didn’t really know what the Silver Rebellion was or who was in it, but I could already assume this place was loaded with them. As far as I knew, the Crimson Stars had frustrated me enough. Releasing their enemy would be my best chance for revenge.

I had gone over to the first cell along the left wall, all the way at the end. It read, “A17” on a metal plaque by the keyhole, and I had looked at the key ring and found the corresponding key. I put the key in, turned, and slowly opened the heavy metal door.

Inside, the cell was exactly like mine, only by the bedside, I had seen a Cubone, a Squirtle, and a Clefairy lying against the metal bunk beds. They looked exhausted, but when they saw me open the door, they looked up.

“Who are you?” The Cubone asked me.
“Come on, I’m busting you out of here.” I told them.

They had gotten up, and scrambled to the door. The Squirtle and the Clefairy had run out the door, but the Cubone had stopped in the doorway, and looked at me curiously.

“That’s funny, I don’t recognize you from the Silver Rebellion…” The Cubone told me, looking me over.
“I’m not a part of it.” I told him, not really looking forward to getting myself mixed up in this mess.
“Heh, well you are now, whether you like it or not.” The Cubone replied in a somewhat amused tone, “Come on, let’s get everyone out of here.”

I had turned around, and headed to the next cell, and found the key. I sure hope I wasn’t making a serious mistake by doing this. I put the key in the keyhole, and turned it clockwise until it stopped. After I heard the release pulled in, I opened the cold, metal door. Again, it was the same setup as before, only now I found a Sandshrew and a Marill inside the cell, both looking like they’ve been in there for way too long.

“Am I seeing things?” The Sandshrew asked, looking at me, “You’re not one of them, are you?”
“Nope,” I told them quickly, “Come on, let’s go before someone catches us.”

They both dashed for the door, and the cell was empty, and we shut the door. I quickly moved to the third cell from the wall, and found the key I needed. Now, I felt like I needed to move faster and faster. The Cubone insisted that I hurry up, so that’s what I did. I stuffed the third key in the keyhole, and opened the door.

Inside was a solitary Pichu, sitting on the bed with his eyes staring at the floor and his ears drooping downward. I was surprised. He didn’t seem to be in such bad shape like the others had been. I walked over to him, and he still looked down, not willing to face me, even though he had been aware of my presence.

“I don’t know who you are, but I don’t belong here.” The Pichu said to me, just on the verge of crying.
“That’s why I’m taking you out of here.” I replied, trying to comfort him.
“You don’t understand, this isn’t the real me.” He said sadly, with a tear rolling down his face, “I’m…”

I couldn’t understand what he was trying to say. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he had been here way too long…

“I’m…” He stuttered, trying to continue, “not… actually… a Pichu…”
“What?” I asked, finding that strange, “Then… what are you?”

He was silent, trying to gather his thoughts. I couldn’t understand what he meant.

“My real name… is…” The Pichu stuttered.
“What?” I asked him, “What is it?”
“Randy…” The Pichu replied…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 13
Completely Unaware

I couldn’t believe it. How could it have happened? I looked closely at the Pichu, truly unable to see anything that could relate him to Randy. Was this some sort of a joke?

“Randy?” I asked the Pichu, “Is that really you? Randy Ferguson?”

He had looked at me, looking at me with curious eyes. I could tell what he was thinking.

“How did you know my last name?” He had asked, truly wondering who I was.
“That’s because I’m someone you know.” I told him, “I’m Jake Kossak…”

Randy had looked at me, unable to believe. He then shook his head, unable to understand.

“You were the first to collapse.” Randy told me, “He said he wanted to remind you of something, and I guess this was it.”
“What did he say to you?” I asked him, trying to figure out what I had missed.
“He said I should be something that shows how… weak and… inexperienced I am.” Randy said, just on the brink of sobbing again.

What a schmuck. Just then, Cubone had poked his head out from behind the wall and peered in.

“Hey, what’s taking you so long in there!?” He shouted out, “We’ve got to get out of here as soon as possible!”
“Come on, Randy.” I told him, wishing he would stop worrying, “Let’s get out of here.”

Randy just hopped off the metal bunk bed and landed on his feet. I then began to head out of the room, and he began to follow me.

“Hey!” Cubone shouted, looking at Randy, “Who’s the little guy?”
“He’s… my friend.” I told him, “Come on, let’s just get going.”

I then continued to unlock door by door, releasing what seemed to be practically a small army of Pokémon. It made me wonder. The jail seemed to be designed for humans. Why on earth was it filled with Pokémon?

“Come on!” Cubone shouted, “I know where the exit is!”

But then, Randy had turned to me, and he seemed anxious about something. I could tell what he was anxious about too…

“Where is Alex?” He asked me, knowing we didn’t find him in any of the cells.
“We have to go look for him…” I told Randy, heading in the opposite direction that the rest of the Pokémon were heading.
“Where do you think you’re going!?” The Cubone asked me, seeing I was running in the other direction.

I had stopped and turned back for a moment. I had noticed Randy was following me.

“There’s someone I know that should still be here!” I shouted back, “We need to go find him!”
“There can’t be…” He shouted back, “These are the only cells in this whole prison. He would have to be held somewhere else…”

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 14
The Only Way Out

That didn’t make sense. If Alex wasn’t here, then where was he? I was just about to turn around and follow Cubone when Randy had got my attention. It seemed I was leaving something behind…

“Where are they hiding my Pokémon?” Randy asked me, looking up.
“They’re in a guard’s lounge room.” I told him, knowing it wasn’t too far away, “Come on, it won’t take us that long to get there.”

I took him by the hand and we ran back through the hallway. Already, I could see liquid slowly seep out from behind the metal door that led to the room. I took him in there, and once again, I felt the cold sting of sticky soda all over the floor when I stepped in it. We entered the room, and I had found the rack with the Pokéballs. The room was darkly lit, since the metal overhead lamp had been destroyed.

“Which one is mine?” Randy asked, looking up at the many different belts on the rack.
“Who cares, let’s just take them all.” I told him as I tried to climb to the rack.

I had removed the rack from the wall by ripping out the nails, which were terribly loose and not at all hammered in very well. I dragged the rack back into the hallway, and Randy followed me, helping me pull the heavy rack along. Then, suddenly, a loud alarm had sounded off, and a red pulsing light had filled the hallway.

“Uh oh…” Randy said to himself, looking up around the room.
“Come on, let’s get out of here already…” I urged him, not wanting at all to get locked up again.

We dragged it faster and faster, and then we ended up in the jail room. When I caught sight of Cubone, he almost was ecstatic. He looked at the Pokéballs like they were the last bit of oxygen on the planet.

“Hurry!” Cubone shouted, “We don’t have much longer. Once they lockdown the whole prison, there will be no way out of here!”

I certainly wasn’t going to wait for that to happen. Already, everyone else but Cubone had already left, and now we quickly rushed to follow him. Just past the second metal door of the jail room, there was an exit leading out. Randy and I quickly dragged the rack outside, and not a second too soon. Just after Randy had stepped out of the door, a barrier of metal bars had thrust out from one side of the door to the other, blocking the doorway. We had just made it. I could only hope Alex wasn’t still in there…

I had looked upon what was of the outside world, and couldn’t believe my eyes. As we looked upon the fields, the black ruins of a massive city had lied before us. The land was charred black in various places, and the fragments of tall buildings lay around us like twisted, jagged thorns. All that was left was a field of twisted, empty shells. Above it all was the fiery colored sky with its occasional flashes of thunder endlessly clashing in the air.

“My God…” I said in shock, “What could have done this…?”
“That’s the Crimson Stars for you.” Cubone replied, looking upon the disaster, “They did all of this, and without mercy. This used to be ours…”

And then, Marill had emerged from the group, looking upon Cubone. He seemed a bit distressed…

“Sir, we had better let loose our mounts before the Wind Strikers arrive…” The Marill said with anxiety.
“Wind Strikers…?” Randy asked, feeling a bit worried.
“They’re sentinels who ride Skarmories.” Cubone told him, “They’re fast, lethal, and unforgiving. Their weapons are also highly advanced.”

Boy, I couldn’t wait to see this…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 15
The Storm Riders

Cubone hadn’t taken long before he told me to hand around the belts of Pokéballs. This was quite a surprise. I thought I would have been the only one Pokémon here who was also a trainer. Nonetheless, when they started to release their mounts, I realized what these “mounts” were. Each one of them had a Pidgeot on them. Soon enough, at least fifty Pidgeots had been let out of their Pokéballs, and the Pokémon that had released them actually climbed right on their backs and took flight.

“Uhhh…” Randy said to me in hesitation, “We don’t have a Pidgeot…”
“You don’t?” Cubone asked in some surprise, “You weren’t part of our Storm Rider division that was captured?”

Randy seemed a bit embarrassed. Couldn’t blame him. I didn’t know what a Storm Rider was either…

“What are the Storm Riders?” Randy asked, looking at Cubone in curiosity.
“That’s who we are.” Cubone responded, “We’re at war with the Crimson Stars, and some of us use Pidgeots as a means of transportation and a means of attack. The Storm Riders are the air force of the Silver Rebellion…”
“This is so amazing…” Randy said in awe, just looking at all the Pidgeot riders.

Well, I didn’t have a Pidgeot, but I had something better. Latias. I grabbed Latias’s Pokéball, and I tossed it onto the ground. Sure enough, there was a flash, and the white light had formed into Latias. She had looked around, having no idea where she was.

And then, suddenly, all eyes were immediately turned toward me, except for Randy and Latias. Any of the Storm Riders that hadn’t already taken flight had just completely stopped and just stared at me. They just looked at me blankly for a few moments, and said nothing. I had no idea what was going on…

“And he will come at your most dire time of need…” Cubone had softly murmured, still blankly staring at me in a strange way, “He will arrive upon a bird as red as blood, and as white as lightning…”
“Were you saying something?” I asked Cubone, knowing he really was but wanted to know what it was about.
“When the skies turn into fire and the land is burnt into ash, he will come. We have waited too long for this day to arrive…” Cubone told me, “The restless masses, the battles, the nightmares… When the night seems endless and all hope has faded, he will come, and he will go by the name of Juno…”

Now he was freaking me out. How the hell did he know my name? And why was everyone staring at me? He sounded like he was reciting something like he had read countless times. I thought we needed to get out of here before the Wind Strikers came. Why was everyone just waiting around?

“Where are we?” Latias asked, looking around.
“I will tell you later, Blazewing.” Cubone said to Latias, “The enemy comes, part now we must.”

Cubone had just looked forward, patted the side of his Pidgeot, and she spread her wings, and took flight. Soon after, the rest of the Storm Riders had lifted off the ground.

“Come on Randy, let’s go.” I told him, pulling him by the hand and making my way onto Latias’s back.
“How did he know your name?” Randy asked me, looking at Cubone and his Pidgeot strangely.

Soon after, Latias jumped off the ground and we flew swiftly through the air, looking upon the charred remains of the city below. The fissures consuming the city were deep, very deep. There was no way to cross this land without flying over it.

“Latias,” I asked her, “Is your name really Blazewing?”
“Yes it is…” Latias told me, finding his behavior strange as well, “Only my family has known about that. I was named after one of the brightest stars in the sky. I don’t know how he ever found out about it…”

Neither did I…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 16
The City of Symarix

We had flown over miles and miles of ruined, desert land, cracked and ruined, with canyons of endless pits lying everywhere. This was the most treacherous land I have ever seen, worst than the most driest desert and the coldest of snowy wastelands. It was impossible to even walk on foot, never mind the distance.

As I looked ahead, I saw the fifty Storm Riders, with each of their Pidgeots beating their wings in the hot air. Above us, the crimson sky flared above us with its swirling, dark clouds. I had realized the thunder never once hit the ground. I had no idea where I was, and at this moment, I had no idea what the Storm Riders of the Silver Rebellion wanted me to do.

As we continued to fly on I saw the ground below us was slowly beginning to form correctly, but it was still a wasteland. The endless fissures were less plentiful, and the land could be walked on. And then, far in the distance, I saw what looked like a black, massive metropolis just on the horizon. As we got closer and closer to it, it was absolutely the most gigantic city I’ve ever seen. The circular buildings towered hundreds and hundreds of stories tall. The streets were much wider than most cities on Earth, yet the number of motor vehicles was drastically low. Plus they didn’t look anything like the ones on Earth. All of them looked like they were unpainted.

I had seen the city was well fortified, with a fifty foot wall made of metal surrounding the city, with large cannons mounted on the walls. As we got closer, I saw each of the buildings were also made of black metal, yet I had no idea how they were able to make all of this by themselves. Towards the center was one massive building, shaped like a spire.

We had headed toward the center of the city, to an area just near the giant spire. As we flew downward, I caught sight of what seemed to be a military encampment, with many bunkers and training grounds. All I did was just follow Cubone, since he seemed to know the most about this place.

We had finally landed on a training ground, and I looked up and saw the spire building tower in the sky like a stairway to the heavens. I had gotten off Latias, and Randy had followed me. We stood on that warm, metal ground and looked up. He too, seemed amazed at the sight.

“What… is this place?” Randy asked, looking at all the giant buildings around him.
“Symarix.” The Cubone had told Randy, “And I don’t believe I have introduced myself. My name is Sever. And you’re might be…”
“I’m Randy.” He told Sever, “And I have really no idea where I am.”

Latias had looked over and looked at Randy. Then she looked to Sever.

“Neither do I.” Latias told him, slowly and firmly, “Just where are we and how did we end up here?”
“They call this world Kivistal.” Sever informed her, as well as the rest of us, “Some believe it is a prison for those who have offended Zander, a man with nearly god-like powers.”

Well, that sounded familiar. Did really this many people offend Zander? He sure had a lot of enemies…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 17
The Guide

I had quickly learned Symarix didn’t have even a single human within its walls. I didn’t know if the city itself was built by humans and then taken over by Pokémon, but that didn’t seem to be the case. The whole city seemed to be designed for those small and large alike. As I looked around me, I couldn’t imagine how something so giant could have been built by Pokémon alone. It seemed it could have taken forever to construct…

And what continued bugging me was the location of Alex. Just where was he, and was he even still human? I knew the later was probably not.

Sever had broken my concentration, looking at me sharply. The rest of the Storm Riders had looked at me with a stare as well.

“We need to talk to Jamac.” Sever told the two of us, “I’m quite sure he will want to know of your arrival.”
“Who is Jamac and where is he?” I asked Sever, looking at him in the eye.

Cubone had turned to face the tallest, towering building in Symarix, and then he pointed to the area all the way in the top. I had looked up, and saw the top of that one, giant tower was strongly built and extremely well-defended. It seemed like such a long way up…

“Come.” He told me, already walking toward the tower, “The sooner the better.”

I had taken Latias’s Pokéball, but Sever had stopped me, putting his hand on it. I just looked at him strangely.

“I’m just returning Latias to her Pokéball.” I told him, not having any idea why that was so objectionable, “What’s the big deal?”
“I want Blazewing to be present when we meet Jamac.” Sever told me in a serious tone.

I just shrugged and put the Pokéball away. Randy was already looking around, having no idea how we ended up in this mess, and I couldn’t disagree with him. Right now, Sever was being way too overly serious. Nonetheless, I just followed him and Randy and Latias had followed not too far behind.

It seemed like the only thing not made of metal in this city were the streets, which were black asphalt. After looking around, at the shiny metal buildings, I could only guess metal and iron ore were more in abundance. The vehicles that passed around the streets were like tanks, being over fifteen feet tall and completely armored.

Somehow, for reasons I had no idea, my presence besides Latias was enough to stop traffic, and turn the heads of Pokémon just walking down the streets. I just kept looking forward, but out of the corner of my eye, they just stared at me and began talking among themselves. Nonetheless, we just kept walking…

It was going to be hard to get used to a city made up of nothing but Pokémon when I had gotten so used to cities composed of people. It almost seemed like… everything had been flipped upside down. I was beginning to think it was the work of Zander who did this. After all, he turned Randy and me into Pokémon. Maybe all these others were just like us…

After a long walk, we had finally arrived at the massive tower, but it actually didn’t look so tall when we were right next to it. I was guessing it was just my perspective. Sever hadn’t waited one moment before we approached the entrance, made of glass windows and sliding glass doors. To my surprise, they were electronic, and slid open with proximity. As we stepped inside, I had no idea what I was just about to face…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 18
Admittance

Immediately, we had entered the massive lobby of this giant tower, which was also completely metal with many wooden doors leading to other rooms, except for two very large metal doors on the opposite side of the room. Throughout the red carpeted room, there were various statues made of metal on the walls, as well as one in the center of the room. I had looked at the ones off to the sides, which appeared to be Pokémon that once ruled this place. There was a Slowking, a Swampert, a Marowak, and many others. Then, my eyes had caught sight of the one in the center, and it nearly shocked the life out of me.

“What the…?” Randy asked as he looked up at the bronze statue.

It was statue larger than life, made of shiny bronze with a polished wooden mount. But it wasn’t that which had shocked me. It was a statue of a Pikachu riding a Latias with a steadfast look in his eyes. The wind was blowing past his ears, as Latias seemed to be heading forward at a thunderous pace. On a small plaque on the wooden mount, it read:

Juno and Blazewing, protectors of the righteous Silver Rebellion. May their paths one day cross ours.

My jaw nearly dropped. Latias and Randy couldn’t believe it either. The Silver Rebellion believed we were already heroes. They made me look more important than… their own rulers…

“As you can see, we have been waiting for your arrival for some time.” Sever told the three of us as we just stared at the statue.

And then he continued moving on. We headed toward two massive doors without handles, but I could help but keep my eyes on the statue. Then, I just faced forward, and I realized what the doors were. It was a giant elevator. I had turned to Sever as he put in a security access code on a keypad on the wall. Suddenly, the elevator roared to life, and the two giant, steel doors opened slowly. I just shrugged and walked into the elevator. The floor was carpeted by an ornamental rug, and the walls were actually paintings, all scenes depicting Storm Riders flying through the fiery sky in combat with the Wind Strikers, a counterpart of the Storm Riders where the riders were each mounted on a Skarmory rather than a Pidgeot. In the paintings, the Wind Strikers were losing quite miserably. Not one Storm Rider was seen dying, and there were some who were wounded but in a charismatic way.

“We will soon be meeting the headmaster Jamac.” Sever said as Randy and Latias entered the elevator and the heavy metal doors closed behind them, “No doubt he will be most pleased to see you have finally arrived.”

Yeah, that was great, but what was he going to expect me to do? I’ve never been a military leader. The one time I fought Randy’s Pokémon and the incident that happened at the jail were my only instances of me really getting into a fight. But I’ve never actually led someone into combat.

As the elevator continued to ascend higher and higher, all I could do was wait and wonder why I was seen as a savior to the Silver Rebellion. But I already knew I had rescued one of their Storm Rider regiments. Despite all that was going on, I was still looking for a way to get home, and I mean the real home, where my real family was.

And then, we had reached the top floor, and the elevator stopped. Then, the metal doors had slowly opened…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 19
The Council

The metal doors of the elevator had opened to reveal another long, carpeted hallway with many wooden doors, and then at the end of the hallway, there were two very fancy and ordinate doors with golden trim. Sever had continued walking, right toward the two fancy doors at the end of the hallway. All we could do was just follow him, and then, he had arrived at the doors. We stood there silently, and then, Sever pulled down on the metal levers, and pushed open both doors at the same time.

When the doors had opened, we were greeted with amazement. There was a giant throne room, with the floor made of white marble with a red carpet leading from the door to the mounted thrones. The walls and ceiling were made of white stone, and golden chandeliers were suspended from the ceiling. On the two side of the red carpet, there were masses of soldiers waiting. On the throne, a fiery Blaziken sat down, while a Vigoroth and a Zangoose stood by his side. Sever continued on, and we just followed him. As we passed by the various ranks of soldiers in Jamac’s council, they saluted me.

I began to feel that if I was going to even have the slightest chance of getting out of here, it was going to be by working with these guys and nail Zander, if that was at all possible. As I got closer and closer to him, I realized I would need to treat Jamac with ultimate respect. With Randy and Latias at my side, I finally arrived at Jamac’s throne, and I kneeled down, and Randy did the same. I bent down my head, looking down toward the floor.

“So, it’s the one they call the Gold Rider…” The Zangoose said, almost in a cynical tone.
“You have come at last, Juno.” Jamac said strongly, “This is the chancellor Sinis and General Achilles, and I am Jamac, the ruler of the Silver Rebellion. It is an honor to finally meet you.”
“No.” I told him, “The honor is mine. I want to thank you for accepting me into your ranks.”

Sinis the Zangoose crossed his arms with his long, black claws sticking out, and looked down upon me. For some reason, it seemed like he really didn’t believe I was the one. After all, I didn’t even who or what told these guys I was even coming to town.

“We have been fighting the Crimson Stars for a long, long time.” Jamac told me, “They have massacred endless amounts of our finest soldiers and they’ve ruined our great cities. The Divine Prophecy states that you would one day come to our aid, and turn the tide of this war.”
“So here I am.” I told him, sincerely hoping he wasn’t thinking I would be able to do it all by myself.

And then, Sinis just turned away, not looking very pleased. I didn’t know it was just jealously or something else.

“Oh come on.” Sinis moaned in an annoyed tone, “The prophecy is a fairy tale for children. Juno is just another warrior, like the rest of them. I don’t see why he’s any more important than they are.”

And then, he looked down right at Randy. All Randy could do was just look up at Sinis, and he realized Sinis was so much taller than he was.

“And who’s the tiny Pichu?” Sinis asked, glaring down at Randy. “Does the prophecy mention this as well?”
“He’s my companion.” I told him, not liking his attitude.
“Enough Sinis.” Jamac said firmly, “Tell me, what is your name?”

And now, all eyes were on Randy, and he began to get a bit nervous. I could see he was beginning to twitch.

“My name is Randy…” He said, bowing to Jamac.
“What!?” Sinis shouted in shock, “Randy is a human’s name!”

Randy looked up at the Zangoose, and he began to get really nervous. I could already guess humans weren’t exactly liked among the rebels. I got a sick feeling Randy was going to tell everyone that he actually was once a human, and that he wasn’t always a Pichu…

“That’s just the name my mother gave me.” Randy said honestly to Sinis, “I have yet to see a human here…”

Heh, that was no lie, but he wasn’t telling the whole truth either. Randy got them all thinking he was always a Pichu, and that his mother just gave him the name. And they were thinking he never had laid eyes on a human, but Randy just never saw a human here.

“We can’t allow a Pichu with a name too close to a human’s to be within our walls.” Sinis told Randy, looking at him with quite a bit of anger.
“While I understand your beliefs, Sinis…” Jamac said to him, looking at the standing Zangoose, “We need only to change his name. Any friend of Juno is welcome in our city.”

They were going to change Randy’s name? I didn’t see this coming…

“Now, what shall you be called…?” Sinis asked, looking at Randy straight in the eye.

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 20
The Last Prison

Randy just continued to look at them strangely, not expecting a new name from the council. It made me wonder why they found human names so offensive. I honestly didn’t want them to come up with some name Randy was going to roll his eyes at, so I just spoke for myself.

“Blitz.” I told them, “We’ll just call him Blitz from now on.”

I gave Randy a slight nudge, letting him know to just keep quiet about it. To my surprise, Randy didn’t say anything.

“Fine, whatever…” Sinis replied, shrugged, “I want to know something, Sever…”
“What is it?” The Cubone asked, looking at Sinis with interest.
“How did you come across Juno in the first place?” Sinis asked, looking directly at Sever.

Sever had looked at me for a moment, and I just took a glance at him back. He looked somewhat worried, and then he looked back at Sinis.

“Our Storm Rider squad had been captured and thrown into Black Bay Prison.” Sever told Sinis. “It was Juno who rescued us in the first place.”
“Juno rescued you?” Achilles the Vigoroth asked Sever.
“Yes… That’s right.” Sever replied, seeming somewhat embarrassed.

He remained silent after that. But I had remembered that I still needed to find Alex, wherever he was. If he wasn’t at the Black Bay Prison, then where was he? Was he even in this world? At least I could try looking…

“One of my other companions is missing.” I told them all, “Since he wasn’t at the Black Bay Prison, do you know of another place where he would be held?”

They had all looked at me strangely, and then Sinis had put his hands at his side.

“No, there is no other prison…” Sinis replied with hesitation.

There was hesitation and silence. From the way Sinis was looking, I could tell he was hiding something. And then, Achilles looked at me with a forlorn expression.

“No, that’s not completely the truth…” Achilles said, shaking his head in dismay, “There is, one other prison…”
“Achilles, we will not speak of that place.” Jamac told him seriously.
“But if Juno is looking for his companion, there isn’t any place left. He would have to be there...” Achilles told Jamac, looking off to the side.

Well, this didn’t sound very good. Already it seemed like this place they were speaking of left scars on them. I had no idea of what they were talking about.

“As… much as it pains me to speak about it,” Jamac said softly, “There is a final prison that is controlled by the Crimson Stars…”
“What is this place?” I asked them, wondering what could make this place so terrible.
“Macomb.” Achilles said firmly, looking downhearted, “It isn’t just a prison. It’s a weapons factory, foundry, steel mill, military camp… and a torture chamber. Every one of our soldiers that have been there has been killed or captured to rot away in that cruel dark place…”

I couldn’t afford to let Alex die in a place like that. But attacking it sounded like suicide. If it was a military camp, then the moment they spotted us, they could unleash an army of Wind Strikers, and whatever other monstrosity the Crimson Stars possessed. Nonetheless, I wasn’t going to let Alex just die in their hands. I wasn’t going to let an army of Silver Rebellion soldiers suffer forever. Suicide or not, I didn’t care.

“I will do whatever it takes.” I told the three of them, “I’m not going to stand here and let this misery befall my friends and my comrades.”
“Do whatever you want.” Sinis told me, crossing his arms again, looking at me straight in the eye, “But we’re warning you. In Macomb, there are acres and acres of factories, warehouses, weapons production lines, and jail cells. These maniacs are constantly developing weapons there. They will attack you with everything they’ve got.”

But I didn’t care. Alex would have done the same thing for me if he was in my place. I looked Jamac straight in the eye, and told him exactly how I felt.

“I don’t care.” I told him firmly, “I’m still going. I’m not going to left my allies suffer at the hands of some sadistic freaks.”

I had looked to Randy, and I knew he wasn’t going to like any of this. I looked at him closely.

“Blitz, if you don’t want to be a part of this, I understand.” I told Randy firmly.
“No, I’m going with you, no matter what.” Randy disagreed, “We’re in this together.”

Randy sure had a lot of guts. No, he definitely wasn’t the wimp I remembered from Scottville Middle School. He was a real fighter now, one who stood for his beliefs. He was my ally as well…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 21
Passing Experience

Achilles had been very hesitant to let me even embark on this mission, thinking it was going to be a waste of my life. I told him that if I really was the one, then this shouldn’t be a problem. And if I wasn’t, then he had nothing to worry about. It wasn’t long before he had taken me to an empty, metal training facility. When we stepped inside, I could swear there was nothing.

“There’s nothing here…?” I asked him as we entered the large, empty room.
“Not yet anyway.” Achilles responded, heading over to a small keypad on the wall.

He pressed a few buttons, and the room seemed to come to life. The metal floor had opened up, and up came a new metal floor, with what looked to be a small rollercoaster. Words failed me to think of what this could be.

“What is this thing?” I asked Achilles, “This is a training device?”
“Don’t mind me saying this but…” Randy said, feeling a bit odd about it, “…It looks like fun.”
“Believe whatever you want to, Blitz.” Achilles told Randy, not taking any offense at that statement, “It’s a machine to train Storm Riders. It is designed to train accuracy of attacks when traveling at very fast paces. You step into the metal car, and once it starts moving along the track, various targets will appear. Your job is to destroy every target using a Zephyr.”

Randy looked up to Achilles with a look of wonder on his face. I didn’t know what it was either.

“What is a Zephyr?” Randy asked Achilles.
“It’s a type of channeling rifle.” Achilles told the two of us, “It’s designed to improve the accuracy and power of your attacks.”

He then headed toward a metal supply closet on the left wall. After inputting a code into the keypad, the metal door opened. Inside was an armory of rifles, but they were all metal and very odd looking. Achilles went through each rifle until he arrived at the one he wanted, and he pulled it off the shelf. He then turned around and came back toward us. He then tossed the metal rifle at Randy’s feet, and we just stared at it.

The black, metal rifle was two and a half feet long, but to us that was pretty big. The barrel was long and had rectangular ventilation holes running along it. There was a small black pull release trigger, and many wires looping around the back, starting from one socket and moving on to the next.

“Cool, huh.” Randy commented, picked it up and holding it in his hands, “What does it use for ammunition?”
“It uses your own electric power.” Achilles told Randy, watching him closely, “This model is a Zephyr-E, designed to amplify your electric attacks by using coil technology. There are two nodes at the end, which will collect your electric power if you direct it toward them. There is also a gauge at the end which will tell you how much power you have stored it in.”
“I’m assuming ones used for fire and ice are called Zephyr-F and Zephyr-I.” I told him, realizing what the “e” was for.
“That’s right.” Achilles agreed, “Yet, there are some of our fighters that don’t have a projectile attack. They use standard rifles, ones that fire caliber.”

Seemed like pretty advanced stuff. It made me wonder what the Crimson Stars were using. These guys were smart as well, using fire, electricity and ice against Wind Strikers, since each one of those elements would trash any Skarmory. Very strategically done…

“Do you want to give it a try, Blitz?” Achilles asked Randy, looking down upon the little Pichu that was Randy.
“Yeah, let’s rock.” Randy replied.

And then, he turned around and headed for the machine, carrying this gigantic laser rifle is his hands. This was going to be interesting…

[Neo Emolga]

See the world through David's eyes...

ON ANOTHER TRACK

Tuesday morning wasn’t much for me. Class was a pain in the butt. My stupid science teacher Mrs. Herman failed me on one of her retarded labs. Plus Jake and Alex hadn’t been in school today, so I had no one to talk to in history and math. Plus lunch was pretty lonely.

Mrs. Herman hated my guts, which I guess was justice since I hated hers even more. I was running a really low D in her class, and I didn’t give much effort. But this time, I actually tried, and she still failed me on the lab. I should have taken that Sulfuric Acid and tossed it at her face. Of course, then I’d really be in trouble…

History and math were a total bore, since I usually just chatted with Jake and Alex during those endless minutes of class time. Math was the worst, a real clock-watcher class. I’m so sick of learning about variables. Made me wonder who would be dumb enough to leave out a number, and on purpose. What a waste of my time.

And when it was all over with, I finally stepped outside. I hadn’t seen Randy all day long, and I wondered where he was. But I knew that everyday, Randy was on the same, black metal bench, right by a few trees. It was somewhat of a shock to me to see that Randy, Jake, and Alex hadn’t been here on the same day. But, I shrugged it off and just thought it was coincidence. Sometimes it happens…

But I didn’t keep that belief when they weren’t at school again the next day, and there were rumors going around that Randy was kidnapped. There was something about a phone call from his mom to the school, and some kid overheard it. I didn’t know what to believe, until late in the day, someone had told us on the loud speaker that Randy had been missing for the past two days, and that if anyone knew of his whereabouts, they should inform a teacher as soon as possible.

That made me sick, because I knew the same thing must have happened to Jake and Alex. Their parents weren’t too worried, but that was only because of all those stupid random slumber parties we used to have. I had to think where they would be. I already knew they must have been together, so I was one step ahead of everyone else.

After school the next day, I checked all over the place. All around the school, but I found nothing much. Something was telling me that they weren’t far. I then, I remembered something. The three of us always used to hang around the abandoned baseball field. Even if they weren’t there, I would at least know I tried my best to find them.

It was a pretty long walk, however. Mom and dad were going to wonder where I was again, and I would have no answer or excuse. But my friends were more important than that. I kept drawing closer and closer to the baseball field, and once I stood in the middle of it, I found nothing. I took a look at the visitor’s dugout, but found nothing. It wasn’t until I had checked directly behind me. My jaw dropped. There they were, lying on the ground, all three of them. I instantly thought they were dead. As I slowly walked closer, I expected to see blood all over the place, but those beliefs were quickly extinguished. I looked at Jake’s chest to see if he was breathing, but I nearly vomited when I realized he wasn’t.

“Jake, say something…” I told him, not even expecting a response.

I crouched down next to him, seeing if he had a pulse. For some really weird reason, it was different, not normal at all. It had a different beat, and I was really starting to freak out. Alex and Randy had the same thing. What the hell was going on?

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 22
Boot Camp

Apparently, it wasn’t all fun and games like Randy thought it was. He told me he had so much practice with a light-gun game called Silver Striker, and that it was going to be easy. Yet, I had seen him go around and around on the roller coaster thing and barely hit anything. He tried it even without the Zephyr-E, and he did even worse. I told him to not hold it up, and instead rest it on the ground and then aim with it. After trying five times, he thought he had enough.

“I don’t… know what’s wrong.” Randy said in confusion, looking somewhat dizzy as well.
“You’re going to need a lot more training if you think you’re going to go to Macomb.” Achilles warned him.

And I heard Randy let out a moan, already looking too tired. His large, Pichu ears had drooped downward, and his eyelids were lowered. His hands lay limply at his side, and he could barely stand on his two feet.

“Give me a break, this is nothing.” Achilles glared at him, looking at the exhausted Pichu, “Boy, you had better shape up if you think you’re going to fight for us. We’re just getting warmed up!”

That was exactly what Randy didn’t want to hear. I don’t think he was very prepared for this kind of thing…

“Juno, it’s your turn.” Achilles said firmly, picking up the Zephyr-E Randy had dropped, stuffing it in my hands, and pushing me along, “I sure hope you have more skills than you’re friend right here…”

Boy was this going to be fun. Ugh, how could Randy even try to hold this thing, it was heavy! I quickly walked over to the roller coaster car, climbed aboard, and sat down in its cold metal seat. This was horrible. This little metal car had barely any room in it. Nonetheless, I put the metal gun down, and rested it upon the car, facing forward. I had seen Randy switch from shooting in the front and back only to end up missing most of the targets. I was going to keep it in the front and leave it like that.

Suddenly, I felt the car moving, and it started moving very quickly. A bit too quick. But, all it took was a little focus and concentration, and it began to feel like it was only moving two miles an hour. Again, it felt like I was underwater, and everything was moving slowly. The white targets popped down from the ceiling, and I focused my electrical power into the nodes at the end of the rifle. They moved so slowly, so they were extremely easy to hit. The car continued to move along the track, ever so slowly.

Target by target was destroyed with a burst of thunderous power from the Zephyr-E. This weapon was amazing. It turned the normal yellow shock of electricity into a blue and white blast of powerful thunder. Every time a target was it, it burst into pieces like glass. I must have gone around and around on that rollercoaster thing like five times until I destroyed every target with ease. The five minute roller coaster ride seemed like it took twenty minutes. Once it stopped, I hopped off and stepped back on the metal floor. Achilles looked at me spellbound.

“That was amazing…” Achilles said in disbelief, “This Zephyr isn’t actually meant for your size. I threw you a curveball on purpose. The real one is actually only a foot and a half long.”
“Hey!” Randy shouted, suddenly alert now, “That isn’t fair!”
“You need to be prepared just in case you have to use the weapons of your comrades.” Achilles told Randy, almost laughing at Randy’s annoyed expression.

Achilles was a nice guy. I never suspected I would see kindness from a Vigoroth, after seeing how aggressive they were in battle. But, as nice as he was, he trained HARD. For weeks, every night Randy and I would come back to the barracks dead tired. Despite how uncomfortable those metal bunk beds were, we were tired enough to sleep on a rock.

Running, shooting, climbing, and even swimming were part of this harsh training. Running for miles was something I always hated, but now I had to do it on this tiny track. And one mile for a human is like five miles for a Pikachu and a Pichu. We had more runs around that roller coaster, and Randy was showing serious improvement, even with both rifles. We had to learn how to climb rock walls, metal fences, and removed a type of barbed wire, which looked like circular pizza cutter blades on a string.

Being a part of this Silver Rebellion wasn’t easy…

[Neo Emolga]

ON ANOTHER TRACK

I couldn’t believe it. What was going on? I didn’t know where to turn. As I looked around, I didn’t know whether to try and find someone to help me, but I didn’t want to leave them alone. It seemed like they had been here for a long time, but what was happening to them, and who had done it? I was too far away from the school to give anyone a sign. I just decided that I would only be leaving them behind for a few minutes. If they had been spending the last 48 hours here, nothing should have happened. I stood up, and turned around, only to see something that scared the bejeezus out of me.

Before me stood a completely black-clad man with brown hair and fair skin. He looked at me, and all I could do was back away. He just shook his head in disgust.

“Tsk tsk.” He said in amusement, “You shouldn’t have come here. Now what am I going to do with you?”
“You did this to them!” I shouted at the black figure, glaring at his serious expression, “What have you done!?”

He just laughed, and I was ready to attack this guy. I ran right up to him to slug him in the face, but only with a wave of his hand, I was lifted off my feet and thrown into the concrete wall of the dugout. When he let go, I fell forward and nearly landed flat on my face, with my hands landing in the sand and half burying themselves.

“They’re on the brink of death.” He told me, as I looked up at him, “For if they die in my prison world, they die here. And right now they’re fighting a war they can’t win…”
“Who are you and what is this all for!?” I shouted at him, wanting to know what his motives were.
“Revenge.” He told me in a cold tone, “It was you insolent fools who destroyed my necklace, something that took me thousands of years to craft. The only way to fix this problem is for the bunch of you to suffer. And by the way, my name is Zander, but this won’t be the last time you hear it.”

I couldn’t believe it. How did this walking freak ever find out we were here? I just didn’t get it. I had remembered something was done to destroy the necklace. But how did this guy find out about it? And what was even more weird, how was he even still alive?

“You too, were a part of it all.” He told me in a cold tone.
“I won’t deny that.” I told him, not scared of this freak, “Yes, I was with Jake and Alex. But what do you think you’re going to do about it?”
“Simply enough, you’ll be joining them…” Zander glared at me, looking toward the bodies of Jake, Alex, and Randy, “But this time, I’m not going to leave your bodies here for someone to find. No one will ever know what happened to the four of you, since there will be nothing here for them to find.”

“You can’t…” I replied softly, completely in disbelief.
“Oh yes I can.” Zander smiled with admiration, “And since it is impossible for you to defeat me, the four of you can look forward to spending the rest of your lives in my prison.”

I didn’t know what to say. There was no where I can run, and no one around to see us. There was nothing I could do…

“I guess there is something I can do with you.” Zander told me, almost in a laugh, “They will never suspect it…”
“What are you doing!?” I shouted in horror, stepping away.

And suddenly, I felt sick and nauseous as every color around me was switched like a color negative. And then, to make it worse, every color was swirled around wildly.

“Yes, that’s right.” Zander grinned, “It’ll all been over soon.”

And not two seconds later, everything went black and motionless. I completely lost consciousness…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 23
The Weapons of the Enemy

Besides the various ranks of Storm Rider squads I was about to enter, there were many other weapons and machines of war that the Silver Rebellion used. Heavy metal tanks, called Armadillos were another massive machine. These tanks were even bigger than ones used by humans, completely clad in heavy, metal armor. On the front there was one, giant chrome cannon, as well as two smaller ones on the side and a caliber rifle on the top by the square metal hatch. There were only four small, rectangular ventilation holes. Two for each small cannon and two on the front. I had never been inside one, but a fellow Treecko who used to reload the cannons told me it gets awfully hot in there.

And then, a really cool device I was trained to use was the Land Splitter. They looked like mini dragsters with a machine gun, and boy were they fast. Again, covered with light armor and protected the driver with a cage like structure. Like before, I was trained with these only just in case. Learning how to fly and fight at the same time were my main training areas.

It had been nearly two months since Randy and I had been in Kivistal. We had spent those many days training our hides off, and we were pretty tough now. I could only be hoping that Alex was still alive. I hated to leave him in that dark prison of Macomb, but I had no choice. I couldn’t come walking to their front door and ask to have him.

We were also trained to know how to react to the weapons and machines of the Crimson Stars. Apparently, they use all caliber weapons, called Vulcans. Achilles showed me one of these Vulcan rifles, and it looked freaky, with black and grey metal forming a very strange yet powerful rifle. It used two magazine feeds on both sides, taking one bullet from each side for every two shots. Silver Rebellion fighters weren’t trained with them since it was pretty much point and shoot with these things. We were just shown how to reload it.

Wind Strikers were Pokémon flying Skarmories. Just like the Storm Riders, only Pokémon who stood upright could fly them. Achilles told me since Wind Strikers actually quite small, they are designed for quick maneuverability. However, if they got shot, it was usually fatal. All the time, the rider was dismounted and could do nothing but plummet toward the harsh terrain.

Somehow, the Silver Rebellion managed to get their hands on a Crimson Stars Talon, which looked like a three rider motorcycle. The first cab, which was in the middle, was the largest, with two smaller ones on its side. It was jet black, with violet windows on each of the cabs. The riders fired their own caliber rifle, while the center rider fried two at the same time. On the back was an anti-air gun for a forth rider who would be on the back, only there they were fully exposed. Honestly, I didn’t see this as an effective fighting tool, but Achilles told me they were very vicious. I wasn’t about to doubt his word.

A third nightmare of the Crimson Stars were the Versatile Armored Transports, or VAT’s for short. Achilles had shown us only a model of it, and they looked like moving buildings with four giant metal wheels and a body like a trapezoid. I had no idea how I would even go about stopping that thing. Achilles told me a Storm Rider had to go under the whole machine and tear apart as much of the pipes, pumps, and other machinery under the VAT. It looked quite risky with all those gun emplacements all over the whole thing. But he told me that was the only way to do it.

“VAT’s are constantly being manufactured at Macomb.” Achilles warned us, letting the two of us know to expect them there, “You have only one advantage, and that is they won’t be loaded with any Crimson Star troops once you get there. You would be better off to destroy their manufacturing facilities before you try and get the prisoners out.”
“Wow…” Randy said in sarcastic disbelief, “Can’t wait…”

This sure as hell wasn’t going to be easy. Achilles showed me more weapons that the Crimson Stars used, all designed to fire caliber. I just grimaced at all of them, not wanting to imagine what would happen if I got shot by one. They were really loud as well.

“Well, that’s about it.” Achilles told the two of us, “They’ve wanted us dead for eons now, and they’ve come pretty close to it. Already, many of our cities, such as Cyphex, The Bend, and Garrison are been torn to pieces. We’ve lost thousands of good soldiers out there. Each day, we keep losing our forces. We’re down to only two cities left, this one and Kalen.”

Kalen was a supply city, the Silver Rebellion’s equivalent of Macomb, only Kalen wasn’t even half the size. It was true. The Silver Rebellion was fighting a very losing battle. If it kept up at this pace, I could expect it to be completely overrun in very little time.

“These times seem very grim…” I said to the others.
“That’s why we’ve been desperately waiting for you, Juno…” Achilles responded, looking at me in the eye.

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 24
Calm Before the Storm

Only about a month later, we had been set for combat at its most sickening level. Pokémon wouldn’t just be fighting each other, they would be killing each other, on the same hideous scale that humans used. I had realized that while the Silver Rebellion didn’t have a single human within their walls, the Crimson Stars were led by them. It was the Pokémon that did the fighting, while the humans reaped all the benefit. They were supposed to be fighting together, like trainers and Pokémon always do on Earth. I saw that fine grace torn to pieces on these twisted fields.

I had heard only a small squad was going to be deployed to attack Macomb, myself included. I had seen albums of pictures that showed the horror after each terrible conflict. Hell, I had even seen it myself with my own two eyes, the city near Black Bay prison was torn to sheds, a graveyard of buildings and society. I can easily expect something similar if I laid my eyes on The Bend or Cyphex. Further and further the Silver Rebellion was being pushed back, and here they were making their last stand against an enemy that couldn’t even respect itself.

Tomorrow, we would be flying to Macomb, Randy and I as well as four other Storm Riders. We weren’t going to start a head-on assault, but to try and sneak our way in, disable as much as we could at the facility, release its prisoners and try to get out alive.

Already, an enormous amount of expectation was placed in me. I had already been made a lieutenant, solely for my efforts at Black Bay. Every one expected me to reach much further beyond that, but they didn’t realize I could only do so much.

Randy, or otherwise know as “Blitz” had been making every effort to improve his skills. Even though he had a rough start, as time went by he got drastically better.

We had no idea how big Macomb really was, or what kind of force they really had, but from what we had heard, it sounded like a lot. I was hoping it would be quickly in and quickly out, but I had no idea where to head to first, since the Silver Rebellion had no layout of the facility to go by. The only thing I could go by was the architecture of the buildings. That was it.

Regardless, Randy and I tried not to show fear, even though deep inside we were nearly scared to death about this. There was no other way to get Alex out of there. We needed his support as soon as possible, and any Silver Rebellion prisoners were greatly needed to join the ranks of soldiers already prepped for combat. We needed to take apart Macomb’s assembly lines and production facilities if we wanted to cripple the Crimson Stars’ war effort. Of course that was far easily said that done.

We had trouble sleeping that night, just trying to think about how we were going to handle this. I could only hope that I would be back in these barracks by tomorrow’s end…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 25
The Last Call

It was only going to be the five of us, and that was it. Somehow, we were going to have to make our way in and keep it quiet as long as possible. Macomb was large and well fortified, but it wasn’t invincible. The mission was going to be difficult, but not impossible.

I was going to be the commander of this small squad, and Randy was going to be my gunner, watching my back just in case something happened.

The second Storm Rider in my squad was a Croconaw by the name of Stevex. Despite his usual ill attitude, he was feeling somewhat optimistic about the mission. He had told me he had been a Storm Rider for three years, and this was going to be the toughest challenge he had ever faced. He was armed with a caliber rifle, since water wasn’t going to hurt a Skarmory too much…

The third in my squad went by the name of Rackal, an Electabuzz with a proficiency in explosives, computers, and booby traps. Calm and collective, he always believed more in being prepared than wishing for good luck. If we were going to get through this mission, we were going to need an engineer, and Rackal was just the one to fill that role.

Fourth in line was Lahanas, a Charmeleon with a bad attitude. He hated the Crimson Stars more than scum, and he wasn’t going to let anything get in his way of destroying them. He wasn’t so sure about me being a commander, but he wasn’t going to ask questions. Even if he did, I wasn’t so sure I would answer them.

And last but not least was Vice, a Sneasel with a will to kill. Vice was swift to strike and didn’t ask questions first. Even though most Storm Riders didn’t give their Pidgeot a name, Vice called his mount Storm Gale. I couldn’t help but say there was certainly something more vicious about his Pidgeot than the rest of them…

When we had all assembled, Achilles had approached us, and all five of us had saluted him like we were instructed to do so in the presence of a high-ranking officer. He had looked over the six of us, and looked us in the eye, me especially.

“As much as I appreciate your dedication to this country…” Achilles began, “You’re about to embark on a very dangerous but very important mission. I can’t promise the safety of any of you. There are very few who even know this mission is about to take place. If there were more, I fear they may somehow object to it, even though this is something that needs to be done.”

Of course it was. Alex was still in there, as well as many other Silver Rebellion members. And the longer we took to get there, the risk of losing more soldiers was also escalating. We couldn’t allow that to happen any longer. If that place really was the torture chamber they had said it was, it was going to be a gruesome sight to behold. I could only hope Alex was still alive and safe.

“Good luck to all of you.” Achilles told us, “With no doubt you will need it.”
“Good luck is for the unprepared.” Rackal replied to Achilles with a firm voice.

After the four of my comrades had mounted upon their Pidgeots, I had let out Latias, and Randy and I had climbed on her back. Thankfully, she had been equipped with a leather saddle beforehand, so we didn’t have to worry about falling off. That was a good thing, since there was going to be a whole lot more we were going to have to worry about…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 26
The Accident

It hadn’t been long before we took to the skies and soared far above the broken land below us. Randy had been right behind me, holding his Zephyr-E very steadily. Meanwhile, besides me were the four other Strom Riders that were on my side. The sky above us slowly grew toward a pale red, indicating the cold night had come. At least now we would have the darkness to cloak our passage into Macomb.

Further and further we flew toward the great machine city of Macomb. No doubt this would be the most difficult task I would have to undertake. We have four specific targets. The assembly lines, the missile silos, the weapon stockpiles and the prisons. First, we were to disarm the missile silos before they were launched as a result of the attack. Next came the weapon stockpiles and then the prisons. Finally, the assembly lines had to be shut down, but for now they posed no immediate threat.

Miles and miles of broken terrain had passed below us, and then the six of us had set eyes on the black machine city of Macomb. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

The whole city itself was devoted to industry, with large factories with towering smokestacks spewing out clouds of dark smoke. Warehouses also scattered everywhere, as well as large shipping trucks. I looked around but I saw no sign of anything that looked like a prison. All the buildings were a dark coal black, and a metal fence that towered fifty feet surrounded the city.

“Macomb…” Rackal said softly, looking at the machine city, “If we disable their transports, they will be unable to ship their supplies.”
“I fare better with destroying the supplies themselves.” I told Rackal, “What good will their trucks be then?”

But then, I had caught sight of something within the city. Tiny red lights were flashing in various places. Was it fire? No, it was pulsing systematically. I then felt an eerie chill.

“They know we’re here.” I told them coldly, “Their alarms have gone off.”
“Impossible.” Lahanas cut me off, “There’s no way…”

But shortly after he spoke, I saw a small group of V shaped objects emerge from the red-tinted sky. They were coming closer, and at a very fast rate.

“Wind Strikers in the distance…” I told the four of them, come on, let’s try and find some cover.”
“Is this how the Gold Rider fights?” Lahanas asked in shock, “I surprised at you Juno. I thought you have a spirit to fight inside you.”
“I don’t have a spirit to commit suicide.” I reminded him, “We’re highly out-gunned and outnumbered.”
“No one stopped Lahanas.” He told himself, pulling out his caliber rifle.

I couldn’t believe what this guy was doing. He was going to get us all killed!

“Lahanas, stop!” I shouted to him, “If you fire your rifle they will know we’re here!”

But he refused to listen. Instead, he took aim at the incoming Wind Strikers, and suddenly, his caliber rifle roared to life as a pulsing blast of fire appeared at the end of his rifle as it blasted bullets toward the incoming Skarmories.

And then, I had watched in horror as I saw white flashes appear on the Skarmories as they returned fire. I had quickly turned to Lahanas.

And then, to my shock, his Pidgeot had been struck twice in the chest. Lahanas struggled with his mount to keep her alive, only soon after, she was struck viciously with five more bullets. And to make it even worse, Lahanas had been struck twice himself, once in the chest and a second time in the face. Lahanas fell off his Pidgeot, and the both of them spiraled toward the ground, with his rifle not too far behind. Then, they disappeared into the darkness…

“Oh God…” Stevex gasped.
“Come on!” I shouted, heading toward my left, “Let’s get the hell out of here. Head for those warehouses!”

The remaining four of us had swiftly flew toward the black warehouses, where hopefully they didn’t see the rest of us in the dark. We flew faster and faster, and for a moment, I knew the Wind Strikers had caught sight of us. It was long before they opened fire, and suddenly I saw Stevex and his Pidgeot fly toward the ground faster that we did. I then realized why. Both his Pidgeot and himself had been shot multiple times. Stevex and his Pidgeot hit the ground extremely hard, and their bodies tumbled around on the hard dirt. I shook my head in dismay. There was no way they could have survived that fall.

The remaining three of us headed quickly past the metal fence and headed downward toward the ground. I couldn’t believe it. Already two of my squad members had been killed, and we haven’t even got started yet. I could tell the Skarmories weren’t very far behind…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 27
A Whisper in the Dark

I had been the first to descend toward the ground and land softly on the firm ground. Soon after, Vice and Rackal and their mounts headed toward the ground. As their Pidgeots approached the dirt, they flapped their wings harder to ensure a safe landing for their riders. Vice and Rackal had dismounted and then pulled out their Pokéballs and aimed their red beams for their Pidgeots. Their mounts had become a red light, and were absorbed by their Pokéballs. I had followed suit with Latias, and after Randy and I had gotten ourselves off of Latias, I had returned her to her Pokéball, and then kept her Pokéball safely in my belt.

“That freakin’ idiot!” Rackal exclaimed in bitterness, “What the hell was he thinking? Lahanas could have gotten us all killed!”
“Oh let’s face it.” Vice replied to Rackal as he gripped his caliber rifle tightly in his claws, “We were dead from the start. There’s no way we’re getting out of here alive.”

Around us, I could hear the faint sound of alarms. I couldn’t believe it. How were we supposed to do this with the entire base on full alert? And I didn’t even know where the missile silos were. If we waited any longer, we were going to be too late.

“Well, Juno…” Vice said firmly, “It’s your call. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

I then looked behind me, and saw the two metal doors of the warehouse. Hanging above was a chain with a lock around it.

“Do you think you can cut that lock open?” I asked Rackal, looking upward at the lock.
“Oh, give me a break.” Vice replied, nearly laughing, “That? That’s nothing…”

He had leaped up, and with a furious swipe of his claw, the chain was sliced in half with a metal shrieking sound, and the two halves of the chain fell to the sides and lay limply by the door.

“Let’s see what’s inside.” I told them, grabbed the metal door and pushing it to the side.

But it was too big for me to move on my own. Then, Rackal and Vice had helped me push the door open. Soon enough, the large metal doors loudly rattled along the metal tracks and crashed when they hit the end. It made much more noise than I thought.

“Oh shoot.” Randy said as he looked around.

And then I heard a shout in the distance. I could see in the distance a group of silhouettes heading right for us from between an alleyway of warehouses.

“Get your butt inside!” I shouted to them, making my way in.
“Oh great.” Vice commented, “Isn’t this off to a wonderful start…”

We made our way into the warehouse, which was loaded with hundreds of wooden crates and metal boxes. We quickly made our way around a pile of crates and stood behind them, weapons drawn. Vice stood firmly crouched behind a small pile of boxes with his caliber rifle drawn, while Rackal and Randy stood side by side, both charging up a Zephyr-E.

“Well isn’t it a beautiful day in the neighborhood.” Vice commented sarcastically, “How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?”
“Simple.” I said to the three of them, “We kill everyone who knows we’re here.”

I was without a weapon, so I needed to find one somewhere. And as I looked around, I began to have a faint idea of what this warehouse was holding. I had made my way over to a long wooden box, and handed it to Vice.

“I can’t open it myself without damaging what’s inside.” I told Vice, “Chances are good it’s probably a weapon.”
“Oh yeah?” Vice asked with curiosity, “What makes you think that?”
“Because considering its shape and size, it can’t be a part of a machine. The assembly lines are nowhere even near here.”
“Hmm…” Vice replied, “You know, you may be on to something…”

He took the box, and sliced off the two sides, then he ran his sharp claw along the edge of the box, and then completely disassembled it. Inside was a black rifle, a Vulcan. Along side it was three cases of ammunition.

“Well don’t they put everything in a pretty package…” Vice replied, “What were our chances of running into a warehouse full of guns?”
“Quite high actually.” I told him, being able to figure it out myself, “I could easily assume the prison and the missile silos are in the back of the city, where it would be hard to reach them. Everything else, I guess would have to be up front.”

I had taken the black, metal Vulcan rifle, and loaded it, just like Achilles had shown me. I then got behind my own bunch of boxes, and aimed for the door. Only seconds later a Squirtle and a Wartortle appeared in the doorway, completely armed.

“I think we found them!” The Squirtle shouted.
“You most certainly did.” Vice laughed as he pulled the trigger on his rifle.

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 28
Covert Assault

Vice and I opened fired upon the Squirtle and Wartortle, blasting them with heavy gunfire. Both of their shells were cracked in multiple places, and collapsed on the ground dropping their weapons. I could already tell more were going to start rushing in here like crazy.

We waited patently, hungrily grasping our rifles and just waiting for something to move in the doorway. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a black Grumpig had poked his head out from the right side of the doorway, whipped out another Vulcan rifle, and began firing at us before we could even responded. I crouched down as fast as I could as bullets splintered the wooden crates around us. When the gunfire stopped, I peeked one more time, and I saw nothing. Then, I saw come out once more, firing furiously. I had aimed my rifle right at him, when suddenly a sharp blast of electricity blasted out and struck the Grumpig, with enough voltage to actually burn him. Once the blast of glowing blast of white and blue electricity had ceased, the Grumpig lay on the ground, burnt to a crisp with smoke waving above him. It smelled hideous. I had turned to see who had fired the shot, and realized it was Randy.

We had waited five more minutes before we decided we weren’t going to get anywhere by just sitting here. Vice and Rackal were looking toward me.

“Let’s get out of here.” I told the three of them, getting up from behind the boxes, “We’ve got to find those missile silos before they decide to launch…”
“Okay man.” Vice replied, “Let’s blow this joint.”

The four of us had headed to the door. I was the first to look out left and right to see if anyone was waiting for us. But something seemed strange. I could have sworn there were more Crimson Stars soldiers approaching us when we headed for the warehouse…

I then realized they were likely waiting at the end of the warehouse, ready to ambush us. I then decided to use one of my other weapons. Inferno grenades. I was just about to grab the one around my belt when…

“You sure about that man?” Vice asked me, looking at me with a peculiar look in his eyes.
“Yeah, I know they light up the place like there’s no tomorrow.” I replied to Vice, “But chances are they’re waiting behind the warehouse to ambush us.”
“Well…whatever.” Vice replied, “But don’t be surprised if this whole district starts going up in flames.
“I thought that’s what we were originally planned on doing!” I shouted to Vice, looking back at him.

He was quiet, and so I reached for the Inferno grenade, and pulled it off. Once I had pulled out the tiny latch that triggered the timer, I threw the grenade furiously ahead of me, and it landed right at the intersection. After I heard a few muffled screams, I heard a loud explosion, and everything was bathed with an orange and red glow. When I had turned to look ahead, I saw the intersection was covered with raging flames. Whatever had been waiting there was likely burnt to a crisp.

“Wow, that did a number on them.” Vice replied, looking at the fiery chaos, “Now how do you expect us to get through that?”
“Geez, for once stop doubting everything I do.” I replied to Vice, “We’ll just take another way around.”

We had turned around, since heading forward was going to be impossible. We kept as low as we could, using the massive fire as a distraction. Enemy soldiers were flocking toward it, trying to douse the flames as we passed warehouse by warehouse undetected. I had never seen a missile silo in my life, so I wasn’t completely sure where to find it. But, I knew enough where they would be in the back of the complex, kept away from the front.

After we passed the district, we came across two large metal floors in the ground. They were tan-colored to match the color of the dirt. There was absolutely no one around, which seemed pretty strange to me.

“I think…” Rackal said in disbelief, “I think these are the missile silos. There should be a way to get underground somewhere around here.”

My instinct told me to look for something that wasn’t just another warehouse, and soon I had found what I had been looking for. It was a small metal building, with a thicker coat of metal around it.

“I think it’s over there.” I pointed to the building, “Its way too small to be supply storage.”
“Yeah, I think Juno is right.” Rackal replied, “That should be the elevator.”

We had made our way over to the small metal building, keeping low and under cover, even though it seemed unnecessary. Did the Crimson Stars think we were already dead? It seemed awfully weird for no one to be around.

Once we had arrived at the single metal door that was the building’s entrance, we saw the door required a security access code to be entered into a keypad besides the door handle.

“Oh great.” Randy said with sarcasm, “What the hell do we do now?”

Rackal had taken his own Zephyr-E, aimed the barrel at the keypad, and blasted it with a tremendous blast of electricity. The keypad was instantly fried, and after Rackal put the weapon down, he slammed the keypad with his fist, breaking it into pieces. Suddenly, the metal door slid open, and we just stared at Rackal with a look of shock on our faces.

“Geez man.” Vice said, backing away a bit, “No need to lose your cool.”
“Come on!” Rackal exclaimed, “We don’t have all night to do this…”

And then, the four of us entered the dark metal building. I could only hope we were going to get out of this dark chamber alive…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 29
Cold Underground

There was barely any light in that room. Everything was completely metal, and the only other thing in the room was a metal elevator. It certainly wasn’t anything fancy. The door was comprised of three metal beams with caution tape and several black grates. I had made my way over to the control panel and pressed the button to call the elevator. I didn’t know why but something was certainly making me feel sick at that moment. It just seemed too quiet around here.

Soon enough, we saw the metal elevator rise through the grates, and when it had arrived at the top floor, the metal beams had slid into the ceiling and floor while the grates had been pulled to the sides. Inside was a very dark metal elevator, lit by only a single, tiny light.

“How welcoming…” Randy commented as the elevator had arrived.

We had walked over to the elevator and stepped inside. Once we were all in, I pressed the black button on the side to head downward. Suddenly, the metal beams slid back down again, and the grates were pulled in front of us. Then, everything in front of us moved upward and the elevator moved downward.

It felt like we had descended nearly a mile underground before we finally arrived at the bottom floor. Similar to the floor above, sliding metal beams made up the door. Once the beams and grates had been moved aside, we peered into another dark room, this time completely made of concrete. We had stepped out of the elevator, and looked around.

“Since there are two silo doors, there has to be two missiles.” Rackal had told us, “We need to place two explosive charges on the missiles themselves, as well as any fuel rooms we find.”

Suddenly, we heard a noise in the distance. We turned around and looked down a long concrete hallway, with a Nuzleaf and a Machoke starting right at us with weapons drawn. They both glared at us.

“Silver Rebellion…” The Nuzleaf hissed at us, “I think the four of you fools just stepped a little too far into our hole.”
“Drop your weapons!” The Machoke shouted angrily in a low voice as he pointed his extra-large Vulcan rifle right at us, “Or you’ll find another way to kiss the floor!!”
“I’ve got a better idea.” Vice smiled with an insidious grin, “How about you get out of our way, and we might just spare your lives!”

The Machoke growled at us, pointing the huge Vulcan rifle right at Vice. Meanwhile, the Nuzleaf was armed with what looked like a smaller machine pistol, almost like an Uzi. Both of them looked at Vice with contempt.

“I hope you’ve enjoyed your life here, you worthless, little Sneasel.” The Nuzleaf hissed with amusement, “Because you enter hell today!!”

And then, they opened fire on Vice. I felt for sure he was going to be killed unless I took action now. I had to concentrate, this time very hard, focusing on Vice and well as Rackal, Randy, and myself. Suddenly, everything around us slowed to a crawl. The incoming bullets had very slowly approached Vice, and he moved back. Somehow, my focus was affecting him as well.

I had stormed my way toward the Machoke and the Nuzleaf, with my cheeks flaring with electricity. Vice had realized we were still moving normal speed, while they were slowed down. Vice had avoided the bullets rather easily, leaped toward the Nuzleaf, and slashed viciously at his face. Meanwhile, I had jumped toward the Machoke, latched on to his chest, and released all of my stored electricity all directed into Machoke’s chest. His body began to twitch and convulse with throbbing pain, just before he slowly collapsed to the ground, almost like he had drowned underwater, and was sinking to the bottom of the sea. When Machoke had completely collapsed to the ground, I had gotten off of him and turned to see Vice, cutting Nuzleaf into shreds. By now, Nuzleaf was long gone…

I had stopped my concentration, and everything returned to normal speed. Meanwhile, Vice had looked toward me, and the looked around him.

“Boy, that was fun.” Vice replied, crossing his arms with his soiled claws sticking out, “But, what the hell happened to them?”
“Yeah, I know.” Rackal replied, looking around everywhere, “It’s like they were moving in slow motion…”

And then, Randy had stepped forward. He was the only one besides me who knew of that ability I had.

“It’s Juno that did that.” Randy told them, “It’s when everything around you moves only a tenth of its normal speeds. But in truth, it’s you that is moving ten times faster than everything else…”
“That was…” Vice said in wonder as he turned toward me, “You were the one who did that?”

I didn’t say anything. I just looked into Vice’s eyes, and I let my expression tell him.

“You really are the Gold Rider…” Rackal said to me in amazement, “The strongest soldier ever to enter the Silver Rebellion’s ranks.”
“Come on.” I told them, “Let’s just do our job and get out of here, before anyone else sees us…”

They had agreed, and we had made our way down the dark, concrete tunnels. Once we had arrived at a metal, steel security door, we pressed a button on the side and the door opened. We had come to a small control room. There were computer consoles everywhere, as well as two glass windows on the left and right. When I looked through the windows, I could see both missiles, still docked in the silo. But I didn’t see any way Rackal could attach an explosive to the missile itself.

“Ho boy…” Rackal said as he looked around, “This isn’t the system that I thought it was…”
“What does that mean?” Randy asked, looking up at Rackal.
“It means we’re going to have to destroy these missiles some other way…”

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 30
A Fiery End

I had looked at the consoles, and then at the rockets, and couldn’t think of what to do. Normally, we could set an explosive charge for ten minutes and get the heck out of there, but we couldn’t get anywhere near the rockets…

“Well, what do we do?” Randy asked, looking around, “The rocket is like two hundred feet away from the window. Even if we break it…”
“There’s only one way we can get rid of them now.” Rackal told the three of us, “We need to launch them so they crash right into the silo door. Once they hit the door, everything here will be destroyed. Problem is, the longest amount of time that the launch can be set for is five minutes.”

Vice had looked away for a moment. He seemed pretty tense about something.

“You know, five minutes isn’t a whole lot of time for us to rush out of here.” Vice complained, “Once that countdown starts, we’d better run like hell if we hope to get away from that explosion. Keep in mind those silo doors aren’t going to hold in that explosion very well…”
“We will make it out it time.” Rackal told us, “Once we reach the surface, we run as far as we can from the two silo doors. That’s all.”
“Okay, but I hope you know what you’re doing…” Vice told him, rolling his eyes.

Rackal had made his way over to the console, and began pressing a series of buttons. I had never seen a system like this in my life, so I had no clue how to use it…

“Manual system override…” Rackal said to himself as he hacked away at the buttons, “Launch protocol… System data backup entry…”

And then, some red lights turned on all around us. Along with them came on a female electronic voice:

LANUCH IN T-MINUS 300 SECONDS

“Come on!” Rackal shouted, turning around, “It’s set to go! We have to get out of here!”

We immediately turned around and ran out of the control room. I was leading with Vice right besides me, with Randy behind us and Rackal in the back. We ran furiously down the hallway when suddenly we had heard an alarm go off, and more flashing red lights turned on around the concrete hallway.

INITIATING SILO LOCKDOWN

We had seen the two open steel doors in front of us, and quickly Vice and I had passed through them with Randy directly behind us. The three of us had made it through, but then as we turned around and saw Rackal just feet away from the door, the two metal doors slammed shut, trapping Rackal inside.

“Oh shoot.” Vice said bitterly, “Oh man, those things aren’t going to open…”

I headed over to the black button and pressed it furiously, but it wasn’t opening the doors.

LAUNCH IN T-MINUS 200 SECONDS

“How do we get this thing open!?” Randy shouted, pounding at the metal doors.
“That’s the problem…” Vice told us anxiously, “It was a backup security measure. Rackal is a goner…”
“No, this cannot be happening!” I shouted as I pounded the black button harder and harder.
“Come on!” Vice shouted to the two of us, “If we stay here any longer we’re going to fry in here as well. We don’t have any more time!!”

I couldn’t help but leave Rackal behind. We turned around and followed Vice down the concrete hallways. I couldn’t believe I had lost another member of my team. We had made it to the elevator, and pressed the call button. Immediately, the doors opened, we dashed inside, and pressed the button. The doors shut tightly and the elevator began to climb upward, the last travel it would ever make…

LAUNCH IN T-MINUS 100 SECONDS

We had made it to the top floor, and we furiously headed for the metal door. Once we were outside, we ran as far away from that silo as we could, since the whole thing was about to explode. As we kept on running, I had seen that the Crimson Stars were unable to douse the fire that was quickly consuming the warehouses one by one. But meanwhile, we were running in an open field, completely without cover. But that wasn’t what was bothering me…

Suddenly, moments later, the ground shook like a massive earthquake had taken place. I had turned around and saw the two silo doors blast off with a massive gush of fire and flames following it. One of the metal doors had slammed into an already burning warehouse, just to assist in its destruction. I felt so sick at that moment…

I’m sorry, Rackal…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 31
Eyes of the Enemy

It was left down to just the three of us. I couldn’t believe what had happened. Rackal had served the Silver Rebellion faithfully, even to the moment of his death. He had taken us this far. The missiles were gone and would never be used against the Silver Rebellion. The weapon stockpiles were burning to their destruction as we spoke. In only a few more minutes, there would be nothing left.

Two of our objectives had been completed. The only ones left were to head over to the prison and release the captives and shut down the assembly plants. Hopefully, with their assistance, we would shut down the assembly lines and get out of here. I’m sure they had been here too long as it is.

“Well…” Vice told me, looking over to me, “You’re the leader. Where to?”
“Let’s head over to the prison.” I told him, “Chances are if we keep running down in this direction, we’ll find it.”

Vice had looked to me with a curious eye.

“What makes you so sure?” Vice asked, looking at me curiously.
“Why would they place a prison so close to a weapons stockpile?” I told him logically, “Believe me, they would keep them away from that kind of thing as much as possible.”
“Hmm…” Vice replied, looking down in thought, “Makes sense. Let’s go.”

As we kept on running, we had passed by the assembly plants, and then it had all made sense. The prison had to be nearby. No doubt they were forcing the prisoners to work at the assembly plants as slave labor. Since it was the night hours, I could only expect the prisoners to be in their cells by now, probably sleeping.

We were in the heart of Macomb, which contained the largest and darkest of the buildings. Large factories and containment areas surrounded us as we continuously moved through the streets, trying to be as silent and covert as possible. All of the buildings had windows with a grid made up of panes of glass. Inside, I couldn’t see anything, but we knew to stay away from any windows that had light glowing inside of them.

The more assembly plants we passed, the longer I knew it would take to dismantle all of them. As we passed into the new district, I could see the development of machines, Talons mostly. And then, I got a view of what a VAT looked like. I had easily mistaken it for a factory until I realized it had wheels.

And lots and lots of guns sticking out of it…

But, it hadn’t been close to completion. Nonetheless, we continued our way around the last bunch of assembly plants before we came across a metal, linked fence. In the distance, we saw an enormous building, with only little black squares as its windows. Around it was a large open space, leaving the building in the middle. All around, search lights were moving around, always looking for anyone that was trying to escape. It seemed pretty hopeless for anyone locked in there.

I had looked above and saw the same barbed wire we had been trained to remove. All around the wire were blades shaped like pizza cutters. I knew for a fact anyone trying to crawl thorough that would be cut to ribbons…

“Well, I think we made it.” Randy said, recognizing the building was the prison, “Now how do we get through the fence and make our way toward the building?”
“Must you always doubt my power, Blitz?” Vice asked Randy, giving him an evil stare, “This is nothing. I’ve dealt with this many times before.”
“Careful.” I warned him, “That’s exactly how Lahanas thought before he opened fire on those Wind Strikers…”
“No…” Vice replied, “What he did was just plain stupid. I’m not like that at all.”

Vice the told the two of us to step aside, and when we did, he slashed away at the fence. But, he had tried over and over again, but not a single cut was made in the links. Then, after some aggravation, he finally gave up…

“Okay…” Vice hissed, just barely keeping his cool, “I guess we’ll need to find another way around.”
“Yeah,” Randy replied, “But these Crimson Stars aren’t going to let us through the front gate. Is there any way we can pretend we’re them…?”

Vice had turned toward Randy, and he looked like he was about to laugh. I had looked at him too, and Randy couldn’t understand what was going on.

“Blitz, you’re a genius.” Vice smiled, “We already have the guns. Now we just need the badge.”
“A badge?” Randy asked.
“Yes,” Vice told him, “It helps them bypass security measures and its proof that they belong to the Crimson Stars.”

Surely we could find some around here. I had looked left and right, and suddenly I saw two guards walking along the perimeter of the fence. I was surprised they hadn’t seen us yet.

“Hide!” I told them, “Someone’s coming!”

We had dashed behind the assembly plant ten feet away from us, and just waited patiently. After three minutes, they had started walking down, and I saw it was an Aipom and a Combusken. I had heard the Aipom giggling about something, and suddenly they stopped. The Combusken glared at the Aipom with a look of contempt.

“Just what the hell is so funny?” He asked with a stare.

We waited silently as the Aipom just kept on laughing. Suddenly, he tried to break out of it.

“Do you know who has the worst job here, out of everyone?” The Aipom asked, struggling not to burst out laughing.
“Hands down, it’s the prisoners.” The Combusken replied, “They never get a break…”
“Yeah, you may think that…” The Aipom giggled, “But it’s really Ved. Now that’s the worst job ever!”
“You mean the guy who feeds the Skarmories?” The Combusken asked with surprise.
“Yep!” The Aipom laughed, “No wonder he swears all the time…”

The Aipom was laughing hysterically, and soon enough, as the Combusken thought about it some more, he started laughing as well. At that moment, we broke out of hiding, and pointed our guns right at them. Suddenly it wasn’t so funny anymore.

“Say cheese.” Vice smiled with a grin.

We then opened fire at them. My Vulcan rifle roared to life as fire blasted out of the rifle’s barrel. While they were being struck by our rifles, Randy finished them off with a blast from his Zephyr-E. Both of them were thrown back against the fence, perforated with bullets and smoking from the blast. When I looked at the Combusken’s body, I found a small, red badge on his upper right chest. It was shaped like a shield and had three red stars on it against a silver background. I pulled it off and realized it was attached by means of some sticky adhesive strip. I then placed it on my own chest. Vice had done the same as well with the Aipom’s badge. He had also taken the Combusken’s Vulcan rifle and threw his old caliber rifle besides his body. We now looked like the enemy.

“What about me?” Randy asked, realizing he was without both a Vulcan rifle and a badge.
“We have to pretend you’re a prisoner.” Vice told him, “It will be easy if you give me your Zephyr-E. We’ll pretend you were the only survivor in the gun fight, and Juno and I captured you.”

Randy swallowed hard.

“Okay…” Randy responded.

Vice then took away Randy’s rifle, and we began walking toward the front gate. We just had to pretend we captured Randy and chances were good they would let us in. It was the best method to try and get ourselves in…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 32
The Dark Halls

We had approached the front gate, making it look like we were two guards and Randy was our prisoner. By the gate, there was a Bagon and a Golduck both armed with Vulcan rifles, just glaring at Randy. We had approached them, and we tried as much as possible to act like guards.

“We found this little delinquent over by the fence.” Vice said, looking especially at the Bagon, “We killed two of his companions as well.”
“Heh, really?” The Bagon asked in a gruff tone, “Do you think they were part of the five that had set the whole base on full alert?”
“Storm Riders.” I told the Bagon, “That’s who they were.”
“Heh, good.” The Bagon replied, showing a slight grin on his face, “Don’t think we’ll be seeing any more trouble tonight.”

He then tossed me a single key, and I caught it with my free hand, the one that wasn’t holding the Vulcan rifle. I looked it over and then looked up at the Bagon.

“Cell 385 on the third floor should make sure the little squirt doesn’t get out.” The Bagon snickered.
“Got it.” I responded to the Bagon.
“Now go on and get out of here.” The Bagon ordered us.

We then continued walking along the long, cobbled stone path toward the double, brown metal doors. Once I had grabbed the metal handle, it was cold to the touch. I pulled it open, and we peered inside.

When we looked in, we saw the floors, the ceiling, and the walls were made up of crude, dirty metal. Rust was everywhere in patches. I heard a faint clanking and wailing sound in the distance, but another than that, the rooms were dead silent and very dark.

We had walked down the metal hallways, and as I looked into each of the cells, I saw various Silver Rebellion soldiers lying weak and tormented on their rickety, metal beds. Each one of them appeared to be overworked and highly mistreated. I couldn’t help but think Alex was going to appear to be the same way.

When we had reached the end of the hallway, we came across more hallways left and right as well as an elevator and a door leading to a flight of stairs leading upward.

“I’d feel much safer with the stairs.” I told Vice, looking at the rusty doors of the elevator.
“I’ll second that.” Vice responded, heading over to the door.

We then opened the creaky metal doors and headed up the flight of metal stairs, which looked even worse than the dirty floor. Plus it didn’t have any handrails, so anyone who wasn’t careful could go tumbling down to the first floor.

We climbed our way to the third floor, but I had looked up and realized there were at least three more floors above us. How were we supposed to release everyone here without anyone knowing?

As we opened the metal door to the third floor, we came across another hallway to our right and a solitary window to our left, with a metal grate over it. A flicking light above us had lit the hallways with a flashing glow.

As we passed each cell, I saw there was a tiny metal plaque by the door handle. We had come across another intersection of hallways, and I didn’t know what direction to take. Suddenly, we had seen another guard, another Bagon had been patrolling around on the third floor.

“And who the hell are you three?” The Bagon asked, looking at the three of us with a stare.
“Your worst nightmare.” I told him, aiming my Vulcan rifle right at him.
“What the…?” He asked, backing away.

I then pulled the trigger, and the Vulcan rifle fired and shook furiously as it blasted fire at the Bagon. In only a few seconds time, he had collapsed, dropping everything and soon was lying in a puddle of his own blood…

“You want to get us caught already!?” Vice exclaimed after the gunfire ceased, “What do you think you’re doing!?”
“Look,” I told him, “I think it’s best if we work our way from the top of the building and make our way down, releasing everyone we can. Once we reach the lowest level and have released everyone, we defend the jail at all costs, until we can get some help.”
“Just how do you plan on doing that?” Vice asked, looking at me with doubt.
“Somehow, we need to call the Silver Rebellion for help.” I told Vice seriously, “Because there is no way anyone is getting out of here by running on foot…”

[Neo Emolga]

Just so you know, everything from this point on is completely new, and has never been seen before on PE2K. Enjoy!

Chapter 33
Loss of Security

Unlike my previous assumptions, the prison hadn’t been very well guarded, or at least the night watches were very minimal. Still, there was more than enough to cause commotion. Already I had taken quite a big risk by shooting down one of the guards. Still, I could guess there weren’t that many guards running around, or at least most of them were inside. While these guys were armed, they probably didn’t expect us to get this far into the prison. In fact, they were probably thinking no one would make it this far into Macomb…

“So what’s your plan of action, man?” Vice asked me, looking at me curiously, “We don’t have a whole lot of time before someone finds out we’re here and locks down the whole prison…”
“We need to create a diversion.” I told Vice and Randy, “One of us needs to be a messenger to give word to Symarix and send for backup as soon as possible. The rest of us need to secure the prison and make sure no one comes in or out. We may need to lockdown the whole prison to do that…”

Vice looked at me with shock. He shook his head in disbelief.

“You’re kidding, right?” Vice asked me with his eyes wide open, “These guys have been here for years. As soon as they hear this place has been taken over, they’re going to take advantage of this as soon as they can and run the hell outta here.”
“If they’ve been here for years…” I reminded him, “Then they probably have a very good idea of what its defenses are like.”

Randy just looked at me curiously and Vice looked away in frustration.

“Look, once we get rid of the guards, we unlock all the cells and tell everyone to head to the upper floors.” I told them both, thinking it all out, “Blitz, you will be our messenger. Once all the prisoners are released, the three of us will head to the roof and Blitz will take Vice’s Pidgeot and head back to Symarix. Meanwhile, we’ll make sure no one enters through the roof.”
“Are you crazy or something?” Vice asked me with shock, “Storm Gale is my Pidgeot, and she’s mine only. You don’t know what you’re doing.”

I was getting very tired and very impatient. I didn’t want to spend a lifetime arguing this thing out.

“Listen pal.” I scolded him, “As your superior and your commander, I order you to hand over your Pidgeot.”
“Well, thanks for nothing.” Vice moaned, pulling out a red and white Pokéball and looking away as he handed it to me.

Then, I decided to get down to business. I wanted to finally get out of here, I was hating this place already.

“Blitz, you see if you can find the switch to open up the cells and lock down the prison so no one gets in. Vice and I will take care of the guards.” I told Randy.
“Well, this should be a little bit more fun.” Vice replied, his apprehensive feelings fading away.
“You got it, Juno.” Randy replied.
“And once you’re done,” I told him, “We’ll meet on the roof.”

I then tossed him the Pokéball that Vice had given me and Randy caught it and put it on his own belt. He then picked up the fallen Bagon’s weapon and wiped off the blood.

“Let’s go, we don’t have any time to waste.” I told them both.

Vice and I had headed up the stairs, after we were convinced the third floor was empty. We had arrived on the forth and the halls were completely empty, which was highly unusual. Nonetheless, we made our way to the fifth floor and I had realized there was only one more floor above us, making six floors in total. Once we had opened the door to the fifth floor, the rusty, metal door hit the back wall and sent a harsh slamming sound throughout the halls. At first, we thought the floor was empty until a massive, hulking Exploud turned around the corner and was holding two rifles in his massive hands. He looked at the two of us and just smiled.

“Well, well.” He growled with a low, amused voice, “I don’t remember the two of you shrimps ever being assigned guard duty.”
“That’s because we’re not guards!” Vice shouted with laughter, “Up yours and have a bullet breakfast!”

The Exploud readied his two Vulcan rifles and pointed them right at the two of us. With his strength, he could fire both and still have very little recoil in each hand. He then pulled both triggers, and then fire had rushed out from the end of the barrels, and he sprayed the hallway with ammunition and carnage. I then focused and concentrated hard and then bullets slowed to a crawl. Vice and I had pulled out both of our rifles and returned fire.

While we could move significantly faster than the bullets from the Exploud’s rifles, that didn’t mean our bullets were faster. The two of us had opened fire, and I felt the assault rifle shake violently had ammunition had blasted out from the end of the barrel. The whole hallway was full of bullets, and it wasn’t very easy to dodge the ones that the Exploud had fired upon us since there were twice the amount. Meanwhile, the Exploud had been hit several times, and growled in pain. He stopped firing and leaned over, and suddenly the two of us had stopping, figuring the Exploud couldn’t handle any more. At that moment, I broke my concentration.

But then, our situation had turned grim when suddenly he had laughed off the pain. He pointed his two rifles at us again. But just before he pulled the trigger, Vice and I had fired upon him first, this time at normal speed. The end of our rifles had blasted fire as the loud cracking of the rifles had echoed throughout the metal hallways.

At that moment, we heard the Exploud scream in agony, but we didn’t release our pull on the trigger until he had collapsed, falling over and dropping his weapons. He hadn’t moved once after that had happened…

I released the lock on my rifle, and tossed aside the two empty ammunition cartridges. I then pulled out the last two I had, locked them into place and had reloaded the Vulcan rifle. Vice had done the same, not wanting to run into another guard like that and be out of ammo.

“Come on.” Vice replied to me, “We have to keep moving. Blitz will be locking down the prison soon, so we need to make sure there aren’t any guards in here with us.”

I could certainly agree with that…

[Pokemon World Mazter]

Im on Chapter 29 right now, and I have to say your Fan Fic is very good written! Awesome Job and very cool story! I give you a 9.9/10

EDIT: I will continue reading it^^

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 34
The Rooftop

We had moved our way through the cold, metal prison, shooting down two more guards. We had already caused a commotion among the prisoners, wondering who we were really. We kept silent until Randy had found the switch to unlock all the prison doors, and he locked down the entire prison, sealing off the front and back entrances with steel security doors. Only then did we tell them we were part of the Silver Rebellion, but we told them to remain in their cells while we called for backup. Though we were trapped inside, we were protected from any outside forces coming in from the ground. Hopefully it would be enough to last until backup had arrived.

We had met up with Randy again on the first floor, and already I could hear banging on the metal panels, meaning there were more Crimson Stars trying to break down the door. We then headed upward, and we made our way up to the top floor, and looked for the entrance to the roof, since the stairwell and the elevator didn’t reach all the way up. After looking everywhere for a second staircase, we found the only one, which was behind a rusty metal door with a tiny plaque labeled “Maintenance.” I grabbed the doorknob and it was locked. I wasn’t very surprised. Vice had looked it over and just shrugged.

“Oh, what the hell is the point?” Vice remarked, readying his sharp claws.

He slashed furiously at the metal door knob, sending a loud and hideous screeching sound into the air. I put my hands on my ears to neutralize the terrible sound, as well as shutting my eyes tight. When it was over, I put my hands down and looked to see a twisted metal lock on the floor, with deep cuts into it. I looked at the door and saw Vice had ripped out the lock, knob and all. Now it was just another normal metal door with a gaping hole in it.

“Locks only keep out honest people.” Vice said casually, grabbing the ruined door and throwing it open, “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“Man, glad I was on the receiving end of that.” Randy replied, looking at the knob with disbelief, “I don’t think I would have much of a head left after that.”

We headed through the doorway and came across a spiral staircase with rickety metal stairs. We made our way upward and into another small room with a metal door. The tiny metal room was especially dirty, and looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years. Regardless, we quickly made our way for the door, and opened it. We then made our way onto the metal roof, and we could see the red and black sky with its occasional lightning above us. We walked over to the edge and looked down and saw plenty of Crimson Star soldiers on the ground. There was only one way to escape now, and that was through the air.

Randy had grasped the Pokéball containing Vice’s Pidgeot Storm Gale. Randy had prepped the ball, tossed it into the air, and the shiny red and white Pokéball had struck the metal floor. A bright white light had poured from the open ball, and moments later the light had formed into Vice’s Pidgeot. The brown and beige Pidgeot with its long yellow and pink crest had looked toward Vice, her trainer…

“Listen, Storm Gale.” Vice told his Pidgeot, “This Pichu’s name is Blitz, and he needs to tell Achilles to send backup for the Macomb attack. Tell him we already have the silos and the weapon depots destroyed.”

Storm Gale had turned herself around and spread her wings, signaling for Randy to climb on her. Randy had made his way over to her, climbed onto her back, and buckled himself in tightly using the leather straps tied around Storm Gale.

“Fly fast and furiously.” Vice told Storm Gale seriously, “The lives of hundreds of Silver Rebellion soldiers lay the hands of both of you!”
“They aren’t going anywhere!” We heard a voice shout above us.

The three of us spun around and to our shock, we saw four Wind Strikers and what appeared to be their leader, a green and vicious looking Scyther riding on a Flygon. Vice had stepped back and shook his head.

“Oh no…” Vice moaned in fear, “It can’t be him… Not now…”
“Who is that?” I asked Vice, never before seeing him in so much fear.
“That’s Vorox and Tychal.” Vice told Randy and I, “Vorox has killed nearly a thousand Silver Rebellion troops, torched five of our cities, and had earned all seventeen ranks of the Crimson Stars…”

Randy had looked up at the Scyther with a fearful look in his eyes. I couldn’t believe it either.

“You mean he’s the…?” Randy asked in fear.
“Yes…” Vice replied, “The leader of the Wind Strikers…”

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 35
The Jade Sword

The four Wind Strikers and their leader Vorox were the only force that could stop us now. And having heard from Vice that Vorox nearly killed a thousand of our troops was exactly the morale-boosting comment we needed to start fighting back…

“Vice, who the hell is this guy!?” Randy shouted in fear.
“He’s known as the Jade Sword, a ruthless and cunning soldier, maybe one of the best elites of the Crimson Stars.” Vice told Randy, even beginning to fear a bit himself, “Believe it or not, whoever kills him will be advanced five ranks in the Silver Rebellion Army and will be given the Serious Decoration of Honor.”
“What an incentive…” I remarked, still not finding that enough to embark on an assisted suicide of fighting this guy.

I then looked to Randy, and knew that if there was any hope of getting the backup we desperately needed, he needed to leave, and now…

“Blitz, get out of here.” I told Randy seriously, “Storm Gale, fly as fast as you can, faster than ever before.”
“Yes, you both need to go, and now!” Vice shouted furiously.

Storm Gale had spread her wings, and jumped into the air, flapping her wings to ascend higher and higher into the air.

“After them!” Vorox shouted to his team, “Kill those two, and do it now!”

Suddenly, the four Wind Strikers flew furiously toward Randy and Storm Gale, and readied their rifles. I gritted my teeth, focused on the four Wind Strikers and aimed my Vulcan Rifle at them. I then pulled the trigger hard, and the rifle roared to life. I aimed for the one closest to Randy and Storm Gale, and I aimed right for the Skarmory’s abdomen. The heavy ammunition rounds tore their way into the Skarmory, sending the first Skarmory and its Aipom rider toward the ground. I didn’t even wince when I realized both of them would be dying a screaming death.

The second rider was a Lombre, already with his aim on Randy. I concentrated on my aim and again pulled the trigger, blasting the Skarmory with an intense amount of ammunition. I heard the Skarmory scream in agony as it completely lost control of its flight. The Lombre was instantly thrown off of the Skarmory’s back, tumbling to the ground. There was nothing that could save the two of them now…

The third and forth Wind Strikers were riding close together, having only watched their two companions get shot down. I was also running out of time, realizing they were drawing closer to Randy. Both riders, a Breloom and an Abra were only thirty feet away from Randy, both with their weapons drawn. If I didn’t stop them now, they were going to kill Randy for sure…

I first aimed for the Breloom, focusing my aim on his back. I then fired the Vulcan Rifle, and I saw the bullets had struck him viciously in the back. When he had fallen off his Skarmory, I aimed for the Skarmory itself, and fired. Moments later, the Abra found himself alone, with no one to help him.

But I watched in horror as he already had his aim on Randy before I had my aim on him. He had fired three times before I had fired upon him, shooting him in the back of the head and sending his lifeless body forward, which tumbled right off the Skarmory. I then aimed for the Abra’s Skarmory itself, and fired ruthlessly upon him. When all four Wind Strikers were taken down, I had frantically looked for Randy. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw both Storm Gale and Randy were okay, never hit once by the Abra’s attack. They were flying safely in the distance, heading right for Symarix. I watched both of them disappear in the distance.

I then turned around and looked right at Vorox. He had glared viciously at me. Meanwhile, the burning red eyes of his Flygon Tychal stared at me with a harsh gaze. Vorox already knew there was no hope for Macomb. Within less than an hour, the whole industrial city would be destroyed, just like what they had done to the many cities of the Silver Rebellion.

“Those were four of my best and fastest fliers…” Vorox growled angrily, “How was a normal, everyday Pikachu like you able to kill them so quickly!?”

There was silence. I ripped off the Crimson Stars badge that was on my chest and threw it on the floor. I then threw down my rifle, and pulled out the Pokéball containing Latias, otherwise known as Blazewing. I tossed the Pokéball into the air, and it struck the metal floor. The light had poured out from the Pokéball, and had formed into Latias. She had looked up and immediately knew her enemy…

“That’s because I’m no ordinary Pikachu.” I told Vorox with a firm voice, “My name is Juno.”

And for one dark moment, Vorox had seemed surprised, struck with the look that I had arrived far too early than he had expected. I could see in his harsh gaze that he had only expected me to come when Symarix was crumbling before him, when the last city of the Silver Rebellion was doomed to fall and there wasn’t any hope in the world to save it.

“So, the Gold Rider has come at last…” Vorox said mockingly, “But I don’t believe in prophecy. I’ve ruthlessly slaughtered hundreds of Silver Rebellion pigs without mercy, and you Juno… You’re just like all the others…”
“I will let nothing stand in my way of achieving my ultimate goal.” I told Vorox seriously, “Not your soldiers, your Wind Strikers, and not you or your Crimson Stars…”

He had laughed, just as a flash of lightning had lit up the dark and twisted sky above him. He had shown me his two gigantic sickle arms and the blood red sky was reflected in them. I could tell with those same sickles he had killed many honest and pure Silver Rebellion soldiers without mercy.

“Come on, Juno!” Vorox shouted, nearly screaming in laughter, “Let me prove to you I am your worst nightmare!!”
“I guess that makes us even…” I shouted back to him, picking up the Vulcan rifle.

I then jumped on Latias’s back, and strapped myself with the leather straps that had been tied around her. Once I had secured myself on her back, Latias had leapt into the air, and once we had flown above the ground, we turned around to face Vorox and Tychal, our adversaries.

I will let nothing stand in my way of achieving my ultimate goal…

[Cody]

You awesomehead! You're doing too good! I can't wait for more!

[Neo Emolga]

You awesomehead! You're doing too good! I can't wait for more!

Thank you, Cody, but the really best parts are yet to come...

[Neo Emolga]

http://pirate.shu.edu/~rodmanjo/TheTwistedFieldsBattlePic.bmp

Chapter 36
One Must Fall
(PG 13)

I stared strongly into the eyes of my enemy, and at the same time, he glared into mine. A bitter rush of hate and anger had filled the trenches dug within our hearts, and now it had all come down to this final, gruesome conflict. Blood was going to be spilled, and one of us was going to die. As a harsh and violent wind had blown past us, a flash of lightning had lit the sky. I refused to fall to my adversary…

Having already killed thousands of righteous Silver Rebellion soldiers, Vorox was not going to resist taking the life of my own. And as a loyal leader of the Silver Rebellion army, I certainly was not going to resist taking the life of his…

With that, our gruesome clash had initiated…

Tychal had extended his wings, and then burst toward us in full speed. I tried to concentrate on his flight pattern, but even with all my focus and concentration, Tychal was still flying at an excessive speed, faster than I had expected. I watched in anxiety as Vorox readied his sharp scythe, and prepared to slash upon us viciously.

I had no time to attack, and instead just wanted to evade as soon as possible. I beckoned for Latias to ascend upward, and she had surged into the air, just as Vorox had sliced the air next to us. Moments later, Vorox and Tychal had flown past us, and now Latias and I were above the two of them, glaring at the two again.

I had felt a hot burning sensation in my side, and when I had gone to look, I grimaced at the sight. Vorox had cut my side, and a small trickle of blood was running down. It wasn’t fatal, but if we had been any slower, that cut would have been a whole lot deeper…

And as I turned around, I saw Vorox, licking the end of his scythe…

“My, I never knew the blood of the Gold Rider was so tasty.” Vorox sneered with glee, “I need more… Much more…”
“You enter Hell today, Vorox!” I shouted at him angrily.

I then pointed my rifle at them, and aimed for Tychal instead. I then focused and pulled the trigger, and my Vulcan rifle spat fire and carnage as the metal rifle shook with recoil from the blasts. Regardless, Tychal was extremely fast. I tried to follow his flight pattern and aim ahead of him so he would run right into the bullets, but he still managed to catch on and dodge the attack. Then, he curved around and headed right toward us, and Vorox prepared to attack again. I was hoping the closer he was, the easier it would be for me to shoot him, but that wasn’t the case…

Latias and I had dashed away at the last second, and Vorox had swiftly sliced the air furiously. We had flown from the two and dashed away as far as we could, at least several hundred feet away from Vorox and Tychal. When we had stopped, I could hear Latias whimpering, and it didn’t take me long to figure out what was wrong.

Like me, she had been cut in the side, and it was bleeding as well…

“How can we… expect to beat him?” Latias said softly, still in pain.
“They aren’t invincible.” I reassured her, “No one is. We need to find a way to fight back, and we need it now…”

And then, Vorox had seen the cut in Latias and had only laughed. My anger was only growing worse.

“What’s the matter Juno?” Vorox laughed in amusement, “Am I too fast for you? I really expected much more from the famous ‘Gold Rider.’”
“It is prophecy.” I told him strongly, “We cannot fail…”

Again, I had aimed my rifle at the two, this time I was going to shoot at Vorox, knowing it wasn’t him who was controlling Tychal’s flight pattern. Vorox and Tychal were fighting as two minds. I now realized what his weakness was…

Tychal knew nothing of how Vorox was going to attack, and I was going to use that as my weapon. Again I had opened fire, but it wasn't long before the Vulcan rifle had stopped firing, and all that came out of it was a click. For a moment, I was shocked when the cartridges had fallen out and I realized I was out of ammunition. And then again, I had taken the metal rifle, and threw it toward the ground. I didn’t need it any more. I had my own weapon…

Vorox was grinning when he realized my rifle was empty and I had tossed it away. Tychal had flown toward us furiously, and Vorox had prepared to swing his scythe again, thinking I didn’t stand a chance. As I saw him closing in, I concentrated and my red cheeks flared brightly with electricity. Tiny bolts of thunder had surrounded them as Vorox prepared to swipe the air. Now, Tychal could not predict my method of attack, for he could not see me clearly from his angle.

Vorox’s scythe was in feet of preparing to strike, and then I focused my charged electricity not on Vorox, but on the scythe itself. I sent a thrusting surge of thunder for his arm, and when the intense voltage had hit it, the power was enough to cut right through his skin, and evidently slice off the scythe itself.

Suddenly, the intensely sharp scythe had spiraled off his arm only inches in front of my face, but it had missed, and then lowly fell toward the rooftop of the prison. I saw the severed scythe lay on the metal rooftop of the prison. Now, Vorox had one less weapon to use against me.

“There will be no dawn for the Crimson Stars.” I told him with a firm voice.
“You may have won a few victories, Juno.” Vorox replied, setting aside the fact that his arm was cut off, “But it’s not over yet. I still have plenty of chances to kill you.”

I immediately saw Vorox signal Tychal to pull back from the conflict. Then, I realized what he was going to do.

“Dragonbreath.” Vorox ordered his Flygon, “Focus hard and firmly.”

And then, I got a sickening feeling as Tychal closely watched every single one of our moves. I needed to give Latias power she could obtain from none one but me. I needed her to have that strength now, and I concentrated hard, even to the point of shutting my eyes. Then, for some strange reason, I was able to see what Latias was seeing, as if I was her…

Cyber Dragon Slash Attack…

Blaze. That was all I could use to describe the speed that she was moving. The air was blasting past us to the point of burning, and we homed in on our enemy. The raging, bitter fire that was blasting from Tychal’s mouth had no chance of hitting us from the excessive speed we were traveling. With the claw of Latias sharp and ready, I prepared to bury it into Tychal, and deliver as much suffering to him as I could. Faster and faster I traveled toward him, and when we were suddenly close enough, the claw of Latias had thrust its way into the green underside of Tychal, and tore with such fury and anger to the point of incinerating the cut with fire. Within seconds it was over with, and the two of us had pulled upward, and I opened my own eyes again.

Tychal had let loose a horrible shriek, beating the flaming cut with his wing and still attempting to keep afloat in the air. When the fire was extinguished, I could see the vicious tear in Tychal’s underside, bleeding very badly.

And in pure, uncontrollable rage, Vorox ordered Tychal to attack again, and Tychal with its last bit of strength flew toward us in a frenzy, desperately desiring to tear the two of us into ribbons.

Again, I had shut my eyes again, and Latias flew with a blazing fury toward Tychal. Seconds later, we had arrived at Tychal’s under side, and with Latias’s sharp claws ready, she tore another gaping cut into Tychal, blasting his skin with raging fire and slicing his flesh with claws as sharp as surgical knives.

We had flown right past them, and I had watched as Vorox screamed desperately as Tychal spiraled toward the metal roof top, unable to control his flight. Moments later, Tychal slammed into the roof of the prison, rolling over several times before stopping and lying on his stomach. Tychal lay lifeless, with his wings folded over and his head lying motionless as a pool of warm blood had surrounded it. I had signaled Latias to head toward the roof, and we flew swiftly toward it. When we had arrived, I leapt off of Latias, and looked at Tychal’s dead body. I had wondered if Vorox had been crushed by Tychal’s dead body, but then I saw something rise up, and I realized Vorox wasn’t dead…

He had jumped off of Tychal’s body, and landed on the metal floor of the prison, still armed with his left scythe. It was certainly more than enough to kill me.

“No one…” Vorox growled in a murderous tone, “You murdered my precious companion. You will suffer for that… suffer great!”

Then, in uncontrollable fury, Vorox rushed toward me with all the anger and fury in the world, blasting toward me with extreme speed, holding his left scythe in the air and ready to send it ripping into my body. I had no time for an electrical attack, and he knew that. There were only seconds before he would get the chance to bury his scythe into my flesh.

I had stepped back for a moment, and I felt my foot step on something firm and hard. When I looked down to see what it was, I saw it was Vorox’s severed right scythe.

And in those critical last seconds, I bent down and picked up the scythe, and held it firmly in my hand. I then put my foot firmly on the ground, arched my hand back and vigorously threw it forward, aiming right for Vorox. The sharp scythe had violently spiraled through the sky, slicing the air as it spiraled toward its target.

Suddenly, the sharp scythe had buried itself right into Vorox’s face. It had sliced right past his nose and was now half-buried in his head. He had stopped short, and had shook and trembled with pain. Then, he had fallen to his knees, laid down his arms, and collapsed onto the metal roof.

Vorox, the leader of the Wind Strikers was dead. The ruthless days of his onslaught upon the Silver Rebellion were over. Never again would he rise to challenge them.

Or challenge me…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 37
Time Crisis

It was over. I was finally glad at last it was all over with. Despite our victory over Vorox and Tychal, he had scarred Latias as well as myself. Regardless, it was well worth it to stop his tyranny. But there was still one more adversary I needed to stop. Zander…

Meanwhile, I had realized Vice had been watching the whole event, and as I turned to face him, he just stared at me, completely in disbelief. He had slowly approached me, and just shook his head.

“Man…” He replied softly, looking at me at then turning toward the dead body of Vorox, “You’re far more powerful than I thought…”
“But this is only the beginning…” I told Vice as he gazed upon the fallen body, “There’s much more we need to do before this war is finally won…”

Regardless, we still needed backup from Symarix before we could even think of getting the prisoners out of here. Meanwhile, I had looked off the roof to see several Crimson Stars soldiers banging on the metal door coverings and trying to use all sorts of tools to break them open. I could only hope Randy had given the message to Achilles and he was sending backup. Otherwise, we would only be delaying the inevitable…

I then had realized something. The entrance to the roof hadn’t been locked down. In fact, the door wasn’t even remotely secured. I was wondering why they had gone through all the trouble to ensure that the doors and windows of the prison were sealed up tight while the door on the roof wasn’t even the least bit secured…

“I’m wondering…” I said to Vice, “Why would the Crimson Stars go through so much trouble to seal up everything but leave the door to the roof untouched…?”

Vice had looked at the metal door we had used to reach the rooftop, and indeed, it was loose enough to be swaying in the wind.

“Well, there’s no way prisoners would come up here to try and escape.” Vice replied, “They lock up their Pokémon nice and tight. And jumping off the edge would only be suicide…”

And then, it hit me. There was a perfectly good reason to leave the door to the roof unlocked. It case something like this had happened. No wonder Vorox and his Wind Strikers had appeared. They were going to infiltrate the prison until they had seen us…

“Keep your weapon ready, Vice…” I told him, looking around, “Something tells me we’re only going to see more havoc breaking out here…”
“What makes you say that…?” Vice asked with hesitation, slowly pulling out his Vulcan rifle.
“There’s a reason why the roof door doesn’t lockdown with everything else around this prison.” I told him firmly, “It gives the Wind Strikers a way to enter the building, just in case of a crisis. Why do you think Vorox was here…?”
“Oh man…” Vice moaned, clutching his Vulcan rifle.

We had put our backs to the single metal door, and I had quickly returned Latias to her Pokéball. She desperately needed time to rest. I was without a weapon, which wasn’t going to help me considering these Wind Strikers were likely armed with rifles.

I had heard a violent swish of air to my right side, and I had seen three Skarmories and their riders fly over the wall of the prison and landed quickly on the rooftop, the three Skarmories slamming their sharp talons onto the metal roof, and their riders had dismounted, a Sandshrew, a Plusle, and a Minun. I was shocked. They certainly weren’t cute looking anymore. With battle scars all over them and seeing them hold a lethal Vulcan rifle, they were anything but cute…

The Minun’s eyes had caught sight of Vorox’s dead body, as well as Tychal lying in a puddle of his own blood. The other two had caught sight of it as well, and they pointed their rifles right at us.

“I don’t believe it.” The Minun said with a furious growl, lowering his eyelids and giving us a cold, violent stare, “Which one of you two killed The Jade Sword!?”
“That would be me…” I told the Minun with a firm voice, “Juno… The Gold Rider.”

The Minun’s stare had lessened, now growing tense. He obviously knew who I was, and why I had come here. I could see he hadn’t expected to encounter me, and he didn’t expect to see Vorox dead, killed because of me. I could see a fear growing inside of him…

“You were the one who did this?” The Minun growled angrily, “You were the one who killed our leader!?”

I could already sense he was going to strike. I was prepared for him to unleash his attack. I also knew that by my side, Vice was ready with his Vulcan rifle, as well as his sharp claws…

“You’re not going to walk off this rooftop alive, Juno.” The Minun growled, “Never…”

And then he pulled the trigger…

[Neo Emolga]

http://pirate.shu.edu/~rodmanjo/BltizAndStormGale.bmp

Chapter 38
Dark Overwhelming

The Minun’s Vulcan rifle blasted furiously at us, and the only thing we could do was just run from the door. Vice and I had run in opposite directions, and the rifle blasted the metal door with a round of bullets, slicing holes through the metal. Then, he stopped firing.

“Throw your weapon down, and surrender!” The Minun shouted, especially aiming at Vice.

Vice didn’t even have his aim on Minun, and he didn’t have a single second to get an aim on him before Minun and the other two Wind Strikers would fire upon him. There was nothing he could do but toss his Vulcan rifle onto the metal ground.

“Kick it aside.” The Plusle told Vice, with his rifle pointed right at Vice.

With little choice, Vice kicked the Vulcan rifle to his right with his left foot. Now his only automatic weapon was completely out of his reach. But that wasn’t the only thing that was bothering me.

Suddenly, right over the side of the prison wall arrived two more Wind Strikers, this time a Machop and a Tyrogue. The two Skarmories had landed on the roof, with their talons clanging on the metal floor. When their sharp, blade wings had folded up, the Machop and the Tyrogue had dismounted, and had landed on the metal floor, rifles drawn and ready. Things certainly weren’t getting better…

“Who are these punks?” The Tyrogue asked, looking at the two of us, “And what is…?”
“That’s Juno.” The Minun replied, “He’s the one that killed Vorox…”

The Tyrogue’s mouth fell wide open, just gawking at Vorox’s dead body. He shook his head in disbelief.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” He shouted in total shock, “And he doesn’t even have a single arm chopped off…”
“I say we kill him now.” The Machop told the others, “After killing Vorox, he certainly deserves to die.”

Already, I knew there was very little way for me to dodge a swarm of bullets firing from five rifles. I had barely escaped when there were two firing at me.

And despite my previous beliefs that there were barely any Wind Strikers left, three more had arrived, and quickly joined the ranks of the others. I could only guess more were going to come up here, and they were going to take us in their custody. Either that, or they were going to shoot us dead, which certainly seemed far more likely.

I was too far away from Vice to say anything, and he was looking to me for a solution. That wasn’t a very good sign. We really had no chance of escape whatsoever…

And then, suddenly we heard an explosion below us, and everything stopped. I was wondering what had happened.

“Open fire!” A familiar voice shouted above.

I had looked into the sky to see dozens of Storm Riders, with Randy leading them. They had aimed at the small group of Wind Strikers below them, and then they unleashed their attack.

The Wind Strikers on the ground had looked up, and couldn’t believe their eyes.

“Damn it!” The Machop shouted angrily, aiming his rifle at the group.

But it was far too late for them to do anything about it. Suddenly, I watched in shock as the Machop was struck twice in the chest. When he fell on his knees, throbbing with pain, another bullet had struck him between the eyes. He had collapsed onto the ground, laying down his rifle.

Some of the other Wind Strikers had opened fire, but they barely got an attack going before they were blasted by the gunfire of two dozen Storm Riders. A loud cracking of rifles had roared out, but the Wind Strikers were highly outnumbered and unprepared for the attack. When it all stopped, not one of them remained standing…

Randy had then taken Storm Gale and guided her to land on the roof of the building. Then the rest of the Storm Riders had followed, and each of their Pidgeots landed on the roof of the prison safely. Randy had dismounted and then approached the two of us.

“Looks like we got here just in time…” Randy remarked, seeing we would have been doomed without him.
“I owe you one, Blitz.” Vice told Randy, looking favorably upon him, “You really saved our butts this time…”

But it certainly wasn’t the time to rejoice now. I heard hear an excessive amount of gunfire coming from below, meaning the battle was still going on, and at a feverish pace.

It certainly wasn’t over yet…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 39
Homecoming

The fighting was still going on, and I could hear loud explosions all around me, as well as new fires raging out. Already the assembly plants were under attack.

On the rooftop, I had seen a familiar face approach me. It was Sever, looking at me seriously.

“There are transports waiting by the prison entrance, Juno.” Sever told me, “There should be enough to carry everyone out of here. Take the prisoners and get out of here, by now the guards by the door should be gone.”
“You’re crazy!” Vice shouted in protest, “You pack ‘em up, we still have fighting to do here.”
“He’s right, Vice.” I corrected him, “Come on, we’ve done more than enough here.”

After Vice had recalled Storm Gale and Randy had begun to follow us, we had headed back into the prison and prepared to release the locks. This time, we were even faster, heading downstairs and once we found the release, the metal panels on the doors and windows had folded up and were removed. Then, he headed to the group of prisoners on the first floor and guided them to the transports waiting just outside.

The transports were huge, metal trucks with tiny slits for windows to prevent entry of attacks but to allow at least some circulation. Armadillos and Land Splitters were racing all over the Macomb city, shooting down any Crimson Star resistance and tearing apart the little that was left of the city.

Once the prisoners from the first floor were packed in, we then brought out the second floor’s prisoners, and kept going until the entire prison was empty. Then, Randy, Vice, and I had climbed into the final transport, and then the doors were shut, and closed in tight. It wasn’t long before we had begun moving. It wouldn’t be long before the fighting force that we left behind would follow us home, because there was very little left of Macomb now.

Moving by armored transport was much slower than riding the skies as a Storm Rider. It nearly took triple the time, and certainly wasn’t as exciting at all. Regardless, we had accomplished our mission. And even as I thought about it, somewhere on one of the transports must have been Alex. What freaked me out the most was knowing I led him out into the transport and didn’t even know it was him. But now wasn’t the time to start looking for him. That would have to wait until we got everyone home.

Exhausted and weary, I had fallen asleep in the transport, just waiting and waiting…

It was a bright light that had caused me to awake. When I opened my eyes, I realized the transport door had been opened. The other Silver Rebellion soldiers around me had begun heading out, and so did I. And moments later, I had laid eyes on the familiar sight of Symarix. It was great to be back. Macomb was definitely a nightmare I didn’t want to live over again.

It didn’t take very long before word had gotten out that I had slain Vorox, the commander of the Wind Strikers. To say the least, Jamac and Achilles were extremely impressed with my performance, and had promoted me to the commander of the Storm Riders as well as a General of the Silver Rebellion army. Meanwhile, Sinis had been giving me another odd stare. I really didn’t know what was wrong with him, or if he was just jealous of something.

A report had come in concerning Macomb’s state, and to say the least the base wouldn’t be coming back online, and it definitely would cripple the war effort of the Crimson Stars. Apparently, Vice and Randy were given promotions as well, simply for their contributions in the attack on Macomb.

But somehow, it really didn’t surprise anyone that I had already been given an extremely high promotion in such little time. Most of them said it was because I was able to kill Vorox and lead the destruction of a base that had never been penetrated before. Regardless, this war was far from over. Yet, even for me, I didn’t know what lied at the end…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 40
A Lost Friend

Despite the kindness of Jamac and Achilles, the awards ceremony was pretty boring. In fact, once they had handed me my rewards, it was quickly over with. Achilles asked if I had taken any offense to it and I told him no. It didn’t bother me at all.

After that, I was compelled to find Alex. The free prisoners of Macomb were being held for questioning, asked about what they had assembled and the conditions of Macomb. I had confronted each group of prisoners, asked for Alex, but I pronounced it differently so they didn’t think it was a human name, since I had already seen how much uproar that had caused.

It wasn't until the fifth group did I actually receive a response. Again, I had asked for Alex, and after some long hesitation, someone had come from the group to meet me. Randy had been with me at the time, and we waited as the small group gave way to the one who was approaching us. When he finally arrived at the front, I had seen yet another tiny Pichu before me, looking pretty confused as to what was going on.

Regardless, I felt we should be talking in private, so I took him away and we ended up meeting behind a building. I didn’t say anything to him until we were out of sight.

“Alex, is that really you?” I asked the Pichu, pronouncing his name corrected this time.
“Yes, that is my real name.” Alex responded, looking at me strangely, “I know you’re Juno, but how did you know my real name?”

Randy then stepped closer to Alex. We both looked at him seriously.

“Alex, we’re actually Jake and Randy.” Randy had told Alex, “You remember, from Scottville Middle School?”
“Oh man…” Alex responded, nearly passing out, “How on earth did the two of you find me?”
“It’s a long story.” I told Alex, “But right now, we need to give you a different name. The Silver Rebellion is highly against anyone here having a human name.”

Alex looked around with caution, and he appeared to look so lost around here. I couldn’t blame him though. It was really strange…

“Is everyone is this city a Pokémon?” Alex asked, seemingly shocked at the fact.
“That’s right.” I told Alex, “Most of the Crimson Stars is the same, but they do have human leaders. I don’t know what their purpose is though…”

Alex was silent for a moment. I don’t know why he ended up to be a Pichu like Randy, but I guess that was what Zander really wanted after all.

“You can call me Tek.” Alex told the two of us, “Just anything will do really. But I still can’t believe Jake is the leader of the Storm Riders. That’s amazing…”
“Tek, you really need to call me Juno, no matter what.” I told Alex seriously, “We’ll try and find a way out of here, but you need to give it time. Something tells me Zander is behind this entire war and wants us to finish it. We have no choice but to continue on.”

Still, Alex remained quiet. He stilled appeared to be in disbelief.

“I still can’t believe that was really you behind everything.” Alex told me, “Man, you are tough. Macomb completely fell to pieces because of you.”
“Well, I’m glad we finally met up together.” I told Alex and Randy, “Let’s try to keep it that way, for as long as we can…”

I was so relieved that afternoon, finally we had gotten together, once again to try and escape from this unknown world we had been put into. But even now, we had already been here several months, and it wasn’t looking so foreign now. It wasn’t this world that was becoming foreign actually. It was the one we were supposed to be in…

Several days later, I had been unable to sleep one night with one strange thing on my mind. The prophecy. Something was telling me I really needed to read it myself. I wanted to find out who the Silver Rebellion really thought I was, and what they expected me to do.

That next morning, I had approached Achilles. I then walked up to him and popped the question.

“Achilles, I was wondering if you could tell me where I could find ‘The Prophecy.’” I asked Achilles, looking at him seriously, “I’ve wanted to read it myself.”

But Achilles had looked at me strangely, almost with the look of that I should have known it already.

“Look, we have a lot more things that have a higher priority than that.” Achilles told me, “We should really start planning our next method of attack on the Crimson Stars.”

I just shrugged and decided to go along with it. I could guess from the way Achilles was looking at me, I really knew all of it already. I could expect it to say something about my arrival and how I was supposed to defeat the Crimson Stars.

And then, out of nowhere, I had seen Sinis, just giving me a cold, hard stare. He had glared at me for a very long time, and then I just turned away. What was wrong with him…?

[Neo Emolga]

ON ANOTHER TRACK

Lost. That was the only feeling I could use to describe my emotions for the past few months. Zander had made everything flip upside down. Instead, I had been thrown into this dark, scorched world he called “Kivistal.” And in the end, he decided I really didn’t deserve to be human any longer. This was his world, and he decided I would be better off living it as a Charmander instead of a human. I could spend hours gazing at my claws and my tail and I still wouldn’t believe it. Other times, I would just stare out the window of this cold, metal room and watch the torched sky constantly flicker with lightning. It truly felt like I was one step closer to hell.

But after three months, I had gotten used to it. I no longer missed home as badly now, knowing it wasn’t my choice to go back or not. My memories of it were slowly fading away as the endless hours seemed to pass inside this metal cell. And unlike before, I knew that time was passing in the real world. My family was probably out there wondering where we were, and what had happened to us. While I wasn’t dead, how could I ever expect to return home now? What had I done to deserve this pain?

Other times, I had been dragged into Zander’s conference meetings, where he and ten other dark looking men had gathered around a table. Most of the time I had no idea what they were talking about. I had really no idea why Zander dragged me here most of the time. He told me to stay in the corner and shut up, and so I did. There wasn’t anything I could do against him, so I obeyed.

For the past few days, they had been discussing an industry complex called Macomb. Somehow, someone by the name of “Juno” had been able to destroy it, but for some reason, that name was surprisingly familiar to me. I tried to think for hours why that name had seemed so familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on where I had heard it last.

Some more days had passed and I still didn’t arrive with an answer. I angrily pounded on my metal bunk bed trying to remember the name, but it wasn’t until I had been brought into that metal conference room again did I finally remember where the name was from.

They had brought in a very beat up looking Minun, supposedly shot three times but still managed to survive. Since no man there could understand the Minun, they needed a translator. To my surprise, they had brought in a Hypno, one that had been trained to talk in English. Regardless, I could understand what the Minun was saying even without the Hypno. For the first time, I had understood what a Pokémon was saying…

The Minun had told us that he had confronted Juno. He had described him being able to move as fast as lightning along with a strong will to survive. Suddenly, I had realized who Juno actually was. He was the Pikachu that had confronted Randy back when we were in Randy’s world. I suddenly remembered it all, the stadium, and the battle that had taken place! But there was one thing that I couldn’t understand…

Who was Juno and how did he end up from Randy’s world to here…?

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 41
Disappointment

I had been unable to sleep that night, just thinking about Sinis. What was even more strange was wondering what his purpose was. I never really saw him do anything, but then again, I haven’t been here that long.

The whole night, it rained, constantly saturating the thin metal of my bedroom with water. Ever since my promotion, I’ve gotten a much better place to sleep, but it still wasn’t luxurious. I could hear every raindrop hammer down from above.

The strangest thing about rain here was that it was a very light, transparent crimson color, and nothing ever benefited from it. Also, the rainwater couldn’t be consumed directly, it had to be purified first. If it was consumed in its raw form, not only did it taste awful but it had long-term health problems. And at night, it looked like the whole city was covered in blood…

That next morning, Achilles wanted me to discuss the next attack upon the Crimson Stars in the command center. The room was cold and dark, being the only concrete building in the entire city. All we did was stare at a map and decide what target we would attack next. There were three colonels there, along with Achilles, myself, and Vexcel the Dragonite, another general.

“Now that we’re gathered here…” Achilles began, after we had all taken our seats, “I wanted to discuss our next attack. As long as we keep fighting back like we have been, it will protect the citizens of Symarix.”

I just keep looking up at the map. I could see the red dots resembled the enemy locations while the blue ones resembled ours. There were a whole lot more red dots than blue ones…

“Considering how much damage we did to Macomb…” Vexcel replied, “Our next best attack location would be Black Rock. It’s only a military camp. Attacking that location would reduce the number of Crimson Star soldiers to some degree.”

I nearly tuned out Vexcel and just looked at the largest red dot on the map, labeled Jasandax. There were many other small dots surrounded it, but I couldn’t help but keep my eye on Jasandax…

“We’re better off destroying all those smaller outposts first.” One of the colonels said.

I had looked to face him and looked into his eyes. Wow. That was one nasty looking Charizard. I didn’t even want to ask how he got his promotion. It must have been through a lot of blood and guts…

“What do you think Juno?” Achilles asked me, looking at me when I was just barely paying attention to the conversation at hand, “Should we attack the outposts in the northwest or attack Black Rock?”

I sat there, looking at the map and looking for Black Rock. I saw it was nearly a million miles away from Jasandax. In my opinion, attacking the smaller outposts would have been better, but I still didn’t think it was the best solution possible.

“Juno…?” Achilles asked, after some delay in my response.

I then looking back up at the bright red dot of Jasandax. I couldn’t help but speak the way I felt.

“I think we should stop wasting time around here and attack Jasandax directly.” I responded.

One of the colonels burst out laughing. The others had looked at me very strangely, and Vexcel just shook his head.

“Juno, we just can’t attack the head capital of the Crimson Stars like that.” He told me, feeling I was making a heavy mistake, “It’s extremely dangerous.”
“He’s right Juno.” Achilles told me, looking down upon me, “There’s a lot more that needs to be done here.”

I still couldn’t believe this. How long was it going to take them to realize we were on our last legs here?

“First off,” I responded, getting a bit angry, “Attacking Black Rock is worthless. It’s a million miles away from the main route of their activity. There’s almost no reason to attack it.”
“It would be easier since there’s nothing they can do to protect it.” Vexcel told me.
“It would be a waste of our time.” I told him firmly, “If we keep attacking like this, they’ll have a second facility like Macomb up in no time. They don’t really even need Black Rock. If we were to take every last soldier and use them in an attack against Jasandax, we might be able to bring the city down.”

Achilles seemed to be losing his patience. I didn’t understand this. I’m nobody’s dog…

“I’ve heard enough.” Achilles responded, looking at me with a dark stare, “I’m pretty disappointed in you Juno…”

He then turned to face everyone else. Fine. If he didn’t want my advice…

“As for the rest of you,” Achilles said to the rest of the commanders, “I’ve decided on what would be the best target to attack. We will be attacking Black Rock, as commander Vexcel has suggested.”

What a bloody waste of time. No wonder these people were fighting a losing war. Why did we bother attacking Macomb in the first place? And then I suddenly remembered… that was my command…

How long would it have taken to attack Macomb without me…?

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 42
Sita

Achilles didn’t even want to speak to me after all of that had happened. He told me I should sit down and think about what I was doing wrong, and in the meantime, they would be attacking Black Rock… completely without me…

To say the least, I was angry. If I was able to destroy Macomb, why didn’t they trust me? And then again, Achilles had told me never to participate in a tactical examination again. He even told me that he would have demoted me, but he decided not to because it would hurt his own image. Gee… how kind. I was slowly beginning to feel my only purpose in this war was to kill Zander and get the hell out of here. I was getting very tired of this. Enough of the crap…

The only ones I could trust were Alex and Randy now. They hadn’t betrayed me like everyone else here had. I knew no one here anymore. Jamac never spoke to me once after that assault, it was so much touch and go when it came to appreciation here. I nearly got myself killed in Macomb, but then again… no one really cared…

I had left the command center feeling so downright awful. Why didn’t they trust me? It wasn’t over yet…

And then… just as I walked out the door, I had sensed someone approach me. I thought it was going to be someone like Vexcel or Sinis but instead, I had laid eyes on a female Pikachu. She seemed so gentle and her eyes were so warm with life. She lightly smiled at me and I couldn’t help but smile back…

“I would like to thank you for all that you’ve done for Symarix.” She told me, giving me a light smile, “It seems to be a whole lot of other people aren’t as thankful…”
“You’re welcome…” I responded to her, almost speechless…

To say the least, I was surprised. I really didn’t expect that whatsoever. Even after all this misery I endured, it was nice to know someone here still appreciated what I did.

“To the normal everyday citizens of Symarix, you’re more of a hero than Jamac himself.” She said to me with a gentle smile, “There was much rejoicing when you brought back those captive soldiers. I saw many families were finally brought back together due to your efforts.”

Well, that at least made me feel a little better. Funny, because at the moment, it almost seemed like everything I was doing had been against the Silver Rebellion. And then again, I was more interested in learning who this Pikachu was.

“What is your name?” I asked the female Pikachu.
“Sita.” She told me, wearing a slight smile, “But, I will always remember your name. Your name is Juno… I never thought I would be this close to the one they call the ‘Gold Rider.’ It just seems so unfair they’re taking all of your services for granted…”
“Yes… it does.” I told her softly, “I’m not a miracle maker like Jamac and Achilles think I am. I can only do my best…”

She approached me very closely, and she held out her tiny hand. I then put my hand on top of hers, and I looked up at her. Her eyes were so shiny and beautiful…

“I will always be by your side.” She told me with a warm smile, “You’re more amazing than I could ever imagine. Everything you have done for us…”

I stared into her eyes, and I couldn’t keep my gaze off of them. Never before had someone truly cared about me, and for the first time I was feeling it more than ever.

“Thank you for you support.” I told her, feeling somewhat shy, “I don’t know what I would do without you…”
“I just…” Sita told me, feeling somewhat uneasy, “I know this time won’t last forever. I want to be with you for as long as I can. You mean so much to me…”

Still, I was silent. There were many things I wanted to ask her, but I couldn’t find the will to ask her the questions that were in my mind. I thought maybe now wasn’t the perfect time. I felt for certain I would meet her again.

“Well, I must be going.” Sita told me, seeing it was getting late, “Thank you for everything, Juno.”
“Farewell Sita.” I said to her, “I hope to see you soon.”

She then turned around, walked a few paces and waved goodbye. I had waved back, and I admired the way she respected me, unlike other people I knew…

It was great to know there were others I could count on other than Randy and Alex. While they were some of my greatest support, I could easily assume there were others out there, just like Sita, who didn’t see just as a tool for Jamac and Antilles. That was true respect. All that anger in me before had slowly melted away, just from Sita.

She really was amazing…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 43
One Last Try

Nearly a month later, General Vexcel and his soldiers had returned from the attack on Black Rock. As I got a look off of him, he looked a hell of a lot worse than he did those few weeks ago. I had seen him leave with three Armadillos packed with soldiers and three squads of Storm Riders, having twenty members per squad. That afternoon, he came back with only one very beat up Armadillo, and seven Storm Riders that had lost every trace of morale…

The attack on Black Rock had been successful…to a degree. But all that time, I kept thinking what it was for. Yes, we reduced the soldiers of the Crimson Stars, but they just did the same to us. I had overheard Vexcel telling Achilles that he didn’t want to fight again until he had gotten his eyes off of combat for some time. I couldn’t blame him for one thing. It was a harsh reality to see some fellow Storm Riders tumble to their deaths after being shot. But then again, it was him who decided to go there in the first place. Everything he had witnessed was his own fault, and I couldn’t excuse that.

We had lost three outposts in the last month, and we were still losing at a hideous pace. Already, intelligence had given us information about a plan to rebuild Macomb, only this time it would be behind Jasandax, a place that we couldn’t reach without a lot of problems. Our casualty list was only getting longer, and the graveyards were only getting larger.

Still, Achilles heavily insisted that I was a General by title only. He refused to give me commanding authority over other soldiers or pick my own support members. For the longest time, I had been doing nothing, only hearing about consistent losses. Achilles kept blaming it on weaponry and kept insisting to the weapons manufacturers that they weren’t strong enough. But I knew there wasn’t anything wrong with the weapons, it was how they were being used… Still, Achilles refused to take my advice.

It all came down to one problem, and I figured it out one rainy night in my bed. Achilles was listening to only what he wanted to hear. Never once did he say to himself that he was doing the wrong thing. No wonder he shut me out from saying anything. Vexcel and all the others were probably used to this by now. As long as Achilles was calling the shots, we were going to lose in time. For every unneeded outpost we destroyed, the Crimson Stars wasted three of our most vital ones.

And then there was one day when I had lost my patience. I had approached Achilles one more time, just before he was going to walk into the command center for yet another meaningless tactical examination.

“What do you want?” Achilles asked me as I got in front of him, “I have a meeting to attend…”

I didn’t care if I was going to be brutally honest. It was either that or be brutally killed…

“I know where you’re going.” I told Achilles in a firm and serious tone, “But I’ll tell you right now that for the last month and then some we’ve been on the wrong track ever since.”
“Are you saying there’s something wrong with my battle plan!?” Achilles growled at me, growing angry.
“To put it short, yes.” I told him, unafraid of his anger, “Vexcel isn’t the brightest General I’ve ever seen, but you’re not doing justice to this by following his advice. If our performance stays like this, I suspect Symarix will be overrun in less than a year.”

For the longest time, Achilles had been deadly silent. He stared at me for the longest time, and I refused to look directly into his eyes. Never before has he given me such an apprehensive look.

“I would have you thrown into prison for treason,” Achilles scowled at me, “But then how would you fulfill the prophecy? That’s if, you’re even the real Juno and not an imposter…”
“Imposter…?” I asked him, growing very bitter, “Really now, Achilles. I really don’t think an imposter would be able to destroy Macomb with only a few casualties, let alone even find the will to go there.”
“I was wrong about you.” Achilles replied, shaking his head, “How could I have been such an idiot? Hmph, let the people worship you like a god, but while you’re under my power, you’ll never be higher than me or Jamac. We’re still your superiors, whether you’re actually Juno or not.”

I certainly never thought Achilles would ever act like this. Something was telling me that he didn’t expect me to perform so well or he was taking me for granted. Or he was worried about losing his High General position. Yes, that had to be it, why would he keep me from engaging on missions? I could never get a higher promotion if he kept me off.

“You’re being extremely selfish.” I told Achilles, staring right into his eyes, “You’re afraid of me stealing your General position, but that isn’t my intention.”
“That’s a lie.” Achilles growled at me, “I know what you’re here for and what you’re going to do. To tell the truth, life was better here without you. You are already set on taking my position. That’s what it says in the…”
“Prophecy?” I asked Achilles, seeing deeper into his soul, “Tell me, what else does The Divine Prophecy mention?”

And then, I was shocked at his reaction. Suddenly, he had lost his anger, and he then looked me over. He shook his head, and couldn’t believe it.

“You mean you don’t know!?” Achilles shouted, nearly laughing, “The legendary Juno doesn’t even know his own fate? I was right… you are… an imposter…”
“Stop it!” I shouted angrily, “This country is about to die because of your negligence. And if it dies, you go along with it. Right now, that fool Vexcel you promoted to General just lost another good fifty soldiers, and the rest of your lackeys aren’t doing anything either! You… you’re this nation’s biggest threat.”

He then glared at me with an evil stare. Achilles had changed, he had become far more worse than ever. He pointed his claw at me, and grew extremely angry. All I could look at was the razor-sharp edge of his nail.

“Guards!” He shouted loudly, “Apprehend this ruffian!”
“Stop this at once!” I shouted at Achilles, “You don’t know what you’re doing!”
“Yes I do.” Achilles responded his voice grew softer, “I’m going to arrest you and put you out of my way!”

At that moment, I had laid eyes on Sever, as well as four other soldiers. They had arrived in a hurry, but they stopped dead in their tracks as they saw the two of us.

“General Achilles…” Sever replied, looking confused, “You want us to apprehend Juno? The Gold Rider…?”
“On the grounds of treason.” Achilles responded with a harsh tone to Sever, “He’s been betraying us, but I caught him just in time before he did anything harsh!”
“That’s a cold-blooded lie!” I shouted at Achilles, “I would never plot against the Silver Rebellion! I’m here to help you!”

Still, Sever did not move. I could see behind the skull he wore over his face and into his eyes. I could see that he trusted me more than he actually trusted Achilles, but he didn’t say anything, and he didn’t make a move. Even the three other soldiers hesitated to move.

“Apprehend him!” Achilles ordered, “He may still be a General but I still have power over him! Treason’s a serious crime here!”

With hesitation, Sever confronted me along with the three other soldiers. Two of them held me down while the third bound my hands with metal chains behind my back. I didn’t try to struggle, I didn’t want to make this any worse.

“I’m deeply sorry you’re making a choice you will regret.” I told Achilles, just before Sever prepared to take me away.
“Sir, are you sure about this?” Sever asked, “He’s one of our key commanders. You remember what he did at Macomb and Black Bay and what he did to Vorox. Is this your way of thanking him?”
“Shut up, both of you!” Achilles shouted, “Take him out of here, I’ve seen enough of him!”

And then, I was pushed along through the city, headed for the Symarix prison. I already knew something deeply wrong had gone inside the heart of Antilles, and it seemed I wasn’t the only one…

They had led me through the streets and between alleyways, and the very sight of me bound in chains was enough to scare the skin out of the citizens. They kept asking Sever and the other soldiers what I had done, but the five of us remained silent. I kept looking down, unable to look at them in the eyes. I was pretty sure I had heard Sita’s voice, but I didn’t look up to check.

It wasn’t long before we had arrived at a black, metal building with very tiny windows. I couldn’t believe I would be spending time with captive Crimson Stars soldiers, but I didn’t have a choice. The gatekeeper had looked me over, but I didn’t look up at him. I didn’t even know what Pokémon he was, all I could hear was a low voice.

“You have got to be kidding me…” He remarked in complete, “This is Juno for crying out loud! Do you fools even know what you’re doing!?”
“General Achilles has ordered us to arrest him on the grounds of treason.” Sever told the gatekeeper.
“High General Achilles!?” The gatekeeper shouted in fright, “That means he doesn’t even get a trial! What did he even do?”

There was silence. Obviously they didn’t even know, since they didn’t even hear anything. Only if they had…

“We don’t know…” Sever replied scornfully, looking down.
“There has got to be some mistake.” The gatekeeper replied, “Never in a million years did I think General Achilles would be sending Symarix’s greatest asset to prison!”

But there was silence. Still, I didn’t look up. I was too ashamed at the moment.

“I’m deeply sorry, Juno…” The gatekeeper replied with the sound of desperation on his voice, “But if this order is from Achilles, there’s nothing I can do about it…”

Moments later, I was led into the building, which wasn’t as bad as the prison in Macomb, but there was one big difference between this one and the one at Macomb. I never thought I would be forced into a cell by my own comrades...

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Neo Emolga]

The adventure doesn't end here! The saga continues with The Blazing Skies (http://www.empireirc.net/pokemonelite2000/showthread.php?t=860). Read the final part of this three part trilogy to get the whole story!