Emergence (Final Update - 28.03.12)

[GreekGeek]

Cool! Lot of hot action, lovely

[Cobraroll]

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

Chapter twenty-five: Two unusual visits

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

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

Part 2 will follow shortly

[Cobraroll]

Chapter twenty-five, part two:

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

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

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

[GreekGeek]

Yeah, I made up the title

Another great chapter, good work Cobra!

[SuperFireKirby]

I was expecting Vileplume. Great chapter anyway.

[GreekGeek]

I was expecting Vileplume. Great chapter anyway.

Why Vileplume ?

[SuperFireKirby]

A voice somewhere saying Vile.

[Cobraroll]

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

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

Anyway, here it is:

Chapter twenty-six: Support and opposition

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

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

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

[SuperFireKirby]

Another great addition.

[Cobraroll]

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

Chapter twenty-seven: The lion's den

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

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

[GreekGeek]

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

[SuperFireKirby]

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

[Cobraroll]

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

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

Chapter twenty-eight: The Second Outbreak

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

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

Part two fill follow shortly

[Cobraroll]

Chapter twenty-eight, part two:

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

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

[GreekGeek]

We want more, we want more !