Emergence (Final Update - 28.03.12)

[SuperFireKirby]

give me moars, I crave the chapters

[Cobraroll]

just.... doesn't Rob have any medicine?  Like, potions, berries, etc.  It does seem very brutal to knock out a pokemon to heal them. 

The logic behind this is that potions and berries help restore energy, or cure burns, poisoning, etc, but they can't close wounds or heal fractures. Pokémon attacks do not leave permanent wounds, so it's usually not a problem, but when Pokémon are hurt otherwise, they have to heal otherwhise too. Rob exploits a "loophole" in this, by using Pokémon attacks to inflict greater damage aroud the wounds, and make new wounds that heal themselves (like heating up the fractured ends of a broken candle so it melts back together). Though it's a painful process, and doing it on a badly wounded Pokémon would just make matters worse. So for the Pokémon with more severe wounds, Blissey will have to restort to traditional medicine.

Glad you liked it!

[Cobraroll]

Ohh... double post. No update today, though. Sorry for that.
It's not that I don't have any inspiration or "drive" to write or update anymore. The next chapter has been very close to finished for almost two months. Emergence is nearing its conclusion, and I have the next few chapters reasonably well planned out.

However, I like to have somebody to read through each chapter before I post it. It's a good way to find logical fallacies, poor choice of words, bad grammar and writing overall. Especially now, near the end, when all the "loose threads" are to be picked up and the story as a whole concluded, this becomes more important to me. I don't like leaving large plot holes.

I'd like to thank GreekGeek and Dahans for their patience and perseverance, as every chapter has been read through and approved by at least one of them, and without our late-night brainstorming sessions on MSN, I would most likely have given this up long ago. Thank you, guys.

But lately, as has happened or will happen to most of us, they've got lives of their own as well. I think I wrote down the end of chapter 42 around May 10th, but my trusty peers haven't had the time to read it through yet, and with busy summers coming up, it doesn't look like they will for quite some time.

So now I ask if there are anybody out there who would want to have a look at the upcoming chapters before I post them. Without external input, I'll be stuck. If there are anybody with time and patience, and preferrably, somewhat control of the English language and a certain familiarity with the story so far, to approve a chapter or two, I'll be happy. Just hit me up on MSN, send me a PM, or send a messenger pidgeon.

Thank you in advance!

[SuperFireKirby]

I'd be happy to help, Cobra!

[Cobraroll]

^You were indeed helpful!

It's time for the next chapter! Thanks to SFK, this should have the punctuation right as well (More right, at least... still not sure about the commas after quotation marks). Now I hope the rest of you enjoy:


Chapter forty-two: Nemesis

"That... Lunatic... Agency... Hmmm... Tellus... Liberation... Army... Things... L-something... A... something." It was some time between three and four AM. I had been walking through the woods for hours, but because of the terrain and my hurt foot, I hadn't got very far. To detract my mind from the foot, I had started babbling various suggestions for what TLA stood for. It had helped, to some extent, but I doubted I had found any plausible answers. Just as I thought I had gone wrong somewhere, I could see a road between the trees ahead of me. I limped the last few metres, stumbled across a ditch, and found myself on a deserted road. Luckily, it was all downhill back to the city, so I knew which way to take. I took another firm grip around my improvised walking stick, and kept going, for the thousandth time cursing myself for being so stupid. I was almost lucky that it was a troll the TLA were hunting; had it been a demon, I would have been dead now, or worse.
Tauros had been of little help too. He had ran away at the first sight of trouble, but to his defence, it had been quite a shocking sight at that. Weavile had been more courageous, but he hadn't been able to do much. Hopefully, the TLA had been more successful. Apart from the initial rampage when it had entered their camp, I hadn't heard or seen any more from the troll. I had been scared of the dark as a child, but I had grown to like it when I found out how useful it was to hide in. Besides, the foot hurt so much that I didn't have energy enough to worry about imagined unknown evil. For all I cared, a pack of wolves could be following me this very moment. It didn't matter. As long as I kept going, I would be... I...
Eventually, I stopped thinking, or caring. All I could comprehend was the very present. Thump, thump, thump... each footfall was like dipping the right foot into liquid iron. Like somebody drove nails into my ankle with a sledgehammer. Walking on the hard road meant less cushioning, but no way I would walk off it and struggle with the trees again. Each step became shorter and shorter, and I took a small break for every ten steps. Not long after, for every five. Then every three. Every other step. Then I was reduced to step, wait, step, wait, rinse and repeat. No, I needed a break. Just an hour, maybe two. Then I could continue. If only I could find shelter somewhere. The sky had been clear earlier, but clouds had appeared on the horizon around midnight, and they now covered about half the sky. I had a feeling it would start to rain soon. I kept limping further, unable to concentrate. I had considered stopping to sleep somewhere earlier, but where? I had planned to... somewhere on this road... what road was this again? Something with F... no, wait, B... Bunker Road. That was it. That meant... ouch... have to walk... no, wait, bunker. Bunker. Where...

I had been here before, with school, several years ago. It had been quite a trek to walk, especially since our teacher insisted on jogging all the way. When I finally got here, the rest of my class were packing down their lunch. The details from the trip were a little foggy, but I remembered being locked in somewhere, with no chance of escape. When I finally got out with the help of the teacher, he had thought it was all a joke, and started jogging back to school with the others. Locked in... where could one...
I was exhausted and confused. Thinking was like swimming in syrup... Bunker Road. Right. I had been trapped inside a bunker, from the war several decades ago. There were dozens of them along the road, hence the name. My classmates had tricked me into one, then placed a large rock in front of the entrance. They had been laughing at my attempts to move it, or climb over it, and one of the girls had even climbed over it just to emphasize how helpless I was. Then they waited until the teacher arrived. I didn't have many fond memories of primary school, or my classmates in general. Thinking of which, wouldn't they start waking up soon? They had had some months of rest now. Rest. How wonderful...
Then around the next bend, I saw it. A large concrete block with a small horizontal slit on the side facing the city, and a hole on the side facing me. On many of the bunkers, including the one I had been trapped in, the entrance still was the original size (about half a metre square), but this one was modified for easier access. I knew there were war memorials or plaques inside many of them, so the openings had been widened so people could get in without crawling. I sped up a little, limping into the darkness of the concrete slab, and collapsed just inside the opening.

I was awakened by a short shout, and sat up abruptly. What time was it? For long had I-...
Suddenly, two glowing orbs the size of ping-pong balls came flying in through the slit in the wall. They flew through the room and landed in a corner, where they started fizzling and sparkling, illuminating the room in a red glow. Just now, I realized how big it was, more than a hundred square metres. During the war, the bunker must have been used to store cannons or food or something. I heard barking outside, and a figure appeared in the doorway.
"TLA!", I thought, and instinctively tossed myself aside. The hurt foot slammed into the floor, and I yelped in pain.
"Hurt your foot, Roberto?", a familiar voice said. Julia, AKA Field agent lieutenant Theta, entered the bunker with the grace of a ballet dancer. She was wearing an all-black TLA field uniform, with a golden θ on her chest. She had a gun and a couple of knives holstered in her belt. Her smile told me I was in trouble.
"A little," I mumbled, not exactly knowing what to say.
"Which one? Right? left? Right, right?" A short humourless laugh. I grimaced at the bad pun.
"Nice. Then I only need one shot." Before I could see what had happened, she had drawn the gun and fired. My left foot twitched a little, but it didn't hurt much. At first. As soon as I understood what had happened, it exploded in pain. My eyes were filled with tears.
"What was that for?!? You-" I called Julia a few things that I don't want to repeat.
"Tch, tch. Foul words, Rob. Shut up, or I'll remove your toenails with this." She patted one of the knives in her belt. I calmed down.
"How did you get here?", I asked, gasping for air.
"The troll team spotted you lurking around. I was listening to the radio while practise shooting, called a dog team and decided to go have a look. You aren't very creative, Rob, I had at least expected to have to go off the road to find you."
"Th-that's me right there," I stuttered, trying to buy some time.
"Judging by that look on your face, you have screwed up big time and have no backup plan." She rolled her eyes. "That's you right there indeed. Should we say this is it, you surrender and all that, and just get you to a nice hole in the ground where somebody can have a look at your feet? And your brain, of course. By the way, you don't have any choice, except 'with or without a lot of screaming'. What do you say?"
"Never!", I shouted with all the energy I could muster, which wasn't much. It came out more like a groan.
"I had kinda expected that. Guys, bring in the dogs!", she yelled to somebody on the outside. A second later, what looked like black potato sacks came flying in through the door. A closer look revealed the sacks to be deeply unconscious dogs. They slammed into the floor and lay still.
"Guys?" Two TLA grunts were tossed in after the dogs. Julia looked a little upset.
"Agent Smith? What the heck is happening out there?"
Something big and black came flying in so fast that Julia had to roll aside to dodge it. It slammed into the back wall of the bunker, making the same sound as a 90-kilo sponge landing after a fall from an air plane. Tiny droplets of blood drifted through the air, before they evaporated. The man, who had left a mark in the concrete wall, made a crunching sound when he landed on the floor. It took several seconds for all his bones to rearrange properly. Julia was suddenly pointing her gun at the doorway.
"Chaaaa...," I heard from the outside. My heart skipped a beat. It couldn't be!
"What was that?", I said, trying to sound uneasy to Julia while speaking a coded message in a certain other language: "Help! I'm in here!"
"Chaam..." The message was clear: "I'm coming to get you"
"Oh no, you aren't," Julia said calmly. "Come in here, with your hands, or whatever you've got at the ends of the forelegs, above your head."
The creature entering the bunker filled the entire doorway. Its resemblance to a human was a lot less noticeable now. Its eyes were shining red in the light from the glowing orbs. Shadows ran across its extremely muscular body as it walked. The beak was twisted into a smile. And in a twist of irony, two of Machamp's four arms were raised above its head.
"I take it you know this guy," Julia said, and glanced at me for half a second. A huge mistake. The next moment, she was grasping her right hand, cursing in pain while her fingers straightened. Machamp now stood beside her, holding her gun in one open palm.
"We don't need this, do we?", he growled, and closed his hand. Pieces of twisted metal were squeezed out between his fingers. He looked at me. "Come on, let's go home."
"Come and get him, then," Julia said, stepping between us. "I dare you."
"What?!?", I blurted out. Did Julia understand Pokémon too, now? The surprise led my mind off the pain for a moment.
"Thanks, but no thanks," Machamp said, seemingly unaffected. "Your grown-up friends were no challenge at all, and I don't like wasting time beating up girls."
Julia seemed furious. I knew there was one thing above all she couldn't handle: humiliation. Next on the list: being ignored.
"Do you have any idea about who I am? I was one of the best kick boxers in the country even before the enhancement, and I've beaten all the TLA veterans I've met!"
"Does not matter. You can not defeat me," Machamp said matter-of-factly. "Now step aside so I can help my trainer back home, okay?"
Julia took a step backwards, then suddenly planted a foot in the ground before her and spun around. Her right heel made a swooshing sound as she kicked Machamp in the face, so fast I could barely see it. Or rather, she tried, but he blocked by grabbing her leg.
"If you so absolutely want to...," Machamp said. "Okay, then. I challenge you to a fair and square fistfight. The winner gets to keep him" - an arm pointed in my general direction - "And is granted free passage, of course. Anything you want to add?"
"We fight until knock-out," Julia smirked. "No mercy for the loser. When I win, I want to keep you too. Your powers look useful."
Her confidence almost scared me. Either, she didn't realize what she was up against, or she had an ace or two up her sleeve. Machamp picked up my walking stick from the floor and held it with both his upper hands.
"I'll hold on to this with two hands, so I don't get any unfair advantages," he suggested.
"Hey! Are you trying to help her or what?", I shouted at him.
"I haven't had a proper fight for months," he growled. "And she sounds like she can be a challenge, for once."
"Are you mad?!?", I cried. "She's going to kill both of us if she wins!"
"I'd like to see her try."

And so, I was witness to this absurd battle. A former classmate who had obviously lost her mind, versus a Japanese video game monster, fighting inside an old bunker deep into a forest a late March night. The two fizzling and sparkling orbs still lay in a corner and bathed the room in a red light. Machamp tossed the unconscious TLA folks and their dogs out the door, then positioned himself opposite of Julia in the middle of the room. She had taken a fighter stance, while he clasped two palms against each other and bowed deeply. Suddenly, Julia had her knife out and tried to stab him in the neck. I didn't see how, but somehow they both wound up against a wall. Machamp had a solid grip on her wrist with one lower hand, the other gripped her throat.
"You won't need those," he said and picked the knives out of her belt. They were casually thrown out of the narrow slit in the wall. "Get back to initial stance, now."
The next attempt didn't go any better. Julia was clinched to the wall once again, this time for trying to hit Machamp while he saluted.
"This was your last chance. Fight clean, or I'll call it off, pick him up and go home," Machamp growled. On the third try, Julia saluted as well. They bowed, though briefly, and got back up.
"We need a start signal", Machamp said, looking at me.
"Umm... ready, set, go?", I said. At the moment of"go", the battlers lunged forward. Julia was all over the place, hitting from several different angles, while Machamp kept his right foot in one place and just pivoted around, blocking her hits. It all was like watching a sped-up recording of the final fight in a low-budget Bollywood action movie. Julia was somehow running on the walls, hurling herself feet first into Machamp, then suddenly sliding on her back between Machamp's legs, trying to kick him in the groin. After about a minute, the battlers parted again.
"You're good!", Machamp said. "Haven't had to move that fast since I last sparred with Hitmonchan in November!"
"Bring it on!", Julia panted. I could see she was exhausted. "Come on!"
Machamp shrugged and hit her so hard she was sent flying. She slammed into the concrete wall a couple of metres to my left, and I could see her face twist in pain as her spine put itself in place again.
"Want to give up?", Machamp asked. "You can go if you like."
"NO WAY!", she bellowed as she got up. The TLA had to have done something to her voice as well, because the roar was so loud, it left a beeping sound in my ears. "I haven't started yet!" She hurled herself towards Machamp, who simply stretched out an arm and caught her mid-air. He threw her back against the wall.
"You know I never miss a move? You can jump around as much as you like, I will still hit you. When we battle, I see you move around in slow motion," Machamp said.
"All the more reason to take you out, then!", she replied. "I want that power too!"
"What do you mean?", I asked. "You can't just learn No Guard. He was hatched like that."
"You can't just 'learn' this either, but I can still do it," she said. She pulled her sleeve back and gave me the finger. Then suddenly, her hand was on fire. After a few seconds, she waved her hand and the flames were gone.
"What? How..."
"Let's just say that our research and development team is really good at pulling out people's secrets," she said with a smile. "And giving them to others, if they want. Mind reading? No problem. Memory manipulation? No big deal. Universal understanding? Super speed?" All of a sudden, she was sitting next to me. Her eyes were shining as she talked, she was really excited.
"You know, the nice thing about Pokémon powers is their non-lethality. Imagine the potential... harmless interrogation, blowing stuff up without killing civilians... weapons that can't be turned against their users... perfect protection... all without carrying lots of heavy and noisy equipment."
"Torture and warfare, you mean? Julia, you've gone mad!"
"Stop using that old nickname!"
"Case in point."
"Break-time’s over." Suddenly, she was all around Machamp again. Most of the time, he didn't even look at her, just predicted a pattern and blocked accordingly. Then he frowned. Flames were swirling all around him; it looked like Julia had set her hands on fire again.
"I can do that too, you know," Machamp mumbled. He held up one hand, and sparks started flying all around it. Blue jolts of lightning ran between his fingers, and accumulated to a ball in his palm. Then he turned around and hit Julia lightly at the back of her head. She froze.
"Ouch," she squeaked. She took a confused step to the side, scratching her burnt hair. Her gaze was unfocused, and her mouth hung open. I could hear her mumble something about "short circuit". The overconfident TLA agent from a couple of minutes ago was gone. She just looked puzzled and misplaced now.
"Enough," Machamp growled and hit with full force. It sounded like a cannon shot. The sounds of Machamp's fist hitting Julia and Julia hitting the wall were impossible to tell apart. I sat in silence and listened to her body fixing itself for almost half a minute. Even after that, her breath was rapid and shallow.
"Something is not right here," I said after some time. "She should have been all calm now. Look! She's still twitching!"
"Let's go," Machamp said.
"And leave her like this? For all we know, she could be dying, and I don't want to..."
"Let's take her with us, then," Machamp suggested. He finally let go of the stick and threw it into a corner. The light orbs were glowing fainter, then faded out. I couldn't see anything, but it felt like I was lifted up by a mechanic hook. Machamp's skin was rock hard, and the muscles underneath were solid as steel.
"You're bleeding," he remarked. I didn't really need to be reminded, the foot took care of that all by itself.
"Is there anything you could do about it?"
"Yes, but it would knock you out. And I don't remember the way back to your place."
I sighed. "I hope you're a fast runner..."

I had fainted before we got all the way home, but Blissey woke me up with a mouthful of dry-tasting powder. I found myself lying on a bed made of leaves, with Pokémon all around me. My shoes and socks were lying in pieces next to me.
"Keep the feet steady," Blissey advised. "We haven't got to that part yet."
"Why did you wake me up, then?"
"Because it's not pleasant to be woken up by a Revival Herb when you're not prepared for it. You tend to wake up in a very bad mood. Just relax, you'll be treated with eggs once we think you're awake enough."
"When are you going to- ouch!" Very powerful jaws closed around my feet. I could catch a glimpse of Aggron, then everything was black for a couple of seconds. Then I got a feeling similar to being tossed into Arctic water. Some icy cold substance flew through my body, and I felt a strong metallic taste in my mouth, like my tongue was covered in rust. My entire body felt limp, my fingers and toes hurt, and bright lights flashed before my eyes. I couldn't breathe, and panicked a little before I realized my lungs were filled with air.
"Phew! That was... unpleasant," I coughed. Blissey stuffed a piece of egg into my mouth. All the bad feelings from the Revival Herb were gone in an instant. I got up, feeling a little light-headed, but otherwise fine.
"Take it easy," Blissey advised. "You've lost a fair amount of blood, and my medicines can't simply put that back into the body."
"Have you heard anything from Weavile or Tauros?", I asked the crowd in general.
"Don't you remember?", Machamp answered. "Well, guess you don't, you were quite delirious at the time. We met Weavile just before we got to the city. He's over there somewhere."
"Tauros came back just after you three," Nidoking added.
"I don't believe you. Things just don't go according to plan any more," I said. A few Pokémon laughed.
"Before you all start asking for details, I have a question," Blissey interrupted. "What happened to her?"
Julia was lying on another leafy bed some metres away. She was still twitching and mumbling feverishly.
"Dynamicpunch," Machamp said hesitantly. "But whatever is wrong with her, it wasn't my-"
"She's got something in her head," a calm voice cut him short. It came from somewhere behind the crowd. It was Luxray, a black and blue lion-like Pokémon who spoke. "Embedded in her brain, just above the cerebellum, to be precise."
I knew Luxray's sight was so extraordinarily powerful that it could see through things, like an X-ray.
"Is it..."
"Looks electric," Luxray continued. His eyes were glowing faintly yellow. "And... I don't know exactly what it is, but there's stuff in her blood too. And her bones. Most of her internal organs look... wrong. Speaking as a predator that knows what the inside of a body should look like, I say that whatever is lying on that bed is not entirely human."
"Will she be okay?", I asked, not sure on what to feel. On one hand, she had threatened to torture and kill me several times, and bullied me for years, on the other, I couldn't shake off the image of the frightened and confused girl that had appeared for a few seconds before Machamp hit her. It had looked like she had just woke up from a terrible nightmare, as if she hadn't been quite herself for a long time.
"I'll try my best," Blissey said flatly.
"Why would you wish her well?", Salamence growled. He was lying along the wall, covered in bandages made of leaves. "She tried to kill us, and she apparently captured several of us. I'd send her a Draco Meteor and leave her in a dark hole"
"If what Luxray says is true, she wasn't quite herself when she worked with the TLA. Worse, actually. If we treat her well, or somehow reverse what they did, she might be of use to us. Don't worry, though, we'll keep her right here for now. Even if she did recover to full power today, there's no way she could take out all of you anyway. How are the others, by the way?"
It had only been a few hours since we went out, but Blissey had been efficient. Most of the hurt Pokémon weren't squeaking in pain any more. The cave was filled with the sweet scents of various herbs and berries.
"You should go get some sleep," Blissey suggested after she had updated me on the state of everybody.
"Yes, please," I sighed. My feet were still a little numb, I was dizzy, and it was a good eighty metres straight up to my bedroom. "Do we have any mattresses down here? I'm too tired to go up now."
Blissey turned on the spot, and went into the storage room. There, she pulled out an item we had scavenged from the basement of the house.
"All right. That's better than nothing, I suppose..."

I was woken up by the sound of heavy metal feet stamping across a rocky floor.
"Joe's on the phone," Metagross' deep voice said.
"Coming," I mumbled, sat up, and promptly fell out of the hammock I had slept in. My phone was hovering in mid-air right in front of me when I got up.
"Hello?", I said into it.
"It's Joe." He sounded exhausted. "Thought I'd let you know. I'm in hospital. Taken out of operational duty for now."
"What's happened?", I asked. "Did they...?"
"No, completely unrelated," he wheezed. A cough, then his voice was a little clearer. "Yesterday night, I was responsible for leading an operation in the forest. I later heard the guys had spotted you around there. Do you know what I'm talking about?"
"The... troll?", I asked.
"Correct. A rabid troll had broken out of its reservation, and headed for the city. We had to take it out. If I'm not mistaken, it was you who scared away our spotter. We were completely unprepared when the troll came."
I cursed silently. Emily was going to hate me for this.
"Are you all right?", I asked.
"I am. The troll kicked a van in my face before somebody managed to turn the lights on. They were quick to give medical assistance and all that. I'll be okay."
"Light?"
"Trolls turn to stone when exposed to sunlight, you know. Or rather, it's the UV-B rays that do it. Trolls are big and mean and all that, but you can easily defeat one with a solarium lamp. We petrified it, blew it up and dumped the rocks in a safe place." He laughed a little. "If you ever drive on the new motorway north of the city, remember that not all the gravel the road is founded on is from Langsford."
"When will you be up and going again?"
"A month, two perhaps. My legs weren't pretty after they got a van over them."
"Oh... that long?"
He lowered his voice: "I'll be fine. And to be honest, I'm happy with it. I was scheduled to be 'enhanced' next week, and that's not something I looked forward to. It's been pushed on to June now."
"'Enhancing'?", I asked. Julia had used that word as well. "Isn't that..."
"It's brainwashing, Rob. Apparently, it's quite a lengthy process, but once you say yes to the first treatment - and often, you have no choice - they've got you right where they want you."
So that was what they had done to Julia. They had given her special powers to stand out, but she had literally lost her mind too. Used as a tool to catch me.
"Rob? Don't tell Emily this: She knows what I did up there, but I didn't tell her about the enhancement, or that I went after the troll myself."
"You did what?"
"I ran straight for the troll while everybody else ran away. It was intentional. I know I'm supposed to be a responsible adult and all that, but I'm scared, Rob. I'm too deep inside the organization now, and it won't let me out again."
"If there's anything I can do..."
"You've got until June," he said. "After that, I'll be your mortal enemy. And there's nothing you can do about me in the meantime. They won't even tell me which country this hospital is in. I'm sorry."
The phone made a small "Click". I swore.
"Joe is taken out," I said to Metagross, even though he had heard it all.
"Well, that's the element of luck taken out, then," he replied. "Can't remember how many times he's got us out of a tight spot. Can't count on that any more, that's for sure."
"We need to be quick, then. How many Pokémon are we missing, now?"
"Not many, actually. Apart from the water Pokémon, which I expect to be in the sea because there's absolutely nothing the TLA can do to get them there, and Flygon, who is around here somewhere, we miss Staraptor, Hippowdon, Arcanine, Gliscor and Ninjask. We also know for sure that the TLA have captured Electrode, Ludicolo, Rotom and Forretress, but the rest can be accounted for - Except for Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf, of course."
I counted on my fingers. "So that's nine land-based Pokémon to be brought in, then. That's not too bad. How many can we expect to find in the sea?"
"Ten, given that the list you gave me is correct."
"Thinking about it, that actually sounds rather manageable. Perhaps there's light at the end of the tunnel after all?"
"Just don't forget that they've intensified the hunt for you. Just because we made good progress the last couple of days, doesn't mean it's all easy pickings from here on."

Meeting Emily later that evening certainly wasn't easy. Joe hadn't told her I was involved with the troll incident, so luckily she didn't blame me for the fact that he was in hospital some place far away. However, she was furious at the TLA.
"I mean, what if he had died!", she said. We were sitting in the sofa in our living room, watching the rain fall down outside. "Then we would never have heard the truth!"
"What did they tell you?"
"That he was called out to disarm some unexploded bombs after the 'terrorist attack' in the harbour two days ago. They say it all went fine, but that one bomb contained radioactive material, so he had to be sent to specialists abroad to get the necessary treatment."
"How come he was able to contact you?"
"He managed to trick a hospital payphone by feeding it with his shirt buttons."
"Genius."
Eventually, she fell silent, and I decided to ask her something: "By the way, could I borrow some of your clothes? We managed to take out and capture Julia, and I think she'll eventually need spare clothes."
"Julia who?"
"Julia. That crazy girl in our class. TLA collaborator. Bullied me for ten years, before she started trying to kill me instead." Emily looked at me, confused.
"There's no Julia in our class, Rob."
"Don't you remember? She manipulated the teacher into expelling you from class once!"
"I can't recall any Julia..."
"Let me show you, then."
We went down to the cave, where we found Blissey, Roserade and Gardevoir gathered around Julia. She seemed calmer now than earlier, and her breath was somewhat steady. Still, she occasionally mumbled a few unintelligible words. A dented black item the size of a matchbox lay beside her.
"What is that?", I asked Blissey. Emily scrutinized Julia, as if she was wondering whether she had seen her before or not.
"We don't know, but it was embedded in her brain, like Luxray said. They say it's transmitting some sort of signal," Blissey replied.
"How did you get it out of her head?"
"Don't ask."
The box had a few menacing-looking wires sticking out of it. I picked it up, and found out it had burn marks on one side.
"Short-circuited," Gardevoir remarked. "Still, there are signals emitting from it. Looks like it's actually two separate widgets packed in one cartridge."
"Was that thing inside her head?", Emily asked. She couldn't understand what the Pokémon were saying. I decided to enhance the truth a little:
"Just sewn under her skin," I said. "Nasty, or what?"
"Will they do the same to dad?"
Tough question. The answer was of course "yes", but had I told Emily that, or even the functions of it, she would have broke down completely.
"Probably not. Julia was a field agent operating alone, while your father is doing paperwork or commanding people around and such. Gardevoir says it's a tracker, to be activated in emergency situations."
Gardevoir, sensing my feelings, did not correct me. Julia started mumbling again. It sounded like peaceful and meaningless murmur, but was painful to listen to if you could understand what it meant:
"Please, mom! It's me, Julia! I didn't want to make you forget me! No, please, it's me! Don't call them! Don't let them take me!" She was hyperventilating, twitching in violent spasms. Emily looked away. Blissey bowed down over Julia, and gently touched her forehead.
"Nasty nightmares," Gardevoir said, with telepathy so Emily could hear it too. "At least, it's independent thoughts."
"Bella! Tom! Don't do it! Don't say yes! They are going to... No, please! Don't take me! I don't want to go back!"
Roserade gently rubbed her hands together, and Blissey began singing in a soft voice. The combination of scent and melody was soothing. Julia calmed down a little. I could see tears flowing from her eyes.
"I feel sorry for her," Emily said. "I know you said she bullied you, and me too apparently, but..."
"I do too," I said. "Metagross, do the TLA know she's here?"
"It's been almost twenty hours since she left their lair," Metagross replied. He was speaking in Pokémon, so Emily couldn't hear. "I've found a data file they have on her. It says 'Missing in action'..."
Suddenly, my phone rang.
"Was that you?", I asked Metagross. He shook his head, or rather, he tilted his body from side to side. "But... that's impossible!", I continued. "There is no coverage down here without you transferring the signals!"
That could only mean one thing, I thought. I answered the call. "Hello, Alpha."
"Hello, Roberto," a deep voice replied. "How do you feel, now?" The voice was so loud that everybody could hear him, and I had to hold the phone at an arm's length. Usually, my old phone couldn't even make such loud noises, but phones apparently worked differently when the TLA were calling.
"Fine, actually," I replied.
"I thought so. Completely devoid of guilt. While you escaped like a rat two days ago, your friends perished in the battle. You know, we found something today. It looks like a melted leg of your metal crab friend."
Metagross chuckled.
"We've been tracking them down, every single one of them. We found that bull of yours after you left it in the forest last night. It didn't even put up a good fight."
"Yeah, right," I thought. Tauros stood a few metres behind me, chewing peacefully on a mouthful of hay. Somehow, the TLA knew I had parted from him, but they hadn't seen him return back home. Alpha was clearly trying to scare me.
"How is field agent Theta doing, by the way?", I asked. "Still angry that I got away from her again? You know, I met her last night..."
"She... she let you go on purpose. I'd watch my back if I were you, Roberto."
"That's too bad, because I know exactly where she is. Do you?"
"Why would I tell you?"
"Okay, I see. You wouldn't, because you don't know." I picked up the black box, and studied it as I spoke.
"We beat her, Alpha. Your agents are too overconfident, which makes them easy to overpower. They simply don't know when they've got enough. I'd let you speak to her, but she's unconscious. Probably going to stay like that for a few months too, as she was hit quite hard."
"You little..."
"THROW THAT THING AWAY!", Metagross suddenly bellowed. I jumped. The black box? I threw it out into the empty corridor, where it hit the wall and lay still on the ground. Suddenly, it exploded with the force of a hand grenade. Splinters and smoke flew everywhere. Simultaneously, my phone was crushed in my hand, Metagross had destroyed it with Psychic.
"That... that was close!", I gasped.
"What was that all about?", Emily squeaked.
"I... I..."
"Sorry about your phone, but if we're lucky, they might think you're dead as well now," Metagross said. "They've updated Julia's file too: 'Status: terminated'."
Julia had reacted to the explosion by covering her head with her hands and sobbing. She was free now, the TLA would never find her here, and they had cut all connections to her. On the other hand, she had nothing now. "Is it for the better?", I asked myself.
"Definitely," a voice rung in my head. Azelf sounded satisfied. I had 'saved the girl' at last.

[Greg]

*likes*

I think that was actually a particularly interesting chapter.

[Clanker37]

It's a wonderful chapter! Keep up the good work!

[Cobraroll]

Oh, almost another three-month break, now. Sorry for the infrequency of updates, but I've been a little busy with uni stuff. Now well, I'll try to get this story done by Christmas. This chapter was the last one I had to make up "on the go", as I hadn't thought it all through before I started writing it. The next ones, however, are fairly well outlined already. The end of the story has been planned for a while, now I only have to word it.

If you've got any suggestions, right now would be a good time to tell me. I'd also be happy to answer eventual questions you may have.
But for now, have fun reading

Chapter forty-three: Loose ends

Those next days were blissfully calm. We heard nothing more from the TLA, and the wounded Pokémon got
increasingly better by the day. I didn't see Blissey sleep for four days, but when she finally fell asleep,
she slept over the weekend. At that time, only Garchomp and Salamence couldn't stand on their own feet yet,
and there was just a handful of Pokémon left in the nursery. There were almost eighty Pokémon in the cave
now, so we had to dig out a few more rooms for dormitories, storage and recreation.
One Wednesday in early April, I got up, having slept a little better than the previous night, and the night
before.
"I'm starting to like this hammock," I mumbled to Espeon, who lay curled up on a rock beside me. "Better
than climbing up all those stairs every night, only to get back down in the morning."
"Just remember to see your parents every now and then," she replied. "You only come up for dinner now, and
vanish back down as soon as your plate is put in the dishwasher. They might suspect something."
"Emily says the other at school are asking for me," I said. "Though nobody appears to remember Julia."
Julia was moved into her own room now, next to my own. Her condition had taken a turn for the worse at
first, requiring constant monitoring by Gardevoir and Roserade. She had thrown up violently several times,
not only emptying her stomach contents, but also her stomach itself. Luckily, I hadn't seen it, but Blissey
told me she had vomited up a few extra organs, which appeared to be artificial. After that, she had calmed
down a little, but she had started to secrete some sort of orange goo, as if she was sweating old orange
marmalade. Last, lots of small blue sticks the size of matches were expelled from her skin. We hadn't
managed to find out their function, and burned them along with her field uniform. According to Luxray, the
foreign objects were all gone from her body now, and she had calmed down completely, vanishing into the
coma-like state induced from being knocked out by a powerful Pokémon attack.
"Poor girl," Espeon said. "I hope we can help her some way."
"Time will show," I replied. I really couldn't see what more we could do for her, other than keeping her
away from the TLA. How could she ever be able to return to a normal life? At least, we would have a few
months to think before she would wake up by herself. I kept going, past the room where she lay.
"There's news today, Rob", a deep voice boomed from the dormitory as I passed. Thanks to intensive
Flamethrower therapy, Metagross' body was smoothed out again, and his voice was back to normal. He seemed as
good as ever when he met me. "Big news. I've got us another contact at the TLA."
"Who?"
"Rotom. It managed to escape, and is currently possessing a mainframe server in their base"
"Nice!" I beamed. With Joe gone, we had been completely in the dark regarding what the TLA were up to.
"Apparently, they've appointed a new lieutenant Theta. He's from another country, but that's all we know so
far. Rotom says that most of the content on their servers is totally irrelevant information. That seems to
fit well with what I've managed to dig out of their system myself."
"You found Julia's file, didn't you?"
"I found a photo of her. When that thing exploded, the image was plastered with large red letters spelling
'Terminated'. Apparently, that was all there was about her."
"Joe, then?"
"Same stuff, just with a green text underneath saying 'active'. It said the same when he called from the
hospital, so I assume they don't update it for trivial things like injuries."
"Any other news?"
"Nah, the TLA seems to be busy with other things at the moment. Paperwork and the like. An incident like the
one in the harbour generates lots of red tape."
I went over to the garden to get some breakfast. Meganium had been able to grow some fruit trees in there,
so I didn't have to go up to get a snack. This was the biggest room in the cave by far, about as large as a
soccer field, more than fifteen metres under the ceiling. The perimeter of the room resembled a forest of
berry bushes, with a large open square in the middle. In the midst of it, two Pokémon were battling. It was
Machamp versus Blaziken, and they were moving fast. Blaziken moved swiftly with fluid movements, one kick or
punch always leading into another. When Machamp hit him, he tried to dodge, but Machamp always changed
direction at the last moment, and hit Blaziken each time. This wasn't full force, though, more of an agility
match.
"Use your feet, Machamp!" I shouted as I picked an apple from a nearby tree. "You're standing still too
much!"
Machamp nodded swiftly, and started circling Blaziken while blocking his hits. Suddenly, he stepped forward,
and hit so fast that all I could see was a flurry of fists. Blaziken was flung backwards, but he managed to
recover and retaliate. They exchanged a few more punches, then Machamp did a low sweep with one foot while
hitting Blaziken with both left arms, causing him to fall over. Within a fraction of a second, he had
grabbed Blaziken by both legs and feet.
"Match over," Blaziken said calmly. Machamp put him down, and the two exchanged bows.
"My turn," a voice said, and Hitmonchan was standing before Machamp. I left the room again, having seen - or
at least, tried to see - them battle several times before. It was like watching a cloud of smoke. Seeing him
move that fast, I realized that there was no way Julia could have beaten Machamp, and I understood how he
had managed to stay out of detection for so long.
"Do you have any plans for today?" Espeon asked as we went back into the corridor. I stopped by the huge map
that hung on one wall. It was now filled with pins, some sections were marked with coloured strings and
there were scribblings in several places.
"It's Emily's birthday. Better go get her something. We're going out this evening. Before that, though, I
think we could search this area today." I took another bite of the apple and waved my hand at an industrial
area near Jabun's Cross. "We've only been there once, when we saw the TLA take Forretress. I think there
might be more to find there."
"Don't be so sure", a voice rung in my head. Alakazam was suddenly standing next to me. "There is nothing to
see there."
"Where have you been the past week?" Espeon asked him. "And how do you know there is nothing there?"
"I've been talking to Flygon," Alakazam said. "He's been around."
"And?" I asked. I hadn't seen Alakazam in days. He spent a lot of time meditating in his own little alcove,
a hole in the wall just below the ceiling in a side room.
"He's managed to gather all the remaining Pokémon not caught by the TLA," Alakazam continued calmly. "He'll
meet you - here - in an hour."
A pin came flying out of a little box nesting on a rock protruding from the wall. It was pushed into a spot
on the map. I stood rooted, just looking at it for several seconds. The marked spot was a little-used beach
not too far south of here.
"And I was expecting a 'thank you'," Alakazam added.
"Thank you," I mumbled as thoughts ran through my head. Gathered all of them? Every single one? Would the
quest finally be over? Could I lean back and relax, plan how to get the remaining Pokémon out of TLA custody
and then take it easy again?
"Metagross! Over here!"
"We've talked about it", Alakazam said. "You know, I could read an encyclopedia to him faster than you could
ever hope to say 'hello'. Telepathy is so practical when you know how to do it properly."
"Whatever. But why didn't you tell me before now?"
"Because, honestly speaking, my plans tend to become a lot more complicated when you interfere. If I had
told you yesterday that we had gathered all the Pokémon but three, what would you have done?"
"Rushed out to get them," I admitted.
"Exactly. And then we would have been without contact with the remaining three."
"But... how did you do it?"
"You know that we can communicate telepathically over long distances, given that the sender knows exactly
where to find the receiver. I met up with Flygon that night by the harbour, and we agreed that he should go
on the lookout for more Pokémon without you knowing. Frankly, he can move faster and more stealthily on his
own. Anyway, each night he went to sleep in a 'hot spot', one of a few spots we had decided on beforehand,
so I could contact him in his sleep. Mismagius did the same to you, remember. So I used your map and my
knowledge of the remaining Pokémon to organize an optimally efficient search."
"On one hand, I'm quite angry at you for planning behind my back..." I started.
"On the other, you don't have much time. Choose your party, find your bag of Poké Balls, and get moving,"
Alakazam cut me off. I started to wonder whether I liked the way he behaved or not, but that would be an
issue to take care of after our triumphant return. I brought with me Machamp, Scizor, Electivire, Tyranitar
and Espeon, and chose Charizard as my flying steed. Dragonite could carry me just as well, but she often had
problems landing, and after I was woken up on the "operation table" by Blissey three times in as many days,
I decided to use Charizard instead until Salamence got better. I had to sit on Charizard instead of dangling
under him, but he could use his arms to hold me steady.
With the rest of the team contained in their Poké Balls, Charizard, Espeon and I went upstairs, trying to
limit the damage to the floors and walls as much as possible. I was excited. It was the first time in a
while I had brought with me all the Poké Balls, and it felt good to pick up the entire bag and throw it into
my backpack.
"Almost there now... mind the doorway," I whispered as we walked up the final stair and into the living
room. "Charizard, mind your tail. Espeon, help him. We're out in the open soon..."
Mom and dad had already gone to work. I used to get up around 9AM, take a turn of planning or searching
before going up to eat dinner, then go back down and possibly out again and return to the cave late in the
evening. I checked my watch. 10:30, I still had three quarters of an hour. Given Charizard's flight speed,
we would make it by a comfortable margin.
"Watch that lamp! We've made it all the way up here without breaking anything! Just around the corner now.
Espeon, you-"
Then suddenly, as we entered the living room, the doorbell rang. I jumped, and instinctively grabbed a random
Poké Ball from my belt. The TLA had appeared here before, they could do it again.
"Invisibility!" I hissed. I approached the door carefully, ready to jump backwards at the slightest sign of
something wrong. Through the blurry window in the door, I could see three figures. They stood there in plain
sight, not looking like they were going to take me. Still, I signalled to Charizard that he should have a
Flamethrower ready, just in case. A deep breath, then I opened the door.
Outside stood Matt, Andy and Edvard.
"Hi, Rob," Andy said. "Long time no see."
"Umm... hi," I replied, puzzled. "Why aren't you at school?"
"We finished early today, so we thought we'd drop by. Why aren't you at school?" Edvard said.
Matt, being a little more sensible than the others, cut him off:
"Rob, we haven't seen you for weeks, and Emily has been acting strange for even longer. What have you been
up to?"
"I...", I began.
"Let's go inside and talk about it", Edvard said. "You don't look ill, but if you are, no need to stay here
in the cold."
They all marched in, not waiting for my approval. Matt dragged me along, and put me in the sofa.
"I thought you liked our class," he said. "And we like you too. Why did you suddenly stop coming to school?
Is anything wrong?"
"Guys, I... I..."
"Just tell us. Or tell us why you can't tell us. Or at least, give us a proper, however bad, excuse. We've
heard you say 'I' now, no need to repeat it," Edvard said.
"I've been busy," I said.
"Have you got a new Pokémon game? I thought you had them all already?"
"Shut up, Ed. Busy with what?" Andy said. "We tried to ask Emily, but she wouldn't answer, and have begun to
avoid us recently."
Suddenly, the floor creaked a little, and I could hear the unmistakable sound of a claw scraping against the
floorboards. Espeon and Charizard were standing less than a metre away from the sofa.
"Wait, what was that sound?" Matt asked.
"I didn't hear anything," I lied.
"It came from over there," Edvard said and got up. He walked straight towards the spot where Charizard and
Espeon were standing. There was a thud as Charizard took another step backwards. Beneath the bubble, he was
invisible, but not unhearable.
"Sit down, Ed, that's just the water pipes. They make such noises from time to time," I said. "Besides, what
about Emily?"
Neither him nor Matt or Andy listened. They were all looking intently at the spot where Charizard and Espeon
had been standing when the doorbell rang.
"Strange. It's so hot here," Edvard said and touched a flower pot standing on the floor. I could see that
the leaves of the plant in it had shrivelled. To make matters worse, there was a low growl coming from the
corner by the fireplace. Charizard and Espeon had backed into the far corner of the room, instead of going
back down the stairs to the basement.
"You said something about Emily. What about her?" I asked again as Edvard approached the fireplace. He
stretched out an arm as he walked, as if he was expecting to bump into something.
"It's getting warme- WAH!" He suddenly fell backwards, arms flailing, and crawled away from the corner as
fast as possible. "ROB! WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!?" he screamed.
"Calm down," I sighed. "You must be-"
"I KNOW I SAW SOMETHING! WHAT WAS THAT?" he yelled. Matt and Andy exchanged worried looks. Edvard was
hyperventilating.
"All right, brace yourselves," I sighed. "Espeon, take down the bubble."
It looked as if Charizard and Espeon appeared out of thin air. Matt gasped, and Andy recoiled in shock.
"Is... is that a Charmander?" Andy asked. "I think I had one of those once in..."
"It's a Charizard," I said. "Yes, it's a Pokémon. As alive as you get them."
"What? How?" Edvard asked.
"Emm... I dreamt about them, and they somehow emerged from my game after that. It appears that some people
have the ability to make their dreams reality under certain conditions, but I've got no idea how."
"Them? I hope you only mean Charmander and that little thing there? That's a new one, right?"
"Charizard. That 'little thing' is an Espeon. And... not quite," I replied.
"Not quite a new one, or not quite only the two of them?" Matt asked. He sounded like he hoped it was the
former.
"Espeon was introduced to the games a mere two years after Charizard," I said. "And there are more of them.
Just let us leave it at that. I've been busy tending to them since August, and many of them scattered all
across the city. I thought I could take care of them all in my spare time, but as I got more and more of
them back, it got increasingly time-consuming." I decided to leave the TLA out of my explanation for now.
"Wow," Andy said. "That is so cool! Training Pokémon in real life!"
"No need for training, they were all at level 100 when they emerged," I said. "And it's more about survival
than anything else, really. They've sent me to hospital twice."
"They sound dangerous," Matt mumbled. He couldn't take his eyes away from Charizard.
"Not really. You see, they operate on a different basis of reality than we do," I said as I got up and went
over to Charizard. He bent down and gave me a hug. "All wounds they cause heal automatically. Worst case
scenario, you get knocked out, sometimes for a long time." I scratched Charizard on the back of his head. He
made a strange, cat-like purr. It sounded like a lawn mover running out of fuel.
"Do anybody know about this?" Matt asked.
"Just Emily, and I don't want you to discuss this with her. Or anybody, for that matter. Imagine what would
happen if this was brought to public attention," I said, and put on the backpack. "Now excuse me, but I've
got Pokémon to catch. I was on the way out when you arrived."
"Could we come with you?" Andy asked.
"No," Matt and I said in unison. "Really. For your own safety, the less you know, the better. And you know
too much already," I continued. As I spoke, I realized what I had to do. The secret was busted, and I had to
take measures. One thing was the TLA, but the police, or even the media...
"Help me out here," I thought while talking, hoping that Espeon would notice. She made a purr that meant
'OK'. This was not going to be easy.
"Let's take this from the beginning again: I'm fine", I started. Edvard, Matt and Andy nodded
simultaneously, their faces were suddenly expressionless. "I just had a nervous breakdown, and won't be
returning to school this year. I'm fine, but you don't have to visit me any more. Don't call me, I'll call
you. Understood?"
"Understood," they said in unison.
"While away, I've been up to nothing specific. Really, I'm spending the days staring into walls. But I am
getting better, and might come to visit you soon."
"Looking forward to it," Edvard mumbled.
"Good. Now, go home."
They got up from the sofa and moved almost like zombies in the direction of the front door.
"Goodbye", Matt said as the three left the house.
"Now I'm denying my friends too," I mumbled to myself. "Espeon, am I really going mad?"
I got no reply.

We were in the air about a minute later. Charizard didn't fly as smoothly as Salamence, or as fast, but at
least he knew how to land properly. His flight style was more brutal and erratic, sometimes beating fast
with his wings, then gliding for almost a minute before beating frantically again. Still, thanks to his
solid grip, I didn't fall off. On the other hand, it felt like my knees were going to be ripped apart for
every beat. As Espeon's feelings were broadcast telepathically to the people around her, I could feel that
she was getting quite motion sick.
"Almost there," I thought. "I can see the beach now."
Charizard circled the spot a few times before going in for a landing. He glided in from the ocean at a low
speed, then slammed his feet into the sand. I was pressed forward by the brake force, and Espeon let out a
whine. I clumsily climbed off.
"So here we are, then," I said, looking out to sea. "Just on time as well. Now wha-"
Suddenly, something big rose out of the sea just ten metres in front of me. A large crocodile, sky blue in
colour, with red protrusions on its back and tail. It was standing on its hind legs, arms held out like a
human's, and its jaws seemed big enough to comfortably accommodate a ten-year old child. Behind it, a
humanoid shellfish-like creature emerged from the waves.
"Oh wow", I thought as I saw the metre-long blades protruding from the end of its arms. Following next was a
giant red crab. Even more sea Pokémon were gathering on the beach. They appeared to be in a hurry.
"Feraligatr... Kabutops... Kingler..." Espeon noted.
"Empoleon, Poliwrath, Milotic... Walrein..."
Then two red glowing spots appeared on the surface. A jellyfish-like Pokémon, as big as a small car, with a
mess of tentacles underneath, wrangled itself up on the beach. I couldn't see any face, but a pair of white
glowing eyes looked straight at me from between the tentacles underneath its bell.
"We should go quickly," Feraligatr grumbled. "Gyarados and Sharpedo are coming too, but they're a little
hung up at the moment"
"Hung up with what?"
"Blacksuits."
"Half-fissshhh," Kabutops said. Its voice sounded like a snake hissing underwater. "Fissshh-people with
sstrange powersss."
"You might not notice them now, but we're being attacked. Hurry!"
I looked out to the sea. It was as if something was glowing underneath the surface a couple of hundred
metres from the shore. Suddenly, something big broke the surface. A blue, colossal leviathan of a Pokémon,
with the face of a nightmare. The water was foaming around Gyarados, and I could hear terrified screams
through the sound of the roaring water.
"Mermaids?"
"As long as enough people believe they exist...," Espeon reminded me. I couldn't take my eyes off the
scenario as I picked Poké Balls out of the bag. Splashes of red around Gyarados indicated that someone were
getting badly hurt.
"Hurry up!" Feraligatr boomed. "They know we are here. They know we know they are here!"
"What about Flygon?"
The answer was a loud kaboom from a nearby bush. Twigs and sand was hurled into the air, and I could hear a
man scream. Simultaneously, trees on the other side of the beach exploded in a roaring inferno of flames.
"Contact!" a voice shouted to my left. A soldier came running out of the brush, his weapon up and ready.
Then, from somewhere behind him, a large glowing sphere blasted after him, burning the bushes to cinders
before hitting him in the back. For a split second, I could see the outline of his skeleton inside the
bubble, before it exploded. The soldier resembled a burning straw doll as he was thrown through the air.
"Let's go!" Flygon hissed as he emerged from the bushes. A series of piercing screams sounded from another
bush behind us. "We don't have much time!"
Empoleon snapped the bag full of Poké Balls out of my hands, and emptied it in the sand. He lifted his beak
and let out a guttural, fog-horn like sound, meaning something along the lines of "go back". The Poké Balls
reacted by sending out red rays in every direction. Most of them opened as their respective Pokémon were
sucked in, while others remained still. One had apparently malfunctioned, the red ray kept going all over
the place like a fire hose out of control, before it turned off after a few seconds. I hastily picked the
balls up. Charizard and Espeon remained out of their balls. A tree fell over not twenty metres away. It
appeared that something was still putting up a fight even though the Pokémon had retracted.
"Go! I will meet you later! I'll fend them off in the meanwhile," a high-pitched buzzing sound told me. It
was not telepathy, it was like the voice came from all around me, but I couldn't see anything.
"Who are you?" I asked. Suddenly, a creature resembling a giant fly was hovering before me.
"Ninjask. An honour to meet you," it buzzed before disappearing again. I was still a little flabbergasted.
"No time for this!" Charizard brummed and seized me by the waist. He kicked off, flapping his wings. We were
several metres up before I realized what had happened.
"Charizard! I haven't even got my backpack on!" I screamed.
"Just hold on!" he replied. Below us, TLA grunts and soldiers were emerging from the bushes all around the
beach. I could see one of them raise his gun and point straight at us. We were a perfect target, as
Charizard needed to gain altitude before starting a glide, and thus was flying straight up, slowly. The
soldier slowly released the safety pin on the gun, moved his finger over to the trigger...
...suddenly, the gun, still with an arm attached to it, spun through the air. The soldier first looked
confused, then he fell to the ground with a blood-spewing slash in his throat. Several other grunts and
soldiers went down the same way. I gathered it had to be Ninjask, as the blood didn't even hit the ground
before evaporating. When I looked again, the soldier had got his arm back, while the gun, a sleeve and a
glove lay loose in the sand.
"Hang on!" Charizard said as he tilted forward and we plunged into a dive. It was at this moment Espeon
registered what was going on, and hid us under an invisibility bubble. The last thing the TLA saw from us
was that Charizard headed for the waves, nose first. At the last moment, he managed to pull out of the dive,
though my loose-hanging legs slammed into the sea. For a split second, I thought I felt something grabbing
my leg. I was holding on to Charizard's neck with all the force I could muster, eyes shut. At first I
thought we had actually dived underwater, but when I opened my eyes, we were flying over the city again.
"How are we doing?" Espeon's voice sounded in my head.
"That depends entirely on how long I can hold on!" I yelled.
"At least you've got arms suited for carrying stuff!" Charizard groaned. His arms were slender and built for
quick slashes, and while his arms were larger than mine, I could easily beat him in an arm-wrestling
contest.
"Are we hanging?" Espeon asked. I could literally feel her panic, and didn't have the heart to tell
her that the back pack wasn't even fastened properly. It was hanging on my back all right, but only by the
shoulder straps.
"You're too heavy for me. Could you get on my back somehow?" Charizard grunted. Looking up, I could see
smoke rising from his head. He was sweating.
"How?!?" I shouted back. "Could you at least fly a little lower, so that the fall won't kill us all if I
fall off?" He had suddenly started ascending.
"My arms hurt," he groaned. "I hope we're high enough now"
"Go down, I said! Down!"
"No time to explain!"
He let me go, leaving me hanging from my arms around his neck. We were still climbing.
"Charizard! I can't hold on any more!"
He shrugged, and my arms slipped. Suddenly, Charizard was several metres above me. We were in free fall. I
screamed as I plunged towards the earth. There was a muffled, but loud, whine from my back pack. We appeared
to be about a kilometre over a park. I could see the bare trees, looking very spiky against the brownish
grass. Was this the end? Had I survived all these encounters with the TLA, only to end up as tarmac pizza?
Then Charizard had come a lot closer. He was diving, his wings were folded together along his side. As he
passed, I grabbed his neck and tried to get onto his back.
"Good!" he grumbled. "Are you in place now?"
"Think so," I panted. The ground looked dangerously close. Charizard pulled out of the dive seconds before
we would have hit the ground. His arms grabbed my flailing legs, and I felt somewhat safe again as we rose
to an altitude of a couple hundred metres. I let out a huge sigh of relief. Espeon was still screaming, but
she managed to keep the invisibility bubble intact. A few minutes later, we landed on my lawn. We were
greeted by Xatu, who for once had left the chimney and instead stood next to Metagross and Gardevoir outside
the house. Somehow, Ninjask had also managed to get there before us.
"We did it!" I shouted as I climbed off Charizard and took off the backpack. "We have them all here! Well,
almost! We're gonna have to breach the TLA base to get the rest, but we have plenty of time to plan out the
details tomorrow. Now I have to call Emily, we'll decide where and when to meet, and then we're going out to
celebrate!"
I ran my hands through my pockets, which were empty. "Ahh... true, I forgot my phone in the cave. Could one
of you go get it, while I get on a clean pair of pants? I don't have much time, you know... ehh... why so
gloomy faces, everyone?"
"We have your phone here," Metagross said. His voice was all flat. "Just after you left, we received a
call..."
"From the TLA," Gardevoir said.
"From Alpha." Metagross continued. "He said that this mindless violence wasn't going anywhere. He said he
wanted to give you an incentive for turning yourself in. That he had given up approaching us with reason and
respect. Times have changed, he said..."
Gardevoir cut him short again: "They've taken Emily."

[SuperFireKirby]

A+++++++++++++++

Very nice! It'll be sad to see such an awesome story end, but I'm sure the conclusion will be EPIC(like the rest of the story)

[Clanker37]

Awesome. Pity it has to end

[dahans]

Awesome. Pity it has to end

Yep. As I told you already on MSN, a really really great chapter . I like it very much.

[Greg]

Awesome. I've been anticipating this for a long time...great chapter.

[Cobraroll]

Wow, it's been a while now, hasn't it?

Anyway, the next chapter is somewhat finished and needs approval for release as soon as my exams are over (Thursday, to be exact). If anybody would be willing to sift through it to catch plot holes, grammar errors or logical failures, please drop me a PM.

Also, general question: I'm now tying up the loose ends of the story and trying to sum it all up in the last couple of chapters. If anybody have any questions regarding the story, please post them here, and they will be answered in time. Just to make sure I haven't forgot anything.

[K-NiGhT]

awesome

[GoronsOrchestrated]

Gardevoir cut him short again: "They've taken Emily."

The Suspence!