Emergence (Final Update - 28.03.12)

[SuperFireKirby]

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

[Furiianda]

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

[SuperFireKirby]

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

[Cobraroll]

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

Chapter fourteen: Encounters

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

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

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

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

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

[SuperFireKirby]

great edition to a great story. Keep it up!

[SirIngusBingus]

  Muk

Awesomely awesome. Metagross is a great character.

[SuperFireKirby]

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

[triforced1]

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

[GreekGeek]

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

might? WILL

[SuperFireKirby]

You would need Nintendo's approval first though.

[SirIngusBingus]

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

[Cobraroll]

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

Chapter fifteen: Blazing fury

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

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

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

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

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

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

[GreekGeek]

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

[SuperFireKirby]

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

[SirIngusBingus]

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

I caught a typo:

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