Emergence (Final Update - 28.03.12)

[SirIngusBingus]

GAH! It's been 10 days!

[Cobraroll]

^I have a major exam tomorrow! Bear with me!

The next chapter will propably be up by Wednesday. I'm sorry for the delay.

[SirIngusBingus]

Ah, no problem.

IT'S JUST THAT IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY!!

[GreekGeek]

Good luck man, we're all Emergence-addict

[SuperFireKirby]

A superhuman secret agent? Sounds suspiciously like a Mewtwo plot...

Or it's an agent from the Matrix.

[GreekGeek]

That doesn't fit in here
But it seems like it.

[Cobraroll]

I know it's been a long time, but I've had exams, as well as some idea issues. Hopefully, this chapter is good enough to be worth the wait. I'm afraid it may be even longer before the next one, if I don't get it up before I go to this year's scout camp. So enjoy this in the meantime!

Chapter sixteen: Dashing through the snow

It was around midnight that same day. I had put up the tent a few kilometres into the woods, far off from any path. It was a bit harder to put it up in knee-deep snow than I had anticipated, it had taken more than an hour before I got it up, and most of my clothes were wet. The tent seemed awfully big as well, about six by two and a half meter.
"Impossible to get it warm in here", I thought. I lay in my sleeping bag, on a camping bed, and couldn't sleep. It was icy cold, and very lonely. After turning over to the other side for the sixteenth time, I resigned, and found three Poké Balls in my bag.
"Espeon, Tyranitar, Metagross, go", I whispered. The three of them were enough to fill the tent, at least making it less lonely here. I just hoped that their claws wouldn't tear the fabric. Metagross immediately sunk thirty centimetres down in the snow, dragging with him the entire tent, put not penetrating the canvas. It appeared that Devon had thought of that scenario as well.
"It's freezing in here", Espeon said. "Didn't you bring the heater?"
"It weighs thirty kilograms and can't be compressed, I answered, while searching the bag for the iPod speakers. "I couldn't bring much that isn't... Pokémony?"
"I can see you're not used to sleep in tents at wintertime", Metagross said through the speakers.
"First, put your shoes under the sleeping bag, under your knees. That will keep them from freezing. Second, have all your items in your bag at all times. Third, you need to have something on your head when you sleep, or your ears will keep you awake all night"
"Do we have guards?", Espeon said. "Weavile loves forests at this time of the day and year. He'll be an excellent lookout, as long as you don't exhaust him during the day"
"I thought about it, but found out that I'd give him some rest, after what happened today", I said.
"Pfft, knocking out three men who didn't fight back is hardly worth a mention for a Weavile", Metagross snorted. "We'll let him out" A Poké Ball flew out of the bag, revolving slightly, as if awaiting my command.
"Weavile, go", I said. A second later, he stood before us.
"Would you mind having the night shift, Weavile?", I asked. He nodded, smiled (the sight of a smiling Weavile is slightly creepy, you normally can't see its teeth), and walked towards the entrance, trying to open the zipper. I sighed (those claws must be a proper pain sometimes), went out of the sleeping bag, and opened it for him. I really felt the cold outside as he jumped past me and up in a tree. It must have been negative twenty again. I hurried back to the bed, dragged on me a pair of woollen socks and a toque, then hasted down into the warmth of the bag.
"Are you comfortable?", Metagross asked. I nodded.
"Then we can talk"
"Talk?", I said, sitting up. "It's past midnight, it's been a long, hard day, and so will tomorrow be, and you want to talk?" Tyranitar growled at me. I understood that he was talking to me, but I couldn't understand what he said.
"Exactly", Metagross said. "We need to go through what we saw today, in order to be prepared for next time. If we lower the guard now, we'll lose before we even realise that the battle has started. A simple brainstorming session may change the entire outcome of this"
"Well then, first, who were those guys?", I asked, resigned.
"I know about as much as you do", Metagross answered. "But I'm positive that the guys with the guns were ordinary policemen. Maybe the special forces, but still ordinary men employed in the ordinary police forces. I'm not that sure about the Hazmat guys, they might have been people of the agency, but if so, just mere grunts. The agent, well you saw him"
"Yeah. But... how could he move that fast and take all that beating?"
"That's where I'm stuck as well. I can understand his stamina, Blaziken didn't hit him that hard, and the darts may have been faulty, but his speed really puzzles me"
"Could he be supernatural as well?", Espeon suggested. "I couldn't read his mind either, he blocked me"
"That's weird", Metagross said. "Normal people shouldn't be able to do that"
"I don't think it's normal people we're dealing with", I said. "One of the grunts had a scanner of sorts, I'm sure he saw us under the invisibility bubble"
Tyranitar nodded.
"Which means", I continued "That we can't really hide from them. Without the moment of surprise, we'll be done for"
"Don't forget that they are in the same situation", Espeon said. "You saw how easily we beat them today. We have the power to beat them down in direct confrontation, if they don't surprise us"
"Taarr", Tyranitar said.
"We need to act quickly and effectively", Metagross said. "Find the remaining Pokémon as soon as possible, then concentrate on freeing the rest"
"How are we going to do that? Sneak into a base we don't know where is, and walk out again the same way? If we, against all odds, managed that, they'd hunt us down, and not give up until they found us.", I protested.
"We don't know how many they are either", Espeon said. "If we're really lucky, there were only the three of them. If so, two thirds of the organisation is down counting now. However, I think they we met were just a simple operation group. They might be several hundred people, with a well-sized budget and maybe governmental contacts as well"
"It's too early to draw conclusions now", Metagross said after half a minute of silence. "It's time to sleep". Espeon jumped over to the bag and started dragging out red blankets from it. I had noticed that there were a few in the bag, but now how many or how big they were. She handed me one, took one herself, and gave Tyranitar and Metagross two each.
"Hope you don't mind in real life either...", she said, and jumped up in the small bed, lying like a cat beside my sleeping bag. Using her psychic powers, she arranged the blanket around herself, and helped me wrap mine around the sleeping bag. Metagross and Tyranitar had already laid down on the floor. Metagross looked like a tent or a clothed table with the blankets on, Tyranitar resembled a rock wrapped in red cloth.
"Aren't you going back to the Poké Balls?", I asked.
"Good luck heating this place alone", Metagross' tired voice sounded from the speakers. "Nope, we're staying here for the night. Good night"

It felt even colder the next morning, but at least it was bright and sunny outside. I got up before Espeon, and managed not to wake her up when I climbed out of the sleeping bag. Tyranitar and Metagross had gone out of the tent already, both were standing like statues on the outside, looking at the sunrise.
"Slept well?", I asked.
"Gross", Metagross answered. It could mean anything, but I took it as a "yes".
"Anyone want breakfast?", I answered. Tyranitar pointed at a stump standing where there had been a ten meter tree last night. I looked around trying to spot Weavile, and found him sitting on a branch eating pine cones. Appearently, the Pokémon had eaten already. I went back into the tent, found some canned cereal from the bag, and ate my breakfast in silence.
"What now?", I asked, trying to determine what sort of nuts they had used in the cereal.
"Eat, pack, action", Metagross' voice sounded from inside the tent. "I guess you could use the Poké Radar here now, but no point in that. The most effective way of doing this would be to fly, with Weavile as a scout on the ground. I think most of your Pokémon are somewhere in the forest, we just need to find them"
"That sounds like an easy task", I groaned. "Do you know how big this forest is? It goes all the way to the mountains in the west, there are no cities for several hundred kilometres in three directions here"
"Don't forget that you told them to wait for you", Metagross reminded me. "They won't go very far, they know that you will come and get them, eventually"
"Better get going then", I said and hurried to eat the rest of the cereal. Metagross showed me how to pack down the tent (it was really easy in broad daylight), and not long after, I was once again standing with only a small bag on my back.
"What do we do with the skis?", I said. I had agreed to search the forest by flying over it with the Poké Radar, but there were a few practical issues.
"I could have them on me, like a ski jumper, but I don't know how good the bindings are. I could perhaps attach the poles to my bag, but it would be a little awkward to fly like that"
Salamence, who stood beside me, nodded approvingly. Metagross looked like he was frowning (no facial muscles, no movable parts of the face, it was a tad hard to tell).
"I guess...", he said slowly "That we could leave them somewhere, but it's too risky. Weavile can't carry them, and you can't take them with you"
"Vile?", a voice said behind me. We all turned around. Weavile stood just a meter behind me (I swear, he was sitting on that branch just five seconds ago!), raising a clawed hand. He started to chatter (mostly repeating the word "Vile"), and Espeon's voice sounded in my head.
"He suggests burrowing them here, and pick them up later"
"Sure we can find them again later?", I asked. Weavile looked deeply insulted.
"A Weavile can leave a grain of sand in a desert and find it again two weeks later", Metagross said. "If we camp somewhere around here tonight as well, it won't be too hard to drop by and pick the skis up"
"Burrowing it is, then", I said. I watched in silence as Weavile dug a trench in the frozen ground with his bare claws, and expertly camouflaged the place with soil and snow. Two minutes later, it was impossible to tell that there lay something under the snow.
"Now, what are we waiting for?", I said. I called Metagross back, and managed to stuff Espeon in the backpack. I had also taped the Poké Radar to my arm, ready to use it once we got up in the air. Salamence grabbed me, and we kicked off. Time to track down some Pokémon.

Part two will follow shortly

[Cobraroll]

Chapter sixteen, part two:

Two hours later, my fingers were almost frozen, and I couldn't feel my toes. We were flying about 100 metres above the treetops, scanning the forest for Pokémon. The Poké Radar was quite useless in this sort of searches, as it operated with bursts of signals that covered a limited area, then it had to be recharged. At first, I had thought we'd practically be wading in Pokémon, but the first search did not provide any results. So we flew over to a new area. The second search wasn't more fruitless than the first. Neither was the third. Nor the fourth.
"No signs of Pokémon here either", I thought as the screen remained blank after pressing the button once again.
"Twenty-sixth time is the charm, you know", Espeon said. "We have plenty of time, it's still only one o'clock"
I started turning the small swivel that charged the battery. "Easy for you to say, you have those blankets and no wind. Salamence and I have to endure the temperature out here"
"Salamence can fly like this all day, he loves it", Espeon said. "But tell me if you get too cold, we can take a break"
"One more go", I said. "We haven't been over there yet"
Salamence turned over and headed for the cliff I had pointed out. The forest was full of such cliffs, gigantic rocks that protruded from the otherwise quite flat forest, like giant city blocks built of rock and moss, scattered over the forest. This one wasn't particularly spectacular, only sixty or so metres tall and quite chunky. Most people headed for the larger cliffs on their daytrips, or the ones near the city. Which hopefully meant that we could find some Pokémon near this one. We flew up to it, and I pressed the button. To my great surprise, two white blinking dots turned up on the screen. One on the other side of the cliff, and one in a seemingly featureless area some hundred meters away.
"We'll land there", I thought, and pointed at the featureless area. We could easily find back to the cliff afterwards, but when the dot disappeared from the screen, we'd have a hard time finding this area again. Salamence flew straight above it, I thought he would be going down in spirals like he used to, but took a nose-dive instead. We plummeted to the ground, face first, then a few metres above the ground, he spread his wings again, slowing the descent. As usual, we got a soft landing, but my heart was still beating like a drum.
"Mence", he growled.
"Nothing like a good shock to get the blood circulation running", Espeon translated. I glared at Salamence, but noticed that I wasn't that cold any more. Adrenaline and a high heartbeat rate had done wonders.
"So..." the Pokémon should be around here somewhere?", I asked. The snow around here was smooth and spotless, not a single footprint or signs of activity since the winter's first snowfall.
"Nothing in the trees", Espeon said. "Could be a ghost"
"Or something floating. Weezing, perhaps Magnezone", I said, taking the Poké Radar off my wrist. The white glowing dot on the screen faded away.
"If it was a Weezing, these trees wouldn't have been here any more, simple as", Espeon said. "And trust me, you'd noticed it if Magnezone was nearby"
"Porygon Z?"
"That one doesn't like forests. If there's any on the loose, it's in the city somewhere"
"A ghost then", I sighed. "And they can be invisible, not?"
"Mence", I heard behind me. I turned around. Salamence was staring intently at a small hill a to our right. Between two frozen bushes, I could see a crack in the hillside, a meter or so wide. It kept going into the hill, like a cave.
"Something hibernating?", Espeon guessed.
"It's dark in there", I said, peering into the cave. "And it's deep. Silent as well"
"Wobbuffet or Dunsparce?", Espeon suggested. "Those thrive in darkness, and rarely leave their area"
"Cool. Easy match", I said. "Back in a minute, I'll go fetch it"
A little too confident, I squeezed in through the crack. The cave looked every bit as dark from the inside, and it didn't help that I blocked most of the light.
"Anyone in there?" A couple of meters away, near the end wall, something moved. It took a few seconds for me to realise that this was definitely not Wobbuffet or Dunsparce. It looked like the wall caved in, whatever it was did take up most of the space in here. I slowly backed away, one step at the time. the thing in the cave let loose a vicious roar, and I turned and ran. I darted out of the crack much
easier than I went in, and dived for the bag with all the Poké Balls. Salamence growled, charging up a Dragon Pulse to fry whatever emerged from the opening. Another snarl from the inside told me that the thing inside it was coming out. The first thing I saw, was a pair of massive, brown hairy arms, with sharp claws on the fingers. Then, a large head appeared in the opening. It looked a bit like a bear's head, but at the same time, it didn't resemble a real bear at all. To put it this way, if a theme park had had a cartoon bear as its mascot, the guy who walked around in the park scaring kids would have had a costume looking just like this, maybe except from the yellow ring on its belly.
"Ursaring" I whispered. It looked like it had lost its temper now, and walked slowly towards me. It stopped three or four meters away, as if awaiting a command.
"Ursaring, back!", I shouted. "Gah, that roar shocked me"
"Proof that it works", Espeon answered. "Roar is meant to scare the opponent away, anything that can hear will be scared by that. During our travels, I have seen several Nidoking running away from roaring Vulpix. Pure instinct, and quite annoying afterwards"
"Well, I'm anything but annoyed. I was a meter away from a huge bear, and I think that being scared was a perfectly sensible reaction to that roar", I said.
"After a while, you learn that it's nothing to fear. After that, it just becomes annoying when you realise you've ran away from an opponent ten times weaker than you"
"Speaking of running, we have no time to lose", I said. "Another Pokémon awaits! Get back in the bag, Espeon. Salamence, you get us up in the air again"
Salamence walked behind me, got up on its hind legs, grabbed me, and kicked off. As usual, it felt like my stomach was left on the ground after the initial tug. We headed for the cliff again, almost skimming the treetops, no need to go high up now.
"We should be able to find the Pokémon quite quickly", Espeon said. "Just go down on the other side, we'll walk from there"
Salamence put me down at the foot of the cliff, I let Espeon out of the bag, and we waded through the snow. I didn't bother to charge the Poké Radar again, the Pokémon should be easy to find. We had to climb a small hill, then we should get a good view over a small valley I had seen here on a map.
"Oh no", Espeon said. She was the first one to come up.
"What?", I said, and dragged myself up the last bit by a frozen three. "Oh no"
The valley wasn't more than 30 or so meters wide, and only a few meters deep, but left quite an

impression. The trees were scorched, all the snow here was melted, the bottom of the valley was just a puddle of black water. Smoke was still drifting from tree stumps, something had happened here not too long ago.
"What has happened?", I asked no one in particular. I walked down towards the center of the valley, passing burnt trees on the way.
"Look", Espeon said, and I turned towards her. I didn't see where I was going, stumbled, and fell. I landed face first in a puddle of soot-stained water. A couple of seconds later, I got up, and saw what I had stumbled over.
"Wah!" I jumped backwards. It was, or had at least once been, a person. He was lying spread eagle in the snow, completely toasted. I couldn't even recognise any facial features, he was black as coal all over. Lying besides him, I could see a partially melted rifle.
"Is he... dead?", I asked, my heart clapping. Espeon walked up to him and lay a paw on his chest.
"He's breathing, I think", she said. With her tiny claws, she ripped open a bit of the black soot that covered him from head to toe. Underneath it, I could see pink skin, looking a bit sore, but okay, as if the scorched cover only had been a shell.
"Hazmat suit", she said, and removed the remains of it from the man's face. He looked all fine underneath it, as if he was sleeping. I could hear his breath. He looked like he was in his mid twenties, with short brown hair and a small moustache.
"That reminds me of something...", I said, unnerved.
"Look over there", Espeon said. I turned around. Some twenty metres away, a large snowcat was tipped over, and completely burnt out. I could count four or five burnt men lying around it. As I walked up to it, I saw another one a few metres away, it had been stopped when it drove up the hill we came down. Half of it was missing, the other half looked nearly melted, like a candle that has burnt for a few hours. It looked like it had been caught as it drove away from the scene. Shrapnel and bodies lay scattered around that one as well.
"The agency", I whispered. "They have been here"
"I count eighteen people", Espeon said. "Weavile is on his way. He can help us finding out what happened"
I inspected the snowcat closer. It was armoured, the back half was separated from the rest by a thick metal wall. There were (once) six seats in the front half, and some boxes whose content was burned to singes. I could see fried electric circuits in one corner of the cabin, but it was impossible to see what they were once connected to. It oozed of burnt plastic, and was still hot to touch.
"What do you think happened?", I asked Espeon.
"I think whatever Pokémon - presumably a fire type - resided here, got attacked by the agency. Because of the burns, I'd say it happened less than an hour ago", she answered. "And that the attack went really bad"
"Any signs of an agent?"
"Weavile", a voice said just outside the snowcat. I startled, and jumped out of it. Weavile was sitting on its roof, pointing a clawed hand towards the puddle in the bottom of the valley. Upon closer inspection, we found a body in it, lying under a thin cover of ice. Unlike the rest of the people, who all had had full-body suits, this man was wearing a military camouflage outfit, but no headwear. His hair was still intact, but his eyebrows were burnt off. He had lay in the middle of the puddle, completely submerged, so there was no sign of burns on his skin. Espeon lifted him out.
"So they can be defeated", I said. "We can knock them out after all"
"He must have been hit pretty hard", Espeon said. "His bulletproof vest has melted, that requires quite a temperature"
"His legs", I said. "His trousers aren't burned, he must have been hit in the chest or the face. Weavile, search his pockets, we might find something useful"
As Weavile did so, I took a closer look at his face. For some reason, I couldn't remember what the agent from yesterday looked like, but I was sure this was not him. Like the other one, he had no distinct features, he was the sort of man you forgot while you looked at him.
"Vile!" Weavile held up a small card, just like the police shows to the convicts in the movies. It had appearently been tucked down his boot. I took the card, and looked at it. It was made of stiff plastic, waterproof in other words, and looked official. The emblem on its backside was an ellipsis with five short lines sticking out under it, spaced evenly along the bottom half of the ellipsis. The letters TLA were written underneath the emblem.
"TLA?", I said and turned the card. It had the agent's picture on the front side, and some indecipherable text.
"Lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet?", I said. "What does that mean?"
"I don't know, perhaps Metagross does", she answered.
"It looks oddly familiar", I said, and put the card in my pocket. I could look it up later.
"Vile!", Weavile said. In the mud, a few metres away, was a footprint. It was round, about the size of a dinner plate, with three long claws. The claws were pressed deeper down in the frozen mud than the heel, as if the owner of the foot had been standing on its toes.
"The frozen mud must have melted in the apparent firestorm in here", I said. "And frozen over just after this was made"
"Charizard", Espeon said. "No other Fire Pokémon have a footprint like that. Well, perhaps Magmar, but then the mud would have been black and singed, and we'd have far less whole trees around here"
"It must have flown off then", I said, looking at the sky. "Who wouldn't, the agency may send..." I stopped.
"Agreed. Let's get away", Espeon said. "We won't get much more out of this place anyway"

Not wasting time in case the agency had sent reinforcements, we walked back to the cliff, to find an open area for takeoff. I was icy cold now, my clothes were wet and heavy. I had presumable been frozen all day, but it was first now that the adrenaline rush disappared that I started to feel it.
"I'm freezing", I told Espeon as we searched the bag for Salamence's Poké Ball.
"We must put up the tent again, but not here. If more agents arrive, we're doomed", she answered. I released Salamence from its ball. No need for commands (my teeth were chattering too much anyways), he stood up and picked me up once I had got the backpack back on. As we flew over the forest, it felt like we were swimming through a block of ice, I was that cold. Espeon didn't bother to ask me for directions, she let Salamence decide where to land. Some time later (Minutes? Seconds? Hours?), he dropped me down, and I fell face first into the snow.
"Rob?", I heard Espeon say. She leapt out of the backpack, and dragged me up. I tried to stand, but collapsed again. I couldn't feel my legs.
"Metagross... go...", I whispered. Espeon dragged me back up again.
"Get the tent up, and..."
Metagross didn't waste any time. Using his own psychic powers, he dragged the tent out of the bag. It was halfway erected already when it hit the ground. Espeon held me suspended in the air, but had to let me go to put up an invisibility bubble. I couldn't move my arms or legs, and I didn't feel the cold any more. As far as I knew, that was seriously bad news.
"Oh no...", Espeon said again. Then I blacked out.
Next thing I knew, was that something was forced into my mouth.
"Eat", Espeon's voice said. "Hurry".
I took a bit of the object, which felt like a nut at first, it had hard, rough skin. Then I noticed the juicy inside, and how sour it was. I almost bent over double where I lay, taking my hands to the mouth to take out the object.
"Swallow!", Metagross' voice shouted from somewhere down the bag. I noticed that I lay in my sleeping bag inside the tent, wearing only my boxer shorts.
"Whassisish?", I said.
"An Aspear Berry", Espeon answered. "Cures freezing. But don't eat too many of them, the juice is closely related to alcohol"
"Awwonth", I said, swallowing. "I won't. Too sour"
"Each one to their taste", Espeon said. "but you feel better now, right?"
"Yeah, I can feel my limbs again", I said. "They're aching"
"Oh, you'll be better tomorrow, we'll take care of that", Metagross said. "We have things to discuss, but that can wait until tonight"
"Why not now?"
"Because", Espeon said. I looked at her. "You need rest. Time to sleep"
The last thing I noticed was that her eyes glowed brightly blue. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

[GreekGeek]

Nice one Cobra, and I love Latin expressions.
Can I tell the people what Lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet means?

[Cobraroll]

^If you want to, please do. The important question is "why does it say that?", not "what does it say?".

By the way, I didn't think Lorem Ipsum was proper latin, I thought it was cropped words from a regional Italian dialect, from medieval times.

[GreekGeek]

It isn't proper Latin, but it's a saying from Cicero in his book De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (which I have to read next year for my finals...)

"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit" (My translation: no one loves pain, nor looks for it nor wants it, simply because it's pain).
If you omit the do in dolorem and some words, you get dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet.

Well this isn't about pain, but it's an odd thing. It's being used by publishers to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document. They use something no one can understand, so you don't get distracted by the text itself, and you have to focus at the font, size etc. So it's used as a test how the design looks like.

Clear?

[SirIngusBingus]

I finally read it. Veeeerry interesting at the ending. Not quite as groundbreaking as some of the other chapters, but the way you introduce something new each chapter makes your story quite the page turner, erm, page-scroller.

[SuperFireKirby]

Just had the chance to read the latest chapter. Fairly good. Not the most exciting one yet but this is probably going to build up to something awsome.

[Cobraroll]

^Yeah, I know, not that exciting, but I sort of ran out of ideas. But don't worry, I'm fairly happy how this chapter turned out, and I have ideas for the next one as well.

^^Thanks! You also reminded me of something I should have done chapters ago:
Warning: The author is not responsible if your scroller wheel goes bust reading this.
There! Thanks!

^^^Thanks for the explanation, I'll try to see if I can use it somehow...

And please welcome:

Chapter 17: Pacing up

It was dark when I woke up. There were no one in the tent, but I could hear someone outside. I had a brief look at my mobile phone that lay beside me. 1:23 AM, December 29. I had slept for ten hours or so, didn't remember what the time was when I fell asleep. Still a bit achy in the limbs, I climbed out of the sleeping bag and got on a dry set of clothes. Where were the others? We hadn't had time to find a particularly hidden spot earlier, maybe TLA had found us? Did they stand just outside the tent now, forcing the Pokémon into cages, ready to ambush me? Taking a deep breath, and with Aggron's Poké Ball in my hand, I opened the zipper and went out. If anyone was here to bully, I'd like them to have a word with the Iron Armor Pokémon first.

I hadn't really prepared for the sight that met me, but then again, no reason to. Espeon, Tyranitar, Metagross, Houndoom and Salamence stood outside, their backs to the tent, looking at the full moon that lit up the forest.
"Why are you out here?", I said. "Why aren't you asleep?"
"Listen", Espeon said. I listened. Nothing.
"I think it's gone", Metagross' voice sounded from the backpack inside the tent.
"Tar", Tyranitar objected. I listened again. A faint howl, like the wind far away.
"It's just the wind", I said. Then, the howl, or a very similar one, sounded again. Much stronger and seemingly closer this time. It was a wild, spine-chilling scream in the night, like the wolf screams in horror movies.
"What's that?", I asked. "Has to be a Pokémon, no animal howls like that. Metagross, what Pokémon howl to the full moon?"
"Houndoom", he said. But he sits here, and has been silent for minutes now"
"Any others?"
"Umbreon and Mightyena are both known to be active during the full moon. Lunatone as well, but Lunatone don't make sounds like that"
"I have checked, no Mightyena escaped, and Umbreon is supposed to be with Emily", I said. "Ursaring? Doesn't the pattern on its belly symbolize the full moon?"
"Listen", Espeon said. "Does that resemble the roar you heard earlier? Whatever this is, this is no Pokémon, I'm afraid"
"Which leaves us with quite few alternatives", Metagross sighed.
"Could it be wolves?", I said. "There are wolves in the forest here"
"This is a deeper sound, I looked it up", Metagross said. The howl sounded again, in the distance. A second later, it was answered by several others, luckily all from the same direction. Then, another sound. A piercing scream, like an eagle's, only wilder. And it sounded furious.
"Now, what was that?"
"That could be a Pokémon, on the other hand", Metagross said. "Notice the difference?", he added dryly.
"No need for lessons now", I said. "Houndoom, and Weavile - I know you're around here somewhere - go check that out. If that's a Pokémon, it needs our help. If anything threatens you, take it down or call in reinforcements. Go!"
Suddenly I felt something heavy land on my shoulders, and panicked for a second, before the thing leapt further and into the darkness. Apparently, Weavile had been standing right behind me, and had used me as a spring board. The eagle scream sounded again.
"Tar..."
"What does he say?", I said to Espeon. Tyranitar kept speaking, with his gaze fixed to a spot a few hundred meters away. Even though the moon shone brightly tonight, I couldn't see anything unusual there.
"He saw something", Espeon said. "But has a too bad eyesight to tell what. It was a change in the shadows, at least. Right by a cluster of tall pine trees, he said"
"I can see them, barely, but it's all dark there"
"No, something is moving there. Again, according to him"
I peered towards the cluster of trees. It was just a small hill with pines on, didn't look anything unusual, at least not at a distance of half a kilometer. Still, I could hear faint sounds from there, grunts and sneering.
"Weavile and Houndoom should be there any moment", I said. "Let's hope it isn't TLA"
"TLA?", Metagross asked.
"We found the name of the agency", I said. "Forgot to tell you, but we'll take that later"
A new sound was heard from the cluster of trees. A flapping sound, like someone was closing and opening an umbrella very fast. Quickly after, the sound was deafened in the roar of wind through trees. Suddenly, we had a strong breeze around us, making it even colder.
"This is nothing compared to what they have over there", Metagross' voice shouted. "If this is what I think it is, there's a hurricane blowing there now"
I could hear trees splintering in the wind now. Snow was whipped up around us, making it hard to see and hear. Trees swayed, cones and needles rained all over the area. Then, it suddenly stopped. Everything fell silent again.
"Now what?"
"We wait", Espeon said. "Houndoom and Weavile should be there now. If they need help, get ready to run. If not, they'll be back any moment"
Luckily, it was the latter. Houndoom came running out of the woods a little later, with Weavile following closely behind. And flying silently over the woods, was another Pokémon trailing them. It was a huge, brown bird. Huge. It had a wingspan of about six metres, its feet were half a meter long and clawed, and it had almost two meter long, red feathers on its head, like a long hair. Its beak looked razor-sharp and was bigger than my head. It looked large enough to crack open a coconut with a single bite. It landed on a branch above us, and folded its wings together. Like a hawk monitoring its prey, Pidgeot stared down at me. Even if I had stood on the same branch, it would have been taller than me.
"Espeon, translate", I said. "Pidgeot, what was those howling things?"
"Chott!", the answer came.
"Something", Espeon translated.
"You didn't see it properly?"
Pidgeot shook its head.
"Did you?", I asked Weavile and Houndoom. Weavile answered something Espeon translated to "Everything was blown away and there was no one there when we met her"
"I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later", Metagross said "One way or another"
"Everything's quiet now", Espeon said. "Let's go inside and sum up the day"

"...so all in all, that's what we did. As well as almost freezing my arms off", I concluded ten minutes later. We had filled the tent with Pokémon again, but this time, Metagross sat just outside it, he didn't mind the cold and had an invisibility bubble to maintain. This opened up a lot of space, and I had crammed as many Pokémon in here as possible, starting with the smallest ones, excluding those that smelled or couldn't handle the cold.
"We don't know much more about the TLA, other than that they have - or had - snowcats as well. And that they count more than the three we met yesterday"
"And that a Charizard is able of knocking out an entire team of twenty people single-handedly", Espeon added cheerfully.
"I'd be worried", Metagross grunted. "Last time, they sent an agent and two grunts, assisted by a police team. Now, they sent twenty, and no civilians. They are being more careful, and probably they won't regard us as easy pickings any more. They will be prepared to fight back, and fight hard, next time"
"So we have to hurry even more?", I asked the set of iPod speakers.
"Of course. Luckily, you found a bird of prey tonight. Let her rest for now, send her and Espeon out tomorrow. Espeon will provide invisibility, while Pidgeot searches the forest. If there's anything larger than a beetle moving in this forest, Pidgeot will spot it"
"Sounds like a good idea. But what about the Poké Radar?"
"It won't work half as good as Pidgeot will. But if you want another near-death-from-freezing experience, I won't stop you"
"Any more questions?", I asked everyone in general. No answer. "Okay. Go get a blanket in the stack over there, or return to your balls. Good night, then". The Pokémon went for the stack of blankets, or the small heap of Poké Balls that lay in a bag in the corner. I searched my own bag for the remote control to the lamp (everyone who has been in a tent where it's below zero degrees, and you're lying in a warm sleeping bag, know that you'll do anything to avoid going out of it again). On top of the small remote, I found the contents of my trouser pockets neatly stacked. Amongst it, the TLA agent's card.
"By the way, Metagross...", I said. "What does 'Lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet' mean? It looks Latin"
"It isn't proper Latin, but it's a saying from a certain Cicero in his book, 'De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum'", Metagross answered. "Incredible what you can find on the Net, or what? Anyway, the full text goes: 'Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit'. My translation would be something along the lines of 'no one loves pain, nor looks for it nor wants it, simply because it's pain'. If you omit the do in dolorem and some words, you get 'dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet'."
"What does that have to do with people chasing Pokémon?"
"Well this isn't about pain, but it's an odd thing. It's being used by publishers to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document. They use something no one can understand, so you don't get distracted by the text itself, and you have to focus at the font, size etc. So it's used as a test how the design looks like. Clear?"
"I think so. Filler text, in other words? Just nonsense?"
"In short, yes. But I don't know why they put it there. Perhaps it's a motto to them?"
"Better sleep on it. Goodnight, then!"

The next day turned out a lot more fruitful than the previous one. Pidgeot and Espeon searched the forest from above, while Houndoom and Weavile ran around searching caves and dense vegetation. As Espeon was the only Pokémon I had that could provide invisibility and fly with me, we could only have one "flyer" in the air at a time. However, while Salamence could fly at about 400 km/h with me in his
claws, Pidgeot easily managed Mach 1.5 with Espeon, so we could cover a much larger area in a shorter timespan. While the two of them were out flying, I sat in the tent with Metagross, who communicated with them. Occasionally, they would report that nothing was in sight, but as the day went, we got a few hits. Then, the duo would fly back here, and I took Espeon and flew with Salamence back to the spot, picked up the Pokémon, and got back. Longest time spent on this was half an hour, but only because Venusaur was quite hard to distinguish from the rest of the vegetation when he was burrowed in snow. The other Pokémon we found all came without problems.
The clock showed ten minutes to nine PM when we got what I decided would be the last call of the day.
"Nearer the city. Confirmed hit", Metagross suddenly said. "They are on their way back"
"What Pokémon?", I asked
"It's dark outside, but they say it was big, and white or pink", he answered. "Guess yourself"
I picked up Salamence's Poké Ball, got dressed, and put my boots on. Well outside, I waited. A minute or so later, I heard a thump to my left, and a huge bird and a psychic rodent apparently materialised from thin air.
"Go get some rest now, Pidgeot, we'll call this a day", I said. Espeon got into my backpack, I released Salamence, and a minute later, we were on our way, flying over the forest.
"Over there", Espeon said. I groaned. A lit-up ski trail, which certainly meant that people were nearby.
"Put me down here", I ordered Salamence. In its usual sense of humour, it dropped me four meters down into a pile of snow. I got up, called him back, and sent Espeon up in a tree to scout for skiers. After crawling out of the pile, I activated the Poké Radar. Usually, I had found the Pokémon after a few minutes of walking around the landing spot, but I wanted to be done with this as soon as possible. On its small screen, a white dot appeared almost in the center. The Pokémon was very close, in other words.
"Skiers", Espeon suddenly hissed. I turned around, and heard voices around the bend. I didn't have time to hide before a group of people were all around me.
"Look who's here!", a voice said. I groaned.
"Isn't it Robbie? Got lost, have you?"
Of all persons who are out skiing in the evenings, why did it have to be about ten people from my class I encountered? I knew a fair few of them were excellent skiers, and that they trained as often as they could, but why here and now?
"The city is that way", a girl said and pointed in the exact opposite direction of the city. "Start walking now, and you may get home before mommy starts to worry"
"He's forgotten his skis!", someone laughed. "Jerk!"
"Listen...", I said, trying not to panic. "You better get going. I'm here for a reason, and for that same reason, you better put as much distance between here and yourself as possible"
"Out playing with Pokémon again, are you? Afraid that someone will discover you?"
"Just run", I said calmly. Someone started poking me with their ski poles. I sighed. "OK, stay. Fine for me, they'll find you when spring comes"
"What?"
We were interrupted by a splintering sound, and the ski trail suddenly became all dark. I turned around, and could see the shadow of something tearing down the nearest light pole, snapping the power cables. It was only a few metres away from me, and even closer to some of the others. They apparently saw it as well, one of the girls started screaming.
"Calm down!", I shouted. "It won't hurt you if you-"
I was interrupted by a loud thump. Someone was flung about twenty metres down the trail, and crashed into a tree. I could hear the sound of his skis breaking. Even more screaming ensued.
"You're enraging it!", I shouted, searching my backpack for a flashlight. Another crash and someone was thrown into a tree behind me.
"Zangoose?", I tried, holding up its Poké Ball in the creature's direction. No response.
"Blissey?" A deafening roar told me that this wasn't Blissey either. I put down Togekiss' Poké Ball as well, and finally found the flashlight.
"Over there, people!", I roared and pointed the flashlight at a tree. A broken ski hung in one of the branches.
"What is it?", someone cried. "Light it up!"
"I don't think it will be worth the trouble if I point the light towards its face to find out!", I shouted back. "Gather over there!"
A few people rushed over to the spot I was pointing towards. One of the others had a flashlight in his headband, which he now turned on.
"Turn it off!", I shouted. "If you blind it, it may-" He looked at the shadow, who was now walking towards a girl who had tripped and fallen. She had apparently fainted from fear, and the creature was curious. But now that the light shone brightly in his eyes, it's attention was detracted. The guy with the light was in a very bad situation, but we could at least see the Pokémon clearly. It was about three meters tall, and not much less wider, standing on two legs. Its body was covered in white and green fur, which partially obscured its face. It seemed to have a large moustache and even larger bushy eyebrows. Its eyes were quite small, with tiny pupils. It had long arms as thick as tree trunks, its short green fingers almost touched the ground. It also had a rather small tail, which I really couldn't see any use for, and several spikes on its back.
"Abominable snowman!", the boy shouted.
"ABOMASNOOOOOW!", the Pokémon corrected him. I turned away, I had to find a ball before-
I could hear a sound similar to a waterfall or a jet engine, and the temperature fell drastically. It felt like my eyes would freeze, but I had to keep them open. The bag wasn't that big, why couldn't I find its Poké Ball?
"Noo!", someone shouted. I directed my flashlight at the guy with the light. All I could see was a block of ice, with a faint glow inside it. Behind him, several trees were capsuled in ice.
"He'll be okay", I shouted. "All fine"
"You killed him!", someone cried. A whooshing sound, and chunk of ice narrowly missed me.
"Don't throw stuff at me, you're making it worse!", I said, with my head buried in the bag. Finally, I found its Poké Ball!
"Abomasnow, back!" It turned red and transparent, and vanished. We were left in silence and darkness.
"Ben!" Someone ran over to the block of ice containing their frozen classmate. His flashlight still lit up the area from inside the ice, like a beacon.
"We have to get him to hospital!"
"How? The snowmobile central is several kilometres from here! And there's no phone coverage here!"
"Listen!", someone shouted. "A motor! Someone is coming! Help! Over here!"
My intestines froze. Lights lit up the trees above us, and a snowcat came crawling over the nearest hill. It was hard to see the emblem on its front because of the headlights, but I could make out three letters:
TLA.

[triforced1]

Very good. I like the cliffhanger.