Emergence (Final Update - 28.03.12)

[Nintendude73]

Well, I scrolled through all of this looking at the feedback, and it seems hugely positive, so I think I might have to read this.

[GreekGeek]

Well, I scrolled through all of this looking at the feedback, and it seems hugely positive, so I think I might have to read this.

Way to go! It'll take ya some time though.

[Cobraroll]

A new reader? Woo! For you regulars, feedback is greatly appreciated, be it positive, negative or constructive. By the way, you'll notice that today's chapter is "slimmer" than the previous ones. That's because I copypaste it from OpenOffice, and won't bother fixing all the line breaks. Hopefully, you're OK with that.

Well, without further ado, let's get onto:

Chapter twenty-one: Knights in shining armour

All in all, it was a lovely day. Chilly, but the sky was crystal clear. Mom had suggested inviting Emily and her mom to celebrate New
Year's Eve with us, seeing as their celebration was been dampened a bit due to the issue with her father. They had accepted the
invitation, and were to come to us sometime in the evening. In the meantime, Emily suggested that  could come over to them. After
all, I hadn't been inside her house before. As I walked along the streets of my neighbourhood, I tried to take a look at the
situation. Twenty-four hours ago, I had been fighting the battle of my life. Now, I was walking carefreely through the streets like
any other normal boy. Even though TLA's threat still loomed over me, I felt calmer than before. For all I knew, Uxie, Mesprit and
Azelf was making hell for them now. Or if they met them, I'd bet that the TLA wouldn't be able to do them much. Actually, I halfway
wanted the two groups to meet, just to see what would happen.
As I crossed a road, I could see the school a few hundred metres further down the road. From this angle, one couldn't see the
collapsed part, that now was just a hole in the ground, but the cranes were still visible. Metagross had been able to flatten a four
-story brick building, but the TLA had still got him. Though, it should be said that he could easily have gotten away if he had
tried. Instead, he had blown himself - and a pretty large area of forest - up, and given me a chance to get away.
Salamence as well... he had downed an aircraft, but was still captured. Or ambushed, was the more correct word. In the game, that
Salamence had been a formidable attacker, able to sweep through an opposing team with minimal set-up required. I had won Pokémon
battling tournaments before, and in a semifinal once, I had used just two Pokémon. Salamence was one of them. But in real life, he
was vulnerable as well as destructive. I hadn't seen the danger, and Salamence was lost.
A car passing by dragged me out of my line of thought, and I stepped up the pace. A few minutes later, I found Emily's house. It was
a nice house, a bit bigger than ours, with a garden that appeared to be filled with flowers when the seasons allowed it. Now, a lone
snowman greeted visitors as they approached the door. It struck me as a little odd. Emily didn't seem to be the kind of person to
build snowmen. For all I knew, someone else could have built it. It was long since I last was here, and then, I had just seen the
house from the outside. I rung the doorbell, and tried to straighten my clothes before the door went up. The person opening the door
looked remarkably like a younger version of Emily. She could have been about ten years old, and even wore clothes in Emily's style,
but unlike I had ever seen Emily, she had her hair in a ponytail. She looked at me for a second or two, then yelled over her
shoulder:
"Emily! It's your boyfriend!". Then she disappeared. Moments later, Emily appeared. We looked at each other for a second. Emily
looked over her shoulder to see if her sister was gone yet. Then she leapt towards me and gave me a big hug.
"You've never told me you had a sister", I said, trying not to get too much of her hair in my mouth.
"You didn't tell me about the Pokémon before I saw them either", she replied. "Now, we're even"
We went in, through a small hallway, and up a staircase. I could see bags lying everywhere on my way.
"We had to rush home, and didn't have the mood to unpack when we got home from the hospital", Emily explained. "Normally, it's not
this untidy here"
Well up the stair, we went to the left, towards two doors. I could hear tween pop music coming from one of them.
"Please say that the other thing you haven't told me is that you listen to Jonas brothers", I said. Emily made a grimace.
"No, that's Anna. I don't listen much to music. Particularly not Jonas brothers"
"Never thought I'd met a person with the same music taste as me", I said. We went in through the other door.
Emily's room was the polar opposite of mine. Mine was small, cramped and as untidy as if I was trying to win a prize for it. Emily's
was quite large, with bright colours and a tidiness that bordered on perfection. The furniture was mostly white, and all surfaces
were almost shining. Books were perfectly ordered (by colour, I noticed) in the shelves, and there was not a trace of dust anywhere.
Two large windows provided lots of light here. We sat down on her bed, and I started to tell the story of what had happened, from the
moment I took off last time we met, until this very morning.
"So now you've got even more Pokémon to worry about?", Emily said.
"These are a little weird. I don't know whether I should relax about them or panic. On the one hand, they seem to manage well on
their own. On the other, the thoughts of what they may do...", I said. "But enough of that. How is your dad?"
"Not too good", she whispered. "His heartbeat rhythm is fine. Breathing is fine. He's got some nasty bruises on his back, but they're
not fatal. The doctors think he's got some kind of shock, and the brain just shut down..." she leant on me, and dried a few tears on
my sweater. "...possibly for good!"
We sat like that for a few minutes, in a silence only interrupted by a few muffled sobs from Emily. So far, our relationship had
contained quite a lot of crying, but I hoped it would get better eventually. Also, somewhere in my brain a few neurons were
scrutinizing Emily's words. Something didn't seem right about her story.
"I'm sure he'll be all fine", I said. "He looks like a tough guy, and people do wake up from coma unexpected all the time"
I just got another sob as an answer.

The rest of the day isn't really worth telling about. We decided to watch a film, then I went home to help mom clean the house. Emily
and her family arrived at seven. I was in the living room, stacking today's newspapers into a cupboard, when the doorbell rang. For
some unknown reason, mom knew very well that Emily had a sister.
"And you must be Anna", I heard. "My, you look exactly the same as your sister" I straightened up as they entered the living room.
Emily looked gorgeous in her new dress. It was sparkling with colours, but still very elegant. I wore a stock black tuxedo, and must
have looked quite boring beside her. After eating, us "kids" were sent to watch a film. Anna chose some Disney cartoon she found in a
shelf, and Emily and I just accepted it. We talked through most of it anyway, while Anna didn't seem to notice us.
As the evening went on, I started to become increasingly tired. I had gotten very little sleep that night, and it had been a long
day. Emily noticed it too.
"Sleepy?", she said and looked at her watch. "Two more hours until the rockets go up. You'll have time for a little nap"
"No thanks", I replied. "If I fall asleep now, I won't be able to wake up before tomorrow morning. Which reminds me, I have to get up
early tomorrow"
Emily glanced at her sister, who had fallen asleep in the sofa beside us. Mom, dad and Emily's mother were in the kitchen, out of
hearing range.
"You can't go out hunting like that. You need to be awake, or else you're not going to accomplish anything. I won't let you get up
before eleven tomorrow, at earliest"
"The TLA doesn't cease activity because of holidays", I whispered back. "In this very moment, they may be loading another unfortunate
Pokémon into a van. Give them more time, they'll get more Pokémon. And according to Uxie, that's not good at all"
Emily was about to answer when my mobile phone rang. I picked it up. Nothing. Then, a woman's voice, sounding just like an automatic
phone answerer:
"Please log on to your computer" Then the phone hung up on me.
"What was that?", Emily asked. She had been sitting close enough to be to hear what had been said.
"Smells like a trap", I said. "But it might be the opposite as well. I bet TLA won't try anything extensive tonight. Everyone's at
home and awake, and if they sent me the call to spy on my computer, they won't find anything there. Whoever made the call wouldn't
have anything to win or lose on it. Perhaps they want to help me. And in times like these, I need every bit of information I can
gather. I'll do it"
Emily seemed nervous, but decided to come with me.

"Sorry it's a bit untidy here", I said as we entered my room.
"Crammed", she replied. "But cozy, at least to some extent"
"I keep it clean, at least", I said. "It's just that there isn't room for everything"
I dumped down on my chair and turned on my computer, while Emily sat down on my bed. I regretted that I hadn't made it this morning,
but she didn't seem to care. About a minute later, my computer displayed my desktop. I was wondering "now what", when the screen
suddenly went black. The PC shut down.
"What's happening?", Emily said. "Is it broke?"
"I have a feeling we'll get to know soon", I replied, a bit nervous. If the TLA could travel through screens The Ring-style,
we might have a problem. The PC went back on, but appeared to run in DOS-mode. Just a black background with a text marker. Nothing
else. Suddenly, the word "Hello" turned up on the screen.
"Who are you?", I wrote back.
"Metagross", it replied "I emerged during your PE class on October 27, met you the 28th, and was captured by the organization we know
as TLA yesterday". The sentences came almost as soon as I was finished typing my entries to the conversation. It now struck me that
speaking must be a frustratingly slow way for Metagross to communicate.
"I believe you", I wrote. "By the way, Emily's here with me. Are they tracking this?"
"No chance, Metagross said. "I had to construct not only a new operation system for this conversation, but a new way for your
computer to read signals. A trinary code"
"Don't computers only understand 1 and 0? Power on, power off?"
"Ever heard of complex numbers? Anyway, never mind. Given the time and date, I suspect you can't be away for long, so we have to keep
it to the essentials here. I have managed to hack their systems, but I haven't been able to read much yet. They're encrypted, and I'm
weakened from yesterday"
"Shouldn't you be very fainted now, after using Explosion?"
"There's a difference between 'fainted' and 'unable to battle'", Metagross replied. "Battles keep going until the Pokémon faints.
Usually, it will wake up a little later, but won't be able to battle again before it has rested properly. So until then, they're
weakened, but conscious and able to perform basic moves. So far, I've managed to get into their internal communications. Been busy
working today, I see?"
"I have barely left the house", I wrote. "Why?"
"Their internal messages keeps mentioning 'resistance' in certain parts of the city. They've lost two teams today, it appears.
'Tracking unsuccessful', they keep saying. Do any friends of you know about TLA?"
"None other than Emily", I replied.
"Then there might be someone else who's after the Pokémon", Metagross said. "The industrial area near your school, that's where the
TLA appears to have gotten trouble. You should go check it, but be extremely careful"
"I will", I answered. "By the way, how do they treat you?"
"They ask questions, and want to test us, but we refuse. We haven't been punished for it yet, but the atmosphere gets more
threatening each time. If we try to escape or resist them, they electrocute us. It really hurts. It's only a matter of time before
they will lose patience"
"How many are you there?"
"Somewhere between ten and forty. I try to hack the registries, but it will take time"
"Good luck", I wrote back. Then, as we heard others call for us downstairs, I ended the conversation with a quick "gtg". The computer
shut down immediately, leaving us both puzzled and relieved at the same time.

About twelve hours later, I stepped off the bus. To outsiders, I probably looked like any other teenager looking for windows to break
or walls to spray down. For once, my saggy clothes actually helped me, no one gave me a second look as I walked through the streets
like so many others around here used to do when they got bored. I even wore a large hooded sweater to fulfil the stereotype. In
reality, I was armed to the teeth with Poké Balls. Workers were still on vacation, so the area was empty. An eventual battle with TLA
could get noisy without turning too many heads, in other words.
I walked around seemingly at random, activating the PokéRadar every now and then. It gave no response, and the area was silent, but I
wanted to check everywhere around here. If there was anything here that had hindered the TLA, it could be of great help to me, and I
wanted to find it, as well as possible tracking down a Pokémon or two in the process. About half an hour after leaving the bus stop,
I found myself in a road between two empty warehouses. I turned on the Poké Radar  again. To my great surprise, two dots started to
glow on the screen. There were Pokémon here, only 300 metres away according to the radar. I started to walk casually towards the
spot. The dots faded out after a minute, but I registered that both Pokémon apparently hid in an abandoned warehouse across the road.
I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone were nearby, and walked in through an unlocked side door. I got into a small room only a
few metres square, with lots of thrash lying in heaps. Apparently, some hobos had emptied a few beer cans (and their bladders,
judging by the smell) here not too long ago. Another door lead into a larger room. It was completely dark, wooden boards were
plastered over all the windows. I put my hand in my bag to find my flashlight.
Suddenly, I saw stars. Something had smacked me hard in the head, making me drop my bag. I was dragged around, and the door slammed
shut. I was pinned to the wall, and felt something very sharp against my throat. The flashlight rolled out of the bag, and somehow
turned on, so I could see what had ambushed me.
It looked like an ant of sorts, but red, shiny and taller than a full-grown man. It had only four legs, two of which it standedon,
with the two others being full-developed arms. Each arm ended in a pincer the size of my head. One of them was closed, pushing my
back against the wall, the other was open around my neck. I knew it had a pair of wings on its back as well, but I was too busy
looked at the scissor-like pincer to bother checking.
"Sci...zor", it said. The meaning was obvious, even to one who didn't understand Pokémon. "Friend or foe? The wrong answer will make
you a head shorter"
"It's me", I harked. It's amazing how fast mouths can dry when you're in a pinch. Literally speaking.
"It is him. Release him", another voice said. I felt the pincers move away from me. "Finally found us, huh?"
I picked up the flashlight and directed it towards the voice. A creature looking remarkably like a cross-breed of human and jackal
appeared from the darkness. The size of a human child, it stood on two legs, with its right arm stretched towards me. It looked like
it was wearing a blue shorts, and a khaki vest, but I knew that was just its fur being like that. The furless spots; its legs, paws
and parts of its head, were black.
"We've been awaiting you", the Lucario said in a telepathic voice. "Done a little bit of work ourselves in the meantime"
He turned on a small lamp that was placed on a crate in the middle of the room. It looked like they had been busy, oh yeah.
In a crate under a boarded-up window lay a dozen or so dart rifles, and as many tazer guns. A similar crate beside it was filled to
the rim with bent rifles, broken tazer guns, torn bulletproof vests, broken goggles, and a few crushed walkie-talkies. On the wall
behind me hung five or six hazmat suits, all seemingly intact. About twice as many lay in a heap on the floor. They were torn almost
beyond recognition. There was a stack of bulletproof vests lying in a corner as well.
"A little bit?", I muttered. "How many people from TLA have you taken down, really?"
"Sixty or so", Lucario answered. "They travel in small teams, and fall easily to ambushes. It's not rocket science, just use your
fastest attack at the people with guns, and the rest lose their heads as soon as they see the armed squads are down"
"Of course, the heads grow back after a few seconds", Scizor giggled. I looked at him, quite shocked. He didn't know that I could
understand him.
"The vans may be solid, but the windshield falls to a single Brick Break. Takes out the driver as well. Then loot what you can before
the vans disintegrate themselves", Lucario finished. "For some reason, they do that. Rinse and repeat when reinforcements arrive,
usually the next day"
"And where do you dispose of... the bodies?", I asked. "Do they disintegrate as well?"
"Sleeping with the fishes", Lucario said. I was terrified. Did they throw them off a pier? He giggled, and continued. "The fish
storehouse a few blocks away has terrible security. We dump the guys in the same place after every attack, and the guards are as
shocked each time they find a new batch of unconscious people in the underwear. Still, they don't improve security"
"You're playing with high stakes here", I said. "If they catch you..."
"We weren't going to keep going for much longer anyway", Lucario said. "When they discover our hideout, we'll get away. The useful
stuff is hidden elsewhere anyway"
"This looks useful enough", I said and lifted a hazmat suit off its hook on the wall.
"A good decoy, at least", Lucario said. "We want it to look like this is a human hideout. Hopefully, we'll be away when they find us"
"You look well prepared", I said. "You'll be fine"

That's when a flashbang grenade came flying in through an air vent.

[SuperFireKirby]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Not a CLIFFHANGER!!!!

[GreekGeek]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Not a CLIFFHANGER!!!!

Welcome to Emergence my friend.

[SirIngusBingus]

I FORGOT ABOUT THIS!!

Wow, I have a lot of catching up to do...

[Cobraroll]

^And there's more to come! Welcome back, by the way!
Sorry this chapter is a little shorter than usual, but I couldn't add another scene without splitting the chapter into two parts, which is a proper PIA to submit, and I don't want to broaden what I have any more (also note, it doesn't fill the page width fully. That's a pain to fix, and the result doesn't get better in the end anyway). It's been too long since the last chapter as well.

Comments and critisism is as always deeply appreciated.

Chapter twenty-two: The first outbreak

While I was almost stunned, Lucario was certainly not. He spun around and kicked the grenade hard into a concrete wall. It broke into
fizzing pieces that rained down all over the room. I stood rooted to the spot for a second, before my brain started working.
"Make a bang, someone", I whispered. Scizor opened its right pincer, and snapped it shut. It was so fast that I couldn't make out any
sort of motion, one moment it was open, one moment it was closed. The sound made was similar to that of a gunshot.
"Now set up", I continued in a low voice. "Boost stats". Then I shouted: "AAAHH! What was that?! My eyes!" To whoever had thrown the
grenade, it should ideally sound like a success. But even though I screamed a lot, I bent calmly down and picked up Emily's scarf
from my bag. One day, I would have to return it, but in the meantime, it could help hide my identity again.
As I wrapped the scarf around my head, I could see Lucario breathing deeply with its eyes closed. Weird lights appeared around his
head. Scizor spun around on the spot, smoke was whirling around him. Something that resembled scimitars could vaguely be seen inside
the cloud. I crouched down behind a crate and waited. The two Pokémon stood back to back, Scizor with its gaze fixed at the door,
Lucario looking for boards to give in, or hearing for sounds from the air vents. Suddenly, the sound of a beer can being trampled
flat indicated that someone was in the small room with the door to the outside. The door handle was pressed down, and the door flew
open.
"What have we he-", a woman's voice said. the rest of the sentence disappeared in a loud gurgling. Scizor was upon her, and had gone
for the throat. I heard shouting, the sound of something solid falling to the floor, and several thumps. Lucario still hadn't moved,
they could possibly be trying to attack us from both sides. I peered over the crate, and could see splatters of blood shrinking and
eventually vanishing from the walls and floor. Scizor was a merciless battler, and even though the TLA grunts were well trained, they
were no match. The occasional clanking from Scizor's armour told me that they were shooting darts at him.
It appeared that all fighters were knocked out now. Scizor went calmly back in the room again, with darts ricocheting from his
armour. He pushed the fallen woman out of the room with his leg, and slammed the door shut.
"How's the situation?", I asked.
"TLA. They are many. Perhaps twenty. Three vans. I took down four people", Scizor said, mostly to Lucario. Lucario turned towards me.
"No need to translate", I interrupted him. "Long story, but I can understand you. Now. They will probably try to get in here once
again. Until then, repeat Calm Mind as long as you can. Scizor, cover the door"
I had a look at the contents of the room. It was quite large, about ten by twenty metres, but had only one entrance. There were
boarded-up windows on two sides, the other two were plain concrete walls. This room was apparently one of four identical rooms that
made up the building. Scizor and Lucario had stuffed most of the loot in a corner by the door, while the rest of the room was empty,
save for a sofa and a fridge in the far end. After all, they were trying to make it look like humans lived here.
"They might use gas", Lucario said. "We are immune, but you should try on one of these" He nodded in the direction of the hazmat
suits hanging on the wall. I found the one that seemed most intact, and got it on. The minutes went by surprisingly silent.
"They may be calling in reinforcements", I said after a couple of minutes had passed in silence. My voice was wheezy through the gas
mask, and I could hardly see through both the scarf and the visor.
"And our situation isn't ideal either", Lucario said. "We could do with some action. Remember, you trained us to attack, not to hide"
"True", I said. "Are there any other ways out of here?"
"No", Scizor said. "The building is surrounded either way"
Suddenly, we heard a sound. Apparently, someone were placing something that looked suspiciously like gas canisters in the same air
vent the flashbang had come in through.
"Here comes the gas", I said. "Time to see if this suit works"
The room was filled with a white smoke that drifted off after a few minutes. I didn't feel any difference breathing. While not
extremely Pokémon-proof, the hazmat suits certainly excelled in what they were sewn to do. Lucario and Scizor, being Steel types,
were both immune to poison, and just kept boosting stats. After a few more minutes, it seemed like they had become a little tired of
waiting. I walked over to the door and opened it slightly. A man's voice was heard:
"Still in there? We can wait all day, or all year for that matter. You can give in, or starve to death in there. We won't come and
get you. There are no other ways out of there, and you don't have water or sanitary systems. Come out, and we'll take care of you"
"Or we can walk away ourselves. Do you really think you can stop us?", I shouted back.
"Don't be silly. I have a dozen trained men with rifles here, all with the finger on the triggers and aiming for you", the man
answered.
"Idiot", Lucario muttered.
"Agreed", I said. "There's only one angle from which you can see this door from the outside, and he practically told us that he has
all of his men there. Have you boosted enough now?"
Lucario nodded. Even though his mouth was hidden from my view, I could swear he was smiling.
"Then take out the wall. Focus Blast. Bring them down", I said.
"Find cover first. This will be a pretty large bang", Lucario replied. "Counting down from ten!"
I crouched down where the roof seemed least likely to fall down on me. Lucario turned towards the corner, clapped his hands together,
stretched out his arms, and took a step backwards. Without warning, something that looked like a cloud of solid smoke was shot from
his hands. It went straight for the wall like a cannonball, going through it as if it was made of paper. Pieces of concrete flew in
every direction, and the windows shattered behind the boards. Through the subsequent dust cloud, I could see the riflemen the agent
had spoken about were scattered like bowling pins. The roof didn't fall down, but creaked slightly.
Scizor was on the move again, giving the surprised agent a Bullet Punch to the chest. The man was flung through a factory window on
the other side of the street. The area outside was a mess of rubble, and one of the vans was severely damaged. Lucario stepped out to
the street, forming a large black blob between his hands. He turned around a few times to look for targets, but no people were
standing upright. The ones who weren't taken out by the Focus Blast, had taken cover behind buildings or the trademark black TLA
vans. Lucario's gaze swept over the scene one final time before he unleashed the Shadow Ball at the nearest van.
"Run!", he barked as the van was thrown down the street. I picked up my bag and did as he had told me. The hazmat suit wasn't easy to
run in, and I was by no means a good runner, but I managed to cover quite some distance in a few minutes. I found a shed on an empty
parking lot, and hid in it. I dragged off the hazmat suit, and sat there for a few minutes, until I was absolutely sure that no one
came after me. I had put the scarf away, but still wore the hood when I went back out to see if I could find Lucario and Scizor. It
didn't take too many minutes before I found them, leaning on an overfilled container between two warehouses. Lucario looked
exhausted, while Scizor's usually shining body armour was smeared with grease and oil.
"They had cameras", Lucario panted. He was too exhausted to use telepathy. "Had to destroy the computers and communications. I've
never torn apart a car that quickly before"
"They were shooting at us as well", Scizor said. "And paid dearly for it" I could see pieces of what looked like shredded hazmat
suits being stuck in various cracks in his armour.
"You've done a great job", I said and found their Poké Balls in my bag. "Let's get going before reinforcements arrive"

The roads were as silent as earlier, but seemed way more threatening. Each time I heard a car approach us, I ducked down and put my
hand in the bag. We were in the more modern part of the industrial area now, less than a kilometre away from my school. There were no
small warehouses or detail shops here, but large industrial complexes behind tall fences, each of them a few hundred metres square.
As the fences ran alongside the pavement on both sides of the road, there were no places to hide here. I felt like a mouse crossing
an open field, knowing about but not seeing eagles fly far overhead.
Then something appeared out of the blue. Surprisingly, I saw it long before it came close to me. It was Azelf, just floating down
from the sky like a leaf in Autumn, though he held a steadier course.
"You didn't do too bad", it said as it approached me. "Though, I expected you to do it a bit cleaner"
"I escaped unharmed, at least", I countered. "So did both my Pokémon, but none of the TLA people. We destroyed a lot of their
equipment as well"
Azelf looked at me. "Yeah, you did", it said. "Congrats. Too bad you weren't there to see it. They pretty much did all by themselves"
"He told me to run!", I said.
"You don't have to listen to him, planning is your responsibility. But it worked this time, yes. Lucario saved your skin twice",
Azelf said. It hovered beside me as I walked down the road. "The survivors were shooting for you. Or at least, they thought they did.
Some random troublemaker dressed more or less like you happened to be at the place at the wrong time, and he was hit. That suit saved
you. They thought you were one of their own"
I shivered. "What's going to happen to him? Do I have to save him?"
"He'll wake up tomorrow with his latest memories wiped. Will encourage him to quit drugs, at least", Azelf said casually.
"Thanks for what you did yesterday", I said. "I have a feeling that things go a lot smoother now. I may be able to win this, and if I
manage to tell Mismagius about it, there's no chance they'll understand our conversations from now on"
"They've put Mismagius under constant surveillance", Azelf said. "They had a scientist to interrogate her, threatening with various
ghost busting equipment. Mismagius twisted his neck when things started to go nasty. Apparently thrashed the whole room as well"
"Interrogate?", I said.
"They're getting more determined on catching you after they intercepted you last night"
"Is anybody hurt?"
"No, they shout and plea to the Pokémon, who refuse to cooperate, but no physical harm is done yet. And you already know that in the
long term, the Pokémon can't hurt them either"
"By the way, where are the others? Uxie and Mesprit?"
"Knowing them, Mesprit is on a school somewhere. Or a hospital, given the vacation. Those are usually blooming with emotions. I guess
Uxie's found a library somewhere..."
We were interrupted as a car came driving down the road. I didn't pay attention to it before it stopped. It was a military-type
truck, but without the national emblem all military vehicles in the country had on the front grille. It stopped a few metres before
us, and a dozen armed men jumped out of it. However, I could see they were no ordinary military. Black featureless suits indicated
that these were TLA grunts, but without the usual hazmat suits this time.
"Stay still. I'll take care of this", Azelf whispered. I was frozen with shock, couldn't move either way. Guns have that effect on
some people.
"Hey! That's a Pokémon over there!", one of the men shouted.
"Take it down!"
"You kid! Come over here!"
A man pointed an automatic gun at me. "Get over here! Away from that!"
"Pokémon! Stay still, come with us, and no one will get hurt", another man yelled.
"Send a message to the others! I think we've got him!", the man with the gun pointing at me said.
"I beg to differ", Azelf calmly said and stretched out an arm. Its tiny palm started to glow. Then, a small dart, no larger than the
ones used in the game of the same name, emerged from its palm. I saw the scene as in slow motion. The orange glowing dart shot from
Azelf's hand towards the truck at bullet speeds. As it did so, it glowed increasingly brighter before it burst into a large five-
armed star of pure fire. A fraction of a second later, it hit the truck in the front grill.
The explosion was tremendous. A large fireball engulfed the truck, and the blast wave put all the soldiers on fire and threw them
around like rag dolls. The road was scorched, and the scarce grass between the pavement and the fence was put ablaze. I felt the heat
hitting me like a burning blanket being wiped over my face. As the truck collapsed in another fiery explosion, Azelf turned towards
me.
"Now, where were we? Let's go"
"What about... tidying?", I shouted over the roar of the fire.
"That's their problem. And a speciality field of theirs. I wouldn't be overly concerned that this ever will hit the news", Azelf
said. "As I suppose you know, they won't be physically damaged either"
I looked over my shoulder as we left the scene. Bodies were lying motionless on the road, their clothes were still burning.
"Are you sure they...", I began
"Of course", Azelf interrupted me. "Now, let's find a bus stop"

Some ten minutes later, I dumped down in the back seat of a bus. Azelf had vanished right before I came to the bus stop, but it
didn't take long before he contacted me telepathically from wherever it was. I sat there, trying to look like a normal guy, looking
at the buildings the bus drove past, and all in all succeeded at looking uninteresting. But inside my head, I had a vivid discussion:
"Now, time to sum up the events", Azelf's voice said in my head. "First, how do you think they found you?" He sounded quite like a
teacher hearing his students sum up the homework.
"The area was probably swarming with TLA", I replied. "Metagross said they had had trouble in that part of the city, so they were
most likely all over the place to begin with"
"Still, what attracted them to that specific warehouse?", Azelf asked.
"Umm...", I thought, trying to recall anything I had done out of the ordinary. "I timed it bad, and dumped into the place minutes
before a planned attack was to happen?"
"A good guess, but wrong nonetheless", Azelf said. "You emitted a quite powerful signal this morning, that was easily backtracked to
you. And gave away the location of two Pokémon. They snapped up the signal, saw from it that you met up with the Pokémon, and decided
to strike"
"The Poké Radar?", I thought and instinctively held my bag tighter to me.
"Yep", Azelf sighed. "A great tool for finding Pokémon, but the signal can be tracked as well. If you use it to find Pokémon, catch
them quickly, then get out of there as fast as you can. And if you don't find Pokémon, the signal can be tracked either way. Then,
you better run. Far and fast"
"So... it's practically useless unless I know roughly where the Pokémon is in the first place?"
"Or you know that the area is TLA-free", Azelf finished. "Which, I have to say, is not true for most of this city. They have called
in all branches of the organisation to this city, they have people practically everywhere now"
"What do they want with the Pokémon, anyway?", I asked.
"You'll find out, soon enough", Azelf said. "I can't tell you specifically, but they're dangerously close to achieving it. Come next
month, and the guys will be damn hard to take down"
"If I don't do something?", I guessed.
"Either way, really, but if you act, they will only be hard to beat because there's so many of them. If you let them achieve their
goal, you'll get trouble with each one of them"
"What do you mean?", I thought, my mind working hard to try to fit the pieces of the puzzle. "They're... trying to use the Pokémon
against me?"
Azelf said nothing.
"It is true, isn't it? How can we stop them?", I thought.
"It helps a lot that a certain iron crab is able to access and delete their research data from the past thirty years if need be",
Azelf's voice giggled. "Still, there's a lot left to do. But you can figure out that yourself, I've said too much. Good luck!"
Then the connection was interrupted. I got up from my seat and went off the bus with an expressionless face, but a very bad feeling
in my stomach.

[Seeker]

Just read the first chapter, and I love it. Anything with Tyranitar is guaranteed epic.

[dahans]

well done man. Como dicho: you have to publish your stuff!

[Cobraroll]

^As I've stated somewhere, I won't update with a new chapter before I know that someone has read the previous one. Now I know you've read it, time to submit!
Chapter twenty-three: Midtown Madness

I slept a dreamless sleep that night, and was quite concerned for Mismagius when I woke up. It was the second of January today, the last day of the public holiday. Come tomorrow, and people would get back to work. The city would be swarming with people. Well, it would be a Sunday tomorrow, so there wouldn't be very many people around, but still too many to keep a Pokémon hunt a silent affair.
So I had to use today for all it was worth. I got up early, went down to the cavern and chose a team to come with me: Tyranitar, Lucario, Scizor, Weavile, Swampert and Pidgeot. I put their Poké Balls and the bag containing the empty balls in a bag, that I hid in the garden shed. Then I went back to bed, and slept until mom called me down for breakfast. I had done this quite a few times now, and it felt equally strange each time. Eating breakfast with mom and dad, tell them I'd go to Edvard/Emily/Matt and then hunt Pokémon, fully knowing that it got more dangerous by the day. Perhaps I'd never come home, perhaps the I'd come home accompanied by the TLA, or I'd be very lucky and survive. And they knew nothing. At times, I felt a very strong urge to tell them everything, maybe even ask for help. Other times, I almost panicked thinking that they might suspect something. After breakfast, I went out, got the bag in the shed and went for the bus stop. I planned to search the areas downtown today, as I wouldn't get another chance to see the place as empty as it would be today. With my bag stuffed with Pokémon gear, I walked towards the bus stop.
I walked a little faster than I thought I would have, and arrived at the bus stop a few minutes before the bus was scheduled to come. There was only one other passenger there, a lonely figure who seemed quite frozen. She turned around, and I saw it was Emily.
"Thought I'd find you here", she said.
"You could have called, I could have come over to you, or you to me", I replied.
"No, I know you had other plans for today", she said and nodded in the direction of my bag. "I want to come with you"
"Don't you know how dangerous that would be? I told you about yesterday, remember?"
"Exactly. I know you're risking a lot by doing this, and I don't want to sit at home being concerned for you", she said. "Do you have any idea what that is like? I know you're out there, playing hide-and-seek with some people we don't know who are, but I have no idea how you are doing before you call me. Do you have any idea what it is like sitting at home waiting for that call? I can't concentrate on anything, mom asks me of anything's wrong, and I generally feel miserable. I don't know what would happen if one day I didn't get that call. It's much worse to sit safely and wonder what is happening than it is to be there, in danger, but knowing. I'm coming with you"
I sighed. "Okay, but if anything happens to you, I don't know what I'd do"
"I'll be careful, and stick to you, I promise", Emily said. "As long as you know what you're doing, I'll do fine"
"That's the issue. If I tell you to run and leave me, you'll do that, right?"
"Nope", she said. "We're in this together"
"And what if you get caught because of a mistake I make?"
"Then so be it"
"You know, I love you", I said. Emily beamed.

"Now what?", Emily said half an hour later. We were standing in what used to be a busy shopping street, watching the bus go away in the distance. The street was practically dead, with closed shops and over-filled thrash cans.
"This is as far as I've planned as well", I said. "I guess we can walk around a bit, see if we hit any Pokémon, catch them if we do, and go home when we get tired of it"
"And the TLA?"
"Then we'll improvise"
Emily sighed. "You're not serious, are you?"
"Do you have a better plan?", I asked. "I planned on letting Weavile do some of the work for us as well. Let's find a manhole, and Swampert can sure help us too"
We found a quiet side street and did just that. Weavile leapt off to the roof tops (about fifteen metres up - from a standing position), while Swampert went down a manhole. After that, we wandered around, seemingly aimlessly.
"Let's find a café or something", Emily said two hours later. We had been walking up and down streets, the weather was grey and it had started to snow slightly. "I'm freezing"
"I almost froze to death when tracking a Charizard last week", I said. "Didn't find it either, but I kept going"
"There weren't any cafés around in the forest", Emily said. "It wasn't like you had anything else to do"
"Have you seen any open cafés around today?", I said. "If you see one, we can-" I stopped mid-sentence. Something, like a bird's cry, was heard over the faint sound of the wind.
"What is it?"
"Listen!", I said. "It's in Pokémon. I think it's Weavile"
"It's only a bird", Emily said.
"It says 'east'", I said and looked in said direction, to the left. On the other side of the road, the Modern Art Museum was looming over us. Between the statues from the museum's first years some time in the 1700s, a lone figure was standing. I could hardly make it out, but it had to be Weavile.
"We should go", I said. "One block to the east. I'm sure he has seen something"
We said nothing as we crossed the street and walked through the metro station under the museum. Weavile hadn't shouted any warning, so it should be safe. Or appear safe from the rooftops, at least.

The other side of the museum was totally different from the west façade. After a fire thirty years ago, the entire building face was modernized, later inspiring the city planners to level a few other buildings damaged by the fire and make Millennium Square. A gigantic open space with a post-modern obelisk in its centre. MaMoPho, a major mobile phone company, had later built its headquarters in an L-shape on two sides of the square, leaving only one side open apart from a minimal gap between the HQ and the museum. This effectively made the area it a dead end for cars. Due to traffic issues, the Millennium Street was made a pedestrian zone, and shops were blooming on both sides of what now was one of the most lucrative shopping streets in the city, despite it being only a few hundred metres long. Even today, there were quite a few people in the area, mostly skaters who took advantage of the heater system on Millennium Square now that the rest of the city was blanketed by snow.
"I don't see anything unusual", Emily said as we emerged from the metro station. "Are you sure you didn't accidentally learned to understand seagulls too, and just overheard one shout out where there was food?"
"I'm dead sure", I said, looking up towards the roof of the Modern Art museum behind us. This façade was mostly steel and glass, and it was way harder for a humanoid figure to hide here than it was between statues of roughly the same size. I guessed Weavile was still standing among them on the other side.
"Besides, where would a Pokémon hide here?"
Suddenly, we heard sirens. There was always an ambulance or two driving around downtown, but this was different. Wilder, sort of.
"Hood on!", I hissed, not a moment too late. Ten seconds later, a huge black helicopter came flying over the roof of the Modern Art Museum. Underneath the copter hung a couple of speakers and what clearly was a machine gun. It flew in a wide arc over the museum again, and I could see people being dropped onto the roof by ropes.
"Look", Emily said and pointed down the road. At the very end of Millennium Street lay a huge shopping mall. Just in front of it, there was a large roundabout mostly used by taxis.
"Oh no", I groaned. Three large vehicles were driving up the street from the roundabout. They looked like huge, black fire trucks, with orange lights and sirens that screamt out warnings to everyone who were in the way. They didn't slow down as they hit the concrete car stoppers and crushed them beneath large wheels. Following the three trucks were two large semi trailers of the same fashion. Huge, black, noisy and powerful.
"A tenner for guessing who we're dealing with", I whispered. Voices from the metro station indicated that something was going on down there as well.
"We should walk down the street", Emily whispered back. We left Millennium Square and started walking down the road. The trucks had stopped now, and dozens of people clad in black and grey were swarming around them. The helicopter was now hovering over the obelisk in the middle of the square.
"Your attention please", a loud voice said. A man had emerged from the metro station a hundred metres behind us. He spoke into a small black device in his hand, and his voice was broadcasted from speakers on the trucks and the helicopter. He wore a featureless grey tuxedo, black shoes, and black sunglasses, even though the sun was blocked by heavy clouds. His voice sounded as plain as Microsoft Sam's.
"Everyone stop at the spot and lie down. This is nothing to worry about"
Not to raise suspicion, we did as he said. My heart was thundering in my chest, and I heard Emily murmuring something that resembled a prayer. From where we lay behind the base of a statue, we could see one of the skaters trying to escape the scene, rushing towards the gap between the museum and the MaMoPho HQ. The man who had spoke produced a gun from his pocket. Emily pressed her face to my jacket. There was no bang as the skater was shot, only a click, so I assumed it was just a dart gun. The skater nose dived into the concrete nonetheless, and we didn't see him get up again.
"We're done for", Emily whispered.
"I don't think they're here because of us", I whispered back. "I just hope it's not Weavile", I thought.
We lay like that for less than a minute before something happened. Said something seemed to appear out of thin air, hovering out of a window in the MaMoPho HQ. It could best be described as a glitch. I don't know what else to call it. A cluster of four or five white and blue smooth shapes that were floating around, spinning and constantly revolving around itself, ignoring gravity. At times, it resembled a duck, only with the head put upside down on the body. Other times, it was just a flurry of dislocated body parts. Every few seconds, it appeared to dissolve, like a hologram from Star Wars whenever the connection was bad. Sparks were constantly flying from its neck, like blood from a dismembered head. Sometimes, it appeared that the sparks were coming from its eyes as well.
"Oh no", I groaned.
"Is it Missingo?", Emily said.
"Not MissingNO, this time. Worse. You see those glasses orbiting... it could be its left leg?", I answered. "Those are Choice Specs. Boosts the power of the bearer's Special moves"
"And?"
"What you see over there is Porygon-Z. Yielder of the eighth most powerful attack in all of Pokémon. Trust me, this thing is devastating. I often used it to end battles. With a bang"
The helicopter turned around mid-air so that it faced the Virtual Pokémon. It then backed to get it at a better angle.
"I thought Porygon used to be red?", Emily said. "I've looked up a lot of Pokémon lately"
"Alternate colouration", I said. "Incredibly rare, this one"
"Freeze, Pokémon", the agent said and stepped out on the square to face Porygon-Z, that had now come out to the square as well. A loud scraping sound was heard.
"What was that?", Emily asked.
"Mainly... code", I said. "Untranslatable, but bad news, that's for sure"
The trucks started driving towards the Pokémon, that had now come out in front of the obelisk. The helicopter dropped down between the buildings, not to attract attention. About four dozen TLA-grunts were walking beside the trucks, guns pointed at Porygon-Z.
"Stay still, and you will not be hurt. You can not win this battle", the agent shouted. Porygon-Z answered with another cry.
"Now... hell will break loose", I whispered.

A small glowing orb appeared in front of Porygon-Z, who had gathered itself to its usual pose. It shone with a dull orange colour, and slowly grew in size and intensity.
"Stay as close to the statue base as you are physically able to", I whispered to Emily. A couple of TLA soldiers approached us, but stopped as they noticed Porygon-Z. The trucks stopped as well, and the soldiers raised their guns. The vast majority of them had dart guns, but there were quite a lot of regular automatic weapons there as well.
"Stop that!", the agent with the microphone said. "Or you'll pay for it"
The sphere was now roughly the size of as basket ball, and still growing. It started to revolve slightly.
"Is it me or is it darker here?", Emily said, pressing her body against the base of the statue.
"It is", I said and peered around the corner. "It's taking energy from the surroundings"
Light appeared to gather into fine strings that ran through the air into the sphere, which now was doing about one rotation per second. The very air seemed to vibrate even here, more than a hundred metres away.
"Shoot it!", the agent shouted. About half of the dart gun-yielding soldiers fired at the sphere. With a fizzing sound, the darts were absorbed by the rotating whirl.
"Where are those snipers?", he yelled. Probably, they had all fallen to Weavile moments after the drop-off at the museum roof. There was a deep humming noise in the air now. Manholes rattled, and window panes where shaking. The cobblestones near Porygon-Z were trembling violently.
"Take it out!", the agent bellowed. Porygon-Z was hidden completely behind the sphere now, and the spray of bullets and darts that followed had no effect.
"Close your eyes, and hold on!", I shouted. My voice seemed tiny over the hum of the charging attack. I held my bag as tightly to my body as possible, and tried to find a safer position. Still, I had to see this. Though the sound was deafening now, the loudspeakers on the trucks allowed me to hear the agent say a not so family-friendly word to himself.
Then Hyper Beam was unleashed.

A beam of intense yellow light, wide as a road. The roar was tremendous, and windows all the way down the street were shattered. The beam first hit the middle truck and obliterated it completely. The trucks on either side slowly moved sideways into the vortex, like plates on a table when you pull the tablecloth. Eventually, they tilted over and were ripped to pieces that were sent flying. Cobblestones were torn up from the road and flung down the street along with the beam. I didn't see what the beam eventually hit, but there was a terrible explosion down there. The beam made quite a vacuum as it passed, and the helicopter stood no chance. It was sucked into the vortex, and sent spinning down the street. I raised my head a little to see what happened to it. It was a really stupid thing to do. I was yanked from the spot, and hurled down the street. Most of the beam had worn off by now, so I wasn't burned to bits like the rest of the stuff that was hit. Still, I was whirling down the street in the vacuum after the Hyper Beam at a speed most cars could only dream about reaching. I spun too fast to see much, but I understood that Millennium Street itself was pretty ruined. I tried to spot Emily, what had happened to her, but then I hit something. I blacked out.

Surprisingly, I was still lying in the ruins when I woke up. The blood pouring from numerous wounds all over my body indicated either that I hadn't been out for long, or I had hit something a little too hard. I held my breath as I waited. My clothes were soaked with blood. If those wounds didn't heal, I'd be done for. Suddenly, I felt very cold, then very hot. A wound at the back of my hand closed itself, and the blood vanished. I sighed with relief and got up. Every inch of my body was aching, and my vision was blurry. I wasn't KO-ed very hard, but that didn't mean I was all right either. From the looks of things, I was in a book store in the mall at the end of Millennium Street. I had been thrown through all the shelves before I hit the concrete wall, that must have softened the impact. Now, books lay everywhere, and the shelves were either tipped over or broken. Among them lay my bag, miraculously undamaged. I picked it up, wrapped on Emily's scarf, and went out. It was first when I saw what was outside the store, that I realised how powerful the attack had been. The entire front facade of the mall was ruined. I was on the third floor, looking down on a pile of rubble, in the midst of which lay a thrashed helicopter. The remains of a truck lay scattered down a hallway to the left. The two other trucks were nowhere to be seen, and the trailers were completely gone. To the right, I looked out to Millennium Street. Or rather, a huge trench running where Millennium Street used to be. The buildings were largely intact on both sides of the street, apart from the pulverized windows. There were a few TLA people running around still, but they seemed to have no clue what to do. About half a kilometre away, Porygon-Z had disassembled again, and drifted down the ruined street. I had to stop it. As Choice Specs only allowed the Pokémon to use one move each time it was brought to the battlefield, there would come another Hyper Beam if it was provoked to another attack. And it would be as strong as the first one. I had to climb and jump down the rubble piles to get down. There lay bodies all over the place here. I think I had thrown up if I hadn't know that they would be all right, given enough time.
Agent had arrived on the scene, and the grunts weren't running aimlessly around any more. I stopped, and released Scizor and Lucario from their Poké Balls. The collapsed mall had blocked the road here, so there were no drivable ways out of the street now. However, there were several side streets running from Millennium Street, and as demonstrated earlier, the heavier TLA vehicles didn't care about obstacles. I started to run for the spot where Emily had been, with Lucario and Scizor following closely behind. Everyone's attention was focused on Porygon-Z again, but no one made any effort to stop it.
"Where is she?", I murmured. The TLA had gathered all the people in the street to a small crowd. If Men in Black was anything to go by, they would have their memories modified now. I would not allow that to happen to Emily.
"Vacuum Wave!", I shouted to Lucario. He stopped, and sent a shockwave from his palms towards an agent who was in the midst of finding something in his pocket. Without warning, he was tugged from the spot and sent flying toward us. Everyone's heads turned.
"You...", the agent said and got up. He was only a few metres away from me. "...are so in trouble. You are surrounded"
"By who?", I taunted back. I knew for sure that I had the upper hand now. "The guys in the mall? The ones on the roofs? Perhaps those trucks? Or the helicopter?"
"Reinforcements are on the way", the agent grunted. "We'll have a thousand men here in five minutes"
"Ooops", I thought. Time to come up with a plan B.
"Nine hundred and ninety-nine", Scizor murmured behind me. I nodded. The agent probably didn't see the Bullet Punch coming. The crowd split, everyone ran in different directions as the unconscious man was sent flying above their heads. Scizor's intimidating appearance made most people choose the opposite direction, but Emily took advantage of the confusion and ran over to me. I called Porygon-Z back while everyone was looking a different way.
"OK", I said. "He got a point. We are surrounded"

[GreekGeek]

The scene with Porygon-Z was epic.
Well in fact, every bit of it was
Go on

[SuperFireKirby]

HYPER BEAM FTW! I love how you brought the attack to life with such vividness.

[GreekGeek]

Actually Emergence will be the only reason for me to visit this site once in a while

[Cobraroll]

Oh wow, it's been longer than I thought since last update. Time really flies when the teachers start giving tests to rehearse to.
But I'm still here! I've written a little now and then, and eventually polished it and made it ready for update. Please enjoy:

Chapter twenty-four: The chase

We stood rooted to the spot. There really was no way of knowing when and where the TLA would arrive, and even though all exits were
open, we didn't know if any of them were safe. Not to mention, after being hit by the Hyper Beam, I was not fit for running.
"I suppose we can give up battling our way out of this", I said and called Scizor and Lucario back. "We'd lay half the city in ruins,
and cause mass panic. The best we can hope for is... well, I don't know, actually"
"So it's over?", Emily said. "Are we giving in?"
"Do you see any other option? The TLA are all over the city, heading this way. We could try and mess up as much as possible for them,
but it wouldn't be a silent affair. The secret would be busted already on the first Pokémon move used"
We could hear sirens in the distance. The TLA grunts were starting to gather people again. The remote "chug"s from a helicopter also
grew in intensity. A grunt pointed a gun at us and told us to separate. Several more grunts started surrounding us where we stood on
the side of the street.
"It was fun as long as it lasted", I said. Emily didn't answer. I could see tears running down her cheek. With a screeching sound, a
van came driving in through a side street, turned sharply and barely avoided falling into the trench. It stopped, and a TLA agent got
out through a side door. He didn't look at me, but smiled nonetheless. I stared hatefully at him. Going by the stereotype these guys
seemed to follow, he was going to gloat for a few minutes before capturing us. He walked around the area for a few minutes, giving
commands to the grunts. The rest of the people in the street was gathered in a large group about a hundred metres away. Finally, he
came over to us.
"So this is the one who has caused us so much trouble...", he said. "A pity that it should end like this, not? Surrounded without
chance of escaping or fighting back? Now, put that bag down, demask and lay down"
"I dare you to make me", I replied.
"Not that difficult", he responded and produced a gun from his pocket. "Your girl is of no use to us, and we can easily make her
'disappear' from all official records"
I laid down, but still with the scarf on and clutching the bag. Emily sobbed loudly.
"And the cloth?", the agent said. "Remove it, or..."
"I get the poi-GAH!" The nearest manhole cover suddenly sprung open. A huge blue arm appeared from it. I was grabbed by the leg and
pulled down, still clutching to my bag. I prepared for a wet landing, but was caught by another arm and carried away screaming. After
half a minute or so, I was put down. A loud croak told me to stay still and not panic.
"Swampert?", I said and tried to get to my feet. My head banged into the ceiling immediately, and I sat down again. The floor was wet
and slippery, and it smelled awful here. "We have to go back to..." I stopped. "It's too late, isn't it?"
"Wise move", Swampert croaked back.
"No, it isn't", I said. Due to the complete darkness here, I couldn't see her face, but I imagined its expression to be quite
puzzled. "Emily is a good bait. They will use her to get me. But they can't keep her here! We can..."
Loud splashes and shouting told me that we had got company. Apparently, the TLA wouldn't settle with the fact that I had escaped
their clutches.
"I'll save the plan for later", I said. Swampert helped me climb up on her back, and started to run. Sewage splashed over my legs and
back as I clung on to Swampert. The tunnels were about two metres in diameter, and halfway filled with sewage. Swampert apparently
had no problems navigating them, and managed to run quite fast even though she was halfway submerged in water. After a few lefts and
rights, we stopped.
"What is it?", I asked. I opened my (quite grimy) bag, found a flashlight, and lit up what was ahead of us. A set of solid steel
bars, spaced about 20 centimetres apart. Behind us, the shouting got louder.
"Uh-oh...", I said. "Looks like we're in a dead end. Is there anything to do?"
Swampert nodded, and turned around, so that she stood with her back to the bars. Then she told me to hold my breath. I hurriedly
closed the bag, and hoped that its contents were waterproof. I had tested all the trainer equipment, but not the Poké Balls yet
(didn't want to risk one of those on such an experiment).
"Hey!", a voice shouted, just around the bend. "I heard a sound!"
I heard a sound as well. A rushing sound. I closed my mouth and eyes, and clinged to Swampert's back. If this was what I thought it
would be...
"Flush!", she croaked. The second after, I was hit in the back by a large wave of water. It filled the tunnel completely for several
seconds, then the level fell back and the water was calm once again. I was completely covered in brown mud (or worse), and it smelled
terribly. Swampert looked another way as I slipped off her and threw up. I decided to toss my bag as soon as I got home, there was no
use of it now. Also, no way I could put my clothes in the washing machine without leaving traces of this.
"Surf", Swampert explained. I nodded, and continued to empty my stomach. I felt terrible, sick and tired. Yet, there was about 50
kilometres to go home, and I had to save Emily. It took a lot of effort to get back up on Swampert. I hardly noticed, but didn't have
energy to be impressed, that she simply bent the steel bars and squeezed between them. We had to swim through overflown tunnels at
times, other times we could walk beside the underground river of goo. Probably less than ten minutes after the encounter with the TLA
soldiers, we got up through a manhole in a side street. I passed out behind a garbage container while Swampert got up and put the
manhole back in place behind us. Mere seconds later, I was woken by a loud sound, like a train rushing past me. I opened my eyes
again, and saw Swampert standing roaring into the air a few metres away.
"What are you doing?!", I hissed. Swampert sheesh-ed at me.
"It's Weavile", she said a few minutes later. "Are you ready for a run? The TLA have modified the memories of most of the people
there, but taken Emily into a van. They'll drive past two blocks from here"
"How can you hear that from that distance?", I asked
"We haven't really gone that far", she replied "But again, Emily will drive past just over there quite soon"
"It's our only chance", I said and got up. Swampert pointed to the left, and I started to run. My heart felt like it had just started
beating again, and the adrenaline rushing through my body gave me the energy to keep a steady pace. I almost forgot to call back
Swampert before I left off.
We were in a side street in a residential area. An ambush here would be risky, but we didn't have time to find a better place along
the route. Not that we knew the route either, I only had to trust Swampert when she told me that Weavile had snapped up parts of it.
I was standing between a huge pile of dirty snow and a couple of overfilled thrash bins. It was cold here, and I was drenched with
very smelly sewage. If it hadn't been for the adrenaline rush, I would most likely have been on the brink of dying now. I had
released Lucario here, and he kept me somewhat warm by Fire Punching the air. He almost scorched my clothes, but at least they dried.
As we stood there, several TLA vehicles passed us in the other direction. First came two regular black vans, then a black fire truck
and two more vans, next a bus without windows. I exchanged worried looks with Lucario.
"Who should we attack with?", Lucario asked.
"I think Tyranitar would be best suited for the job", I replied. "We'll wreck the van, and revive Emily later"
"You better hurry", a voice said behind me. I turned around, and faced Weavile. "They are coming in less than half a minute", he
added.
I dived for the bag and unleashed Tyranitar. Being bright green, he was sticking out like a sore thumb in the empty side street.
Still, with the crash that inevitably would follow the interception of the van, we would be noticed by anyone in the area anyway. We
all turned towards the sound of an approaching engine.
"Ready to run", I whispered. A black TLA van passed us out on the street. It had to be this one.
"Pursuit!", I shouted. Tyranitar kicked off, and started to run. In seconds, he was beside the van, which was accelerating. Tyranitar
gave it a slap on the side, and it started to spin, then swerved over and crashed in a wall on our side of the street. I ran out of
the side street, towards the van. They hadn't been driving at very high speeds as we stopped it, so we hadn't knocked them all cold.
The driver and an accompanying agent jumped out of the wreck, guns ready. Tyranitar grabbed the driver by the shirt collar and threw
him into the concrete wall with a nasty sound. The agent gave more of a fight, at least he managed to aim his gun before Tyranitar
shoulder-tackled him.
"Get her out!", I shouted, fearing that we might have gotten the wrong van. "Is she in there?"
"Yes, but this looks a little nasty", Tyranitar said after tearing the side door off. "She wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and..."
I rushed over to see, but Tyranitar pushed me away. He dragged Emily out of the car, I could hear her neck make several snapping
sounds as the spine rearranged itself. I shivered.
"This was the easy part", Lucario said. "I suggest we run"
"There is a metro station not far from here", Weavile said and started to jog. "It's closed for rebuilding"
"Should we hide there?", I asked. Tyranitar run behind us with Emily in his arms, and Lucario covered our backs.
"We can access the tube network", Weavile shouted, now clinging to a lamppost some twenty metres ahead of me.
"Still, isn't there a pretty busy street just outside the station?", I said, looking to left and right as we ran across a street. Not
a car in sight. Still, once we got out to the street, it would be impossible to miss us.
"We'll take shortcut", Tyranitar said. I could see the building housing the metro station now. We were approaching it in a straight
line, what shortcuts were there? Tyranitar sped up, passing us as he increased the pace to a spurt.
"The entrance is on the other-", I started, then realised what he was up to. "Emily!", I bellowed.
"Oh, right. Take her", Tyranitar snorted over his left shoulder. Then he simply threw Emily over his back like another rag doll. Her
arms and legs were flailing about. She was all limp. Lucario leapt up and caught her mid-air.
"That's a human being there, not a basket ball!", I shouted to Lucario. He ignored me, and ran carrying Emily over his shoulder like
a sack of potatoes. Tyranitar lowered his head and rammed into the wall. Weavile followed before all the debris had even hit the
ground. I hesitated for a moment, then dived in through the hole. It lead in to a quite smashed up ladies' rest room. I was a bit
surprised by the lack of graffiti on the walls.
"No time for standing about", Lucario told me by telepathy. Tyranitar had already removed the door, and squeezed through the
door frame. The spikes on his head dented the air vents and lamps in the ceiling. I followed him out to the large grey entrance hall
of the station. It was divided in two by two meter tall construction fences. Most of the floor tiles were removed, shoving the bare
concrete underneath. The lamps in the ceiling were taken down, the only light in here was the dim sunlight shining through the semi-
transparent plastic that covered the fences. Luckily, the construction workers were also still on holiday.
"Don't you think anyone will notice?", I whispered. The hall was empty, and the echo made everything we said appear very loud.
"We're already being chased. In terms of attracting unwanted attention, it can't really get any worse from here", Lucario replied.
Even his telepathic voice sounded like everyone on the street outside could hear it. "Also, the TLA will gladly cover our tracks.
They want this to be known to the public even less than we do"
Tyranitar started walking down an escalator leading down to a lower level. It shook heavily for every step he took. Weavile was
nowhere to be seen, but knowing him, he was probably just checking out the route ahead of us. I ran down the escalator with Lucario
in tow.
"When should we wake her up?", I asked, referring to Emily. Lucario still carried her over his shoulder like a bundle of sticks.
"No time for that now", Tyranitar said. "We have a long way back home" He was already halfway down another escalator, and I could
hardly make him out in the darkness.
"We have to go north", Lucario said. "That's what the maps say, at least"
"Vile!", it sounded from the darkness a level below us. Weavile had found a sign.
"I can't see it, never mind reading!", I shouted back. I had to cling to the handrail to even see where I was going. Even though
common sense said otherwise, one part of my imagination, shaped from years of playing video games, vividly projected the image of an
endless abyss in my mind where the next step in the escalator should be.

Part 2 will follow shortly

[Cobraroll]

Chapter twenty-four, part two:

"Can someone get a light on, so I can read it?", I asked as I reached the bottom. We were in a tunnel leading to the platforms.
Lucario stretched out his left arm and lit it with Fire Punch. In the dim glow from his burning paw, I could see that the sign
Weavile had found was just a billboard.
"Weird...", Lucario said, looking around.
"What do you mean?", I asked.
"Look at the place. Even though they are supposed to refurbish the whole place, it's completely untouched"
"So? They probably want to be done with the upper level first", I said.
"Then why would they close off the entire station? Couldn't they just close off half the hall, refurbish, and then do the other half?
That way, passengers could still have used the place while they fixed it"
"Vile", I heard from the shadows.
"You're right", Lucario nodded. "Rob, look at the escalators. The tiles on the floor. The thrash bins. This place was refurbished not
too long ago, probably less than three years. Why would they do it again so soon?"
"Something wrong with the circuits? Or water pipes?", I suggested. My stomach feeling screamed "suspicious!".
"This place is not damp, nor does it smell burnt", Tyranitar grunted. "But there is a different smell here..."
"I don't smell anything", I said, feeling a little like an idiot seconds later. Of course Pokémon had to have a better sense of smell
than humans.
"Look", Weavile said. Just outside the ring of light streaming from Lucario, a yellow band ran from one end of the tunnel to another.
I took a few steps closer to it as Lucario turned around to light it better. A repeated string of six words in capital letters ran
the length of the band:
GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATION SCENE DO NOT TRESPASS
And between the sentences, a familiar symbol was stamped in black: An ellipsis with five vertical lines running from the lower half.
"TLA!", I shouted and took a few steps backwards. Lucario seemed as shocked as me. "Hey! Watch out!", I yelled. The fire had spread
from Lucario's hand and over to Emily's jacket. Lucario put it out, but a large scorch mark was still left.
"It's stronger here", Tyranitar said. He had walked all the way up to the band. Then he lifted it up and walked under it.
"Agreed", Weavile said. He jumped into the tunnel. I sighed, and Lucario and I followed them into the tunnel.
"Look", Tyranitar grunted as we caught up with them. A sign told us that the tunnel to our right lead to east- and westbound trains.
Just a few metres further into the tunnel, the wall had collapsed. Soil and rocks were dragged out on the floor. A shallow trench ran
from the north wall and into the south, which had also collapsed. The holes in the concrete walls were about three metres in
diameter, and filled with soil and debris.
"Steelix, no doubt", Lucario said. Weavile and Tyranitar nodded. "We saw these every other day that autumn we explored the Survival
Area"
I vaguely recalled that the Survival Area was the only place where wild Steelix roamed the surface.
"It's weeks old", Weavile said. "He's anywhere but here now"
"Do you think they have got him?", I asked.
"Nope. They would have rebuilt this wall by now, if so. I guess they are investigating the area hoping to find any clues on where it
is now, and covering it up with a refurbishment in the meantime. Reminds me of that old saying: Pokémon can tell you where they
have been, but not where they are heading. They won't find anything, neither will we", Lucario said.
"I bet the hall up there is swarming with TLA now. Better get going", I said. We turned and walked into the other tunnel. After what
seemed like an eternity, we reached the platforms.
"Do you see well in the darkness?", I asked Lucario.
"Light or darkness is no hindrance if you know how to use the Aura", he replied.
"Good. I know you two others do as well. Lucario, keep the light on until I've mounted Tyranitar. We need to keep a high pace through
the tunnels, and I can't run that far, especially not now"
A minute or so later, we went off. I was clinging to Tyranitar's back, Lucario still carried Emily, and Weavile ran by himself.
Tyranitar ran straight through the glass panes separating the tracks from the platform. He narrowly avoided landing on the
electrocuted rail in the middle of the track. The two others followed. We wasted no time, and Tyranitar slowly accelerated as he ran.
It struck me that the Speed stats in the games must reflect the Pokémon's acceleration and reaction speed, not running speed.
Tyranitar was a fairly slow Pokémon, yet he managed to run at speeds that must have been close to fifty kilometres per hour.
"Left", Weavile muttered. We turned as he said. Weavile ran first and kept track of the direction, we followed on his orders. We kept
on like that for about twenty minutes:
"Right"... "Right"... "Left, then right"... "Left"... "Straight ahead"... "Train"...
"Train!?", I shouted.
"Should we stop it?", Tyranitar suggested, slowing down and bracing himself.
"Rather hide", I said. I had read somewhere that the tunnels in the metro system offered ten centimetres of clearance on both sides
of the train. "But where?"
"What about straight down?", Tyranitar said. I thought he was joking, then he stopped and bent over. I was almost flung off, and had
to climb down from his back. Lucario and Weavile stopped as well. I couldn't see a thing in this darkness, but felt a faint drag of
wind. Most likely the air that the train pushed in front of itself. A loud scraping and scratching sound was heard from Tyranitar.
"Beware of the electric rail!", I shouted. The other rails started to hum.
"No problem", he said. Judging by his voice, he was at least a couple of metres down a hole already.
"We better get in", Lucario said. I heard the sound of something hitting the floor in the hole.
"Was that...?", I asked.
"Never mind", Lucario said and pushed me down. Then he and Weavile followed. The hole widened out about a metre down. It was about
two metres in diameter and more than three metres deep down here. Tyranitar caught me and put me gently down.
"What's that sound?", I said. It sounded like someone squeezing egg shells in their fist.
"Probably just her legs mending themselves, she landed a little hard", Weavile said. There was no need to question who he was
referring to. "And if you are going to throw up, please wait until we get out of here"
I didn't listen to him. As I wiped the remains of the breakfast from my mouth with my sleeve a few seconds later, I heard a whooshing
sound above us. Then, it grew to a loud roar as the train passed. Tyranitar threw me out of the hole, and Lucario pushed him up after
me. Then Weavile got up, and Tyranitar caught Emily as Lucario threw her too. It hurt thinking about what state she must have been
in.
"Let's get going, shall we?", Lucario said and got Emily again. I didn't even protest as he flung her over his shoulder. I just
mounted Tyranitar again, and we kept going. Behind us, the hole somehow filled itself.
I had lost track on how long we had been running when we again saw light in front of us. The tunnel opened up, and we found ourselves
in broad daylight. It took me a few minutes to realise where we were; about three kilometres from home.
"Weavile, you stay. Lucario and Tyranitar, good job", I said and opened the bag. The trainer bag inside was waterproof, but the
plastic bag containing the Poké Balls was not. The forty or so balls were floating around in really mucky and smelly water. Trying to
pick out the correct two wasn't exactly tempting.
"Do I have to remind you that we're standing on train tracks?", Lucario said. We climbed over a fence, and hid in the snowy bushes
beside the tracks. Emily looked more dead than alive when we put her down, but I didn't want to carry her all the way home, so we had
to Revive her here. Weavile was kind enough to find the correct Poké Balls for me, while I searched the bag for a Revive. This was
the second last I had. A little nervously, I removed the paper wrapping, and lay the Revive on her forehead. It glowed brightly, and
disappeared. A second later, Emily woke up, coughing.
"You look terrible", she said as she opened her eyes. "Did we get away?"
"We did", I said and gave her a hug. "Do you think you'll manage to walk a few more kilometres?"
"My... everything... aches", she said and got up. I scowled at Lucario. "...but it'll go... oh wow, I must look terrible myself, or
what?"
"Never", I said. "But I have to admit, you're usually cleaner than this"

We started to walk home as if we were walking back from school. I decided not to ask her what had happened since I was taken away, we
were both too exhausted. Nothing happened on the way, though I don't think I could have handled ten more minutes in the cold. When I
got home, I walked straight down to the basement, got off all my clothes, and put them in a thrash bag together with my ordinary bag.
For some reason, I managed to keep an everyday face as I got up, chatted a little with mom and dad, and made me a sandwich. I told
them I had already eaten dinner, and brought it with me upstairs. As soon as I got into my room, I put the plate on my desk and
collapsed on my bed. Sleeeeeep.....