Emergence (Final Update - 28.03.12)

[Cobraroll]

^No, I'm still around. I will leave for military service in August, and it's after that there will be a hiatus. But don't worry, I'll see if I still can update every now and then (we're allowed to bring a PC there, but we don't get as much spare time. And I don't know about Internet access).

Update will be tomorrow.

[Cobraroll]

As promised, here it is. However, my main revisor hasn't had time to read it this time, and I'm leaving for a week in a couple of hours, so I don't have time to proofread this (I did at about 11PM last night, but my English tends to go all shoddy after 9). Anyway, please enjoy:


Chapter thirty-three: Old friends

My alarm clock dragged me out of sleep at half past six in the morning. After a few hard hits on the snooze button, I got out of bed, wondering what I'd do today and what had happened yesterday. The ruined TLA suit lay on the floor beside my bed, and I vaguely remembered mom almost pushing me into the shower at some point the previous evening, and something about my whole class being knocked out by food poisoning...
The details became clearer in my mind. I had been extremely tired, but I recalled eating dinner and mom telling me that I would join Emily's class again. I felt a sting of happiness, followed by a sense of uncertainty. If she was still angry with me, I would not like to meet her so soon. If she had forgiven me, on the other hand, I would look forward to see her again. Either way, most of her class didn't hate me, so it was definitely an improvement. Then I suddenly realized I was sitting on my bed, dangerously close to lie down and sleep further. I hastily went out the door to take a shower.

Ten minutes to eight, I was walking through the new entrance hall of the school building. It still smelled faintly of fresh paint, and it looked unnaturally clean, but I liked it. They had put in new elevators (or elevator doors, at least), a fountain and a few fancy plants. The place looked more like a mall than a school at the moment, but come a couple of weeks, and there would be posters all over, overfilled litter bins and the like. A crowd of students was looking for their classroom on a list that hung in a corner. I found a place in the queue. I was a little shorter than most of the others, so I couldn't see what the list said through the crowd.
"Rob?", a girl's voice said behind me. I turned around.
"Greta? Nice to see you", I replied. "Do you know which classroom we're supposed to be in?"
"Room 224. Floor two, room 24. Simple enough", she said and pointed at the stairs. Then she lowered her voice: "Are the rumours true?"
"Rumours?", I replied. Greta was the kind of person who seemingly gets correct information from thin air. Had she heard from somebody that I was involved in the incident with my old class? Or worse, the Pokémon?
"You and Emily? She said you're together now"
Ahh... of course. "Did you doubt her?", I said.
"Well, it was kinda obvious from the start, but I had to hear it from you too", she replied. "Now that I know from both of you that it's true, it's safe to spread the news"
I sighed. "Girls", I thought. At least, with Greta telling everyone, I wouldn't have to answer all the questions myself. Anyway, time to find that classroom. I walked up the stairs, down a few corridors and found a door labelled 224.
"Hey, it's Rob!", a voice said as I entered. It was Edvard. "How are you?"
"Not too bad", I replied and found a desk near him. "Where are Matt and Andy?"
"Probably just late. Where is Emily?"
Coincidentally, Emily entered the room in that same moment. There was an idle desk beside me, but she chose one at the other end of the classroom instead, next to Miley. Then the teacher arrived.
"Good morning", he said. "There has been an accident in one of your parallel classes, as you might have heard"
Many around me nodded. "I don't know the details, but there has been a case of severe food poisoning", he continued. "Most of the class is in hospital. They are okay, but in coma. Because Joan and Henry moved away a couple of weeks ago, we have room in our class for the two who weren't affected. You already know Rob. Please also welcome Julia"
I was shocked. Julia entered the classroom, smiled to the class and sat down next to me. She didn't say anything, but the look she gave me gave a clear message: "You'll have to hit harder to knock me out".
Thinking about it, it was no surprise that she wasn't as badly knocked out as the others. Scizor was tremendously powerful, as I had given him a Choice Band to work with, but the only blow Julia received was the Counter attack by Lucario. And that was by definition only twice as powerful as the damage Lucario had taken from her kick. Now well, she probably wouldn't try anything here. In this class, I had friends who would support me. That thought alone made me feel great.

Still, it soon became apparent that Julia would leave quite an impression on the class. Using whatever tricks she had picked up from the TLA, she showed her skills as a human calculator through the maths class. When the break finally came, almost half the class crowded around her desk to talk to her. I walked over to Emily.
"Umm... good morning", I said.
"Dad told me", she replied without looking at me. "Seems like you are capable of seeing him without beating him to death, after all"
"It would have been a lot worse if I hadn't called him", I whispered, then looked over my shoulder to see if anybody were listening. "The Pokémon I was chasing was literally seconds from running rampant in Cascilla"
"Got my scarf?", she suddenly said, still looking the other way.
"Umm... I forgot it. You will get it back someday"
"You know what that means. I'll keep your stuff"
"Remember that my main means of transportation is among it", I said. "Which leaves me with two choices. Either, calling your father again, or only being able to search for Pokémon within walking distance from my house. The latter method will sooner or later lead to the TLA finding the Pokémon before me, and you saw what that Porygon-Z was able to do. Imagine that in a packed street or a shopping mall, or..."
"I get it", she replied, sighed, and finally turned around. "If you don't risk your life - or other people's life - by running after them, they will attack somebody else instead"
"Somebody without any idea on how to cope with them", I added. "A TLA guy told me of several instances of civilians bumping into the Pokémon. They all ended up in hospital"
Behind us, everybody laughed of a joke Julia had made.
"All right", Emily sighed. "I'll give them back after school. But remember my scarf tomorrow"

When school was over, Emily and I walked home together with Miley. She was Emily's best friend, but wasn't too fond of me, so she didn't say a word to me as we went. As a result, Emily stopped talking after a while, so it was up to me to break the silence.
"Have you noticed that your names are anagrams of each other?", I said.
"Three hundred and sixty-two, fifty", Miley replied with a smile. I was puzzled.
"If we had gotten a fiver to share every time somebody said that...", Emily laughed.
"Most people notice it once they meet us both at the same time, but it took you a few months to realize", Miley said. "I thought you were a nerd and all"
"I take that as a compliment", I replied. Then I suddenly had to jump to the side, as a pizza delivery truck drove past us.
"You even dress nerdy. Look at that belt, for instance", Miley continued.
I looked down. My jacket had slipped a little when I jumped, so a couple of Poké Balls were visible underneath it. I hastily pulled the jacket down over them again.
"Honestly, Poké Balls?", Miley said. "Emily, are you sure he is okay?"
"Leave him be", Emily said in a cold voice. "His hobbies are not your business"
"He brings toys to school! At age fifteen!" She suddenly bent down, put her hand under my jacket, and yanked a Poké Ball out from my belt. "Look at this!"
"Give it back!", Emily and I said in unison. That Poké Ball contained Scizor, not exactly the Pokémon you would want to upset.
"Don't worry, I won't break it", she said "Looks sturdy. How much money did this cost? It looks almost functional"
"Collector's edition", I mumbled. "Got it from an aunt"
Fortunately, Miley didn't know that I didn't have any aunts. She handed the ball back to me. I quickly attached it to the belt again.
"See you tomorrow", she said and turned left into a side street.
"Good thing she didn't try to throw it", I whispered to Emily as soon as Miley was out of hearing range.
"I don't think that belt is a very good idea", she whispered back. "No doubt more people will notice"
"I had the balls in my backpack before", I said. "Didn't help me much when my class attacked me. I didn't have time to retrieve them"
"Exactly what is the chance of that happening again?"
"Not sure, but that's a risk I'm not willing to take, especially as long as Julia is in our class"
"Are you going to... you know...", Emily asked.
"Knock her out? I've thought about it. I regret waking her up back in November, but I don't want to fall down to that level by knocking her down in cold blood. However, if she tries to attack me, I'll introduce her to Tyranitar"
"She can be useful as well. We were on the same football team a few years ago, and I know her well enough to know that she's terrible at keeping secrets. If you ask her the right questions the right way, she can give a lot of useful info on the TLA", Emily said.
"I know, she's been in my class for ten years"

Part two will follow shortly

[Cobraroll]

Chapter thirty-three, part two:

We soon arrived at Emily's house. Joe was at home, sitting by the TV in the living room.
"So you managed to get back in one piece?", he asked as we went by. I stopped to reply:
"Nah, I lost close to sixty fingers, but I'm okay now"
"What are you talking about?", a voice sounded from the next room. It was apparently Anna. "You only have ten fingers, you know".
"It's a joke from an old TV program", Joe hastily said. "You're too young to remember it"
"Be careful", Emily hissed. "That girl is worse than Greta when it comes to finding out stuff"
"I'm not!", Anna shouted.
"And she has very good ears", Emily whispered. We hasted up the stairs to her room. Emily shut the door and climbed up to stand on her desk. There, she yanked a picture frame off the wall, and revealed something resembling an air vent.
"Hasn't been in use for years. Once, there was a stove in here, and this is the pipe that lead to the chimney", she said. "Useful for hiding stuff"
She pulled a bag out of the opening.
"Still sealed, I see. Good. Here's your stuff", she mumbled and threw the bag to me. I noticed that the zipper was covered in wax. "A technique I learned ages ago. You've never had younger siblings", she added.
"I could make use of that", I said and opened the bag. Five Poké Balls were neatly packed in a shoe box inside it. My jackets were bundled together, and I found my backpack at the bottom of the bag.
"You'll remember my scarf tomorrow, then?"
"I will. Now... ehh...", I asked. This was a kinda hard question to ask. "Are you still angry with me?"
"Well, I... at first, I was, because you told dad, but he... well, he knows my situation, and I feel a lot better about having somebody to talk to, so... thanks for telling him" A small pause. Then, she added hesitantly: "Are you angry with me?"
"Why would I be?"
She burst into tears. "I was an idiot, keeping your stuff. It made your job a lot harder. I was angry with you for no reason. I avoided you at school. I yelled at you, I sent that picture to the newspapers, I..."
"That was months ago", I said, wondering if I should give her a hug or something to comfort her, and whether that would help or worsen the situation. "And as you know, that was before we got together. I'm not angry for that at all"
"I thought you perhaps could have got enough", she snivelled. "I'm..."
"...the most wonderful person I know", I interrupted her. "I would never, ever leave you for something like this"
"Thanks", she said and sat down on her bed, wiping away tears. I took a chance, and sat down next to her and put my arm around her. She didn't push me away, at least. Why did our relationship contain so much crying? I had thought about that earlier. It was obvious that the Pokémon played a huge role in this, but if it hadn't been for them, I would still have gone in the other class, and never met Emily. At times, I had even questioned myself if that would have been for the better. My entire class would have been awake now, blissfully unaware of the TLA. Emily would have kept going in her usual pace, which based on the marks she got at school, wouldn't have hurt her. Her friendship with Miley wouldn't have struggled either. My parents wouldn't have gone weird like that. Not to mention the millions of tax money that had been spent repairing the damage after the Pokémon. All in all, I was the only one who had benefited from the emergence.
"You're crying", Emily suddenly said. "Is anything wrong?"
I told her my thoughts.
"Rob. Trust me, I was really lonely before I met you. I would have gone insane if I had kept going like that. Also, you made dad aware of what the TLA is using him for"
"Remember what Azelf said. They think I've provided the TLA with some sort of weapon as well. Something they will use for something evil"
"Also remember, you broke your way out of the TLA base. You've proved that they are scary, but not invincible. If you do the right things, they won't be able to carry out their plans. If you hadn't provided them with whatever evil weapon this is, somebody else would, and they might not have had a clue about what to do when the TLA shows up on the doorstep. You can fight back, and even threaten them"
"Haven't thought of it that way...", I said. "Thanks"
"I'm with you on this", she said. "Dad too. But I really think we should keep it to the three of us"

I felt a lot better as I walked home. Emily was right, we could do this. It was just a matter of being prepared. When I came home, I was going to...
Suddenly, a honk from behind, and I jumped to the left by pure instinct. A pizza delivery truck zipped past me from behind, driving at about twice the speed limit, and I could swear I saw a flash coming from its back compartment, through the windows in the back door.
"Crazy...", I mumbled and kept going, at a faster pace now. I wanted to be home before the dinner went cold. Just as I walked into our driveway, the pizza delivery truck appeared again. It slowed down and stopped right outside my house. The window on the driver side was rolled down. The driver, a young man with a white t-shirt and a blue cap, leant out and waved at me.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for an address... could you help me find it? Do you live around here?", he asked.
"Yes, I live right here in fact. What ad...", I started. The back doors on the truck swung open. I dropped the bag I had been carrying, and my hand found the right Poké Ball in my belt before I fully understood what was going on. Two bald men, with dark suits and sunglasses, jumped out of the car and ran towards me.
"Scizor!", I bellowed, probably turning heads all over the neighbourhood. The man-sized red ant/mantis hybrid appeared from a cloud of white light, and was mid-flight even before the Poké Ball hit the ground. It clipped down both men without slowing down, and headed straight for the truck. I saw the driver panic and untie his seat belt, but he didn't have a chance. With pincers aglow, Scizor cut the truck in half, and debris were sent flying in all directions. The neighbour's dog had heard the noise and ran to see what was going on. It stopped the moment it saw Scizor, and seemed to shrink as the two made eye contact. Three seconds later, the Doberman laid curled up inside its doghouse, which it wouldn't leave for four days.
"Espeon, I need a bubble! Now!", I shouted as I bent down and unzipped the bag. I didn't even have to touch her Poké Ball before she leapt out of it. She stood confused in the snow for a split second, then a large, semi-transparent bubble encased us both.
"Bigger, we're in the middle of a fight here", I hissed. One of the TLA agents had got to his feet again. His suit was torn at the upper arm, and I could see bulging muscles through the slashed clothes. His companion lay flat on the road, his clothes had wide slashes across the chest. The truck driver lay somewhere in the wreckage.
"Iron Head!", I shouted to Scizor. It kicked off, and its forehead started to glow. Scizor hit the man square in the chest, and he was flung far into our garden. Scizor followed eagerly, but returned a few seconds later.
"He's knocked out", he said.
"Get him over here", I replied.
"No hands", Scizor said and held up a pincer.
"I'm busy with the bubble", Espeon said. I sighed and waded through the snow to get him. The agent would have flown far longer, hadn't a small spruce stopped him. His left arm appeared to be impaled on one of its branches, but the wound closed itself as I pulled him off it and dragged him back across the garden.
"Mom and dad would freak out completely if they saw this", I mumbled. Luckily, they didn't come out of the house, even though I was sure they would have heard the noise. A truck being cut in half isn't the most silent thing around, after all.

I called out all the Pokémon I had on hand to help me, and ten minutes later, we had piled up all the debris in the garage. Salamence and Espeon were off to dump the unconscious TLA people somewhere. It turned out that there was actually a couple of pizzas in the truck, as well as plenty of surveillance equipment and cameras. We had, of course, scavenged all of it that wasn't smashed to pieces. Now, we sat in the garage, sorting out the remains of the truck. Disposing of bodies was easy, but a smashed up car might raise some questions. I gulped down the last slice of pizza and turned to Metagross.
"What are we going to do with the remains of the car?", I asked him.
"Carry it down to the cave", he replied.
"Why? We've emptied it of everything that might be of use"
"Neither Aggron nor I can digest organic material. And believe me, while rocks are nutritious and somewhat tasty in their own way, they become quite boring very quickly"
"You're going to eat it? You should have told me earlier, we have smashed up a few of these the past month or so"
Some of the data equipment that laid piled in a corner gave off random sparks and funny noises even though it wasn't plugged in.
"Incoming message", Metagross suddenly said. "Wait, I'll tune this"
"What?", I said and turned around as both Metagross and the equipment started to glow blue.
Seconds later, a man's voice was heard through a speaker. Just hearing it gave me creeps. It was the voice of an old man, but a confident old man at that. One who was used to be in command, and who did his job exceptionally well.
"Hello, Roberto", the voice said. "Looks like we found you this time"
I didn't reply, but I noticed that I felt uneasy, as if TLA agents were going to storm the garage any second.
"Do you want to save everybody the hassle, and just surrender now?", he continued. "We have the resources to drag this out forever, and you will lose eventually"
"Not without a fight", I said. "You didn't seem so tough when we smashed up your place a few days ago"
"We've made a few mistakes", the man replied. "And you've been lucky. We were going to catch you already on Halloween, but another mission bound up resources. And some idiot cancelled the entire operation when he thought an agent had blown it all and started too early. You were very, very lucky with that costume, Roberto"
Now I remembered. My outfit that day had been almost exactly the same as the one TLA agents wore.
"Luck doesn't last forever, Roberto. We have people everywhere. You are bound to lose this, it's just a matter of time"
"Come and get me", I replied in a voice that wasn't all mine. "If it's war you want, you'll get it, Alpha"
"So you remember my name too. Charming. I look forward to meeting you in person, Roberto. You sent all my seconds in command to hospital last week, so I'll be on the battlefield myself. Do not disappoint me. Goodbye"
Then, the connection was lost.
"You heard him, everyone", I said as I turned to the Pokémon. "It's getting serious"

[dahans]

Nice chapter, but I need to ask (I forgot) what's TLA?^^

[GreekGeek]

Nice chapter, but I need to ask (I forgot) what's TLA?^^

Erlend is off for a week, so I might answer that.
It's a secret organisation that has been tracing Rob since he got the Pokémon.
They have a huge HQ, with some nasty stuff.

[dahans]

Erlend is off for a week, so I might answer that.
It's a secret organisation that has been tracing Rob since he got the Pokémon.
They have a huge HQ, with some nasty stuff.

Thanks mate.

[GreekGeek]

^You're welcome.

[Seeker]

Finally caught up! Cost me about two hours of practicing, but it was worth it.

[dahans]

I agree.

[Seeker]

So at the Halloween party, did you always intend for him to be mistake as a TLA agent, or did you throw that in later because it worked?

[Cobraroll]

^It was actually thrown in later. The TLA wasn't even invented at that time, and now I regret I didn't introduce them earlier. However, I think I have found ways to imply that they were there all along...

I think I'll manage a new chapter this weekend. Stay tuned.

EDIT: Work with a school assignment took longer than expected, so I won't be able to finish it today (or, well, I would, but I can't proofread it). However, I'm set on doing this by Tuesday.

[Cobraroll]

Woops, did I say Tuesday? It turned out that I had term tests on both Thursday and Friday (today).

However, I managed to squeeze in a little writing, and here's the result. Please welcome:

Chapter thirty-four: Preparations

I found mom and dad in the basement, just standing in our storeroom, the room in our house that was farthest away from the driveway. They were sitting on a heap of old mattresses, seemingly shaking in terror. They must have heard the noise after all.
"What's wrong?", I asked. "Sorry if I'm late, but I was over at Emily's. Oh, by the way, there was a tree that fell down up the road. Did you hear the crash?" It was a very thin story, but in this state, they would believe anything as long as it didn't involve something irrational, like the Pokémon. Mom gave a small laugh.
"Sure we did. Right?"
Dad nodded.
"They have cleared it up already, though", I continued. "No traces of it left. They were just finished when I walked by"
"Right. Right", dad said. Neither of them sat up.
"What's for dinner, by the way?", I asked. I had already eaten pizza, but I needed to get their minds back on everyday things.
"There is some spaghetti left", mom replied. She got up from the stack of mattresses. "Go eat what's left, and I'll do the dishes before the 6 o'clock news"
"Better hurry, then", I said and pointed at my watch. "Dad, you won't miss the news, will you?"
We got up to the kitchen. As long as mom and dad focused on ordinary things, they would do all right.
"Also, at school, we're... setting up a show", I said as I filled a plate with spaghetti. "I'm responsible for the props, and will be a little busy for a few weeks from now. Expect me to come home late from time to time, and work in the weekends too"
"Ahh... well, as long as you don't work too much, I guess that's okay", dad said. "Remember, you need some time to see Emily too"
"Exactly. Is it OK for you if I use the old boiler room too? The one with the hatch? To store materials in? There's nothing there now anyway"
"Nothing?", mom said. Then it looked like she woke up from a trance of sorts. "Ahh, it's been all empty for years. Of course you can use it"
"By the way, the basement is filled with old stuff we never use anyway. Can I borrow some of it? It might come of use in the... apartment scene", I continued.
"Take whatever you need. We'll have to tidy up everything down there anyway", dad said in his usual 'I'm listening to what you say, but I only reply when I feel like it because I'm watching TV right now'-voice. I hastily ate as much of the spaghetti as I could, put the leftovers in a box, and went down to the basement. Once there, I released the Pokémon again. Espeon seemingly appeared out of thin air beside me.
"Good job", she said. "They are suppressing the memories of us, but every slight hint of our existence make their minds go haywire. You did just the right thing now"
"And gave us permission to empty these rooms of everything that might be of use", Metagross added. "Human equipment, mostly, but it doesn't hurt to have it in our cave"
I gave the shelves in the room a quick glance. They were stuffed with things in various states of brokenness. The basement consisted of one large room with several smaller rooms around it, and the hatch room was the only one that didn't connect to the main room. As the house's footprint wasn't that big, all the rooms were very small, and stuffed from floor to ceiling.
"Leave the food, but get whatever else you want", I said to Lucario and Weavile. Metagross could hardly turn around in here, he had to retract his legs and hover slightly above the ground to avoid crushing the concrete floor. I helped Scizor open the doors so he could go down to the cave to get the others. I then helped Lucario, Espeon and Weavile search the various rooms. We started with the camping gear, which we hadn't used in years anyway. Four sleeping bags (I even took my old, child-sized one) with mats, dad's old camping bed, two lamps, a small fuel burner, two tents, some binoculars and some backpacks.
"Take the shelves as well", Metagross said. We had completely emptied a couple of them.
"What about these?", Weavile said and pointed at a few old bedside lamps.
"They require electricity to work", I said.
"Let Electivire take care of that. We take them", Metagross said. Weavile took a lamp in each hand, and leapt out of the room. He disappeared into the boiler room, and was back before a minute had passed. Sceptile came through the door behind him.
"There are lots of pipes in here", Espeon said from one of the smallest side rooms.
"How much?", I replied.
"Ten metres or so"
"We need pipes, for ventilation, water and such, but that's not enough", I sighed. On my past two visits, I had noticed that the air was a little hard to breathe, except for in the garden. "We could buy more, but my savings can't give us more than ten-fifteen metres or so"
"We also need electrical wires, preferably Internet connection, a proper phone line, spare batteries and food", Metagross added. "I've done some calculations, and the costs run into the tens of thousands already"
"That's where the TLA has an advantage", I said. "Seemingly endless resources, and nobody asks questions on where they get them or what they use them for"
"That gives me a few ideas...", Metagross said. "But give me some time to think it through"
I had to step aside as Sceptile squeezed past Metagross, carrying a table. Weavile had already went off with another load of lamps. I took it the conversation was over for now, grabbed a couple of chairs, and walked down to the cave with them. On my way down, I met several other Pokémon going the opposite way. I had to stop on a rock to let them pass. As I stood there, the torches flickered, and something rose up from the deep. Huge tentacles, thicker than my arm, and there were a dozen or so of them. I was petrified, to say the least. Could this be some monster the TLA had smuggled into my lair? An emergence from another of my games? One of the tentacles came closer to me, and wrapped around one of the chairs I was holding. It was yanked out of my grip.
"Do something!", I shouted to Hitmonchan, who came up the shaft below me, seemingly unaffected by the tentacles. "Mega Punch!"
"Why?", he replied.
"The.. waaah!" One of the tentacles had grabbed me around my waist. I was pulled up, and was dangling over the shaft. It was a good forty metres down to the bottom. Hitmonchan shrugged, and continued his climb up the shaft. Beneath him, Weavile leapt from rock to rock, dodging the tentacles as he went.
"Are you going to hang there all day?", a voice in my head asked me. Espeon was standing on the rock I had been taken from.
"I'm...", I started. My mouth was all dry.
"Put him down, Venusaur", Espeon sighed. "He hasn't seen it's you. He's scared out of his mind"
Venusaur. Of course. These were vines, not tentacles. Several of them were holding items the others had sent down the shaft. I looked down as I was lowered, and saw a gigantic toad-like dinousaur-thingy standing underneath a large plant at the bottom of the shaft. All the vines appeared to grow out from under the plant, but they grew and retracted back seemingly at will.
"Where should we put all this?", Swampert croaked as I approached the ground. "The storeroom is starting to fill up"
"Put some of it in the main hallway, as a temporary solution", I said. Venusaur put me gently down.
"Things get very dusty in here, as we're not done digging yet", Swampert continued. "Do you have something to cover it with?"
"Should be some old blankets in there somewhere", I said and started going through the pile of items that had been put along a wall. While I dragged them out of the pile and draped them over the items, Lucario appeared in the doorway.
"We've emptied the basement, so to say", he said. "Now what?"
I hadn't thought of it earlier, but the answer appeared glaringly obvious to me.
"I think we should go looking for some Pokémon", I replied. "Lucario, Espeon, Salamence, Tyranitar, Weavile, Scizor, you're with me"

Some ten minutes later, we were in the garden. Espeon was lying in my backpack, along with the Poké Balls of the rest of my team and twenty random empty balls I had taken from the store room. Salamence was standing behind me, shrugging a little in the January air. A few stars were visible, though a little distorted through the invisibility bubble Espeon had provided.
"A cold night. Nice and clear", he said. "Where are we headed?"
I had to unwrap a few layers of clothing off my face before I could answer. "Downtown. Even if we don't find anything, it would be nice to fly there. Just head for the skyscrapers. Espeon, you take care of the communication from now on, okay?"
"Sure", she replied from the backpack. I had stuffed a walkie-talkie underneath the balaclava I was wearing, in order to communicate with Metagross. These were scavenged from the TLA, reprogrammed by Metagross, and claimed to have a range of about ten kilometres. He could alert me if anything happened, but only about halfway to downtown. Now well, I didn't plan to be away for long. Salamence stood up, grabbed me around the waist, and off we went.
I had to admit, once I got over the initial motion sickness and fear of falling down, I really liked flying. That was mainly the reason why I wanted to fly downtown tonight, I had always wanted to see the skyscrapers from up in the air. But there was something else too, a desire to go there regardless of means of transportation or what I would get to see there. The large residential areas sped past underneath us, steadily faster as we accelerated. Salamence decided to stay less than 100 metres off the ground, and I could see everything in clear detail.
"How is the airspace, Metagross?", I shouted, hoping the roar of the wind didn't drown the sound of my voice.
"Nice and clear. I have no indications that anyone knows you're up there", his voice replied in my earplug.
I relaxed a little, and decided to enjoy the trip. The world appeared tinted yellow through my ski glasses, and in the darkness, it gave everything a dull brown colour. Salamence did not fly at an even speed, it was more like bursts of acceleration every few seconds. Below us, the roads became more gridded, and the houses were larger. We were approaching the city centre now, and the walkie-talkie warned me with a beep that we were out of range to any other transmitters operating at this frequency.
"Salamence asks if he can do a dive", Espeon said in my head.
"Go for it", I thought. The initial adrenaline kick of flying had ceased a little, and I started to feel the cold in my legs. Salamence roared happily, and rolled over, so I was facing the sky. The next thing I knew, we were plummeting towards the ground, picking up speed. We dived towards a large black area, split in half by a track of light. A park, with a single lit path going through it. It hadn't snowed for a couple of days here, so the trees were black against the white ground. We were diving straight for them, so steep that I was effectively completely upside down.
"What about going level again?", I thought. Salamence pulled out at the last second, almost skimming the snow. The draft behind us whirled up a formidable cloud of white powder. He did a few steep turns, narrowly avoiding hitting trees. My need for adrenaline was definitely satisfied.
"Up again, we're going in the wrong direction!", I thought. Salamence pulled almost straight up. I nearly blacked out from the G-forces as all the blood in my body was pulled to my feet. We headed straight up for more than half a kilometre, then stopped flapping his wings. He went all limp, apart from the strong grip around my waist. I had been worried if it hadn't been for the sound he made; almost like a kitten purring, only way deeper. For a few seconds, we were in free fall, then he started flying again, and headed for downtown in a straight line. I was shaking, and fell a strong urge to scream something.
"Think that was bad? At least, you could see what's going on!", Espeon said in my head.

A few minutes later, we were circling a cluster of skyscrapers in the business district.
"Where to go now?", Espeon asked.
"Up", I replied without thinking. A second or so later, Salamence started to rise.
"Up where?", Espeon said. "There's nothing up there"
"I don't know...", I started, then I got a strange feeling, and answered before the words had even formed in my head: "Central Bank Plaza. The observation deck"
"Which building is that?"
I had to think for a moment. "That big white there. The tallest one"
Central Bank Plaza was a quite new skyscraper, opened only five years ago. With 85 stories, it was almost sixty metres taller than any other building in the city, and was very impressive up close. To add to that effect, only the bottom half of the tower was lit at night, so you couldn't see the top from the floodlit streets. Only the side facing the brightly lit Royal Insurance Building next to it was visible, and revealed how tall the skyscraper really was. As we got higher, even rising above the building, it appeared as a black mass against the ocean of light that spread out beneath us. Salamence slowed down, it would be difficult to land here. Eventually, we came to a standstill, and Salamence landed slowly and carefully on the open-air observation deck. The flapping of his wings was really loud, and it felt like the entire city heard us. Even in the total darkness, it would be hard to miss us in case of an ambush. For safety measures, I slid off the backpack and released Weavile. Then I took off the headgear. It was warm enough all right, but kinda uncomfortable to wear for extended periods of time.
"So, here we are", Espeon murmured. "Now what?"
"Over there", Salamence growled. "Look"
A lone figure was standing on the handrail a few metres away, completely still. At first, I mistook it for a pole, but I could see it shifting its grip on the rail when a strong gust of wind came.
"Come, you have at last", a voice said in my head. It had to be the figure on the rail speaking.
"You didn't speak like that last time I talked to you", I replied. I recognised it now.
"A dream, that was. Confused, you were. More confused, I did not want you to be"
It turned its head around, without moving a muscle in the rest of its body. The head was green, as round as a ball, with large black eyes and a yellow beak. Two long feathers grew out at the back of its head. The rest of its body was shaped almost like a bullet.
"If you want to see the sun, a good place this is", it continued, now with its own voice. It sounded like a flute of sorts; a deep, humming sound. "But the stars hide. Sad, this place is at night"
I looked up. The sky was all black, all the stars drowned in the light of the city.
"Shall we get going?", Salamence mumbled behind me. I could see that he was uneasy. I silently agreed. Black helicopters could be approaching us as we spoke, agents could already be climbing the stairs of the tower, or even parachuting from the night sky. We were very exposed here.
"Haste, tonight there is none", Xatu said. "Rest, we can"
"Listen, Yodabird. Cold, it is. Tired, I am. Dangerous, the TLA out there somewhere is. Etc, etc", I sighed, a little frustrated.
"Yoda?", Xatu asked.
"Forget it. Do you want to come with me?"
I started checking the Poké Balls that lay in the backpack.
"Of no use, that is", Xatu said. "Among them, it is not"
"Am I the only one starting to become a little irritated?", I mumbled.
"Hear you, I-"
"I get it", I interrupted him, after finding out he was correct. None of the balls belonged to a Xatu. "If you want to come with me, you'll have to fly. If not, I or the TLA, whichever of us finds you first, will come to get you another day"
I called back Weavile, got my backpack on, and Salamence grabbed me. As he stood ready for take-off, I could see Xatu slowly tilt over the edge of the handrail, still as stiff as a pole. Salamence kicked off, hovered a few metres above the platform, then followed Xatu. The walls of the tower were almost completely vertical, and so was our dive. Below us, I could see Xatu spread his wings as quickly as if they had been spring-loaded. Then he apparently vanished, putting up an invisibility bubble of his own.
"He knows the directions, and we're faster than him", Espeons voice said in my head. "Which way will we take?"
"Straight home", I thought. "We can call this a day"
Salamence pulled out of the dive, now flying only mere metres above the ground. It was quite a rush to zoom through the well-lit streets at this velocity. It was also funny to see how the invisibility bubble reacted to the light. It was like having an umbrella between the light and us. It was as if the light was dimmed when it passed through the bubble, so it was always a little shaded here. Combined with the ski glasses I wore to keep my face warm, it meant that I couldn't see very much, especially when Salamence took turns into side streets. However, I soon registered that the houses on either side of the road became smaller, and the walkie-talkie started to buzz.
"Report, Metagross", I shouted. Time to see if my suspicions were right or not.
"Nothing to report. You're not on the radar, the airspace is clean, and the TLA appears to be busy", he replied. "Even the police radio reports a calm night. There's no haste tonight. We can rest"
Rest was probably the last word running through Salamence's head at the time. I knew he absolutely loved to fly, but living in a cave sixty metres under the surface somewhat limited the amount of flight time he got. So now, he was making the most out of it, by taking small detours or doing huge loops, or zigzagging through the streets. When we finally landed in our garden after a hundred-metre dive, I almost couldn't walk. I had to lean to the garage wall for a few seconds while I regained balance. A few minutes later, Xatu arrived. He landed on the garage roof, and tilted his head so he looked directly at the moon.
"Living underground, we are?", he asked with a sad voice. "No sun, no stars?"
"Correct, I'm afraid", I replied, feeling a little bad about it. "It's the only place you can hide in safety"
"If you so approve... stay here for the night, I may?"
"You can make yourself invisible, so why not", I answered. "Actually, that ability can be of use. I need a scout, somebody who can fly, be invisible and communicate with telepathy. Would you want to do that?"
"A pleasure, that would be", Xatu said. "Now, get some rest, you should"
"Goodnight", I said, and went in. Mom and dad were still up, which made me wonder how late it really was. I looked at the wall clock, and concluded that I'd been away for less than half an hour. Still, after the flight, it felt like an eternity.
"You better get used to this", I told the Pokémon later as I released them in the basement. "Because we'll do a few trips a week from now on"
"Always ready", Scizor and Salamence replied in unison, though I could see they were talking about different aspects of the hunting.
"I'll see you tomorrow", I replied. "And Wednesday. Actually, we'll get time to take a trip every evening this week".
If I live that long, my mind added at the end of that sentence. The TLA were out there somewhere, and while they were dangerous, one small part of me was eager to meet them again.

[Seeker]

Nice! I really like how you explore his parents' reactions. I found the Yoda reference oddly hilarious.

[SuperFireKirby]

A nice addition. I have a strange feeling this story will never end. Which would be awesome.

[dahans]

Finally I had to time to read the WHOLE chapter, nice 1 Cobra!