Emergence (Final Update - 28.03.12)

[SuperFireKirby]

You know, you can edit posts so you don't have to double post right?

[TheLegend]

You know, you can edit posts so you don't have to double post right?

last time slow did it, it wasn't updated, so...

[Cobraroll]

^I have no problem with that. Write whatever you want, it's sure to be better than this.

The next chapter is in the "waiting for approval"-phase. This phase could be significantly shorter if I had got in touch with more of my readers, but in any case, it should be ready by tomorrow. I'm sorry it has been so slow lately, but my PC isn't very well at the moment, so I'm hesitant about writing in case it crashes.

[TheLegend]

^I have no problem with that. Write whatever you want, it's sure to be better than this.

The next chapter is in the "waiting for approval"-phase. This phase could be significantly shorter if I had got in touch with more of my readers, but in any case, it should be ready by tomorrow. I'm sorry it has been so slow lately, but my PC isn't very well at the moment, so I'm hesitant about writing in case it crashes.

I am a big reader.  I've read it over three times already  ok thanks! 

. Write whatever you want, it's sure to be betterworse than this.

Can't wait to start it!  But I still have to work on fixing up taser's request, I'm a slow arranger...

[Cobraroll]

Well, I had trouble contacting my "revisors" the past days, so it was a little delayed. If my PC had worked like it should, you would have got this two weeks ago, but anyway, better late than never, right?

I'm afraid this chapter is nothing special, but the next one will be a little different. Be patient, and it will hopefully show up within the next two to three weeks.

Chapter thirty-six: Cold Steel

"Rob! You look terrible! What has happened?" Emily looked terrified. "Dad told me about
yesterday, but he didn't say you got hurt!"
"I'm fine", I said. "Just tired. I've been up since four. Wasn't hurt before then"
"What happened?"
I had a look over my shoulder. The first class of today hadn't started yet, and not many people
had arrived. The ones who had were busily chatting with each other. I was quite sure nobody would
hear us.
"It was about 4AM when I was woken up by a rumbling sound from the garden. Nothing major, just
like a truck going down the street outside, except for that it was in the garden. No big deal, I
thought, so I fell asleep again. Then five minutes later, I heard something banging on my window.
It was as if the window would break. I got up, pulled the curtains aside, and... well, that's
when I fell and hurt this", I started and showed Emily my bandaged left hand. "It was shocking,
to say the least. All I saw was a mouth, large enough that I could have sat in it, with teeth the
size of building bricks. Above the mouth, eyes as large as my PC monitor with red pupils were
staring coldly at me. And the entire face was made of steel. I must have screamed as well,
because my parents woke up and came running into the room. That was when the fun started"
"What happened to your head, then?"
"As I said, it went rapidly downhill from there. First, mom and dad swung open the door so it hit
me in the head. I laid on the floor, remember. Then they saw the face as well, and started
screaming"
"Was it a Steelix?", Emily whispered.
"Correct", I replied. "And you should have seen what it had done to the garden. I ordered it to
dig down into the cave while I got mom and dad away. The rest of the night was spent convincing
them that they had had a nightmare, and repairing the garden. Steelix had taken a good chunk out
of the garage as well, and we had to rob a warehouse to find replacement planks. For once, I
actually looked forward to school, as it would give me a break"
"What is your cover story?", Emily asked.
"I fell down the staircase. That's at least what I told mom and dad", I sighed. "I'll have
Blissey look at it later"
"You should have taken the day off", Emily said. "Stayed home, got some rest"
"I've already missed enough of the school year", I replied. "If I miss just five or six more
days, I'll have to go this year over again. That would mean we wouldn't go in the same class next
year"
"It's more important that you stay alive, Rob"
"I am alive. Just a little beaten and a little tired"
"Just like any other day, in other words", a voice said behind us. Julia had entered the
classroom without anyone noticing. "Just give up, Rob. You have no chance. We'll win, it's just a
matter of time"
"Where were you when we fried a hundred of your helpers yesterday?", I hissed. For some reason, I
knew nobody would hear this conversation if they weren't intended to.
"Elsewhere. By the way, that platypus-pineapple-sombrero-duck-thingy of yours really sucks in
close combat, you know that?", she said with a smile. "Dancing doesn't help in a fight, Rob. Did
you ever learn your Pokémon that?"
I didn't reply. I was shocked. So Julia was involved in the Pokémon hunting as well?
"Take the evening off, Rob. Give in while you're at it. It will make this a lot easier for all
parts. The longer you fight, the more trouble you'll cause to everybody but us before you lose.
If you just give in now, it will all be over", Julia continued.
"Over my dead body"
"We can make it so, if you want", she said in a business tone like she was merely discussing work
sharing in a group project. "But wait for me, please. I want to be there"
"The TLA want me alive", I mumbled.
"Preferably. We only need your brain, but it has to work properly", she replied. I was a little
sick by that thought. "Let's wait and see how it ends, shall we?" She smiled and sat down at the
back of the room, where the others had kept a seat for her.
"I bet that's just empty threats", Emily said. She didn't sound too convinced.

Today, Julia had dropped the direct insults in favour of a lot of whispering and mumbling among
the students on the back row. Occasionally, everybody burst into giggles. It would have been very
unnerving if I just hadn't been so tired. Any other day, I'd have considered calling in Weavile
and silence Julia, then take care of the others later, but today, all I could think of was
sleeping. Emily had to pinch my arm a few times to wake me up. Luckily, Julia had an appointment
with a dentist today and had to go early. I wondered what might be wrong with her shiny white,
perfect teeth, but as long as she had to go, I'd be happy. It seemed like there was less buzzing
and giggling the rest of the day, but I was so tired that I couldn't tell for sure.
"Get home and get some rest", Emily hissed as we parted later, on the way home from school. She
wouldn't have to ask me twice. My entire body felt heavy and sluggish, and my left arm felt like
it was squeezed in a vice grip. Spending the little energy I had left, I almost jogged home,
longing for the comfort of my bed. I slowed down only just before I entered our driveway. Then,
as walked past the garage, I felt a slight tickle on my skin, and there was a small flash. Before
me, Salamence appeared out of thin air. My backpack was lying beside him. He had apparently been
waiting for me, hidden by an invisibility bubble.
"We have to hurry", Espeon's voice sounded in my head. "Metagross just discovered another
Pokémon, and we think the TLA might have seen it too. Leave your school bag in the garage and put
Weavile's ball in the backpack. Quick!"
I stood still for a second as my mind tried to figure out what had happened. So much for that
rest... Then I snapped out of it and did as Espeon said. The Pokémon had brought my balaclava and
some warmer clothes. I hastily changed, strapped on the backpack, and Salamence picked me up. The
adrenaline rush caused by the flying made me a little more awake.
"Where are we headed?", I asked Espeon after my stomach had settled from the rush of the take-off.
"South", she replied. "Jabun's Cross"
"That far?", I thought. Jabun's Cross was a suburb at the very south end of the city, mostly
known for being the place where the intercity motorway split, with the capital in one direction,
and the coast road in the other. As far as I knew, there was very little to do there, except from
driving through it. What had made a Pokémon go all the way down there? The answer almost gave
itself: Nobody would bother going to Jabun's Cross if they didn't have business there. The fewer
people, the smaller the risk of being found. Salamence flew towards the forest and followed the
motorway southward. It was weird to see the cars fly past under us, like they were standing still
or even going backwards. I couldn't estimate our speed, but I knew we went extremely fast. Still,
it took us more than a quarter of an hour to reach the small town.
"So here we are...", Umbreon said. "Metagross said we should look for some warehouses at the edge
of the forest"
"Should be an easy task...", I mumbled sarcastically. Being so close to a major port, about half
of Jabun's Cross was industrial areas. The edge of the forest was littered with warehouses of all
sizes. There could be a thousand warehouses here, all lying in proximity to the forest.
"Black van!", I suddenly shouted. A small black van was driving up a side street. It was clearly
a TLA vehicle, it was obvious even though it lacked the yellow logo on its side. Salamence
descended to an altitude of about a hundred metres, following behind it.
"Look", I said and pointed at a nearby rooftop. A TLA grunt was lying down with a rifle aimed at
something out of view in the back yard of an abandoned factory.
"We'll land there", Espeon said. Salamence glided towards the rooftop where the grunt lay. Over
the sound of wind in my ears, I could hear shouting from the back yard. We eventually landed
behind a chimney less than 20 metres away from the grunt.
"We prepared a team", Espeon said as she climbed out of the backpack. "You only brought Weavile
and Xatu to school today, right?"
"Yes, I... Oh, no. Weavile is still lying in my other jacket pocket", I said. "I was so tired, I
forgot to take the ball out"
"You've got to be kidding me", Espeon groaned. "We took it for granted that Weavile could take
care of the sneaky bits. Now well, one of the others can probably take the guy out just as
quietly"
She pointed her tail at the grunt. Clumsily, as I had to use my right hand only, I found another
ball in the backpack and released the Pokémon inside it. It turned out to be Ursaring.
"See the grunt over there? Subdue him, but quietly", I whispered to her. Ursaring nodded, laid
down, and crawled towards the grunt. He didn't notice the bear Pokémon before she was right
behind him. He looked up, but was too late: With a slap of her paw, Ursaring knocked him
unconscious. I spurted over to them and peered over the edge of the roof.

Down there, I saw several TLA agents, as well as dozens of grunts. Vans were parked in a semi-
circle around the area, and several more grunts guarded the place. It was almost laughable that
they only had placed a single man to keep a lookout from the roof. Everybody's attention was
turned to a creature in the middle of the yard. It resembled a walnut made of metal, floating
freely in mid-air. It was more than a metre across, and looked very heavy despite being able to
float like that. There was a crack between the two thick steel shells, revealing a pair of eyes.
Four hollow spikes, resembling cannons, were protruding from the crack. The Pokémon, Forretress,
was very strong on the defensive, but had few options when it came to offensively battling its
way out of the situation. Four TLA agents, three men and a woman, had surrounded it, punching and
kicking its hard shell. It was like a brutal ball game, Forretress was blown back with each hit,
flying into one of the others.
"Just give up!", the woman snarled. "We'll take you soon"
Forretress gave a buzzing sound, and retracted the hollow spikes into its shell. Then the shell
clamped shut. Forretress started to rotate slowly, but gradually picking up speed. The agents
kept battering it, but it moved more erratically now. Eventually it rose a couple of metres, now
spinning so fast it was just a blur. With a high-pitched scream, it darted towards one of the
men. He tried to dodge, but Forretress changed direction and hit him in the chest. He was sent
flying into one of the vans.
"What should we do?", Espeon asked. "More agents are arriving, according to Salamence"
"We can only wait and see", I whispered back. "Forretress knows Explosion, and we better not be
here if it chooses to use it"
Forretress didn't explode, though, but it kept tackling the other agents. One of them, a bald man
with sunglasses, was hit in the head, and went down without a sound. Another tried to jump atop
Forretress, riding it like a bull on a rodeo. It was a stupid move. Forretress crashed him into a
nearby brick wall so hard that it broke. Then it hit the third agent again. Only the woman was
left now.
"So you can fight after all?", she teased. "Rob must have done something right, then!"
"It's Julia!", I whispered. I hadn't recognised her at first, but it was indeed her. She was
wearing the same type of marine blue battle suit as I had stolen about a week ago. She had no
helmet, nor any gloves despite the temperature, and was fighting with her bare fists. Several of
the grunts in the area put down their guns and sat down to watch the battle. It was either a very
stupid move, or they were convinced that Julia would win.
"What are our options?", I asked Espeon. "What Pokémon did you bring?"
"You left Weavile behind. That leaves us with Xatu, me, Salamence, Ursaring and Sceptile"
"Why not Tyranitar, or Lucario, Metagross or Scizor?"
"The latter three aren't fit for fighting yet. And we hoped we could do this quickly, so we
brought Pokémon with some speed"
I went through the options in my head. Salamence and Ursaring were powerful, and Sceptile could
fight quite well too. Xatu and Espeon were too frail to put up much of a fight. The TLA had a
three-digit number of people here, including several agents. A single Fire Blast to the yard
would create a lot of mayhem, but also knock out Forretress and require us to go down there and
pick it up. There were probably a lot of TLA people all around the factory as well, and we
wouldn't be able to beat them without the surprise factor. And if either one of Salamence or
Espeon were knocked out, we wouldn't be able to get home. Thinking of it, we couldn't bring
Forretress home either way, as Espeon couldn't levitate it while at the same time maintaining an
invisibility bubble.
"We can't win this", I mumbled after thinking it through once more. "There are times to fight,
and there are times to leave, to be able to fight another day. Today, it's time for the latter.
If we fight on, we'll probably lose more than just a single Forretress"
"You say, you're sacrificing Forretress?", Espeon asked. She didn't protest at my decision.
"If you want to put it that way, yes. I just want to see it beat Julia first"
Julia was now in an attacking position, kicking and punching Forretress so fast I could hardly
see her hands and feet. Forretress was blown back several times before it managed to recover. It
fled backwards a metre or two, then rammed into Julia with full power. She was thrown against the
wall behind her, lost balance, and fell. Forretress rammed again. There was a nasty sound as her
chest was crushed against the wall. Julia squeaked in pain as the bones repositioned themselves.
The grunts all stood up, aiming their guns at Forretress again. Julia was near unconscious, but
managed to sit straight. She pulled a cylinder out of one of her pockets, and unscrewed its lid
with her left arm. The right arm looked limp and almost crushed, as if it hadn't healed properly
after the impact. A syringe fell out of the cylinder. She picked it up and put it against her
right arm. Her eyes rolled shut for a moment, before she slowly stood up. When she looked up
again, she seemed as ready for battle as ever.
"Come on!", she snarled.
"Pull back!", Espeon shouted. I was dragged backwards by an invisible force. A jolt of pain went
through my arm as I tried to soften the impact with my left hand. Over the edge of the roof, I
could see Forretress, shield clamped shut, quickly rise about twenty metres to the air, before
ramming down into the ground. There was a loud bang, and the building felt like it was crumbling
beneath us. Cracks appeared everywhere, and I could hear the sound of walls collapsing beneath
us. The outer wall facing the back yard gave in. It crashed down on the two combatants. Espeon
had to hurry and pull the unconscious grunt away from the edge before he fell into the yard. The
Earthquake must have put an end to the fighting, I thought at first. Still, I could hear Julia's
laugh even before the smoke settled. Then there were sounds of boots kicking metal again, and a
squeak from Forretress. Julia shouted:
"There you go, guys. Take it away, and drive me home. I need a shower"
"Let's go", I said as I heard the TLA break up down there. I called back Ursaring, and put the
backpack back on. Salamence, which had been standing ready to take off all the time, grabbed me,
and we flew back home. I was analysing the situation again as we flew. Could we have rescued
Forretress?
"No", a voice in my head simply put it. "Not a chance".
"Why?", my conscious self thought back.
"You weren't prepared", the voice said. I just had to face it. With the right team, I could have
mowed the TLA down, and made a hasty escape before reinforcements could arrive. Now well,
Forretress would be avenged later. Now, it was time to rest...

"Now, it is time to go talk to Metagross", Espeon said as we landed in my garden. I groaned. The
adrenaline rush had gone, and was replaced with more tiredness than ever.
"I want to go to bed", I groaned.
"Come on, we have only been away for... less than an hour", Espeon said. "You need to get that
hand fixed anyway, no way you could sleep like that"
True, the pain in my hand had intensified during the course of the day. It hurt just to move my
arm. I could hardly feel my finger tips any more, either because of the tight bandage, or the
cold, or most likely, a combination of both. Because of the rather thin gloves I had worn, my
right hand was almost frozen, so I wondered in what state the left was. I found out as soon as I
got inside and the heat started to kick in. It felt like the hand was on fire. I tried to hold my
arm as still as possible as I undressed. Espeon simply picked me up and levitated me down to the
basement.

"So, what went wrong?", Metagross asked ten minutes later. I was sitting on a rock in the large
subterranean garden. My left hand was wrapped in leaves and felt absolutely fine. Blissey had
done wonders with what had turned out to be a severe frostbite over a broken bone.
"I was too late, didn't have much time, and the TLA got away with Forretress", I sighed.
"Not today. Yesterday. How come Magnezone swept the floor with us?"
"We were unlucky", I said. "Magnezone is really strong, and none of you resisted its attacks"
"Exactly", Lucario said. He was sitting under a bush full of Cheri blossoms. There were still
some rust particles in his fur.
"You brought three Steel Pokémon to battle a Pokémon designated especially to take out Steel
types", Metagross said. "Poor Xatu didn't stand a chance either. To put it like that, I expected
you to be a lot better at team building"
"You're my best fighters!", I said. "We've swept through the TLA together!"
"We have to be effective, not buddies", Lucario replied. "We like to be with you, and love to get
some action now and then, but so do all the others. And yes, we crushed them on some occasions,
but you could do it faster and cleaner with a better-built team."
"And just because we're strong individually, doesn't mean we work well as a team", Metagross
continued. "You've focused too much on offence, and completely forgotten anything related to
typing and coverage. I resist the same attacks as the others, and we share weaknesses too"
I didn't say anything. Metagross was right.
"So... you say I should just leave you here in the future?", I asked.
Lucario nodded. "Hand pick a team for the job, don't just bring the same old ones over again"
"I didn't have time for that today", I tried to defend myself. "I even ran home from school.
Couldn't have done anything to get home faster"
"Then you should have brought a full team to school, no matter how inconvenient that may seem"
"Why not just bring everyone, then? Six Poké Balls or sixty, I get comments either way"
"Because once you carry more than six Poké Balls, they stop working properly. You might have
noticed that you can't shrink them when many of them are put together. It would be hard to carry
and hide them all. Your equipment is also designed to handle a maximum of six Pokémon"
A lengthy discussion followed. I have to admit, it made me a little shameful. I used to know
everything there was to know about team building, but in real life, it all seemed so different.
But now that I looked at it, I realised it was all the same. I needed a defensive core, coverage,
support and a varied spectrum of attacks. Just like in the games.
"However", Metagross finished some time later. "Be glad that you learn this now, and not after a
fatal encounter. You lost one Pokémon, but Forretress' shell is impossible to pry open. Once in
the base, it can just clamp shut and stay like that for months, and the TLA can't do anything to
harm it"
"Plenty of time to rescue it, then", I said. I had to rest now, but once I had gotten some sleep,
I'd be as motivated for fight as I'd ever been. "In the meantime, we'll avenge it. Everybody, be
prepared to fly tonight"

[TheLegend]

 

that one was very realistic.  I loved it. Not much to say about it, everything was amazing.  LIke with Julia, how she had to go see the dentist when actually working for the TLA, how they didn't capture forrestress... I really liked it.  I guess having lots of time off helps!

[Cobraroll]

Thanks a lot!

Also, sorry for the formatting (all I see is a mess. Does it work for you?). I think it's my PC screwing with the resolution of Office, making the lines too long or something. I tried to fix it, but looks like I'll have to do it manually, something I don't intend to now.

Also, the chapter was nearly finished almost two weeks ago, but it sat dormant for a while. I just finished and polished it recently, and put it up today after receiving feedback.

[SuperFireKirby]

I personally don't mind the formatting. But the chapter was excellent.

[Cobraroll]

Sorry for taking so long! I've been away for some time over the summer holidays, so I haven't had as much time to write. I'm not sure if I can manage to put up another chapter before I leave for my military service, but I'll make an effort, at least. Anyway, expect some other stuff from me in the coming week...

But for now, enjoy:

Chapter thirty-seven: Bulking up

That night, my new sleeping schedule was established. I was so tired that I went straight to bed after my
short, but - in my eyes - heroic speech, and didn't wake up before almost 3AM. Then we got out and flew
around the city for hours until I had to go back home to eat breakfast and go to school. After school, I ate
a quick dinner, and went to bed again. And when my bedside clock rang at 2:45, I repeated the entire
process. Up early, hunt Pokémon before school, and go to bed as soon as I got home. The weeks passed like
that. I took two afternoons off every week, and usually spent one with Emily and one with the boys. Emily
also got up early to come with me once every week. But even though it was efficient, we didn't catch many
Pokémon. I spent twenty hours every week hunting for Pokémon, but some weeks I didn't find any at all.
Metagross consistently monitored the news channels, Xatu spent most of his time on the lookout post perched
on our house's chimney, and Swampert took patrols in the sewers. All in all, we soon got a complete overview
of what was happening in the near area at all times. Though, sometimes even the local news made it first.
One February evening, I was woken up by Lucario, who dragged me down to the living room to show me a program
on the TV. There, right in front of the cameras was a Tauros, and an interview with a puzzled farmer who
said that "This 'ere bull plainly showed up in me barn tis' mornin'". We got to the farm even before the
reporters left, snagged Tauros and flew away, just before a dozen black cars arrived at the farm. Another
news broadcast in early March lead us to Electrode, but that time, we were too late. Apparently, the TLA had
caught him, and he had used Explosion when they drove him back to their base. He had blasted an entire
motorway bridge to pieces, swept three dozen cars off the road, and attracted every news reporter in the
region. When we finally showed up, there were TLA vehicles everywhere, so we just had to turn around and go
back home.
That being said, we had a few direct clashes with the TLA as well. Twice, we successfully snagged a Pokémon
right from their clutches (Smeargle and Shiftry), and left before reinforcements arrived. Once, we spotted
one of their cars from the air and decided to follow it, just to see if they had found a Pokémon. Instead,
we jumped straight into a demon operation in an unfinished apartment complex. I didn't see the demon itself,
but heard its cries, and they kept me sleepless the entire following night. Though, we managed to snag a few
hazmat suits from a poorly guarded van parked outside the building. We burnt the van afterwards. I despised
the TLA, and did anything to hinder them, if only to stop the smug smile Julia always showed at school the
day following a large operation. I never met her out in the field after that day in January, but she often
implied that she had been hunting Pokémon as well.
Sometimes, though, we picked up TLA signals calling urgently for backup, and arrived at the source of the
signals finding vans, men and trucks thrown about everywhere. Apparently, some of the Pokémon could manage
themselves well in a match versus over a hundred TLA people. In one place, I found more than a dozen agents
lying on the ground, all with the same kind of ripple in their battle suits: a long slash from the left
shoulder all the way to the right hip. It was as if a large knife had been dragged all over the men's
bodies. Some of the vans bore the same mark, a puncturing diagonal ripple going from upper right to lower
left, over a metre in length. The armoured vans had been sliced like paper.
"Could it be a demon?", I had asked Espeon, just to be sure.
"A very cautious one, if so", she had replied. "There's not a mark on any of the people here, as the wounds
have regrown. No, this is Pokémon work".
We also had some rare cases when everything went according to plan. Stantler, Rapidash and Venomoth came
with us without any trouble at all, and no TLA involved.

"You have changed", Emily said to me one evening in late March. We were sitting on the sofa in her living
room, watching a film.
"How so?", I replied.
"You're more cautious than ever before. I see you keep glancing out of the window every few seconds, like a
driver checking the rear-view mirror, and you always stick to the shadows when you're walking. It's kinda
creepy how you move so silent now too"
"I was in the woods with Weavile for a week over the Winter holiday", I said. "We didn't manage to get more
than one Pokémon, but he taught me a lot about stealth moving"
"Also, you look a little different", she said with a smile. "You've got some muscles"
"Must be all the running. Or carrying all that stuff up and down the shaft". At least, we had got the
handrail in place now. Ironically, I was so used to it not being there that I didn't use it at all.
"Why do you bring this up now, by the way?", I asked.
"Just noticed how you didn't pay attention to the movie when the evening news were on", she said and glanced
at the open kitchen door where the radio was playing. "Bet you focused on listening to the broadcast
instead"
"Are the changes bothering you?"
"Not at all", she replied. "But others have noticed too. Miley is starting to suspect something, I'm sure"
"So are the boys, I think. I told them that I've become interested in ninjas, that should ease their
suspicion a little", I said. "I wonder how much longer I can keep going"
"What do you mean?"
"School. It's taking a lot of valuable time, and it puts me - and you - in danger. With the TLA knowing
exactly where I am for seven hours a day, you know. They can easily strike when I'm at school, or make the
police arrest me for something, but I can't strike back because that would bust the secret completely"
"But... you know how important an education is", she said.
"If I don't take precautions, an education will be worth nothing where I'm going", I replied gloomily.
"What about the exams, then? If you fail, you'll have to do the year over again!"
"I'll come up with something. First, I have to get all the Pokémon back. Once that is achieved, I'll leave
the TLA be, and focus on school. Then hopefully, we can go to the same school in a year as well"
At that moment, Joe came home.
"Hello!", he shouted.
"Hi!", Emily and I replied in unison. I added: "Did you get what I asked you?"
"I did", Joe said and entered the room. He gave me a large and heavy envelope. It was labelled "T.
Stephenson", and an address somewhere down town.
"What is that?", Emily asked. "Classified info?"
"Not really", Joe said. "It's just that you have to be 18 or older to order things at the printing bureau"
I opened the envelope and started unfolding the large sheet of paper that was in it. It soon covered the
entire dining table in Emily's living room. Finally, the last fold, and its contents appeared. It was a
large map of the city, 180 X 375 centimetres, at a 1:10 000 scale.
"Perfect", I said.
"North is to the right on this map, to make it easier to read", Joe said. "I hope you have a large wall to
put it on?"
"I have", I said and nodded. West-side up was the usual way of portraying the city on maps, due to its
spread-out nature. The sea was at the top of the map, the forest covering the entire bottom edge. "How much
do I owe you?"
"298,-", Joe replied.
"Let's say 300, then", I said and handed him some bills I found in my pocket.
"Also, I checked your box at the post office", Joe said. "We've got mail", he continued and handed me a few
smaller envelopes.
"Electricity bill, rent, advertisements, water, membership magazines... ahh, the passport has arrived", I
said as I sorted through the mail. Then I opened the smallest envelope, and a blue passport fell out. Emily
snapped it from me as soon as I opened it.
"Who is Theodore Stephenson?", she asked.
"A 34-year old guy living down town", I replied as I looked at the passport again. "No siblings, no uncles or
aunts. Grandparents died before he was born, and he lost his parents in a tragic car accident when he was
two. Grew up in an orphanage. Runs a small graphic design bureau alone, with moderate success. And, of
course, he doesn't exist at all. Meet my alter ego".
"How did you manage to fake that?", Emily asked, very puzzled. She scrutinized the picture, the fingerprint
and the signature on the passport.
"Metagross can do wonders with an Internet connection", I said. "And he's quite skilled at photo
manipulating as well. The handwriting is my work, though"
"You even rented an apartment? How can you afford that?"
"Graphic design", I replied. "I suppose I could have hacked some bank systems and generated some money, but
I feel better about it this way. The Pokémon aren't very imaginative, but getting a Smeargle certainly
helped the business"
"Is this even legal?"
"Nope", I said. "But it doesn't harm anybody"
Emily said nothing. Behind us, the movie credits started flickering across the TV screen. I realized how
late it was.
"I have to go now", I said and folded the map back together. "Got an appointment with the Pokémon tonight"
"Be careful", Emily said and gave me a hug.
"As always", I replied. As I walked down the street, I noted that Emily had been right. I had changed. The
Pokémon trainer clothes had fit me well, but they were a little too colourful for my liking. They had been
lying neatly folded somewhere in the cave ever since I bought a new set of outdoor clothes. These were a lot
darker, and I was near invisible as I kept to the shadows walking back home. I could hear something
following me, and at the corner of my eye, I could see a large dark shape about ten steps behind me.
"Try to move more silently, Houndoom", I whispered. I had given Weavile some days off, in an effort to use
more of my Pokémon. Houndoom was, I had found out, more powerful than Weavile, but couldn't move as
stealthy. He was still able to catch the TLA by surprise, as we had found out one evening when a suspicious
ice cream van had been stationed outside my house. Houndoom had knocked out the crew members one by one when
one of them went outside to ease his bladder, and the others came out (one by one, with two-minute
intervals) to see what had happened. I had learnt one important thing about the TLA, and that was that their
grunts were really, really stupid and couldn't shoot and hit the broad side of a barn from the inside. I
felt less and less sorry for them each time we knocked one out.

We got home without any problems. I went straight down to the cave with the papers. I had to call Houndoom
back in his Poké Ball as I walked through the living room and down the stairs to the basement. Once there, I
let him out again, and together we walked through the tunnels down to the cave. As the months had passed, it
had become a quite nice place. The Grass Pokémon had got it the way they wanted, now vines covered all the
walls, and there grew grass on the floor, save for a narrow path. In a corner lay a stack of tires, the only
part of TLA vans that the Steel Pokémon refused to eat. We had dragged quite a few of those vans down here,
but cutting them up in carryable chunks beforehand was a time-consuming affair. We were considering digging
another shaft through the garage floor, so we could just drop the entire van down and slice it up
afterwards. I had also expanded the storage room. It now held a lot of TLA equipment, as well as sacks of
berries, a bed, a refrigerator, and a very large empty wall (which once was part of a semi-trailer). I went
in there and stuck the newly acquired map to the wall. It was late in the evening, and most of the Pokémon
were sleeping. For a moment, I thought about sleeping down here too, like I had done on a couple of
occasions, but then mom and dad would become suspicious and eventually go crazy again. I had developed a
pretty good routine on keeping them sane, and didn't want to break the month-long peace that had thrived
since a day in late February when a Fearow landed in our garden.
"Want help with putting the pins up?", a gruff voice asked behind me. It was Metagross, speaking through a
set of stereo speakers I had snatched from a recycling centre some weeks ago.
"Thanks, that would be appreciated", I replied. "How many Pokémon have we got now?"
"We know the whereabouts of 68", Metagross said. "25 to go, unless more emerge"
"There hasn't been an emergence since Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf", I said. "I have that under control, trust
me. It won't happen again"
Truth was, I never fell asleep without being deeply concerned about the consequences of dreaming. From what
I had gathered from the TLA, emergences from dreams were extremely uncommon, and it almost always happened
to those with unstable minds. Metagross had told me they had people stationed at psychiatric hospitals. All
the more reason to keep mom and dad sane, in other words.
"Well, let's get started, shall we?", Metagross said. "Do you have any system in mind?"
"The same as the other map", I said and glanced at a tourist map hanging at an adjacent wall. It was less
than one square metre in size, and filled with coloured pins. A red pin for the catch location of Pokémon I
had obtained, blue for Pokémon the TLA had got (the location where we last had seen them), black for
locations we had encountered the TLA at, and yellow for traces of Pokémon we hadn't directly met. Most pins
had a note attached to them. Suddenly, all the pins started to glow with a blue colour, and were dragged out
of the small map. They flew through the air, and hit the big map with millimetre-precision. I picked up a
cluster of black pins from a box lying on a small table underneath the small map, and stuck them at a
location in the middle of the forest. Then I attached another one, with the note "TLA lair" stuck to it.
"Half past eleven", I said and glanced at a wall-mounted clock that hung next to the small map. "I'll meet
you here at four, okay? You, Salamence, Skarmory, Espeon, Swampert and Electivire"
"Four it is. Go get some sleep in the meantime"

A quarter past four, we were in the air. The city was silent, with very few cars on the streets. Sunrise was
still a couple of hours away, and as most lights were off in all the buildings, it was quite dark. We were
flying north, past the city hospital and through the suburbs, zigzagging across the landscape looking for
Pokémon or TLA vehicles.
"Nothing here, let's move on", I said after a while. I had acquired a motorcycle helmet with a built-in
walkie-talkie. Salamence had a similar device strapped to his head. Espeon, lying in the backpack as always,
had one too. It was a lot more comfortable and less time-consuming than telepathy. We flew for more than an
hour, circling through the suburbs, then Salamence caught hold of something. Suddenly, he stopped beating
his wings, and just glided through the air, his body as rigid as a pole. I looked around, confused. Then I
saw it as well. Two black vans were driving up a road in front of us. Then, they turned into an area I
recognized as a shopping mall under construction.
"Let's go there", I said. "Drop me down behind that fence there, and I'll sneak in"
Salamence descended in a large spiral, and dropped me gently down just outside the area. The mud crunched
beneath my boots, and I swore a little. The ground had begun to thaw at daytime, then freeze again at night.
Thus, it made my steps sound like I was walking on a pack of crackers.
"Survey the area, Salamence", I said to him. He flew off without making a sound. I found an opening in the
fence, and squeezed through. It was all silent, and very dark in here. The metal indoskeleton of the
building was finished, but there were no walls yet. A few shipping containers lay about, but they all seemed
empty. This was weird. I had seen quite a few TLA operations, and they were always very noisy. If not...
A split second later, I was slammed to the ground. I heard a ripping sound as the backpack was dragged off
me, then somebody heavy sat on my back. They brutally yanked off my helmet, and threw it aside.
"Like a mouse to cheese", said a very familiar voice above me. I heard Espeon squeak as the backpack was
tossed away.
"Mice aren't particularly fond of cheese, they prefer grain or even meat", I grumbled.
"Always a smartass, aren't you?", Julia replied. "Turn him over, Johnson"
The man who was sitting on me stepped off, then rolled me over. Now, I was lying on my back in the wet mud,
looking up at Julia, dressed in her marine blue TLA battle suit. I could see several TLA grunts there as
well, and some vans had been driven out to the scene and illuminated us.
"He's not alone, is he?", one of the grunts asked.
"It's just that stupid dragon of his. He only uses it to fly around. Either way, you managed to take it out
very easily last time, didn't you? Just don't care about it for now."
That was in December, I thought. When we didn't see the ambush coming.
"It's probably halfway home already anyway", Julia continued. I wondered if she had done any research at
all. She was talking about Salamence, which after all is one of the strongest Pokémon in the games.
"Let's get to business. This is for our dear classmates", she said and spat in my face. "And this is for
Bella..."
"Don't harm him, Julia", a deep voice interrupted somewhere behind her.
"Don't worry, I know where to aim. As I said, for Bella", she said and kicked me in the ribs on the right
side. It hurt like a gunshot, and the pain spread all over my body. My eyes were filled with tears.
"Your Pokémon broke my ribs too, once", she whispered in a soft voice. "All of them. And it really, really
hurt. Do you know what that feels like? No, you don't. You've only broken three now. It won't kill you, mind
you. But it gives you a taste"
"Get him to his feet, Johnson, I want to talk to him", the deep voice said. Agent Johnson hauled me up. My
ribs hurt like they were on fire. I was turned around to face a man dragged straight out of a B-movie. He
was a fat, bald guy wearing a seemingly ridiculously expensive black suit and patting on a cigar. His stubby
fingers were filled with expensive rings. He wore black sunglasses even though it was very dark here.
"You must be Alpha, I presume", I croaked.
"Finally, we meet, Roberto", said the man. "Yes, I am Alpha, head of TLA"
"So I guess you're the person to ask what the does the TLA stand for?", I asked. I tried to not sound
terrified, but it was quite obvious to everyone, including myself, that I was bluffing.
"TLA, without the silly 'the'", he spat. "And we're never going to tell you"
"The A is 'agency', that is obvious", I pondered, still trying to seem unaffected. The pain made me
grimacing, though, so I gave it up. "Never mind... ouch... We'll take that another day. Now, what do you
want? Why are you after me?", I asked. I wasn't sure if he could understand me, as my ribs hurt so much it
was difficult to talk.
"Can't you imagine? I'm sure you can. Three guesses", he said with a smile. It was the kind of smile the
wolf would have in the fairy tale with Little Red Riding Hood.
"You want the Pokémon, I know that. But what are you going to do with them?"
Nobody said anything.
"It has something to do with your... ouch... superpowers, right?", I guessed.
"I thought you said he was unimaginative, Julia?", Alpha said, acting surprised. "But indeed, it's the
powers we are looking for. So destructive, yet non-lethal..."
"Too bad you will never get them", I spat at him. He just raised an eyebrow, dropped the stub of his cigar,
and crushed it under his heel.
"Who's there to prevent us? We've got you, and you won't get away this time"
"I can still get away", I murmured, trying to writhe out of agent Johnson's iron grip. I wasn't sure if he
heard me. Julia did, apparently, because she walked over to me, and stopped merely half a metre in front of
me.
"Sure?", she said and kicked me again, this time in the right leg. It broke with a loud snap. "Oh, you
didn't expect that, did you? All that 'I-want-him-alive'-stuff? We only need your brain, remember"
"Just don't get him mad with pain", Alpha said coolly behind her. As the wave of pain hit me, I almost threw
up. Indeed, going mad almost felt like a good option at this point. Johnson released me, and I fell to the
ground. My entire body felt like it was burning. I had been in a tight pinch before, but this was worse than
I had ever experienced.
"Are you... going to...", I began, looking up at Julia. My throat was all sore.
"Kill you? Nah, don't count on it, chances are you'll die of something else first", she replied casually.
"For now, I'll just-"
There was a roar behind us, and the entire area was illuminated by a burst of fire coming from behind me. I
couldn't turn around to see what had happened, that would hurt too much. However, I could understand the
fire hit agent Johnson right in the back. He was scorched to cinders where he stood. It was like the air
itself was on fire, and Julia was engulfed by flames. Her entire torso was put ablaze, and she ran away,
screaming and burning. I also saw Alpha turn away and run, while the grunts picked up their rifles and aimed
at something right behind me.
"GGRRROOOOO!!", Salamence roared, and fired again. I felt my eyebrows wither and fall off. A nearby TLA van
exploded in a large fireball.
"Get up!", Salamence roared as he dashed past me, headed for a group of grunts who emptied their guns'
magazines in any direction but the one Salamence came from. Up to a second later, I had thought Brick Break
only could take out one target in a single hit.
"Can't... My... leg...", I groaned. I barely managed to get up in a sitting position.
"This will hurt", Salamence said. "Lay down first, and shield your head"
Salamence looked straight up, then made a low gurgling sound. From somewhere deep down his throat, a blue
ball of energy appeared. It was blasted skywards, where it exploded at an altitude of about fifty metres,
much like fireworks. A second later, blue stones the size of basket balls started to rain all over the area.
The TLA grunts ran for cover, while a jet black limousine parked some metres away roared to life and drove
away as fast as the engine could muster. Alpha didn't want to be around to help his men in a dangerous
situation. Salamence darted over to me, and looked at my leg now that we had bought a few seconds.
"This will hurt", he repeated and bit my leg. There was a loud crunch as the bones were crushed, and a
rattle as they rearranged themselves again a second later. The pain was as if somebody pressed glowing nails
into my leg, but it eased within a few seconds. Salamence was off to hunt down some more grunts as I stood
up, shaking. Then my body reminded me that a few of my ribs needed attention too. I bent over, which eased
the pain somewhat. I remained standing there until the last grunt went down, screaming. For a couple of
seconds, everything was totally silent save for the steady breath of agent Johnson who lay in the mud beside
me. His skin was pink and looked sore, and his clothes were missing from the waist up, burnt away. His
sunglasses, which he for some reason had worn, had melted and ran all over his unnaturally generic face. It
looked like he was wearing some morbid slime mask. All of his hair was burnt away.
"We should go", Salamence grunted. "I found your backpack, here" Something dropped to the ground beside me.
It was the backpack, and the shoulder straps were cut off. I opened it to look for Espeon. She was still
inside, but limp. However, I could feel her heart beat, and she breathed. She could have been asleep, but
she was more likely sedated.
"Are you okay?", Salamence asked as I didn't put on the backpack nor the helmet, but stayed bent over.
"My ribs... I think they are broken..."
"You know the procedure. Take your jacket off", Salamence ordered. With a little help from him, I was soon
stripped from the waist up. I couldn't bear to look at my right side, but it felt like a very spiky charcoal
iron was lashed to me with barbed wire.
"Find a Revival Herb in the bag", Salamence told me. "You're gonna need it. This will hurt a lot"
I did as he said, took a deep breath, and straightened up. It will get worse before it gets better, I
thought. The Revival Herb was lying on the ground beside me.
"I'll count to three", Salamence said. He was standing on his hind legs behind me. He put a forefoot on my
left shoulder, and pressed another against my stomach.
"One, two-"
Without a notice, he dragged his claws across my chest. Out of reflex, I looked down, and saw that five of
my ribs were ripped out of the body, three of them in two pieces each. Then everything went black, before I
woke up, lying in the mud with a horribly bitter taste in my mouth. My ribs ached for a couple of seconds,
then it felt just fine again. I didn't feel very well, though, but that was probably just the side effects
of the Revival Herb, the shell of which Salamence had in his mouth.
"Now, let's go", he said as I dressed. I was rather soaked with mud, and so were my clothes, so taking them
on felt freezing. I had to tie the backpack on, and held it in a tight grip just to be sure I didn't drop
it. With Espeon knocked out, we had no invisibility bubble, but the sun hadn't begun rising yet, so I was
pretty sure that nobody saw us. Not that the TLA didn't know our exact whereabouts to begin with. We managed
it home with no further incidents, where I got Blissey to treat Espeon. It took her about fifteen seconds to
wake Espeon up, and she seemed entirely fine, but dizzy. I got up, showered, slept for about 45 minutes,
then got up, had breakfast and left like everything was normal. Julia did not come to school that day.

[GreekGeek]

What to say, great as usual! Especially love the shopping mall scene =D

[SuperFireKirby]

Hip-Hip-Huzzah!

[dahans]

What to say, great as usual! Especially love the shopping mall scene =D

Agreed! Very realistic. YOU SHOULD SEND IT TO NINTENDO!

[Cobraroll]

Ohh... another update... so close after the last one? That only means...

Yes, it does. This will probably be the last update for some time. I'm off to serve my military duty, and don't know when, or if, I'll get time and an Internet connection. Nevertheless, Emergence is far from dead, as from here on, I actually have a plan on what to write. Constructive feedback, anything ranging from "it's decent, but..." to full-blown KefkaticFanatic hard-honest bashing, would be greatly appreciated.

While I'm away, please enjoy:

Chapter thirty-eight: Guys in black

March 25 was one of those days when you feel that you should never leave the bed. The rain was pouring down outside, the world was dull and foggy. The few last spots of dirty snow were flushed away, exposing all the gravel and litter that had been hid all winter. The days were becoming longer, but today it was hard to tell if the sun had risen or not as I walked to school. I tried to look up, and my hood fell off. Rain ran unhindered down my face and into my eyes, as my eyebrows hadn't regrown yet. I had told the others it was a frying pan accident, and they seemed to believe me. When you have eyebrows, it's hard to question the usefulness of them. When you miss them, and it rains, you'll immediately realize why they are meant to be there. I wiped off my face with my sleeve, and the world came back into focus. Everything was just different shades of grey, except from one very pink spot a metre or so above the ground some fifty metres ahead of me. As I spotted it, I deliberately started kicking the gravel around to make some sound and announce my arrival.
"Lovely weather, huh?", I said as I approached the pink umbrella.
"Wonderful", Emily replied sarcastically. "I had to fight myself to get out of bed this morning"
"It's worse now than it was tonight", I said as we started to walk. "It was just a drizzle at four"
"Did you find anything today?", she asked.
"Not at all. The only Pokémon which could appreciate such weather are either found by me or the TLA, or hiding in the ocean. There are mostly water types left now"
"How are you going to get to them?"
"Frankly, I have no idea. At least I'll wait until the sea gets a little warmer. We've gathered some info from the TLA, and it looks like they are chance-less facing the Pokémon under water. We have time, at least"
"So what are you going to do? Sit on the beach and wait until they come up to draw breath?"
"Something like that"
We met Miley at the next street corner, and walked in silence to school. For my part, it was complete silence. Both Lucario, Sceptile and Weavile mastered the art of stealth moving, and they had taught me a lot. My boots made virtually no sound against the gravel, and there was no sound of friction from my clothes. All in all, I felt I could fit well into my supposed ninja role.

The biggest surprise of the day came when Julia entered the classroom. She didn't smile as much today, and appeared to be quite grumpy as she sat down by a desk next to me.
"Frankly, I think you looked better with long hair", I whispered. She appeared to have had a hair cut, and was now looking like a stereotypical feminist or punker, with only five centimetres of hair. Her eyebrows were completely regrown, though.
"Next time, I'll break your neck", she hissed back.
"You're free to try. Let's see how far you'll get. And even if you succeed, you'll displease Alpha"
Julia just grumbled. It seemed like she was weighing the pros and cons in her mind. It wouldn't take her a second to knock me out badly, but that was more than enough time for Umbreon, perched on the roof of the school building, to break through the window and subdue her. She said very little for the rest of the day, even her usual gloating had appeared to lose its touch. Not that that bothered me at all. What bothered me was the increased difficulty of all things at school. I managed to sneak in some time to do home works now and then, but the best part of my school work was done at school. The exams were seriously starting to worry me. Then again, I simply couldn't spend more time doing school work. If I cut back on the hunting time, the TLA would get even more Pokémon, if I slept less I'd go insane, and I needed some time off to relieve stress as well. School simply had to be second priority for now.
The last class of today was PE, and we were to have a running test. Even if the rain still poured down, we were sent out to the woods to run along a three-kilometre path. I hated that track. We had to run twice a year, and were graded depending on the results. I had been last by more than five minutes last time I ran it, back in September, and the girl running to second last place had caught a cold. I felt a little bad when I remembered about my class. They were all knocked out now, unable to do sports and probably set years back with regards to training. Not strange that Julia was so angry with me.
"Three... two... one... There you go!", the PE teacher shouted, and we set off. To my surprise, I managed to keep up with the average runners in my class. Julia set off at the beginning and was nowhere to be seen for the rest of the run. But eventually, the other guys started to fall back. I was nowhere near the ones who did exercise on a regular basis, but way more ahead than I had thought I'd be. In the end, I broke my personal best with about six minutes. I even beat Emily, who ran regularly. For once, I felt I had done decently in a PE class.
"What... have you been doing, you said?", Matt gasped as he jogged across the finish line. "I thought you said you never exercised?"
"Umm... I've done some running", I mumbled, then walked over to Emily to stretch the muscles in my leg a little. She was standing under a tree, stretching with the umbrella in one hand.
"Now you really made them wonder. Great job", she whispered. I glanced over my shoulder. Matt, Edvard and Andy had all been minutes behind me, and were now talking to each other, still with their breath running heavy.
"Sorry, just thought I'd do my best, for once", I whispered back. "I wonder how Julia manages to avoid attention? I mean, I looked at the times, and she finished ten minutes faster than Jack, and he's almost professional"
"Magic, probably", Emily sighed. "I bet she did it just to scare you, and the numbers will be edited to something more credible later. That's... oh, what's that?"
I looked in the direction she was pointing. Through the threes, I could see a very large mushroom. It was red with yellow spots, and more than a metre tall.
"Wow. Don't stare at it, and pretend it was never there", I whispered. "I'll take care of it, after the others have gone"
Luckily, not many people were left here, as we were free to go home once we were done running. The rain made most people hurry home, but Edvard, Matt and Andy were still standing under a tree, and a couple of girls were talking to the teacher. Eventually, the girls got their raincoats on and hurried home. The teacher got into her car, but didn't drive away. The boys picked up their back packs, and started walking down the road that lead out of the forest. Andy turned and shouted in my direction:
"Any plans for tonight?"
"Not that I know of", I shouted back.
"Want to come over to my place and see a movie? You can bring Emily if you want"
"Fine with me", Emily said.
"Are you going to go home now?", the teacher asked. "I can't leave before you've gone"
"No problem", I mumbled. A black shape darted out from the brush and jumped up on the hood of her car.
"Umbreon says you can". The teacher stared, petrified, at the dog-sized black creature. Umbreon's eyes started to glow brighter than usual. After a few seconds, it jumped off and the teacher drove away.
"You could have done that easier, you know?", Emily remarked dryly. "Just talking to her would suffice"
"True, but I needed to test Umbreon's hypnotic abilities. I've been waiting for an opportunity for some days now". I whistled, and another creature emerged from a bush right behind us. It was a huge green frog, holding a plastic bag containing a set of Poké Balls in its left hand. Emily stared at its tennis ball-sized eyes and huge mouth. As always, it was stretched out in a large smile.
"Say hello to Emily, Politoed", I said cheerily. Politoed croaked and stretched out the idle hand.
"I didn't think it was so... slimy", Emily mumbled.
"If you're afraid of him, stay here. That Pokémon in there is high-octane nightmare fuel", I said and pointed in the direction of the gigantic mushroom. It had moved a couple of metres closer.
"Is it dangerous?"
"Highly toxic, at least. But don't worry, there are ways to deal with that. Umbreon, Safeguard please"
Blue rings, made of slightly glowing thin air appeared seemingly out of nowhere. They floated around us, and followed us as we moved. They were always slightly out of reach. Emily seemed a little scared at first, then tried to touch one. It slipped away a few centimetres from her fingers. Umbreon and Politoed ignored the rings completely.
"Politoed, follow me", I said and bent a branch aside. The mushroom was now just ten-fifteen metres away, and I could see a pair of large, milky white eyes sticking out under its large cap. On each side of the eyes was a large orange claw, more than half a metre long. Upon inspection, one could see that the mushroom was growing out of the back of a large, beetle-like creature with six legs. It made a squeaking sound as I approached it. The sound meant "don't come closer".
"Don't worry, Parasect. It's me", I said and removed my hood. Rainwater ran down my face and into my eyes again. By my side, Politoad croaked a greeting. I knew that the Safeguard would protect us from its toxic spores, but Parasect also yielded Seed Bomb, an attack that I didn't want to be on the receiving end of.
"We have been waiting", it said at last. Or rather, it didn't say it, but I knew that the clicking sounds it uttered meant that. Some Pokémon spoke in structured sentences, and most telepathic Pokémon could pass for well-educated humans, the way they talked. Others, such as Parasect, was all meaning, no words. I was about to ask it why it referred to itself in plural, but then I remembered: Parasect was really two entities; the crab-like insect and the giant mushroom, the former of which was taken over and enslaved by the latter. It wasn't the insect I was talking to, it was the mushroom, like talking to a puppet. The thought gave me a weird stomach feeling.
"Do you want to come with us?", I asked. The following click seemed positive about the idea.
"OK, then. Dugtrio will show you the way", I said and found a Poké Ball in the bag Politoed had given to me. I released Dugrtio, and instructed her where to find the forest tunnel, which wasn't more than a couple of kilometres away. Her three heads nodded in unison, and then suddenly she was gone. Less than a second later, she sprang up from the ground a hundred or so metres into the forest. Parasect turned and walked after her, and as soon as it was about five metres away, Dugtrio disappeared into the ground again. I couldn't see her sprout up again, but Parasect changed its course and moved further into the woods.
"They will be fine", I said and returned to Emily.
"How long will these be here?", Emily said and waved at one of the Safeguard rings. It fluttered away when her hands was just a few centimetres from touching it. I looked at my watch.
"I'd say about two more minutes, or less. We can go home, they will be gone before we reach any place where we might be seen"
We jogged home in the rain.

A couple of hours later, I found out that I had some time to kill before I went to Andy's. Lucario had found a pair of sticks, and gave me a lesson in stick fighting.
"Good", he said as I blocked all his attempts at striking me. "Now try to hit me"
I did as he said, alternating between using the different ends of the stick, and sometimes striking twice in the row with the same end to break the pattern, and throwing in a jab here and there. Lucario blocked with ease, but he seemed satisfied. Some Pokémon's faces were hard to read any feelings from. Lucario at least had something resembling eyebrows.
"I think it's good enough to show to your friends", he said and dropped his stick. "But remember one thing..." Then he picked up the stick again and swung it fast against me. I managed to block the first strike, but he was lightning quick and beat my stick right out of my hands with the other end. Then he jabbed me with it, and stopped it just a few centimetres from my throat.
"If you encounter somebody from the TLA, or Julia, and they find a stick themselves and toss you another, then run. You're by no means good enough at this to have a chance against them. Okay?", he growled.
"Okay", I squeaked, startled.
"It takes years to master this", a voice behind me said. It was Blaziken, who had stood there watching us. "Let me show you". He picked up the stick I had used, spun it around as if to test the balance and weight, then launched himself at Lucario, who was without a chance. Beating the stick out of his hands took Blaziken about four seconds.
"Now, who wants to challenge me?", Blaziken shouted to the small crowd of spectating Pokémon who had gathered. Lucario hadn't even left the area before Infernape took his spot. It could have been an interesting match to see, but I had to go. I marked a few spots of interest on the map in the storage room, then went upstairs, took a shower, changed clothes, and went out to the rain again. I met Emily at the same road crossing as this morning. It was a lot darker now, as the sun had set, but Emily's umbrella shined the same bright pink as it had always done.
"Really gloomy weather, or what?", Emily said cheerily as I approached her. "Almost nightmarish"
"Indeed, though it's not raining as bad in my nightmares" I replied. "Nor as dark"
"So you dream about the TLA chasing you on a sunny beach?"
"Not quite", I said. "My most recurring nightmare... well, it's the last time I saw my class"
"Oh"
"In hindsight, I realize that they were not all against me. I think a few of them were forcing the others to help catch me, but all of them were just... slaughtered. Time and time again, I see them. Alison, holding up her hands in defence just before Scizor smashes her face. Daniel, trying to climb over that fence. Caroline, who got her neck cut over. It's all so... I feel so... guilty"
"It might be a TLA mind trick", Emily said, trying to comfort me as we walked.
"I've considered that", I said. "But still... I saw them all go down. And sometimes, I can't really believe they will be all fine again. In the dream, the wounds never regrow, and they just lie still..."
"Rob, I... I'm sure they will wake up soon, and be all fine"
"And furious with me"
"That too"
We walked the rest of the way in silence. Andy's family lived in a small house near the school. I had been there a few times, and remembered to jump silently over the sensor that activated the doorbell once you entered through the small gate leading in to his garden. Andy had a large dog that really hated that sound, and it would howl and bark loudly for minutes once it rang. Thus, friends of the family tended to carefully avoid stepping on the broad tile between the gate pillars, and knock on the door once they reached the house. More inexperienced visitors, most notably salesmen, would have to deal with the dog. When we finally reaced the door, it was Greta who opened. I had known that Andy had liked her very well for some time now, and she happily announced that they had become a couple. The cheery mood of everybody took away all my grim thoughts about my class. After some light arguing, the choice of movie was Men In Black. About halfway through it, Matt asked nobody in particular:
"Do any of you really think the Men In Black exist? I mean, some government secret organization who deals with supernatural stuff and aliens and the like?"
"Yes, I met their leader a couple of days ago", a voice in my head said.
"Probably not", Greta said. "After all, it's impossible to employ so many people off the charts, and they sure need a lot of equipment which can't be hid easily. Not to mention, it's impossible to wipe the memories of people". The voice in my head continued:
"One, that just counts if you employ REAL people. Two, three words: Hidden Underground Lair. Three, what do you know about that?"
"I think that all of those issues can be overcome with enough money", Edvard said. "For instance, if you were paid free pizza for the rest of your life, wouldn't you manage to stay silent about that might-have-been-an-alien-thingy that you might or might not have seen crossing a road way out in the forest in the middle of the night?"
"Not if it was pepperoni", Matt said.
"The question is: Why would any government spend a lot of money in secrecy, on things that might not even exist? I mean, the UFO-enthusiasts have been lobbying for years, and they haven't got a single tax coin to fund their research", Greta said.
"There might be a lot of things out there that the public shouldn't know about", I said. My mouth was very dry. Emily gave me a puzzled 'is-it-really-safe-to-talk-about-this'-look.
"Like what? Listen, hundreds of years of looking, and we haven't found a SINGLE-", Greta replied.
"-why? Because there isn't anything to be found, or because the findings have been covered up?", Matt interrupted.
"The former. In the world today, you can't cover up, say, a ghost discovery. If anybody had gotten absolute proof that they existed, they would publish it on the Net and the entire world would know in seconds"
"No.", the voice in my head said. "Their phone and Internet connection would suddenly cut off, and they would get visitors called Mister One and Mister Two, both wearing suits and black glasses"
"One more thing", Greta continued. "Any government being in possession of supernatural or alien technology would immediately turn it against their enemies in war. Or the crime cartels, the mafia or whoever is pissing them off. A secret branch abiding the government would be an ultimate weapon, turning a war in minutes, but it has never been used. How come?"
"Because they secret branch does not abide any government. They accept funding, that's how far the connection goes"
"And if they can't be used for anything, who would fund them?"
"Everybody, as long as they think it might pay back"
"But everybody is talking about them. The secret government guys. That means they have to exist on some level", Edvard said, ending the discussion. And I realized that he was right. The Men In Black existed on the same basis as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, yetis and demons. They were part of the collective mind of people, and behaved just like they were stereotypically supposed to. Just like the Pokémon, the TLA was just a trick of the mind. I could hardly restrain a groan. Faceless grunts, wearing hazmat suits and gas masks, and they couldn't hit anything they aimed for. Generic-looking agents in black clothes and sunglasses. An elaborate underground lair. Black vans and helicopters. A seemingly unlimited budget. Speaking in clichés. Handling the supernatural, but without doing the slightest bit of research beforehand. I had finally understood who I was facing.

As we walked back home later that evening, I told Emily.
"Sounds reasonable", she said. "You mean that they're... some manifestation as well?"
"Exactly. It all fits", I said, excited. "I mean, you've noticed that everything they do is straight out of the movies? That's because the movies define them!"
"I think I understand...", she said slowly. "But still, they give me the creeps. Why can't we talk about something else?" From there on, I let her take care of the conversation. I said "Yes" and "Mhm" in all the right places, but my mind was elsewhere all the time. I think I made Emily a little angry when she said "goodbye", and I replied with a "yes". Still, I think she understood. I was so absorbed by my theory that I almost didn't notice the black van following me. In fact, Umbreon had to tell me before I saw it. I kept walking, pretending that it wasn't there, until I got home. As soon as I was under the invisibility bubble covering our house, I dropped Tyranitar's Poké Ball out of jacket my pocket. To the people in the van, it must have looked like I was just trying to shake some rain drops off it. Just as I had expected, they drove a little closer, and turned into the driveway, as if to turn around. There was a loud crunch as they literally bumped into Tyranitar, who had been standing at the very edge of the bubble, invisible to everybody except those inside it. I heard a smashing sound as he broke the windshield, and muted screams as he dragged the driver through it.
"Was that a Wilhelm scream?", I asked myself. Another identical, high-pitched scream was heard when Tyranitar ripped the roof off the van and knocked out the two men who were sitting in its back compartment. Indeed. I should have excepted them to be that cliché.
"Is there anything useful in there?", I asked Tyranitar. The three men were lying unconscious on the grass of our front garden.
"Surveillance, as usual", he replied. For some reason, the TLA had sent surveillance teams to the house about three times a week the past two months. At least, it provided me with a steady food supply for the Steel Pokemon. Xatu descended from the chimney and helped Tyranitar part the van, while I went inside and found more Pokémon to help carrying the parts. When I returned with Blaziken (who seemed a little happier than usual), Sceptile, Infernape (who seemed a little less happy than usual) and Metagross, they had already thrown away the broken glass pieces, taken off the wheels and removed the tires, and taken out the armoured plating. The others removed the electronic equipment and stripped away the carpets and seats. Infernape burnt what we couldn't use. In the beginning, we had made some furniture out of the seats, but we had gotten enough after a while.
"Fun, all this wiring", Metagross said as he examined the car-cass of the van (haha). "It looks like the car is rigged to explode if it crashes into something"
"It probably is", I said and told him my theory. After hearing it, he started to chuckle. It sounded like a tractor with starting problems.
"I thought there was something strange about the bunch", he said. "And indeed, this explains a lot"
"We're done", Sceptile said behind me. The van was now just a heap of assorted metal. I went inside to keep my parents busy. We discussed today's news, while the Pokémon sneaked past their backs carrying large chunks of plating, tires, wiring and various other things. It was quite unnerving, but with a little hypnotic aid from Xatu, it went fine. They didn't even notice Metagross passing by, and he was large enough to fill half the room, and had to tilt sideways to get through the door to the basement. Sceptile and Umbreon were out disposing of the TLA grunts. After a while I went down to the cave after the Pokémon, to see that everything went fine. As usual, the Steel Pokémon was arguing over the armoured plates.
"You got two last time", Aggron roared to Skarmory.
"But you got the engine", she snapped past.
"The armoured plates are better", Aggron countered. "They crunch so funny in the mouth"
"I didn't get any of them last time", Scizor said, a little calmer than Skarmory and Aggron. Still, he snapped his pincers angrily.
"I'm five times larger than you", Steelix thundered. "I need more food"
"You are also the only one who can find your own ore", Metagross said. Lucario was watching the entire affair from a distance. He was primarily a Fighting-type, and preferred roots or fruits, but he was also able to digest metal. At the moment, he was eating the TLA emblem that had been mounted on the car's grille.
"Always the same, isn't it?", he said. "We get one, two, even four trucks at the time down here, and the arguing starts as soon as the scrap hits the bottom of the shaft"
"With eight armoured plates per car, and five Pokémon to share, it has to be some problems", I sighed. Magnezone, my seventh Steel Pokémon, was happy if we gave it the car battery to suck on. I didn't try to calm the arguing, meaning they had to sort it out themselves. As usual, it was Blissey who ended up taking the final decision. Steelix, Aggron and Metagross got two plates each, and Scizor and Skarmory got one. The rest of the car was divided into equal parts, and consumed with a noise that made my ears ring.
"We're taking it easy tonight", I shouted to Lucario. "Go get some sleep. You'll come with me to school tomorrow, okay?"
"Ready at seven, then", he said back, telepathically. I went back upstairs, read my History homework, and went to sleep, satisfied with another day's business.

[SuperFireKirby]

A few gramatical errors here and there but overall, another great edition.

[SlowPokemon]

A few grammatical errors here and there but overall, another great addition.

*fixed ... I don't see how you could mean "edition".

There were a couple grammatical errors in your post... '-_-