rebelrabbit
CRAAAAWLING IIIIN MY SKIIIIIIIN
- 34
- Posts
- 8
- Years
- The hellish wasteland known as southeastern Colora
- Seen Apr 16, 2016
Hello and welcome to Shadows of War, before the story starts I want to explain some things.
This fic takes place in a heavily altered universe loosely based off the games, meaning that the events of the games have taken place, but much of the world's history before then has been scrapped and re-wrote. This starts in 2037 and takes place primarily in the Johto region. Technology wise, advanced non-pokemon robotics are in development, translators are a dime-a-dozen (just assume everyone has one unless otherwise noted), and energy weapons are starting to make their appearance. Culturally however, development is somewhat lacking, and most movies, books, and video games are generally the same as modern times.
(additional pokecommunity notes): This fic is rated 15+, and is suitable ONLY for audiences of that age and higher. Reasons for this rating are:
-Language
-Violence
-Mild sexual themes
While these warnings are less intense then this fic's Fanfiction counterpart (which is 18+), they are still present and thus need to be stated. If you are under 15 years of age, please click that little arrow in the top-left corner of your browser. No further warnings will be given.
I think that's it, lore and whatnot will be revealed as the story progresses.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, but you're smart, you knew that already.
"Keep moving."
The guard that said that roughly shoved Jack forward, nearly causing him to stumble into another guard in front of him. Jack let out a small snarl through gritted teeth. "Shouldn't have tried to break in here," the guard continued. Jack was currently being led down a narrow, dimly lit hallway towards the edge of an illegal prison used to impound half-breeds and renegade pokémon. He had a pair of handcuffs around his wrists and a gun pressed against the back of his head.
Jack had come with one other member of his group to break out any prisoners that were being held here. The plan was to sneak in without alerting the guards, free the hostages, then find or make a way out of the prison. Needless to say, the 'sneak in silently' part of the plan had failed due to motion sensors, something most Shadow outposts didn't have.
They were captured, dis-armed, and split up within ten minutes. They would have to improvise an escape, but Jack couldn't see any plausible way to without jeopardizing the mission, or the safety of his friend. He decided to just take in as much information about the building as possible before an opportunity presented itself.
Jack examined the guard in front of him. He was wearing a dark purple long-sleeve shirt with a small green 'S' stitched onto the left shoulder, dark blue jeans, and some basic body armor that covered his chest. On his hip was a holster with a pistol inside it and a small assault-rifle in his arms. He was, as far as Jack could tell, in his mid-to-late 40's.
"I SAID keep moving," the rear guard said as he pistol-whipped Jack in the back of his head, causing him to fall over. He quickly got up and resumed marching, not wanting to give them any more reason to get angry. After a few minutes of walking, they came upon a small room with what appeared to be see-through holding cells. All of them were barren, although some had what looked like dried blood on the back of them.
"Sorry you'll be all by yourself, but we gotta keep the normals and the freaks separate, too much drama," the guard in front said, cringing at 'drama' like he's had bad experiences with the two groups in the past.
"Heh, a Shadow grunt saying sorry, never thought I'd see the day," Jack chuckled before taking a fist to the face. Team Shadow was slowly built up from the tattered remains of many other 'Teams' before it, and as per usual they were hell-bent on conquering the world. The main difference being that they've kept they're existence low-key, with only the well-informed knowing about them.
"I don't know who you are kid, but you just launched yourself up to number one on my kill list," a guard said as he rubbed his knuckle.
"Don't know who I am?" Jack said with fake surprise, "maybe I'll just have to show you."
Jack lunged forward and drove his knee into the grunt's stomach, causing him to double-over in pain. The other grunt whipped around and leveled his rifle at Jack, firing a single shot. Jack winced in pain as the bullet tore through his shoulder, but ignored it as he moved to try to take the gun from the grunt, a feat made difficult due to his bindings. He eventually wrenched the gun away and shot a short burst at the gun's previous owner. He took the pistol from the corpse and turned to the other grunt, who was on the floor and soaking himself in terror.
"W-what are you?" he said shaking with fear.
Jack sighed with a slight bit of irritation, "Almost five years of this and I'm still unknown? Oh well," he shrugged before shooting the grunt clean through the forehead, painting the tile floor red, "makes my life easier."
"What the **** is with this shooting?!" a voice boomed from the hallway, "I thought I told you dickwits NOT to kill the hostages before they can be evaluated!" A third, slightly beefier grunt stormed into the room and stopped when he saw the bodies of two of his comrades. "What the fuuu-"
He was interrupted when Jack suddenly appeared behind him and used his handcuffs to choke him. The grunt was losing the struggle, and with one last jerk, Jack snapped the grunts neck as well as breaking the handcuffs. He let the body drop to the floor and quickly took the pistol from him, pulling a small device from the side of it. The device was a disintegrater, used to destroy the gun its attached to should it's operator perish, and were standard on nearly every gun manufactured in the last decade.
"So much for plan A," Jack mumbled before picking up one of the guards' comlinks. After changing it to a channel used only by his group, he spoke into it, "Mira, do you read me, what's your status?"
There was a bit of static before a reply came through, "One of th...mbass guard...ipped an EMP gr...de and fri...the whole room, caus...all the...ell doors to open."
"Well that's convenient" Jack chuckled, ignoring the heavy static that was blaring in his ear.
"Yeah,...ky these thing...re hardened, but I can te...ts not going to...ast long, I can bar...ear you, so I'm mo...towards the courtya...ith the prisoners."
"Alright, I'll see you there, be careful," Jack pocketed the com and started running down the hallway he came in, gun in hand. It wasn't long before he reached the doors to the courtyard, but stopped when he saw that it was very heavily guarded, almost 20 guards mixed with a few automated turrets that were activated from the alarm he just now noticed.
'Not getting out that way,' he thought. He quickly backpedaled and turned down another hallway, hoping for an alternate way through. 'I just hope Jenice (*) will get here before everything goes to hell.' He soon found a window that led outside and wasted no time opening it and diving through. He scanned the courtyard for hostiles and was surprised to find none. 'Must be guarding the exits.'
A door on the wall to his right opened, causing him to swivel towards it. Out of it stepped a Mega-Banette half-breed of the Morph sub-species, wearing body armor that was made out of her own shadow. Besides the slightly demonic-looking armor, she looked like a human-shaped M-Banette, with a black dress-like outer skin that covered her light-purple body. The dress had zippers on the sleeves and front, exposing her hands and legs up to her knees, respectively. At the top of her neck her dress fused with her head, which was black in color, excluding her deep purple eyes, a golden zipper that replaced her mouth, and an equally golden zipper that ran from her right eye down to the tip of her chest-length 'hair' that was made of the same outer skin that covered most of her body. She saw Jack and ushered him over.
"13 prisoners, all half-breeds, and all doing relatively well, at least physically" she reported.
"Happy to see you too babe," Jack joked.
Mira rolled her amethyst-colored eyes at his response while giving a slight chuckle. "We should at least get out of here before joking around." She then looked at something in the distance, "Crap."
"What?", Jack asked as he looked over to where she was looking. He saw that a helicopter was taking off and turning to face them. He and Mira dived for a small brick wall that was part of a half-built storage shed as the gunship fired its dual miniguns. One bullet pinged off of Mira's shadow armor while Jack was hit twice in the back. He ignored the pain as he blind-fired at the heli, waiting for his injuries to regenerate.
"Jenice, we need evac right now," he yelled into his comlink.
xxxxx
"C'mon c'mon c'mon c'mo-AHHHH!"
Jenice slumped into her seat in defeat, letting the handheld she was playing drop to the floor. "I HATE escort quests," she grumbled. Jenice was an average Mismagius in appearance, except her cloak had thin stripes of green towards the red edges. Others sometimes joked about her red-green-purple coloration, but she didn't care as the cloak was a gift from her boyfriend. She thought it looked good on her anyway.
Her job was to take the group to and from mission sites, being the only person on the team that knew how to drive something other than a car, a fact that she had mixed feelings about.
She pushed her hat up out of her face and got out of her seat to check on the craft she was in. It was an SC4-class Skyranger, a newer iteration of a popular line of quick-deploy-and-extract VTOLs. It consisted of two main areas, the cockpit and the cargo bay. The cockpit was where the controls are, and was also the butt of many jokes told by bored pilots. The cargo bay took up almost the entire craft, which wasn't much room in actuality as the craft was only 28 feet long and 20 feet wide. The bay was large enough to hold a dozen or so people, or a small vehicle and a handful of soldiers.
This particular craft was outfitted with military-grade sensor-jamming technology, reflective armor plating for extra durability, kinetic shields that shrug off small-arms fire, and two undermounted turrets for offense. It even had cupholders. These modifications, and its pilot, gave birth to it's nickname, the Phantom.
After giving the craft a thorough check-up, she "sat" back on the pilot's seat.
"I swear to Arceus I'm going to beat this thing one day," she mumbled as she picked up the handheld and restarted the game.
"Jenice, we need evac right now," a voice yelled over the radio.
Jenice instantly dropped the handheld again and started priming the Phantom for take-off. "On my way Jack, ETA three minutes" she replied.
xxxxx
The helicopter-gunship continued to dump dozens of bullets a second into the brick wall that Jack and Mira were hiding behind, unable to flank the two due to space constraints.
"Evac is in three minutes, lets hope we can down this bird before then" Jack yelled over the constant drone of the miniguns while taking pot shots at it. He slapped the empty mag out of his gun and slid a fresh one in."where are the prisoners by the way?"
"They're in the hallway out of danger," Mira yelled back, "don't worry, they're armed"
Jack nodded in response and took a peek out of cover, pulling an 'oh crap' face as he saw that the prison guards were pouring out of the opposite wall. He fired a few shots at the crowd, killing three and wounding another. He took another bullet to the shoulder, but it healed after a few moments, the bullet dissolving into nothingness.
Mira too was firing at the crowd with a sub-machinegun that she had 'liberated' from an unfortunate guard. After a few moments her gun stopped shooting with a click, signifying that it's mag had run dry. She tossed the gun aside and focused her energy, forming a shadow ball in both hands. Most half-breeds had very limited control over their abilities, but she was well trained by her father, and thus was able to use moves with a little concentration. She stepped out of cover and chucked them at the crowd, one missing and hitting the ground but another hitting a grunt straight in the chest. He fell to the ground screaming in agony as the mildly-corrosive spectral energy burned through armor, skin, and muscle.
Jack shot at the gunship again, all his shots plinking off it's reinforced armor. He was about to move back into cover when the heli's cockpit window suddenly imploded with a thin trail of blue trailing away from it, causing it to spin wildly out of control and slam into the ground, erupting into a ball of flame as the fuel tanks caught on fire and ammunition exploded.
"You're welcome," a voice said in Jack's comlink.
Jack pulled out the device and responded, "Tyraan? I thought you were back at the house with Melissa and Arc."
"They decided to explore the forest, I had a feeling you needed help so I came here on the bike, and lo and behold."
Jack chuckled a bit, "Well thanks, it was getting to be a pain."
There was a small chuckle before Tyraan resumed, "I'm heading back now, cant see anything from this vantage point, see you at the house."
Jack pocketed the comlink just as Mira spoke, "That was Tyraan?"
"Yeah," Jack replied, firing at the crowd of soldiers in the courtyard.
"Damn weavile always has to make a flashy entrance doesn't he?"
"Yeeeeeah," Jack sighed as he put his last full magazine into the gun. He looked at his watch and noted the time, "Jenice should be here right about..."
He was interrupted by two red streaks of energy rushing overhead and impacting on the ground, creating a small explosion and wiping out a group of guards.
"Now."
The Phantom gently lowered itself in front of the wall, its engines spewing flame and it's turrets firing more blasts of energy in defense.
Mira ran up to the doors where the group of prisoners were and shouted for them to get on the skyranger, which they were hesitant about. "It's alright, it's friendly and will take you out of here," she reassured them. One by one they made a mad dash for the Phantom, most tripping over themselves in fright. Once the last prisoner was on board, Jack and Mira climbed on and closed the bay door and sat in some seats on the side of the bay. The Phantom slowly rose up, its grey body simmering with light-blue energy as the kinetic shield deflected the incoming attacks.
"Whelp," Jack said as he leaned back, "that could have gone better."
"Yeah," Mira said as she gripped the sides of her seat as the Phantom took numerous large hits, "at least the people are safe and out of that hell-hole."
"That's what confuses me," Jack said, slightly swaying as the Phantom accelerated past the sound barrier, "why would they want these people?"
Mira shivered, "Arc did some snooping around the city and found out that those WoP freaks are still paying for torture play-things"
Jack shivered as well, he hated to think just what they do in their free time. "I'm gonna go talk with Jenice about where to drop them, could you go check up on everyone?" he asked as he got up.
Mira sat up as well, "I can do that"
"Thanks Mira." He gave her a brief one-armed hug before departing for the cockpit. He slid into the co-pilots seat and asked Jenice where the group was going to be dropped off at.
"Well, according to Arc and Melissa the TS found out about the airstrip, place is sealed up tight."
"Damn," Jack sighed as he pondered other drop points. The airstrip was out, the news station was under repairs because some guy pissed off an Onix, and taking everyone to another region was out of the question. "How about the Farm? It's a ways away from the city but at least it's something," he proposed.
Jenice face-palmed (face-sleeved?) herself, "Why didn't I think of that?" She adjusted course towards the farm, and in 10 minutes they had arrived.
"Alright everyone" Jack said as the Phantom descended, "you are free to go, but I must warn you, Team Shadow MIGHT be looking for you, so I'd be careful." Everyone nodded and stepped out of the Phantom once the cargo bay door opened.
"Thank you for freeing us" said a green-haired woman as she stopped in front of Jack and Mira. Her features shifted slightly, revealing that she was actually a Gardevoir with a psychic disguise. "My son and I...we were so scared about what they were going to do to us" she blinked to fight back tears, "they said they were going to sell him to some terrorists, simply because his father is a human." Her voice was cracking from the fear of loosing her son. "Then, once he was gone, they said they were going to..." she tried, and failed, to hold back her tears, "they were going to use me, remind me that my family was gone, they were going to torture me for who knows why." She then looked up at the two and smiled, "But you two saved us, and I am forever in your debt." She took out a piece of paper, scribbled some numbers on it, and handed it to Jack. "If you ever need help in your efforts to save others, do not hesitate to ask" she said with a smile before resuming her disguise and walking out with her similarly green-haired son.
Jack looked at the phone-number, then looked at Mira, looked back at the paper, then back at Mira, "I just got some random chick's number."
Mira was trying her very hardest not to burst out laughing, although her cheeks were a dull purple, betraying her. "I think she likes you, maybe you should call her sometime," she joked.
Jack face-palmed,"If you're mouth wasn't already a closed zipper..."
xxxxx
In the year 2024, the last surviving criminal group, Team Rocket, was struck the final, fatal blow when its leader Giovanni was killed in an explosion, which finally ended their reign of terror for good. Since then, the world has enjoyed relative peace as no criminal organizations were trying to conquer it. The remains of all the world-wide 'Teams' were collectively known as the Remnants, and were slowly but surely hunted down by the WPO and several mercenary groups.
However, as of 2032, several Remnant factions, comprised of Rocket, Plasma, Galactic, and even Snagem, have been seen cooperating and assisting each other frequently.
The World Peacekeeping Organization denies the rumors of a whole new 'Team' forming.
'Blasting Off Again,' a History of the World's Criminals- written by Eric Cornhow
xxxxx
*Pronounced 'Jeniece' but her parent screwed up the spelling on the paperwork
Questions about the story? Comments about my writing? Just want to senselessly flame? Drop a review or a PM.
This fic takes place in a heavily altered universe loosely based off the games, meaning that the events of the games have taken place, but much of the world's history before then has been scrapped and re-wrote. This starts in 2037 and takes place primarily in the Johto region. Technology wise, advanced non-pokemon robotics are in development, translators are a dime-a-dozen (just assume everyone has one unless otherwise noted), and energy weapons are starting to make their appearance. Culturally however, development is somewhat lacking, and most movies, books, and video games are generally the same as modern times.
(additional pokecommunity notes): This fic is rated 15+, and is suitable ONLY for audiences of that age and higher. Reasons for this rating are:
-Language
-Violence
-Mild sexual themes
While these warnings are less intense then this fic's Fanfiction counterpart (which is 18+), they are still present and thus need to be stated. If you are under 15 years of age, please click that little arrow in the top-left corner of your browser. No further warnings will be given.
I think that's it, lore and whatnot will be revealed as the story progresses.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, but you're smart, you knew that already.
"Keep moving."
The guard that said that roughly shoved Jack forward, nearly causing him to stumble into another guard in front of him. Jack let out a small snarl through gritted teeth. "Shouldn't have tried to break in here," the guard continued. Jack was currently being led down a narrow, dimly lit hallway towards the edge of an illegal prison used to impound half-breeds and renegade pokémon. He had a pair of handcuffs around his wrists and a gun pressed against the back of his head.
Jack had come with one other member of his group to break out any prisoners that were being held here. The plan was to sneak in without alerting the guards, free the hostages, then find or make a way out of the prison. Needless to say, the 'sneak in silently' part of the plan had failed due to motion sensors, something most Shadow outposts didn't have.
They were captured, dis-armed, and split up within ten minutes. They would have to improvise an escape, but Jack couldn't see any plausible way to without jeopardizing the mission, or the safety of his friend. He decided to just take in as much information about the building as possible before an opportunity presented itself.
Jack examined the guard in front of him. He was wearing a dark purple long-sleeve shirt with a small green 'S' stitched onto the left shoulder, dark blue jeans, and some basic body armor that covered his chest. On his hip was a holster with a pistol inside it and a small assault-rifle in his arms. He was, as far as Jack could tell, in his mid-to-late 40's.
"I SAID keep moving," the rear guard said as he pistol-whipped Jack in the back of his head, causing him to fall over. He quickly got up and resumed marching, not wanting to give them any more reason to get angry. After a few minutes of walking, they came upon a small room with what appeared to be see-through holding cells. All of them were barren, although some had what looked like dried blood on the back of them.
"Sorry you'll be all by yourself, but we gotta keep the normals and the freaks separate, too much drama," the guard in front said, cringing at 'drama' like he's had bad experiences with the two groups in the past.
"Heh, a Shadow grunt saying sorry, never thought I'd see the day," Jack chuckled before taking a fist to the face. Team Shadow was slowly built up from the tattered remains of many other 'Teams' before it, and as per usual they were hell-bent on conquering the world. The main difference being that they've kept they're existence low-key, with only the well-informed knowing about them.
"I don't know who you are kid, but you just launched yourself up to number one on my kill list," a guard said as he rubbed his knuckle.
"Don't know who I am?" Jack said with fake surprise, "maybe I'll just have to show you."
Jack lunged forward and drove his knee into the grunt's stomach, causing him to double-over in pain. The other grunt whipped around and leveled his rifle at Jack, firing a single shot. Jack winced in pain as the bullet tore through his shoulder, but ignored it as he moved to try to take the gun from the grunt, a feat made difficult due to his bindings. He eventually wrenched the gun away and shot a short burst at the gun's previous owner. He took the pistol from the corpse and turned to the other grunt, who was on the floor and soaking himself in terror.
"W-what are you?" he said shaking with fear.
Jack sighed with a slight bit of irritation, "Almost five years of this and I'm still unknown? Oh well," he shrugged before shooting the grunt clean through the forehead, painting the tile floor red, "makes my life easier."
"What the **** is with this shooting?!" a voice boomed from the hallway, "I thought I told you dickwits NOT to kill the hostages before they can be evaluated!" A third, slightly beefier grunt stormed into the room and stopped when he saw the bodies of two of his comrades. "What the fuuu-"
He was interrupted when Jack suddenly appeared behind him and used his handcuffs to choke him. The grunt was losing the struggle, and with one last jerk, Jack snapped the grunts neck as well as breaking the handcuffs. He let the body drop to the floor and quickly took the pistol from him, pulling a small device from the side of it. The device was a disintegrater, used to destroy the gun its attached to should it's operator perish, and were standard on nearly every gun manufactured in the last decade.
"So much for plan A," Jack mumbled before picking up one of the guards' comlinks. After changing it to a channel used only by his group, he spoke into it, "Mira, do you read me, what's your status?"
There was a bit of static before a reply came through, "One of th...mbass guard...ipped an EMP gr...de and fri...the whole room, caus...all the...ell doors to open."
"Well that's convenient" Jack chuckled, ignoring the heavy static that was blaring in his ear.
"Yeah,...ky these thing...re hardened, but I can te...ts not going to...ast long, I can bar...ear you, so I'm mo...towards the courtya...ith the prisoners."
"Alright, I'll see you there, be careful," Jack pocketed the com and started running down the hallway he came in, gun in hand. It wasn't long before he reached the doors to the courtyard, but stopped when he saw that it was very heavily guarded, almost 20 guards mixed with a few automated turrets that were activated from the alarm he just now noticed.
'Not getting out that way,' he thought. He quickly backpedaled and turned down another hallway, hoping for an alternate way through. 'I just hope Jenice (*) will get here before everything goes to hell.' He soon found a window that led outside and wasted no time opening it and diving through. He scanned the courtyard for hostiles and was surprised to find none. 'Must be guarding the exits.'
A door on the wall to his right opened, causing him to swivel towards it. Out of it stepped a Mega-Banette half-breed of the Morph sub-species, wearing body armor that was made out of her own shadow. Besides the slightly demonic-looking armor, she looked like a human-shaped M-Banette, with a black dress-like outer skin that covered her light-purple body. The dress had zippers on the sleeves and front, exposing her hands and legs up to her knees, respectively. At the top of her neck her dress fused with her head, which was black in color, excluding her deep purple eyes, a golden zipper that replaced her mouth, and an equally golden zipper that ran from her right eye down to the tip of her chest-length 'hair' that was made of the same outer skin that covered most of her body. She saw Jack and ushered him over.
"13 prisoners, all half-breeds, and all doing relatively well, at least physically" she reported.
"Happy to see you too babe," Jack joked.
Mira rolled her amethyst-colored eyes at his response while giving a slight chuckle. "We should at least get out of here before joking around." She then looked at something in the distance, "Crap."
"What?", Jack asked as he looked over to where she was looking. He saw that a helicopter was taking off and turning to face them. He and Mira dived for a small brick wall that was part of a half-built storage shed as the gunship fired its dual miniguns. One bullet pinged off of Mira's shadow armor while Jack was hit twice in the back. He ignored the pain as he blind-fired at the heli, waiting for his injuries to regenerate.
"Jenice, we need evac right now," he yelled into his comlink.
xxxxx
"C'mon c'mon c'mon c'mo-AHHHH!"
Jenice slumped into her seat in defeat, letting the handheld she was playing drop to the floor. "I HATE escort quests," she grumbled. Jenice was an average Mismagius in appearance, except her cloak had thin stripes of green towards the red edges. Others sometimes joked about her red-green-purple coloration, but she didn't care as the cloak was a gift from her boyfriend. She thought it looked good on her anyway.
Her job was to take the group to and from mission sites, being the only person on the team that knew how to drive something other than a car, a fact that she had mixed feelings about.
She pushed her hat up out of her face and got out of her seat to check on the craft she was in. It was an SC4-class Skyranger, a newer iteration of a popular line of quick-deploy-and-extract VTOLs. It consisted of two main areas, the cockpit and the cargo bay. The cockpit was where the controls are, and was also the butt of many jokes told by bored pilots. The cargo bay took up almost the entire craft, which wasn't much room in actuality as the craft was only 28 feet long and 20 feet wide. The bay was large enough to hold a dozen or so people, or a small vehicle and a handful of soldiers.
This particular craft was outfitted with military-grade sensor-jamming technology, reflective armor plating for extra durability, kinetic shields that shrug off small-arms fire, and two undermounted turrets for offense. It even had cupholders. These modifications, and its pilot, gave birth to it's nickname, the Phantom.
After giving the craft a thorough check-up, she "sat" back on the pilot's seat.
"I swear to Arceus I'm going to beat this thing one day," she mumbled as she picked up the handheld and restarted the game.
"Jenice, we need evac right now," a voice yelled over the radio.
Jenice instantly dropped the handheld again and started priming the Phantom for take-off. "On my way Jack, ETA three minutes" she replied.
xxxxx
The helicopter-gunship continued to dump dozens of bullets a second into the brick wall that Jack and Mira were hiding behind, unable to flank the two due to space constraints.
"Evac is in three minutes, lets hope we can down this bird before then" Jack yelled over the constant drone of the miniguns while taking pot shots at it. He slapped the empty mag out of his gun and slid a fresh one in."where are the prisoners by the way?"
"They're in the hallway out of danger," Mira yelled back, "don't worry, they're armed"
Jack nodded in response and took a peek out of cover, pulling an 'oh crap' face as he saw that the prison guards were pouring out of the opposite wall. He fired a few shots at the crowd, killing three and wounding another. He took another bullet to the shoulder, but it healed after a few moments, the bullet dissolving into nothingness.
Mira too was firing at the crowd with a sub-machinegun that she had 'liberated' from an unfortunate guard. After a few moments her gun stopped shooting with a click, signifying that it's mag had run dry. She tossed the gun aside and focused her energy, forming a shadow ball in both hands. Most half-breeds had very limited control over their abilities, but she was well trained by her father, and thus was able to use moves with a little concentration. She stepped out of cover and chucked them at the crowd, one missing and hitting the ground but another hitting a grunt straight in the chest. He fell to the ground screaming in agony as the mildly-corrosive spectral energy burned through armor, skin, and muscle.
Jack shot at the gunship again, all his shots plinking off it's reinforced armor. He was about to move back into cover when the heli's cockpit window suddenly imploded with a thin trail of blue trailing away from it, causing it to spin wildly out of control and slam into the ground, erupting into a ball of flame as the fuel tanks caught on fire and ammunition exploded.
"You're welcome," a voice said in Jack's comlink.
Jack pulled out the device and responded, "Tyraan? I thought you were back at the house with Melissa and Arc."
"They decided to explore the forest, I had a feeling you needed help so I came here on the bike, and lo and behold."
Jack chuckled a bit, "Well thanks, it was getting to be a pain."
There was a small chuckle before Tyraan resumed, "I'm heading back now, cant see anything from this vantage point, see you at the house."
Jack pocketed the comlink just as Mira spoke, "That was Tyraan?"
"Yeah," Jack replied, firing at the crowd of soldiers in the courtyard.
"Damn weavile always has to make a flashy entrance doesn't he?"
"Yeeeeeah," Jack sighed as he put his last full magazine into the gun. He looked at his watch and noted the time, "Jenice should be here right about..."
He was interrupted by two red streaks of energy rushing overhead and impacting on the ground, creating a small explosion and wiping out a group of guards.
"Now."
The Phantom gently lowered itself in front of the wall, its engines spewing flame and it's turrets firing more blasts of energy in defense.
Mira ran up to the doors where the group of prisoners were and shouted for them to get on the skyranger, which they were hesitant about. "It's alright, it's friendly and will take you out of here," she reassured them. One by one they made a mad dash for the Phantom, most tripping over themselves in fright. Once the last prisoner was on board, Jack and Mira climbed on and closed the bay door and sat in some seats on the side of the bay. The Phantom slowly rose up, its grey body simmering with light-blue energy as the kinetic shield deflected the incoming attacks.
"Whelp," Jack said as he leaned back, "that could have gone better."
"Yeah," Mira said as she gripped the sides of her seat as the Phantom took numerous large hits, "at least the people are safe and out of that hell-hole."
"That's what confuses me," Jack said, slightly swaying as the Phantom accelerated past the sound barrier, "why would they want these people?"
Mira shivered, "Arc did some snooping around the city and found out that those WoP freaks are still paying for torture play-things"
Jack shivered as well, he hated to think just what they do in their free time. "I'm gonna go talk with Jenice about where to drop them, could you go check up on everyone?" he asked as he got up.
Mira sat up as well, "I can do that"
"Thanks Mira." He gave her a brief one-armed hug before departing for the cockpit. He slid into the co-pilots seat and asked Jenice where the group was going to be dropped off at.
"Well, according to Arc and Melissa the TS found out about the airstrip, place is sealed up tight."
"Damn," Jack sighed as he pondered other drop points. The airstrip was out, the news station was under repairs because some guy pissed off an Onix, and taking everyone to another region was out of the question. "How about the Farm? It's a ways away from the city but at least it's something," he proposed.
Jenice face-palmed (face-sleeved?) herself, "Why didn't I think of that?" She adjusted course towards the farm, and in 10 minutes they had arrived.
"Alright everyone" Jack said as the Phantom descended, "you are free to go, but I must warn you, Team Shadow MIGHT be looking for you, so I'd be careful." Everyone nodded and stepped out of the Phantom once the cargo bay door opened.
"Thank you for freeing us" said a green-haired woman as she stopped in front of Jack and Mira. Her features shifted slightly, revealing that she was actually a Gardevoir with a psychic disguise. "My son and I...we were so scared about what they were going to do to us" she blinked to fight back tears, "they said they were going to sell him to some terrorists, simply because his father is a human." Her voice was cracking from the fear of loosing her son. "Then, once he was gone, they said they were going to..." she tried, and failed, to hold back her tears, "they were going to use me, remind me that my family was gone, they were going to torture me for who knows why." She then looked up at the two and smiled, "But you two saved us, and I am forever in your debt." She took out a piece of paper, scribbled some numbers on it, and handed it to Jack. "If you ever need help in your efforts to save others, do not hesitate to ask" she said with a smile before resuming her disguise and walking out with her similarly green-haired son.
Jack looked at the phone-number, then looked at Mira, looked back at the paper, then back at Mira, "I just got some random chick's number."
Mira was trying her very hardest not to burst out laughing, although her cheeks were a dull purple, betraying her. "I think she likes you, maybe you should call her sometime," she joked.
Jack face-palmed,"If you're mouth wasn't already a closed zipper..."
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In the year 2024, the last surviving criminal group, Team Rocket, was struck the final, fatal blow when its leader Giovanni was killed in an explosion, which finally ended their reign of terror for good. Since then, the world has enjoyed relative peace as no criminal organizations were trying to conquer it. The remains of all the world-wide 'Teams' were collectively known as the Remnants, and were slowly but surely hunted down by the WPO and several mercenary groups.
However, as of 2032, several Remnant factions, comprised of Rocket, Plasma, Galactic, and even Snagem, have been seen cooperating and assisting each other frequently.
The World Peacekeeping Organization denies the rumors of a whole new 'Team' forming.
'Blasting Off Again,' a History of the World's Criminals- written by Eric Cornhow
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*Pronounced 'Jeniece' but her parent screwed up the spelling on the paperwork
Questions about the story? Comments about my writing? Just want to senselessly flame? Drop a review or a PM.
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