Fan Fiction & Writing
Fanfiction of the Month (January): ~The Legendarian Chronicles~ Page 2
Started by Chibi Pika January 25th, 2005 7:39 PM- 14760 views
- 57 replies
Age 34
Wallowing in pity and trying to devise plans to talk to Marli!
Seen October 21st, 2005
Posted June 24th, 2005
44
posts
18.2
Years
Hmm, legendary trainer. Do we know eachother? I wonder.
igh:: I prolly should get destoyed by that Frostwear guy too. Might help. Donde esta?
Well, you were smart and saved ur chappies into ur comp. But after I was done editing Chap 1 (after SB destroyed me) I didn't save that, so... untill SPPF comes back, I can't post chap 1. Unless I can get SB to kill it before I post it.
~Umbra;197;
Yuppage, I finally figured out how to show, not tell in my description and I spoofed all the battes and revamped nearly all the description, not to mention it has all the recent plot changes like the two years later and only eight chosen and such.
Are you starting a new thread for it? :
igh:: I prolly should get destoyed by that Frostwear guy too. Might help. Donde esta?Well, you were smart and saved ur chappies into ur comp. But after I was done editing Chap 1 (after SB destroyed me) I didn't save that, so... untill SPPF comes back, I can't post chap 1. Unless I can get SB to kill it before I post it.
~Umbra;197;

Trainer Card Trainer Sprite Recolors and Badges are all made by me.
(My Avatar Sprite was made by Chibi Pika)
I work at the Request Hotel!
Please Read and Rate my first Fan-Fic (1st Revision)
Haito Adventures Chapter 1: Genesis of a Trainer is up!
Winners of my Tenebra Award:
Legendarian Chronicles~ Chibi Pika
The Quest for the Legends~ Dragonfree
I also review Fan-Fics and Sprites. If you want me to do yours, just PM me.
Are you starting a new thread for it? :
igh:: I prolly should get destoyed by that Frostwear guy too. Might help. Donde esta?
If I made a new thread for every revision, then why wouldn't I have for Revision 7? :P Or 7.5, which was some spoofs on the Prologue and Chapter one? No new thread-ness, noooo....
igh:: I prolly should get destoyed by that Frostwear guy too. Might help. Donde esta?
And frostweaver's in the lounge, you PM him, but he's got a lot of fics to read now. Just look at his review style and you'll get the idea.
Hmm, legendary trainer. Do we know eachother? I wonder.
He's big evil/Brian Powell. Or was that a rhetorical question? Blah, I don't know.EDIT: Thanks for rating it, LT, not many people here use the rating system.
~Chibi~



A Pokémon fanfic fifteen years in the making.
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DeviantArt
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Now... what can I say about this fan-fic? ... it sucks..... NOOOO!!!!!!!! go away evil side of me!! let me.... rate....this fan-fic.... in...cre....di.....ble..... *dies*......................*and revives* ok I think I'm fine now... *looks around for any sign of evil side* phew, it's not here... yet, I have to be fast. I must say this fan-fic is really well written, and it totally makes me stay infront of my computer reading it all day. But, I just feel that it lacks from that unknown spark that makes people love the fan-fic so much that they forget about their lives and everything... ok I need to stop exaggerating... Now seriously, it is really good, and I have no words left.... yeah I admit it, I suck at talking (in this case writing), I just can say I rate like .... 4.999999999999999999999999999999999 stars.... I'm not being evil, I just don't know why I wrote that big number (big in space).
LOOK AT ME!!!!! Good! now... leave me alone! XD

Go for it, kid!

Go for it, kid!
Age 34
*yawns* Um, behind you?
Seen December 23rd, 2008
Posted March 19th, 2006
881
posts
18.3
Years
*glowers* Hey, you, new punk. I'm the only one around anywhere that can be psychotically off. *crosses eyes* Okay, maybe not...
*groans* Not ANOTHER revamp! It must be a disease or something, 'cause all the revisions I've seen are in multiple. Perhaps if you were to finish teh ficcy before you redo this?? Please? If not, we'll survive. Hmm, I think I'm spamming... And not making any sense.
*groans* Not ANOTHER revamp! It must be a disease or something, 'cause all the revisions I've seen are in multiple. Perhaps if you were to finish teh ficcy before you redo this?? Please? If not, we'll survive. Hmm, I think I'm spamming... And not making any sense.
Unless I can get SB to kill it before I post it.
This calls for a "Shrek" quote.
All ya gotta do is ask.
Whoops, I feel the wanderlust. Gotta scoot! SB
John 3:16- For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
I love that verse.
Currently unable to Fanfic on-line, but hope to soon.
Yay, new reviewer!!! And I know what you mean about that "spark" according to everyone else, it shows up in chapter six. Why, I have no clue, there's nothing really all that special about chapter six except for a scene I'm rather proud of, but meh. Glad ya like!
SB: Finish it before doing another revamp? You suggest I not try to improve my writing at all for the next few years? Anyway, it's not a revamp, I'd never revamp it after all this, o_O; just a revision.
Hey, I'm psychotically off, too! Not only that, but I found favor with the Nose Container in the Evil Hallway at school, mwahaha...
I said I would post chapter four soon, so I shall. And shortly, I'll go back and add the new revision to the old chapters!
Chapter 4: The Voyage to Midnight Island
Clothes—of all the things to spend birthday money on… But if I was gonna wait around in Vermilion for nearly a month until the S.S. Anne left for…for wherever it was going, I’d need a few more outfits. I had chosen a few cool shirts and some pants that had Poké Ball holders on them but then realized that I’d need socks and that sort of stuff. I wished that I had somehow known to grab some spare clothes when I had left home. Still, I’d had no idea that any of this would happen; I had just planned on riding around town a little while Rudy finished his chores.
I paid for the clothes and stuffed the store bag in my backpack. Outside, I sauntered along the bay toward the Pokémon Center while looking out over the horizon, awed by the endless stretch of sea that surrounded two sides of Vermilion. The cool, salty ocean breeze filled the atmosphere, and I shivered a little with the chill in the air. Though I commonly wore T-shirts all winter, I still felt cold and wanted to get inside.
I entered the Pokémon Center and strode through the lobby and into the back area toward my room. I was allowed to stay in a room, despite the fact that I wasn’t a trainer, but though I wanted to have my Pokémon healed, I knew that they would check for ID when I paid. I would definitely be in trouble if they found out that I was using Poké Balls without a license. In the end, I just decided that it was pointless, as Chibi was recharged by now, and neither he nor Firestorm had sustained many physical injuries from the battle.
After unlocking the door and entering the room, I placed the bags on the table and was soon greeted by Firestorm.
“*What’s that?*” he asked, sniffing the bag.
“I already told you guys that I needed to buy clothes,” I replied, flopping onto the bed. With a glance around the room I saw Swift perched on a chair and Chibi sitting in the windowsill.
Firestorm and Swift usually stayed out of their Poké Balls and in our Pokémon Center room, only occasionally coming with me when I had to go shopping. I seriously didn’t blame them; it was boring and they would have had to wait outside the store anyway. As for Chibi—I had no way of restraining him, and he still hadn’t particularly agreed or disagreed to my keeping him. He didn’t really talk much, or even look at any of us for that matter. I rarely let him leave the Center with me.
After some time I spoke up, “Hey Firestorm, I wanna practice some more.”
“*Again?*” he groaned. “*Come on—if you can understand me well enough as it is, then why do we have to do this every day?*” The Charmander waddled over and sat across from me.
“I only got through half a semester of the AP Pokéspeech course, and up until then I was completely horrible at it,” I explained. “Besides, they always said that the best way to get fluent was to practice all the time.”
“*Couldn’t you talk with Swift?*” he asked.
Rubbing the back of my head, I answered, “Um, not really…” Swift had never exactly been one to talk very much. Upon noticing that our conversation involved him, the Pidgey turned away sheepishly.
“Alright—same as always...I need to make sure I can understand you even if you say something really fast and illogical,” I instructed.
He rolled his eyes at first, but then spat out a rapid string of words in Pokéspeech: “Charman’der char’ chamanchr mander’char.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You said, ‘you are…bad at Pokéspeech’? I thought I said illogical.”
“*That was,*” he said promptly with a laugh.
I shook my head, but couldn’t help laughing just the same.
“*Why don’t you try talking in Pokéspeech?*” Firestorm asked me.
With a frown, I said, “That won’t work. I mean, I could try, but there’s no way it would come out right. It’s just like how Pokémon can’t speak human. You can’t make the right sounds for human speech, and while I could get the syllables right for Pokéspeech, there’s no way I could get the tones and enunciations down. But it doesn’t really matter—most Pokémon can understand humans anyway.”
Firestorm nodded, taking that opportunity to jump off the bed and end the practice. I watched him grab a plastic bag and rummage for a box of cookies. Smiling, I mentally noted that I would need to buy some Pokémon food or else wind up with very malnourished Pokémon.
The wind struck the window as I looked out towards the overcast gray sky. Three more weeks in Vermilion…
I sighed and flipped slowly through the remaining money in my wallet. Between the clothes, food, and staying in the room the past few weeks, I had spent almost all of my cash, despite the fact that staying at a Pokémon Center was dirt-cheap. Every now and then, I pulled out the card I had been given and read it again. It said meet in Vermilion prior to December 7 for further instruction, but I hadn’t seen the guy with Charizard at all and the seventh was coming up in two days. For a while, I had wondered how I was even gonna afford the ticket to board the S.S. Anne.
I stood up from the bed and replaced my wallet in my pocket before departing the Center again. I walked outside with Swift perched atop my shoulder and Firestorm at my heels and stared at the large array of ships in the harbor. A few days earlier, the S.S. Anne had arrived, and the crew had begun preparing for the voyage. The ship was huge and almost all white except for the top of it and the railing along the deck, which were shiny silver and black along the smokestacks; it was the typical cruise ship design. I was gazing up at the ship when I heard a rushing of air behind me.
“There you are, I knew I was forgetting someone,” someone said. The voice was vaguely familiar, and I turned to see the guy I had met in the forest flying down on his Charizard.
“Oh, hey,” I said.
The Charizard landed, and the tall, teenaged trainer climbed off the orange dragon’s back. “Since you’re here, I’m assuming you want to join the rebellion.” I nodded and he continued. “Good, cause you’re one of the only ones left that I haven’t talked to out of the people I gave cards to. First of all, I wanna make sure you’re really willing to do this. I don’t want anyone joining and then deciding to quit after they realize that there’s danger involved.”
I shrugged. “Yeah I’m serious about it, but only mainly cause I got nothing better to do.” I then added, “I also have a bit of a score to settle with Team Rocket.”
“Okay,” he said, pulling a small, stiff piece of paper out of his wallet and handing it to me. I took it and skimmed what it said quickly. Gasping slightly, I said, “This is a S.S. Anne ticket.”
“Well how else would you be allowed on the ship?” he asked rhetorically.
“Yeah, but…if you’re giving tickets to everyone whose joining the rebellion, then—” I started before he cut me off.
“I’ve got a ton of money to spare. I told the crew of the ship that I wanted tickets for the Pokémon Trainer’s party on board and then bought two hundred or so of ‘em. I only have a few left over.”
I stared. “Holy crap, you must be rich.”
He shrugged and said, “I won a lot of prize money in Pokémon League competitions. I actually placed second in the World Championships last year. Still, I spent a lot on the tickets and renting the stadium we’re gonna use as headquarters.”
“Which is where…?” I asked, for I had been wondering it for a long time.
“Oh, Midnight Island,” he said, as though that answered my question. I had no idea where that was, but didn’t decide to ask him. There was one other thing I had been wondering at, though.
“Wait, one thing I’d like to ask…you said you were recruiting beginning trainers. Why? Why not more experienced ones that would have a better chance when fighting Team Rocket?” I said, thinking back to the incredible way Ajia had battled.
“Beginning trainers are able to change their strategy easier than trainers who’ve been battling the same way for years. You need to be able to adapt to whatever opponent you face and I also figure I could help train beginning trainers on how to fight Team Rocket a bit more easily. By the way, did you get any more Pokémon?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah, I have a Pikachu back at the Pokémon Center,” I said, leaving out the fact that Chibi was only about eighty percent Pikachu, and twenty percent Zapdos.
He nodded. “Your Charmander might be a pretty good fighter if you can evolve it. Same with the Pidgey,” he added. He then walked over and got back on his Charizard’s back once more. “Guess I’ll be seeing ya with the others at Midnight Island.”
“Yeah, later,” I said, watching him fly off on his flame dragon. Right then, something occurred to me. “Hey! What’s your name?”
“Stalker,” he replied before soaring out of sight. I then returned to the Pokémon Center feeling a bit more anticipation for the trip than before.
“Ticket?” the man at the top of the ramp leading onto the ship asked. I retrieved the ticket from my pocket and handed it to him. He looked it over before placing it through a machine, handing me a card key of some sort and saying, “First and last name?”
“Jade Arenesa,” I answered.
He entered it in on a computer and then said, “Alright, you’re clear, welcome to the S.S. Anne.”
I walked onto the deck of the S.S. Anne and into the bustling crowd of trainers. Many of those who were invited to Midnight Island had their Pokémon out with them for the Pokémon Trainer’s party. Chibi, who had been walking alongside me the whole time, glared into the crowd disdainfully. I wasn’t so sure about having him unrestrained around everyone, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.
“Um…Chibi, can I talk to you alone?” I asked, wanting to discuss something with him before the party.
For a while, he didn’t respond. I stared at him expectantly; finally, he nodded. I glanced around, found some stairs leading down to the cargo area, and descended into the immense space filled with crates and boxes of tools and various ship parts. Chibi followed me.
“Alright, look,” I said flatly. “We need to settle this. I’m sorry, but I still don’t entirely trust you. That whole time in Vermilion, I wanted to let you out of the Center more, but I didn’t want you to, well…cause havoc or anything. I want you to just…I don’t know…be normal?”
Normal? It wasn’t really the word I was going for, but Chibi got what I was trying to say. I was asking him to act more like a Pikachu. He turned and said simply, “*I’ll be myself,*” I wasn’t sure whether it was progress or not, especially since I knew he had more to say. I was about to ask him what, but he cut me off.
His ranting in Pikachu was quiet as to not alert those upstairs, but filled with as much rage and infuriation as the time he attacked the Rockets and their ship. “*I’m sick of it! Stop treating me like some demented raging animal or something! It seems like you just think that if you release me around people, that I’ll go on a killing rampage! Would you treat any of your human friends, even one with, like, I don’t know, an anger problem or something like this?!*”
The question penetrated me, but Chibi didn’t give me time to think about it. “*You act like you’re in control of me. Yeah, you’re the human, I’m the Pokémon, but if you really want us to get along, then treat me like a equal, not a dangerous pet. And as for battling…*” Here he paused before continuing. “*I’m not like other Pokémon…I don’t need a trainer in order to battle successfully, but I’ll listen to you if you want me to during a battle. Just so long as you don’t pull that whole, ‘I’m the trainer so you have to obey me’ thing.*”
He didn’t need a trainer? Was he really that self-centered, or was it true? I stared long and hard at him, going over what he had said in my mind. Finally, I nodded slowly before holding out my hand. He studied my expression for some time, apparently thinking hard before and then shook my hand. Without saying a word, we then began to ascend the metal stairs back up to the trainer’s party.
Suddenly, Chibi stopped and twitched his ears. He turned back toward the crates, glaring apprehensively.
“What?” I asked, slightly lost.
“*Someone’s back there…*” he whispered, running back and taking small, silent steps. I followed extremely slowly and noiselessly after him, wondering what he had heard that had alarmed him. Finally, he stopped and slowly peeked around the corner of a crate, pulling himself back again almost immediately. “*Listen,*” he muttered. I strained my ears to hear what only he could hear, apparently. Right then, however, whoever it was started talking and I realized that more than one person was there.
“D’you think the kid and the Pikachu are gone?” the voice whispered.
“Most likely. I heard footsteps going up the stairs,” the second said. “Good thing, too. She could’ve been one of the ones on this ship that’re gonna join that rebel team.”
My heart skipped a beat when he said that. They had to be on Team Rocket, but how could they have known about the rebellion already? I mean, it hadn’t even started yet! What the first Rocket said next, though, made me feel better.
“How do we even know that this thing is even really gonna exist? We’re just going by a bunch of weird rumors going around with the new Pokémon Trainers.”
“Not exactly. A few of the kids that got cards were actually among our new recruits. We know the rebellion’s real,” the first Rocket explained. “Unfortunately, though they waited in Vermilion, they never got a ticket. I guess whoever’s behind all this made sure no Rockets could get within his or her ranks. I s’pose that’s the only reason we’re on this mission.”
“Cinnabar Island…” the second muttered. “Cinnabar Island, why start a rebel team there? Besides, the island’s pretty populated.”
“Who knows?” the other said, with a tone of finality, as though he didn’t want to talk anymore with an underling who was uninformed of the mission. I, however, was thoroughly confused. Cinnabar Island? The ship was going to Midnight Island. The Rockets obviously had their facts wrong, which was a good thing for Stalker. Otherwise, he’d never even get a chance to start the Team Rocket rebellion.
I headed back toward the stairs and motioned for Chibi to follow. We walked up the stairs, making sure not to create any noise, and returned to the main area of the ship.
I finally found a map framed on one of the elaborately decorated walls and stared at it before finally figuring out that Midnight Island was just off the eastern coast of Kanto near a tiny town called Lavender. Cinnabar, on the other hand, was quite some distance from Kanto’s southwestern tip. Why did the Rockets think we were going there? I then wondered why Stalker hadn’t just bought us tickets for some ferry in Lavender Town. It had to be a lot cheaper.
Later that night, I lay in bed inside the room that corresponded with the card key I had been given. The past few hours had been very boring, seeing as I couldn’t participate in many of the trainers’ activities like special battles, contests, and such, and the Team Rocket matter had been constantly lingering in my head.
Whatever the Rockets were going to do, I doubted they would do it while everyone was still at the party, but I didn’t have any idea what their plans were.
Firestorm was on the floor, his tail resting on some non-flammable cloth, Swift was perched on a chair, his head buried in the down feathers on the back of his neck, and Chibi had snuggled down into the sheets. Finally, I just set my watch to go off in the middle of the night and eventually drifted off to sleep.
A tiny beeping noise awakened me at one in the morning. Groaning to myself, I reached to turn it off and slowly lumbered out of bed. I pulled on some shoes and regular clothes and walked toward the door.
“Char…?” Firestorm sleepily said.
I turned back to see him opening his eyes and lifting himself up to look at me. I replied, “I’m goin’ out to figure out something. If any of you want, you can come.”
“*I’m pretty tired, so I guess I’ll pass, but I’ll ask Swift and Chibi,*” he said, walking to the front of the bed and pulling up the covers, revealing Chibi curled up in a ball with the spikes of his fur sticking out.
“*Hey…*” Chibi mumbled.
“*Just wanted to tell you…Jade’s leaving to go figure out…uh, something,*” he said, looking back at me questioningly. Chibi raised an eyebrow at me and I whispered, “Team Rocket.”
His expression hardened. The Pikachu nodded in realization before jumping off the bed and walking over to me.
I noticed Swift hadn’t stirred yet, but I decided not to wake him. I turned to Chibi. “Guess it’s just you and me,” I said as we walked out in the darkened hallway.
Very few people were still awake and most of the lights had been dimmed. We entered the main room to find it completely dark. All of the lights had been turned out, though in several other rooms that came out from the central area, light could be seen through the doors. I walked with Chibi down the side passage and opened the door to the cargo bay. We silently tiptoed down the metal stairway and into complete darkness. I felt my foot collide with something, and I quickly struggled to prevent myself from tripping over a crate of supplies at the end of the stairs.
“It’s too dark to see. Chibi, could you make it just a little bit brighter?” I asked. He nodded and strings of electricity formed around his body as he began to glow with a dim yellow light. I don’t know why he took the precaution, though. It didn’t matter if it was a dim light or if it lit up the whole room, Team Rocket would see us if they were here.
Apparently they weren’t here, because they sure weren’t where they had been previously. We ran back up the stairs and looked around. Any paths leading out of the main room either had one of the crewmembers in it or led to the passengers’ rooms. Wherever the Rockets were planning, they obviously had already started it in a remote part of the ship. I looked back at the passage to the cargo bay, which continued further into the shadows.
“Of course…” I muttered to myself. “Come on Chibi,” I said as we slowly walked down the hallway and down another flight of stairs that descended into seemingly infinite blackness. Chibi had stopped glowing a few seconds earlier, for he knew it was crucial for us to not be seen. At the bottom was a second corridor along which we continued for nearly a minute. I could hear distant voices and footsteps. Chibi had raced ahead noiselessly to see if it was just crewmembers or the Rockets. The latter was more likely, for I seriously doubted that the crew would be down here with it so dark.
I knew I was nearing the end of the passage when Chibi ran back to me.
“*It’s them—they’re a little ways ahead,*” he warned.
I could see the glow of several flashlights piercing the blackness as we neared the Rockets. They were in the engine room, and fortunately, it didn’t look like they had gotten there more than ten minutes ago. I knelt and walked with my back along the wall. The second I made it to the large chamber, I ducked back behind some storage crates and listened, though I couldn’t pick out most of what they were saying.
“Chibi,” I whispered. He turned and ran over to me. “Hey, can you hear what they’re saying?”
“*Yeah, sure, but unfortunately it sounds like they’ve already been all over the ship,*” he said, his voice lowered.
“Doing what?!” I asked frantically.
“*Hold on,*” he muttered, twitching his ears and making occasional glances around the side of the boxes. After a few seconds he turned back to me and said, “*Not good…they’ve got explosives set up all over the ship. They’re rigged to go off when activated by some remote thing that the leader’s got. I guess they’re gonna get off this thing and then blow it up.*”
“We gotta stop them and getting the controls is our best bet,” I said.
“*Couldn’t I just knock all of ‘em out?” he asked.
“We can’t risk it. If one of them is holding on to it, it’d get short-circuited, and that could activate the explosives.”
“*Fine then, I’ve got an idea,*” he said.
“What can I do?” I asked eagerly.
“*You can be there to catch the remote when I throw it to you after getting it away from them,*” he said.
“Hey,” I said and was about to protest but he had already jumped out from behind our hiding place.
He turned back one last time, gave me a skeptical look, and said rather loudly and noticeably, “*Come on, fighting Rockets is a Pokémon’s job. What else could you do?*” Of course, the Rockets probably couldn’t understand him, but they sure had heard him.
“A Pikachu?” one of them asked. Another one turned his flashlight on Chibi, who stood completely still, eyeing them. The Rocket studied Chibi for several seconds before finally recognition hit him.
Continue reading......
SB: Finish it before doing another revamp? You suggest I not try to improve my writing at all for the next few years? Anyway, it's not a revamp, I'd never revamp it after all this, o_O; just a revision.
Hey, I'm psychotically off, too! Not only that, but I found favor with the Nose Container in the Evil Hallway at school, mwahaha...
I said I would post chapter four soon, so I shall. And shortly, I'll go back and add the new revision to the old chapters!
Chapter 4: The Voyage to Midnight Island
Clothes—of all the things to spend birthday money on… But if I was gonna wait around in Vermilion for nearly a month until the S.S. Anne left for…for wherever it was going, I’d need a few more outfits. I had chosen a few cool shirts and some pants that had Poké Ball holders on them but then realized that I’d need socks and that sort of stuff. I wished that I had somehow known to grab some spare clothes when I had left home. Still, I’d had no idea that any of this would happen; I had just planned on riding around town a little while Rudy finished his chores.
I paid for the clothes and stuffed the store bag in my backpack. Outside, I sauntered along the bay toward the Pokémon Center while looking out over the horizon, awed by the endless stretch of sea that surrounded two sides of Vermilion. The cool, salty ocean breeze filled the atmosphere, and I shivered a little with the chill in the air. Though I commonly wore T-shirts all winter, I still felt cold and wanted to get inside.
I entered the Pokémon Center and strode through the lobby and into the back area toward my room. I was allowed to stay in a room, despite the fact that I wasn’t a trainer, but though I wanted to have my Pokémon healed, I knew that they would check for ID when I paid. I would definitely be in trouble if they found out that I was using Poké Balls without a license. In the end, I just decided that it was pointless, as Chibi was recharged by now, and neither he nor Firestorm had sustained many physical injuries from the battle.
After unlocking the door and entering the room, I placed the bags on the table and was soon greeted by Firestorm.
“*What’s that?*” he asked, sniffing the bag.
“I already told you guys that I needed to buy clothes,” I replied, flopping onto the bed. With a glance around the room I saw Swift perched on a chair and Chibi sitting in the windowsill.
Firestorm and Swift usually stayed out of their Poké Balls and in our Pokémon Center room, only occasionally coming with me when I had to go shopping. I seriously didn’t blame them; it was boring and they would have had to wait outside the store anyway. As for Chibi—I had no way of restraining him, and he still hadn’t particularly agreed or disagreed to my keeping him. He didn’t really talk much, or even look at any of us for that matter. I rarely let him leave the Center with me.
After some time I spoke up, “Hey Firestorm, I wanna practice some more.”
“*Again?*” he groaned. “*Come on—if you can understand me well enough as it is, then why do we have to do this every day?*” The Charmander waddled over and sat across from me.
“I only got through half a semester of the AP Pokéspeech course, and up until then I was completely horrible at it,” I explained. “Besides, they always said that the best way to get fluent was to practice all the time.”
“*Couldn’t you talk with Swift?*” he asked.
Rubbing the back of my head, I answered, “Um, not really…” Swift had never exactly been one to talk very much. Upon noticing that our conversation involved him, the Pidgey turned away sheepishly.
“Alright—same as always...I need to make sure I can understand you even if you say something really fast and illogical,” I instructed.
He rolled his eyes at first, but then spat out a rapid string of words in Pokéspeech: “Charman’der char’ chamanchr mander’char.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You said, ‘you are…bad at Pokéspeech’? I thought I said illogical.”
“*That was,*” he said promptly with a laugh.
I shook my head, but couldn’t help laughing just the same.
“*Why don’t you try talking in Pokéspeech?*” Firestorm asked me.
With a frown, I said, “That won’t work. I mean, I could try, but there’s no way it would come out right. It’s just like how Pokémon can’t speak human. You can’t make the right sounds for human speech, and while I could get the syllables right for Pokéspeech, there’s no way I could get the tones and enunciations down. But it doesn’t really matter—most Pokémon can understand humans anyway.”
Firestorm nodded, taking that opportunity to jump off the bed and end the practice. I watched him grab a plastic bag and rummage for a box of cookies. Smiling, I mentally noted that I would need to buy some Pokémon food or else wind up with very malnourished Pokémon.
The wind struck the window as I looked out towards the overcast gray sky. Three more weeks in Vermilion…
I sighed and flipped slowly through the remaining money in my wallet. Between the clothes, food, and staying in the room the past few weeks, I had spent almost all of my cash, despite the fact that staying at a Pokémon Center was dirt-cheap. Every now and then, I pulled out the card I had been given and read it again. It said meet in Vermilion prior to December 7 for further instruction, but I hadn’t seen the guy with Charizard at all and the seventh was coming up in two days. For a while, I had wondered how I was even gonna afford the ticket to board the S.S. Anne.
I stood up from the bed and replaced my wallet in my pocket before departing the Center again. I walked outside with Swift perched atop my shoulder and Firestorm at my heels and stared at the large array of ships in the harbor. A few days earlier, the S.S. Anne had arrived, and the crew had begun preparing for the voyage. The ship was huge and almost all white except for the top of it and the railing along the deck, which were shiny silver and black along the smokestacks; it was the typical cruise ship design. I was gazing up at the ship when I heard a rushing of air behind me.
“There you are, I knew I was forgetting someone,” someone said. The voice was vaguely familiar, and I turned to see the guy I had met in the forest flying down on his Charizard.
“Oh, hey,” I said.
The Charizard landed, and the tall, teenaged trainer climbed off the orange dragon’s back. “Since you’re here, I’m assuming you want to join the rebellion.” I nodded and he continued. “Good, cause you’re one of the only ones left that I haven’t talked to out of the people I gave cards to. First of all, I wanna make sure you’re really willing to do this. I don’t want anyone joining and then deciding to quit after they realize that there’s danger involved.”
I shrugged. “Yeah I’m serious about it, but only mainly cause I got nothing better to do.” I then added, “I also have a bit of a score to settle with Team Rocket.”
“Okay,” he said, pulling a small, stiff piece of paper out of his wallet and handing it to me. I took it and skimmed what it said quickly. Gasping slightly, I said, “This is a S.S. Anne ticket.”
“Well how else would you be allowed on the ship?” he asked rhetorically.
“Yeah, but…if you’re giving tickets to everyone whose joining the rebellion, then—” I started before he cut me off.
“I’ve got a ton of money to spare. I told the crew of the ship that I wanted tickets for the Pokémon Trainer’s party on board and then bought two hundred or so of ‘em. I only have a few left over.”
I stared. “Holy crap, you must be rich.”
He shrugged and said, “I won a lot of prize money in Pokémon League competitions. I actually placed second in the World Championships last year. Still, I spent a lot on the tickets and renting the stadium we’re gonna use as headquarters.”
“Which is where…?” I asked, for I had been wondering it for a long time.
“Oh, Midnight Island,” he said, as though that answered my question. I had no idea where that was, but didn’t decide to ask him. There was one other thing I had been wondering at, though.
“Wait, one thing I’d like to ask…you said you were recruiting beginning trainers. Why? Why not more experienced ones that would have a better chance when fighting Team Rocket?” I said, thinking back to the incredible way Ajia had battled.
“Beginning trainers are able to change their strategy easier than trainers who’ve been battling the same way for years. You need to be able to adapt to whatever opponent you face and I also figure I could help train beginning trainers on how to fight Team Rocket a bit more easily. By the way, did you get any more Pokémon?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah, I have a Pikachu back at the Pokémon Center,” I said, leaving out the fact that Chibi was only about eighty percent Pikachu, and twenty percent Zapdos.
He nodded. “Your Charmander might be a pretty good fighter if you can evolve it. Same with the Pidgey,” he added. He then walked over and got back on his Charizard’s back once more. “Guess I’ll be seeing ya with the others at Midnight Island.”
“Yeah, later,” I said, watching him fly off on his flame dragon. Right then, something occurred to me. “Hey! What’s your name?”
“Stalker,” he replied before soaring out of sight. I then returned to the Pokémon Center feeling a bit more anticipation for the trip than before.
“Ticket?” the man at the top of the ramp leading onto the ship asked. I retrieved the ticket from my pocket and handed it to him. He looked it over before placing it through a machine, handing me a card key of some sort and saying, “First and last name?”
“Jade Arenesa,” I answered.
He entered it in on a computer and then said, “Alright, you’re clear, welcome to the S.S. Anne.”
I walked onto the deck of the S.S. Anne and into the bustling crowd of trainers. Many of those who were invited to Midnight Island had their Pokémon out with them for the Pokémon Trainer’s party. Chibi, who had been walking alongside me the whole time, glared into the crowd disdainfully. I wasn’t so sure about having him unrestrained around everyone, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.
“Um…Chibi, can I talk to you alone?” I asked, wanting to discuss something with him before the party.
For a while, he didn’t respond. I stared at him expectantly; finally, he nodded. I glanced around, found some stairs leading down to the cargo area, and descended into the immense space filled with crates and boxes of tools and various ship parts. Chibi followed me.
“Alright, look,” I said flatly. “We need to settle this. I’m sorry, but I still don’t entirely trust you. That whole time in Vermilion, I wanted to let you out of the Center more, but I didn’t want you to, well…cause havoc or anything. I want you to just…I don’t know…be normal?”
Normal? It wasn’t really the word I was going for, but Chibi got what I was trying to say. I was asking him to act more like a Pikachu. He turned and said simply, “*I’ll be myself,*” I wasn’t sure whether it was progress or not, especially since I knew he had more to say. I was about to ask him what, but he cut me off.
His ranting in Pikachu was quiet as to not alert those upstairs, but filled with as much rage and infuriation as the time he attacked the Rockets and their ship. “*I’m sick of it! Stop treating me like some demented raging animal or something! It seems like you just think that if you release me around people, that I’ll go on a killing rampage! Would you treat any of your human friends, even one with, like, I don’t know, an anger problem or something like this?!*”
The question penetrated me, but Chibi didn’t give me time to think about it. “*You act like you’re in control of me. Yeah, you’re the human, I’m the Pokémon, but if you really want us to get along, then treat me like a equal, not a dangerous pet. And as for battling…*” Here he paused before continuing. “*I’m not like other Pokémon…I don’t need a trainer in order to battle successfully, but I’ll listen to you if you want me to during a battle. Just so long as you don’t pull that whole, ‘I’m the trainer so you have to obey me’ thing.*”
He didn’t need a trainer? Was he really that self-centered, or was it true? I stared long and hard at him, going over what he had said in my mind. Finally, I nodded slowly before holding out my hand. He studied my expression for some time, apparently thinking hard before and then shook my hand. Without saying a word, we then began to ascend the metal stairs back up to the trainer’s party.
Suddenly, Chibi stopped and twitched his ears. He turned back toward the crates, glaring apprehensively.
“What?” I asked, slightly lost.
“*Someone’s back there…*” he whispered, running back and taking small, silent steps. I followed extremely slowly and noiselessly after him, wondering what he had heard that had alarmed him. Finally, he stopped and slowly peeked around the corner of a crate, pulling himself back again almost immediately. “*Listen,*” he muttered. I strained my ears to hear what only he could hear, apparently. Right then, however, whoever it was started talking and I realized that more than one person was there.
“D’you think the kid and the Pikachu are gone?” the voice whispered.
“Most likely. I heard footsteps going up the stairs,” the second said. “Good thing, too. She could’ve been one of the ones on this ship that’re gonna join that rebel team.”
My heart skipped a beat when he said that. They had to be on Team Rocket, but how could they have known about the rebellion already? I mean, it hadn’t even started yet! What the first Rocket said next, though, made me feel better.
“How do we even know that this thing is even really gonna exist? We’re just going by a bunch of weird rumors going around with the new Pokémon Trainers.”
“Not exactly. A few of the kids that got cards were actually among our new recruits. We know the rebellion’s real,” the first Rocket explained. “Unfortunately, though they waited in Vermilion, they never got a ticket. I guess whoever’s behind all this made sure no Rockets could get within his or her ranks. I s’pose that’s the only reason we’re on this mission.”
“Cinnabar Island…” the second muttered. “Cinnabar Island, why start a rebel team there? Besides, the island’s pretty populated.”
“Who knows?” the other said, with a tone of finality, as though he didn’t want to talk anymore with an underling who was uninformed of the mission. I, however, was thoroughly confused. Cinnabar Island? The ship was going to Midnight Island. The Rockets obviously had their facts wrong, which was a good thing for Stalker. Otherwise, he’d never even get a chance to start the Team Rocket rebellion.
I headed back toward the stairs and motioned for Chibi to follow. We walked up the stairs, making sure not to create any noise, and returned to the main area of the ship.
I finally found a map framed on one of the elaborately decorated walls and stared at it before finally figuring out that Midnight Island was just off the eastern coast of Kanto near a tiny town called Lavender. Cinnabar, on the other hand, was quite some distance from Kanto’s southwestern tip. Why did the Rockets think we were going there? I then wondered why Stalker hadn’t just bought us tickets for some ferry in Lavender Town. It had to be a lot cheaper.
Later that night, I lay in bed inside the room that corresponded with the card key I had been given. The past few hours had been very boring, seeing as I couldn’t participate in many of the trainers’ activities like special battles, contests, and such, and the Team Rocket matter had been constantly lingering in my head.
Whatever the Rockets were going to do, I doubted they would do it while everyone was still at the party, but I didn’t have any idea what their plans were.
Firestorm was on the floor, his tail resting on some non-flammable cloth, Swift was perched on a chair, his head buried in the down feathers on the back of his neck, and Chibi had snuggled down into the sheets. Finally, I just set my watch to go off in the middle of the night and eventually drifted off to sleep.
A tiny beeping noise awakened me at one in the morning. Groaning to myself, I reached to turn it off and slowly lumbered out of bed. I pulled on some shoes and regular clothes and walked toward the door.
“Char…?” Firestorm sleepily said.
I turned back to see him opening his eyes and lifting himself up to look at me. I replied, “I’m goin’ out to figure out something. If any of you want, you can come.”
“*I’m pretty tired, so I guess I’ll pass, but I’ll ask Swift and Chibi,*” he said, walking to the front of the bed and pulling up the covers, revealing Chibi curled up in a ball with the spikes of his fur sticking out.
“*Hey…*” Chibi mumbled.
“*Just wanted to tell you…Jade’s leaving to go figure out…uh, something,*” he said, looking back at me questioningly. Chibi raised an eyebrow at me and I whispered, “Team Rocket.”
His expression hardened. The Pikachu nodded in realization before jumping off the bed and walking over to me.
I noticed Swift hadn’t stirred yet, but I decided not to wake him. I turned to Chibi. “Guess it’s just you and me,” I said as we walked out in the darkened hallway.
Very few people were still awake and most of the lights had been dimmed. We entered the main room to find it completely dark. All of the lights had been turned out, though in several other rooms that came out from the central area, light could be seen through the doors. I walked with Chibi down the side passage and opened the door to the cargo bay. We silently tiptoed down the metal stairway and into complete darkness. I felt my foot collide with something, and I quickly struggled to prevent myself from tripping over a crate of supplies at the end of the stairs.
“It’s too dark to see. Chibi, could you make it just a little bit brighter?” I asked. He nodded and strings of electricity formed around his body as he began to glow with a dim yellow light. I don’t know why he took the precaution, though. It didn’t matter if it was a dim light or if it lit up the whole room, Team Rocket would see us if they were here.
Apparently they weren’t here, because they sure weren’t where they had been previously. We ran back up the stairs and looked around. Any paths leading out of the main room either had one of the crewmembers in it or led to the passengers’ rooms. Wherever the Rockets were planning, they obviously had already started it in a remote part of the ship. I looked back at the passage to the cargo bay, which continued further into the shadows.
“Of course…” I muttered to myself. “Come on Chibi,” I said as we slowly walked down the hallway and down another flight of stairs that descended into seemingly infinite blackness. Chibi had stopped glowing a few seconds earlier, for he knew it was crucial for us to not be seen. At the bottom was a second corridor along which we continued for nearly a minute. I could hear distant voices and footsteps. Chibi had raced ahead noiselessly to see if it was just crewmembers or the Rockets. The latter was more likely, for I seriously doubted that the crew would be down here with it so dark.
I knew I was nearing the end of the passage when Chibi ran back to me.
“*It’s them—they’re a little ways ahead,*” he warned.
I could see the glow of several flashlights piercing the blackness as we neared the Rockets. They were in the engine room, and fortunately, it didn’t look like they had gotten there more than ten minutes ago. I knelt and walked with my back along the wall. The second I made it to the large chamber, I ducked back behind some storage crates and listened, though I couldn’t pick out most of what they were saying.
“Chibi,” I whispered. He turned and ran over to me. “Hey, can you hear what they’re saying?”
“*Yeah, sure, but unfortunately it sounds like they’ve already been all over the ship,*” he said, his voice lowered.
“Doing what?!” I asked frantically.
“*Hold on,*” he muttered, twitching his ears and making occasional glances around the side of the boxes. After a few seconds he turned back to me and said, “*Not good…they’ve got explosives set up all over the ship. They’re rigged to go off when activated by some remote thing that the leader’s got. I guess they’re gonna get off this thing and then blow it up.*”
“We gotta stop them and getting the controls is our best bet,” I said.
“*Couldn’t I just knock all of ‘em out?” he asked.
“We can’t risk it. If one of them is holding on to it, it’d get short-circuited, and that could activate the explosives.”
“*Fine then, I’ve got an idea,*” he said.
“What can I do?” I asked eagerly.
“*You can be there to catch the remote when I throw it to you after getting it away from them,*” he said.
“Hey,” I said and was about to protest but he had already jumped out from behind our hiding place.
He turned back one last time, gave me a skeptical look, and said rather loudly and noticeably, “*Come on, fighting Rockets is a Pokémon’s job. What else could you do?*” Of course, the Rockets probably couldn’t understand him, but they sure had heard him.
“A Pikachu?” one of them asked. Another one turned his flashlight on Chibi, who stood completely still, eyeing them. The Rocket studied Chibi for several seconds before finally recognition hit him.
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“Of course…” he muttered in realization, before yelling to the others, “It’s the escaped experimental Pikachu! All who have Pokémon release them, now!” Instantly, there was a huge white flash that disappeared just as soon as the Rockets’ Pokémon materialized from within the Poké balls. The darkness hid them the second they emerged, and the only things I could see were where the flashlights were pointed. Chibi jumped out of the beam of light and slipped behind the opposing Pokémon. The Rockets aimed the flashlights in that direction, but he was already gone. It had just begun to dawn on the lead Rocket that they were at a serious disadvantage.
“Electrike, use Flash!” a female Rocket commanded. Right after she said that, there was a crack of static electricity as a bright glow of energy was generated from a small green and yellow dog Pokémon with a long mane on the back of its head that stored power. The engine room was completely illuminated, but Chibi was nowhere to be seen. The Rockets switched off their flashlights and their Pokémon looked around in confusion. I noticed Chibi long before they did. He had somehow managed to use his power to cling to the metal roof. He struggled to control the electricity so it would make no noise as he walked along the ceiling. He stopped to position himself and I wondered why until I saw that he was above the Rocket holding the controls for the explosives.
“*Look!*” the Electrike called out, generating a bright yellow bolt of lightning and firing it upward at Chibi. He lunged out of the way and landed in the middle of the Rockets.
It was complete pandemonium. Chibi rushed away from the Rockets, immediately jumping to avoid two of the Rockets’ Pokémon and launching a neon blast of Thunderbolt at the green thunder dog. I understood his plan—take out the Electrike to make it dark and also get rid of the one Pokémon there that could sense his electricity, being an Electric Pokémon itself. Unfortunately the green dog managed to elude his assault and ducked back behind the other Pokémon. Chibi attacked the closest Pokémon to him but was unable to dodge a stream of blazing flame that struck him along the back. He fell in mid-jump and slid along the floor into the wall, his back burned, and his fur singed.
“That’s it, I don’t care what Chibi says, he needs help,” I muttered to myself, but then I suddenly realized the Firestorm and Swift were asleep back in my room. Chibi had struggled to stand just as all of the Rockets’ Pokémon fired their attacks at him. He then pulled off a series of moves that I seriously wish I could have seen in slow motion.
Just when all of the attacks were inches away from him, he channeled all of his energy into generating an electric force field, simultaneously absorbing the Electrike’s power and blocking the other attacks. He then raced across the floor, jumped up above the Rockets, and swung his tail forward, knocking the control out of the lead Rocket’s hand. Since he was behind several of the Rockets, he didn’t have to worry about being attacked by their Pokémon as he grabbed the remote in his mouth and tossed it behind the crates.
“*I’ll stall ‘em, get outta here, now!*” Chibi shouted.
As fast as I possibly could, I snatched the remote-like device up off the floor and sprinted out into the passage the led back to the main area of the ship without looking back. I could hear blasts of electricity from behind me—probably Chibi keeping the Rockets from pursuing me.
I studied the remote and saw that it had a screen at the top and several buttons underneath. It was a lot more complex than I had figured, so I pushed a small button directly under the center of the screen. It lit up instantly with a menu screen that said Location, Timed Activation, and Settings. I selected Location and the screen cleared before showing around twenty small red dots and a larger, blinking blue one.
“Of course…” I said in realization. “This thing shows where all of the bombs are….” The blue dot had to be where the remote was in relation to all of the explosives and it was nearing one of the red dots on the screen. Using the minimal light given off on the screen, I scanned the walls for anything out of the ordinary and, sure enough, found a small, circular device stuck to the wall. I tugged at it with my fingertips and found that it wasn’t hard to detach it before heading back to the main room and searching for all of the bombs.
For nearly half an hour I ran all over the S.S. Anne, realizing exactly just how immense it was in the process. Every so often, I would go out on the deck and throw all of the bombs I had collected so far off the ship and into the sea, where they sank to the ocean floor. I couldn’t help wondering, however: where was Chibi? Could he possibly have been fighting this whole time?
I had just thrown the last three overboard when I started running back to the rooms. I quickly pulled out my ticket and swiped it along the card scanner on my door, opening it.
“Firestorm, Swift, wake up,” I said almost immediately while flipping the light switch on. The noise and sudden brightness made both of them awaken instantly. Firestorm stood and said, “*What’s going on?*”
“Team Rocket was planning to kill everyone, and Chibi seriously needs our help,” I said, grabbing my Poké balls and wallet and sticking them in my pockets. Swift flew over to my shoulder as Firestorm jumped off the bed, ready to go. I was about to run back out the door, but then I grabbed my backpack, just in case I didn’t get a chance to get back to the room. We raced down the hallway and, once again, into the central area of the ship.
“Chibi!” I yelled as loud as I possibly could, not caring if I woke someone up. “If you can hear me, get to the main area, now!” I knew Pikachus had incredibly acute hearing, but would if he was too injured to make it here? I was running back toward the passage to the engine room when I heard several footsteps running toward me.
“Crap!” I said, turning around as fast as I possibly could and running the opposite direction.
“Not so fast!” the lead Rocket yelled. Slowly I turned to see all of them standing behind me with Chibi limp in the lead Rocket’s arms and all of the Rockets’ Pokémon out in front.
Chibi managed to look up at me and said, “*Used all my energy…hope you got another plan ‘cause they quit usin’ the thunder dog thing against me a long time ago and I’m spent….*” They had to have realized that Chibi could absorb electrical attacks and had recalled his only remaining source of power.
“Shut it, you!” the Rocket yelled at Chibi before turning to me. “I thank you for successfully returning Experimental Pokémon Number Nine back to us. Now that we know that it was successful after all, it could be a big help in our current experimentation. That said, you have something else that’s ours.”
“No way you’re getting this back!” I yelled, clutching the remote.
“*Swift and I can battle ‘em!*” Firestorm said excitedly.
“What, no way! You guys can’t take down all of their Pokémon!” I exclaimed.
“*Hey, just cause Chibi may be the strongest of us doesn’t mean we can’t fight,*” Swift said. I turned in surprise, not really familiar with the voice because he didn’t usually talk. I nodded and said, “Okay….”
“If you’re through talking with your Pokémon, then let’s get down to business…Ninetales, attack!” the lead Rocket yelled. The large, cream-colored fire fox that had managed to injure Chibi rushed forward, its nine graceful tails swirling dramatically as it leaped into the fray.
“Niiiiiine!” Ninetales yelled as a sort of battle cry before unleashing a wave of flame upon Firestorm. Swift took flight and entered the fray while Firestorm lunged to the side, barely evading the attack. While Ninetales was dealing with Firestorm, Swift had swooped downward at it, his wings glowing in a Wing Attack. The fire fox turned aside and smacked Swift right along the back with its slender paw. Swift let out a cry as he went flying into the wall with three wide lines of blood staining his feathers.
“I knew this wasn’t a good idea,” I said to myself, realizing immediately that the Ninetales was clearly stronger than the other Pokémon. I quickly pulled out Swift’s Poké ball and recalled him. “Firestorm, you sure you don’t wanna bail?”
Firestorm shook his head and turned back to Ninetales resolutely.
“Enough of this, Ninetales, Fire Spin!!!” the lead Rocket shouted.
I gasped. Fire Spin wasn’t exactly the most powerful flame technique around, but it was nearly impossible to avoid. It completely surrounded an opponent in a column of fire, leaving them trapped within a swirling inferno. The amount of time for which the move could be used in official competitions was limited, as to not injure the Pokémon too badly, but this was no League battle.
“No, Firestorm!” I yelled, but it was too late. He had been caught in the attack and thrown into the blaze. I pulled out his Poké ball to recall him, but the flame blocked the beam of red light that shot out of the center of the ball to draw him into it. I could see his silhouette in the assault, curled into a ball and very nearly collapsed. Suddenly the fire pillar expanded around the middle and the rush of flame burst into hundreds of embers that dissipated into the air. I looked closer and saw Firestorm engulfed in a sphere of flame that burned brightly around his body.
“What the—” the Rocket yelled.
“…Rage…” I said slowly. It was an ability that could only be used when a Pokémon was under great stress, anger, or pain and tremendously heightened a Pokémon’s power. From within the fire, an incredible white light came forth and completely illuminated the immense room. The shielding flame around Firestorm ceased and his body shined with the glow as, before our eyes, he grew over two feet in size and completely changed in shape.
His scales changed to a reddish color, the burns and blisters from the previous attack faded, and his limbs grew more defined from his body. Elongated and thickened, his arms ended in heavy blade claws, and his muscular tail was covered in flame on the end. Finally, his head sprouted a single horn on the back of the skull and his face stretched into more of a dragonish snout.
“He’s…evolved into a Charmeleon…” I whispered in awe. Pokémon evolution was usually triggered by age, as it was a Pokémon’s only way of maturing, although battle experience had a lot to do with it. Firestorm turned back to me, his eyes a different shape with much larger whites surrounding the blue and black center. He was brimming with pride and confidence as he turned back and resumed the battle once more.
The Ninetales was slightly stunned from having its attack broken up like that and its trainer had been in wonder at the sudden burst of power Firestorm had gained, but the Rage had worn off by now and Ninetales knew it and was ready to fight. It crouched defensively and snarled.
“I’m sick of playing around,” the Rocket said, recalling his Ninetales. “Pokémon Training never was my thing and wasn’t how I earned my position with Team Rocket. Besides, only wuss Rockets rely on their Pokémon to get their way.” Here he paused and reached into his pocket to pull out a small metal item, hidden by the darkness, but glinting with a silver sheen as it caught the limited light of the moon shining through the windows. I hesitated and was lost for words as he pointed the gun right at me. “Don’t even think of running and hand over the remote.”
I stared mindlessly at the weapon, completely lost for words as I felt a surge of terror spread like ice in my veins. I was about to mutter something, but then I had a sudden thought that even if I gave him the remote he would probably shoot me anyway. But even still…if I did give it to him, both me and everyone else on the ship was dead. It was right then when I noticed Chibi motioning to me. He kept shaking his head and winking at me. I mouthed the words, “You sure?” and he nodded. And then I got it: he had most definitely charged up a limited amount of power in the past few minutes.
“Well, what’s it gonna be?” he said. “You got five seconds.”
“*Now!!!*” Chibi yelled, channeling all of his power into the Rocket, who slumped to the floor under the attack. Chibi wrenched himself free just as I took off running with Firestorm and followed us.
“Someone tranquilize the damn thing already!” the lead Rocket yelled in fury. Several seconds later I heard the sound of something small and fast whizzing through the air behind me.
“*Gah!*” Chibi yelled, dropping to the ground. I turned and saw a dart sticking out of his left shoulder. I was about to run over to pick him up, but he yelled, “*Get outta here! They need me brought back alive, but they’ll kill you in a second if you wait around here, now go!!!*” I obeyed and ran off, making as many turns around corners as I could, to make it impossible for them to shoot me without catching up first. Repeatedly, I glanced over my shoulder, both to see whether I was being pursued, and in wonder of whether Chibi was alright.
*****
The Rocket that had shot Chibi with the tranquilizer gun ran over and picked him up. He tucked him under his arm as he turned back to his leader, who was struggling to stand after being under the effects of the electricity.
“What should we do about the girl?” he asked. The lead Rocket was about to answer, but one of the others interrupted.
“Let me handle this,” she said, releasing her Electrike. “It’ll be much faster.”
Sure of what to do, the Electrike nodded, raced off into the darkness, and was gone for a little over a minute. The Rockets waited in silence until it ran back, out of breath with strings of electricity leaping from its fur.
“Did everything go accordingly?” its trainer asked. The Electrike nodded. “Was the girl knocked out at least?” At this, the Electrike shook its head. The Rocket cursed and said, “But you’re sure you managed to short-circuit the remote?” The Electrike nodded its head vigorously yet again.
“That’ll do then,” the lead Rocket said as all of the Rockets recalled their Pokémon. He turned to the others and said. “We’re done here. Now let’s go.”
They all pushed a button on their backpacks, which made two small jets burst out of the sides and activated. Energy blasted of the jetpacks in an invisible force as the Rockets lifted off the deck and soared away.
*****
I slowly stood to my feet after the Electrike ran back to the Rockets. It had zoomed toward me using its electricity to run at super speed before firing a Thundershock attack at me and leaving before Firestorm even had a chance to attack. As the weakest of all electric techniques, it hadn’t hurt immensely—sort of like an extremely bad static electricity shock only all over instead of just on a finger or something. The remote that was still in my left hand was sparking, though, and the screen was jumbled. With a sinking feeling, I read the words that had appeared on it: Automatic Timed Detonation Activated.
“What?! But…we got rid of all the explosives!” I yelled, but then I realized the obvious: the Rockets had to have had more of them that they hadn’t positioned yet when I ran off with the controls. After I thought I had thrown all of them off the ship, the Rockets probably just put all of the ones they had left in the engine room afterward.
The screen started to change and slowly formed a sort of countdown, with four minutes and thirty-two seconds left. I thought fast but there was no way to stop the detonation. The engine room was too far away; there was no way I could get them off them ship in time. Only one logical solution remained….
“Come on, Firestorm,” I said, dashing back to the main room as fast I could. On the side of a wall to the right, I saw it. I ran over and pulled the switch down.
I don’t know what I expected, but the S.S. Anne’s emergency alarm put school fire drills to shame. An earsplitting, high-pitched screech blared out of speakers in every single room in the whole ship. I held my hands against my ears as I dashed up a flight of stairs to the captain’s quarters. Halfway there, a tall, gray-haired man in a white suit ran down toward me, yelling, “What is going on?!” as loud as he could to be heard over the noise.
“No time to explain, the ships gonna blow up in four minutes, we gotta get everyone off!” I yelled.
“You sure about that?” he asked, running his fingers through his beard in thought. “How do I know this isn’t some kind of prank?”
“You gotta trust me!” I yelled, thrusting the controls into his hands. “Or else we’re all dead!”
He studied the remote for a second before nodding and running back up the stairs. Several seconds later, the alarm quieted slightly as the captain used the speakers and yelled, “This is not a drill! Get to the lifeboats immediately to evacuate the ship!” Right after that, he ran back down the stairs with me to the central area. Already, people had started to gather in the room, most of them still in their nightclothes and almost all of them yelling in panic trying to be heard over the constant blare. As we ran, the captain pulled out a radio and yelled into it, though I couldn’t hear him and I wasn’t sure whoever he was talking to could either.
We all raced out onto the deck, where the cold air pounded against us as we ambled on towards the back. Apparently, there were supposed to be lifeboats there, since that’s where the captain was leading us, but the racks for storage along the back of the ship were empty, most likely the Rockets’ doing. The captain sort of stood there shocked, but then regained himself, put away his radio, stood on a table so everyone could see him, and yelled instructions to us, which was easier out here since the alarm was louder inside.
“For whatever reason, the lifeboats are gone, so there’s no way off the ship! I’m afraid we’re going to have to jump! Those that can’t swim well, get help from someone who can, and if you have either marine Pokémon or large, flight capable ones with you, release them now!”
After he said this, several of the trainers pulled out Poké balls to release Flying Pokémon and jumped onto the backs of the various aerial beasts to fly off the deck. Those that had Water Pokémon didn’t hesitate to jump overboard and release their Pokémon to help them swim in the choppy waters. Rain was pouring down on us the whole time and the waves in the ocean were rough. Most of the passengers hesitated before finally plunging into the sea. I shot a look at the remote, which now read thirty-nine seconds, before running back to the main area, where more of the passengers had just run out of their rooms and were lost on what to do.
“Quick!!!” I shouted. “We have to jump overboard, now, so use Flying or Water Pokémon to help you if you have ‘em, and if not, just get off the ship and worry about the storm later!”
They followed my instructions and ran out onto the deck, where most of the others had already jumped over the railing. There were only about two hundred people that had gotten out here so far, but there wasn’t time to get all of the rest of them out here. I ran back to the deck and was one of only eleven people who hadn’t jumped yet. The remote now had a bright red fifteen that was flashing as a warning.
“You better get in here, cause it’s gonna get wet,” I said to Firestorm, pulling out his Poké ball and recalling him. I then wondered exactly how powerful the bombs were. There weren’t that many of them, but what if the explosion ended up big enough to hit people in the waters right next to the S.S. Anne? Finally, I shook myself from all of my thoughts and took off running toward the side of the deck without looking back. I jumped up onto the railing, kicked off, and let myself fall.
End Chapter 4
Question: would you guys prefer it if I had Pok�speech as "*Blah,*" or "-Blah,-" ? I'm not sure and ever since someone suggesting it to me, I've been considering it. Do you guys think the asterisks are intrusive?
~Chibi~
“Electrike, use Flash!” a female Rocket commanded. Right after she said that, there was a crack of static electricity as a bright glow of energy was generated from a small green and yellow dog Pokémon with a long mane on the back of its head that stored power. The engine room was completely illuminated, but Chibi was nowhere to be seen. The Rockets switched off their flashlights and their Pokémon looked around in confusion. I noticed Chibi long before they did. He had somehow managed to use his power to cling to the metal roof. He struggled to control the electricity so it would make no noise as he walked along the ceiling. He stopped to position himself and I wondered why until I saw that he was above the Rocket holding the controls for the explosives.
“*Look!*” the Electrike called out, generating a bright yellow bolt of lightning and firing it upward at Chibi. He lunged out of the way and landed in the middle of the Rockets.
It was complete pandemonium. Chibi rushed away from the Rockets, immediately jumping to avoid two of the Rockets’ Pokémon and launching a neon blast of Thunderbolt at the green thunder dog. I understood his plan—take out the Electrike to make it dark and also get rid of the one Pokémon there that could sense his electricity, being an Electric Pokémon itself. Unfortunately the green dog managed to elude his assault and ducked back behind the other Pokémon. Chibi attacked the closest Pokémon to him but was unable to dodge a stream of blazing flame that struck him along the back. He fell in mid-jump and slid along the floor into the wall, his back burned, and his fur singed.
“That’s it, I don’t care what Chibi says, he needs help,” I muttered to myself, but then I suddenly realized the Firestorm and Swift were asleep back in my room. Chibi had struggled to stand just as all of the Rockets’ Pokémon fired their attacks at him. He then pulled off a series of moves that I seriously wish I could have seen in slow motion.
Just when all of the attacks were inches away from him, he channeled all of his energy into generating an electric force field, simultaneously absorbing the Electrike’s power and blocking the other attacks. He then raced across the floor, jumped up above the Rockets, and swung his tail forward, knocking the control out of the lead Rocket’s hand. Since he was behind several of the Rockets, he didn’t have to worry about being attacked by their Pokémon as he grabbed the remote in his mouth and tossed it behind the crates.
“*I’ll stall ‘em, get outta here, now!*” Chibi shouted.
As fast as I possibly could, I snatched the remote-like device up off the floor and sprinted out into the passage the led back to the main area of the ship without looking back. I could hear blasts of electricity from behind me—probably Chibi keeping the Rockets from pursuing me.
I studied the remote and saw that it had a screen at the top and several buttons underneath. It was a lot more complex than I had figured, so I pushed a small button directly under the center of the screen. It lit up instantly with a menu screen that said Location, Timed Activation, and Settings. I selected Location and the screen cleared before showing around twenty small red dots and a larger, blinking blue one.
“Of course…” I said in realization. “This thing shows where all of the bombs are….” The blue dot had to be where the remote was in relation to all of the explosives and it was nearing one of the red dots on the screen. Using the minimal light given off on the screen, I scanned the walls for anything out of the ordinary and, sure enough, found a small, circular device stuck to the wall. I tugged at it with my fingertips and found that it wasn’t hard to detach it before heading back to the main room and searching for all of the bombs.
For nearly half an hour I ran all over the S.S. Anne, realizing exactly just how immense it was in the process. Every so often, I would go out on the deck and throw all of the bombs I had collected so far off the ship and into the sea, where they sank to the ocean floor. I couldn’t help wondering, however: where was Chibi? Could he possibly have been fighting this whole time?
I had just thrown the last three overboard when I started running back to the rooms. I quickly pulled out my ticket and swiped it along the card scanner on my door, opening it.
“Firestorm, Swift, wake up,” I said almost immediately while flipping the light switch on. The noise and sudden brightness made both of them awaken instantly. Firestorm stood and said, “*What’s going on?*”
“Team Rocket was planning to kill everyone, and Chibi seriously needs our help,” I said, grabbing my Poké balls and wallet and sticking them in my pockets. Swift flew over to my shoulder as Firestorm jumped off the bed, ready to go. I was about to run back out the door, but then I grabbed my backpack, just in case I didn’t get a chance to get back to the room. We raced down the hallway and, once again, into the central area of the ship.
“Chibi!” I yelled as loud as I possibly could, not caring if I woke someone up. “If you can hear me, get to the main area, now!” I knew Pikachus had incredibly acute hearing, but would if he was too injured to make it here? I was running back toward the passage to the engine room when I heard several footsteps running toward me.
“Crap!” I said, turning around as fast as I possibly could and running the opposite direction.
“Not so fast!” the lead Rocket yelled. Slowly I turned to see all of them standing behind me with Chibi limp in the lead Rocket’s arms and all of the Rockets’ Pokémon out in front.
Chibi managed to look up at me and said, “*Used all my energy…hope you got another plan ‘cause they quit usin’ the thunder dog thing against me a long time ago and I’m spent….*” They had to have realized that Chibi could absorb electrical attacks and had recalled his only remaining source of power.
“Shut it, you!” the Rocket yelled at Chibi before turning to me. “I thank you for successfully returning Experimental Pokémon Number Nine back to us. Now that we know that it was successful after all, it could be a big help in our current experimentation. That said, you have something else that’s ours.”
“No way you’re getting this back!” I yelled, clutching the remote.
“*Swift and I can battle ‘em!*” Firestorm said excitedly.
“What, no way! You guys can’t take down all of their Pokémon!” I exclaimed.
“*Hey, just cause Chibi may be the strongest of us doesn’t mean we can’t fight,*” Swift said. I turned in surprise, not really familiar with the voice because he didn’t usually talk. I nodded and said, “Okay….”
“If you’re through talking with your Pokémon, then let’s get down to business…Ninetales, attack!” the lead Rocket yelled. The large, cream-colored fire fox that had managed to injure Chibi rushed forward, its nine graceful tails swirling dramatically as it leaped into the fray.
“Niiiiiine!” Ninetales yelled as a sort of battle cry before unleashing a wave of flame upon Firestorm. Swift took flight and entered the fray while Firestorm lunged to the side, barely evading the attack. While Ninetales was dealing with Firestorm, Swift had swooped downward at it, his wings glowing in a Wing Attack. The fire fox turned aside and smacked Swift right along the back with its slender paw. Swift let out a cry as he went flying into the wall with three wide lines of blood staining his feathers.
“I knew this wasn’t a good idea,” I said to myself, realizing immediately that the Ninetales was clearly stronger than the other Pokémon. I quickly pulled out Swift’s Poké ball and recalled him. “Firestorm, you sure you don’t wanna bail?”
Firestorm shook his head and turned back to Ninetales resolutely.
“Enough of this, Ninetales, Fire Spin!!!” the lead Rocket shouted.
I gasped. Fire Spin wasn’t exactly the most powerful flame technique around, but it was nearly impossible to avoid. It completely surrounded an opponent in a column of fire, leaving them trapped within a swirling inferno. The amount of time for which the move could be used in official competitions was limited, as to not injure the Pokémon too badly, but this was no League battle.
“No, Firestorm!” I yelled, but it was too late. He had been caught in the attack and thrown into the blaze. I pulled out his Poké ball to recall him, but the flame blocked the beam of red light that shot out of the center of the ball to draw him into it. I could see his silhouette in the assault, curled into a ball and very nearly collapsed. Suddenly the fire pillar expanded around the middle and the rush of flame burst into hundreds of embers that dissipated into the air. I looked closer and saw Firestorm engulfed in a sphere of flame that burned brightly around his body.
“What the—” the Rocket yelled.
“…Rage…” I said slowly. It was an ability that could only be used when a Pokémon was under great stress, anger, or pain and tremendously heightened a Pokémon’s power. From within the fire, an incredible white light came forth and completely illuminated the immense room. The shielding flame around Firestorm ceased and his body shined with the glow as, before our eyes, he grew over two feet in size and completely changed in shape.
His scales changed to a reddish color, the burns and blisters from the previous attack faded, and his limbs grew more defined from his body. Elongated and thickened, his arms ended in heavy blade claws, and his muscular tail was covered in flame on the end. Finally, his head sprouted a single horn on the back of the skull and his face stretched into more of a dragonish snout.
“He’s…evolved into a Charmeleon…” I whispered in awe. Pokémon evolution was usually triggered by age, as it was a Pokémon’s only way of maturing, although battle experience had a lot to do with it. Firestorm turned back to me, his eyes a different shape with much larger whites surrounding the blue and black center. He was brimming with pride and confidence as he turned back and resumed the battle once more.
The Ninetales was slightly stunned from having its attack broken up like that and its trainer had been in wonder at the sudden burst of power Firestorm had gained, but the Rage had worn off by now and Ninetales knew it and was ready to fight. It crouched defensively and snarled.
“I’m sick of playing around,” the Rocket said, recalling his Ninetales. “Pokémon Training never was my thing and wasn’t how I earned my position with Team Rocket. Besides, only wuss Rockets rely on their Pokémon to get their way.” Here he paused and reached into his pocket to pull out a small metal item, hidden by the darkness, but glinting with a silver sheen as it caught the limited light of the moon shining through the windows. I hesitated and was lost for words as he pointed the gun right at me. “Don’t even think of running and hand over the remote.”
I stared mindlessly at the weapon, completely lost for words as I felt a surge of terror spread like ice in my veins. I was about to mutter something, but then I had a sudden thought that even if I gave him the remote he would probably shoot me anyway. But even still…if I did give it to him, both me and everyone else on the ship was dead. It was right then when I noticed Chibi motioning to me. He kept shaking his head and winking at me. I mouthed the words, “You sure?” and he nodded. And then I got it: he had most definitely charged up a limited amount of power in the past few minutes.
“Well, what’s it gonna be?” he said. “You got five seconds.”
“*Now!!!*” Chibi yelled, channeling all of his power into the Rocket, who slumped to the floor under the attack. Chibi wrenched himself free just as I took off running with Firestorm and followed us.
“Someone tranquilize the damn thing already!” the lead Rocket yelled in fury. Several seconds later I heard the sound of something small and fast whizzing through the air behind me.
“*Gah!*” Chibi yelled, dropping to the ground. I turned and saw a dart sticking out of his left shoulder. I was about to run over to pick him up, but he yelled, “*Get outta here! They need me brought back alive, but they’ll kill you in a second if you wait around here, now go!!!*” I obeyed and ran off, making as many turns around corners as I could, to make it impossible for them to shoot me without catching up first. Repeatedly, I glanced over my shoulder, both to see whether I was being pursued, and in wonder of whether Chibi was alright.
*****
The Rocket that had shot Chibi with the tranquilizer gun ran over and picked him up. He tucked him under his arm as he turned back to his leader, who was struggling to stand after being under the effects of the electricity.
“What should we do about the girl?” he asked. The lead Rocket was about to answer, but one of the others interrupted.
“Let me handle this,” she said, releasing her Electrike. “It’ll be much faster.”
Sure of what to do, the Electrike nodded, raced off into the darkness, and was gone for a little over a minute. The Rockets waited in silence until it ran back, out of breath with strings of electricity leaping from its fur.
“Did everything go accordingly?” its trainer asked. The Electrike nodded. “Was the girl knocked out at least?” At this, the Electrike shook its head. The Rocket cursed and said, “But you’re sure you managed to short-circuit the remote?” The Electrike nodded its head vigorously yet again.
“That’ll do then,” the lead Rocket said as all of the Rockets recalled their Pokémon. He turned to the others and said. “We’re done here. Now let’s go.”
They all pushed a button on their backpacks, which made two small jets burst out of the sides and activated. Energy blasted of the jetpacks in an invisible force as the Rockets lifted off the deck and soared away.
*****
I slowly stood to my feet after the Electrike ran back to the Rockets. It had zoomed toward me using its electricity to run at super speed before firing a Thundershock attack at me and leaving before Firestorm even had a chance to attack. As the weakest of all electric techniques, it hadn’t hurt immensely—sort of like an extremely bad static electricity shock only all over instead of just on a finger or something. The remote that was still in my left hand was sparking, though, and the screen was jumbled. With a sinking feeling, I read the words that had appeared on it: Automatic Timed Detonation Activated.
“What?! But…we got rid of all the explosives!” I yelled, but then I realized the obvious: the Rockets had to have had more of them that they hadn’t positioned yet when I ran off with the controls. After I thought I had thrown all of them off the ship, the Rockets probably just put all of the ones they had left in the engine room afterward.
The screen started to change and slowly formed a sort of countdown, with four minutes and thirty-two seconds left. I thought fast but there was no way to stop the detonation. The engine room was too far away; there was no way I could get them off them ship in time. Only one logical solution remained….
“Come on, Firestorm,” I said, dashing back to the main room as fast I could. On the side of a wall to the right, I saw it. I ran over and pulled the switch down.
I don’t know what I expected, but the S.S. Anne’s emergency alarm put school fire drills to shame. An earsplitting, high-pitched screech blared out of speakers in every single room in the whole ship. I held my hands against my ears as I dashed up a flight of stairs to the captain’s quarters. Halfway there, a tall, gray-haired man in a white suit ran down toward me, yelling, “What is going on?!” as loud as he could to be heard over the noise.
“No time to explain, the ships gonna blow up in four minutes, we gotta get everyone off!” I yelled.
“You sure about that?” he asked, running his fingers through his beard in thought. “How do I know this isn’t some kind of prank?”
“You gotta trust me!” I yelled, thrusting the controls into his hands. “Or else we’re all dead!”
He studied the remote for a second before nodding and running back up the stairs. Several seconds later, the alarm quieted slightly as the captain used the speakers and yelled, “This is not a drill! Get to the lifeboats immediately to evacuate the ship!” Right after that, he ran back down the stairs with me to the central area. Already, people had started to gather in the room, most of them still in their nightclothes and almost all of them yelling in panic trying to be heard over the constant blare. As we ran, the captain pulled out a radio and yelled into it, though I couldn’t hear him and I wasn’t sure whoever he was talking to could either.
We all raced out onto the deck, where the cold air pounded against us as we ambled on towards the back. Apparently, there were supposed to be lifeboats there, since that’s where the captain was leading us, but the racks for storage along the back of the ship were empty, most likely the Rockets’ doing. The captain sort of stood there shocked, but then regained himself, put away his radio, stood on a table so everyone could see him, and yelled instructions to us, which was easier out here since the alarm was louder inside.
“For whatever reason, the lifeboats are gone, so there’s no way off the ship! I’m afraid we’re going to have to jump! Those that can’t swim well, get help from someone who can, and if you have either marine Pokémon or large, flight capable ones with you, release them now!”
After he said this, several of the trainers pulled out Poké balls to release Flying Pokémon and jumped onto the backs of the various aerial beasts to fly off the deck. Those that had Water Pokémon didn’t hesitate to jump overboard and release their Pokémon to help them swim in the choppy waters. Rain was pouring down on us the whole time and the waves in the ocean were rough. Most of the passengers hesitated before finally plunging into the sea. I shot a look at the remote, which now read thirty-nine seconds, before running back to the main area, where more of the passengers had just run out of their rooms and were lost on what to do.
“Quick!!!” I shouted. “We have to jump overboard, now, so use Flying or Water Pokémon to help you if you have ‘em, and if not, just get off the ship and worry about the storm later!”
They followed my instructions and ran out onto the deck, where most of the others had already jumped over the railing. There were only about two hundred people that had gotten out here so far, but there wasn’t time to get all of the rest of them out here. I ran back to the deck and was one of only eleven people who hadn’t jumped yet. The remote now had a bright red fifteen that was flashing as a warning.
“You better get in here, cause it’s gonna get wet,” I said to Firestorm, pulling out his Poké ball and recalling him. I then wondered exactly how powerful the bombs were. There weren’t that many of them, but what if the explosion ended up big enough to hit people in the waters right next to the S.S. Anne? Finally, I shook myself from all of my thoughts and took off running toward the side of the deck without looking back. I jumped up onto the railing, kicked off, and let myself fall.
End Chapter 4
Question: would you guys prefer it if I had Pok�speech as "*Blah,*" or "-Blah,-" ? I'm not sure and ever since someone suggesting it to me, I've been considering it. Do you guys think the asterisks are intrusive?
~Chibi~



A Pokémon fanfic fifteen years in the making.
--------------------------------------------
DeviantArt
Tumblr
Age 34
*yawns* Um, behind you?
Seen December 23rd, 2008
Posted March 19th, 2006
881
posts
18.3
Years
Naw, the asteriky thingies are fine.
Okay, I'm gone. SB
Sign you first and last names here. I grabbed a pen
You know the drill, "your".
As the weakest of all electric techniques, it hadnt immensely
Hadn't immensely what?
Finish it before doing another revamp? You suggest I not try to improve my writing at all for the next few years?
*raised eyebrows* Absolutely not. You should never improve. It's bad for my health. I didn't mean anything by it, I was just annoyed at something at the moment.
Chibi! I yelled as loud as I possibly could, not caring if I woke someone up. If you can hear me, get to the main area, now! I sighed.
Er, I don't think that slightly stressed-out, screaming teenage girls are gonna waste their precious time on some insignificant sigh. A groan maybe, but not a sigh.
Thats it, I said to myself. I dont care what Chibi says, he needs help, I muttered,
Uhhh, I'm lost. I don't think that's neccesary. The two emboldened parts, I mean. One or the other will work just fine. Okay, I'm gone. SB
John 3:16- For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
I love that verse.
Currently unable to Fanfic on-line, but hope to soon.
Er, I don't think that slightly stressed-out, screaming teenage girls are gonna waste their precious time on some insignificant sigh. A groan maybe, but not a sigh.
Uhhh, I'm lost. I don't think that's neccesary. The two emboldened parts, I mean. One or the other will work just fine.
Gwah, both of those errors have a name. An insanely long name, just like the cookies I hand out. The name is: "Chibi was revising but forgot exactly how the sentence started so ended up accidentally adding pointless things onto the end." Now you may have a "I'm getting a cookie because I'm embarassing Chibi with all of her retarded errors" cookie. X3Uhhh, I'm lost. I don't think that's neccesary. The two emboldened parts, I mean. One or the other will work just fine.
*Fixes all*
~Chibi~



A Pokémon fanfic fifteen years in the making.
--------------------------------------------
DeviantArt
Tumblr
Why they took Chibi!? *cries and stops really fast* I liked him, he got some attitude... spoil me, will Chibi be again in the story?, and will he be again with Jade again? crap, I sound like a little kid hearing a horrible story! Anyway, I can see how fast the story is getting better and better each chapter I read... and your precious chapter six is not so away now. Well, the story keeps amazing me, and keeps me reading it all day... and without any word left to say, I'm gone like the wind! *disappear misteriously like in a ninja style* XD.
LOOK AT ME!!!!! Good! now... leave me alone! XD

Go for it, kid!

Go for it, kid!
Awright, I'll spoil ya, but only because everyone else already knows: yes, he'll be back again, and will be with Jade, but I'm not saying in what chapter. I'm glad you think it's getting better, I still don't know why chapter six is so secial, but we'll leave it that it is. ^^ I'll post chapter five maybe sometime next week.
~Chibi~
~Chibi~



A Pokémon fanfic fifteen years in the making.
--------------------------------------------
DeviantArt
Tumblr
Age 34
Wallowing in pity and trying to devise plans to talk to Marli!
Seen October 21st, 2005
Posted June 24th, 2005
44
posts
18.2
Years
Comp[letley pointless, and possibly spammy, but I remember who Legendary Trainer is! He's The Murkrow from Bulbagarden. Sry. I just... again sry. Oh and once agin chibi, Brilliant Chap.
~Umbra
~Umbra

Trainer Card Trainer Sprite Recolors and Badges are all made by me.
(My Avatar Sprite was made by Chibi Pika)
I work at the Request Hotel!
Please Read and Rate my first Fan-Fic (1st Revision)
Haito Adventures Chapter 1: Genesis of a Trainer is up!
Winners of my Tenebra Award:
Legendarian Chronicles~ Chibi Pika
The Quest for the Legends~ Dragonfree
I also review Fan-Fics and Sprites. If you want me to do yours, just PM me.
This is your FIRST fic?!
Whoa!
It's got a very complex plot for a first! Congrats!
What's that? Revisions? Oh, I see.
You seem to have a lot of talent at describing tactics, Pokmon battles, and creating tense and unpredictable situations. You really got me fired up!
Poor Entei...I feel sorry for him(MOM's favourite).
...It's only 10 PM in my country, but I've only slept for, like, 4 hours last night and my eyes are both twitching, I haven't paused from reading your fic and I'm very tired...
I've got a powerful headache and ain't got the attention to point out the mistakes, besides, other people've already done it.
Oh...one thing I really liked was how the hero searches for the bombs using only the light of the remote's display -- a minor detail that shows a lot of creativity.
Keep up the good work, I'm rooting for you!
*flies off*
Whoa!
It's got a very complex plot for a first! Congrats!
What's that? Revisions? Oh, I see.
You seem to have a lot of talent at describing tactics, Pokmon battles, and creating tense and unpredictable situations. You really got me fired up!
Poor Entei...I feel sorry for him(MOM's favourite).
...It's only 10 PM in my country, but I've only slept for, like, 4 hours last night and my eyes are both twitching, I haven't paused from reading your fic and I'm very tired...
I've got a powerful headache and ain't got the attention to point out the mistakes, besides, other people've already done it.
Oh...one thing I really liked was how the hero searches for the bombs using only the light of the remote's display -- a minor detail that shows a lot of creativity.
Keep up the good work, I'm rooting for you!
*flies off*
Gyah, being banned from the computer, I forgot to post this...oh well, enjoy!
Chapter 5: Team Rocket Training
I landed with a splash in the numbing cold waters of the Orange Sea and immediately dove underwater as fast as I could. I swam downward until I was almost sure the bombs had already gone off before kicking back up and surfacing. I gasped for air as I looked up and saw that the explosion in the engine room had apparently been under the waterline. Immense waves of water were created from the force and swept over us, and flames had erupted from that room and were now consuming the higher parts of the ship. Although it wasn’t completely annihilated, as it would have been if I hadn’t gotten most of the explosives off the ship, it was clear that the S.S. Anne was starting to slip downward into the sea’s endless murky depths.
Several of the passengers were submerged by the towering waves and most of the others were having difficulty swimming. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the raindrops were practically pounding on our heads and the normal waves now seemed to be the same size as the ones created from the explosion. I had learned how to swim when I was young, but I sucked when it cane to treading water and I could already feel my legs tiring while I was smothered by the rush of seawater around me.
One of the trainers had released her Gyarados, which growled lightly and allowed her to sit atop its massive, draconic head. Many of those who couldn’t swim well were climbing up the marine snake dragon’s thick, armor-like blue scales and onto its serpentine body, but even the massive cobalt beast found it difficult to navigate the storm with so many passengers. After I considered the fact that the Orange Sea and the islands in the southern parts of it had tropical characteristics, I had a sudden fear that a hurricane was nearing. I wasn’t sure whether hurricanes formed in winter, but the clouds didn’t seem to be swirling with the circular hurricane motion. I struggled to remember what I had learned in school about hurricanes, but wasn’t sure whether the spiral cloud thing happened until later. Wait a minute—if there was a hurricane, then the weather officials would’ve known, and the S.S. Anne wouldn’t have been sailing here. Right?
“Crap, this is getting me nowhere,” I said, attempting to shake all of the thoughts on the storm out of my head and swimming toward the others.
I didn’t notice it until it was too late.
All of the other waves were tiny compared to this one. It rose over all of us, massive and seemingly endless. If I had only seen it earlier, I might have been able to dive under and avoid it, but it seemed to come from nowhere. I was caught in the middle of it and struggled to swim away, but my efforts were pointless—like a lone soldier fighting against an entire army. It thrust me under the surface and knocked the air out my lungs. I kicked upward, but was rapidly feeling a lack of oxygen. I hadn’t really had time to inhale deeply beforehand and had already been out of breath at the time. I swam as hard as I could, but the surface seemed to be miles away, and a constant feeling that I wasn’t going to make it lingered at the back of my mind, hindering my progress.
Finally I surfaced with a splash and gasped for breath, just thankful to be above the water that it took me a second for the full effect of my surroundings to hit me.
It was gone. The storm, the waves, the rain…everything was gone. The others looked up at the sky, amazed at the phenomenon. I swam over, and was about to ask someone what on earth had happened when something caught my eye. I turned to the left to see a rescue boat speeding toward us as though nothing had ever happened.
At first, I was surprised that a rescue boat had arrived so fast, but not after I learned that we were right off the coast of Fuchsia, a beach city on a southern peninsula of Kanto. We were all standing, most of us shivering as well, aboard the white and red rescue ship, which was about five times as large as most recreational boats, but still nothing compared to the S.S. Anne.
A computerized touch pad was passed to me with the names of everyone who boarded. We were evidently supposed to sign our name so the officials could know many had escaped the ship in time and survived so I took the stylus, scribbled my messy, printed signature next to my name again, and passed it on. Before I did though, a particular name caught my eye and I stared long and hard at it to make sure it was really there: Rudy Flaranel. It had a signature next to it.
Rudy was there the whole freaking time and didn’t even bother to let me know that he was?! I mean, there hadn’t really been that many of us who had made it off the ship, how could I possibly not have seen him?! I groaned and walked though the group of huddled people, searching each face until I found him sitting down inside of the boat rather than out on the deck. I walked inside and sat down next to him.
“Hey Jade,” he said brightly before laughing slightly at the look on my face and saying, “Guess I should explain some stuff, huh?”
“Ya think?” I asked, laughing a little myself, the air of anxiety gone just from being with a good friend. “I’d sort of like to figure out this weird coincidence.”
“It’s not a coincidence. You know that Stalker dude who gave out the tickets? He prob’ly told you how he’s way involved with Team Rocket. He actually saw our whole battle against Tyson.”
“What?” I suddenly asked. “You mean he was there the whole time and didn’t help us?”
“I dunno, I think he said he had something to do with your friend showing up. Anyway, he talked to me and gave me the card thing after I got back to Viridian and mentioned that he’d given you one, too. I sort of got in trouble for being gone all day, but I did tell your mom that’d you’d gone on a journey with Swift and that you already had a Charmander and a Pikachu. Anyway, around a week later—”
“Wait, wait, wait…how’d my parents react?” I asked, wincing a little.
“Oh…yeah, um…” Rudy put his hand behind his head and looked a little sheepish. “Let’s just say that before I told ‘em, your mom was like, ready to call the cops and thought you’d been kidnapped or something. I figured it’d be smart not to tell ‘em the whole Team Rocket story.”
“Oh, God, I’m dead,” I muttered. “Someday I gotta like, write a letter and explain that everything’s going okay. Meh…anyway, what happened after that?”
“Oh, yeah…um, my dad let me start on a Pokémon Journey about a week after that, so I made sure to grab the bus from city to city until I made it to Vermilion, and I got there about four days before we left,” Rudy explained.
“But I was at the Pokémon Center the whole time, how could I not have seen you?!” I exclaimed.
“Oh, I never stayed at the Pokémon Center, I spent most of my time looking for Pokémon along the outside of the city,” he replied.
“Did you catch anyone new?” I asked with curiosity.
“Yeah, I managed to find a Pikachu in the Viridian Forest, and well, he obviously doesn’t have super powers or anything, but he’s still pretty formidable,” Rudy said, grinning.
“So anyway, how come I never saw you on the S.S. Anne?” I asked.
“I was looking for you during the Trainer’s Party but couldn’t really find you,” he said. I decided not to mention that I spent most of the evening during the party in my room unless you counted my talk with Chibi. At the thought of Chibi, I ached inside. Team Rocket wouldn’t kill him, but what kind of tormenting things would they do to him to further their other ways of experimentation? While I was lost in my thoughts, Rudy explained something about seeing me while in the sea and trying to get my attention, but me not seeing him. That suddenly reminded me and I instantly asked, “What happened to stop the storm?”
Rudy stopped and gaped at me. “You mean you didn’t see it?”
“No,” I replied a little awkwardly. He had made it sound as though no one in his or her right mind would have missed it.
“It was a little creepy, but way awesome,” he said. “That last big wave was made by this huge…thing swooping down at the ocean. The clouds were blocking the moon and stars, so I couldn’t really see it, but right before it appeared, the storm stopped and the waves calmed down. Right as it dove into the water, the moon showed through the clouds, but even then, all I could really see was the shadow of a dragon thing in the water.
“Sweet,” I said, seriously wishing I had seen it. That said, the conversation somewhat seemed to be over. I stared out the window for a long while before going over to one of the other bench chairs and lying down. I rarely fell asleep very fast; it sometimes took me over an hour to get to sleep, but this time was an exception.
I woke up at about ten to the sound of everyone moving around. I had thought that the boat would just take us to Fuchsia, but apparently, those in charge of the rescue ship had thought it better to take us to our original destination.
I slowly stood to my feet and walked out onto the deck. The boat was docked at a fairly small harbor at the edge of a city. I looked along the side of the boat and saw a ramp leading down toward the dock.
“What’s going on?” Rudy asked, walking over to me and rubbing sleep out of his eye.
“I think we’re here…Midnight Island,” I replied looking out at the city. It was fairly small actually, though it probably seemed that way since I grew up in the big city. Along the outskirts of town, a forest started and looked like it covered most of the island. Out in the distance, on the far north side of the island, I could see a large building, possibly the stadium Stalker had rented, though I wondered why it was out in the woods.
“Hey, everyone!” one of the trainers yelled after walking out of the Pokémon Center. “The lead nurse in there just told me that we’re supposed to go to that stadium way out there,” she said, pointing first to the stadium, and then to a street that led to it. Most of the trainers then started walking alongside the road in that direction.
Looking back at the ship, I asked Rudy, “Do you think we’re allowed to just leave?”
“I dunno, but I don’t really think it matters,” he replied, shrugging.
I then suddenly realized that Firestorm and Swift had been in their Poké balls all night ever since I had to jump overboard. I pulled the red and white spheres out of my pocket and opened them, releasing the two Pokémon.
“Huh, what’re you releasing your Pokémon for?” Rudy asked.
“Well, they’ve been stuck in their Poké balls for a long time,” I replied simply as Firestorm and Swift appeared and looked up at me expectantly.
“*Well, what happened?*” Swift asked immediately.
“*We obviously made it off the ship in time if we’re here,*” Firestorm said, rolling his eyes slightly. “*What I’d like to know is what happened with Chibi before we woke up.*”
“*No, I meant after the battle. Remember, I didn’t see what happened,*” Swift said.
“Tell ‘em, I’d also kinda like to know what was up with the ship exploding and all,” Rudy said, smiling.
I sighed before going into the events of the previous night. From when Chibi and I heard the Rockets in the storage area to when the Electrike initiated the automatic detonation, I explained everything as we walked on toward the stadium. Finally the trees grew sparse and we emerged into a large clearing where the stadium lay surrounded by gray pavement. It was shaped like a wide cylinder in the traditional colosseum way and had tons of windows lining the side of it, most likely where the rooms were. The main entrance at the front opened as we approached, so the hundred or so trainers made their way slowly inside. We were in a large waiting room type place with a desk at the far end and two hallways branching off to the left and right. Large computer panels lined the walls, most likely used for trainer registry during competitions.
Stalker walked in from the left hallway, probably because he heard us all walk in. He surveyed the group before saying, “I know there were more people I gave tickets to. Are the others late or—”
“The S.S. Anne blew up, so some of us didn’t make it off in time,” one of the kids in front said.
“Blew up, huh?” Stalker said. “I’ll have to get the details on that later. Anyway, everyone line up so I can get you all registered.”
At once, the huge mass of trainers all started to shove for a spot close to the front. Rudy and I were around twentieth until a bunch of people cut several others in front of us. One by one Stalker led the kids to his office to get them registered for the rebellion. Finally, after nearly an hour, Rudy was at the front of the line, followed by me. Around seven minutes after his turn, Rudy came back carrying two small cards and some black clothes.
“See you when you’re done,” Rudy said, walking down the other hallway.
“Next,” Stalker said from the office.
“I think you guys had better stay here,” I said to Swift and Firestorm. They nodded and I walked down the hallway and into the room. It was small and didn’t really look like an office. There was a small table with a laptop and various other computer-related devices, a small bookshelf with several books that, at a glance, seemed to mostly involve Pokémon training and legends. The few pictures on the walls seemed to be of mythical Pokémon.
“I’ve asked most everyone this and only the Rudy kid had any info, but what happened with the S.S. Anne?” Stalker asked. I briefly explained to him the string of events involving Team Rocket. Stalker nodded and said, “I figured that Team Rocket would somehow figure out about our team and that’s why I took a couple of precautions.”
“Like what?” I asked, sitting down in a small black chair.
“Well, for one, I didn’t say anything about where our base was or who I was on those cards. Otherwise, Team Rocket could have easily destroyed this stadium, though their whole midnight operation to kill all the team members would’ve been way worse if it had gone through. And second, they can’t know I’m involved in all this, because I’m also on their Johto Force. Trust me, you do not want to be caught as a Rocket traitor. Also, I had a friend of mine hack into the database for the S.S. Anne so that it was listed as sailing to Cinnabar,” he explained.
So that explained what the Rockets said about the base being on Cinnabar Island.
“So as far as the Rockets know,” Stalker continued, “the rebellion against them was stopped in its tracks and the ship was destroyed along with everyone on it. Of course, they’ll probably figure out the truth once their missions start ending up failures.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask this…why didn’t you just have us all take some ferry here from Lavender Town instead of going though all this?” I asked.
“Midnight Island doesn’t have that many people going to and from it, and on top of that, Lavender is a tiny town with hardly any people. Two hundred or so Pokémon Trainers going there at one time would be pretty suspicious,” he explained. “Now enough of that, I need to get you signed up so we can get everyone registered today. Your name’s Jade, right?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Okay, well, you’ll probably need a fake name cause sometimes you’ll fight Team Rocket just as yourself and other times you’ll infiltrate their bases posing as one of them.”
“Oh, okay,” I said, going over several names in my head. After a few seconds, I finally settled on one I had used in games as a kid. “Um, Aly I guess.”
“Right,” he said, typing that before saying, “you can use the same last name unless you want to use a fake one.”
“Nah, that’s okay, my last name’s Arenesa,” I said.
Stalker typed for a while and clicked on several things before asking for my birthday. I answered, “November 12, 2009,” and that seemed to be all the information he needed.
“Right, that’s everything. Now just the uniform,” Stalker said, leading me to another room that was sort of like a huge closet filled with tons of pants, shirts, and optional parts of the Team Rocket uniform like hats. “Of course, you won’t wear this while pretending to be a part of Team Rocket missions. As you’ve probably noticed, they’re almost never in uniform while on missions, but you’ll need to be in uniform while at their headquarters. Pick out what you want,” he said, leaving and closing the door.
I tried on various pants and shirts, all black and bearing the red R of Team Rocket, before finding an outfit that fit well and looked cool. I had managed to find a gray vest, a regular black T-shirt, and also black cargo pants, but my best find was the skullcap. It, like everything else except the vest, was black with an R, but it looked awesome and best of all, I really did not look like myself while wearing it. Though it probably wouldn’t change anything if I were to run into Tyson or one of the other Rockets that knew me, it would help so that everyone else didn’t realize that Jade and Aly were the same person. I put on the clothes and walked out holding my backpack and the outfit I had been wearing before, which was wrinkled and stiff from the seawater. I left the room and walked back into the office, where Stalker was leaning back in his desk chair.
He nodded and said, “I doubt you’ll be discovered as long as you always wear that when acting like a real member of Team Rocket. Now for the picture.” He adjusted a small camera on top of his computer that I hadn’t noticed before. He clicked once and I tried not to blink. He then clicked several times, and one of the machines turned on and made a loud noise as it did…whatever it was meant for. A few seconds later, a small card popped out of a slot on the bottom of it; Stalker handed it to me.
“Cool, a fake Team Rocket ID,” I said, looking at it. It had the Rocket logo on top, my picture on the side, and various pieces of information on the right including my position as a beginner on Team Rocket, my join date, age, gender, and being registered for the Kanto Force.
“Nope, it’s real,” he said.
“You mean I’m really in with Team Rocket?” I asked incredulously.
Keep reading, duh...
Chapter 5: Team Rocket Training
I landed with a splash in the numbing cold waters of the Orange Sea and immediately dove underwater as fast as I could. I swam downward until I was almost sure the bombs had already gone off before kicking back up and surfacing. I gasped for air as I looked up and saw that the explosion in the engine room had apparently been under the waterline. Immense waves of water were created from the force and swept over us, and flames had erupted from that room and were now consuming the higher parts of the ship. Although it wasn’t completely annihilated, as it would have been if I hadn’t gotten most of the explosives off the ship, it was clear that the S.S. Anne was starting to slip downward into the sea’s endless murky depths.
Several of the passengers were submerged by the towering waves and most of the others were having difficulty swimming. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the raindrops were practically pounding on our heads and the normal waves now seemed to be the same size as the ones created from the explosion. I had learned how to swim when I was young, but I sucked when it cane to treading water and I could already feel my legs tiring while I was smothered by the rush of seawater around me.
One of the trainers had released her Gyarados, which growled lightly and allowed her to sit atop its massive, draconic head. Many of those who couldn’t swim well were climbing up the marine snake dragon’s thick, armor-like blue scales and onto its serpentine body, but even the massive cobalt beast found it difficult to navigate the storm with so many passengers. After I considered the fact that the Orange Sea and the islands in the southern parts of it had tropical characteristics, I had a sudden fear that a hurricane was nearing. I wasn’t sure whether hurricanes formed in winter, but the clouds didn’t seem to be swirling with the circular hurricane motion. I struggled to remember what I had learned in school about hurricanes, but wasn’t sure whether the spiral cloud thing happened until later. Wait a minute—if there was a hurricane, then the weather officials would’ve known, and the S.S. Anne wouldn’t have been sailing here. Right?
“Crap, this is getting me nowhere,” I said, attempting to shake all of the thoughts on the storm out of my head and swimming toward the others.
I didn’t notice it until it was too late.
All of the other waves were tiny compared to this one. It rose over all of us, massive and seemingly endless. If I had only seen it earlier, I might have been able to dive under and avoid it, but it seemed to come from nowhere. I was caught in the middle of it and struggled to swim away, but my efforts were pointless—like a lone soldier fighting against an entire army. It thrust me under the surface and knocked the air out my lungs. I kicked upward, but was rapidly feeling a lack of oxygen. I hadn’t really had time to inhale deeply beforehand and had already been out of breath at the time. I swam as hard as I could, but the surface seemed to be miles away, and a constant feeling that I wasn’t going to make it lingered at the back of my mind, hindering my progress.
Finally I surfaced with a splash and gasped for breath, just thankful to be above the water that it took me a second for the full effect of my surroundings to hit me.
It was gone. The storm, the waves, the rain…everything was gone. The others looked up at the sky, amazed at the phenomenon. I swam over, and was about to ask someone what on earth had happened when something caught my eye. I turned to the left to see a rescue boat speeding toward us as though nothing had ever happened.
At first, I was surprised that a rescue boat had arrived so fast, but not after I learned that we were right off the coast of Fuchsia, a beach city on a southern peninsula of Kanto. We were all standing, most of us shivering as well, aboard the white and red rescue ship, which was about five times as large as most recreational boats, but still nothing compared to the S.S. Anne.
A computerized touch pad was passed to me with the names of everyone who boarded. We were evidently supposed to sign our name so the officials could know many had escaped the ship in time and survived so I took the stylus, scribbled my messy, printed signature next to my name again, and passed it on. Before I did though, a particular name caught my eye and I stared long and hard at it to make sure it was really there: Rudy Flaranel. It had a signature next to it.
Rudy was there the whole freaking time and didn’t even bother to let me know that he was?! I mean, there hadn’t really been that many of us who had made it off the ship, how could I possibly not have seen him?! I groaned and walked though the group of huddled people, searching each face until I found him sitting down inside of the boat rather than out on the deck. I walked inside and sat down next to him.
“Hey Jade,” he said brightly before laughing slightly at the look on my face and saying, “Guess I should explain some stuff, huh?”
“Ya think?” I asked, laughing a little myself, the air of anxiety gone just from being with a good friend. “I’d sort of like to figure out this weird coincidence.”
“It’s not a coincidence. You know that Stalker dude who gave out the tickets? He prob’ly told you how he’s way involved with Team Rocket. He actually saw our whole battle against Tyson.”
“What?” I suddenly asked. “You mean he was there the whole time and didn’t help us?”
“I dunno, I think he said he had something to do with your friend showing up. Anyway, he talked to me and gave me the card thing after I got back to Viridian and mentioned that he’d given you one, too. I sort of got in trouble for being gone all day, but I did tell your mom that’d you’d gone on a journey with Swift and that you already had a Charmander and a Pikachu. Anyway, around a week later—”
“Wait, wait, wait…how’d my parents react?” I asked, wincing a little.
“Oh…yeah, um…” Rudy put his hand behind his head and looked a little sheepish. “Let’s just say that before I told ‘em, your mom was like, ready to call the cops and thought you’d been kidnapped or something. I figured it’d be smart not to tell ‘em the whole Team Rocket story.”
“Oh, God, I’m dead,” I muttered. “Someday I gotta like, write a letter and explain that everything’s going okay. Meh…anyway, what happened after that?”
“Oh, yeah…um, my dad let me start on a Pokémon Journey about a week after that, so I made sure to grab the bus from city to city until I made it to Vermilion, and I got there about four days before we left,” Rudy explained.
“But I was at the Pokémon Center the whole time, how could I not have seen you?!” I exclaimed.
“Oh, I never stayed at the Pokémon Center, I spent most of my time looking for Pokémon along the outside of the city,” he replied.
“Did you catch anyone new?” I asked with curiosity.
“Yeah, I managed to find a Pikachu in the Viridian Forest, and well, he obviously doesn’t have super powers or anything, but he’s still pretty formidable,” Rudy said, grinning.
“So anyway, how come I never saw you on the S.S. Anne?” I asked.
“I was looking for you during the Trainer’s Party but couldn’t really find you,” he said. I decided not to mention that I spent most of the evening during the party in my room unless you counted my talk with Chibi. At the thought of Chibi, I ached inside. Team Rocket wouldn’t kill him, but what kind of tormenting things would they do to him to further their other ways of experimentation? While I was lost in my thoughts, Rudy explained something about seeing me while in the sea and trying to get my attention, but me not seeing him. That suddenly reminded me and I instantly asked, “What happened to stop the storm?”
Rudy stopped and gaped at me. “You mean you didn’t see it?”
“No,” I replied a little awkwardly. He had made it sound as though no one in his or her right mind would have missed it.
“It was a little creepy, but way awesome,” he said. “That last big wave was made by this huge…thing swooping down at the ocean. The clouds were blocking the moon and stars, so I couldn’t really see it, but right before it appeared, the storm stopped and the waves calmed down. Right as it dove into the water, the moon showed through the clouds, but even then, all I could really see was the shadow of a dragon thing in the water.
“Sweet,” I said, seriously wishing I had seen it. That said, the conversation somewhat seemed to be over. I stared out the window for a long while before going over to one of the other bench chairs and lying down. I rarely fell asleep very fast; it sometimes took me over an hour to get to sleep, but this time was an exception.
I woke up at about ten to the sound of everyone moving around. I had thought that the boat would just take us to Fuchsia, but apparently, those in charge of the rescue ship had thought it better to take us to our original destination.
I slowly stood to my feet and walked out onto the deck. The boat was docked at a fairly small harbor at the edge of a city. I looked along the side of the boat and saw a ramp leading down toward the dock.
“What’s going on?” Rudy asked, walking over to me and rubbing sleep out of his eye.
“I think we’re here…Midnight Island,” I replied looking out at the city. It was fairly small actually, though it probably seemed that way since I grew up in the big city. Along the outskirts of town, a forest started and looked like it covered most of the island. Out in the distance, on the far north side of the island, I could see a large building, possibly the stadium Stalker had rented, though I wondered why it was out in the woods.
“Hey, everyone!” one of the trainers yelled after walking out of the Pokémon Center. “The lead nurse in there just told me that we’re supposed to go to that stadium way out there,” she said, pointing first to the stadium, and then to a street that led to it. Most of the trainers then started walking alongside the road in that direction.
Looking back at the ship, I asked Rudy, “Do you think we’re allowed to just leave?”
“I dunno, but I don’t really think it matters,” he replied, shrugging.
I then suddenly realized that Firestorm and Swift had been in their Poké balls all night ever since I had to jump overboard. I pulled the red and white spheres out of my pocket and opened them, releasing the two Pokémon.
“Huh, what’re you releasing your Pokémon for?” Rudy asked.
“Well, they’ve been stuck in their Poké balls for a long time,” I replied simply as Firestorm and Swift appeared and looked up at me expectantly.
“*Well, what happened?*” Swift asked immediately.
“*We obviously made it off the ship in time if we’re here,*” Firestorm said, rolling his eyes slightly. “*What I’d like to know is what happened with Chibi before we woke up.*”
“*No, I meant after the battle. Remember, I didn’t see what happened,*” Swift said.
“Tell ‘em, I’d also kinda like to know what was up with the ship exploding and all,” Rudy said, smiling.
I sighed before going into the events of the previous night. From when Chibi and I heard the Rockets in the storage area to when the Electrike initiated the automatic detonation, I explained everything as we walked on toward the stadium. Finally the trees grew sparse and we emerged into a large clearing where the stadium lay surrounded by gray pavement. It was shaped like a wide cylinder in the traditional colosseum way and had tons of windows lining the side of it, most likely where the rooms were. The main entrance at the front opened as we approached, so the hundred or so trainers made their way slowly inside. We were in a large waiting room type place with a desk at the far end and two hallways branching off to the left and right. Large computer panels lined the walls, most likely used for trainer registry during competitions.
Stalker walked in from the left hallway, probably because he heard us all walk in. He surveyed the group before saying, “I know there were more people I gave tickets to. Are the others late or—”
“The S.S. Anne blew up, so some of us didn’t make it off in time,” one of the kids in front said.
“Blew up, huh?” Stalker said. “I’ll have to get the details on that later. Anyway, everyone line up so I can get you all registered.”
At once, the huge mass of trainers all started to shove for a spot close to the front. Rudy and I were around twentieth until a bunch of people cut several others in front of us. One by one Stalker led the kids to his office to get them registered for the rebellion. Finally, after nearly an hour, Rudy was at the front of the line, followed by me. Around seven minutes after his turn, Rudy came back carrying two small cards and some black clothes.
“See you when you’re done,” Rudy said, walking down the other hallway.
“Next,” Stalker said from the office.
“I think you guys had better stay here,” I said to Swift and Firestorm. They nodded and I walked down the hallway and into the room. It was small and didn’t really look like an office. There was a small table with a laptop and various other computer-related devices, a small bookshelf with several books that, at a glance, seemed to mostly involve Pokémon training and legends. The few pictures on the walls seemed to be of mythical Pokémon.
“I’ve asked most everyone this and only the Rudy kid had any info, but what happened with the S.S. Anne?” Stalker asked. I briefly explained to him the string of events involving Team Rocket. Stalker nodded and said, “I figured that Team Rocket would somehow figure out about our team and that’s why I took a couple of precautions.”
“Like what?” I asked, sitting down in a small black chair.
“Well, for one, I didn’t say anything about where our base was or who I was on those cards. Otherwise, Team Rocket could have easily destroyed this stadium, though their whole midnight operation to kill all the team members would’ve been way worse if it had gone through. And second, they can’t know I’m involved in all this, because I’m also on their Johto Force. Trust me, you do not want to be caught as a Rocket traitor. Also, I had a friend of mine hack into the database for the S.S. Anne so that it was listed as sailing to Cinnabar,” he explained.
So that explained what the Rockets said about the base being on Cinnabar Island.
“So as far as the Rockets know,” Stalker continued, “the rebellion against them was stopped in its tracks and the ship was destroyed along with everyone on it. Of course, they’ll probably figure out the truth once their missions start ending up failures.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask this…why didn’t you just have us all take some ferry here from Lavender Town instead of going though all this?” I asked.
“Midnight Island doesn’t have that many people going to and from it, and on top of that, Lavender is a tiny town with hardly any people. Two hundred or so Pokémon Trainers going there at one time would be pretty suspicious,” he explained. “Now enough of that, I need to get you signed up so we can get everyone registered today. Your name’s Jade, right?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Okay, well, you’ll probably need a fake name cause sometimes you’ll fight Team Rocket just as yourself and other times you’ll infiltrate their bases posing as one of them.”
“Oh, okay,” I said, going over several names in my head. After a few seconds, I finally settled on one I had used in games as a kid. “Um, Aly I guess.”
“Right,” he said, typing that before saying, “you can use the same last name unless you want to use a fake one.”
“Nah, that’s okay, my last name’s Arenesa,” I said.
Stalker typed for a while and clicked on several things before asking for my birthday. I answered, “November 12, 2009,” and that seemed to be all the information he needed.
“Right, that’s everything. Now just the uniform,” Stalker said, leading me to another room that was sort of like a huge closet filled with tons of pants, shirts, and optional parts of the Team Rocket uniform like hats. “Of course, you won’t wear this while pretending to be a part of Team Rocket missions. As you’ve probably noticed, they’re almost never in uniform while on missions, but you’ll need to be in uniform while at their headquarters. Pick out what you want,” he said, leaving and closing the door.
I tried on various pants and shirts, all black and bearing the red R of Team Rocket, before finding an outfit that fit well and looked cool. I had managed to find a gray vest, a regular black T-shirt, and also black cargo pants, but my best find was the skullcap. It, like everything else except the vest, was black with an R, but it looked awesome and best of all, I really did not look like myself while wearing it. Though it probably wouldn’t change anything if I were to run into Tyson or one of the other Rockets that knew me, it would help so that everyone else didn’t realize that Jade and Aly were the same person. I put on the clothes and walked out holding my backpack and the outfit I had been wearing before, which was wrinkled and stiff from the seawater. I left the room and walked back into the office, where Stalker was leaning back in his desk chair.
He nodded and said, “I doubt you’ll be discovered as long as you always wear that when acting like a real member of Team Rocket. Now for the picture.” He adjusted a small camera on top of his computer that I hadn’t noticed before. He clicked once and I tried not to blink. He then clicked several times, and one of the machines turned on and made a loud noise as it did…whatever it was meant for. A few seconds later, a small card popped out of a slot on the bottom of it; Stalker handed it to me.
“Cool, a fake Team Rocket ID,” I said, looking at it. It had the Rocket logo on top, my picture on the side, and various pieces of information on the right including my position as a beginner on Team Rocket, my join date, age, gender, and being registered for the Kanto Force.
“Nope, it’s real,” he said.
“You mean I’m really in with Team Rocket?” I asked incredulously.
Keep reading, duh...



A Pokémon fanfic fifteen years in the making.
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“Well you’d have to be to be able to get into their bases undetected. A fake card could be easily found out. But I’m allowed to register new members any time I want, so if I submit you guys’ registrations over time, no one on Team Rocket will get suspicious,” he explained.
“But…” I said, confused, “if all of us joining the rebellion are really registered with Team Rocket, then we are real members.”
“Alright, officially, yes, but technically, no, cause your sole purpose for joining is to screw with Team Rocket, so Rocket traitor is more appropriate a title. Anyway…you don’t have a trainer’s license yet, do you?” he asked.
“No.”
“Then I can’t register your license with a room, so you’ll need this,” he said, handing me another card, slightly smaller than the ID. “It’s card key for a room here. The main battlefield entrance is down the hall and to the right. Only one last thing to handle…I’ll need your ID card.”
After I handed it to him, he opened a drawer in his desk and went through its contents. He pulled a small blue device that looked like some sort of cell phones and plugged my ID card into the bottom. After several seconds, there was a beep and he removed the card.
“Rocket Communicator,” he said, handing it to me along with my card. “All Rockets are issued one, and they’re going to be absolutely invaluable to The Rebellion. They work a lot like cell phones except that they can only call other Communicators.” I suddenly remembered Tyson’s mention of that when he called for reinforcements on one.
“Oh yeah, and since I’m renting the whole stadium and letting you guys stay in for free, you don’t really get paid as much as I had originally intended,” he added.
“Paid?” I asked. It hadn’t occurred to me that we’d be paid to fight Team Rocket.
“Well, yeah. And also depending on how well you fool the Rocket Executive that’s head of you into thinking that you’re a loyal, contributing member, you’ll get paid by Team Rocket, too.”
“Cool,” I said, before walking out of the office. Seeing that I was finished, the next person in line walked down to the room and I went back to the line to get Firestorm and Swift.
“*Whoa,*” Firestorm said, seeing me in the Team Rocket uniform. Swift stared with no recognizable expression.
“Yeah, to be on the rebellion I gotta be registered on Team Rocket,” I said. “Come on, let’s go find our room,” I said, walking down the right hallway past the battlefield and up two flights of stairs.
“249…249, oh, here it is,” I muttered, walking towards the door and touching the card key to the scanner. A small light turned green as the door opened and I walked in.
The room was fairly small, but nice. It was large, rectangular, and had a normal-sized bed by the far wall with a nightstand, a dresser with a TV, and another table with chairs. The window looked out on the forest—I could see nothing but tons of trees with a small clearing to the side and a glimpse of the city and the sea far off in the distance to the south. I threw my backpack in the corner and flopped onto the bed. Swift flew over and perched on a wooden chair and Firestorm sat on the bed with his tail hanging off the side.
“So…we’ve made it here, we’ve got our room, now whaddya say we get something to eat in town and then check out the battlefield?” I asked.
“*You got any money left?*” Firestorm asked.
“Not much,” I admitted. “Hopefully I can make it last until I get paid, or maybe I could ask Stalker to borrow some…? Oh well, let’s get going.”
I changed back into my original clothes in the bathroom. When I was finished, Swift flapped lightly and landed on my shoulder as Firestorm and I walked toward the door. We strolled out the door, along the stairs and past the actual battlefield part of the stadium, where several trainers were already practice battling. For the most part, we walked on in silence, along the path we had originally followed to get to the stadium. I had always liked nature, and I glanced at the dense forests that covered the bulk of the island, the call of the birds in my ears. Finally, we neared the edge of town, and I wandered in search of a Pokémon mart until I found one near the Pokémon Center alongside the dock.
It was not unusual for some trainers to keep small Pokémon outside of their Poké Balls even inside stores, yet I still felt slightly weird, walking around with a Pidgey on my shoulder and a Charmeleon at my side. I perused the first aisle with intrigue, for I had never been in a PokéMart before. There were several rows of items ranging from capture devices to travel conveniences. A display of Poké Ball belts hung from the wall to the right, along with necklaces and other carriers. I had once owned a single-ball necklace, but these ones held six.
“*Do you even need a Poké Ball belt?*” Firestorm asked incredulously, noticing how much I was staring.
“Er, not really,” I replied sheepishly. “I can’t even use the holders on my pants since I’m not allowed to have Poké Balls.”
“*But…*”—he glanced around confusedly—“*should Swift and I not be out while other humans are around?*”
“There’s nothing illegal about you guys just being with me,” I said, although I wasn’t entirely sure of that.
We came to the second aisle, where all the Pokémon food was. I browsed the shelves and found the woodland bird and predatory reptile sections. I grabbed one bag of food for each, staggered slightly with the weight, and proceeded to the register. However, I couldn’t help but gaze longingly at several of the items in the other aisles. Powerful Technical Machines, stronger variations of the Poké ball, power increasing vitamins for Pokémon, hold items that helped in battle…
“*You’re doing it again,*” Firestorm said with a smirk.
All of the battling supplies required a license upon purchase, so I couldn’t have bought anything anyway.
I bought the Pokémon food and walked quickly to the nearest convenience store, buying some bread, various chips, and some cookies when I got there. I stumbled back outside, nearly overloaded with purchases, and handed the less heavy food to Firestorm, carrying the Pokémon food myself.
“D’you mind holding that stuff?” I asked him.
“*It’s nothing,*” he replied quickly.
“You know…” I said suddenly, just remembering something I had been wondering for a while. “When we first met, how could you understand me right away? I mean, Swift and me have been friends for a while so he understands humans, and Chibi was raised by Team Rocket, but you were in the forest, so—”
“*The explanation behind that is lots simpler that you think,*” he said, cutting me off. But then he sort of looked unwilling to tell me. “*You see, I was actually raised by human as well, as a Starter Pokémon. I was given to some kid—his name was Zack—as his first Pokémon. Things went okay for a while; he started a journey and I just sort of did what he said, seeing as I didn’t know any better. Well…one day we were attacked by some older gang kids. I fought their Pokémon and lost, and they messed with me for a while, practicing their Pokémon’s attacks and such on me.” Here he paused, heavily considering his words. “Eventually, I escaped from them and I ran out into the woods right away.*”
“Wow,” I said slowly. I hadn’t realized there had been that much more to his past than I had figured. “But if I was able to capture you, then your old Poké Ball must have been destroyed somehow.”
Firestorm nodded. “*I soon found out that there were a lot of Charmander in that area, so I hooked up with a small group of them west of the city. I spent a long time there, until finally, well…there was the fire,*” he concluded.
I wasn’t really entirely sure what to say, so I didn’t say anything, which felt very awkward. Firestorm proceeded to glance along at the scenery. Another thought struck me, however.
“Firestorm?” I said again suddenly, thinking out loud more than really starting a conversation. “I always learned that when Pokémon evolve, it’s like they’re jumping five or so years on the physical maturity scale, right?”
“*That’s more or less what it’s like,*” Firestorm confirmed.
“Well, in suddenly growing that much, most Pokémon often grow mentally as well and sometimes even have a whole new outlook on life and their trainer…how come you didn’t?” I asked.
Firestorm grinned and said, “*I was wondering when you’d ask that.*” He paused for a moment and said, “*Well…have you ever wondered how old I am?*”
“It’s crossed my mind more than once,” I said truthfully.
“*Well…*” he continued, “*I’m seven.*”
“But…Pokémon age faster in their early years than humans, so in Pokémon years that would make you…twelve?” I asked.
“*I guess,*” he said. “*I dunno how humans age, but…*”
“Well…the amount of battle strength a Pokémon has drastically lowers the evolution age, and you’ve already been trained which means you should have evolved like…whoa, two years ago!” I exclaimed.
“*Exactly,*” Firestorm said grinning.
“Well…that pretty much explains it all…” I said. I could almost literally hear the words that my old Pokémon Evolution teacher had said during class: “In the event that a Pokémon evolves after the typical maturity age, less psychological change comes about, due to it having longer time to learn and grow mentally before the evolution.”
“What about you, Swift? You’ve sure been quiet,” I commented.
“*Oh,*” he said, as though being shaken from a trance. “*I was just sort of thinking…*”
“You know, you’re probably getting close to evolving, would you want to?” I asked.
He considered this for a while. “*I suppose. Even being a Pidgeotto would be nice, but to someday soar as a Pidgeot…*” His voice trailed off.
For about an hour more, we walked back until finally reaching Midnight Stadium again. I left Firestorm and Swift by the battlefield as I ran back to the room to drop off the food. We then entered the field.
“Hey, Jade!” Rudy called out to me. He ran over with Ebony trotting at his side. “It’s about time you got back. Hey, listen…you wanna have a practice battle?”
I turned to Firestorm and Swift. The latter just shrugged, while Firestorm said, “*Sure.*”
“Okay, I’m gonna battle with Swift,” I said to Rudy before telling Firestorm, “Swift hasn’t really ever gotten to battle much.”
Ebony stood lightly on her jet-black paws, ready to fight. Swift released his grip on my shoulder and flew down to rest gently on the stadium floor.
“Alright then…” I said, “Swift, tackle her!”
“Ebony, dodge and tackle it yourself!” Rudy yelled.
Swift pushed off the ground with his talons and shot through the air flying in a fast, tight circle over Ebony before finally diving forward for the impact. In an incredibly agile motion, Ebony leaped aside and lunged back at Swift, smacking him with her paws. He was sent sprawling through the air until he managed to regain control of his flight and soared back toward his opponent.
“Are you okay?” I asked. Swift nodded resolutely, not wanting to screw up his second battle. “Okay, then try a Wing Attack!”
Swift nodded and focused his energy into his wings, which began glowing with a shining white light. He swooped low and sped towards Ebony, ready to strike, when all of a sudden she jumped up over Swift right at the second he changed direction. She landed awkwardly from the failed pounce and was immediately struck by the Pidgey’s Wing Attack.
“Ebony, try to jump on it one more time!” Rudy instructed.
With one swift lunge, the Houndour darted out of the way of a second Wing Attack before leaping back, pouncing on Swift, and tossing him back towards me. He hit the ground hard and struggled to stand, his back clearly aching.
“*I…I don’t want to quit, but…can I stop?*” he asked slowly as though worried I would be disappointed.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, pulling out his Poké Ball and recalling him, knowing that he would hurt less inside it. I then walked over to Rudy and said, “Good battle, but how come you’re so good already, I mean—”
“Ah, well…that’d be Stalker’s doing. He’s been going around and giving short strategy lessons to everyone, you should talk to him. In fact, here he is now,” Rudy explained.
“I wanted to see how Rudy was doing now and I guess you need some help too, Jade,” Stalker said, walking over. “Did you ever take Battling and Strategy in school?”
“Yeah,” I said, leaving out the fact that I had pretty much forgotten everything I had learned in it.
“Yeah, well, seventy percent of battling should be strategy, only thirty percent brute strength,” he continued. “To give you an example…say I had my Charizard use a Flamethrower attack on your Charmeleon. What would you do?”
I paused and thought about it slightly before saying, “I guess since Charizard’s way stronger and faster, I’d have him dodge it and use multiple fire attacks himself, so he doesn’t miss.” Right after I said that, I suddenly realized that had been, in a way, what Ajia had done: battle a stronger Pokémon, yet win through strategy. It was at that moment that I realized exactly how much I needed to learn.
Seeing the look on my face, Stalker said, “Just figured out how complex battling is, huh? You could have a one-on-one battle between two Pokémon and over a million things could happen. What you just said, however, is the basic concept of strategy. Once you’ve got that, you can start learning how to defeat trainers with more powerful Pokémon than you.” It was yet another example of how Stalker’s training was similar to Ajia’s. I wondered if they knew each other.
“Is that all there is to it?” I asked.
“Well, no. See, pretty much all of the Rockets you’ll battle will have stronger Pokémon that you, and you need to master this to beat them,” Stalker explained. “A lot of people think that trainers just stand there and yell the attacks while the Pokémon do all the real work. Although it is true that the Pokémon do all the battling, no matter how smart they are, strategy has to be up to the trainer.
“See, it’s extremely hard for Pokémon to battle and strategize at the same time because they’re focusing on the battle so intently they’re bound to miss a lot of things. But because the trainer is watching it happen from a distance, they can see what both their Pokémon and the opponent’s is doing, making it easier for them to make a strategy that fits into the entire battle and lets the Pokémon never take their mind off the opponent,” he explained.
Firestorm nodded; he had been hanging on Stalker’s every word. I was getting it now. “So…even if an opposing Pokémon is more powerful than yours, if you can out-strategize the trainer, you have a chance at winning?”
“And that chance will only increase with training. Now there are a lot more aspects to battling, like training your Pokémon to attack without command, using hand signals for attacks to not give away your moves to the opponent, and even getting to the point where you don’t have to command for your Pokémon to know what you want them to do, but those all take time and we’ll work on that later. For now, I just want everyone to understand the concept of strategy,” Stalker said. He pulled out a small microphone and held it next to his mouth. I looked around the stadium and noticed several speakers along the walls.
“Listen up trainers!” Stalker yelled, his voice issuing from the walls. Once he had everyone’s attention he said, “I’ve gotten to talk to most of you about strategy, but for those of you that I haven’t yet, don’t worry, I’ll get to you. I just wanted to tell everyone that as long as you practice this, you’ll be able to take on Team Rocket ‘cause they don’t stress strategy in their training. When I think you’re ready, I’ll find a mission for you all to go on.”
“What are we gonna be called?” a voice suddenly called out from the crowd.
“Yeah! We need a team name!” someone else yelled. At once, everyone started talking and yelling out ideas. “How about Team Midnight, ‘cause we’re on Midnight Island!” one kid yelled. “No, we could be the Team Rocket Rebellion!” another shouted. “Nah, that’s too long, just The Rebellion! It sounds more mysterious and harder to track down!” a girl exclaimed excitedly.
“I like the sound of that,” Stalker said all of a sudden with a grin. “All in favor of The Rebellion raise their hand!” Over half the kids shot their hands into the air. “Well, that settles it,” Stalker said, smiling. “In a few weeks, The Rebellion is gonna be a force to be reckoned with.”
End Chapter 5
Well, there ya go, hope ya liked, and please review.
“But…” I said, confused, “if all of us joining the rebellion are really registered with Team Rocket, then we are real members.”
“Alright, officially, yes, but technically, no, cause your sole purpose for joining is to screw with Team Rocket, so Rocket traitor is more appropriate a title. Anyway…you don’t have a trainer’s license yet, do you?” he asked.
“No.”
“Then I can’t register your license with a room, so you’ll need this,” he said, handing me another card, slightly smaller than the ID. “It’s card key for a room here. The main battlefield entrance is down the hall and to the right. Only one last thing to handle…I’ll need your ID card.”
After I handed it to him, he opened a drawer in his desk and went through its contents. He pulled a small blue device that looked like some sort of cell phones and plugged my ID card into the bottom. After several seconds, there was a beep and he removed the card.
“Rocket Communicator,” he said, handing it to me along with my card. “All Rockets are issued one, and they’re going to be absolutely invaluable to The Rebellion. They work a lot like cell phones except that they can only call other Communicators.” I suddenly remembered Tyson’s mention of that when he called for reinforcements on one.
“Oh yeah, and since I’m renting the whole stadium and letting you guys stay in for free, you don’t really get paid as much as I had originally intended,” he added.
“Paid?” I asked. It hadn’t occurred to me that we’d be paid to fight Team Rocket.
“Well, yeah. And also depending on how well you fool the Rocket Executive that’s head of you into thinking that you’re a loyal, contributing member, you’ll get paid by Team Rocket, too.”
“Cool,” I said, before walking out of the office. Seeing that I was finished, the next person in line walked down to the room and I went back to the line to get Firestorm and Swift.
“*Whoa,*” Firestorm said, seeing me in the Team Rocket uniform. Swift stared with no recognizable expression.
“Yeah, to be on the rebellion I gotta be registered on Team Rocket,” I said. “Come on, let’s go find our room,” I said, walking down the right hallway past the battlefield and up two flights of stairs.
“249…249, oh, here it is,” I muttered, walking towards the door and touching the card key to the scanner. A small light turned green as the door opened and I walked in.
The room was fairly small, but nice. It was large, rectangular, and had a normal-sized bed by the far wall with a nightstand, a dresser with a TV, and another table with chairs. The window looked out on the forest—I could see nothing but tons of trees with a small clearing to the side and a glimpse of the city and the sea far off in the distance to the south. I threw my backpack in the corner and flopped onto the bed. Swift flew over and perched on a wooden chair and Firestorm sat on the bed with his tail hanging off the side.
“So…we’ve made it here, we’ve got our room, now whaddya say we get something to eat in town and then check out the battlefield?” I asked.
“*You got any money left?*” Firestorm asked.
“Not much,” I admitted. “Hopefully I can make it last until I get paid, or maybe I could ask Stalker to borrow some…? Oh well, let’s get going.”
I changed back into my original clothes in the bathroom. When I was finished, Swift flapped lightly and landed on my shoulder as Firestorm and I walked toward the door. We strolled out the door, along the stairs and past the actual battlefield part of the stadium, where several trainers were already practice battling. For the most part, we walked on in silence, along the path we had originally followed to get to the stadium. I had always liked nature, and I glanced at the dense forests that covered the bulk of the island, the call of the birds in my ears. Finally, we neared the edge of town, and I wandered in search of a Pokémon mart until I found one near the Pokémon Center alongside the dock.
It was not unusual for some trainers to keep small Pokémon outside of their Poké Balls even inside stores, yet I still felt slightly weird, walking around with a Pidgey on my shoulder and a Charmeleon at my side. I perused the first aisle with intrigue, for I had never been in a PokéMart before. There were several rows of items ranging from capture devices to travel conveniences. A display of Poké Ball belts hung from the wall to the right, along with necklaces and other carriers. I had once owned a single-ball necklace, but these ones held six.
“*Do you even need a Poké Ball belt?*” Firestorm asked incredulously, noticing how much I was staring.
“Er, not really,” I replied sheepishly. “I can’t even use the holders on my pants since I’m not allowed to have Poké Balls.”
“*But…*”—he glanced around confusedly—“*should Swift and I not be out while other humans are around?*”
“There’s nothing illegal about you guys just being with me,” I said, although I wasn’t entirely sure of that.
We came to the second aisle, where all the Pokémon food was. I browsed the shelves and found the woodland bird and predatory reptile sections. I grabbed one bag of food for each, staggered slightly with the weight, and proceeded to the register. However, I couldn’t help but gaze longingly at several of the items in the other aisles. Powerful Technical Machines, stronger variations of the Poké ball, power increasing vitamins for Pokémon, hold items that helped in battle…
“*You’re doing it again,*” Firestorm said with a smirk.
All of the battling supplies required a license upon purchase, so I couldn’t have bought anything anyway.
I bought the Pokémon food and walked quickly to the nearest convenience store, buying some bread, various chips, and some cookies when I got there. I stumbled back outside, nearly overloaded with purchases, and handed the less heavy food to Firestorm, carrying the Pokémon food myself.
“D’you mind holding that stuff?” I asked him.
“*It’s nothing,*” he replied quickly.
“You know…” I said suddenly, just remembering something I had been wondering for a while. “When we first met, how could you understand me right away? I mean, Swift and me have been friends for a while so he understands humans, and Chibi was raised by Team Rocket, but you were in the forest, so—”
“*The explanation behind that is lots simpler that you think,*” he said, cutting me off. But then he sort of looked unwilling to tell me. “*You see, I was actually raised by human as well, as a Starter Pokémon. I was given to some kid—his name was Zack—as his first Pokémon. Things went okay for a while; he started a journey and I just sort of did what he said, seeing as I didn’t know any better. Well…one day we were attacked by some older gang kids. I fought their Pokémon and lost, and they messed with me for a while, practicing their Pokémon’s attacks and such on me.” Here he paused, heavily considering his words. “Eventually, I escaped from them and I ran out into the woods right away.*”
“Wow,” I said slowly. I hadn’t realized there had been that much more to his past than I had figured. “But if I was able to capture you, then your old Poké Ball must have been destroyed somehow.”
Firestorm nodded. “*I soon found out that there were a lot of Charmander in that area, so I hooked up with a small group of them west of the city. I spent a long time there, until finally, well…there was the fire,*” he concluded.
I wasn’t really entirely sure what to say, so I didn’t say anything, which felt very awkward. Firestorm proceeded to glance along at the scenery. Another thought struck me, however.
“Firestorm?” I said again suddenly, thinking out loud more than really starting a conversation. “I always learned that when Pokémon evolve, it’s like they’re jumping five or so years on the physical maturity scale, right?”
“*That’s more or less what it’s like,*” Firestorm confirmed.
“Well, in suddenly growing that much, most Pokémon often grow mentally as well and sometimes even have a whole new outlook on life and their trainer…how come you didn’t?” I asked.
Firestorm grinned and said, “*I was wondering when you’d ask that.*” He paused for a moment and said, “*Well…have you ever wondered how old I am?*”
“It’s crossed my mind more than once,” I said truthfully.
“*Well…*” he continued, “*I’m seven.*”
“But…Pokémon age faster in their early years than humans, so in Pokémon years that would make you…twelve?” I asked.
“*I guess,*” he said. “*I dunno how humans age, but…*”
“Well…the amount of battle strength a Pokémon has drastically lowers the evolution age, and you’ve already been trained which means you should have evolved like…whoa, two years ago!” I exclaimed.
“*Exactly,*” Firestorm said grinning.
“Well…that pretty much explains it all…” I said. I could almost literally hear the words that my old Pokémon Evolution teacher had said during class: “In the event that a Pokémon evolves after the typical maturity age, less psychological change comes about, due to it having longer time to learn and grow mentally before the evolution.”
“What about you, Swift? You’ve sure been quiet,” I commented.
“*Oh,*” he said, as though being shaken from a trance. “*I was just sort of thinking…*”
“You know, you’re probably getting close to evolving, would you want to?” I asked.
He considered this for a while. “*I suppose. Even being a Pidgeotto would be nice, but to someday soar as a Pidgeot…*” His voice trailed off.
For about an hour more, we walked back until finally reaching Midnight Stadium again. I left Firestorm and Swift by the battlefield as I ran back to the room to drop off the food. We then entered the field.
“Hey, Jade!” Rudy called out to me. He ran over with Ebony trotting at his side. “It’s about time you got back. Hey, listen…you wanna have a practice battle?”
I turned to Firestorm and Swift. The latter just shrugged, while Firestorm said, “*Sure.*”
“Okay, I’m gonna battle with Swift,” I said to Rudy before telling Firestorm, “Swift hasn’t really ever gotten to battle much.”
Ebony stood lightly on her jet-black paws, ready to fight. Swift released his grip on my shoulder and flew down to rest gently on the stadium floor.
“Alright then…” I said, “Swift, tackle her!”
“Ebony, dodge and tackle it yourself!” Rudy yelled.
Swift pushed off the ground with his talons and shot through the air flying in a fast, tight circle over Ebony before finally diving forward for the impact. In an incredibly agile motion, Ebony leaped aside and lunged back at Swift, smacking him with her paws. He was sent sprawling through the air until he managed to regain control of his flight and soared back toward his opponent.
“Are you okay?” I asked. Swift nodded resolutely, not wanting to screw up his second battle. “Okay, then try a Wing Attack!”
Swift nodded and focused his energy into his wings, which began glowing with a shining white light. He swooped low and sped towards Ebony, ready to strike, when all of a sudden she jumped up over Swift right at the second he changed direction. She landed awkwardly from the failed pounce and was immediately struck by the Pidgey’s Wing Attack.
“Ebony, try to jump on it one more time!” Rudy instructed.
With one swift lunge, the Houndour darted out of the way of a second Wing Attack before leaping back, pouncing on Swift, and tossing him back towards me. He hit the ground hard and struggled to stand, his back clearly aching.
“*I…I don’t want to quit, but…can I stop?*” he asked slowly as though worried I would be disappointed.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, pulling out his Poké Ball and recalling him, knowing that he would hurt less inside it. I then walked over to Rudy and said, “Good battle, but how come you’re so good already, I mean—”
“Ah, well…that’d be Stalker’s doing. He’s been going around and giving short strategy lessons to everyone, you should talk to him. In fact, here he is now,” Rudy explained.
“I wanted to see how Rudy was doing now and I guess you need some help too, Jade,” Stalker said, walking over. “Did you ever take Battling and Strategy in school?”
“Yeah,” I said, leaving out the fact that I had pretty much forgotten everything I had learned in it.
“Yeah, well, seventy percent of battling should be strategy, only thirty percent brute strength,” he continued. “To give you an example…say I had my Charizard use a Flamethrower attack on your Charmeleon. What would you do?”
I paused and thought about it slightly before saying, “I guess since Charizard’s way stronger and faster, I’d have him dodge it and use multiple fire attacks himself, so he doesn’t miss.” Right after I said that, I suddenly realized that had been, in a way, what Ajia had done: battle a stronger Pokémon, yet win through strategy. It was at that moment that I realized exactly how much I needed to learn.
Seeing the look on my face, Stalker said, “Just figured out how complex battling is, huh? You could have a one-on-one battle between two Pokémon and over a million things could happen. What you just said, however, is the basic concept of strategy. Once you’ve got that, you can start learning how to defeat trainers with more powerful Pokémon than you.” It was yet another example of how Stalker’s training was similar to Ajia’s. I wondered if they knew each other.
“Is that all there is to it?” I asked.
“Well, no. See, pretty much all of the Rockets you’ll battle will have stronger Pokémon that you, and you need to master this to beat them,” Stalker explained. “A lot of people think that trainers just stand there and yell the attacks while the Pokémon do all the real work. Although it is true that the Pokémon do all the battling, no matter how smart they are, strategy has to be up to the trainer.
“See, it’s extremely hard for Pokémon to battle and strategize at the same time because they’re focusing on the battle so intently they’re bound to miss a lot of things. But because the trainer is watching it happen from a distance, they can see what both their Pokémon and the opponent’s is doing, making it easier for them to make a strategy that fits into the entire battle and lets the Pokémon never take their mind off the opponent,” he explained.
Firestorm nodded; he had been hanging on Stalker’s every word. I was getting it now. “So…even if an opposing Pokémon is more powerful than yours, if you can out-strategize the trainer, you have a chance at winning?”
“And that chance will only increase with training. Now there are a lot more aspects to battling, like training your Pokémon to attack without command, using hand signals for attacks to not give away your moves to the opponent, and even getting to the point where you don’t have to command for your Pokémon to know what you want them to do, but those all take time and we’ll work on that later. For now, I just want everyone to understand the concept of strategy,” Stalker said. He pulled out a small microphone and held it next to his mouth. I looked around the stadium and noticed several speakers along the walls.
“Listen up trainers!” Stalker yelled, his voice issuing from the walls. Once he had everyone’s attention he said, “I’ve gotten to talk to most of you about strategy, but for those of you that I haven’t yet, don’t worry, I’ll get to you. I just wanted to tell everyone that as long as you practice this, you’ll be able to take on Team Rocket ‘cause they don’t stress strategy in their training. When I think you’re ready, I’ll find a mission for you all to go on.”
“What are we gonna be called?” a voice suddenly called out from the crowd.
“Yeah! We need a team name!” someone else yelled. At once, everyone started talking and yelling out ideas. “How about Team Midnight, ‘cause we’re on Midnight Island!” one kid yelled. “No, we could be the Team Rocket Rebellion!” another shouted. “Nah, that’s too long, just The Rebellion! It sounds more mysterious and harder to track down!” a girl exclaimed excitedly.
“I like the sound of that,” Stalker said all of a sudden with a grin. “All in favor of The Rebellion raise their hand!” Over half the kids shot their hands into the air. “Well, that settles it,” Stalker said, smiling. “In a few weeks, The Rebellion is gonna be a force to be reckoned with.”
End Chapter 5
Well, there ya go, hope ya liked, and please review.



A Pokémon fanfic fifteen years in the making.
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Well, no replies, meh. This chapter is the best one so far, ya hear!!! (Although I think 12 is better X3) So if you read, please review!
Chapter 6: The Race for Raikou
A blazing inferno surged through the air toward its target, which lunged to the side as a red blur. The source of the assault, the mighty Charizard, surged forward toward its opponent, its muscular blue wings straining with tension. Suddenly, the flaming orange dragon was knocked forward, a large glowing hawk being the cause of its blow. It lunged back towards the dusty tan bird and smacked it with its tail. Flames surged through the air. The dragon was hit!
Firestorm let out a triumphant roar of “Chaaaaar!” as the Charizard, hardly injured at all, but still burned, glided back to its trainer. Stalker grinned, his icy blue eyes having a sort of satisfaction in them. The hawk, Swift, soared down, the red plumes that adorned his head swaying in the air.
“Awesome. Sure it was two on one, and you only hit Charizard once, but hey, seeing as you’ve only been a trainer for a month and a half, that’s impressive,” Stalker congratulated. “The last two weeks have been great for the whole team.”
And what a two weeks it had been. Swift had finally evolved, Rudy’s Squirtle had evolved, Ebony had learned to breathe fire, and nearly everyone had improved incredibly under Stalker’s training.
A young, red-haired boy ran over and frantically asked Stalker if he would watch him battle with a friend. With a slight wave, Stalker left with him. I wandered through the stadium with my two Pokémon until I found Rudy pitting Ebony and Wartortle against each other in a practice battle. Ebony’s speed and agility were even more striking now, but the real improvement was in Wartortle, who had once been Rudy’s tiny Squirtle. He now stood around three feet tall and had sharp claws tipping his fingers and toes. His ears appeared to be feathered and his tail was snow white and fluffy, almost like a cloud. His confident brown eyes radiated determination.
“Hey, Rudy, ready for today?” I asked, beaming.
“You bet,” Rudy said, grinning with anticipation. Stalker had told us a week ago that today we would be put into “mission groups,” groups of three trainers that would go on missions together and look out for each other. The main reason was that today we would be informed of what our first Team Rocket mission to mess up would be.
After he had finished with the red-haired boy, Stalker pulled out his microphone for the announcement. “Alright, trainers, last week you chose whether you wanted to actively sabotage Team Rocket’s missions or infiltrate hideouts.” Rudy and I had, of course, volunteered to actively screw the Rockets’ plans. “The infiltration force will be able to spy and collect data on Team Rocket whenever they want but the active force can only go on missions when the Rockets do, and that’s one week days. Everyone on the active force can take part in making sure that the Rockets’ operation is a failure, but to do that you first have to get put on it, which is why I’ve told you a week in advance.
“You’ll all go to the base on different days to avoid suspicion. When you meet up with Team Rocket, you’ll be put under the command of an Executive, and you’ve got to do everything you can to convince them that you’re qualified for taking part in their operation. First of all, here are the mission groups,” Stalker explained.
He then proceeded to name the groups. Rudy and I had requested being paired together and I wasn’t particularly paying attention to the various names he called out until he announced, “Group four: Jade Arenesa, Darren Dranera, and Rudy Flaranel.”
“Awesome,” I said, high-fiveing Rudy. “Now we just need to find this Darren kid.”
It turned out to be easier that I had thought. Everyone was bustling around trying to find each other, so Rudy and I just walked around yelling, “Hey, who’s Darren?!” until we found him. He looked to be around Rudy’s age and was slightly shorter than him as well. His overall appearance was small and skinny, his dirty blonde hair fell to his ears, and his eyes were a light blue shade. He walked over and said, “You guys must be Jade and Rudy, huh?”
“Yeah, since were gonna be mission partners we might as well get to know each other. Me and Jade are from Viridian,” Rudy said.
“I’m from Pallet Town,” Darren stated. I was slightly lost until I remembered that Pallet was a small coastal town south of Viridian.
“Oh yeah, and these are Firestorm and Swift,” I said. Swift waved his wing as a sort of greeting while Firestorm extended a clawed hand, which Darren shook.
“My Pokémon are Ebony and Wartortle and also a Pikachu,” Rudy said, motioning to the two creatures at his heels.
“Cool Pokémon,” Darren commented. “I’ve just got an Ivysaur and that’s it, but me and him have gotten pretty skilled.”
“Hey,” I said, something occurring to me all of a sudden. “He never told us exactly what the Rocket’s mission was.”
I looked back at Stalker and all of the trainers, most of whom had found their mission partners. He waited a moment before speaking up. “Alright, Team Rocket’s next operation doesn’t really have a set location at this point, but those participating in it are stationed at their secondary headquarters in Celadon. For a while they’ve been tracking the movements of the Legendary Pokémon, Raikou, and you’ve got to prevent that in any way possible. Those of you with big enough Flying Pokémon can just fly there, but for the others, we’ll have to work something out involving my Pokémon,” he explained. “Everyone in groups one through five on the active force outside, everyone on the infiltration force stay here and wait for me.”
I was excited—there wasn’t any other word for it. Fifteen other kids pushed out of the stadium and Darren, Rudy, our Pokémon, and I followed. We emerged outside the stadium and patiently waited for Stalker to come out. I turned to the sound of Poké balls opening and saw several trainers in the crowd releasing large bird Pokémon. I turned back to the stadium and saw Stalker pulling out four Poké balls of his own and releasing his Pokémon from the spheres in a flash of light. One of them, of course, was the Charizard he always used. The large orange dragon emerged from the ball next to Stalker and flexed its wings slightly. I had never seen Stalker’s other Pokémon before, though.
His Dragonite was the second of his Pokémon that I noticed, mainly because it was taller and possibly more majestic in appearance than his Charizard. It was mainly a yellowish-orange color with wide, light yellow scales on its belly and a rounded snout. Though it looked much heavier than Charizard, its wings were smaller—spanning less than thirty feet.
Stalker’s third Pokémon was also a dragon, but it was green scaled and much different than the other two. The Verdegon was between the heights of Dragonite and Charizard, but was more muscled then the two and had external ears and cobalt spikes on its head. Strangest of all however, was that its little finger on each hand was extremely long and had thick azure skin spanned between it and the arm—like the wings of a pterodactyl.
The fourth Pokémon, and the only non-dragon was a Wallarooby, a tall kangaroo-like Pokémon with tan fur, powerful leg muscles, and a long, furry brown tail. Its most distinctive feature, however, was the large pair of feathered wings folded against its back.
“Okay, since Celadon’s halfway across Kanto I’m gonna have you guys fly on my Pokémon to get there. What you’re looking for when you get there is a big warehouse on the southern edge of the city. It should have a sign that says it’s involved with a casino called the Game Corner. A closet in the back corner is the best way to enter their headquarters, but make sure you’re in uniform before you go in,” Stalker explained.
Everyone immediately lined up to ride the Pokémon, and Rudy Darren and I ended up near the end. Charizard, Dragonite, and Verdegon could carry two passengers, and Wallarooby only one, so to fly all of us would only take two trips. About ten minutes after streaking off into the distance, Dragonite returned, followed five minutes after that, by the other three.
“Better get in here,” I said to Firestorm and Swift. The two Pokémon nodded as I recalled them. Rudy ended up riding alone on Wallarooby and both Darren and I were on Dragonite. I climbed up onto the dragon’s back and sat right above its wing joint. Darren climbed on behind me and we were ready.
With a running start and a few flaps of its mighty wings, Dragonite was off. It waited until we were at a decent altitude before holding its arms and legs against its body, with its wings pointed back. I gripped Dragonite’s neck, knowing that we in for some serious speed. At once the orange dragon began flapping its wings almost faster than the eye could see and we accelerated to hundreds of miles an hour. Both Darren and I leaned forward, the rush of the wind whipping at us and threatening to blow us off. It was like being strapped to the top of a jet plane.
After finally getting over the sudden zoom, I asked Dragonite, “How’re you doing?”
“*You askin’ me?*” it replied in a fairly high, yet clearly masculine voice. He turned back slightly to look at me with his large yellow eyes.
“Well…yeah,” I said rather awkwardly.
“*Eh…okay, I guess,*” he said, apparently not wanting to talk much.
“You know Pokéspeech?” Darren asked all of a sudden.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Cool, me too, I took more than just the one semester of it,” he said and I nodded to show that I had done the same.
After several minutes of flying with the constant whoosh of the air, I looked down at the ground below and saw that we were descending upon the largest city I had ever seen. Huge skyscrapers lined its downtown, buildings were everywhere, and its suburbs extended out several miles adding to the overall impression of immensity. Dragonite slowed his speed, stuck out his wings to create drag, and finally lowered us to the ground. Both Darren and I slid off of his back.
“Thanks,” I said, glancing back at the dragon. He nodded before taking to the skies once more.
Stalker’s instructions on where the headquarters were had been unneeded, for Dragonite obviously knew the right building and had dropped us off right at the warehouse. We were on the sidewalk right by it. Darren started walking toward it until I said, “Wait what about Rudy?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said in realization. We waited for a few minutes until finally I could see a Pokémon in the distance getting bigger with every second. Wallarooby surged towards us like a bullet, and from the ground, you could really see how fast Stalker’s Pokémon were. The kangaroo-like Pokémon swung its wings forward and soared toward the ground. It landed twenty feet from us, and Rudy jumped off its back before it returned to Midnight Island.
“Hey Jade, Darren…this the place?” Rudy asked.
“Yup,” I said, motioning to the sign on the front of a large building in front of us. On the bottom of the sign, in small print, it read, “In association with the Game Corner. Storage and prize shipping facility for branches in Celadon, Kanto; Goldenrod, Johto; and Mauville, Hoenn.”
“Here’s the question of the day: how do we get in?” Rudy asked. I wasn’t really sure. There were large double doors on the front for allowing large semi trucks in, but there didn’t appear to be a regular door. Darren walked over to the left and glanced along the side of the structure.
“Here’s a door,” Darren said, pointing to an entrance near the back. We walked over and saw that it was a mechanized door with a card scanner along the right side.
“I bet that’s for our ID cards,” Rudy said, quickly pulling out his card from his pocket and swiping it along the scanner. A light flashed green and the door slid open.
We entered a brightly lit hallway with another door leading to the main part of the warehouse and what appeared to be an elevator at the end. Turns out, it was an elevator and as we neared, it opened. We walked inside and saw that where there would normally be buttons there was another card scanner. Rudy swiped his ID along it and a small gray cover flipped up to reveal a single glowing button. Rudy pushed it.
The elevator doors jerked shut and we descended underground. In just a few seconds the doors opened again and we caught our first glimpse of a Team Rocket hideout.
I’m not entirely sure what I expected but it wasn’t what I saw. In fact, at first glance, you’d probably think “office building.” Fluorescent lights lined the ceiling, seeing as we were underground, and nearly everything was drab and gray. To the side, there was a man at a central computer desk and several other Rockets were walking about, all of them in uniform.
“Crap, we forgot to change,” I said. I looked around, spotted the nearest bathrooms, and pointed them out to Rudy and Darren. Checking to make sure that no one saw us, we made our way over. Several minutes later we walked out, our previous clothes in our backpacks, and now dressed as Rockets.
“So…what do we do now?” I asked stupidly.
“Eh…I dunno, maybe we could ask that guy,” Darren said, pointing to the man at the main desk. We walked over.
“Uh…hey, yeah, we’re new here and—” Rudy started.
“Registration, first door on the left,” he said, not even bothering to look up from the book he was reading.
“Er…okay, thanks,” I said, awkwardly as we walked off. I glanced along several doors in the direction that he had pointed and found a door that said “Beginning Member Registration Office, Department head: Agent: 1405.” I knocked.
“Just a sec!” a voice called out from inside. We waited for about a minute until the door opened and someone whom I was pretty sure was on The Rebellion walked out. We walked inside and saw a man in his early thirties with short black hair and dressed in uniform, of course, seated at a desk with a laptop. “You new also?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Rudy said.
“I’ve had to deal with tons of new recruits today…” he muttered before asking, “can I see your ID’s?”
I dug through my wallet, retrieved my card, and handed it to him right after Rudy and Darren. The Rocket swiped all three of them, one after another, along a card scanner hooked up to his computer. “Andrew, Patrick, and Aly…all three of you joined on the eighth of December. Were you given a briefing when you joined?”
“Uh, no…” I said.
He rolled his eyes and said, “Nobody ever explains anything anymore…Okay, basically, Team Rocket is divided into a few main groups that determine what members do. There’s the Main Operation Division, the Technology Division, the Genetics Division, the Infiltration Division, the Office Division, and then Executives who oversee everything. Almost all beginners end up on the Main Operation Division until they’re evaluated and tested to be put on one of the others. Also, this is just the office floor; the main floor is downstairs where the commons, snack bar, stadium, other departments, and member rooms are. Typically, only Executives or those in the Office group get rooms, though. And that’s pretty much all you need to know now. Do you three train Pokémon?”
“Yeah,” Rudy said.
“Okay, as beginners you’ll be put under the head of an Executive who either handles Pokémon Trainers or non-trainers. So…” he said focusing on his computer screen and clicking several times, “all three of you’ll be under an Executive named Karen. Her agent number is 1835 and she should be in the stadium. If she isn’t you could try her office.” He grabbed a pen and quickly wrote something on a sticky note and handed it to Rudy. “Only one last thing to handle…”
Chapter 6: The Race for Raikou
A blazing inferno surged through the air toward its target, which lunged to the side as a red blur. The source of the assault, the mighty Charizard, surged forward toward its opponent, its muscular blue wings straining with tension. Suddenly, the flaming orange dragon was knocked forward, a large glowing hawk being the cause of its blow. It lunged back towards the dusty tan bird and smacked it with its tail. Flames surged through the air. The dragon was hit!
Firestorm let out a triumphant roar of “Chaaaaar!” as the Charizard, hardly injured at all, but still burned, glided back to its trainer. Stalker grinned, his icy blue eyes having a sort of satisfaction in them. The hawk, Swift, soared down, the red plumes that adorned his head swaying in the air.
“Awesome. Sure it was two on one, and you only hit Charizard once, but hey, seeing as you’ve only been a trainer for a month and a half, that’s impressive,” Stalker congratulated. “The last two weeks have been great for the whole team.”
And what a two weeks it had been. Swift had finally evolved, Rudy’s Squirtle had evolved, Ebony had learned to breathe fire, and nearly everyone had improved incredibly under Stalker’s training.
A young, red-haired boy ran over and frantically asked Stalker if he would watch him battle with a friend. With a slight wave, Stalker left with him. I wandered through the stadium with my two Pokémon until I found Rudy pitting Ebony and Wartortle against each other in a practice battle. Ebony’s speed and agility were even more striking now, but the real improvement was in Wartortle, who had once been Rudy’s tiny Squirtle. He now stood around three feet tall and had sharp claws tipping his fingers and toes. His ears appeared to be feathered and his tail was snow white and fluffy, almost like a cloud. His confident brown eyes radiated determination.
“Hey, Rudy, ready for today?” I asked, beaming.
“You bet,” Rudy said, grinning with anticipation. Stalker had told us a week ago that today we would be put into “mission groups,” groups of three trainers that would go on missions together and look out for each other. The main reason was that today we would be informed of what our first Team Rocket mission to mess up would be.
After he had finished with the red-haired boy, Stalker pulled out his microphone for the announcement. “Alright, trainers, last week you chose whether you wanted to actively sabotage Team Rocket’s missions or infiltrate hideouts.” Rudy and I had, of course, volunteered to actively screw the Rockets’ plans. “The infiltration force will be able to spy and collect data on Team Rocket whenever they want but the active force can only go on missions when the Rockets do, and that’s one week days. Everyone on the active force can take part in making sure that the Rockets’ operation is a failure, but to do that you first have to get put on it, which is why I’ve told you a week in advance.
“You’ll all go to the base on different days to avoid suspicion. When you meet up with Team Rocket, you’ll be put under the command of an Executive, and you’ve got to do everything you can to convince them that you’re qualified for taking part in their operation. First of all, here are the mission groups,” Stalker explained.
He then proceeded to name the groups. Rudy and I had requested being paired together and I wasn’t particularly paying attention to the various names he called out until he announced, “Group four: Jade Arenesa, Darren Dranera, and Rudy Flaranel.”
“Awesome,” I said, high-fiveing Rudy. “Now we just need to find this Darren kid.”
It turned out to be easier that I had thought. Everyone was bustling around trying to find each other, so Rudy and I just walked around yelling, “Hey, who’s Darren?!” until we found him. He looked to be around Rudy’s age and was slightly shorter than him as well. His overall appearance was small and skinny, his dirty blonde hair fell to his ears, and his eyes were a light blue shade. He walked over and said, “You guys must be Jade and Rudy, huh?”
“Yeah, since were gonna be mission partners we might as well get to know each other. Me and Jade are from Viridian,” Rudy said.
“I’m from Pallet Town,” Darren stated. I was slightly lost until I remembered that Pallet was a small coastal town south of Viridian.
“Oh yeah, and these are Firestorm and Swift,” I said. Swift waved his wing as a sort of greeting while Firestorm extended a clawed hand, which Darren shook.
“My Pokémon are Ebony and Wartortle and also a Pikachu,” Rudy said, motioning to the two creatures at his heels.
“Cool Pokémon,” Darren commented. “I’ve just got an Ivysaur and that’s it, but me and him have gotten pretty skilled.”
“Hey,” I said, something occurring to me all of a sudden. “He never told us exactly what the Rocket’s mission was.”
I looked back at Stalker and all of the trainers, most of whom had found their mission partners. He waited a moment before speaking up. “Alright, Team Rocket’s next operation doesn’t really have a set location at this point, but those participating in it are stationed at their secondary headquarters in Celadon. For a while they’ve been tracking the movements of the Legendary Pokémon, Raikou, and you’ve got to prevent that in any way possible. Those of you with big enough Flying Pokémon can just fly there, but for the others, we’ll have to work something out involving my Pokémon,” he explained. “Everyone in groups one through five on the active force outside, everyone on the infiltration force stay here and wait for me.”
I was excited—there wasn’t any other word for it. Fifteen other kids pushed out of the stadium and Darren, Rudy, our Pokémon, and I followed. We emerged outside the stadium and patiently waited for Stalker to come out. I turned to the sound of Poké balls opening and saw several trainers in the crowd releasing large bird Pokémon. I turned back to the stadium and saw Stalker pulling out four Poké balls of his own and releasing his Pokémon from the spheres in a flash of light. One of them, of course, was the Charizard he always used. The large orange dragon emerged from the ball next to Stalker and flexed its wings slightly. I had never seen Stalker’s other Pokémon before, though.
His Dragonite was the second of his Pokémon that I noticed, mainly because it was taller and possibly more majestic in appearance than his Charizard. It was mainly a yellowish-orange color with wide, light yellow scales on its belly and a rounded snout. Though it looked much heavier than Charizard, its wings were smaller—spanning less than thirty feet.
Stalker’s third Pokémon was also a dragon, but it was green scaled and much different than the other two. The Verdegon was between the heights of Dragonite and Charizard, but was more muscled then the two and had external ears and cobalt spikes on its head. Strangest of all however, was that its little finger on each hand was extremely long and had thick azure skin spanned between it and the arm—like the wings of a pterodactyl.
The fourth Pokémon, and the only non-dragon was a Wallarooby, a tall kangaroo-like Pokémon with tan fur, powerful leg muscles, and a long, furry brown tail. Its most distinctive feature, however, was the large pair of feathered wings folded against its back.
“Okay, since Celadon’s halfway across Kanto I’m gonna have you guys fly on my Pokémon to get there. What you’re looking for when you get there is a big warehouse on the southern edge of the city. It should have a sign that says it’s involved with a casino called the Game Corner. A closet in the back corner is the best way to enter their headquarters, but make sure you’re in uniform before you go in,” Stalker explained.
Everyone immediately lined up to ride the Pokémon, and Rudy Darren and I ended up near the end. Charizard, Dragonite, and Verdegon could carry two passengers, and Wallarooby only one, so to fly all of us would only take two trips. About ten minutes after streaking off into the distance, Dragonite returned, followed five minutes after that, by the other three.
“Better get in here,” I said to Firestorm and Swift. The two Pokémon nodded as I recalled them. Rudy ended up riding alone on Wallarooby and both Darren and I were on Dragonite. I climbed up onto the dragon’s back and sat right above its wing joint. Darren climbed on behind me and we were ready.
With a running start and a few flaps of its mighty wings, Dragonite was off. It waited until we were at a decent altitude before holding its arms and legs against its body, with its wings pointed back. I gripped Dragonite’s neck, knowing that we in for some serious speed. At once the orange dragon began flapping its wings almost faster than the eye could see and we accelerated to hundreds of miles an hour. Both Darren and I leaned forward, the rush of the wind whipping at us and threatening to blow us off. It was like being strapped to the top of a jet plane.
After finally getting over the sudden zoom, I asked Dragonite, “How’re you doing?”
“*You askin’ me?*” it replied in a fairly high, yet clearly masculine voice. He turned back slightly to look at me with his large yellow eyes.
“Well…yeah,” I said rather awkwardly.
“*Eh…okay, I guess,*” he said, apparently not wanting to talk much.
“You know Pokéspeech?” Darren asked all of a sudden.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Cool, me too, I took more than just the one semester of it,” he said and I nodded to show that I had done the same.
After several minutes of flying with the constant whoosh of the air, I looked down at the ground below and saw that we were descending upon the largest city I had ever seen. Huge skyscrapers lined its downtown, buildings were everywhere, and its suburbs extended out several miles adding to the overall impression of immensity. Dragonite slowed his speed, stuck out his wings to create drag, and finally lowered us to the ground. Both Darren and I slid off of his back.
“Thanks,” I said, glancing back at the dragon. He nodded before taking to the skies once more.
Stalker’s instructions on where the headquarters were had been unneeded, for Dragonite obviously knew the right building and had dropped us off right at the warehouse. We were on the sidewalk right by it. Darren started walking toward it until I said, “Wait what about Rudy?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said in realization. We waited for a few minutes until finally I could see a Pokémon in the distance getting bigger with every second. Wallarooby surged towards us like a bullet, and from the ground, you could really see how fast Stalker’s Pokémon were. The kangaroo-like Pokémon swung its wings forward and soared toward the ground. It landed twenty feet from us, and Rudy jumped off its back before it returned to Midnight Island.
“Hey Jade, Darren…this the place?” Rudy asked.
“Yup,” I said, motioning to the sign on the front of a large building in front of us. On the bottom of the sign, in small print, it read, “In association with the Game Corner. Storage and prize shipping facility for branches in Celadon, Kanto; Goldenrod, Johto; and Mauville, Hoenn.”
“Here’s the question of the day: how do we get in?” Rudy asked. I wasn’t really sure. There were large double doors on the front for allowing large semi trucks in, but there didn’t appear to be a regular door. Darren walked over to the left and glanced along the side of the structure.
“Here’s a door,” Darren said, pointing to an entrance near the back. We walked over and saw that it was a mechanized door with a card scanner along the right side.
“I bet that’s for our ID cards,” Rudy said, quickly pulling out his card from his pocket and swiping it along the scanner. A light flashed green and the door slid open.
We entered a brightly lit hallway with another door leading to the main part of the warehouse and what appeared to be an elevator at the end. Turns out, it was an elevator and as we neared, it opened. We walked inside and saw that where there would normally be buttons there was another card scanner. Rudy swiped his ID along it and a small gray cover flipped up to reveal a single glowing button. Rudy pushed it.
The elevator doors jerked shut and we descended underground. In just a few seconds the doors opened again and we caught our first glimpse of a Team Rocket hideout.
I’m not entirely sure what I expected but it wasn’t what I saw. In fact, at first glance, you’d probably think “office building.” Fluorescent lights lined the ceiling, seeing as we were underground, and nearly everything was drab and gray. To the side, there was a man at a central computer desk and several other Rockets were walking about, all of them in uniform.
“Crap, we forgot to change,” I said. I looked around, spotted the nearest bathrooms, and pointed them out to Rudy and Darren. Checking to make sure that no one saw us, we made our way over. Several minutes later we walked out, our previous clothes in our backpacks, and now dressed as Rockets.
“So…what do we do now?” I asked stupidly.
“Eh…I dunno, maybe we could ask that guy,” Darren said, pointing to the man at the main desk. We walked over.
“Uh…hey, yeah, we’re new here and—” Rudy started.
“Registration, first door on the left,” he said, not even bothering to look up from the book he was reading.
“Er…okay, thanks,” I said, awkwardly as we walked off. I glanced along several doors in the direction that he had pointed and found a door that said “Beginning Member Registration Office, Department head: Agent: 1405.” I knocked.
“Just a sec!” a voice called out from inside. We waited for about a minute until the door opened and someone whom I was pretty sure was on The Rebellion walked out. We walked inside and saw a man in his early thirties with short black hair and dressed in uniform, of course, seated at a desk with a laptop. “You new also?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Rudy said.
“I’ve had to deal with tons of new recruits today…” he muttered before asking, “can I see your ID’s?”
I dug through my wallet, retrieved my card, and handed it to him right after Rudy and Darren. The Rocket swiped all three of them, one after another, along a card scanner hooked up to his computer. “Andrew, Patrick, and Aly…all three of you joined on the eighth of December. Were you given a briefing when you joined?”
“Uh, no…” I said.
He rolled his eyes and said, “Nobody ever explains anything anymore…Okay, basically, Team Rocket is divided into a few main groups that determine what members do. There’s the Main Operation Division, the Technology Division, the Genetics Division, the Infiltration Division, the Office Division, and then Executives who oversee everything. Almost all beginners end up on the Main Operation Division until they’re evaluated and tested to be put on one of the others. Also, this is just the office floor; the main floor is downstairs where the commons, snack bar, stadium, other departments, and member rooms are. Typically, only Executives or those in the Office group get rooms, though. And that’s pretty much all you need to know now. Do you three train Pokémon?”
“Yeah,” Rudy said.
“Okay, as beginners you’ll be put under the head of an Executive who either handles Pokémon Trainers or non-trainers. So…” he said focusing on his computer screen and clicking several times, “all three of you’ll be under an Executive named Karen. Her agent number is 1835 and she should be in the stadium. If she isn’t you could try her office.” He grabbed a pen and quickly wrote something on a sticky note and handed it to Rudy. “Only one last thing to handle…”



A Pokémon fanfic fifteen years in the making.
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The Rocket opened a drawer in his desk and went through its contents. He pulled out three small blue devices that looked like some sort of cell phones and plugged our ID cards into the bottom. After several seconds, there was a beep and he removed the cards.
“Rocket Communicators,” he said, handing one to each of us along with our cards. “All members are issued one. They work a lot like cell phones except that they can only call other Communicators.” I suddenly remembered that Tyson had mentioned that when he called for reinforcements on one. “Ever since a few months ago, new members can’t carry guns. Too many gang retards were shootin’ each other. You get one once you get to a certain position. And that’s everything.”
“Okay, thanks,” I said as we stood and walked out the door. I glanced at the paper the Rocket had given Rudy. “So…we go down some stairs in a hallway and—oh, that’s right there.”
We had turned a corner and were in a short hallway that ended in a flight of stairs that descended to the main floor. Sounds of numerous conversations reached us from the below level. We stepped down the staircase and I was surprised at the incredible contrast between the two floors.
The main level was huge, for one. We were in the commons, where many of the less professional and most likely lower-ranking members gathered. It was an immense area with a high ceiling and overall loose appearance, like that of some high school hangout. Wide hallways led to the other areas, and there was a section that looked almost like the inside of a fast-food restaurant.
“Whoa, not what I was expecting, but way cool,” said Rudy grinning.
“Think we should go find Karen?” I asked.
“Yeah, why not?” Rudy replied.
After looking around for a bit, we quickly found the stadium, which was right in the first hall. It looked almost identical to the one in Midnight Stadium, except that there weren’t any audience seats. Several Rockets were training their Pokémon and I noticed almost right away what Stalker had said about Rockets stressing physical strength in their training.
“Hey, is anyone here an Executive named Karen?” Rudy shouted all of a sudden.
A young woman in who looked to be in her early twenties turned from her training and said, “That’d be me.” She recalled her Pokémon and walked over. She was fairly tall and had long black hair and a stern expression that seemed to advertise that she was an experienced Rocket. “What do you need?” she asked.
Rudy handed her the paper the Rocket had given him and she read it quickly.
“New kids, huh?” she said. “Guess I’ll be in charge of you for a while. Can I see all of your Pokémon?”
We each pulled out all of our Poké balls and released Swift, Firestorm, Ebony, Wartortle, Pikachu, and Ivysaur. I looked at Rudy’s Pikachu for the first time; it was weird seeing a normal Pikachu that didn’t have long spiky fur. As for Darren’s Ivysaur, it was about three feet tall and looked primarily like a small bluish-green, tailless dinosaur with darker blue spots and rough scales. Halfway down its back was a bulb that had opened to reveal a large closed flower bud. Karen looked over our Pokémon for a few seconds noting certain features that indicated their strength.
“Pretty good for being new,” she said. “Pokémon Training Rockets are judged mainly on their training skills. Since this says you only joined two weeks ago, right now, your ranking is near the bottom, but once you’re evaluated, it’ll probably rise quite a bit.”
“How’s the ranking work?” Darren asked.
“He didn’t explain it did he? Well basically there are five levels to the ranking. You start out on level five and with a certain number, based on how many others are in that level. With each promotion, the number is lowered until you’re on number one, then you’d move to the end of level four. When you get moved to level one, you’re an Executive, and if you’re on number one, level one, then you’re a Commander, but only Johto currently has a Commander. Here, let me see one of your ID’s”
Darren had his out first. He handed it to her and she inserted it into a device she pulled out of her pocket. “Your current ranking is K5:572. The K stands for Kanto Rocket. Often you’ll find that your ranking is lowered seemingly for no reason, and it simply means that someone else moved in front of you. Every now and then, those who join only for the hell of it and don’t do anything are fired, and if they reveal anything about us to anyone else, we hunt ‘em down. Anyways, I’ll evaluate you guys later today or tomorrow. For now, get used to the way things work around here.”
I grinned at Rudy and Darren. So far, everything had gone perfectly. Once we were evaluated, we could begin training as Rockets. Now all that mattered was getting on the Raikou mission.
I glanced at the scenery from the back of a pickup truck, the forests slowly blending into chaparral as we continued through the wilderness. The past two days had been packed but it was all well worth it. We had been evaluated the next day and all three of us had risen in rank by over two hundred points. After a hard training session the second day, I had asked Karen about the Raikou mission since neither Rudy nor Darren had wanted to. She had explained that it was part of Team Rocket’s legendary project and, after some persuasion, had agreed to let us come on it as our first mission.
I looked back at the long line of similar trucks behind us, some carrying Rockets, others, machinery. “How come there are so many of us on this mission?” I asked.
“November’s Entei mission was a fiasco and we had to call for help from the Johto force, which was embarrassing enough seeing as they’re stronger than us Kantoans, but on top of it all, some Johto Force kid caught Entei, which didn’t make us look good in front of the boss. We’ve been tracking Raikou for a while now ever since it crossed over into Kanto and have set aside a spot up ahead. We’re gonna lure it there and then hit it with everything we’ve got.”
I was silent for the next few minutes, staring off at nothing and lost in my thoughts. In a way, I felt sorry for Raikou and only hoped that we’d be able to save it.
The trucks emerged into a clearing that had obviously been stripped of trees recently. Each vehicle stopped around the clearing, making a large half-circle. Rockets began climbing out the trucks, and I did the same. I walked over to where Rudy and Darren were and continued to watch the Rockets’ operation in wonder.
Every other truck in the arrangement carried a large piece of silver machinery. Large panels opened on the back of each, revealing tall antennas that shot up into the air. Strings of electricity sparked and crackled from the tops before a web of lightning formed itself between all of the mechanisms.
“What’s all that for?” I asked Karen, who was standing right next to us.
“Raikou’ll be tougher than Entei was. It’s able to create force fields with its energy, but if it tries that stunt here, it’ll be sorry,” she replied coolly.
I leaned over and whispered to Rudy, “I have no idea what we’re gonna do about this, we need to find others on The Rebellion.” He nodded, and I proceeded to glance at each of the numerous Rockets. I noticed one guy whom I had seen before on Midnight Island, but whose name I didn’t know. I strolled over, trying not to attract any attention and whispered, “Do you have any plans as to how we’re gonna stop ‘em?”
“I’ve got some ideas, but I don’t know which ones of us are on The Rebellion besides a few of my friends,” he replied quietly. “If you can find some more of us, then slip back into the trees and I’ll explain.”
I sighed in my mind, knowing it would be no easy task. I was terrible with remembering people and out of the whole Rebellion, knew only Rudy, Darren, and Stalker’s names. I walked quickly back to Rudy and Darren and asked, “Do you two know any others on The Rebellion?” They both shook their heads.
“Crap,” I muttered before saying, “come on, at least help me recognize some of the others.”
We walked around the ring of Rockets occasionally spotting some kids we had seen before and telling them to come with us. By the end, we had only found about ten people, but we walked back to the other guy anyway, making sure not to be seen by the real Rockets. When he saw us coming, he motioned to us to follow him back toward the trees.
“Alright, everyone, it definitely seems like we’re gonna have a heck of a time keeping them from catching Raikou,” he started.
“What I don’t get is why Stalker didn’t come with us!” a younger boy yelled.
“He’s well known with Team Rocket, people would recognize him,” a girl replied.
All at once, everyone began yelling random things involving us failing and being caught by Team Rocket until finally, an older boy standing by the one who had called us there spoke up.
“Shut up, everyone!” he yelled. “We need to be quiet.” He shot a glance at the Rockets and continued. “Ryan here was put in charge, he knows what he’s doing, so just listen!”
“Thanks, Aaron,” Ryan said. He then addressed us, “The only chance we’ve got is messing up those machines. I’ve got some good inside info, and I know that all the Rockets are gonna be focusing on using their Pokémon to trap Raikou here. If we can just sabotage the electric force field, Raikou can escape, but we can’t be seen,” he explained. “Alright, let’s go back.”
We walked back toward the Rockets and merged into the crowd. A little over a minute later, a man shouted through a megaphone, “Get ready, trainers, at your posts, others, tranquilizers and stun rays ready, technicians, make sure the Thunder Field’s in working order. Let’s do this!”
I stared off into the distance and saw a small, yellow, glowing, spiky blur racing towards us. When it stopped, I saw that it was a Jolteon, one of the fastest Pokémon ever discovered. “*Look out, he’s coming! The others are back behind him!*” the Jolteon yelled, its fox-like body shaking with exhaustion and its yellow fur standing on end. It turned its head and held its long, rabbit-like ears straight up, listening for something only it could hear. It then fired a burst of electricity into its legs and streaked back in a flash.
I felt a drop of icy cold water on my hand and shivered. It had been so sunny that day, I had almost forgotten it was the middle of winter. I looked up into the sky and saw a thick layer of gray storm clouds covering the sky. Right before my eyes, the clouds thickened and stretched closer to the ground, enveloping the surrounding in an eerie blanket of fog. With a sudden realization, I remembered reading that Raikou had the ability to create thunderclouds. An immense flash of light to the west caught my attention and I looked out at the horizon. Bolts of electricity flew above the trees and were surging closer to us unbelievably quickly. It was right then that the Legendary Johto Beast of Thunder broke through the trees.
A massive saber-toothed tiger seemingly flew over the ground before stopping suddenly in front of us and glaring back at its pursuers. Its gigantic, muscular frame tensed up beneath a thick coat of vibrant golden and black striped fur. It let loose a mighty roar that shook the ground, and all of the Rockets’ Pokémon that had chased it here recoiled in terror. Raikou swiveled its neck and stared at the Rockets and us with flaming red-brown eyes that seemed to bore right through one’s soul. Everything about its head, from its steely blue whiskers to its midnight black ears and face gave off an impression of pure power.
After a few seconds of menacing silence, it twitched its stiff, blue, lightning bolt shaped tail and lunged back the way it came, its thick white claws kicking up chunks of mud.
“Now! Don’t let it escape!” the lead Rocket yelled.
Right that second, the hundreds of Rockets ran toward the opening and released all of their Pokémon in a flash that lit up the whole area. The army of Pokémon stood guarding the only escape from the trap. Raikou shot a look back at the machines and the radiant lightning web strung between them. In an instant, it fired its back legs and lunged between two of the antennas. There was a sickening crack as Raikou’s body collided with the force field and fell to the ground with a thud.
It quickly regained itself and stared at the mechanism with a look of pure venom before unleashing a wave of neon yellow lightning from the curled purple mane along its back. The Thunder attack was absorbed by the force field and a wave of white energy surged though Raikou’s own lightning back at it. The tiger sprung back, howling in pain and once again turned to the Rockets’ Pokémon. It then uttered a low voice in Pokéspeech that was so much like a growl that I couldn’t tell whether it was male or female.
“*Stand aside,*” Raikou said. “*The humans are to blame for this, but you are not the ones responsible. Do not attempt to defy me.*”
The Pokémon at the front of the blockade, a large, powerful bear Pokémon, stepped forward. The Ursaring stood onto two legs, held out its claws in an attacking position, and said, “*It may be their plan, but we are a part of Team Rocket as well and do not object to it. I for one feel as much dedication to taking you down as they do.*”
Raikou widened its eyes slightly and then said finally and menacingly, “*Then you all shall fall in pieces!*”
It streaked forward in a flash of lightning right into the heart of the defense. The Ursaring opened its mouth wide and unleashed a pulsing beam of energy right at Raikou, who lunged aside in one swift motion and bolted forward. It knocked the bear forward and sank its seven-inch-long fangs into its side. The Ursaring made one last feeble attempt to slash at Raikou, but then shuddered and lay still, blood pouring out from the wound and spilling onto the mud. Raikou lifted its head, its saber-teeth covered in crimson ooze, and stared at the rest of its opposition. The other Pokémon flinched slightly, but at the command of their trainers, rushed forward at the tiger.
All this time I had been watching such fascination that I had completely forgotten about our mission. I glanced over at the nearest truck, saw a girl on The Rebellion messing with some stuff on the machine, and walked over.
“‘Bout time,” she said. “I can’t figure out what to do with this. There should be a control panel or something, but I can’t find it.”
I felt along the sides of the machine, looking for anything out of the ordinary, but couldn’t find a cover, switch, or other possible way to turn it off.
“Hey, maybe it’s inside the truck,” I said all of a sudden.
“You’re right, I didn’t think of that,” she said. She walked over to the front and opened the passenger side door. I looked inside and saw a small keyboard with hundreds of other buttons and switches on it. The girl looked over each of the buttons, groaned in frustration, and said, “Couldn’t there just be an off switch?”
“Do you think we could just push them all randomly?” I asked.
“Nah, too risky. It could end up making things worse,” she replied.
An earsplitting roar filled the air and I looked back at the battle only to gape in horror the second I did. Raikou had just attempted to protect itself from a blazing fire assault, but the antennas had absorbed its force field, and Raikou was drained of power. It jumped out of the fray and struggled to regain itself, but was exhausted. Numerous gashes and slices covered its body, and its previously yellow fur was now almost completely red from both its own and its enemies’ blood. Several tranquilizer darts stuck out of its skin all over its body and it sank to its knees slowly as the pulsing yellow stun rays from the two trucks on the end completely immobilized it.
I saw a flash of light from the corner of my eye and turned to see Ryan, who had just released his Fearow. The immense bird of prey stood nearly as tall as he did with shaggy brown feathers, a long, pointed beak, and a crown of red horns atop its head. He turned to us and said, “I’m sick of this. If we’re ever gonna keep them from capturing any Legendaries, it’s gonna be by opposing them outright.” He mounted the bird, and it took flight, spreading its immense wings to soar low above us, the wind ruffling both its feathers and Ryan’s thick brown hair.
“Wait! If the Rockets see you, then you’ll never be able to pose as one of them again!” the girl yelled to him.
“What, you don’t think I already thought of that?” he said, pulling a black ski mask out of his pocket and slipping it over his head.
I stepped forward and away from the truck and stared upward to see Ryan and Fearow flying high above the antenna in the vehicle to the right of us. Fearow began gathering energy from within itself in the form of a huge glowing orb in its beak. Finally, drained of energy due to using such a powerful attack, it fired the energy as a beam down towards the machine.
It struck the mechanism, igniting the fuel and exploding the entire pickup truck on contact, creating a massive fireball that consumed the antenna and heated up the air tremendously. I shielded my eyes from the bright light and when I looked again, the two antennas on the side were sparking uselessly, unable to channel their electricity over the gap. Flaming debris littered the ground around a huge hole within the Thunder Field.
I turned quickly to see what was happening in the battle and saw Raikou still barely struggling to fend off its attackers. It turned toward the Rockets and I could have sworn I saw unmistakable terror in its face. Several of the Rockets hurled oddly colored Poké balls at it, but with one final burst of electricity, it drained its last ounce of electricity into blasting away the purple spheres.
“Raikou!” Ryan yelled, pointing down at the opening in the electrical web.
Raikou paused and leaned forward, concentrating hard. At once, it fired a burst of energy into its legs, breaking free of the stun rays with an Extremespeed technique. Although it wasn’t nearly as fast as it would have been normally, it was able to clear the range of the stun rays and limped toward the opening.
And then, with a sickening realization, I noticed that I was standing in the gap. It was a very large passage, but rather than simply go around, Raikou came to a halt just ten feet from me. I didn’t dare make any move toward or away from it; rather, I just stood, transfixed with fear and fascination. Finally, in a low, clear, masculine voice, Raikou uttered, “Stand aside.”
English. He had spoken regular, normal, not-Pokéspeech, English. I was so surprised that it took me several seconds to obey. I backed slowly towards the truck where the other girl was standing, her eyes fixed on Raikou. He nodded slowly to me, drops of blood trickling off his defeated face, before rushing off to the west, back towards Johto from whence he came.
End Chapter 6
Well, there ya go, please point out any errors or comments!
NOTE: Thus far, Team Rocket (the whole team in itself as well as the individual supporting characters) may seem a bit flat, but don't worry, it gets way better later. My biggest pet peeve is the teams being portrayed as "RAR! EVIL!!!!!!!"
~Chibi~
“Rocket Communicators,” he said, handing one to each of us along with our cards. “All members are issued one. They work a lot like cell phones except that they can only call other Communicators.” I suddenly remembered that Tyson had mentioned that when he called for reinforcements on one. “Ever since a few months ago, new members can’t carry guns. Too many gang retards were shootin’ each other. You get one once you get to a certain position. And that’s everything.”
“Okay, thanks,” I said as we stood and walked out the door. I glanced at the paper the Rocket had given Rudy. “So…we go down some stairs in a hallway and—oh, that’s right there.”
We had turned a corner and were in a short hallway that ended in a flight of stairs that descended to the main floor. Sounds of numerous conversations reached us from the below level. We stepped down the staircase and I was surprised at the incredible contrast between the two floors.
The main level was huge, for one. We were in the commons, where many of the less professional and most likely lower-ranking members gathered. It was an immense area with a high ceiling and overall loose appearance, like that of some high school hangout. Wide hallways led to the other areas, and there was a section that looked almost like the inside of a fast-food restaurant.
“Whoa, not what I was expecting, but way cool,” said Rudy grinning.
“Think we should go find Karen?” I asked.
“Yeah, why not?” Rudy replied.
After looking around for a bit, we quickly found the stadium, which was right in the first hall. It looked almost identical to the one in Midnight Stadium, except that there weren’t any audience seats. Several Rockets were training their Pokémon and I noticed almost right away what Stalker had said about Rockets stressing physical strength in their training.
“Hey, is anyone here an Executive named Karen?” Rudy shouted all of a sudden.
A young woman in who looked to be in her early twenties turned from her training and said, “That’d be me.” She recalled her Pokémon and walked over. She was fairly tall and had long black hair and a stern expression that seemed to advertise that she was an experienced Rocket. “What do you need?” she asked.
Rudy handed her the paper the Rocket had given him and she read it quickly.
“New kids, huh?” she said. “Guess I’ll be in charge of you for a while. Can I see all of your Pokémon?”
We each pulled out all of our Poké balls and released Swift, Firestorm, Ebony, Wartortle, Pikachu, and Ivysaur. I looked at Rudy’s Pikachu for the first time; it was weird seeing a normal Pikachu that didn’t have long spiky fur. As for Darren’s Ivysaur, it was about three feet tall and looked primarily like a small bluish-green, tailless dinosaur with darker blue spots and rough scales. Halfway down its back was a bulb that had opened to reveal a large closed flower bud. Karen looked over our Pokémon for a few seconds noting certain features that indicated their strength.
“Pretty good for being new,” she said. “Pokémon Training Rockets are judged mainly on their training skills. Since this says you only joined two weeks ago, right now, your ranking is near the bottom, but once you’re evaluated, it’ll probably rise quite a bit.”
“How’s the ranking work?” Darren asked.
“He didn’t explain it did he? Well basically there are five levels to the ranking. You start out on level five and with a certain number, based on how many others are in that level. With each promotion, the number is lowered until you’re on number one, then you’d move to the end of level four. When you get moved to level one, you’re an Executive, and if you’re on number one, level one, then you’re a Commander, but only Johto currently has a Commander. Here, let me see one of your ID’s”
Darren had his out first. He handed it to her and she inserted it into a device she pulled out of her pocket. “Your current ranking is K5:572. The K stands for Kanto Rocket. Often you’ll find that your ranking is lowered seemingly for no reason, and it simply means that someone else moved in front of you. Every now and then, those who join only for the hell of it and don’t do anything are fired, and if they reveal anything about us to anyone else, we hunt ‘em down. Anyways, I’ll evaluate you guys later today or tomorrow. For now, get used to the way things work around here.”
I grinned at Rudy and Darren. So far, everything had gone perfectly. Once we were evaluated, we could begin training as Rockets. Now all that mattered was getting on the Raikou mission.
I glanced at the scenery from the back of a pickup truck, the forests slowly blending into chaparral as we continued through the wilderness. The past two days had been packed but it was all well worth it. We had been evaluated the next day and all three of us had risen in rank by over two hundred points. After a hard training session the second day, I had asked Karen about the Raikou mission since neither Rudy nor Darren had wanted to. She had explained that it was part of Team Rocket’s legendary project and, after some persuasion, had agreed to let us come on it as our first mission.
I looked back at the long line of similar trucks behind us, some carrying Rockets, others, machinery. “How come there are so many of us on this mission?” I asked.
“November’s Entei mission was a fiasco and we had to call for help from the Johto force, which was embarrassing enough seeing as they’re stronger than us Kantoans, but on top of it all, some Johto Force kid caught Entei, which didn’t make us look good in front of the boss. We’ve been tracking Raikou for a while now ever since it crossed over into Kanto and have set aside a spot up ahead. We’re gonna lure it there and then hit it with everything we’ve got.”
I was silent for the next few minutes, staring off at nothing and lost in my thoughts. In a way, I felt sorry for Raikou and only hoped that we’d be able to save it.
The trucks emerged into a clearing that had obviously been stripped of trees recently. Each vehicle stopped around the clearing, making a large half-circle. Rockets began climbing out the trucks, and I did the same. I walked over to where Rudy and Darren were and continued to watch the Rockets’ operation in wonder.
Every other truck in the arrangement carried a large piece of silver machinery. Large panels opened on the back of each, revealing tall antennas that shot up into the air. Strings of electricity sparked and crackled from the tops before a web of lightning formed itself between all of the mechanisms.
“What’s all that for?” I asked Karen, who was standing right next to us.
“Raikou’ll be tougher than Entei was. It’s able to create force fields with its energy, but if it tries that stunt here, it’ll be sorry,” she replied coolly.
I leaned over and whispered to Rudy, “I have no idea what we’re gonna do about this, we need to find others on The Rebellion.” He nodded, and I proceeded to glance at each of the numerous Rockets. I noticed one guy whom I had seen before on Midnight Island, but whose name I didn’t know. I strolled over, trying not to attract any attention and whispered, “Do you have any plans as to how we’re gonna stop ‘em?”
“I’ve got some ideas, but I don’t know which ones of us are on The Rebellion besides a few of my friends,” he replied quietly. “If you can find some more of us, then slip back into the trees and I’ll explain.”
I sighed in my mind, knowing it would be no easy task. I was terrible with remembering people and out of the whole Rebellion, knew only Rudy, Darren, and Stalker’s names. I walked quickly back to Rudy and Darren and asked, “Do you two know any others on The Rebellion?” They both shook their heads.
“Crap,” I muttered before saying, “come on, at least help me recognize some of the others.”
We walked around the ring of Rockets occasionally spotting some kids we had seen before and telling them to come with us. By the end, we had only found about ten people, but we walked back to the other guy anyway, making sure not to be seen by the real Rockets. When he saw us coming, he motioned to us to follow him back toward the trees.
“Alright, everyone, it definitely seems like we’re gonna have a heck of a time keeping them from catching Raikou,” he started.
“What I don’t get is why Stalker didn’t come with us!” a younger boy yelled.
“He’s well known with Team Rocket, people would recognize him,” a girl replied.
All at once, everyone began yelling random things involving us failing and being caught by Team Rocket until finally, an older boy standing by the one who had called us there spoke up.
“Shut up, everyone!” he yelled. “We need to be quiet.” He shot a glance at the Rockets and continued. “Ryan here was put in charge, he knows what he’s doing, so just listen!”
“Thanks, Aaron,” Ryan said. He then addressed us, “The only chance we’ve got is messing up those machines. I’ve got some good inside info, and I know that all the Rockets are gonna be focusing on using their Pokémon to trap Raikou here. If we can just sabotage the electric force field, Raikou can escape, but we can’t be seen,” he explained. “Alright, let’s go back.”
We walked back toward the Rockets and merged into the crowd. A little over a minute later, a man shouted through a megaphone, “Get ready, trainers, at your posts, others, tranquilizers and stun rays ready, technicians, make sure the Thunder Field’s in working order. Let’s do this!”
I stared off into the distance and saw a small, yellow, glowing, spiky blur racing towards us. When it stopped, I saw that it was a Jolteon, one of the fastest Pokémon ever discovered. “*Look out, he’s coming! The others are back behind him!*” the Jolteon yelled, its fox-like body shaking with exhaustion and its yellow fur standing on end. It turned its head and held its long, rabbit-like ears straight up, listening for something only it could hear. It then fired a burst of electricity into its legs and streaked back in a flash.
I felt a drop of icy cold water on my hand and shivered. It had been so sunny that day, I had almost forgotten it was the middle of winter. I looked up into the sky and saw a thick layer of gray storm clouds covering the sky. Right before my eyes, the clouds thickened and stretched closer to the ground, enveloping the surrounding in an eerie blanket of fog. With a sudden realization, I remembered reading that Raikou had the ability to create thunderclouds. An immense flash of light to the west caught my attention and I looked out at the horizon. Bolts of electricity flew above the trees and were surging closer to us unbelievably quickly. It was right then that the Legendary Johto Beast of Thunder broke through the trees.
A massive saber-toothed tiger seemingly flew over the ground before stopping suddenly in front of us and glaring back at its pursuers. Its gigantic, muscular frame tensed up beneath a thick coat of vibrant golden and black striped fur. It let loose a mighty roar that shook the ground, and all of the Rockets’ Pokémon that had chased it here recoiled in terror. Raikou swiveled its neck and stared at the Rockets and us with flaming red-brown eyes that seemed to bore right through one’s soul. Everything about its head, from its steely blue whiskers to its midnight black ears and face gave off an impression of pure power.
After a few seconds of menacing silence, it twitched its stiff, blue, lightning bolt shaped tail and lunged back the way it came, its thick white claws kicking up chunks of mud.
“Now! Don’t let it escape!” the lead Rocket yelled.
Right that second, the hundreds of Rockets ran toward the opening and released all of their Pokémon in a flash that lit up the whole area. The army of Pokémon stood guarding the only escape from the trap. Raikou shot a look back at the machines and the radiant lightning web strung between them. In an instant, it fired its back legs and lunged between two of the antennas. There was a sickening crack as Raikou’s body collided with the force field and fell to the ground with a thud.
It quickly regained itself and stared at the mechanism with a look of pure venom before unleashing a wave of neon yellow lightning from the curled purple mane along its back. The Thunder attack was absorbed by the force field and a wave of white energy surged though Raikou’s own lightning back at it. The tiger sprung back, howling in pain and once again turned to the Rockets’ Pokémon. It then uttered a low voice in Pokéspeech that was so much like a growl that I couldn’t tell whether it was male or female.
“*Stand aside,*” Raikou said. “*The humans are to blame for this, but you are not the ones responsible. Do not attempt to defy me.*”
The Pokémon at the front of the blockade, a large, powerful bear Pokémon, stepped forward. The Ursaring stood onto two legs, held out its claws in an attacking position, and said, “*It may be their plan, but we are a part of Team Rocket as well and do not object to it. I for one feel as much dedication to taking you down as they do.*”
Raikou widened its eyes slightly and then said finally and menacingly, “*Then you all shall fall in pieces!*”
It streaked forward in a flash of lightning right into the heart of the defense. The Ursaring opened its mouth wide and unleashed a pulsing beam of energy right at Raikou, who lunged aside in one swift motion and bolted forward. It knocked the bear forward and sank its seven-inch-long fangs into its side. The Ursaring made one last feeble attempt to slash at Raikou, but then shuddered and lay still, blood pouring out from the wound and spilling onto the mud. Raikou lifted its head, its saber-teeth covered in crimson ooze, and stared at the rest of its opposition. The other Pokémon flinched slightly, but at the command of their trainers, rushed forward at the tiger.
All this time I had been watching such fascination that I had completely forgotten about our mission. I glanced over at the nearest truck, saw a girl on The Rebellion messing with some stuff on the machine, and walked over.
“‘Bout time,” she said. “I can’t figure out what to do with this. There should be a control panel or something, but I can’t find it.”
I felt along the sides of the machine, looking for anything out of the ordinary, but couldn’t find a cover, switch, or other possible way to turn it off.
“Hey, maybe it’s inside the truck,” I said all of a sudden.
“You’re right, I didn’t think of that,” she said. She walked over to the front and opened the passenger side door. I looked inside and saw a small keyboard with hundreds of other buttons and switches on it. The girl looked over each of the buttons, groaned in frustration, and said, “Couldn’t there just be an off switch?”
“Do you think we could just push them all randomly?” I asked.
“Nah, too risky. It could end up making things worse,” she replied.
An earsplitting roar filled the air and I looked back at the battle only to gape in horror the second I did. Raikou had just attempted to protect itself from a blazing fire assault, but the antennas had absorbed its force field, and Raikou was drained of power. It jumped out of the fray and struggled to regain itself, but was exhausted. Numerous gashes and slices covered its body, and its previously yellow fur was now almost completely red from both its own and its enemies’ blood. Several tranquilizer darts stuck out of its skin all over its body and it sank to its knees slowly as the pulsing yellow stun rays from the two trucks on the end completely immobilized it.
I saw a flash of light from the corner of my eye and turned to see Ryan, who had just released his Fearow. The immense bird of prey stood nearly as tall as he did with shaggy brown feathers, a long, pointed beak, and a crown of red horns atop its head. He turned to us and said, “I’m sick of this. If we’re ever gonna keep them from capturing any Legendaries, it’s gonna be by opposing them outright.” He mounted the bird, and it took flight, spreading its immense wings to soar low above us, the wind ruffling both its feathers and Ryan’s thick brown hair.
“Wait! If the Rockets see you, then you’ll never be able to pose as one of them again!” the girl yelled to him.
“What, you don’t think I already thought of that?” he said, pulling a black ski mask out of his pocket and slipping it over his head.
I stepped forward and away from the truck and stared upward to see Ryan and Fearow flying high above the antenna in the vehicle to the right of us. Fearow began gathering energy from within itself in the form of a huge glowing orb in its beak. Finally, drained of energy due to using such a powerful attack, it fired the energy as a beam down towards the machine.
It struck the mechanism, igniting the fuel and exploding the entire pickup truck on contact, creating a massive fireball that consumed the antenna and heated up the air tremendously. I shielded my eyes from the bright light and when I looked again, the two antennas on the side were sparking uselessly, unable to channel their electricity over the gap. Flaming debris littered the ground around a huge hole within the Thunder Field.
I turned quickly to see what was happening in the battle and saw Raikou still barely struggling to fend off its attackers. It turned toward the Rockets and I could have sworn I saw unmistakable terror in its face. Several of the Rockets hurled oddly colored Poké balls at it, but with one final burst of electricity, it drained its last ounce of electricity into blasting away the purple spheres.
“Raikou!” Ryan yelled, pointing down at the opening in the electrical web.
Raikou paused and leaned forward, concentrating hard. At once, it fired a burst of energy into its legs, breaking free of the stun rays with an Extremespeed technique. Although it wasn’t nearly as fast as it would have been normally, it was able to clear the range of the stun rays and limped toward the opening.
And then, with a sickening realization, I noticed that I was standing in the gap. It was a very large passage, but rather than simply go around, Raikou came to a halt just ten feet from me. I didn’t dare make any move toward or away from it; rather, I just stood, transfixed with fear and fascination. Finally, in a low, clear, masculine voice, Raikou uttered, “Stand aside.”
English. He had spoken regular, normal, not-Pokéspeech, English. I was so surprised that it took me several seconds to obey. I backed slowly towards the truck where the other girl was standing, her eyes fixed on Raikou. He nodded slowly to me, drops of blood trickling off his defeated face, before rushing off to the west, back towards Johto from whence he came.
End Chapter 6
Well, there ya go, please point out any errors or comments!
NOTE: Thus far, Team Rocket (the whole team in itself as well as the individual supporting characters) may seem a bit flat, but don't worry, it gets way better later. My biggest pet peeve is the teams being portrayed as "RAR! EVIL!!!!!!!"
~Chibi~



A Pokémon fanfic fifteen years in the making.
--------------------------------------------
DeviantArt
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Age 34
*yawns* Um, behind you?
Seen December 23rd, 2008
Posted March 19th, 2006
881
posts
18.3
Years
Y'know, I think my reviewing ability dropped when I started writing, I can't concentrate...
Anyways...
Anyways...
It gets better and better. Of course, *strokes chin* the next chapter is worse, and the one after...
You know, I still need to file that lawsuit against inexplicable plot bits.
It's interesting to note that Raikou can speak Human(or in this case, English). Why did the Author allow this? Besides wanting to start my imagin-wheels turning...
Gah, this review is worse than normal, I'd better leave. SB (whoops, almost typed ;254; afterwards! Wait, I just did...)
Anyways...
He nodded slowly at me, drops of blood slowly trickling off his defeated face, before rushing off to the west, back towards Johto from whence he came.
I suppose it's not that bad, but it's the best I could do in the few minutes I have. How many people use 'whence' in their conversations? Anyways...
It gets better and better. Of course, *strokes chin* the next chapter is worse, and the one after...
You know, I still need to file that lawsuit against inexplicable plot bits.
It's interesting to note that Raikou can speak Human(or in this case, English). Why did the Author allow this? Besides wanting to start my imagin-wheels turning...
Gah, this review is worse than normal, I'd better leave. SB (whoops, almost typed ;254; afterwards! Wait, I just did...)
John 3:16- For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
I love that verse.
Currently unable to Fanfic on-line, but hope to soon.
*Hands SB a cookie for reviewing a lot.*
Chapter 7: The Jewel of Darkness
Shaking, I stood, completely unable to move as though my feet had been glued to the terrain. I glanced back at my fellow Rebellion member—she too was staring open-mouthed at where the Beast of Thunder had been.
“Whoa…dude, you are so freakin’ lucky he didn’t blast you…and did he seriously just speak English?” she asked.
“I...I don’t…” was all I managed to get out before I realized that nearly every Rocket on the mission was stampeding towards this point. My mind raced as I quickly came up with an alibi and released Firestorm to go with it. The red lizard emerged in a flash of white light and looked around immediately.
“*So…guess I missed the party, huh?*” he said with a slight laugh.
“If that’s what you want to call it,” the girl mumbled under her breath.
“What happened here, why aren’t you two in ranks?!” an Executive barked.
I turned quickly to the sound of the voice and saw that most of the Rockets were converging on this spot where Raikou had escaped.
My mind racing, I quickly came up with an excuse and said, “Um, when I saw that this part of the Thunder Field had been destroyed, I ran here to see if I could stop Raikou. She tried to find some way to expand the field to cover the part where the other antenna had been,” I added, motioning to the girl still standing by one of the trucks. “Unfortunately Raikou was too fast and there wasn’t any way my Charmeleon and I could stop him,” I lied. I hadn’t hesitated or spoken too fast and the story didn’t seem to have any flaws. Though I didn’t particularly use it often, I really had a knack for quickly coming up with logical lies. It seemed to work; the Executive swore profusely under his breath, but didn’t appear to be angry with us. I would have breathed a sigh of relief were it not the fact that I was still surrounded by Rockets.
“Very well,” the Executive finally said. “You, send a report to the boss immediately,” he ordered to a subordinate. “Technicians, take down the equipment…everyone else, load into the trucks. We’re heading back.”
“Listen up people!” Ryan called out to us. It wasn’t particularly hard to get our attention seeing as nobody was talking. We all were somewhat depressed even though, in a way, we had been successful—we had kept Raikou from being captured, or rather, Ryan had. Even still, it was as though we had failed. For our first mission it had been a bit of a disaster, what with most of us having had no clue what to do and the rest not even getting put on the mission by an Executive. After arriving back at the Rockets’ headquarters, those of us who had met up with Ryan had gathered and tried to find the rest of our fellow members. Stalker’s Mission Groups had helped in that most people were able to recognize the members in their group, but it was still a pain getting everyone together.
We all now stood outside and to the right of a Pokémon Center—where the nearest bus stop was. All this time, my Team Rocket uniform was in the backpack I had brought with me. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was now past midnight. I then sighed and proceeded to listen to Ryan’s announcement.
“In case you didn’t already know, Stalker did put me in charge of the active force and while most of you are clueless as to what we should do now, I’ve got it covered. I doubt the bus will be able to fit all of us, so when it gets here, however many of us can fit will go first and the rest just wait for the next bus. We need to get to Lavender Town because, well…I must admit, Stalker didn’t really give me instructions about how to get back, so I just figured we could take a ferry or something,” Ryan explained.
Most everyone seemed to think it was a good plan as well. I didn’t say anything, but I did remember that the whole reason Stalker had had us take the S.S. Anne was so that we wouldn’t attract too much attention. I ignored the thought, however; I didn’t feel like objecting.
I heard the sound of a loud engine growing closer and turned to the west to see the bus driving toward us. It was one of those long ones with the flexible middle, and the second I saw it, I knew that we’d all be able to fit on it if we crammed in. It slowed to a stop and we all backed away from it and made a line along the sidewalk. The moment the driver opened the door, everyone began pushing forward, which made it a nightmare to get onto the bus seeing as everyone had to stop and pay. When I finally got onto the bus, most of the back seats were taken, so I sat near the front and attempted to save the two seats next to me.
“No saving seats,” a girl said, walking up to me.
“Yeah, well, I am,” I retorted.
“Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes and finding another seat.
I had to go through several accusations of seat saving and even had one of the seats taken anyway before Rudy and Darren boarded the bus. Rudy sat down first and said, “Thanks.”
“Erm, sorry,” I said awkwardly when Darren got there.
“That’s okay,” he said, standing and holding the bar near us now that all of the seats had been taken.
Once everyone was on board, the driver closed the door and set off. I stared out the window, watching the buildings slowly blend into suburbs, and finally into wilderness. I then lay back and pretended to sleep.
Two hours later, despite the fact that I didn’t get bored easily, I was sick and tired of the journey. We had boarded two buses that night; the first was from Celadon to Saffron, an immense metropolis situated at the heart of Kanto. The second was from Saffron to the tiny town of Lavender on the coast of the mainland nearest Midnight Island. I could see the peak of a massive tower in the distance and knew we were getting close. I pointed it out to Rudy and he said, “Oh yeah…that’s Pokémon Tower, isn’t it? Only reason why anyone’s even heard of such a nowhere place like Lavender.”
I couldn’t say I disagreed with him. I, too, was very biased against small towns, which was mainly why I had hated the concept of moving to New Bark. And while cities with zillions of people in them were a bit overkill, I couldn’t deny that Celadon and Saffron had fascinated me.
We were now nearing the outskirts of the town, where the fields and sparse trees along the highway slowly blended into the few and far-between houses. The main downtown area could at most be considered suburbs, but the overall appearance of Lavender was that of a relaxed and slow town of which no one knew or cared about. Then, from the edge of the city right along the ocean, Pokémon Tower rose like a citadel above the landscape. It had a ragged and worn appearance and was easily over a hundred feet tall and at least fifty years old.
I noticed that the bus was slowing and the rest of the passengers were standing to their feet, which made it even more crowded than it had been previously because there had already been tons of people packed into the center standing area of the bus. Since we had been near the front, Rudy, Darren, and I were among the first ones off the bus. Right after stepping off the bus, Rudy laughed and said, “Geez, did someone steal the sidewalks?”
I looked around and noticed that he was right—there weren’t any sidewalks anywhere. In addition to that, however, I also couldn’t see any streetlights or even stoplights. There were just small buildings, fields, and along the sea, a small harbor. I rubbed my hands along my arms and shivered. Short sleeves, the end of December, and a seaside town didn’t mix.
The bus’s engine revved behind us and I turned to watch the bus pull away slowly. I suddenly remembered Swift and Firestorm, pulled their Poké balls out of my pocket, and released them. The flash lit up the surrounding as they materialized and caused some people to stare.
“*Dang, what time is it?*” Firestorm asked, looking up at the overcast sky.
“I dunno, two in the morning or something. I then felt guilty and said instantly, “Did I wake you guys up?”
“*Nah, even though when you’re in a Poké ball, it seems like you’re awake, you’re really kind of in a sort of hibernation although your mind is in a virtual reality thing,*” Firestorm explained.
“Oh, duh,” I said stupidly to myself. I knew that. Everyone knew that. “Meh, it’s too early, I’m not thinking.”
“*That’s no excuse for not telling what happened with the Raikou mission,*” Firestorm said, grinning.
“Okay, long story short: most of us were clueless until Ryan broke the force field that was trapping Raikou and freed him,” I said.
“*Okay…*” Firestorm said, not entirely satisfied, but willing to overlook it.
A distant rumble of thunder made me glance up at the sky, which was completely covered with dark clouds. Fortunately, it didn’t seem as though there was going to be a storm of any sort.
“****,” Ryan muttered under his breath, gazing out at the sea to the south. The churning of the water and the peaks of waves could be seen even from where we were. “The storm’s already passed by here, but there’s no way the ferry can take us to the island.”
“So we can’t go back tonight?” someone asked.
“Thank God, I’m frickin’ tired,” another muttered.
“Well whether everyone’s happy about it or not, no, there is no way we can get there. Just deal with it, we’re staying the night at the nearest Center.” He then added under his breath, “If they’ve even got one in this place.”
Most of the group of trainers groaned but followed Ryan. He spoke with his friend for a bit at the front of the group before releasing his Fearow and flying off, most likely to find a Center. I couldn’t help wondering how one was supposed to accommodate all of us, but just seconds after he had left, Ryan returned atop his bird.
“It’s right up here by the big tower…or at least it was, I mean…ah, never mind, you’ll see,” he said to us while landing.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rudy asked. I gave only a shrug in response, although I, too, was wondering.
We soon found out that the Pokémon Center wasn’t too far from where we had been dropped off downtown. Or at least, as Ryan had said, it had been. Nearly every building within a hundred feet from Pokémon Tower was destroyed, as though some force had simply knocked them over. A large, angry crowd of people stood at the base of the immense tower, all of them shouting various things. A few kids at the front of the group were the first to run forward, followed soon after by all of us rushing over to find out what had happened.
“People, people, calm down, we will have everything sorted out in the morning!” a police officer shouted, raising her voice enough to be heard over the crowd. “Right now, Mr. Fuji, the Tower’s caretaker, has an announcement to make.” She stepped down from a large stool she had been standing upon in order to be seen. A rather old man stepped forward, appearing to be in his sixties or seventies and lacking any hair on his head or even a beard. Although physical appearance is no way to judge character, his face just seemed to give off an air of kindness.
“I apologize wholeheartedly that such a thing has happened, and I assure you that it will never happen again. Due to the fact that homes have been knocked over and there is no longer a Center, all residents and travelers are invited to stay in Pokémon Tower until this whole mess is under control,” he said.
This seemed to only cause more protest. Many people shouted, nearly all of them exclaiming variations of, “I’m not going in there, those things came from there!”
“I assure you, they normally are very mild mannered and I shall have a talk with them shortly. In the meantime, however, there are no hotels within the city limits and the doors of the tower are always open.” He gave a slight bow and walked off.
My first thought was, “Who’s ‘they’ and what the heck happened?” but I was spared the trouble of asking when a young boy on The Rebellion walked forward and asked Mr. Fuji, “Sir, what happened here?”
“I’m afraid I’m not sure what the cause was, but several Gengar from the tower are the ones responsible for this destruction,” he explained. “I just wish I knew why….”
That seemed to be all that the boy wanted to know because he then retreated into the crowd once more. We waited in silence for what would happen, but the residents of Lavender were yelling about ghosts, unruly Pokémon, and a load of other things that made no sense.
The police officer groaned and pulled out a cell phone, speaking quickly with someone for a minute before pulling out a megaphone and saying, “Look, I’ve called for several buses, and anyone who wants to will be taken to the Center in the nearest town until we can sort everything out.”
Many people were relieved to hear this and calmed down, while many others had run to their demolished houses to retrieve blankets and such. They were lucky that the houses weren’t completely destroyed—most of their belongings most likely had been spared.
Ryan spoke for a bit with his friend before stating, “If we go to some other city, that’ll just take longer. We can stay in the Tower tonight and send someone to get Stalker in the morning.”
Most of the kids didn’t have a problem with that, and I stepped inside the Tower with my fellow members and found that the inside of the structure was considerably warmer than the outside. Pokémon Tower was named for being a resting-place for Pokémon, but there were no graves on the first floor, and no one ventured toward the stairs that led to the home of the Ghost-type Pokémon. Of course, they weren’t really ghosts of dead Pokémon, but although they simply bore the supposed characteristics of ghosts and were no different than normal Pokémon, the people of the town seemed to be rather prejudiced against them.
Lights hung from the ceilings, yet the place was still dim and bore a foreboding appearance. There were several columns in the middle of the single room that were apparently added recently to help bear the weight of the upper floors. I sat down with Swift and Firestorm by the wall in an area to the back where no one had yet settled down. Swift huddled in his feathers while Firestorm curled up with his flame facing the wall so nothing could be burned by it. Rudy and Darren were most likely somewhere else on the Tower’s floor, because I didn’t see them.
It was long after everyone else had lain down before I began to feel the slightest bit drowsy. I sighed, checked my watch, and saw by the light of its glow that it was now three in the morning. My mind filled to the brim with thoughts, I finally lay back against the wall and closed my eyes.
*****
Firestorm jolted awake out of what had been a light sleep. He lifted his reptilian head slightly off the cold floor and looked around, drenched in cold sweat. “Return brethren, for the legends have been disturbed.” That was what the voice had said. He was almost certain he had heard what he thought he had, but if it were real and not just a dream, then wouldn’t others have heard it?
Almost as if in response to his thoughts, several other Pokémon sat up and looked around. Firestorm was not familiar with these Pokémon, but he figured that since The Rebellion’s members had been the only traveling trainers in town, that they probably belonged to them.
“Did you hear that?” he asked the nearest, a female Furret. She turned her tawny, fur-covered, ferret-like head and replied, “Sure did.” She turned to several of the others and said, “Think we should wake our trainers?”
Firestorm thought fast. He didn’t want everyone getting upset over some random voice in the dark. One that, he added to himself, had apparently not even been heard by any of the humans. Thoughts rushed about in his head; he was still uncertain. Finally he said, “I’ve got an idea. Just…go back to sleep.”
The others just shrugged and lay back down, not tired after spending most of the day in their Poké balls, but not feeling like investigating. Firestorm sat there for several seconds, for some reason wanting to make sure the others were asleep. He turned, still confused about what to do, before finally nudging his trainer to wake her up.
*****
After what felt like about two minutes, I felt a small nudge on my right side. I awoke instantly, being a light sleeper, and turned to see Firestorm by the light of his tail flame. I checked my watch, saw that it was 4:30, and asked, “What is it?”
“*I…well…this’ll probably sound kinda stupid, but several of the other Pokémon and I heard this voice. I know it wasn’t a dream, but I don’t really know what it was,*” he said sheepishly.
“Was it in Pokéspeech or—” I whispered.
“*Yeah, it was,*” he said before I could finish.
I thought about it for several seconds, which was difficult seeing as my brain was still asleep, and finally said, “If you don’t know where it came from, then I’m not really sure what I can do. What I don’t get is why you heard it and not me, but—” I paused mid-sentence. I strained my ears, almost certain I had heard the faintest bits of conversation.
“Wake Swift up,” I said suddenly and firmly.
Firestorm turned and poked Swift lightly on the back. He stirred slightly and ruffled his feathers before looking up at us.
“*What?*” he asked.
“Listen,” I said, “you have the best hearing of the three of us.”
Bewildered, he stood completely still. I scarcely breathed as I waited for his response. Concentrating hard, he finally said, “*Two humans are talking. One of them’s an old man; the other’s a boy, teenaged, I’d say, I think there are others with them. Over there.*” He motioned toward the right of the building.
“Come on,” I said, motioning to Swift to perch on my arm as I stood to my feet. Firestorm made efforts to block the light of his tail so it wouldn’t awaken anyone as we made our way through the mass of people. Miraculously, I managed to make it through the crowd without stepping on anyone. I glanced along the side of the building, completely lost as to how the voices could have been coming from that direction.
“*Footsteps,*” Swift said suddenly, “*they’re leading away from here. There’s an echo, too, so I’m sure they’re not outside.*”
Yet again bewildered, I began feeling along the side of the wall, not exactly sure what I was searching for but certain I was searching for something. It then occurred to me that while the noises had been behind the wall at this point, the “entrance” to inside the walls could have been anywhere. I glanced throughout the room and my eyes fell on the main counter near the front doors. I slowly walked over to it and looked along the wall feeling it at the same time. This time, my fingers caught a small groove along the surface. I pushed against the surface and found that it slid back an inch or two before stopping. Excited, I pushed against it again, so determined to get inside that I didn’t realize that only a small part of the wall had moved. When I observed it further, I found that it slid back behind the main wall, revealing an entrance barely big enough for a medium sized person. I ducked as I stepped inside and walked through the tunnel.
“*Whoa, creepy,*” Firestorm said, apparently enjoying the suspense. The light from his tail lit the way, wavering upon the stony walls as we continued.
“What the…Mr. Fuji!” I yelled, racing ahead. He was lying, bound by ropes and his mouth gagged. I quickly untied the ropes and was about to remove the cloth tied tightly around his mouth when I discovered he was unconscious. I looked past his body, where footprints lay, blatantly disrupting the dusty, otherwise undisturbed floor.
“*Wha—what happened here?*” Firestorm asked, catching up.
“I don’t know, but I think it’s time we found out. The Gengar, the voice you heard, the conversation Swift and I heard. Something’s going on, and I want to know what,” I said resolutely. “You guys with me?”
“*You bet!*” Firestorm said excitedly. Swift grinned and nodded.
I got to my feet again and walked forward through the tunnel. The firelight flickered and danced across the walls, illuminating a growing number of mysterious symbols as we walked. I felt my heartbeat increase slightly as I spotted the end of the hallway. A small square was etched into the side; I blew off the dust and read aloud, “Ahead lies the sacred chamber of darkness where the jeweled source of all Dark power lies. Do not enter.” Twinges of fear pricked at the back of my mind when I read it, but my curiosity and determination overwhelmed them as I reached for the “handle” to the chamber.
It was obvious that it had been used recently because the stone door slid rather easily. I stepped inside, followed by Firestorm before I closed it. Instantly, a surge of black energy exploded a chunk of rock from the wall to the left of me! I jumped and spun around at the same time: an awkward move that almost made me fall over as I regained myself from the shock.
“Next time he won’t miss. Why are you here?” someone demanded.
A small black fox stood lightly on its paws in front of three guys behind him. The first two were about in their late teens and were dressed head to toe in black. The one who has issued the threat however, was a teenaged guy shorter than me, but looking to be about my age. His skin was a light brown tone and his hair was black and extremely short. He held two or three more Poké balls in his hands and was apparently waiting for an answer.
“I…er…” What was I supposed to say? It was obvious that I was following them, but it seemed stupid to say that, so I simply remained silent.
“Well?” he asked again. “If you don’t answer then I guess matters can always be settled by Pokémon.”
I had a sudden thought, but wasn’t sure whether to say it or not. Finally, I just blurted out, “You’re on Team Rocket, aren’t you?”
“So you know about us then,” he said. “Not surprising, you’re on that rebel team, aren’t you?”
I gasped slightly and then found myself shouting, “How did you know about it!”
“Jeez, chill,” he said. “Actually it’s the talk of the Johto Force. Kids being led against the Kanto Rockets. You still haven’t told me why you’re here, though.”
“Why don’t you tell me why you’re here first,” I said, my voice full of fake confidence.
“Come on, Max, we don’t have time for this. Why don’t you just release all of ‘em and—” one of the other Rockets said.
“I’m the Executive, I’ll handle this,” he muttered before saying to me, “Fine. We’ve known about this chamber and have been planning on entering it for some time. We planned on doing it yesterday for safety reasons, seeing as the Kanto Force was busy with Raikou. The Gengar caused us some problems, though, and they drove us out. The disruption we caused with the crystal drove them on an insane rampage and we would have gotten in if everyone hadn’t showed up again. So, we waited until night.”
“Fine, my Pokémon, Firestorm, heard a voice in the night, and then we heard you talking with Mr. Fuji,” I said.
“The Haunter,” he mumbled. “I knew the Ghost Pokémon would call out for their evolved forms to return. We don’t have much time…let’s see how you face against Umbreon.”
I hesitated slightly. He had to be extremely skilled to end up an Executive at such a young age. There also were a few more questions I wanted to ask, mainly regarding the crystal he had mentioned. I turned slowly to Swift and Firestorm and said, “Would you guys—”
“*Don’t worry about it,*” Firestorm said, assuming a fighting pose. Swift nodded and flapped to the ground next to Firestorm.
“Alright, then, Firestorm, Flamethrower, Swift, Wing Attack!” I yelled.
Max didn’t summon any more Pokémon. Rather, he motioned to his single Umbreon and commanded, “Faint Attack!”
The dark fox leaped forward, the yellow rings on his side glowing, before he completely disappeared from view. Firestorm and Swift hadn’t yet charged up their attacks, but they paused when Umbreon vanished and looked back wondering what to do. I thought fast and said, “Swift, get in the air so you can’t be hit and then attack Umbreon when he reappears to attack Firestorm!” It was an okay plan except for the fact that it hadn’t occurred to me that Umbreon had attacks that didn’t require physical contact with the opponent.
In a flash, Umbreon lunged out of the air right at Firestorm. The second he spotted him, Swift swooped forward, his wings glowing with energy. I held my breath, anticipating Umbreon’s defeat.
In a split second before hitting Firestorm, the fox pulled out of his jump, landed right in front of him, and turned his head to fire a beam of energy at Swift. It was a planned move—the beam, which had already been charged up, hit Swift squarely on the chest. He cried out and faltered in his flight before struggling to regain himself. Hoping that Umbreon was preoccupied, Firestorm leaped and slashed at the Pokémon, only to find that he wasn’t nearly fast enough. The Dark type turned again and fired the same beam at Firestorm, sending him flying back several feet along the ground.
“Crap, I can’t think of anything, I could really use some outside ideas right about now,” I said to the two.
“*Would if I could,*” Firestorm said flatly. “*I know my attacks, and I know how to use them to outwit the opponent. All that tricky stuff involving cumulative effects and strategy is supposed to be up to you,*” he said, wincing as he stood to his feet.
“What are you talking about?!” I yelled. “You can think just as well as I can, and I’m new to this. Just, uh, I don’t know…er, Fire Punch! If you can do it…”
“*Not the real one, but, yeah,*” he said and I soon saw what he meant. Rather than focusing his fire abilities into a flame around his fist, he breathed out a fireball onto his claws and lunged forward at Umbreon. The fox dodged the assault right at the last second, but then was smacked back toward the red lizard. Swift pulled hard out of a dive, his wings glowing after just hitting Umbreon with a Wing Attack. Unable to quickly regain himself, Umbreon was then struck by Firestorm’s flaming fist.
“Umbreon, return,” Max said, holding out a Poké ball and recalling the injured Pokémon in a red beam.
“Awesome, you two!” I said in congratulation, although I knew the battle was far from over.
Max thought for a few seconds and then finally, after some urging from the other two Rockets, held out three red and white spheres. And I swear my heart just plain jumped the second I saw the contents of the balls.
Chapter 7: The Jewel of Darkness
Shaking, I stood, completely unable to move as though my feet had been glued to the terrain. I glanced back at my fellow Rebellion member—she too was staring open-mouthed at where the Beast of Thunder had been.
“Whoa…dude, you are so freakin’ lucky he didn’t blast you…and did he seriously just speak English?” she asked.
“I...I don’t…” was all I managed to get out before I realized that nearly every Rocket on the mission was stampeding towards this point. My mind raced as I quickly came up with an alibi and released Firestorm to go with it. The red lizard emerged in a flash of white light and looked around immediately.
“*So…guess I missed the party, huh?*” he said with a slight laugh.
“If that’s what you want to call it,” the girl mumbled under her breath.
“What happened here, why aren’t you two in ranks?!” an Executive barked.
I turned quickly to the sound of the voice and saw that most of the Rockets were converging on this spot where Raikou had escaped.
My mind racing, I quickly came up with an excuse and said, “Um, when I saw that this part of the Thunder Field had been destroyed, I ran here to see if I could stop Raikou. She tried to find some way to expand the field to cover the part where the other antenna had been,” I added, motioning to the girl still standing by one of the trucks. “Unfortunately Raikou was too fast and there wasn’t any way my Charmeleon and I could stop him,” I lied. I hadn’t hesitated or spoken too fast and the story didn’t seem to have any flaws. Though I didn’t particularly use it often, I really had a knack for quickly coming up with logical lies. It seemed to work; the Executive swore profusely under his breath, but didn’t appear to be angry with us. I would have breathed a sigh of relief were it not the fact that I was still surrounded by Rockets.
“Very well,” the Executive finally said. “You, send a report to the boss immediately,” he ordered to a subordinate. “Technicians, take down the equipment…everyone else, load into the trucks. We’re heading back.”
“Listen up people!” Ryan called out to us. It wasn’t particularly hard to get our attention seeing as nobody was talking. We all were somewhat depressed even though, in a way, we had been successful—we had kept Raikou from being captured, or rather, Ryan had. Even still, it was as though we had failed. For our first mission it had been a bit of a disaster, what with most of us having had no clue what to do and the rest not even getting put on the mission by an Executive. After arriving back at the Rockets’ headquarters, those of us who had met up with Ryan had gathered and tried to find the rest of our fellow members. Stalker’s Mission Groups had helped in that most people were able to recognize the members in their group, but it was still a pain getting everyone together.
We all now stood outside and to the right of a Pokémon Center—where the nearest bus stop was. All this time, my Team Rocket uniform was in the backpack I had brought with me. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was now past midnight. I then sighed and proceeded to listen to Ryan’s announcement.
“In case you didn’t already know, Stalker did put me in charge of the active force and while most of you are clueless as to what we should do now, I’ve got it covered. I doubt the bus will be able to fit all of us, so when it gets here, however many of us can fit will go first and the rest just wait for the next bus. We need to get to Lavender Town because, well…I must admit, Stalker didn’t really give me instructions about how to get back, so I just figured we could take a ferry or something,” Ryan explained.
Most everyone seemed to think it was a good plan as well. I didn’t say anything, but I did remember that the whole reason Stalker had had us take the S.S. Anne was so that we wouldn’t attract too much attention. I ignored the thought, however; I didn’t feel like objecting.
I heard the sound of a loud engine growing closer and turned to the west to see the bus driving toward us. It was one of those long ones with the flexible middle, and the second I saw it, I knew that we’d all be able to fit on it if we crammed in. It slowed to a stop and we all backed away from it and made a line along the sidewalk. The moment the driver opened the door, everyone began pushing forward, which made it a nightmare to get onto the bus seeing as everyone had to stop and pay. When I finally got onto the bus, most of the back seats were taken, so I sat near the front and attempted to save the two seats next to me.
“No saving seats,” a girl said, walking up to me.
“Yeah, well, I am,” I retorted.
“Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes and finding another seat.
I had to go through several accusations of seat saving and even had one of the seats taken anyway before Rudy and Darren boarded the bus. Rudy sat down first and said, “Thanks.”
“Erm, sorry,” I said awkwardly when Darren got there.
“That’s okay,” he said, standing and holding the bar near us now that all of the seats had been taken.
Once everyone was on board, the driver closed the door and set off. I stared out the window, watching the buildings slowly blend into suburbs, and finally into wilderness. I then lay back and pretended to sleep.
Two hours later, despite the fact that I didn’t get bored easily, I was sick and tired of the journey. We had boarded two buses that night; the first was from Celadon to Saffron, an immense metropolis situated at the heart of Kanto. The second was from Saffron to the tiny town of Lavender on the coast of the mainland nearest Midnight Island. I could see the peak of a massive tower in the distance and knew we were getting close. I pointed it out to Rudy and he said, “Oh yeah…that’s Pokémon Tower, isn’t it? Only reason why anyone’s even heard of such a nowhere place like Lavender.”
I couldn’t say I disagreed with him. I, too, was very biased against small towns, which was mainly why I had hated the concept of moving to New Bark. And while cities with zillions of people in them were a bit overkill, I couldn’t deny that Celadon and Saffron had fascinated me.
We were now nearing the outskirts of the town, where the fields and sparse trees along the highway slowly blended into the few and far-between houses. The main downtown area could at most be considered suburbs, but the overall appearance of Lavender was that of a relaxed and slow town of which no one knew or cared about. Then, from the edge of the city right along the ocean, Pokémon Tower rose like a citadel above the landscape. It had a ragged and worn appearance and was easily over a hundred feet tall and at least fifty years old.
I noticed that the bus was slowing and the rest of the passengers were standing to their feet, which made it even more crowded than it had been previously because there had already been tons of people packed into the center standing area of the bus. Since we had been near the front, Rudy, Darren, and I were among the first ones off the bus. Right after stepping off the bus, Rudy laughed and said, “Geez, did someone steal the sidewalks?”
I looked around and noticed that he was right—there weren’t any sidewalks anywhere. In addition to that, however, I also couldn’t see any streetlights or even stoplights. There were just small buildings, fields, and along the sea, a small harbor. I rubbed my hands along my arms and shivered. Short sleeves, the end of December, and a seaside town didn’t mix.
The bus’s engine revved behind us and I turned to watch the bus pull away slowly. I suddenly remembered Swift and Firestorm, pulled their Poké balls out of my pocket, and released them. The flash lit up the surrounding as they materialized and caused some people to stare.
“*Dang, what time is it?*” Firestorm asked, looking up at the overcast sky.
“I dunno, two in the morning or something. I then felt guilty and said instantly, “Did I wake you guys up?”
“*Nah, even though when you’re in a Poké ball, it seems like you’re awake, you’re really kind of in a sort of hibernation although your mind is in a virtual reality thing,*” Firestorm explained.
“Oh, duh,” I said stupidly to myself. I knew that. Everyone knew that. “Meh, it’s too early, I’m not thinking.”
“*That’s no excuse for not telling what happened with the Raikou mission,*” Firestorm said, grinning.
“Okay, long story short: most of us were clueless until Ryan broke the force field that was trapping Raikou and freed him,” I said.
“*Okay…*” Firestorm said, not entirely satisfied, but willing to overlook it.
A distant rumble of thunder made me glance up at the sky, which was completely covered with dark clouds. Fortunately, it didn’t seem as though there was going to be a storm of any sort.
“****,” Ryan muttered under his breath, gazing out at the sea to the south. The churning of the water and the peaks of waves could be seen even from where we were. “The storm’s already passed by here, but there’s no way the ferry can take us to the island.”
“So we can’t go back tonight?” someone asked.
“Thank God, I’m frickin’ tired,” another muttered.
“Well whether everyone’s happy about it or not, no, there is no way we can get there. Just deal with it, we’re staying the night at the nearest Center.” He then added under his breath, “If they’ve even got one in this place.”
Most of the group of trainers groaned but followed Ryan. He spoke with his friend for a bit at the front of the group before releasing his Fearow and flying off, most likely to find a Center. I couldn’t help wondering how one was supposed to accommodate all of us, but just seconds after he had left, Ryan returned atop his bird.
“It’s right up here by the big tower…or at least it was, I mean…ah, never mind, you’ll see,” he said to us while landing.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rudy asked. I gave only a shrug in response, although I, too, was wondering.
We soon found out that the Pokémon Center wasn’t too far from where we had been dropped off downtown. Or at least, as Ryan had said, it had been. Nearly every building within a hundred feet from Pokémon Tower was destroyed, as though some force had simply knocked them over. A large, angry crowd of people stood at the base of the immense tower, all of them shouting various things. A few kids at the front of the group were the first to run forward, followed soon after by all of us rushing over to find out what had happened.
“People, people, calm down, we will have everything sorted out in the morning!” a police officer shouted, raising her voice enough to be heard over the crowd. “Right now, Mr. Fuji, the Tower’s caretaker, has an announcement to make.” She stepped down from a large stool she had been standing upon in order to be seen. A rather old man stepped forward, appearing to be in his sixties or seventies and lacking any hair on his head or even a beard. Although physical appearance is no way to judge character, his face just seemed to give off an air of kindness.
“I apologize wholeheartedly that such a thing has happened, and I assure you that it will never happen again. Due to the fact that homes have been knocked over and there is no longer a Center, all residents and travelers are invited to stay in Pokémon Tower until this whole mess is under control,” he said.
This seemed to only cause more protest. Many people shouted, nearly all of them exclaiming variations of, “I’m not going in there, those things came from there!”
“I assure you, they normally are very mild mannered and I shall have a talk with them shortly. In the meantime, however, there are no hotels within the city limits and the doors of the tower are always open.” He gave a slight bow and walked off.
My first thought was, “Who’s ‘they’ and what the heck happened?” but I was spared the trouble of asking when a young boy on The Rebellion walked forward and asked Mr. Fuji, “Sir, what happened here?”
“I’m afraid I’m not sure what the cause was, but several Gengar from the tower are the ones responsible for this destruction,” he explained. “I just wish I knew why….”
That seemed to be all that the boy wanted to know because he then retreated into the crowd once more. We waited in silence for what would happen, but the residents of Lavender were yelling about ghosts, unruly Pokémon, and a load of other things that made no sense.
The police officer groaned and pulled out a cell phone, speaking quickly with someone for a minute before pulling out a megaphone and saying, “Look, I’ve called for several buses, and anyone who wants to will be taken to the Center in the nearest town until we can sort everything out.”
Many people were relieved to hear this and calmed down, while many others had run to their demolished houses to retrieve blankets and such. They were lucky that the houses weren’t completely destroyed—most of their belongings most likely had been spared.
Ryan spoke for a bit with his friend before stating, “If we go to some other city, that’ll just take longer. We can stay in the Tower tonight and send someone to get Stalker in the morning.”
Most of the kids didn’t have a problem with that, and I stepped inside the Tower with my fellow members and found that the inside of the structure was considerably warmer than the outside. Pokémon Tower was named for being a resting-place for Pokémon, but there were no graves on the first floor, and no one ventured toward the stairs that led to the home of the Ghost-type Pokémon. Of course, they weren’t really ghosts of dead Pokémon, but although they simply bore the supposed characteristics of ghosts and were no different than normal Pokémon, the people of the town seemed to be rather prejudiced against them.
Lights hung from the ceilings, yet the place was still dim and bore a foreboding appearance. There were several columns in the middle of the single room that were apparently added recently to help bear the weight of the upper floors. I sat down with Swift and Firestorm by the wall in an area to the back where no one had yet settled down. Swift huddled in his feathers while Firestorm curled up with his flame facing the wall so nothing could be burned by it. Rudy and Darren were most likely somewhere else on the Tower’s floor, because I didn’t see them.
It was long after everyone else had lain down before I began to feel the slightest bit drowsy. I sighed, checked my watch, and saw by the light of its glow that it was now three in the morning. My mind filled to the brim with thoughts, I finally lay back against the wall and closed my eyes.
*****
Firestorm jolted awake out of what had been a light sleep. He lifted his reptilian head slightly off the cold floor and looked around, drenched in cold sweat. “Return brethren, for the legends have been disturbed.” That was what the voice had said. He was almost certain he had heard what he thought he had, but if it were real and not just a dream, then wouldn’t others have heard it?
Almost as if in response to his thoughts, several other Pokémon sat up and looked around. Firestorm was not familiar with these Pokémon, but he figured that since The Rebellion’s members had been the only traveling trainers in town, that they probably belonged to them.
“Did you hear that?” he asked the nearest, a female Furret. She turned her tawny, fur-covered, ferret-like head and replied, “Sure did.” She turned to several of the others and said, “Think we should wake our trainers?”
Firestorm thought fast. He didn’t want everyone getting upset over some random voice in the dark. One that, he added to himself, had apparently not even been heard by any of the humans. Thoughts rushed about in his head; he was still uncertain. Finally he said, “I’ve got an idea. Just…go back to sleep.”
The others just shrugged and lay back down, not tired after spending most of the day in their Poké balls, but not feeling like investigating. Firestorm sat there for several seconds, for some reason wanting to make sure the others were asleep. He turned, still confused about what to do, before finally nudging his trainer to wake her up.
*****
After what felt like about two minutes, I felt a small nudge on my right side. I awoke instantly, being a light sleeper, and turned to see Firestorm by the light of his tail flame. I checked my watch, saw that it was 4:30, and asked, “What is it?”
“*I…well…this’ll probably sound kinda stupid, but several of the other Pokémon and I heard this voice. I know it wasn’t a dream, but I don’t really know what it was,*” he said sheepishly.
“Was it in Pokéspeech or—” I whispered.
“*Yeah, it was,*” he said before I could finish.
I thought about it for several seconds, which was difficult seeing as my brain was still asleep, and finally said, “If you don’t know where it came from, then I’m not really sure what I can do. What I don’t get is why you heard it and not me, but—” I paused mid-sentence. I strained my ears, almost certain I had heard the faintest bits of conversation.
“Wake Swift up,” I said suddenly and firmly.
Firestorm turned and poked Swift lightly on the back. He stirred slightly and ruffled his feathers before looking up at us.
“*What?*” he asked.
“Listen,” I said, “you have the best hearing of the three of us.”
Bewildered, he stood completely still. I scarcely breathed as I waited for his response. Concentrating hard, he finally said, “*Two humans are talking. One of them’s an old man; the other’s a boy, teenaged, I’d say, I think there are others with them. Over there.*” He motioned toward the right of the building.
“Come on,” I said, motioning to Swift to perch on my arm as I stood to my feet. Firestorm made efforts to block the light of his tail so it wouldn’t awaken anyone as we made our way through the mass of people. Miraculously, I managed to make it through the crowd without stepping on anyone. I glanced along the side of the building, completely lost as to how the voices could have been coming from that direction.
“*Footsteps,*” Swift said suddenly, “*they’re leading away from here. There’s an echo, too, so I’m sure they’re not outside.*”
Yet again bewildered, I began feeling along the side of the wall, not exactly sure what I was searching for but certain I was searching for something. It then occurred to me that while the noises had been behind the wall at this point, the “entrance” to inside the walls could have been anywhere. I glanced throughout the room and my eyes fell on the main counter near the front doors. I slowly walked over to it and looked along the wall feeling it at the same time. This time, my fingers caught a small groove along the surface. I pushed against the surface and found that it slid back an inch or two before stopping. Excited, I pushed against it again, so determined to get inside that I didn’t realize that only a small part of the wall had moved. When I observed it further, I found that it slid back behind the main wall, revealing an entrance barely big enough for a medium sized person. I ducked as I stepped inside and walked through the tunnel.
“*Whoa, creepy,*” Firestorm said, apparently enjoying the suspense. The light from his tail lit the way, wavering upon the stony walls as we continued.
“What the…Mr. Fuji!” I yelled, racing ahead. He was lying, bound by ropes and his mouth gagged. I quickly untied the ropes and was about to remove the cloth tied tightly around his mouth when I discovered he was unconscious. I looked past his body, where footprints lay, blatantly disrupting the dusty, otherwise undisturbed floor.
“*Wha—what happened here?*” Firestorm asked, catching up.
“I don’t know, but I think it’s time we found out. The Gengar, the voice you heard, the conversation Swift and I heard. Something’s going on, and I want to know what,” I said resolutely. “You guys with me?”
“*You bet!*” Firestorm said excitedly. Swift grinned and nodded.
I got to my feet again and walked forward through the tunnel. The firelight flickered and danced across the walls, illuminating a growing number of mysterious symbols as we walked. I felt my heartbeat increase slightly as I spotted the end of the hallway. A small square was etched into the side; I blew off the dust and read aloud, “Ahead lies the sacred chamber of darkness where the jeweled source of all Dark power lies. Do not enter.” Twinges of fear pricked at the back of my mind when I read it, but my curiosity and determination overwhelmed them as I reached for the “handle” to the chamber.
It was obvious that it had been used recently because the stone door slid rather easily. I stepped inside, followed by Firestorm before I closed it. Instantly, a surge of black energy exploded a chunk of rock from the wall to the left of me! I jumped and spun around at the same time: an awkward move that almost made me fall over as I regained myself from the shock.
“Next time he won’t miss. Why are you here?” someone demanded.
A small black fox stood lightly on its paws in front of three guys behind him. The first two were about in their late teens and were dressed head to toe in black. The one who has issued the threat however, was a teenaged guy shorter than me, but looking to be about my age. His skin was a light brown tone and his hair was black and extremely short. He held two or three more Poké balls in his hands and was apparently waiting for an answer.
“I…er…” What was I supposed to say? It was obvious that I was following them, but it seemed stupid to say that, so I simply remained silent.
“Well?” he asked again. “If you don’t answer then I guess matters can always be settled by Pokémon.”
I had a sudden thought, but wasn’t sure whether to say it or not. Finally, I just blurted out, “You’re on Team Rocket, aren’t you?”
“So you know about us then,” he said. “Not surprising, you’re on that rebel team, aren’t you?”
I gasped slightly and then found myself shouting, “How did you know about it!”
“Jeez, chill,” he said. “Actually it’s the talk of the Johto Force. Kids being led against the Kanto Rockets. You still haven’t told me why you’re here, though.”
“Why don’t you tell me why you’re here first,” I said, my voice full of fake confidence.
“Come on, Max, we don’t have time for this. Why don’t you just release all of ‘em and—” one of the other Rockets said.
“I’m the Executive, I’ll handle this,” he muttered before saying to me, “Fine. We’ve known about this chamber and have been planning on entering it for some time. We planned on doing it yesterday for safety reasons, seeing as the Kanto Force was busy with Raikou. The Gengar caused us some problems, though, and they drove us out. The disruption we caused with the crystal drove them on an insane rampage and we would have gotten in if everyone hadn’t showed up again. So, we waited until night.”
“Fine, my Pokémon, Firestorm, heard a voice in the night, and then we heard you talking with Mr. Fuji,” I said.
“The Haunter,” he mumbled. “I knew the Ghost Pokémon would call out for their evolved forms to return. We don’t have much time…let’s see how you face against Umbreon.”
I hesitated slightly. He had to be extremely skilled to end up an Executive at such a young age. There also were a few more questions I wanted to ask, mainly regarding the crystal he had mentioned. I turned slowly to Swift and Firestorm and said, “Would you guys—”
“*Don’t worry about it,*” Firestorm said, assuming a fighting pose. Swift nodded and flapped to the ground next to Firestorm.
“Alright, then, Firestorm, Flamethrower, Swift, Wing Attack!” I yelled.
Max didn’t summon any more Pokémon. Rather, he motioned to his single Umbreon and commanded, “Faint Attack!”
The dark fox leaped forward, the yellow rings on his side glowing, before he completely disappeared from view. Firestorm and Swift hadn’t yet charged up their attacks, but they paused when Umbreon vanished and looked back wondering what to do. I thought fast and said, “Swift, get in the air so you can’t be hit and then attack Umbreon when he reappears to attack Firestorm!” It was an okay plan except for the fact that it hadn’t occurred to me that Umbreon had attacks that didn’t require physical contact with the opponent.
In a flash, Umbreon lunged out of the air right at Firestorm. The second he spotted him, Swift swooped forward, his wings glowing with energy. I held my breath, anticipating Umbreon’s defeat.
In a split second before hitting Firestorm, the fox pulled out of his jump, landed right in front of him, and turned his head to fire a beam of energy at Swift. It was a planned move—the beam, which had already been charged up, hit Swift squarely on the chest. He cried out and faltered in his flight before struggling to regain himself. Hoping that Umbreon was preoccupied, Firestorm leaped and slashed at the Pokémon, only to find that he wasn’t nearly fast enough. The Dark type turned again and fired the same beam at Firestorm, sending him flying back several feet along the ground.
“Crap, I can’t think of anything, I could really use some outside ideas right about now,” I said to the two.
“*Would if I could,*” Firestorm said flatly. “*I know my attacks, and I know how to use them to outwit the opponent. All that tricky stuff involving cumulative effects and strategy is supposed to be up to you,*” he said, wincing as he stood to his feet.
“What are you talking about?!” I yelled. “You can think just as well as I can, and I’m new to this. Just, uh, I don’t know…er, Fire Punch! If you can do it…”
“*Not the real one, but, yeah,*” he said and I soon saw what he meant. Rather than focusing his fire abilities into a flame around his fist, he breathed out a fireball onto his claws and lunged forward at Umbreon. The fox dodged the assault right at the last second, but then was smacked back toward the red lizard. Swift pulled hard out of a dive, his wings glowing after just hitting Umbreon with a Wing Attack. Unable to quickly regain himself, Umbreon was then struck by Firestorm’s flaming fist.
“Umbreon, return,” Max said, holding out a Poké ball and recalling the injured Pokémon in a red beam.
“Awesome, you two!” I said in congratulation, although I knew the battle was far from over.
Max thought for a few seconds and then finally, after some urging from the other two Rockets, held out three red and white spheres. And I swear my heart just plain jumped the second I saw the contents of the balls.



A Pokémon fanfic fifteen years in the making.
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In Johto, one of three Pokémon was available for new trainers to receive, but he had all three. All three…the words just seemed to be the most awe-inspiring and terrifying phrase around. Before me stood the three evolutions of the Johto starting Pokémon: Meganium, Typhlosion, and Feraligatr. The first creature was an immense, green, long-necked dinosaur with flower petals around its neck. The second was the tan and black fire beast that I already had seen much of during the plane incident. And then there was the third, a tall, bipedal crocodile with massive toothy jaws, leathery blue scales, and large red spikes along its back.
“Team Rocket has its advantages—it was altogether too easy to snag the other two starters. Still want to battle?”
“That’s not for me to decide,” I said defiantly. I turned to my two Pokémon with a bizarre mixture of panic and concern on my face.
“*We can’t give up,*” Swift finally said.
“*We’re not going to,*” Firestorm said, clenching his teeth, but looking to be in total dread.
“True, but…well,” I stuttered. I wasn’t sure what I intended to say, but whatever it was, it didn’t come out right. The three opposing Pokémon stood, waiting for mine to make a move. I glanced at Firestorm again, but at that moment, he stood as though frozen. I followed his gaze and noticed something that I hadn’t before. Behind the Rockets was a small pedestal, inscribed with more symbols and supporting a stone, black as midnight and shining with an ebony aura. Without warning, Firestorm let loose a Flamethrower straight at it. Thinking he was attacking them, the Rockets and the three Pokémon stepped easily out of the way; the flame enveloped the pedestal, torching the crystal.
“No, what have you done?!” Max yelled, realization hitting him instantly. The second he said that, the three Pokémon roared and fired a pulsing yellow beam of solar energy, a rush of incinerating flame, and an intense torrent of water, respectively. I panicked, pulled the two Poké Balls from my pocket, and recalled my Pokémon. The three attacks struck the wall and exploded on contact, the sheer force easily bursting through the stone chamber.
“Enough!” he yelled and recalled his Pokémon. I glanced back, still confused at what was going on with the crystal. The black stone was now shaking violently, emitting pulses of light and energy that rebounded off the walls and caused dust and small rocks to continuously fall from the ceiling. Max stared at it, apparently tempted to pick it up, but then decided against it. He then ordered to his subordinates, “Retreat, we couldn’t even touch the jewel anyway.”
The three Rockets raced away from the crystal and through the opening. I glanced back at the disruption before running after them. I had just gotten through into the passage when the taller of the other two Rockets grabbed me. “No way, you caused all of this and you’re gonna pay,” he said, throwing me back to the ground into the room and racing after Max and the other Rocket. I winced slightly in pain, but easily overlooked it and jumped to my feet again. One last look at the crystal told me I was too late, however.
Without warning, the stone seemed to explode with black energy. I sprinted toward the opening, fear driving me on, but the rush knocked me off my feet again. The light blocked my vision in total darkness; I cried out at a sudden jolt of pain, still struggling to escape. The black light dimmed and the energy subsided; yet even as I stood, everything went dark.
Complete darkness prevailed, even after I had regained consciousness. I slowly opened my eyes and waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness when I realized that they wouldn’t; the room was completely lacking of light. I stood to my feet and turned to where I remembered the pedestal had been. I blinked several times—the pedestal was illuminated with an eerie black light: one that didn’t light up the entire room and led only to my wondering how on earth light could be black. I took slow, shaking steps toward it and then, without really knowing why, poked the stone. There was no response. I poked it again before noticing tiny inscriptions below it. Squinting at the tiny writing, I read.
Woe to the one who removes the Dark Crystal from its sacred realm, for one must be marked to wield the power that it possesses. From the pact of thirty-three, eight Legendarians, the descendants of the ones that ended the great war, are empowered to protect the legends. They are to search the land without cease, for from the multitude, they must choose eight humans to side with them. But after the eight have accomplished their purpose, a greater legend shall arise with the legacy of the three crystals. The Dark Crystal shall go to the first to see the Dark. The Light Crystal shall go to the first to see the Light. And the Psychic Crystal shall go the first to see the forgotten past. Though light may be shed upon the keepers beforehand, the true role of the crystals shall only be realized within the rise of the Second Revolution.
I stared at the message, poked the crystal again to make sure soothing would happen, and placed it in my pocket. The message had been a warning, there was no doubt about that, but I didn’t care if I wasn’t supposed to have the stone. I didn’t have any intentions for it and it would sure be safer with me than just sitting there. I still kept rereading the warning, though, trying to make sense of it. The “pact of thirty-three” was obviously referring to Legendary Pokémon, so eight Legendaries had apparently ended some war and now their descendants were part of a legend. The part about the humans was easy: the eight Legendaries were each supposed to join with a human, but then there also was another legend involving the three crystals. The word “Legendarians” puzzled me, however, and the only thing I could think of was that it could be another name for the Legendary Pokémon. And the Second Revolution? What was so significant about it and why didn’t it say anything about a first one? Maybe the first one was actually the war that it mentioned—that was all I could think of.
I walked back towards the hole in the wall, holding the crystal out in front of me to see my way with its bizarre light. I noticed it fading as I got farther away from the chamber, and I also realized that Mr. Fuji had apparently regained consciousness and left, for he was no longer in the passage. By the time I had reached the end of the tunnel and reemerged in Pokémon Tower, the Dark Crystal appeared to be nothing more than a piece of the purest obsidian…obsidian with a world of legend and mystery revolving around it.
“Stupid thing…just looking at it makes me wonder more about what it is,” I muttered to myself, staring at it. I climbed back through the narrow entryway leading back to the entrance lobby and was just about to head back over to where I had been sleeping, when I suddenly felt like I was being watched. I spun around only to see Mr. Fuji standing by the main counter.
“Mr. Fuji? You’re okay?” I blurted out, but then remembered that I was still holding the Dark Crystal. “Right…about this…I didn’t mean to take it, you can have it back if you want,” I said stupidly.
Rather than scold me like I thought he would, he only looked amused. “It’s not mine. I had already accepted that it had been taken by that shady group, but I’m glad to see that isn’t the case. Keep it if you wish.”
I stared dumbfounded. “What?”
“The crystal was what caused the Ghost Pokémon of the tower to destroy much of the town. I may know now that its earlier disturbance was caused by that group who broke into the tower, but what good will it do to keep it here?” he explained.
“But—” I started, unsure of how to respond. “If that’s the case, then what difference does it make if I have it or if they’d gotten it?”
He smiled. “The crystal fought so hard to keep itself from being taken before. Obviously it doesn’t mind if you take it, now does it? In any case, the Ghost Pokémon seem calmer now, so all is well.”
I felt a wave of guilt come over me. Mr. Fuji clearly didn’t know that Firestorm had pretty much fried the crystal, which was the only reason Team Rocket had gone. Not only that, but it was probably also the only reason I had been able to touch the pedestal in the first place.
“Had you not been able to touch the crystal either?” I asked.
“I was not,” he replied simply. “I have read the words inscribed in the chamber many times, however.”
“So you must have some idea of what that legend meant, right?”
Shaking his head, he answered, “Sadly, no. However, I do know that it has been there since long before I came to be the tower’s caretaker. And even longer before that, the crystal supposedly resided on Midnight Island.”
“Midnight Island?” I repeated in surprise. Was he serious?
“Yes, although there is no remaining sign of the crystal’s presence anywhere on the island. It is still an intriguing place, nonetheless.”
To be honest, I really couldn’t think of anything “intriguing” about Midnight Island other than the fact that it was The Rebellion’s headquarters. Only just then did it occur to me that we had actually gotten lucky that the crystal had caused the ghosts to rampage. If not for the large amount of people spending the night in the tower with the rebels, it would have looked very suspicious to Team Rocket.
I glanced at the crystal again, remembering the words of the legend. “So there are two other crystals out there, right?”
Mr. Fuji nodded. “I would assume so, based on what the legend said, although I don’t know where they are.”
I didn’t mind, seeing as it didn’t matter to me whether or not I found out the locations of the other two. What concerned me was if Team Rocket knew where they were. But then again…did it really matter? What difference did it make if the Rockets got them, anyway?
“Now then…” Mr. Fuji said, walking towards the tower’s exit. “If you’ll excuse me, there are a number of things that I must attend to. I wish you good luck on your travels.”
I waved absentmindedly as he left, my mind still stuck on what I had read in the chamber. Was it really the sort of thing that I should take seriously? Obviously the crystal was more than just an ordinary rock, but was everything else about it true? It had said something about a revolution…
I didn’t want to think about that matter anymore, though…not tonight.
End Chapter 7
Well, there ya go, please review.
~Chibi~
“Team Rocket has its advantages—it was altogether too easy to snag the other two starters. Still want to battle?”
“That’s not for me to decide,” I said defiantly. I turned to my two Pokémon with a bizarre mixture of panic and concern on my face.
“*We can’t give up,*” Swift finally said.
“*We’re not going to,*” Firestorm said, clenching his teeth, but looking to be in total dread.
“True, but…well,” I stuttered. I wasn’t sure what I intended to say, but whatever it was, it didn’t come out right. The three opposing Pokémon stood, waiting for mine to make a move. I glanced at Firestorm again, but at that moment, he stood as though frozen. I followed his gaze and noticed something that I hadn’t before. Behind the Rockets was a small pedestal, inscribed with more symbols and supporting a stone, black as midnight and shining with an ebony aura. Without warning, Firestorm let loose a Flamethrower straight at it. Thinking he was attacking them, the Rockets and the three Pokémon stepped easily out of the way; the flame enveloped the pedestal, torching the crystal.
“No, what have you done?!” Max yelled, realization hitting him instantly. The second he said that, the three Pokémon roared and fired a pulsing yellow beam of solar energy, a rush of incinerating flame, and an intense torrent of water, respectively. I panicked, pulled the two Poké Balls from my pocket, and recalled my Pokémon. The three attacks struck the wall and exploded on contact, the sheer force easily bursting through the stone chamber.
“Enough!” he yelled and recalled his Pokémon. I glanced back, still confused at what was going on with the crystal. The black stone was now shaking violently, emitting pulses of light and energy that rebounded off the walls and caused dust and small rocks to continuously fall from the ceiling. Max stared at it, apparently tempted to pick it up, but then decided against it. He then ordered to his subordinates, “Retreat, we couldn’t even touch the jewel anyway.”
The three Rockets raced away from the crystal and through the opening. I glanced back at the disruption before running after them. I had just gotten through into the passage when the taller of the other two Rockets grabbed me. “No way, you caused all of this and you’re gonna pay,” he said, throwing me back to the ground into the room and racing after Max and the other Rocket. I winced slightly in pain, but easily overlooked it and jumped to my feet again. One last look at the crystal told me I was too late, however.
Without warning, the stone seemed to explode with black energy. I sprinted toward the opening, fear driving me on, but the rush knocked me off my feet again. The light blocked my vision in total darkness; I cried out at a sudden jolt of pain, still struggling to escape. The black light dimmed and the energy subsided; yet even as I stood, everything went dark.
Complete darkness prevailed, even after I had regained consciousness. I slowly opened my eyes and waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness when I realized that they wouldn’t; the room was completely lacking of light. I stood to my feet and turned to where I remembered the pedestal had been. I blinked several times—the pedestal was illuminated with an eerie black light: one that didn’t light up the entire room and led only to my wondering how on earth light could be black. I took slow, shaking steps toward it and then, without really knowing why, poked the stone. There was no response. I poked it again before noticing tiny inscriptions below it. Squinting at the tiny writing, I read.
Woe to the one who removes the Dark Crystal from its sacred realm, for one must be marked to wield the power that it possesses. From the pact of thirty-three, eight Legendarians, the descendants of the ones that ended the great war, are empowered to protect the legends. They are to search the land without cease, for from the multitude, they must choose eight humans to side with them. But after the eight have accomplished their purpose, a greater legend shall arise with the legacy of the three crystals. The Dark Crystal shall go to the first to see the Dark. The Light Crystal shall go to the first to see the Light. And the Psychic Crystal shall go the first to see the forgotten past. Though light may be shed upon the keepers beforehand, the true role of the crystals shall only be realized within the rise of the Second Revolution.
I stared at the message, poked the crystal again to make sure soothing would happen, and placed it in my pocket. The message had been a warning, there was no doubt about that, but I didn’t care if I wasn’t supposed to have the stone. I didn’t have any intentions for it and it would sure be safer with me than just sitting there. I still kept rereading the warning, though, trying to make sense of it. The “pact of thirty-three” was obviously referring to Legendary Pokémon, so eight Legendaries had apparently ended some war and now their descendants were part of a legend. The part about the humans was easy: the eight Legendaries were each supposed to join with a human, but then there also was another legend involving the three crystals. The word “Legendarians” puzzled me, however, and the only thing I could think of was that it could be another name for the Legendary Pokémon. And the Second Revolution? What was so significant about it and why didn’t it say anything about a first one? Maybe the first one was actually the war that it mentioned—that was all I could think of.
I walked back towards the hole in the wall, holding the crystal out in front of me to see my way with its bizarre light. I noticed it fading as I got farther away from the chamber, and I also realized that Mr. Fuji had apparently regained consciousness and left, for he was no longer in the passage. By the time I had reached the end of the tunnel and reemerged in Pokémon Tower, the Dark Crystal appeared to be nothing more than a piece of the purest obsidian…obsidian with a world of legend and mystery revolving around it.
“Stupid thing…just looking at it makes me wonder more about what it is,” I muttered to myself, staring at it. I climbed back through the narrow entryway leading back to the entrance lobby and was just about to head back over to where I had been sleeping, when I suddenly felt like I was being watched. I spun around only to see Mr. Fuji standing by the main counter.
“Mr. Fuji? You’re okay?” I blurted out, but then remembered that I was still holding the Dark Crystal. “Right…about this…I didn’t mean to take it, you can have it back if you want,” I said stupidly.
Rather than scold me like I thought he would, he only looked amused. “It’s not mine. I had already accepted that it had been taken by that shady group, but I’m glad to see that isn’t the case. Keep it if you wish.”
I stared dumbfounded. “What?”
“The crystal was what caused the Ghost Pokémon of the tower to destroy much of the town. I may know now that its earlier disturbance was caused by that group who broke into the tower, but what good will it do to keep it here?” he explained.
“But—” I started, unsure of how to respond. “If that’s the case, then what difference does it make if I have it or if they’d gotten it?”
He smiled. “The crystal fought so hard to keep itself from being taken before. Obviously it doesn’t mind if you take it, now does it? In any case, the Ghost Pokémon seem calmer now, so all is well.”
I felt a wave of guilt come over me. Mr. Fuji clearly didn’t know that Firestorm had pretty much fried the crystal, which was the only reason Team Rocket had gone. Not only that, but it was probably also the only reason I had been able to touch the pedestal in the first place.
“Had you not been able to touch the crystal either?” I asked.
“I was not,” he replied simply. “I have read the words inscribed in the chamber many times, however.”
“So you must have some idea of what that legend meant, right?”
Shaking his head, he answered, “Sadly, no. However, I do know that it has been there since long before I came to be the tower’s caretaker. And even longer before that, the crystal supposedly resided on Midnight Island.”
“Midnight Island?” I repeated in surprise. Was he serious?
“Yes, although there is no remaining sign of the crystal’s presence anywhere on the island. It is still an intriguing place, nonetheless.”
To be honest, I really couldn’t think of anything “intriguing” about Midnight Island other than the fact that it was The Rebellion’s headquarters. Only just then did it occur to me that we had actually gotten lucky that the crystal had caused the ghosts to rampage. If not for the large amount of people spending the night in the tower with the rebels, it would have looked very suspicious to Team Rocket.
I glanced at the crystal again, remembering the words of the legend. “So there are two other crystals out there, right?”
Mr. Fuji nodded. “I would assume so, based on what the legend said, although I don’t know where they are.”
I didn’t mind, seeing as it didn’t matter to me whether or not I found out the locations of the other two. What concerned me was if Team Rocket knew where they were. But then again…did it really matter? What difference did it make if the Rockets got them, anyway?
“Now then…” Mr. Fuji said, walking towards the tower’s exit. “If you’ll excuse me, there are a number of things that I must attend to. I wish you good luck on your travels.”
I waved absentmindedly as he left, my mind still stuck on what I had read in the chamber. Was it really the sort of thing that I should take seriously? Obviously the crystal was more than just an ordinary rock, but was everything else about it true? It had said something about a revolution…
I didn’t want to think about that matter anymore, though…not tonight.
End Chapter 7
Well, there ya go, please review.
~Chibi~



A Pokémon fanfic fifteen years in the making.
--------------------------------------------
DeviantArt
Tumblr
Age 34
*yawns* Um, behind you?
Seen December 23rd, 2008
Posted March 19th, 2006
881
posts
18.3
Years
*stalks in* Destroy all those who ignore this fic!!11!
Come out, my young apprentice, and show these nuts who's REALLY in charge, and what he says.
*Gollum in black cape comes out* We are, Master, and we says 'review the Legend Chronicles'...
Correct, young one.
Wahl, other than that...
Oooh, another CHIBI COOOOOOKKKIIIIEEEE!!!!!!!<-multiple exclamation marks
And now we start the insane guessing game of who gets what orb!
Stalker gets dark orb, Jade gets Light and I get Psy!!
*gets beaten to pulp by angry CP*
Whee...
Okay, so, since all these plot things need to be guessed, but I'm too lazy to guess 'em, I'll wait for the other PC reviewers to get their rears down this way. *goes off to hijack some reviewers*
AAANNNDDD!
The one thing that keeps my reviews from being totally SPAMmish!
Aw, gotta go.
SilverBlaze09
Come out, my young apprentice, and show these nuts who's REALLY in charge, and what he says.
*Gollum in black cape comes out* We are, Master, and we says 'review the Legend Chronicles'...
Correct, young one.
Wahl, other than that...
Oooh, another CHIBI COOOOOOKKKIIIIEEEE!!!!!!!<-multiple exclamation marks
And now we start the insane guessing game of who gets what orb!
Stalker gets dark orb, Jade gets Light and I get Psy!!
*gets beaten to pulp by angry CP*
Whee...
Okay, so, since all these plot things need to be guessed, but I'm too lazy to guess 'em, I'll wait for the other PC reviewers to get their rears down this way. *goes off to hijack some reviewers*
AAANNNDDD!
The one thing that keeps my reviews from being totally SPAMmish!
Shaking, I stood, completely unable to move as though my feet had been glued to the terrain. I glanced back at my fellow Rebellion membershe too was staring open-mouthed at where the Beast of Thunder had been.
There should be two commas here. One on either side of 'too'.
Though I didnt particularly use it often, I really had a knack for quickly coming up with logical lies.
I think I spot a future plot thing. ;D
You, send a report to the boss immediately,
Is it 'The Boss', Giovanni, or is it 'the boss', the next exec up?Aw, gotta go.
SilverBlaze09
John 3:16- For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
I love that verse.
Currently unable to Fanfic on-line, but hope to soon.
Silverwing: Chibi, you're an idiot. You let your fic die. Heck, if it hadn't been archive-ified, it would have been deleted.
--; Meh, what can I say, posting chappies here is tedious and it's too inactive for my tastes. Ah well.
Chapter 8: The Dragon Project
Although Swift and Firestorm had stayed awake and wandered around after I released them after returning to the tower, I was thoroughly exhausted. It was about 5:15, and, though it usually took me hours to fall asleep, I was out within ten minutes. Then, when I finally woke up for real, it was around ten and most of the residents of Lavender had left, most likely to talk with the police or their insurance companies.
I stood slowly and stretched after I awakened, then picked up the bag with my Team Rocket uniform in it and walked toward the entrance. I couldn’t help wondering where Mr. Fuji was and whether he had noticed that the stone was missing. No doubt he had run to the police, although they probably hadn’t found much.
I had taken no less than one step outside when I was hit with burst of cold air that sent a chill racing down my spine.
“Holy crap, it’s cold,” I muttered, glancing up at the sky. It was overcast, but this time the clouds were the purest of white and hovering low above the ground. Though I was usually stubborn about wearing long sleeves or jackets, I reached into my backpack, pulled out the Team Rocket shirt, and put it on inside-out. I groaned, as I probably looked very stupid, but I didn’t want to be accused of being a Rocket.
“Jade! Jeez, where have you been?! Rudy yelled, running toward me. “Stalker showed up like an hour ago and—”
“He did?” I interrupted. “How’d he know we were here?”
“Ryan must have flown out early this morning and brought him here. Anyway, he left his Dragonite, Verdegon, and Wallarooby here and flew back to the island,” he explained. “Charizard flew back to help after that.”
“Where’s Swift and Firestorm?” I asked.
“I saw them earlier, I think they’re over there,” he said, motioning toward the line of members standing and waiting to mount a Pokémon.
“There still are some people in the Tower,” I commented. “What if they get left behind?”
“Don’t worry about it. Ryan’s gonna go last so he can make sure that everyone’s gone already,” Rudy answered.
“Okay,” I said. I walked over to the line and glanced around it, searching for Swift and Firestorm. I found the latter sitting on some rocks near where the kids would board Stalker’s winged Pokémon.
“Hey, where’s Swift?” I asked, walking over to him.
“*Up there,*” he said, pointing up at the top of the tower. I turned to see that the peak of Pokémon Tower was enveloped in the foggy clouds, but couldn’t really see much more than that until a small brown speck dove down from the clouds. It gained speed rapidly as it neared the ground before finally pulling out of the dive and soaring off.
“Hey, Swift!” I called out to him. The speck changed the direction of its flight and sped toward me, appearing less like a speck and more like a hawk as he neared.
“*Oh, you’re awake,*” he said. “*I was just—*”
“That was pretty good,” I commented, glancing back at the trainers standing and waiting. “We better get in line.”
We strolled over to the line, which was very short seeing as almost everyone had already flown to the island. Rudy and I stood in line for little more than five minutes before we were able to mount a Pokémon. I recalled Firestorm and Swift and climbed up onto the Verdegon’s back, noticing that its emerald green scales were rough and coarse as compared to the sleek skin of the Dragonite we had ridden last time. I gripped its shoulders tightly as Rudy climbed on behind me, and the Verdegon glanced back to make sure we were well seated before spreading the wings on its arms and taking to the skies.
Though it wasn’t as fast as Dragonite, the wind still rushed past us as we soared over the murky gray sea below. After little more than two minutes, the shores Midnight Island greeted us from the horizon. Verdegon folded back its wings and descended in a tight spiral, quickly losing speed before throwing its wings out and touching down with its hind legs. Rudy slid off its back first, and I followed while saying, “Thanks,” to the Verdegon. It nodded slightly and took off towards Lavender.
I ran, almost instinctively, to the entrance of Midnight Stadium, desperate to get out of the cold. I threw open the main doors, relieved at the contrast in temperature, and took off the inside-out Team Rocket shirt. Rudy walked in soon after and said, “Dang, I didn’t expect it to be so cold.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. I then said, “What’re you gonna do now?”
“Probably go to my room, what about you?” he asked.
“Same here. Later,” I said, giving a slight wave and strolling toward the east flight of stairs. I ascended the stairs and walked down the hall toward my room, pulling my card key from the cargo pocket it had been riding in. I scanned the card to open the door, set down the bag, and flopped onto the bad, just glad to be home. Home? I stopped and dwelt upon the word. Viridian was home, and yet I was here, with my friends, and doing what I had always wanted to. Yes, it was home.
After eating some snacks, I decided to shower, seeing as I hadn’t since the night before the mission. Then, after showering and getting dressed in one of the outfits I had bought in Vermilion, I stuck my Poké balls, wallet, and card key in my pocket and walked out of the room. At first, I wanted to head to the stadium where Rudy and possibly Darren were, but then I was struck by another thought. My mind wandered back to the Dark Crystal and where it lay in the pocket of the pants I had previously worn. I remembered how Stalker had many books on legends and Legendary Pokémon and figured he would probably know something about it. I jumped two or three steps at time down the stairs and walked quickly toward the west hallway, where his office was. I opened the door and peeked inside.
The first thing I noticed was that he wasn’t there and it occurred to me that he was most likely helping out more trainers in the stadium. I was about to leave, but was gripped by an overwhelming curiosity and walked inside. The office was the same as before: two chairs, a small desk with a laptop and various other computerized devices, and a mini bookshelf with books on Pokémon Training, legends, and one containing an archive on Pokémon League tournaments. I sat down at the chair facing the computer and quickly skimmed the screen.
Though there wasn’t any kind of title, I determined that it was a Team Rocket database of some sort. Along the side was a directory with the different branches of Team Rocket listed. I had a sudden thought and clicked the Genetics Division. Again, there was another directory, and this time I clicked Experimental Series. My eyes widened—I had found what I was looking for. I clicked E.P.009 and read.
Experimental Pokémon #009
Originally deemed to be unsuccessful, 009 has proven to possess several unique abilities and its unstable makeup is easily overcome by our modified Poké balls. Although several previous attempts to control it have failed, its Zapdos heritage may prove useful for testing recent Legendary control mechanisms.
So now they were testing him for how to control Legendaries…. I stared at the screen almost absentmindedly, focusing on two things: that he was just a piece of lab equipment to them and that they would soon be able to control Legendaries. I shook these thoughts from my mind and browsed the list of experiments, many of whom I was unfamiliar with. The first twenty were hybrids like Chibi and Razors, most of which had either died or were unsuccessful. The next five were clones, many of them dragons, and the last eleven were bio-engineered clones, again several of them dragons. My eyes fell on the last experiment, however, number thirty-six. I clicked it and read.
Experimental Pokémon #036 (codenamed Mewtwo)
Perhaps the most successful experiment ever created, 036’s mutations have proven to be completely controlled and it is the first of the experiments to have been engineered at such a level as to make it far beyond that of its original, Mew. Its current status is stable, and it is thought to be fully developed, however, there has been some controversy.
Mew? They had cloned Mew? How’d they get its DNA? Brimming with curiosity, I clicked on Mewtwo’s database and browsed the files, finally finding one entitled, Operation Mew-7/5/2018. I was drawn to the documentary like a magnet and was more than a bit disappointed to see that it was only a few pages long. I browsed the pages quickly, mentally noting whatever I found important.
At a glance, it seemed that the Legendary Pokémon Mew was incredibly difficult to track. The second it had been sighted in a dense forest to the north of Viridian, specialty members had been dispatched to capture it. It had escaped, leaving only a few hairs and blood on the claw of one of the Rocket’s Pokémon. Efforts to clone it had been made immediately, and it had been engineered specifically to be greater and stronger than Mew, although they had been forced to add human DNA to the mix because the little Mew genetic material they had was lacking.
Fascinated, I continued to read the other sections, although I had to admit I found the ones with endless scientific blather more than a bit boring. I clicked back to the main experiment page and looked into a different file specifically about the clones before I found what I was looking for. There was a link entitled ‘The Dragon Project,’ and I selected it and read. ‘The Dragon Project’ was a name that had been given to the creation and training of a large number of dragon experiments. Since most of the draconic experiments from the early hybrid series had died because of thin eggshells, when Team Rocket delved into cloning, they made many of the clones dragons so that they would have Dragon-type Experimental Pokémon without having to deal with problems at birth.
“Reading up on stuff?” a voice asked. I looked up quickly to see Stalker standing in the doorway after just walking in. His tall frame was nearly as high as the door, and the tips of his wavy, light brown hair almost touched the wood.
“Err, yeah,” I said, feeling rather stupid because it had just occurred to me that I had sneaked onto his computer without asking.
He walked forward and glanced at the computer screen before saying, “Interested in the experiments, I see.”
“Yeah, kinda,” I replied. I remembered why I had come there originally: to ask about the Dark Crystal, but that seemed trivial after what I had read about the experiments. I finally said, “Do you know where they’re keeping number 009?”
“The Zapdos Pika?” he said questioningly. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s at a holding facility for the ‘failed experiments’ in the main Team Rocket base in northeastern Viridian. Why?”
I considered how much I wanted to tell him and said, “I guess I was just interested in the experiments.”
“You know,” he said, sensing what I was about to ask, “I could always transfer you to the infiltration branch. Quite a few members of the active force don’t really seem suited to it, so I could always use more spies.”
I thought quickly back to the Raikou mission, and how clueless I had been during that, yet when on the S.S. Anne, I had at least managed to keep my head even though it wasn’t planned. But then another thought, stronger than the first two, arose: that Chibi was undergoing the Rockets’ torment because he had saved me. There was no need for any time to consider. I said with resolution, “Yeah, that’s what I wanna do.”
I stood and let him sit in his chair before looking back at the screen. He exited the Internet and opened his main program for The Rebellion.
“How can Team Rocket risk making a site?” I asked curiously.
“It’s got ridiculously high security,” he said. “You have to get around the firewalls and then enter in around ten passwords that constantly change, then enter in your ID number and finally state your name, so of course someone trying to get in wouldn’t know which name corresponded to the numbers. It’s pretty hard for anyone low-ranking to get in since no one really cares if they get the hacking codes and password updates or not. Not to mention the fact that it doesn’t show up on any search engine.”
He clicked through several pages and finally opened the main member page. Stalker browsed the name page quickly, found my name, and brought it up. He scrolled down to the bottom and brought up an edit option. After typing some new commands, he clicked and turned to me. “Okay, everything’s set. And really, not many members deal with the experiments. Those that have gone on missions in the past few days have mostly dealt with getting me information on new missions and stuff…things that don’t go on the database until after they’re carried out,” he explained.
I remembered that he said the infiltration force would go on missions whenever it was needed and asked, “So, when would I be able to go?”
“As I said, the infiltration force can go on missions pretty much at anytime,” he said.
I had only just gotten back, and never was much of a ‘do it now’ type person, and yet at that moment I wanted nothing more than to get Chibi back. The thought hit me, however, that there probably were other experiments that were unused and unwanted as well. I didn’t care if I had only just gotten back, as the only thing to do on the island was train, and my plan was short and simple.
“I want to go to Viridian now,” I said firmly.
“Already?” he asked. “Well, I guess you could, if you really want to. Meet me outside when you’re ready and I’ll have Charizard out.”
“Okay,” I said. Seeing that as the end of the conversation, I walked to the door, and exited the office. I ran quickly down the hall and turned left toward the arena, racing through the battlefield until I found Rudy and Darren training with their Ivysaur and Pikachu.
“Hey, you guys,” I said, gasping slightly from being out of breath.
“Hey Jade, where’ve you been?” Rudy asked.
“I was—” I started, but was interrupted by a loud voice issuing from the speakers overhead. I glanced up at the numerous speakers lining the ceiling and listened to Stalker’s announcement.
“Listen up, because I made a huge mistake in letting you guys go on missions without first figuring out a way for us to stick together. By now, all of you should have a Rocket Communicator and if you don’t have it with you, then remember this number: 4103. That’s my number, so you should add it to the call number list on your communicator along with the numbers of your mission partners. The numbers are the same as your ID.”
Rudy and Darren both reached into their pockets and pulled out the small blue cell phone-like devices, pushing several buttons.
“Mine’s 4368, what’s yours?” Rudy asked.
“4349,” Darren replied, referring to his Rocket ID.
“I left mine in my room, but my number should be one higher than Rudy’s since I joined right after him,” I said. “But anyways, I wanted to tell you that I transferred to the infiltration force, and I’m going on a mission.”
“Already?” Rudy asked. “Jeez, didn’t we just get back from a mission we all sucked at?”
“I know, but I don’t wanna spend all my time training, and it sounds way easier,” I explained.
“Okay, I guess,” Rudy said, still entering in things.
I turned and ran back to my room, quickly scanning the key and throwing open the door. My other pants were on the bed, and I dug through the pockets and retrieved my Communicator and the Dark Crystal. I stared at the jet-black stone before slowly placing it in a dresser drawer, somewhere where it would be safe until I figured out what to do with it. It then occurred to me that since the hideout was near Viridian, I would be able to return home for a little while. Though I didn’t want my parents to force me to stay home, I grabbed a pencil and notepad from the table so I could at least leave a more detailed note than what Rudy had explained to them.
I took one last glance around the room, picked up the bag with my Rocket uniform, and left. I sprinted back down the stairs while entering in the numbers Stalker, Rudy, and Darren had given me into its call list. With a push of a button, the Communicator turned on and displayed a menu, where other options like call or quick dial could be selected. I rushed out the door and into the cold once more, where Stalker stood, his Charizard ready to go.
“Charizard knows where to go, so he’ll fly you right to it. The main entrance is at the back of the Viridian Gym, similar to the one in Celadon. You should be able to find your way through it fairly easily cause there should be a directory. Just make sure no one sees you or you’ll be branded a traitor. And if you’re going to openly stand against Team Rocket, then make sure you’re in your regular clothes rather than uniform so they think Jade is against them, not ‘Aly.’”
And for the third time, I climbed up onto one of Stalker’s dragons’ backs. With great relief, I felt a continuous waft of warmth emanating from the fire dragon’s rough orange scales. I sat down right in front of the wing joint, and as Charizard flapped his immense wings and churned the air with his force, I heard Stalker say, “Contact me when you’re done. That’s what I had all the others do.”
But that was all I could hear, because at that moment, we were off, streaking through the sky to the southeast. Though his wings beat uncomfortably on both sides, I was able to steady the notepad I had brought and wrote. I wrote for most of the flight, trying to make sure that I would reassure my parents and not reveal where I was at the same time. I wasn’t entirely sure how much Rudy had told them, so I just hoped he hadn’t explained the Team Rocket mess, seeing as I wrote that I had run away to train Pokémon in the letter.
With a slight grin, I looked out suddenly and saw the outskirts of Viridian in the distance, greeting me like some long-lost friend. As Charizard folded back his wings for a descent into an area northeast of it, I leaned forward and said, “Um, can I really quickly drop something off at my house…it’s really close, to the north and I can lead you to it.”
“*I suppose,*” said the Charizard gruffly.
After me muttering several directions in his ear, Charizard finally touched down onto the cool, green grass of my front yard. I dismounted him and raced forward to the front door to the left of the garage. I placed the note on the cement, with a side of it under the doormat and rang the doorbell. With one slight glance back at the house that I had known and loved since I was four, I rushed to the dragon and leaped up onto his back with a single bound. As we ascended again and continued on, I looked back down to see one of my sisters opening the door and bending forward to pick up the note. I grinned as Charizard and I took off for the hideout, me feeling much more satisfied.
We landed in front of a large building on the northeast side of town. I had never been to the Viridian Gym, but I knew the area we were in. After disembarking, I called out, “Thanks for the ride,” as Charizard flapped into the air to return to Midnight Island.
I stepped into the alley to the side of the gym and walked to the back where, just as there had been in Celadon, a heavy door and keypad greeted me. I extracted my ID card from my wallet and scanned it. The door, which seemed to be harder to get into without a card than the one in Celadon, opened with a low mechanized groan as it slid along a track. I stepped inside the building and it closed behind me with a thud.
There was no one around, and I took that opportunity to pull my Rocket uniform on top of my normal clothes and stuff the plastic bag in my pocket. I glanced around the dingy back room, which looked on the outside to be nothing more than a storage closet at the back of the gym. Making my way around several crates, I walked toward a staircase on the far wall, but couldn’t help having my attention grabbed by some of the contents.
Badges. A box on the top was filled to the brim with hundreds of shiny green Earth Badges, the award presented to whoever could defeat Giovanni in a gym battle. I picked one up and fingered it, feeling an odd sense of temptation I never had felt before. Finally, I couldn’t stand it. I pocketed the badge and strolled to the door.
Sprinting quickly down the stairs, I was required to card scan one more time before emerging into the main Team Rocket base. It was immense, yet at the same time not much different than the Celadon one, with the main commons being the primary gathering and the other hallways leading on to other areas. I tried not to attract attention, but the realized, of course, that I was practically invisible. I was in uniform; there was nothing conspicuous about me. Feeling slightly stupid at my own thoughts, I strode over to the directory.
Unlike the other base, this one had the offices as well as everything else on the same floor. The divisions and hallways all branched off in different directions from the area I was in and it took me a while to find the experimental division. I turned to see where the hallway would that led to it would be and saw that it was the third one on the left. Pulling my attention away from the board, I headed for the hallway.
It was painted a pale and gloomy color, like the walls of some dreary hospital only with wires and glowing panels lining the corridor. As compared to the bustle of people in the commons, the scientific branch seemed to be an unappealing place to hang around in. I glanced in through the doors, seeing only the occasional scientist working in either a lab or office. I was nearing the end of the corridor. There were stairs.
Stepping lightly to not create echoing off the concrete walls, I continued past the short staircase and down a long, unpainted hallway with a single doorway at the end. Almost unintentionally, I quickened my pace, feeling a slight burst of anxiety as I neared the room I was looking for. Upon my nearing, the door slid open.
In stark contrast to the blank, pale walls of the hall, the room was dark and lined with computerized devices and machinery. I glanced around at the equipment, noticing several large test tubes that looked as though they hadn’t been used in a very long time, and I figured that it was an old lab for creating experiments. In the middle was a large central computer panel in the wall that was hooked up to all the machinery with hundreds of wires, like the brain of the room. I wondered whether there was any information on the experiments that hadn’t been recorded on the main online database. Unsure of what to do now that I was here, I pushed the main button to turn on the computer.
At once, hundreds of tiny lights illuminated to signify the stirring of the forgotten technology, and the screen burst into dazzling light that brightened the surrounding. I sat down at the desk and, after waiting mere seconds for it to completely load onto the main desktop screen, I surveyed the icons in confusion, having no idea what to click on. Everything was listed and named according to coding, so I moved my finger along the sensor pad on the desk and selected one. A window opened to reveal a seemingly endless list of symbols and characters that made no sense whatsoever. I muttered, “Computer language,” under my breath, closed the file, and proceeded to examine the others.
The fourth one was the first to be in normal English, but it wasn’t what I was looking for and it wasn’t until the seventh that I found one on the experiments. I scrolled through the list immediately to see the file on 009 so I tapped to select it it, selected ‘current status,’ and read. Within just a few paragraphs, I could tell that I wasn’t in the right area where Chibi was. I had checked the map carefully, wasn’t this the right place…? I then figured it out. This was the old lab and Experiment Containment Facility, but Chibi was held in the Legendary Control Testing Branch. Even still, I wanted to see what other experiments were held here.
I got out of the chair and surveyed the room again, noticing, for the first time, a heavy metal door covering most of the main wall. I approached it slowly, seeing that it had only a keypad, but no card scanner. As for the codes, I figured that Stalker would have them. Pulling my Communicator from my pocket, I intended to call him, but then stopped. A text message? I selected the message that I had apparently received sometime earlier and read.
“Hey, Jade, I was gonna tell you these earlier, but I thought you might forget them. It’s standard procedure with being on the infiltration force, and you’ll probably find the following codes useful.” I grinned. Again, Stalker proved to be one step ahead of his teammates. I perused the long at the bottom of his message and found the code for the Experiment Containment Facility. I entered in the ten-character combination and the door opened.
Dull concrete made up the walls, floor, and ceiling of the room I entered, save for a small area of the floor that was tinted a sickening red. There was a computerized control panel to the left, and looking up ahead of me, I saw a row of cells along the wall with thick, force field-lined metal bars. The two in front of me were inhabited by a single Pokémon each.
The first was a large green dragon, streamlined and lanky with small, clawed forelegs, and padded hind legs. Its diamond shaped wings were thin, and red lenses covered its eyes in a way that made its face look vaguely like an insect’s.
The second was snowy white and rather wolfish except for a dark face that was distinctly feline in appearance. Its chest was covered in a sleek mane, and the top of its face was hard and curved like the yin yang symbol with a black blade thrusting upward from the left.
Both stirred and looked up at me, faint acceptance and failure streaking their expressions. “*Already?*” mumbled the dragon hopelessly.
Feeling as though they knew something I didn’t, I asked the Flygon, “Already what?”
“*So you know Pokéspeech…*” he said, his voice clearly young and male. He turned his long neck to look at me, the two dark green spikes on his head swaying slightly. “*You’re not the one from The Room, all of them are scientists or handlers…what do you want?*”
“What room?” I asked curiously.
“*Okay…now you’re definitely not an experiment handler. My question first…what’s some other Rocket like you doing here?*” the Flygon asked forcefully.
“Let’s just say I’m not exactly supposed to be here, I’m not even really on Team Rocket,” wondering how much to tell him, but then figuring that he wouldn’t be likely to repeat what I told him.
“*You’d have to be to be able to get in the base,*” he said flatly.
“Okay, fine, I’m on another team, but I’m undercover as a Rocket. Happy?” I said, annoyed.
“*Figured you were an outsider in some way. The other scientists will be coming soon, and if you value your life, you won’t let them know you’re in a restricted area,*” the verdant dragon advised.
“Please, I have a few questions first…what room were you talking about?”
It was the other Pokémon who answered. It turned its dark blue, cat-like face to me and said, “*The Room. The cursed room of which all of us must face at one time or another. The pit of despair in which all experiments must endure.*”
Adding on to her response, the Flygon said, “*We live out our young lives in training and regulation until finally, when they feel we have learned all skill knowledge that is possible, they seal off our minds and command our every move. They leave us trapped within our own mind as our bodies are led by instinct and control. They do it to perfect battling strength and performance to not let emotion interfere, but mostly, they do it for ultimate dominion over us.*”
I had only wanted to know what the room was, not have them pour out their thoughts to leave me feeling pity toward them. I asked, “Why…why are you telling me all this?”
“*It doesn’t matter if we do, as you’re against them as well and we’ll be going soon…*” the Flygon explained. “*They did it with all the others and now it’s our turn.*”
“You mean they did it to Chibi?” I asked frantically, wanting answers now more than ever.
The Absol cocked an eyebrow. “*How do you know about him?*”
“I met him once, he stayed with me for awhile…what can you tell me about him?” I inquired.
“*Why don’t you ask the one who’d know better than any of us…*” the Absol said coldly, nodding her head toward a cell to the far right. I looked over and saw that there was an experiment in that one as well, and it wasn’t one I was unfamiliar with….
It was tall and green, looking primarily like a praying mantis with thick plates of armor and scythes where arms would be. The enhanced Scyther turned to look at me, and I noticed something extremely different about Razors’s expression.
He had one. His eyes were no longer blank and pupil-less with the look of some deranged animal, but rather like that of some soldier who had fought many battles and lost every one. He hesitated very slightly in surprise, the recognition hitting him within seconds.
“*Well, if it isn’t Chibi’s rescuer and abandoner,*” he said spitefully. And then, with as much cruel sarcasm as he could muster, he muttered, “*Come to deem the rest of us worthy of your noble services?*”
End Chapter 8
Not much to say. At least Razors's true character shows through next chapter, seeing as he was brainwashed in the earlier ones.
~Chibi~
--; Meh, what can I say, posting chappies here is tedious and it's too inactive for my tastes. Ah well.
Chapter 8: The Dragon Project
Although Swift and Firestorm had stayed awake and wandered around after I released them after returning to the tower, I was thoroughly exhausted. It was about 5:15, and, though it usually took me hours to fall asleep, I was out within ten minutes. Then, when I finally woke up for real, it was around ten and most of the residents of Lavender had left, most likely to talk with the police or their insurance companies.
I stood slowly and stretched after I awakened, then picked up the bag with my Team Rocket uniform in it and walked toward the entrance. I couldn’t help wondering where Mr. Fuji was and whether he had noticed that the stone was missing. No doubt he had run to the police, although they probably hadn’t found much.
I had taken no less than one step outside when I was hit with burst of cold air that sent a chill racing down my spine.
“Holy crap, it’s cold,” I muttered, glancing up at the sky. It was overcast, but this time the clouds were the purest of white and hovering low above the ground. Though I was usually stubborn about wearing long sleeves or jackets, I reached into my backpack, pulled out the Team Rocket shirt, and put it on inside-out. I groaned, as I probably looked very stupid, but I didn’t want to be accused of being a Rocket.
“Jade! Jeez, where have you been?! Rudy yelled, running toward me. “Stalker showed up like an hour ago and—”
“He did?” I interrupted. “How’d he know we were here?”
“Ryan must have flown out early this morning and brought him here. Anyway, he left his Dragonite, Verdegon, and Wallarooby here and flew back to the island,” he explained. “Charizard flew back to help after that.”
“Where’s Swift and Firestorm?” I asked.
“I saw them earlier, I think they’re over there,” he said, motioning toward the line of members standing and waiting to mount a Pokémon.
“There still are some people in the Tower,” I commented. “What if they get left behind?”
“Don’t worry about it. Ryan’s gonna go last so he can make sure that everyone’s gone already,” Rudy answered.
“Okay,” I said. I walked over to the line and glanced around it, searching for Swift and Firestorm. I found the latter sitting on some rocks near where the kids would board Stalker’s winged Pokémon.
“Hey, where’s Swift?” I asked, walking over to him.
“*Up there,*” he said, pointing up at the top of the tower. I turned to see that the peak of Pokémon Tower was enveloped in the foggy clouds, but couldn’t really see much more than that until a small brown speck dove down from the clouds. It gained speed rapidly as it neared the ground before finally pulling out of the dive and soaring off.
“Hey, Swift!” I called out to him. The speck changed the direction of its flight and sped toward me, appearing less like a speck and more like a hawk as he neared.
“*Oh, you’re awake,*” he said. “*I was just—*”
“That was pretty good,” I commented, glancing back at the trainers standing and waiting. “We better get in line.”
We strolled over to the line, which was very short seeing as almost everyone had already flown to the island. Rudy and I stood in line for little more than five minutes before we were able to mount a Pokémon. I recalled Firestorm and Swift and climbed up onto the Verdegon’s back, noticing that its emerald green scales were rough and coarse as compared to the sleek skin of the Dragonite we had ridden last time. I gripped its shoulders tightly as Rudy climbed on behind me, and the Verdegon glanced back to make sure we were well seated before spreading the wings on its arms and taking to the skies.
Though it wasn’t as fast as Dragonite, the wind still rushed past us as we soared over the murky gray sea below. After little more than two minutes, the shores Midnight Island greeted us from the horizon. Verdegon folded back its wings and descended in a tight spiral, quickly losing speed before throwing its wings out and touching down with its hind legs. Rudy slid off its back first, and I followed while saying, “Thanks,” to the Verdegon. It nodded slightly and took off towards Lavender.
I ran, almost instinctively, to the entrance of Midnight Stadium, desperate to get out of the cold. I threw open the main doors, relieved at the contrast in temperature, and took off the inside-out Team Rocket shirt. Rudy walked in soon after and said, “Dang, I didn’t expect it to be so cold.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. I then said, “What’re you gonna do now?”
“Probably go to my room, what about you?” he asked.
“Same here. Later,” I said, giving a slight wave and strolling toward the east flight of stairs. I ascended the stairs and walked down the hall toward my room, pulling my card key from the cargo pocket it had been riding in. I scanned the card to open the door, set down the bag, and flopped onto the bad, just glad to be home. Home? I stopped and dwelt upon the word. Viridian was home, and yet I was here, with my friends, and doing what I had always wanted to. Yes, it was home.
After eating some snacks, I decided to shower, seeing as I hadn’t since the night before the mission. Then, after showering and getting dressed in one of the outfits I had bought in Vermilion, I stuck my Poké balls, wallet, and card key in my pocket and walked out of the room. At first, I wanted to head to the stadium where Rudy and possibly Darren were, but then I was struck by another thought. My mind wandered back to the Dark Crystal and where it lay in the pocket of the pants I had previously worn. I remembered how Stalker had many books on legends and Legendary Pokémon and figured he would probably know something about it. I jumped two or three steps at time down the stairs and walked quickly toward the west hallway, where his office was. I opened the door and peeked inside.
The first thing I noticed was that he wasn’t there and it occurred to me that he was most likely helping out more trainers in the stadium. I was about to leave, but was gripped by an overwhelming curiosity and walked inside. The office was the same as before: two chairs, a small desk with a laptop and various other computerized devices, and a mini bookshelf with books on Pokémon Training, legends, and one containing an archive on Pokémon League tournaments. I sat down at the chair facing the computer and quickly skimmed the screen.
Though there wasn’t any kind of title, I determined that it was a Team Rocket database of some sort. Along the side was a directory with the different branches of Team Rocket listed. I had a sudden thought and clicked the Genetics Division. Again, there was another directory, and this time I clicked Experimental Series. My eyes widened—I had found what I was looking for. I clicked E.P.009 and read.
Experimental Pokémon #009
Originally deemed to be unsuccessful, 009 has proven to possess several unique abilities and its unstable makeup is easily overcome by our modified Poké balls. Although several previous attempts to control it have failed, its Zapdos heritage may prove useful for testing recent Legendary control mechanisms.
So now they were testing him for how to control Legendaries…. I stared at the screen almost absentmindedly, focusing on two things: that he was just a piece of lab equipment to them and that they would soon be able to control Legendaries. I shook these thoughts from my mind and browsed the list of experiments, many of whom I was unfamiliar with. The first twenty were hybrids like Chibi and Razors, most of which had either died or were unsuccessful. The next five were clones, many of them dragons, and the last eleven were bio-engineered clones, again several of them dragons. My eyes fell on the last experiment, however, number thirty-six. I clicked it and read.
Experimental Pokémon #036 (codenamed Mewtwo)
Perhaps the most successful experiment ever created, 036’s mutations have proven to be completely controlled and it is the first of the experiments to have been engineered at such a level as to make it far beyond that of its original, Mew. Its current status is stable, and it is thought to be fully developed, however, there has been some controversy.
Mew? They had cloned Mew? How’d they get its DNA? Brimming with curiosity, I clicked on Mewtwo’s database and browsed the files, finally finding one entitled, Operation Mew-7/5/2018. I was drawn to the documentary like a magnet and was more than a bit disappointed to see that it was only a few pages long. I browsed the pages quickly, mentally noting whatever I found important.
At a glance, it seemed that the Legendary Pokémon Mew was incredibly difficult to track. The second it had been sighted in a dense forest to the north of Viridian, specialty members had been dispatched to capture it. It had escaped, leaving only a few hairs and blood on the claw of one of the Rocket’s Pokémon. Efforts to clone it had been made immediately, and it had been engineered specifically to be greater and stronger than Mew, although they had been forced to add human DNA to the mix because the little Mew genetic material they had was lacking.
Fascinated, I continued to read the other sections, although I had to admit I found the ones with endless scientific blather more than a bit boring. I clicked back to the main experiment page and looked into a different file specifically about the clones before I found what I was looking for. There was a link entitled ‘The Dragon Project,’ and I selected it and read. ‘The Dragon Project’ was a name that had been given to the creation and training of a large number of dragon experiments. Since most of the draconic experiments from the early hybrid series had died because of thin eggshells, when Team Rocket delved into cloning, they made many of the clones dragons so that they would have Dragon-type Experimental Pokémon without having to deal with problems at birth.
“Reading up on stuff?” a voice asked. I looked up quickly to see Stalker standing in the doorway after just walking in. His tall frame was nearly as high as the door, and the tips of his wavy, light brown hair almost touched the wood.
“Err, yeah,” I said, feeling rather stupid because it had just occurred to me that I had sneaked onto his computer without asking.
He walked forward and glanced at the computer screen before saying, “Interested in the experiments, I see.”
“Yeah, kinda,” I replied. I remembered why I had come there originally: to ask about the Dark Crystal, but that seemed trivial after what I had read about the experiments. I finally said, “Do you know where they’re keeping number 009?”
“The Zapdos Pika?” he said questioningly. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s at a holding facility for the ‘failed experiments’ in the main Team Rocket base in northeastern Viridian. Why?”
I considered how much I wanted to tell him and said, “I guess I was just interested in the experiments.”
“You know,” he said, sensing what I was about to ask, “I could always transfer you to the infiltration branch. Quite a few members of the active force don’t really seem suited to it, so I could always use more spies.”
I thought quickly back to the Raikou mission, and how clueless I had been during that, yet when on the S.S. Anne, I had at least managed to keep my head even though it wasn’t planned. But then another thought, stronger than the first two, arose: that Chibi was undergoing the Rockets’ torment because he had saved me. There was no need for any time to consider. I said with resolution, “Yeah, that’s what I wanna do.”
I stood and let him sit in his chair before looking back at the screen. He exited the Internet and opened his main program for The Rebellion.
“How can Team Rocket risk making a site?” I asked curiously.
“It’s got ridiculously high security,” he said. “You have to get around the firewalls and then enter in around ten passwords that constantly change, then enter in your ID number and finally state your name, so of course someone trying to get in wouldn’t know which name corresponded to the numbers. It’s pretty hard for anyone low-ranking to get in since no one really cares if they get the hacking codes and password updates or not. Not to mention the fact that it doesn’t show up on any search engine.”
He clicked through several pages and finally opened the main member page. Stalker browsed the name page quickly, found my name, and brought it up. He scrolled down to the bottom and brought up an edit option. After typing some new commands, he clicked and turned to me. “Okay, everything’s set. And really, not many members deal with the experiments. Those that have gone on missions in the past few days have mostly dealt with getting me information on new missions and stuff…things that don’t go on the database until after they’re carried out,” he explained.
I remembered that he said the infiltration force would go on missions whenever it was needed and asked, “So, when would I be able to go?”
“As I said, the infiltration force can go on missions pretty much at anytime,” he said.
I had only just gotten back, and never was much of a ‘do it now’ type person, and yet at that moment I wanted nothing more than to get Chibi back. The thought hit me, however, that there probably were other experiments that were unused and unwanted as well. I didn’t care if I had only just gotten back, as the only thing to do on the island was train, and my plan was short and simple.
“I want to go to Viridian now,” I said firmly.
“Already?” he asked. “Well, I guess you could, if you really want to. Meet me outside when you’re ready and I’ll have Charizard out.”
“Okay,” I said. Seeing that as the end of the conversation, I walked to the door, and exited the office. I ran quickly down the hall and turned left toward the arena, racing through the battlefield until I found Rudy and Darren training with their Ivysaur and Pikachu.
“Hey, you guys,” I said, gasping slightly from being out of breath.
“Hey Jade, where’ve you been?” Rudy asked.
“I was—” I started, but was interrupted by a loud voice issuing from the speakers overhead. I glanced up at the numerous speakers lining the ceiling and listened to Stalker’s announcement.
“Listen up, because I made a huge mistake in letting you guys go on missions without first figuring out a way for us to stick together. By now, all of you should have a Rocket Communicator and if you don’t have it with you, then remember this number: 4103. That’s my number, so you should add it to the call number list on your communicator along with the numbers of your mission partners. The numbers are the same as your ID.”
Rudy and Darren both reached into their pockets and pulled out the small blue cell phone-like devices, pushing several buttons.
“Mine’s 4368, what’s yours?” Rudy asked.
“4349,” Darren replied, referring to his Rocket ID.
“I left mine in my room, but my number should be one higher than Rudy’s since I joined right after him,” I said. “But anyways, I wanted to tell you that I transferred to the infiltration force, and I’m going on a mission.”
“Already?” Rudy asked. “Jeez, didn’t we just get back from a mission we all sucked at?”
“I know, but I don’t wanna spend all my time training, and it sounds way easier,” I explained.
“Okay, I guess,” Rudy said, still entering in things.
I turned and ran back to my room, quickly scanning the key and throwing open the door. My other pants were on the bed, and I dug through the pockets and retrieved my Communicator and the Dark Crystal. I stared at the jet-black stone before slowly placing it in a dresser drawer, somewhere where it would be safe until I figured out what to do with it. It then occurred to me that since the hideout was near Viridian, I would be able to return home for a little while. Though I didn’t want my parents to force me to stay home, I grabbed a pencil and notepad from the table so I could at least leave a more detailed note than what Rudy had explained to them.
I took one last glance around the room, picked up the bag with my Rocket uniform, and left. I sprinted back down the stairs while entering in the numbers Stalker, Rudy, and Darren had given me into its call list. With a push of a button, the Communicator turned on and displayed a menu, where other options like call or quick dial could be selected. I rushed out the door and into the cold once more, where Stalker stood, his Charizard ready to go.
“Charizard knows where to go, so he’ll fly you right to it. The main entrance is at the back of the Viridian Gym, similar to the one in Celadon. You should be able to find your way through it fairly easily cause there should be a directory. Just make sure no one sees you or you’ll be branded a traitor. And if you’re going to openly stand against Team Rocket, then make sure you’re in your regular clothes rather than uniform so they think Jade is against them, not ‘Aly.’”
And for the third time, I climbed up onto one of Stalker’s dragons’ backs. With great relief, I felt a continuous waft of warmth emanating from the fire dragon’s rough orange scales. I sat down right in front of the wing joint, and as Charizard flapped his immense wings and churned the air with his force, I heard Stalker say, “Contact me when you’re done. That’s what I had all the others do.”
But that was all I could hear, because at that moment, we were off, streaking through the sky to the southeast. Though his wings beat uncomfortably on both sides, I was able to steady the notepad I had brought and wrote. I wrote for most of the flight, trying to make sure that I would reassure my parents and not reveal where I was at the same time. I wasn’t entirely sure how much Rudy had told them, so I just hoped he hadn’t explained the Team Rocket mess, seeing as I wrote that I had run away to train Pokémon in the letter.
With a slight grin, I looked out suddenly and saw the outskirts of Viridian in the distance, greeting me like some long-lost friend. As Charizard folded back his wings for a descent into an area northeast of it, I leaned forward and said, “Um, can I really quickly drop something off at my house…it’s really close, to the north and I can lead you to it.”
“*I suppose,*” said the Charizard gruffly.
After me muttering several directions in his ear, Charizard finally touched down onto the cool, green grass of my front yard. I dismounted him and raced forward to the front door to the left of the garage. I placed the note on the cement, with a side of it under the doormat and rang the doorbell. With one slight glance back at the house that I had known and loved since I was four, I rushed to the dragon and leaped up onto his back with a single bound. As we ascended again and continued on, I looked back down to see one of my sisters opening the door and bending forward to pick up the note. I grinned as Charizard and I took off for the hideout, me feeling much more satisfied.
We landed in front of a large building on the northeast side of town. I had never been to the Viridian Gym, but I knew the area we were in. After disembarking, I called out, “Thanks for the ride,” as Charizard flapped into the air to return to Midnight Island.
I stepped into the alley to the side of the gym and walked to the back where, just as there had been in Celadon, a heavy door and keypad greeted me. I extracted my ID card from my wallet and scanned it. The door, which seemed to be harder to get into without a card than the one in Celadon, opened with a low mechanized groan as it slid along a track. I stepped inside the building and it closed behind me with a thud.
There was no one around, and I took that opportunity to pull my Rocket uniform on top of my normal clothes and stuff the plastic bag in my pocket. I glanced around the dingy back room, which looked on the outside to be nothing more than a storage closet at the back of the gym. Making my way around several crates, I walked toward a staircase on the far wall, but couldn’t help having my attention grabbed by some of the contents.
Badges. A box on the top was filled to the brim with hundreds of shiny green Earth Badges, the award presented to whoever could defeat Giovanni in a gym battle. I picked one up and fingered it, feeling an odd sense of temptation I never had felt before. Finally, I couldn’t stand it. I pocketed the badge and strolled to the door.
Sprinting quickly down the stairs, I was required to card scan one more time before emerging into the main Team Rocket base. It was immense, yet at the same time not much different than the Celadon one, with the main commons being the primary gathering and the other hallways leading on to other areas. I tried not to attract attention, but the realized, of course, that I was practically invisible. I was in uniform; there was nothing conspicuous about me. Feeling slightly stupid at my own thoughts, I strode over to the directory.
Unlike the other base, this one had the offices as well as everything else on the same floor. The divisions and hallways all branched off in different directions from the area I was in and it took me a while to find the experimental division. I turned to see where the hallway would that led to it would be and saw that it was the third one on the left. Pulling my attention away from the board, I headed for the hallway.
It was painted a pale and gloomy color, like the walls of some dreary hospital only with wires and glowing panels lining the corridor. As compared to the bustle of people in the commons, the scientific branch seemed to be an unappealing place to hang around in. I glanced in through the doors, seeing only the occasional scientist working in either a lab or office. I was nearing the end of the corridor. There were stairs.
Stepping lightly to not create echoing off the concrete walls, I continued past the short staircase and down a long, unpainted hallway with a single doorway at the end. Almost unintentionally, I quickened my pace, feeling a slight burst of anxiety as I neared the room I was looking for. Upon my nearing, the door slid open.
In stark contrast to the blank, pale walls of the hall, the room was dark and lined with computerized devices and machinery. I glanced around at the equipment, noticing several large test tubes that looked as though they hadn’t been used in a very long time, and I figured that it was an old lab for creating experiments. In the middle was a large central computer panel in the wall that was hooked up to all the machinery with hundreds of wires, like the brain of the room. I wondered whether there was any information on the experiments that hadn’t been recorded on the main online database. Unsure of what to do now that I was here, I pushed the main button to turn on the computer.
At once, hundreds of tiny lights illuminated to signify the stirring of the forgotten technology, and the screen burst into dazzling light that brightened the surrounding. I sat down at the desk and, after waiting mere seconds for it to completely load onto the main desktop screen, I surveyed the icons in confusion, having no idea what to click on. Everything was listed and named according to coding, so I moved my finger along the sensor pad on the desk and selected one. A window opened to reveal a seemingly endless list of symbols and characters that made no sense whatsoever. I muttered, “Computer language,” under my breath, closed the file, and proceeded to examine the others.
The fourth one was the first to be in normal English, but it wasn’t what I was looking for and it wasn’t until the seventh that I found one on the experiments. I scrolled through the list immediately to see the file on 009 so I tapped to select it it, selected ‘current status,’ and read. Within just a few paragraphs, I could tell that I wasn’t in the right area where Chibi was. I had checked the map carefully, wasn’t this the right place…? I then figured it out. This was the old lab and Experiment Containment Facility, but Chibi was held in the Legendary Control Testing Branch. Even still, I wanted to see what other experiments were held here.
I got out of the chair and surveyed the room again, noticing, for the first time, a heavy metal door covering most of the main wall. I approached it slowly, seeing that it had only a keypad, but no card scanner. As for the codes, I figured that Stalker would have them. Pulling my Communicator from my pocket, I intended to call him, but then stopped. A text message? I selected the message that I had apparently received sometime earlier and read.
“Hey, Jade, I was gonna tell you these earlier, but I thought you might forget them. It’s standard procedure with being on the infiltration force, and you’ll probably find the following codes useful.” I grinned. Again, Stalker proved to be one step ahead of his teammates. I perused the long at the bottom of his message and found the code for the Experiment Containment Facility. I entered in the ten-character combination and the door opened.
Dull concrete made up the walls, floor, and ceiling of the room I entered, save for a small area of the floor that was tinted a sickening red. There was a computerized control panel to the left, and looking up ahead of me, I saw a row of cells along the wall with thick, force field-lined metal bars. The two in front of me were inhabited by a single Pokémon each.
The first was a large green dragon, streamlined and lanky with small, clawed forelegs, and padded hind legs. Its diamond shaped wings were thin, and red lenses covered its eyes in a way that made its face look vaguely like an insect’s.
The second was snowy white and rather wolfish except for a dark face that was distinctly feline in appearance. Its chest was covered in a sleek mane, and the top of its face was hard and curved like the yin yang symbol with a black blade thrusting upward from the left.
Both stirred and looked up at me, faint acceptance and failure streaking their expressions. “*Already?*” mumbled the dragon hopelessly.
Feeling as though they knew something I didn’t, I asked the Flygon, “Already what?”
“*So you know Pokéspeech…*” he said, his voice clearly young and male. He turned his long neck to look at me, the two dark green spikes on his head swaying slightly. “*You’re not the one from The Room, all of them are scientists or handlers…what do you want?*”
“What room?” I asked curiously.
“*Okay…now you’re definitely not an experiment handler. My question first…what’s some other Rocket like you doing here?*” the Flygon asked forcefully.
“Let’s just say I’m not exactly supposed to be here, I’m not even really on Team Rocket,” wondering how much to tell him, but then figuring that he wouldn’t be likely to repeat what I told him.
“*You’d have to be to be able to get in the base,*” he said flatly.
“Okay, fine, I’m on another team, but I’m undercover as a Rocket. Happy?” I said, annoyed.
“*Figured you were an outsider in some way. The other scientists will be coming soon, and if you value your life, you won’t let them know you’re in a restricted area,*” the verdant dragon advised.
“Please, I have a few questions first…what room were you talking about?”
It was the other Pokémon who answered. It turned its dark blue, cat-like face to me and said, “*The Room. The cursed room of which all of us must face at one time or another. The pit of despair in which all experiments must endure.*”
Adding on to her response, the Flygon said, “*We live out our young lives in training and regulation until finally, when they feel we have learned all skill knowledge that is possible, they seal off our minds and command our every move. They leave us trapped within our own mind as our bodies are led by instinct and control. They do it to perfect battling strength and performance to not let emotion interfere, but mostly, they do it for ultimate dominion over us.*”
I had only wanted to know what the room was, not have them pour out their thoughts to leave me feeling pity toward them. I asked, “Why…why are you telling me all this?”
“*It doesn’t matter if we do, as you’re against them as well and we’ll be going soon…*” the Flygon explained. “*They did it with all the others and now it’s our turn.*”
“You mean they did it to Chibi?” I asked frantically, wanting answers now more than ever.
The Absol cocked an eyebrow. “*How do you know about him?*”
“I met him once, he stayed with me for awhile…what can you tell me about him?” I inquired.
“*Why don’t you ask the one who’d know better than any of us…*” the Absol said coldly, nodding her head toward a cell to the far right. I looked over and saw that there was an experiment in that one as well, and it wasn’t one I was unfamiliar with….
It was tall and green, looking primarily like a praying mantis with thick plates of armor and scythes where arms would be. The enhanced Scyther turned to look at me, and I noticed something extremely different about Razors’s expression.
He had one. His eyes were no longer blank and pupil-less with the look of some deranged animal, but rather like that of some soldier who had fought many battles and lost every one. He hesitated very slightly in surprise, the recognition hitting him within seconds.
“*Well, if it isn’t Chibi’s rescuer and abandoner,*” he said spitefully. And then, with as much cruel sarcasm as he could muster, he muttered, “*Come to deem the rest of us worthy of your noble services?*”
End Chapter 8
Not much to say. At least Razors's true character shows through next chapter, seeing as he was brainwashed in the earlier ones.
~Chibi~



A Pokémon fanfic fifteen years in the making.
--------------------------------------------
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Age 34
*yawns* Um, behind you?
Seen December 23rd, 2008
Posted March 19th, 2006
881
posts
18.3
Years
Silverwing: Chibi, you're an idiot. You let your fic die. Heck, if it hadn't been archive-ified, it would have been deleted.
--; Meh, what can I say, posting chappies here is tedious and it's too inactive for my tastes. Ah well.
An old fic returns, so teh old reviewer will actually attempt to give a reasonably useful review... XD --; Meh, what can I say, posting chappies here is tedious and it's too inactive for my tastes. Ah well.
Please be aware that I have grown more crazy, so I will undoubtedly make more sense than not. Rest assured that that just means I plan on broiling marshmallows for supper.
It was about 5:15, and though it usually took hours for me to fall asleep, I was out within ten minutes.
There should be a comma between those two words, but it is not necessary. Either that or that comma after 'asleep' should be eliminated.
I stood slowly and stretched after I awakened, picked up the bag with my Team Rocket uniform in it, and walked toward the entrance.
It should be 'then picked up the bag with my Team Rocket uniform in it and walked toward the entrance'.
No doubt, he had run to the police, although they probably hadn’t found much.
Drop the first comma, or else switch the phrase around to 'He had, no doubt, run to the police'.
It was overcast, but this time the clouds were the purest of white and hovered low above the ground.
It may just be me, but that just... Looks wrong. Reads wrong. 'purest of white'. Eh, it's iffy, but I can't get the feeling out of my mind that it's off. Maybe 'the clouds were pure (purely?) white and hovered...'
Though I was always stubborn about wearing long sleeves or jackets, I reached into my backpack, pulled out the Team Rocket shirt, and put it on inside-out.
The italics indicate a possible literal problem. If she was always stubborn about it, why did she make an exception? Perhaps 'Generally' or 'Usually' in place of 'stubborn'. For the emboldened part, just ditch the comma.
I groaned, as I probably looked very stupid, but at least it was warmer, and I didn’t want to be accused of being a Rocket.
I can't quite place it, so it might just be me, but that sentence reads wrong. XP
“Jade! Jeez, where have you been?! Stalker showed up like an hour ago and—” Rudy yelled, running toward me.
Order of words is the problem here. It flows better if you put it:Jade! Jeez, where have you been?!" Rudy yelled, running toward me. "Stalker showed up like an hour ago and-"
Also, depending on how you want it read, the 'like' portion should be 'showed up, like, and hour'. Unless you want him to be talking rapidly, as in shouting while running. Just a thought.
“He did?” I asked suddenly. “How’d he know we were here?”
'Asked suddenly' is usually inserted when the person asking has been silent for a longish period of time during a conversation between the speaker and at least two other people, who have continued speaking, or when there has been a lull in conversation. You could probably replace the phrase above with either 'broke into his stream of words' or 'interrupted'.
“Ryan must have flown out early this morning and brought him here. Anyway, he left his Dragonite, Verdegon, and Wallarooby here, and flew back to the island,” he explained. He then added, “Charizard flew back to help after that.”
The two emboldened parts need to lose the commas, and the italics are not neccessary and interrupt the flow. DITCH IT!!1!! *begins chanting*
“I saw them earlier, I think they’re over by there,” he said, motioning to the line of members standing and waiting to mount a Pokémon.
Emboldened: Drop the comma and replace it with a period.Italicized: Over by there? You probably meant either 'over there' or 'over by the others'. Probably the first.
Underlined: Probably unneccessary, but it probably should be 'motioning toward the line'.
“There still are some people in the Tower,” I said in realization. “What if they get left behind?”
In realization of what? I'm pretty sure I know what you meant, but it still threw me a loop. XD
“Don’t worry aboutit, Ryan’s gonna go last, so he can check that everyone’s gone already,” Rudy answered.
Two definite fixes and a possible.Definite: Ditch the comma.
Definite: You probably meant either 'make sure everybody's gone' or 'check for stragglers'.
Possible: The comma probably isn't neccessary. You could easily replace it with a period. No biggy if it's intended, no biggy if it wasn't.
“Hey, Swift!” I called out to him. The speck changed the direction of its flight, and sped toward me, appearing less like a speck and more like a hawk as he neared.
Ditch da comma. XDOkay, I'll try to get back to this later.
SilverBlaze09
John 3:16- For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
I love that verse.
Currently unable to Fanfic on-line, but hope to soon.
Age 34
*yawns* Um, behind you?
Seen December 23rd, 2008
Posted March 19th, 2006
881
posts
18.3
Years
“*Oh, you’re awake,*” he said. “*I was just—*”
“That was pretty good,” I commented, glancing back at the trainers standing and waiting. “We better get in line.”
Now, is it just me, or does Jade seem rude? I have no idea whether Swift was making an excuse and she just wanted to cut him off while leaving him some pride, or else it was just a mistake that I get another cookie for. *puppy eyes*“That was pretty good,” I commented, glancing back at the trainers standing and waiting. “We better get in line.”
We strolled over to the line, which was very short seeing as almost everyone had already flown to the island. I stood next to Rudy for little more than five minutes before we were able to mount a Pokémon. I recalled Firestorm and Swift and climbed up this time onto the Verdegon’s back, noticing that its emerald green scales were rough and coarse as compared to the sleek skin of the Dragonite we had ridden last time. I gripped its shoulders tightly as Rudy climbed on behind me, and the Verdegon glanced back to make sure we were seated well before spreading the wings on its arms and taking to the skies.
Emboldened: Little thing: Rudy and I stood in line...Italics: Climbed up this time? It's not really neccessary to mention the previous flight when all you need to do is: ...climbed up onto the Verdegon's back...
Underlined: Just reverse the order of the words and all's good.
Though it wasn’t as fast as Dragonite, the wind still rushed against us as we soared over the murky gray sea below. After little more than two minutes, Midnight Island greeted us from the horizon. Verdegon folded back its wings and descended in a tight spiral, quickly losing speed before throwing its wings out and touching down with its hind legs. Rudy slid off its back first, and I followed while saying, “Thanks,” to the Verdegon. It nodded slightly and took off towards Lavender.
I'm wondering if the beginning of the paragraph shouldn't be 'although', but whatever.Emboldened: Still rushed against us is, I think, incorrect. 'Pushed against us' or 'rushed past us' is probably a better phrase.
Italics: It's probably nothing, so changing this sentence is optional. If you do, it would probably be better worded as 'Midnight Island greeted us from the horizon after little more than two minutes'. Also, Midnight Island itself is incapable of greeting anybody by itself. Perhaps a descriptive term such as 'Midnight Island's bleak shores greeted us'. (can't remember what the description for Midnight Island is)
Underlined: Just a little thing. I noticed Jade's courtesy to a relatively strange Pokémon. Something I'll just stuff in my head for awhile as a possible plot whatever because of my unintelligible-plot-bits-induced paranoia.
I ran, almost instinctively, to the entrance of Midnight Stadium, desperate to get out of the cold. I threw open the main doors, relieved at the contrast in temperature, and took off the inside-out, Team Rocket shirt. Rudy walked in soon after and said, “Dang, I didn’t expect it to be so cold.”
Only problem in this paragraph is the comma, which needs to leave.
“Yeah,” I agreed. I then said, “What’re you gonna do now?”
“Probably go to my room, what about you?” he asked.
This whole thing could use a little reconstruction, for flow purposes.“Probably go to my room, what about you?” he asked.
"Yeah," I agreed, (some sort of action such as shaking ice particles from hair inserted here). "What're you gonna do now?"
"Probably go to my room." He shrugged (action). "What about you?"
“Same here. Later,” I said, giving a slight wave and strolling toward the east flight of stairs. I had kept the card key in one of my cargo pockets throughout the mission and pulled it out after ascending the stairs and nearing my room. I opened the door, set down the bag, and flopped onto the bad, just glad to be home. Home? I stopped and dwelt upon the word. Viridian was home, and yet I was here, with my friends, and doing what I had always wanted to. Yes, it was home.
Emboldened: Nothing wrong with the grammar and stuff, but what did Rudy do? Just disappear into the woodwork?Italics: drop the second comma, the one right before 'and flopped'.
Underlined: Repetition of 'and' here. Perhaps something more smooth would be: I ascended the stairs and walked down the hall, pulling my card key from the cargo pocket it had been riding in when I neared my room.
After eating some snacks, I decided to shower, seeing as I hadn’t ever since the night before the mission. Then, after showering and getting dressed in one of the outfits I had bought in Vermilion, I stuck my Poké balls, wallet, and card key in my pocket and walked out of the room. At first, I wanted to head to the stadium where Rudy and possibly Darren were, but then I was struck by another thought. My mind wandered back to the Dark Crystal and where it lay in the pocket of the pants I had previously worn. I remembered how Stalker had many books on legends and Legendary Pokémon and figured he would probably know something about it. I jumped two or three steps at time down the stairs and walked quickly toward the west hallway, where his office was. I opened the door and peeked inside.
Emboldened: Just drop the word 'ever'.Italics: So she's walking toward the west hallway one second and the next she's opening his door? Time phase-out here. XP XD
A million and one apologies, but I have run out of time for reviewing and will hafta continue some other time, hopefully tomorrow. My stories require their minimum word count, and I have to get ready for church tomorrow and another dozen apologies for the fun of it. XD
SilverBlaze09
John 3:16- For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
I love that verse.
Currently unable to Fanfic on-line, but hope to soon.
Holy froot! ^^ Mind throwing the earlier chapters through teh new and improved 00ber fic hacker? XP J/k
Alrighty then, most of those I'll just fix, while others get comments/excuses, whee.
I'll start by saying that the reason behind many instances where I used commas where a period was needed was because of the longer pause that a period indicates, in which I didn't want there to be much pause.
No cookie for the Swfit/Jade error (?) but you definatly get one for the new fic hacker XD *cookie* I'm too lazy to give it an unnecessarily long name XP
*Runs off in an attempt to fix as many errors as possible before the end of writing lab at school.*
~Chibi~
Alrighty then, most of those I'll just fix, while others get comments/excuses, whee.
I'll start by saying that the reason behind many instances where I used commas where a period was needed was because of the longer pause that a period indicates, in which I didn't want there to be much pause.
Now, is it just me, or does Jade seem rude? I have no idea whether Swift was making an excuse and she just wanted to cut him off while leaving him some pride, or else it was just a mistake that I get another cookie for. *puppy eyes*
Actually, I don't even know why I put that part in there anyway. >< So I'm not sure whether it's a mistake or whether she wanted to cut him off. *thinks* I think it's that he was making an excuse, but Jade didn't want him to feel like he needed to make an excuse for having left. Or something... mleh... ><
Just a little thing. I noticed Jade's courtesy to a relatively strange Pokémon. Something I'll just stuff in my head for awhile as a possible plot whatever because of my unintelligible-plot-bits-induced paranoia.
Sort of more character-development-ish. See, my mom makes me say thank you for everthing, even stuff that you wouldn't normally say it for and I'm sure sometimes people around me are like "WTF is she saying thanks for?" so I put that characteristic for Jade as well.
Italics: So she's walking toward the west hallway one second and the next she's opening his door? Time phase-out here. XP XD
Errr oO I kinda thought it wouldn't be needed to actually add another sentence with her walking the hundred or so feet down the hallway. I dunno ><
This whole thing could use a little reconstruction, for flow purposes.
"Yeah," I agreed, (some sort of action such as shaking ice particles from hair inserted here). "What're you gonna do now?"
"Probably go to my room." He shrugged (action). "What about you?"
The flow there has been bugging me for ages XP Thanks."Yeah," I agreed, (some sort of action such as shaking ice particles from hair inserted here). "What're you gonna do now?"
"Probably go to my room." He shrugged (action). "What about you?"
No cookie for the Swfit/Jade error (?) but you definatly get one for the new fic hacker XD *cookie* I'm too lazy to give it an unnecessarily long name XP
*Runs off in an attempt to fix as many errors as possible before the end of writing lab at school.*
~Chibi~



A Pokémon fanfic fifteen years in the making.
--------------------------------------------
DeviantArt
Tumblr
This was a really enjoyable fan fiction to read. I'm not in the mood to critisize, as I currently have Electrolysis on the brain, so I'm just going to say... Uh, thanks for writing this. It was a great break from my Science revision, so I guess I'm now a fan. xD
"Bring yours buckets by the dozens,
bring your nieces and your cousins,
come put out the fire on me."

I claimed Zubat in the pokemon claim thread
Most adorable pokemon ever <3