[Pokémon] The Trial of Juno Saga (PG-13)

[KajiVenator]

Hey Neo, Kaji here. Just finished reading all of parts I and II (and I mean all. Started at 9pm and got to the end at damn near 2am). Aside from a few minor mistakes where a word is omitted, it was perfect in every way. I'm not gonna go into detail because that would ruin the point of this thread, but as soon as I find part III and IV, I'm reading them. I'm going to bed now. I look forward to any stories you write because you are one of the best writers I've seen so far.

-Signed the fastest reader in Torrance High School, KajiVenator.

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Hey Neo, Kaji here. Just finished reading all of parts I and II (and I mean all. Started at 9pm and got to the end at damn near 2am). Aside from a few minor mistakes where a word is omitted, it was perfect in every way. I'm not gonna go into detail because that would ruin the point of this thread, but as soon as I find part III and IV, I'm reading them. I'm going to bed now. I look forward to any stories you write because you are one of the best writers I've seen so far.

-Signed the fastest reader in Torrance High School, KajiVenator.

Wow, that's pretty sweet, thank you. Only thing is... I am making a few changes as I'm posting this here that might not be in those older versions. They wouldn't affect the storyline too much, but you might notice some differences between the two.

Still, glad to see you're enjoying it.

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 20
The Hostile Conflict​

Everywhere, the room was a mess, with cans laying all over the floor, as well as the three metal chairs that had been knocked over and the two pieces of what as left of the metal table. I had looked over to the shelf unit and saw it was still smoking from Ampharos's lightning blast.

"I don't know who you are, but you're asking for a lot of trouble." Ampharos sneered, "This is a prison for the Silver Rebellion. The security protocols are unimaginable. Do you really think you can get out of here alive?"

"If it's composed of worthless thugs like you and this other chump, it shouldn't be a problem." I told him, looking right into his black eye.

Ampharos sure hadn't taken that comment lightly. He had frowned upon that, showed his gritting teeth and was twitching with anger.

"I am going to tear you to pieces, you runt!" Ampharos shouted angrily. "You've had it!"

Ampharos charged at me in a berserker fury, and lunged toward me, and I jumped into the air to avoid his grasp, sailing right over his body and landed right behind him as he slid through the slick of coffee on the floor. Ampharos had realized he had missed me, and after he got up, and turned around, I jumped into the air, turned myself in the air and smacked him right in the face with my sharp, jagged tail. Ampharos was sent stumbling backward, trying to grab on to something before he fell on his back.

Ampharos quickly got back up again and gave me a nasty glare. He began to sway his tail back and forward, quickly gathering up a harsh amount of electricity. Then, he released it, and I was surprised when practically the whole room lit up with an intense electrical power. Everything in the room except for the two of us had been deep fried. Behind me, the two vending machines had exploded, and a barrage of soda cans had blasted right out and went rolling onto the floor. The floor was suddenly dripping wet with root beer, cola, and orange soda. A can that hadn't been destroyed had rolled right next to me, and I thought of an idea.

"You just messed with the wrong people pal." Ampharos growled, "I hope you enjoy pain."

Ampharos came rushing toward me, and I quickly grabbed the nearby soda can and shook it as hard as I could. I then pointed the mouth of the can at Ampharos and pulled the tab, spraying him with a cloud of amber-colored root beer, blinding him for an instant. I tossed aside the half-filled can and struck Ampharos with the hardest punch I could muster, right between the eyes. Ampharos was sent flying backward, and then violently hit the back wall with his head. After he slid down, he landed flat on his face, and he didn't get up again. After a sigh of relief, I was glad that mess was over with.

I had no idea where Alex and Randy were being held, and I still needed to find a way out of here. I made my way toward the rack of Pokéballs, and saw somehow they were spared from that Ampharos's insane electrical attacks. I looked for my belt, the glossy leather one that had my initials "JCK." craved into its leather. Once I found it, I tied it around my waist, and headed toward the door. After realizing the door handle was much higher than it used to be, I jumped up to grab the metal latch, pulled it down with my weight, and kicked against the wall to swing the door open. Once it fully opened, I then moved my way into the dimly lit hallway.

The hallways were completely metal, as if this was a submarine. Pipes and wires ran across the ceiling, while metal panels similar to the ones in the cells covered the floor. My first objective was to find Alex and Randy, and hopefully get our butts out of here. I headed to the right, knowing I would be heading back in the same direction that my cell was. I had made my way down, knowing if anyone were to come down this hallway, there was no way for me to hide, and I would have no choice but to fight. I had come across another rusty, metal door that had a pull latch for a handle. I jumped, grabbed the metal latch, and kicked back to open the door.

My assumption was correct. I had seen rows upon rows of heavy steel, circular vault doors. The room was much larger than the hallway, but I saw something that made me jump. A Primeape, Ursaring, and Seviper had been on patrol, and when I opened the door, they spotted me. Both the Ursaring and the Primeape were wearing light blue uniforms. While the Ursaring was bulked up and burly, the face of the Primeape was scarred and ugly. Both of them looked and smelled like the word "bathing" was never a part of their vocabulary.

"Well, it looks like we have an escapee." The Primeape laughed, looking at me, "I'll show you what we do to anyone who thinks they can get away from us!"

"Let me handle him, Captain." The Ursaring snarled with a wicked smile, "Imagine these fists down his throat!

Great, I really didn't need this. The Ursaring looked me over as he took his sharp-clawed fists and punched them together, illustrating what would happen if I got between then. Looking up at the ferocious beast of a Pokémon, I couldn't help but feel that hard lump in my throat.

I could tell this wasn't going to be pretty…

The giant, dark brown bear with his beige ring on his chest and razor-sharp teeth had growled at me, even though I hadn't even done anything to infuriate him yet. The Primeape had rubbed his fists together, thinking this was going to be an easy picking.

"Make it quick and just tear him apart." The Primeape captain grinned in sadistic pleasure.

Oh no…

Ursaring came stomping toward me, and outstretched his arm. I felt paralyzed with fear, and suddenly and swiftly, I thought I saw everything in front of me suddenly split in three as Ursaring's claws tore into my face, and I found myself flying backward, and smacking my head right against the metal door. Boy, did that hurt like hell.

"Heh, heh heh." The Primeape snickered.

I quickly got back up, however. After getting hit with Skarmory's Steel Wing and Ursaring's Slash, I was cut up pretty badly, but not enough to stop me. I had been through far worse than this.

I focused my attention, and began charging electricity. I then sent the massive wave of electricity right at Ursaring, and struck him in the chest. The giant bear Pokémon staggered back, grasping his torso and moaning in pain as forks of electricity coursed around him.

Then, I had crouched down and lowered my head. Ursaring wasn't going to move now that he was paralyzed. After he had shook off the pain and began to approach me, I blasted right off the ground and everything around me became a white blaze. I slammed right into Ursaring's chest once again, sending him flying backwards. After he had hit the metal floor and landed on his back, he appeared too weak to get back up.

"Ugh, how humiliating." The Primeape spat at his fallen comrade before looking at me.

He gave me a glare, and then he looked over to the Seviper waiting impatiently besides him. When the Primeape Captain gave a nod, the Seviper grinned wickedly, licking his lips.

"Yessss…" The Seviper hissed with sadistic glee. "I ssshall make ssshort work of him…"

The black snake with a yellow diamond pattern running along his body slithered his way across the floor, moving with an unpredictable advance. Seviper had one hell of a face, with long fangs and menacing eyes, along with a tail end that looked like a knife.

"You are finisssshed!" The Seviper hissed at me, just before blasting toward me like a bullet.

I couldn't even see Seviper it was so fast. For a moment, it seemed like it just disappeared, and then a split second later, I felt an intense spark of pain suddenly slide down my back. Only then could I see Seviper, only it was too late. I felt so much pain coming from all directions. And then, I started feeling terribly sick and nauseous, and it only got worse every passing moment. I was too weak to continue fighting, and I could barely move.

"Get me the chains, I want the little maggot wrapped in them until he chokes." The Primeape captain grunted.

"Yesss." The Seviper began to obey.

I tried to focus, doing my best to ignore the pain that was beating all around my body. After managing to get back on my feet, I looked back at him, letting him know I wasn't about to give up yet. I gave him a dark stare, and then Seviper looked back at me, ready to start fighting again. Yet, despite what had happened, again the Primeape had just snickered and was ready to start again.

"Forget that." He said, shaking off his anger, "Put the maggot back on the ground!"

Seviper had lunged toward me like a bullet, and then I had remembered something. Even with Seviper dashing toward me with its mouth open as it readied its fangs, I concentrated and began to focus. Suddenly, Seviper's speed had slowed to crawl, and then I dashed toward him, still rushing at my normal speed. Seviper moved around like it was crawling through tar, so it made it easy for me to get right on its back. I then charged my electricity, and send the forking thunder and lightning right into the back of Seviper's head, and kept it going until I figured he couldn't stand having his brain continuously fried.

Then, everything had returned to normal speed, and I jumped off of the collapsing Seviper, and faced the Primeape, who just stood there in disbelief.

"How did a little Pikachu like you just suddenly move so fast!?" The Primeape asked in shock, "That was no Quick Attack…"

No, it certainly wasn't. It was something far more powerful than that. He had ignored the fallen body of his comrade, suddenly beginning to reveal his true nature. Suddenly, as I saw he was without his friends, he began to panic, revealing he was more of a coward after all.

"No," He said as he backed away, "Don't do anything funny…"

I needed him out of my way if we were going to have any chance of getting out of here. I focused my energy, and my red cheeks flared up again with electricity. Just as he turned around to try and get away, I directed the wave of thunder right into his back, shocking him powerfully just before he collapsed and was out cold. He lay there, completely still and unable to fight back. I had approached his fallen body, and found a cloth bag he had been carrying. Since I couldn't pull it off with him lying on the floor, I opened the flap and looked inside.

Inside was a stockpile of healing items, antidotes, potions, and loads of other stuff. Right now, I had no choice but to use them, or otherwise I was going to collapse because of the harsh poison that Seviper injected into me. They seemed to be a little different from the medicines that I typically gave to my own Pokémon, but they were simple enough to figure out how to use them.

Ugh, I hated using antidotes on my Pokémon, just because the things look so darn painful. It was a hypodermic with scarlet liquid it, not the most comforting of things to see. All I could do was expose the needle, prick myself with it, and inject the scarlet liquid by pressing down on the plunger. Never once did I ever imagine I was going to have to one day use this on myself. Despite that, I had to hurry, or I wasn't going to make it…

I removed the plastic covering on the needle, tossed it aside, and pricked myself with the sharp needle right in my side. Well, without a doubt, it sure was painful. Next, I put my tiny yellow hand on the release button on the top of the hypodermic, and pressed down. I didn't want to watch as the scarlet liquid left the hypodermic's container and entered into me.

But, amazingly, the sting from the poison was quickly flushed out and gone within only a few seconds. I pulled the hypo's needle out from my side, and tossed it away. After quickly taking a glance at the empty hypodermic, I was not looking forward toward ever doing something like that again.

I had gone back to the bag and looked around for something to heal the cuts with. After digging around for it, I found a medical spray that looked easy and simple enough to use. I removed the cap that stopped the potion from accidentally releasing the spray within the bag. I then pointed the nozzle at myself and pressed down on the spray lever, showering myself with tiny, revitalizing droplets. I was amazed how this stuff worked, it healed cuts in bruises within seconds, though there was still some scarring and damage that would take a little longer to fully and naturally heal over time. When it was finished, I felt completely refreshed, almost as if nothing had happened, though there was still some aching. Still, I couldn't always rely on these things. I was definitely going to have to be more careful about it.

Next, I found the Primeape's belt along with the ring of keys he had been carrying. I unloosened his belt, slid the metal key ring along his belt and removed them.

Now I just needed to find Alex and Randy…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 21
Crossing the Threshold​

I had realized that in order to find Randy and Alex, I was going to have to go through cell by cell, and since I couldn't see into them, I didn't know whose cell I was going to open, and I was a little bit wary thinking about it. There was no telling who or what was going to be behind the door, and the chance of someone lunging for my throat… was always a possibility. I didn't really know what the Silver Rebellion was or who was in it, but I could already assume this place was loaded with them from all the prison guards I had to take out. As far as I knew, the Crimson Stars had frustrated me enough. Releasing their enemy would be my best chance for revenge, even if I did have no affiliation with them.

I had gone over to the first cell along the left wall, all the way at the end. It read, "A17" on a metal plaque by the keyhole, and I had looked at the key ring and found the corresponding key. I put the key in, turned, and slowly opened the heavy metal door.

Inside, the cell was exactly like mine, only by the bedside, I had seen a Cubone, a Squirtle, and a Clefairy lying against the metal bunk beds. They looked exhausted, but when they saw me open the door, they looked up.

"Who are you?" The Cubone asked me, suddenly surprised to see the door open for once.

"Come on, I'm busting you out of here." I told them all, knowing I was going to need all the backup I could get.

In an excited ecstasy, they had gotten up, and scrambled to the door. The Squirtle and the Clefairy had run out the door, but the Cubone had stopped in the doorway, and looked at me curiously for a moment.

"That's funny, I don't recognize you from the Silver Rebellion…" The Cubone told me, looking me over.

"I'm not a part of it." I told him, not really looking to get myself mixed up in this mess.

"Heh, well you are now, whether you like it or not," The Cubone replied in a somewhat amused tone. "Come on, let's get everyone out of here."

I had turned around, headed to the next cell, and found the key that corresponded with the door. I was really hoping I wasn't making a serious mistake by doing this, but so far, the few Silver Rebels that I had met didn't seem to be so bad. I put the key in the keyhole, and turned it clockwise until it stopped. After I heard the release pulled in, I opened the cold, metal door. Again, it was the same setup as before, only now I found a Sandshrew and a Marill inside the cell, both looking like they've been in there for way too long.

"Am I seeing things?" The Sandshrew asked, looking at me, "You're not one of them, are you?"

"Nope," I told them quickly. "Come on, let's go before someone catches us."

They both dashed for the door, and after the cell was empty, we then shut the door. I quickly moved to the third cell from the wall, and found the key I needed. Now, I felt like I needed to move faster and faster. The Cubone insisted that I hurry up, so that's what I did. I stuffed the third key in the keyhole, and opened the door.

Inside was a solitary Pichu, sitting on the bed with his eyes staring at the floor and his ears drooping downward. I was surprised for a moment. He didn't seem to be in such bad shape like the others had been. I walked over to him, and he still looked down, not willing to face me, even though he had been aware of my presence.

"I don't know who you are, but I don't belong here," The Pichu said to me, just on the verge of crying.

"That's why I'm taking you out of here." I replied, trying to comfort him.

"You don't understand, this isn't the real me," He said sadly, with a tear rolling down his face. "I'm…"

I couldn't understand what he was trying to say. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he had been here way too long…

"I'm…" He stuttered, trying to continue, but finding it really hard to, "not… actually… a Pichu…"

"What?" I asked, finding that strange, "Then… what are you?"

He was silent, trying to gather his thoughts. I couldn't understand what he meant.

"My real name… is…" The Pichu stuttered.

"What?" I asked him quickly, "What is it?"

"Randy…" The Pichu replied…

I couldn't believe it. How could it have happened? I looked closely at the Pichu, truly unable to see anything that could relate him to Randy. Was this some sort of a joke?

"Randy?" I asked the Pichu, looking into his shiny eyes, "Is that really you? Randy Ferguson?"

He had looked at me, looking at me with curious eyes. I could tell what he was thinking.

"How did you know my last name?" He had asked, truly wondering who I was.

"That's because I'm someone you know," I told him with a smile. "I'm Jake Kossak…"

Randy had looked at me, unable to believe. He then shook his head, unable to understand.

"You were the first to collapse." Randy told me quickly, "He said he wanted to remind you of something, and I guess this was it."

"What did he say to you?" I asked him, trying to figure out what I had missed.

"He said I should be something that shows how… weak and… inexperienced I am." Randy said, just on the brink of sobbing again.

What a schmuck. Just then, Cubone had poked his head out from behind the wall and peered in.

"Hey, what's taking you so long in there!?" He shouted out. "We've got to get out of here as soon as possible!"

"Come on, Randy." I told him, wishing he would stop worrying, "Let's get the hell out of here."

Randy just hopped off the metal bunk bed and landed on his feet. I then began to head out of the room, and he began to follow me.

"Hey!" Cubone shouted, looking at Randy. "Who's the little guy?"

"He's… my friend," I told him, still feeling a little bit strange calling Randy a friend considering what he did to us. "Come on, let's just get going."

I then continued to unlock door by door, releasing what seemed to be practically a small army of Pokémon. I hadn't been faced with resistance for quite a few minutes now, but even if someone had come to stop us, they wouldn't stand much of a chance with all this united effort.

"Come on!" Cubone shouted, "I know where the exit is!"

But then, Randy had turned to me, and he seemed anxious about something. I could tell what he was anxious about too…

"Where is Alex?" He asked me, knowing we didn't find him in any of the cells.

"We have to go look for him…" I told Randy, heading in the opposite direction that the rest of the Pokémon were heading.

"Where do you think you're going!?" The Cubone asked me in shock, seeing I was running in the other direction.

I had stopped and turned back for a moment. I had noticed Randy was following me.

"There's someone I know that should still be here!" I shouted back. "We need to go find him!"

"There can't be…" He shouted back. "These are the only cells in this whole prison. He would have to be held somewhere else…"

That didn't make sense. If Alex wasn't here, then where was he? I was just about to turn around and follow Cubone when Randy had got my attention. It seemed I was leaving something behind…

"Where are they hiding my Pokémon?" Randy asked me, looking up.

"They're in a guard's lounge room." I told him, knowing it wasn't too far away, "Come on, it won't take us that long to get there."

I took him by his tiny, yellow hand and we ran back through the hallway. Already, I could see liquid slowly seep out from behind the metal door that led to the room. I took him in there, and once again, I felt the cold sting of sticky soda all over the floor when I stepped in it. We entered the room, and I had found the rack with the Pokéballs. The room was darkly lit, since the metal overhead lamp had been destroyed. After I had taken mine before, there was only one left, and I knew that had to be Randy's. I quickly gave it to him and he wrapped it around his waist.

Then, suddenly, a loud alarm had sounded off, and a red pulsing light had filled the hallway.

"Uh oh…" Randy said to himself, looking up around the room.

"Come on, let's get out of here already…" I urged him, not wanting at all to get locked up again.

We dragged it faster and faster, and then we ended up in the jail room. When I caught sight of Cubone, he almost was ecstatic, but he definitely was getting impatient.

"Hurry!" Cubone shouted. "We don't have much longer. Once they initiate the lockdown of the whole prison, there will be no way out of here!"

I certainly wasn't going to wait for that to happen. Already, everyone else but Cubone had already left, and now we quickly rushed to follow him. Just past the second metal door of the jail room, there was an exit leading out. Randy and I quickly dragged the rack outside, and not a second too soon. Just after Randy had stepped out of the door, a barrier of metal bars had thrust out from one side of the door to the other, blocking the doorway. We had just made it. I could only hope Alex wasn't still in there, and I was willing to take the Cubone's word for it, but if that wasn't the case, we would never be able to get to him now…

I had looked upon what was of the outside world, and couldn't believe my eyes. As Randy and I looked upon the fields, the black ruins of a massive city had lied before us. The land was charred black in various places, and the fragments of tall buildings lay around us like twisted, jagged thorns. All that was left was a field of twisted, empty shells. Above it all was the fiery colored sky with its occasional flashes of thunder endlessly clashing in the air, the same nightmare I had seen from my cell window…

"My God…" I gasped in shock, "What could have done this…?"

"That's the Crimson Stars for you." Cubone replied, looking upon the disaster, "They did all of this, and without mercy. This used to be ours…"

And then, Marill had emerged from the group, mounted upon a fierce-looking Pidgeot. I had no idea where he had gotten that massive bird from, but he was now equipped with all kinds of riding gear. He looked down upon Cubone. He seemed a bit distressed…

"Sir, we had better leave before the Wind Strikers arrive…" The Marill said with anxiety, "Your mount is awaiting, and most of the others have already mounted up and are ready to leave. But there's not much time."

"Wind Strikers…?" Randy asked, feeling a bit worried.

"They're aerial sentinels who ride Skarmories," Cubone warned him. "They're fast, lethal, and unforgiving. Their weapons are also highly advanced."

Boy, I couldn't wait to see this…

It wasn't long until the rest of the released prisoners had come forward, all of them mounted on Pidgeots that were equipped with riding gear and armor. Meanwhile, a Pidgeot without a rider had come forward to the Cubone, and it seemed like Cubone had known this particular Pidgeot before. I figured the other Silver Rebellion captives had found out where they had been keeping their riding mounts and managed to release them. Soon enough, the Cubone jumped up upon the Pidgeot's back, and strapped himself in, ready to ride.

At that moment, Randy and I just looked at each other, and we were both thinking the same thing. Randy and I then looked back at the Cubone and his other riders, and the question of whether these Pidgeot mounts could support two riders came up, but judging from the saddles and the gear they were wearing, it seemed like an obvious answer. There was no way we were getting on those things, and I didn't feel like holding onto one of their backs for dear life.

"Uhhh…" Randy said to the Cubone in hesitation, "We don't have a Pidgeot…"

"You don't?" Cubone asked in some surprise. "You weren't part of our Storm Rider division that was captured?"

Randy seemed a bit embarrassed, and I couldn't blame him since I was pretty much in the same situation as he was in. I didn't know what a Storm Rider was either, and these Pokémon had a way about them that made you feel a little stupid for asking.

"What are the Storm Riders?" Randy asked, looking at Cubone in curiosity.

"That's who we are." Cubone responded, putting a fist to his chest in a proud salute. "We're at war with the Crimson Stars, and we use Pidgeots as a means of transportation and as a means of attack. The Storm Riders are the air force of the Silver Rebellion…"

"This is so amazing…" Randy said in awe, just looking at all the Pidgeot riders.

Well, I didn't have a Pidgeot, but I had something better. Latias. I grabbed Latias's Pokéball, and pressed the primer button, enlarging the Pokéball a bit to be prepared for release. A few of the Storm Riders looked curiously at what I was doing, probably having never seen a Pokéball before. Regardless, I took the Pokéball and I tossed it onto the ground. Sure enough, there was a flash, and the white light had formed into Latias. Once the light had become her and she had looked around, it was clear she had no idea where she was again. I couldn't blame her for feeling so confused at that moment…

And then, suddenly, all eyes were immediately turned toward me, except for Randy and Latias. Everyone one of the Storm Riders had just completely stopped and just stared at me, some of them just gaping at the sight. They just looked at me blankly for a few moments, and said nothing. I had looked back at them, and had absolutely no idea why they were looking at me that way. For a moment, I thought it was because Latias was a pretty rare and legendary Pokémon, but their mesmerized reaction magnified to something even well beyond that.

"And he will come at your most dire time of need…" Cubone had softly murmured, still blankly staring at me in a strange way, "He will arrive upon a bird as red as blood, and as white as lightning…"

I looked at him strangely, suddenly realizing he was reciting something from somewhere. It was… quite eerie to see him so hasty for a moment, and then be dumbstruck into this kind of behavior.

"Were you saying something?" I asked Cubone, wondering what he was exactly talking about.

"When the skies turn into fire and the land is burnt into ash, he will come. We have waited too long for this day to arrive…" Cubone stated in a firm tone, "The restless masses, the battles, the nightmares… When the night seems endless and all hope has faded, he will come, and he will go by the name of Juno…"

Now he was freaking me out. How the heck did he know my name? And why was everyone staring at me? He sounded like he was reciting something like he had read countless times. I thought we needed to get out of here before the Wind Strikers came. Why was everyone just waiting around?

"Where are we?" Latias asked, looking around.

"I will tell you later, Blazewing," Cubone said to Latias, seemingly proud to be in her presence. "The enemy comes, part now we must. Follow me."

Blazewing? I didn't get it. Still, before I could even say anything, Cubone had just looked forward, patted the side of his Pidgeot, and she spread her wings, and took flight into the sky. Soon after, the rest of the Storm Riders had lifted off the ground, and just left us along.

"Come on Randy, let's go." I told him, pulling him by the hand and making my way onto Latias's back.

"How did he know your name?" Randy asked me, looking at Cubone and his Pidgeot strangely.

Hell if I knew. I was asking the same question myself. Soon after, Latias jumped off the ground and we flew swiftly through the air, looking upon the charred remains of the city below. The fissures consuming the city were deep, very deep. It was pretty easy to see there was no way to cross this land without flying over it…

"Latias," I suddenly asked her, "is your name really Blazewing?"

"Yes, it is…" Latias told me, finding his behavior strange as well, "But I don't know how this Cubone knew that. Truthfully, back in Randy's dream world, I resembled his friendship and his camaraderie. My name was supposed to have only been known by me. So I don't understand what's going on here…"

Neither did I…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 22
The City of Symarix​

We had flown over miles and miles of ruined desert land, cracked and charred with canyons of endless pits lying everywhere. This was the most treacherous land I have ever seen in my life, worst than the driest desert and the coldest of snowy wastelands. It was impossible to even walk on foot, never mind the distance. If this wasn't Hell, then it had to at least be very close to it…

As I looked ahead, I saw the fifty Storm Riders, with each of their Pidgeots beating their wings in the hot air. Above us, the crimson sky flared above us with its swirling, dark clouds. I had then suddenly realized the thunder never once hit the ground. I had no idea where I was, and at this moment, I had no idea what the Storm Riders of the Silver Rebellion wanted me to do. The reaction to Blazewing and I was incredibly bizarre, and all I could do was just follow them…

As we continued to fly on, I saw the ground below us was slowly beginning to change from bottomless canyons to an arid desert, but it was still a wasteland. The endless fissures were less plentiful, and the land could actually be walked on now. And then, far in the distance, I saw what looked like a black, massive metropolis just on the horizon. As we got closer and closer to it, it was absolutely the most gigantic city I've ever seen. The circular buildings towered hundreds and hundreds of stories tall. The streets were much wider than most cities on Earth, yet the number of motor vehicles was drastically low. Plus they didn't look anything like the ones on Earth, being made of very large mechanical parts with no real concern for aesthetics. All of them looked like they were unpainted with a bare, metallic chassis, and were just manufactured for purpose only rather than appearance.

I had seen the city was well fortified, with a fifty foot wall made of metal surrounding the city, with large, metal cannons mounted on the walls. As we got closer, I saw each of the buildings were also made of black metal, yet I had no idea how they were able to make all of this by themselves, especially under these harsh conditions. Towards the center was one massive and towering building, shaped like a spire. I could look in any direction and just couldn't believe all of this was actually real…

We had headed toward the center of the city, to an area just near the giant spire. As we flew downward, I caught sight of what seemed to be a military encampment, with many bunkers and training grounds. All I did was just follow Cubone, since he seemed to know the most about this place.

We had finally landed on a training ground, and I looked up and saw the spire building tower in the sky like a stairway to the heavens. I couldn't even tell where the tower ended it was so high up. Shortly after, I had gotten off Latias, and Randy had followed me. We stood on that warm, metal ground and looked up. He too, seemed amazed at the sight.

"What… is this place?" Randy asked in amazement, looking at all the giant buildings around him.

"Symarix," The Cubone had told Randy. "And I don't believe I have introduced myself. My name is Sever. And I'd like to welcome you to our city."

"Well, thanks," Randy replied, still looking around at everything with his eyes. "Though I have really no clue where we really are…"

Latias had looked over and looked at Randy for a moment, just totally enveloped with all the sights around him. Then she looked to the Cubone named Sever, still wanting more answers to all the confusion.

"Neither do I," Latias told him, slowly and firmly. "Just where are we and how did we end up here?"

Sever could tell from the look on our faces that we were definitely lost and had no idea what we were doing here. In a way, he seemed happy to answer our questions, but at the same time, he looked at us strangely, seeming a bit surprised we didn't know this already.

"They call this world Kivistal," Sever informed her, as well as the rest of us. "Sadly enough, it wasn't always like this. There was a time when war hadn't shaped the world to what it is today…"

Meanwhile, as I was taking this in and looking around, I noticed that the whole city seemed to be designed for those small and large alike. As I looked around me, I couldn't imagine how something so giant could have been built by Pokémon alone. It seemed like it could have taken forever to construct…

And what continued bugging me was the location of Alex. Just where was he, and was he even still human? I knew the later was probably no considering what had become of Randy. It pretty much seemed like no one here was human, which was definitely an odd occurrence. No doubt, it would take some time getting used to. And then again, I questioned myself with the wonder of exactly how long was I going to end up staying here…

Sever had broken my concentration, looking at me sharply. The rest of the Storm Riders had looked at me with a stare as well, still looking at me like they were expecting something really big from me, and I had no idea what exactly that was. Again, I just didn't understand what this staring was all about.

"We need to talk to Jamac," Sever told the two of us. "I'm quite sure he will want to know of your arrival."

"Who is Jamac and where is he?" I asked Sever, looking at him in the eye.

Sever had turned to face the tallest, towering building in Symarix, and then he pointed to the area all the way on the top. I had looked up, and saw the top of that one, giant tower was strongly built and extremely well-defended. Still, it seemed like such a long way up…

"Come," He told me, already walking toward the tower. "The sooner we see him, the better."

I had taken out Latias's Pokéball, but Sever had stopped me, putting his hand on it, beckoning for me to put it away. I just looked at him strangely, and shrugged as I put the Pokéball back on my belt.

"I'm just returning Latias to her Pokéball," I told him, not having any idea why that was so objectionable. "What's the big deal?"

"I do not know what this strange device is," Sever told me in a serious tone. "However, I know at least enough to understand its what you use to keep her secure and hidden. However, I want Blazewing to be present when we meet Jamac. He needs to see her."

I just shrugged and put the Pokéball away. Randy was already looking around, having no idea how we ended up in this mess, and I couldn't disagree with him. Right now, Sever was being way too overly serious. Before, he seemed fine and nothing was wrong about him, but after I released "Blazewing" from her Pokéball, he started acting so differently it wasn't even funny. Nonetheless, I just followed him, while Randy and Latias had followed not too far behind.

After a small march through the city, it seemed like the only thing not made of metal in this city were the streets, which were black asphalt. As I looked around and glanced at the shiny metal buildings, I could only guess metal and iron ore were in such a massive abundance that they made entire cities out of it. Meanwhile, the vehicles that passed around through the streets were like tanks, being over fifteen feet tall and completely armored. It made me wonder if they served another purpose than just transportation…

Somehow, for reasons I couldn't fathom why, my presence besides Latias was enough to stop traffic, and turn the heads of Pokémon just walking down the streets. I just kept looking forward, but out of the corner of my eye, they just stared at me and began talking among themselves. Nonetheless, we just kept walking… really beginning to wish they'd just stop doing that.

It was going to be hard to get used to a city made up of nothing but Pokémon when I had gotten so used to cities composed of people. It almost seemed like… everything had been flipped upside down. I was beginning to think it was the work of Zander who did this, but there was nothing to really tell me why he would do such a thing. But after all, he turned Randy and I into Pokémon. Maybe all these others were just like us. Maybe everyone here was just another person who got in his way…

After a long walk, we had finally arrived at the massive tower, but it actually didn't look so tall when we were right next to it. I was guessing it was just my perspective. Sever hadn't waited one moment before we approached the entrance, made of glass windows and sliding glass doors. To my surprise, they were electronic, and slid open with proximity. As we stepped inside, I had no idea what I was just about to face…

Immediately, we had entered the massive lobby of this giant tower, which was also completely metal with many wooden doors leading to other rooms, except for two very large metal doors on the opposite side of the room. Throughout the red carpeted room, there were various statues made of metal on the walls, as well as one in the center of the room. I had looked at the ones off to the sides, which appeared to be Pokémon that once ruled this place, dressed in these prestigious uniforms. There was a Slowking, a Swampert, a Marowak, and many others. Then, my eyes had caught sight of the one statue in the center, and it nearly shocked the life out of me…

"What the…?" Randy asked as he looked up at the bronze statue.

It was statue larger than life, made of shiny bronze with a polished wooden mount. But it wasn't that which had shocked me. It was a statue of a fully geared-up Pikachu with a determined and steadfast look in his eyes, riding a fearless Latias that looked brave and willing to head right into wicked combat. The statue did a fantastic job of capturing the wind that was blowing past his ears and through his fur as the Latias seemed to be heading forward at a thunderous pace. Both of them looked so lifelike that I wouldn't have been surprised if they just flew off the wooden mount and started flying around the room. Meanwhile, on a small plaque that was nailed onto the wooden mount, it read:

Juno and Blazewing, protectors of the righteous Silver Rebellion. May their paths one day cross ours.

My jaw nearly dropped and I suddenly wasn't sure whether I wanted to cheer, scream, or panic. Latias and Randy couldn't believe it either. The Silver Rebellion believed we were already heroes, and I barely even knew them! They made me look more important than… their own rulers! I didn't understand any of it whatsoever, and I was beginning to sweat, thinking they were expecting me, just an ordinary guy thrown into a ridiculous series of circumstances, to be capable of impossible valor and triumph.

"As you can see, we have been waiting for your arrival for some time." Sever told the three of us as we just stared at the statue.

And then he continued moving on, just beckoning for us to follow him. After snapping to our senses, unable to look back at the statue as we moved on, we headed toward two massive doors without handles, but I couldn't help but keep my eyes on the statue. Then, I just faced forward, and I realized what the doors were. It was a giant elevator, probably the only way to the top. I had turned to Sever as he put in a security access code on a keypad on the wall. Suddenly, the elevator roared to life, and the two giant, steel doors slowly opened. I just shrugged and walked into the elevator like there was nothing to it.

The floor was carpeted by an ornamental rug, and the walls were actually paintings, all scenes depicting Storm Riders flying through the fiery sky in combat with the Wind Strikers, a counterpart of the Storm Riders where the riders were each mounted on a Skarmory rather than a Pidgeot. In the paintings, the Wind Strikers were losing quite miserably. Not one Storm Rider was seen dying, and there were some who were wounded but in a charismatic way.

"We will soon be meeting the headmaster Jamac," Sever said as Randy and Latias entered the elevator and the heavy metal doors closed behind them. "No doubt he will be most pleased to see you have finally arrived."

Yeah, that was great, but what was he going to expect me to do? I've never been a military leader, if that's what they really thought I was going to do with my time here. The one time I fought Randy's Pokémon and the incident that happened at the jail were my only instances of me really getting into a fight. But I've never actually led someone else into combat…

As the elevator continued to ascend higher and higher, all I could do was wait and wonder why I was seen as such a savior to the Silver Rebellion. I knew I had rescued one of their Storm Rider regiments, but really, I think they were all expecting a little too much out of me. Despite all that was going on, I was still just looking for a way to get home, and I mean the real home, where my real family was. It was never really my intention to get involved with all this in the first place…

And then, we had reached the top floor, and the elevator stopped. The metal doors had slowly opened to reveal another long, carpeted hallway with many wooden doors, and then at the end of the hallway, there were two very fancy and ordinate-carved doors with golden trim. As Sever had continued walking, right toward the two fancy doors at the end of the hallway, all we could do was just follow him, and then, he had arrived at the doors. We stood there silently, and then, Sever pulled down on the metal levers, and pushed open both doors at the same time.

When the doors had opened, we were greeted with amazement. There was a giant throne room, with the floor made of white marble with a red carpet leading from the door to the mounted thrones. The walls and ceiling were made of white stone, and golden chandeliers were suspended from the ceiling. On the two side of the red carpet, there were masses of soldiers waiting. On the throne, a fiery Blaziken sat down, while a battle-hardened Vigoroth and a seemingly shady Zangoose stood by his side. Sever continued on, and we just followed him. As we passed by the various ranks of uniformed Pokémon soldiers in Jamac's council, they saluted me, even though I hadn't even done anything yet. I just didn't get it…

I began to feel that if I was going to even have the slightest chance of getting out of here, it was going to be by working with these guys and nail Zander, if that was at all possible. As I got closer and closer to him, I realized I would need to treat Jamac with ultimate respect. Being branded as a traitor or an outcast would only make things far worse, especially if these guys had such lofty expectations for me. With Randy and Latias at my side, I finally arrived at Jamac's throne, and I kneeled down, and Randy did the same, trying to show Jamac respect in the only way we knew how. I bent down my head, looking down toward the floor.

"So, it's the one they call the Gold Rider…" The Zangoose said, almost with foreboding.

"You have come at last, Juno," Jamac smiled strongly. "This is the chancellor Sinis and General Achilles, and I am Jamac, the ruler of the Silver Rebellion. It is an honor to finally meet you."

"No," I told him quickly, trying to get on this guy's good side. "The honor is mine. I want to thank you for accepting me into your ranks and welcoming me into your city."

Sinis the Zangoose crossed his arms with his long, black claws sticking out, and looked down upon me. For some reason, it seemed like he really didn't believe I was the one, or there was something wrong with me. After all, I didn't even know who or what told these guys I was even coming to town. And truthfully, maybe he was right. I sure didn't feel like some prophesized hero.

"We have been fighting the Crimson Stars for a long, long time," Jamac told me in a firm tone. "They have massacred endless amounts of our finest soldiers and they've ruined our great cities. The Divine Prophecy states that you would one day come to our aid, and turn the tide of this war."

"So here I am." I told him, sincerely hoping he wasn't expecting I would be able to do it all by myself.

And then, Sinis just turned away, not looking very pleased. I didn't know it was about him, but he still felt there was something wrong about this whole picture. Only then did he suddenly have the courage to speak up about all this.

"Oh, come on," Sinis moaned in an annoyed tone, speaking out to everyone. "The prophecy is a fairy tale for children. Juno is just another warrior, like the rest of them. I don't see why he's any more important than they are."

And then, he looked down right at Randy. All Randy could do was just look up at Sinis, and he realized Sinis was so much taller than he was.

"And who's the tiny Pichu?" Sinis asked, glaring down at Randy. "Does the prophecy mention this as well?"

"He's my companion." I told him, not really liking his attitude.

"Enough, Sinis," Jamac said firmly. "Tell me, what is your name?"

And now, all eyes were on Randy, and he began to get a bit nervous. I could see he was beginning to twitch.

"My name is Randy…" He said, bowing to Jamac.

"What?" Sinis asked in doubt, "What kind of name is that!?"

Randy looked up at the Zangoose, and he began to get really nervous. It suddenly occurred to me that the Pokémon here weren't really too big on having typical human-sounding names.

"That's just the name my mother gave me," Randy said honestly to Sinis. "I… didn't mean to offend you…"

Technically speaking, that was no lie, but he wasn't telling the whole truth either. Randy got them all thinking he was always a Pichu, and that his mother, who they probably thought was a Raichu, just gave him the name.

"We don't need you." Sinis told Randy, looking at him with quite a bit of anger, "Besides the strange and absurd name you have, you don't look anywhere even close to being the kind of warrior we need to defend the little that we have left."

What I didn't understand was how much they expected me to be some kind of hero, and yet they didn't expect the same out of Randy, who had done nothing wrong this entire time…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 23
The Last Prison​

Randy just continued to look at them with a melancholy look in his eyes, almost too embarrassed to stand before all of them. I really didn't like where this was going, so I decided to step in before Randy had a panic attack.

"Blitz," I told them quickly, just wanting this to end. "We'll just call him 'Blitz' from now on. He's actually better than you think. Look, if he doesn't meet your standards, I'll do whatever I can to help him catch up to speed. But at least give him a chance."

I gave Randy a slight nudge, letting him know to just keep quiet about it. To my surprise, Randy didn't say anything, instead looking at me with a grateful look in his eyes. Strangely enough, once again, Randy and I were sticking up for each other like close friends, even though that's something completely opposite of what we would have done just a short while ago…

"Fine, whatever…" Sinis replied, shrugging at the whole issue. "I want to know something, Sever…"

"What is it?" The Cubone asked, looking at Sinis with interest.

"How did you come across Juno in the first place?" Sinis asked, looking directly at Sever in the eyes.

Sever had looked at me for a moment, and I just took a slight and curious glance at him back. He looked somewhat worried, and then he looked back at Sinis.

"Our Storm Rider squad had been captured and thrown into Black Bay Prison," Sever told Sinis, a bit ashamed to admit they had been captured. "It was Juno who rescued us in the first place."

"Juno rescued you?" Achilles the Vigoroth asked Sever, a little surprised that I was the one who bailed him out.

"Yes… That's right." Sever replied, seeming somewhat embarrassed.

He remained silent after that. But I had remembered that I still needed to find Alex, wherever he was. If he wasn't at the Black Bay Prison, then where was he? Was he even in this world? At least I could try looking…

"One of my other companions is missing," I told them all, knowing I still had a problem on my hands. "Since he wasn't at the Black Bay Prison, do you know of another place where he would be held?"

They had all looked at me strangely, and then Sinis had put his hands at his side.

"No, there is no other prison…" Sinis replied with hesitation.

There was hesitation and silence. From the way Sinis was looking, I could tell he was hiding something. And then, Achilles looked at me with a forlorn expression.

"No, that's not completely the truth…" Achilles said, shaking his head in dismay. "There is… one other prison…"

"Achilles, we will not speak of that place." Jamac told him seriously, not even wanting to go into that area.

"But if Juno is looking for his companion, there isn't any place left. He would have to be there..." Achilles told Jamac, looking off to the side as his thoughts seemed to be distracted.

Well, this didn't sound very good. Already it seemed like this place they were speaking of left scars on them. I had no idea of what they were talking about, and a tiny part of me really didn't want to know. However, I knew there wasn't much choice about it…

"As… much as it pains me to speak about it," Jamac said softly, avoiding eye contact with me, "there is a final prison that is controlled by the Crimson Stars…"

"What is this place?" I asked them, wondering what could make this place so terrible.

"Macomb," Achilles said firmly, looking downhearted. "It isn't just a prison. It's a weapons factory, foundry, steel mill, military camp… and a torture chamber. Every one of our soldiers that have been there has been killed or captured to rot away in that cruel dark place…"

I couldn't afford to let Alex die in a place like that. But attacking it sounded like suicide. If it was a military camp, then the moment they spotted us, they could unleash an army of Wind Strikers, and whatever other monstrosities the Crimson Stars possessed. Nonetheless, I wasn't going to let Alex just die in their hands. I wasn't going to let an army of Silver Rebellion soldiers suffer forever. Suicide or not, I didn't care.

"I will do whatever it takes," I told the three of them. "I'm not going to stand here and let this misery befall my friends and my comrades."

"Do whatever you want," Sinis told me, crossing his arms again, looking at me straight in the eye. "But we're warning you. In Macomb, there are acres and acres of factories, warehouses, weapons production lines, and jail cells. These maniacs are constantly developing weapons there. They will attack you with everything they've got."

But I still didn't care. Alex would have done the same thing for me if he was in my place. I looked Jamac straight in the eye, and told him exactly how I felt.

"I don't care," I told him firmly. "I'm still going. I'm not going to left my allies suffer at the hands of some sadistic freaks."

I had looked to Randy, and I knew he wasn't going to like any of this. I looked at him closely.

"Blitz, if you don't want to be a part of this, I understand." I told Randy firmly.

"No, I'm going with you, no matter what," Randy disagreed. "We're in this together."

Randy sure had a lot of guts. No, he definitely wasn't the wimp I remembered from Scottville Middle School. For a moment, it felt strange to take the plunge into fully supporting this Silver Rebellion faction, but there was something about it that just kept urging me on to do it. Meanwhile, Randy and I really weren't the way we used to be. He seemed to be more of a real fighter now, one who stood for his beliefs. He was my ally as well, and even though I never would have considered it before, in order to get out of this, we needed to watch each other's backs.

Meanwhile, Achilles had been very hesitant to let me even embark on this mission, thinking it was going to be a waste of my life. I told him that if I really was the one that would save them, then this shouldn't be a problem. And if I wasn't, then he had nothing to worry about.

After all the formalities had concluded, Achilles found it essential that our skills should be measured and that we at least got some basic training. Truthfully, I was glad they didn't throw us into the fire as rookies. For a moment, I was beginning to believe we were getting a bit too ahead of ourselves.

It wasn't long before he had taken me to an empty, metal training facility. When we stepped inside, I could swear there was nothing.

"There's nothing here…?" I asked him as we entered the large, empty room.

"Not yet anyway." Achilles responded, heading over to a small keypad on the wall.

He pressed a few buttons, and the room seemed to come to life. The metal floor had opened up, and up came a new metal floor, with what looked to be a small rollercoaster. Words failed me to think of what this could be.

"What is this thing?" I asked Achilles. "This is a training device?"

"Don't mind me saying this but…" Randy said, feeling a bit odd about it, "…It looks like fun."

"Believe whatever you want to, Blitz," Achilles told Randy, not taking any offense at that statement. "It's a machine to train Storm Riders. It is designed to train accuracy of attacks when traveling at very fast paces. You step into the metal car, and once it starts moving along the track, various targets will appear. Your job is to destroy every target using a Zephyr."

Randy looked up to Achilles with a look of wonder on his face. I didn't know what it was either.

"What is a Zephyr?" Randy asked Achilles, not having a clue as to what it was supposed to be.

"It's a type of channeling rifle." Achilles told the two of us, "It's designed to improve the accuracy and power of your attacks."

He then headed toward a metal supply closet on the left wall. After inputting a code into the keypad, the metal door opened. Inside was an armory of rifles, but they were all metal and very odd looking. Achilles went through each rifle until he arrived at the one he wanted, and he pulled it off the shelf. He then turned around and came back toward us. He then tossed the metal rifle at Randy's feet, and we just stared at it.

The black, metallic rifle was two and a half feet long, but to us that was pretty big. The barrel was long and had rectangular ventilation holes running along it. There was a small black pull release trigger, and many wires looping around the back, starting from one socket and moving on to the next.

"Cool, huh," Randy commented, picked it up and holding it in his hands. "What does it use for ammunition?"

"It uses your own electric power," Achilles told Randy, watching him closely. "This model is a Zephyr-E, designed to amplify your electric attacks by using coil technology. There are two nodes at the end, which will collect your electric power if you direct it toward them. There is also a gauge at the end which will tell you how much power you have stored in it."

"I'm assuming ones used for fire and ice are called Zephyr-F and Zephyr-I." I told him, realizing what the "e" was for.

"That's right." Achilles nodded, "Yet, there are some of our fighters that don't have a projectile attack. They use standard rifles, ones that fire caliber, full metal jacket ammunition. Needless to say, we need to be ready for anything."

Seemed like pretty advanced stuff. It made me wonder what the Crimson Stars were using. These guys were smart as well, using fire, electricity and ice against Wind Strikers, since each one of those elements would trash any Skarmory. Very strategically done…

"Do you want to give it a try, Blitz?" Achilles asked Randy, looking down upon the little Pichu.

"Yeah, let's rock." Randy replied with a little smile.

And then, he turned around and headed for the machine, carrying this gigantic laser rifle is his hands. This was going to be interesting…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 24
Boot Camp​

Apparently, it wasn't all fun and games like Randy thought it was. He told me he had so much practice with a light-gun game called Silver Striker, and that this was going to be easy. Yet, I had seen him go around and around on the roller coaster thing and barely hit anything. He tried it even without the Zephyr-E, and he did even worse. I told him to not hold it up, and instead mount it on the car itself and then aim with it. After trying five times, he thought he had enough.

"I don't… know what's wrong." Randy said in confusion, looking somewhat dizzy as well.

"You're going to need a lot more training if you think you're going to go to Macomb," Achilles warned him, not too happy with the results. "You're lucky Juno is willing to vouch for you."

And I heard Randy let out a moan, already looking too tired. His large, floppy Pichu ears had drooped downward, and his eyelids were lowered in his dizzy exhaustion. His hands lay limply at his side, and he could barely stand on his two feet.

"Give me a break, this is nothing," Achilles glared at him, looking at the exhausted Pichu. "Boy, you had better shape up if you think you're going to fight for us. We're just getting warmed up!"

That was exactly what Randy didn't want to hear. I don't think he was very prepared for this kind of thing…

"Juno, it's your turn," Achilles said firmly, picking up the Zephyr-E Randy had dropped, stuffing it in my hands, and pushing me along. "I sure hope you have more skills than your friend right here…"

And if I didn't, what were they going to do? Regardless, I just held the Zephyr-E in my hands, trying to keep holding onto the heavy, oversized rifle. Ugh, how could Randy even try to hold this thing, it was heavy! I quickly walked over to the roller coaster car, climbed aboard, and sat down in its cold metal seat, mounting the massive rifle to the car itself. Still, this was horrible. The little metal car I was sitting in had barely any room in it, even for me. Nonetheless, I put the metal gun down, and braced it upon the car, facing forward. I had seen Randy switch from shooting in the front and back only to end up missing most of the targets. I was going to keep it in the front and leave it like that. If I missed a target, shrugging it off would have been better than to miss two or three more because I wasn't looking where I was going.

Suddenly, I felt the car moving, and it started moving very quickly. A bit too quickly. But, all it took was a little focus and concentration, and it began to feel like it was only moving two miles an hour. Again, as I was using my focus and concentration it felt like I was underwater, and everything was moving slowly. The white targets popped down from the ceiling, and I focused my electrical power into the nodes at the end of the rifle. They moved so slowly, so they were extremely easy to hit. The car continued to move along the track, ever so slowly as I kept my focus fully engaged.

Target by target was destroyed with a burst of thunderous power from the Zephyr-E. This weapon was amazing, very accurate, and very powerful. It turned the normal yellow and white discharge of electricity into a blue and white blast of powerful thunder. Every time a target was it, it burst into pieces like glass. I must have gone around and around on that rollercoaster thing like five times until I destroyed every target with ease. The five minute roller coaster ride seemed like it took twenty minutes. Once it stopped, I hopped off and stepped back on the metal floor. Achilles looked at me spellbound, but in truth, I honestly didn't feel like I had done that much to begin with.

"That was… amazing…" Achilles said in disbelief. "This Zephyr isn't actually meant for your size. I threw you a curveball on purpose. The one meant for your size is actually only a foot and a half long."

"Hey!" Randy shouted, suddenly alert now, "That isn't fair!"

"You need to be prepared just in case you have to use the weapons of your comrades." Achilles told Randy, almost laughing at Randy's annoyed expression.

Achilles was a nice guy. I never suspected I would see kindness from a Vigoroth, after seeing how aggressive they were in battle. But, as nice as he was, he trained HARD. For weeks, every night Randy and I would come back to the barracks dead-tired. Despite how uncomfortable those metal bunk beds were, we were tired enough to sleep on a rock.

Running, shooting, climbing, and even swimming were part of this harsh training. Running for miles was something I always hated, but now I had to do it on this tiny track. And one mile for a human is like five miles for a Pikachu and a Pichu. We had more runs around that roller coaster, and Randy was showing serious improvement, even with both rifles. We had to learn how to climb rock walls, metal fences, and removed a type of barbed wire, which looked like circular pizza cutter blades on a string.

Being a part of this Silver Rebellion wasn't easy…

Besides the various ranks of Storm Rider squads I was about to enter, there were many other weapons and machines of war that the Silver Rebellion used. One of them was a heavy metal tank, called the Armadillo. These tanks were even bigger than ones used by humans, completely clad in heavy, metal armor, and painted a solid black. On the front there was one, giant chrome cannon, as well as two smaller ones on the side and a caliber rifle on the top by the square metal hatch. There were also four small, rectangular ventilation holes for infantry to fire from. I had never been inside one, but a fellow Treecko who used to reload the cannons told me it gets awfully hot in there.

And then, a really cool device I was trained to use was the Land Splitter. They looked like mini dragsters with a machine gun, and boy were they fast. Again, covered with light armor and protected the driver with a cage like structure. Like before, I was trained with these only just in case I was dismounted and needed to use them. Learning how to fly and fight at the same time were my main training areas. From what I could tell, the Silver Rebellion didn't have planes, so they used flying Pokémon mounts instead. And since they were experts on how to breed, care for, and raise Pidgeys, Pidgeottos, and Pidgeots from the moment they were born to the moment they were made combat-ready, they stuck with what worked for them. It was rare to see a Silver Rebel officer using something besides a Pidgeot.

It had been nearly two months since Randy and I had been in Kivistal now. We had spent those many days training our hides off, and we were pretty experienced now. I could only hope that Alex was still alive after all this time, but I still had no clear indication. I hated to leave him in that dark prison of Macomb, but I had no choice. I couldn't come walking to their front door and ask to have him.

We were also trained to know how to react to the weapons and machines of the Crimson Stars. Apparently, they use all caliber weapons, called Vulcans. Achilles showed me one of these Vulcan rifles, and it looked freaky, with a black and grey metal design, forming a very strange yet powerful rifle. It used two magazine feeds on both sides, taking one bullet from each side for every two shots for a higher rate of fire and greater ammunition load. Silver Rebellion fighters weren't trained with them since it was pretty much point and shoot with these things. We were just shown how to reload it, and with two magazines to lock into the chambers, it took quite a bit of time.

Meanwhile, Wind Strikers were Pokémon flying Skarmories, as Sever had explained earlier. Just like the Storm Riders, only Pokémon who stood upright and had hands could fly them. Achilles told me that since Wind Strikers are actually quite small and lightweight, they are designed for quick maneuverability. However, if they got shot just a few times, it was usually fatal. All the time, the rider was dismounted and could do nothing but plummet hundreds of feet in the air toward the harsh terrain. Unfortunately, this wasn't too far off from what a fellow Storm Rider like me could go through…

Somehow, the Silver Rebellion managed to get their hands on a Crimson Stars Talon, which looked like a three rider motorcycle, probably either through stealing it or finding it left behind from a previous battle. The first cab, which was in the middle, was the largest, with two smaller ones on its side. It was jet black, with violet windows on each of the cabs. The riders fired their own caliber rifle, while the center rider fried two at the same time. On the back was an anti-air gun for a forth rider who would be on the back, only there they were fully exposed. Honestly, I didn't see this as an effective fighting tool, but Achilles told me they were very vicious and very fast. I wasn't about to doubt his word.

A third nightmare of the Crimson Stars were the Versatile Armored Transports, or VAT's for short. Achilles had shown us only a model of it, and they looked like moving buildings with four giant metal wheels and a body like a trapezoid. I had no idea how I would even go about stopping that thing. Achilles told me a Storm Rider had to go under the whole machine and tear apart as much of the pipes, pumps, and other machinery under the VAT. It looked quite risky with all those gun emplacements all over the whole thing. But he told me that was the only way to do it.

"VAT's are constantly being manufactured at Macomb." Achilles warned us, letting the two of us know to expect them there, "You have only one advantage, and that is they won't be loaded with any Crimson Star troops once you get there. You would be better off to destroy their manufacturing facilities before you try and get the prisoners out."

"Wow…" Randy replied in sarcastic disbelief. "Can't wait…"

This sure as hell wasn't going to be easy. Achilles showed me more weapons that the Crimson Stars used, all designed to fire ammunition. I just grimaced at all of them, not wanting to imagine what would happen if I got shot by one. Not to mention the fact that they were really loud as well in the test firing range…

"Well, that's about it." Achilles told the two of us, "They've wanted us dead for eons now, and they've come pretty close to it. Already, many of our cities, such as Cyphex, The Bend, and Garrison are been torn to pieces. We've lost thousands of good soldiers out there. Each day, we keep losing our forces and it hasn't been getting that much better. We're down to only two cities left, this one and Kalen."

Kalen was a supply city, the Silver Rebellion's equivalent of Macomb, only Kalen wasn't even half the size. It was true though, the Silver Rebellion was fighting very losing war against these guys. If it kept up at this pace, I could expect Symarix to be completely overrun in very little time.

"Sure doesn't look pretty." I told Achilles and Randy, seeing how easily things were getting desperate…

"That's why we've been desperately waiting for you, Juno…" Achilles responded, looking at me in the eye.

Only about a month later, we had been set for combat at its most sickening level. Pokémon wouldn't just be fighting each other, they would be killing each other on the same hideous scale that humans used. Just the thought of it was disturbing, but in this kind of misery… I guess there really was no other way… than to fight…

I had heard only a small squad was going to be deployed to attack Macomb, myself included. They told me it was all they could afford to send. I had seen albums of pictures that showed the horror after each terrible conflict. Hell, I had even seen it myself with my own two eyes, the city near Black Bay prison was torn to sheds, a graveyard of buildings and society. I can easily expect something similar if I laid my eyes on The Bend or Cyphex. Further and further the Silver Rebellion was being pushed back, and here they were making their last stand against an enemy that couldn't even respect itself.

Tomorrow, we would be flying to Macomb. Randy and I as well as four other Storm Riders were going to have to take on that entire facility all by ourselves, hoping to use stealth instead of a front-on invasion. Instead of going with a head-on assault, we were going to try and sneak our way in, disable as much as we could at the facility, release its prisoners, and try to get out alive. Just the sound of it already made my heart twist in anxiety.

Already, an enormous amount of expectation was placed on me. I had already been made a lieutenant, solely for my efforts at Black Bay. Every one expected me to reach much further beyond that, but they didn't realize I could only do so much. I didn't want them to think I suddenly became a miracle worker here…

Randy, or otherwise know as "Blitz," had been making every effort to improve his skills. Even though he had a rough start, as time went by he got drastically better.

We had no idea how big Macomb really was, or what kind of force they really had, but from what we had heard, it sounded like a lot. I was hoping it would be quickly in and quickly out, but I had no idea where to head to first, since the Silver Rebellion had no layout of the facility to go by. The only thing I could go by was the architecture of the buildings. That was it. Every scouting mission against this place had failed, and the lack of intel really showed.

Regardless, Randy and I tried not to show fear, even though deep inside we were nearly scared to death about this. There was no other way to get Alex out of there if this is where he was really being held. We needed his support as soon as possible, and any Silver Rebellion prisoners were greatly needed to join the ranks of soldiers already prepped for combat. We needed to take apart Macomb's assembly lines and production facilities if we wanted to cripple the Crimson Stars' war effort. Of course that was far easily said that done.

We had trouble sleeping that night, just trying to think about how we were going to handle this. I could only hope that I would be back in these barracks by tomorrow's end…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 25
The Last Call​

It was only going to be the five of us, and that was it. Somehow, we were going to have to make our way in and keep it quiet as long as possible. Macomb was large and well fortified, but it wasn't invincible. The mission was going to be difficult, but not impossible, even though it almost seemed that way every time I seriously considered what we were going to do here. Meanwhile, I was to be the commander of this small squad, and Randy was going to be my gunner, sitting on the back of Blazewing the Latias's back, just watching our rear just in case something happened.

The second Storm Rider in my squad was a Croconaw by the name of Stevex. Despite his usual ill attitude, he was feeling somewhat optimistic about the mission. He had told me he had been a Storm Rider for three years, and this was going to be the toughest challenge he had ever faced. He was armed with a caliber rifle, since water wasn't going to hurt a Skarmory too much…

The third in my squad went by the name of Rackal, an Electabuzz with a proficiency in explosives, computers, and booby traps. Calm and collective, he always believed more in being prepared than wishing for good luck. If we were going to get through this mission, we were going to need an engineer, and Rackal was just the one to fill that role.

Fourth in line was Lahanas, a Charmeleon with a bad attitude. He hated the Crimson Stars more than scum, and he wasn't going to let anything get in his way of destroying them. He wasn't so sure about me being a commander, but he wasn't going to ask questions. Even if he did, I wasn't so sure I would answer them.

And last but not least was Vice, a Sneasel with a will to kill. Vice was swift to strike and didn't ask questions first. Even though most Storm Riders didn't give their Pidgeot a name, Vice called his mount Storm Gale. I couldn't help but say there was certainly something more vicious about his Pidgeot than the rest of them…

When we had all assembled, Achilles had approached us, and all five of us had saluted him like we were instructed to do so in the presence of a high-ranking officer. He then looked over the six of us, and stared at all of us in the eye, me especially.

"As much as I appreciate your dedication to this country…" Achilles began. "You're about to embark on a very dangerous but very important mission. I can't promise the safety of any of you. There are very few who even know this mission is about to take place. If there were more, I fear they may somehow object to it, even though this is something that needs to be done."

Of course it was. Alex was still in there, as well as many other Silver Rebellion members. And the longer we took to get there, the risk of losing more soldiers was also escalating. We couldn't allow that to happen any longer. If that place really was the torture chamber they had said it was, it was going to be a gruesome sight to behold. I could only hope Alex was still alive and safe.

"Good luck to all of you," Achilles told us, keeping an upright posture and stern look in his eyes. "With no doubt you will need it."

"Good luck is for the unprepared." Rackal replied to Achilles with a firm voice.

After the four of my comrades had mounted upon their Pidgeots, I had let out Latias, and Randy and I had climbed on her back. Thankfully, she had been equipped with a leather saddle beforehand, so we didn't have to worry about falling off. That was a good thing, since there was going to be a whole lot more we were going to have to worry about…

It hadn't been long before we took to the skies and soared far above the broken land below us. Randy had been right behind me, holding his Zephyr-E very steadily. Meanwhile, besides me were the four other Strom Riders that were on my side. The sky above us slowly grew toward a pale red, indicating the cold night had come. At least now we would have the darkness to cloak our passage into Macomb.

Further and further we flew toward the great machine city of Macomb. No doubt this would be the most difficult task I would have to undertake. We had four specific targets: the assembly lines, the missile silos, the weapon stockpiles and the prisons. First, we were to disarm the missile silos before they were launched as a result of the attack. Next came the weapon stockpiles and then the prisons. Finally, the assembly lines had to be shut down, but for now they posed no immediate threat.

Miles and miles of broken terrain had passed below us, and then the six of us had set eyes on the black machine city of Macomb in the distance, just waiting for us. I couldn't believe my eyes at the sight of it…

The whole city itself was devoted to industry, with large factories and towering smokestacks spewing out clouds of dark smoke. Warehouses were also scattered everywhere, as well as large shipping trucks. However, I looked around but I saw no sign of anything that looked like a prison. All the buildings were a dark coal black, and a metal fence that towered fifty feet surrounded the city.

"Macomb…" Rackal said softly, looking at the machine city, "If we disable their transports, they will be unable to ship their supplies."

"I like the idea of destroying the supplies themselves," I told Rackal. "What good will their trucks be then?"

But then, I had caught sight of something within the city. Tiny red lights were flashing in various places. At first I thought it was fire, but then I realized the lights were pulsing systematically. I then felt an eerie chill. That was no fire…

"They know we're here," I told them coldly. "Their alarms have gone off."

"Impossible," Lahanas cut me off. "There's no way. This early? We haven't even reached the perimeter yet!"

But shortly after he spoke, I saw a small group of V shaped objects emerge from the red-tinted sky. They were coming closer, and at a very fast rate.

"Wind Strikers in the distance…" I told the four of them. "Come on, let's try and find some cover."

"Is this how the Gold Rider fights?" Lahanas asked in shock, looking at me with doubt. "I'm surprised at you, Juno. I thought you had a spirit to fight inside you."

This guy had to be kidding me. We were supposed to get in secretively, not plow our way through. Did he really think he could take all these guys out by himself? I was no war expert, but it was common sense that being out in the open like this was a death wish under these kinds of conditions.

"I don't have a spirit to commit suicide," I reminded him, breaking away from his location. "We're highly out-gunned and outnumbered! Let's find some cover and get out of sight!"

"No one's ever stopped Lahanas." He told me as he referred to himself in third person, pulling out his caliber rifle.

I couldn't believe what this guy was doing. He was going to get us all killed! What the hell was wrong with him, did he have any idea what he was going to face?

"Lahanas, stop!" I shouted to him. "If you fire your rifle, your muzzle flash will give away our location!"

But he refused to listen. Instead, he took aim at the incoming Wind Strikers, and suddenly, his caliber rifle roared to life as a pulsing blast of fire appeared at the end of his rifle as it blasted bullets toward the incoming Skarmories. I had no choice but to break away from him, ushering Blazewing to abandon the formation as I knew I certainly didn't want to be near him when they returned fire, which I knew was going to be inevitable.

And then, I had watched in horror as I saw white flashes appear on the Skarmories as they returned fire. Without a doubt, they were returning fire, and a lot of it at that. I had quickly turned to Lahanas, expecting the worst.

And then, to my shock, his Pidgeot had been struck twice in the chest, causing the massive bird to screech loudly in pain. Lahanas struggled with his mount to keep her alive, only soon after, she was struck viciously with five more bullets and didn't even have the life left in her to scream. And to make it even worse, Lahanas had been struck twice himself, once in the chest and a second time in the face. Lahanas fell off his Pidgeot, and the both of them tumbled toward the ground, with his rifle not too far behind. Then, they disappeared into the darkness, and that was the last I saw of him…

"Oh, God…" Stevex gasped, watching Lahanas die right in front of him.

"Come on!" I shouted to the rest of my team, heading toward my left,."Let's get the hell out of here! Head for those warehouses!"

The remaining four of us had swiftly flown toward the black warehouses, where hopefully they didn't see the rest of us in the dark. We flew faster and faster, and for a moment, I knew the Wind Strikers had caught sight of us. It wasn't long before they opened fire, and suddenly I saw Stevex and his Pidgeot fly toward the ground faster that we did. I then realized why. Both of them had been shot multiple times, and they totally lost control. Stevex and his Pidgeot hit the ground extremely hard, and their bodies tumbled around on the hard dirt. I shook my head in dismay. There was no way they could have survived that fall.

The remaining three of us headed quickly past the metal fence and headed downward toward the ground. I couldn't believe it. Already two of my squad members had been killed, the base was on full alert, and we haven't even got started yet. And I could tell the Skarmories weren't very far behind…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 26
A Whisper in the Dark​

I had been the first to descend toward the ground and land softly on the firm, rocky terrain. Soon after, Vice and Rackal and their mounts headed toward the ground. As their Pidgeots approached the dirt, they flapped their wings harder to ensure a safe landing for their riders. Vice and Rackal had dismounted and told their Pidgeots to hide in a safe place, using an empty shipping container to keep themselves safe. I was about to send Blazewing back to her Pokéball, but as I looked at it, I was beginning to feel more and more hesitant about using it, especially considering no Pokémon here was using them. Instead, I just decided to have her protect the two Storm Rider Pidgeots, and tell her to listen for my signal.

"That freakin' idiot!" Rackal exclaimed in bitterness. "What the hell was he thinking? Lahanas could have gotten us all killed!"

"Oh, let's face it," Vice replied to Rackal as he gripped his caliber rifle tightly in his claws. "We were dead from the start. There's no way we're getting out of here alive. How many times have we tried to attack this place only to fail? I'm sure the Crimson Stars have even gotten bored of this routine."

Around us, I could hear the faint sound of alarms. I couldn't believe it. How were we supposed to do this with the entire base on full alert? And I didn't even know where the missile silos were. If we waited any longer, we were going to be too late.

"Well, Juno…" Vice said firmly, looking solidly into my eyes, "…it's your call, squad captain. I hope you know what you're doing."

As if I needed even more pressure. Still, I knew panicking or crying like a baby wasn't going to do anything. I then looked behind me, and saw the two metal doors of the warehouse. Hanging above was a chain with a lock around it.

"Do you think you can cut that lock open?" I asked Rackal, looking upward at the lock.

"Oh, give me a break," Vice replied, nearly laughing. "That? That's nothing…"

He had leaped up, and with a furious swipe of his claw, the chain was sliced in half with a metal shrieking sound, and the two halves of the chain fell to the sides and lay limply handing by the door.

"Let's see what's inside." I told them, grabbed the metal door and pushing it to the side.

But it was too big for me to move on my own. Then, Rackal and Vice had helped me push the door open. Soon enough, the large metal doors loudly rattled along the metal tracks and crashed when they hit the end. It made much more noise than I thought.

"Oh, shoot." Randy said as he looked around.

And then I heard a shout in the distance. I could see in the distance a group of silhouettes heading right for us from between an alleyway of warehouses.

"Get your butt inside!" I shouted to them, making my way in.

"Oh, great," Vice commented sarcastically. "Isn't this off to a wonderful start? Don't mind me asking, my valiant and prestigious squad leader, but why did we open this again?"

I didn't have time to answer that as we quickly made our way into the warehouse, which was loaded with hundreds of wooden crates and metal boxes. We quickly made our way around a pile of crates and stood behind them, weapons drawn. Vice stood firmly crouched behind a small pile of boxes with his caliber rifle ready and pointed at the opening, just waiting to ambush anyone that came through there. Meanwhile, Rackal and Randy stood side by side, both charging up their Zephyr-E rifles.

"Well, if isn't it a beautiful day in the neighborhood," Vice commented sarcastically. "How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?"

"Simple," I said to the three of them. "We kill everyone who knows we're here."

I was without a weapon, so I needed to find one somewhere. And as I looked around, I began to have a faint idea of what this warehouse was holding. I had made my way over to a long wooden box, and handed it to Vice.

"I can't open it myself without damaging what's inside," I told Vice. "Chances are good it's probably a weapon."

"Oh yeah?" Vice asked with curiosity, challenging my way of thinking. "What makes you think that?"

I had looked at the box, and using plain logic, I felt there was a reason for this being here…

"Considering its shape and size, it can't be a part of a machine," I told him, looking at the crate carefully. "The assembly lines are nowhere even near here."

"Hmm…" Vice replied in realization, "you know, you may be on to something…"

He took the box, and sliced off the two sides, then he ran his sharp claw along the edge of the box, and then completely disassembled it. Inside was a black rifle, a Vulcan to be exact. Alongside it were three cases of ammunition.

"Well, don't they put everything in a pretty package?" Vice replied with a cynical response, looking down at the firearm, "What were our chances of running into a warehouse full of guns?"

"Quite high actually," I told him, being able to figure it out myself. "I could easily assume the prison and the missile silos are in the back of the city, where it would be hard to reach them. Everything else, I guess would have to be up front so it would be easier to ship out and distribute throughout Crimson Stars territory."

I had taken the black, metal Vulcan rifle, and loaded it, just like Achilles had shown me. I then got behind my own bunch of boxes, and aimed toward the door. After waiting a few minutes, keeping a silent but tense stance, soon after a Squirtle and a Wartortle appeared in the doorway, completely armed.

"I think we found them!" The Squirtle shouted, looking inside and seeing us positioned behind the crates.

"You most certainly did." Vice laughed as he pulled the trigger on his rifle.

Vice and I opened fired upon the Squirtle and Wartortle, blasting them with heavy and loud gunfire. Both of their shells were cracked in multiple places, forcing them to the ground as they helplessly dropped their weapons. I could already tell more were going to start rushing in here like crazy.

We waited patently, hungrily grasping our rifles in a rush of carnage and just waiting for something to move in the doorway. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a black Grumpig had poked his head out from the right side of the doorway, whipped out another Vulcan rifle, and began firing at us before we could even respond. I crouched down as fast as I could as bullets splintered the wooden crates around us. When the gunfire stopped, I peeked one more time, and I saw nothing. Then, I saw him come out once more, firing furiously. I had aimed my rifle right at him, when suddenly a sharp blast of electricity blasted out and struck the Grumpig in the face, striking him with enough voltage to actually burn and ignite him into flames. Once the blast of glowing blast of white and blue electricity had ceased, the Grumpig lay on the ground, burnt to a crisp with smoke waving above him. The smell of his burnt flesh was hideous. I had turned to see who had fired the shot, and realized it was Randy. To say the least, I couldn't help but think that was a pretty impressive shot.

We had waited five more minutes before we decided we weren't going to get anywhere by just sitting here. Vice and Rackal were looking toward me.

"Let's get out of here," I told the three of them, getting up from behind the boxes. "We've got to find those missile silos before they decide to launch…"

"Okay, man," Vice replied, getting set to leave. "Let's blow this joint."

The four of us had headed to the door. I was the first to look out left and right to see if anyone was waiting for us. But something seemed strange. I could have sworn there were more Crimson Stars soldiers approaching us when we headed for the warehouse…

I then realized they were likely waiting at the end of the warehouse, ready to ambush us. I then decided to use one of my other weapons. Inferno grenades. I was just about to grab the one around my belt when…

"You sure about that, man?" Vice asked me, looking at me with a peculiar look in his eyes.

"Yeah, I know they light up the place like there's no tomorrow," I replied to Vice. "But chances are they're waiting behind the warehouse to ambush us."

"Well…whatever," Vice replied. "But don't be surprised if this whole district starts going up in flames.

He was quiet, and so I reached for the Inferno grenade, and pulled it off. Once I had pulled out the tiny latch that triggered the timer, I threw the grenade furiously ahead of me, and it landed right at the intersection. After I heard a few muffled screams, I heard a loud explosion, and everything was bathed with a fiery orange and red glow. When I had turned to look ahead, I saw the intersection was covered with raging flames that relentlessly consumed everything in their path. Whatever had been waiting there was likely burnt to a crisp…

"Wow, that did a number on them…" Vice replied, looking at the fiery chaos and rolling his eyes. "Now how the hell do you expect us to get through that!?"

"Geez, for once stop doubting everything I do," I replied to Vice, trying to think this out. "We'll just take another way around."

We had turned around, since heading forward was going to be impossible. We kept as low as we could, using the massive fire as a distraction to divert attention away from us. Enemy soldiers were flocking toward it, trying to douse the flames and save their precious weapon stockpiles and ammo dumps as we passed warehouse by warehouse undetected. Yet, now I was in a predicament. I had never seen a missile silo in my life, so I wasn't completely sure where to find it. But, I knew enough where they would be in the back of the complex, kept away from the front.

After we passed the district, we came across two large metal floors in the ground. They were tan-colored to match the color of the dirt so they would be nicely hidden, camouflaged to make it look like they were never there. There was absolutely no one around, which seemed pretty strange to me.

"I think…" Rackal said in disbelief, "…these are the missile silos. There should be a way to get underground somewhere around here."

My instinct told me to look for something that wasn't just another warehouse, and soon I had found what I had been looking for. It was a small metal building, with a thicker coat of metal around it.

"I think it's over there," I pointed to the building. "Its way too small to be supply storage."

"Yeah, I think Juno is right," Rackal replied, seeing the building I was pointing to. "That should be the elevator."

We had made our way over to the small metal building, keeping low and under cover, even though it seemed unnecessary. Did the Crimson Stars think we were already dead? It seemed awfully weird for no one to be around. Still, I looked back for a moment to see how the fire was eating up the warehouses. One of them suddenly exploded several times over, spreading the fire even further. I figured the tank shells and other explosives that were kept in there were going off, making the situation even worse.

Once we had arrived at the single metal door that was the building's entrance, we saw the door required a security access code to be entered into a keypad besides the door handle.

"Oh, great," Randy said with sarcasm. "What the hell do we do now?"

Rackal had taken his own Zephyr-E, aimed the barrel at the keypad, and blasted it with a tremendous blast of electricity. The keypad was instantly fried, and after Rackal put the weapon down, he slammed the keypad with his fist, breaking it into pieces. Suddenly, the metal door slid open, and we just stared at Rackal with a look of shock on our faces.

"Geez, man," Vice remarked in surprise, backing away a bit. "No need to lose your cool."

"Come on!" Rackal exclaimed. "We don't have all night to do this…"

And then, the four of us entered the dark, metal building. I could only hope we were going to get out of this dark chamber alive…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 27
Cold Underground​

There was barely any light in that room. Everything was completely clad in metal, and the only other thing in the room was a metal elevator. It certainly wasn't anything fancy. The door was comprised of three metal beams with caution tape and several black grates, all of which had taken abuse through the many years of service. I had made my way over to the control panel and pressed the button to call the elevator. I didn't know why but something was certainly making me feel sick at that moment. It just seemed too quiet around here…

Soon enough, we saw the metal elevator rise through the grates, and when it had arrived at the top floor, the metal beams had slid into the ceiling and floor while the grates had been pulled to the sides. Inside was a very dark metal elevator, dimly lit by only a single, tiny light on the ceiling.

"How welcoming…" Randy commented sarcastically as the elevator had arrived.

We had walked over to the elevator and stepped inside. Once we were all in, I pressed the black button on the side to head downward. Suddenly, the metal beams slid back down again, and the grates were pulled in front of us. Then, everything in front of us moved upward as the elevator moved downward, deeper into the ground below.

It felt like we had descended nearly a mile underground before we finally arrived at the bottom floor. Similar to the floor above, sliding metal beams made up the door. Once the beams and grates had been moved aside, we peered into another dark room, this time completely made of concrete. We had stepped out of the elevator, and looked around.

"Since there are two silo doors, there have to be two missiles," Rackal had told us. "We need to place two explosive charges on the missiles themselves, as well as any fuel rooms we find."

Suddenly, we heard a noise in the distance. We quickly turned around and looked down a long concrete hallway, with a Nuzleaf and a Machoke starting right at us with weapons drawn. They both glared at us.

"Silver Rebellion…" The Nuzleaf hissed at us. "I think the four of you fools just stepped a little too far into our hole."

"Drop your weapons!" The Machoke shouted angrily in a low voice as he pointed his extra-large Vulcan rifle right at us, "Or you'll find another way to kiss the floor!!"

"I've got a better idea," Vice smiled with an insidious grin. "How about you get out of our way, and we might just spare your lives!"

The Machoke growled at us, pointing the huge Vulcan rifle right at Vice. Meanwhile, the Nuzleaf was armed with what looked like a smaller machine pistol, almost like an Uzi. Both of them looked at Vice with contempt.

"I hope you've enjoyed your life here, you worthless, little Sneasel," The Nuzleaf hissed with amusement. "You enter the Abyss today!!"

And then, they opened fire on Vice. I felt for sure he was going to be killed unless I took action now. I had to concentrate, this time very hard. Suddenly, everything around me slowed to a crawl. The incoming bullets had very slowly approached Vice, and he moved back, just barely able to get out of the way in time.

I had stormed my way toward the Machoke and the Nuzleaf, with my cheeks flaring with electricity. Vice just barely managed to get back up on his feet, having to drop his weapon in order to dodge the incoming carnage. He then leapt toward the Nuzleaf, and slashed viciously at his face. Meanwhile, I had jumped toward the Machoke, latched on to his chest, and released all of my stored electricity all directed into Machoke's chest. His body began to twitch and convulse with throbbing pain as the thunderbolt surged into him, just before he slowly collapsed to the ground. While he fell, he almost looked like he had drowned underwater, and was sinking to the bottom of the sea, all in slow motion. When the Machoke had completely collapsed to the ground, I had gotten off of him and turned to see Vice, cutting Nuzleaf into shreds. By now, Nuzleaf was long gone…

I had stopped my concentration, and everything returned to normal speed. Meanwhile, Vice had looked toward me, and the looked around him.

"Boy, that was fun," Vice replied, crossing his arms with his soiled claws sticking out. "And you… you sure move fast for even a Pikachu. You almost make me jealous. Almost."

"Yeah, I know," Rackal replied, looking at me in particular. "I barely even had the chance to blink and Juno was tearing even that Machoke apart."

I didn't say anything. I just looked into Vice's eyes for a moment, and then looked away.

"You really are the Gold Rider…" Rackal said to me in amazement. "The strongest soldier ever to enter the Silver Rebellion's ranks…"

"Come on," I told them, not really in the mood to hear that whole prophecy story they had going on. "Let's just do our job and get out of here, before anyone else sees us…"

They had agreed, and we had made our way down the dark, concrete tunnels. Once we had arrived at a metal, steel security door, we pressed a button on the side and the door opened. We had come to a small control room. There were computer consoles everywhere, as well as two glass windows on the left and right. When I looked through the windows, I could see both missiles, still docked in the silo. But I didn't see any way Rackal could attach an explosive to the missile itself…

"Oh boy…" Rackal sighed in anxiety as he looked around, "this isn't the system that I thought it was…"

"What does that mean?" Randy asked anxiously, looking up at Rackal.

"It means we're going to have to destroy these missiles some other way…"

I had looked at the consoles, and then at the rockets, and couldn't think of what to do. Normally, we could set an explosive charge for ten minutes and get the heck out of there, but we couldn't get anywhere near the rockets.

"Well, what do we do?" Randy asked, looking around, "The rocket is like two hundred feet away from the window. Even if we break it…"

"There's only one way we can get rid of them now," Rackal told the three of us. "We need to launch them so they crash right into the silo door. Once they hit the door, everything here will be destroyed, along with the missiles themselves. Problem is, the longest amount of time that the launch can be set for is five minutes."

Vice had looked away for a moment. He seemed pretty tense about something.

"You know, five minutes isn't a whole lot of time for us to rush out of here," Vice complained. "Once that countdown starts, we'd better run like hell if we hope to get away from that explosion. Keep in mind those silo doors aren't going to hold in that explosion very well. They'll kill the rocket, but after that, those silos are going to blow up like a freaking volcano."

"We will make it out it time," Rackal told us. "Once we reach the surface, we run as far as we can from the two silo doors. That's all."

"Okay, but I hope you know what you're doing…" Vice told him, rolling his eyes.

Rackal had made his way over to the console, and began pressing a series of buttons. I had never seen a system like this in my life, so I had no clue myself how to use it…

"Manual system override…" Rackal said to himself as he hacked away at the buttons, "Launch protocol… System data backup entry…"

And then, some red lights turned on all around us. Along with them came on a female electronic voice:

LANUCH IN T-MINUS 300 SECONDS

"Come on!" Rackal shouted, turning around. "It's set to go! We have to get out of here!"

We immediately turned around and ran out of the control room with my heart racing incredibly fast. I was leading with Vice right besides me, with Randy right behind us and Rackal in the back. We ran furiously down the hallway when suddenly we had heard an alarm go off, and more flashing red lights turned on around the concrete hallway.

INITIATING SILO LOCKDOWN

We had seen the two open steel doors in front of us, and quickly Vice and I had passed through them with Randy directly behind us. The three of us had made it through, but then as we turned around and saw Rackal just feet away from the door, the two metal doors furiously slammed shut, trapping Rackal inside…

"God damn it." Vice spat bitterly, immediately trying to pry the two doors open. "Oh man, those things aren't going to open…"

I headed over to the black button that opened the door and pressed it furiously, but it wasn't doing anything at all. Everything was totally locked down, and once again, the loud speaker came on…

LAUNCH IN T-MINUS 200 SECONDS

"How do we get this thing open!?" Randy shouted furiously, pounding at the metal doors.

"That's the problem…" Vice told us anxiously. "It was a backup security measure. Rackal is a goner…"

No… there had to be some way to get him out of there. I tried focusing my mind but even that couldn't help. The doors were far too heavy and the control panel simply wasn't working…

"No, this cannot be happening!" I shouted as I pounded the black button harder and harder. "There's got to be something we can do to get him out of there!"

"Come on!" Vice shouted to the two of us, "If we stay here any longer we're going to fry in here as well. We don't have any more time!!"

I couldn't help but leave Rackal behind, even though it made me so sick to leave him trapped in there to die. We turned around and followed Vice down the concrete hallways. Meanwhile, I couldn't believe I had lost another member of my team. We had made it to the elevator, and pressed the call button. Immediately, the doors opened, we dashed inside, and pressed the button. The doors shut tightly and the elevator began to climb upward, the last travel it would ever make…

LAUNCH IN T-MINUS 100 SECONDS

We had made it to the top floor, and we furiously headed for the metal door. Once we were outside, we ran as far away from that silo as we could, since the whole thing was about to explode. As we kept on running, I had seen that the Crimson Stars were unable to douse the fire that was quickly consuming the warehouses one by one. But meanwhile, we were running in an open field, completely without cover. But even at that moment, that wasn't what was bothering me…

Suddenly, moments later, the ground shook like a massive earthquake had taken place. I had turned around and saw the two silo doors blast off with a massive gush of fire and flames following it. One of the metal doors had fallen back toward the ground and slammed into an already burning warehouse, just to assist in its destruction. Despite the fact we were doing a massive amount of damage to Macomb, I still felt so sick at that moment…

I'm sorry, Rackal…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 28
Eyes of the Enemy​

It was left down to just the three of us. I couldn't believe what had just happened only minutes ago. Rackal had served the Silver Rebellion faithfully, even to the moment of his death. He had taken us this far in the hope that this mission still had a chance. The missiles were gone and would never be used against the Silver Rebellion. The weapon stockpiles were burning to their destruction as we spoke, and without a doubt, it would stricken the war effort of the Crimson Stars. In only a few more minutes, there would be nothing left. Already we had saved countless lives and damaged the Crimson Star war effort. But… it was far from over yet…

Two of our objectives had been completed. The only ones left were to head over to the prison and release the captives and shut down the assembly plants. Hopefully, with their assistance, we would shut down the assembly lines and get out of here. I'm sure they had been here too long as it is.

"Well…" Vice told me with frustration, still annoyed about Rackal's death as he looked over to me, "You're the leader. Where to?"

"Let's head over to the prison," I told him, knowing any released prisoner could also mean reinforcements. "Chances are if we keep running down in this direction, we'll find it."

Vice had looked to me with a curious eye.

"What makes you so sure?" Vice asked, looking at me curiously.

"Why would they place a prison so close to a weapons stockpile?" I told him logically, "Believe me, they would keep them away from that kind of thing as much as possible."

"Hmm…" Vice replied, looking down in thought. "Makes sense. Let's go."

As we kept on running, we had passed by the assembly plants, and then it had all made sense. The prison had to be nearby. No doubt they were forcing the prisoners to work at the assembly plants as slave labor to help build their machines and weapons. Since it was the night hours, I could only expect the prisoners to be in their cells by now, probably sleeping.

We were now in the heart of Macomb, which contained the largest and darkest of the buildings. Large factories and containment areas surrounded us as we continuously moved through the streets, trying to be as silent and covert as possible. All of the buildings had windows with a grid made up of panes of glass. Inside, I couldn't see anything, but we knew to stay away from any windows that had light glowing inside of them.

The more assembly plants we passed, the longer I knew it would take to dismantle all of them. As we passed into the new district, I could see the development of machines, Talons mostly. And then, I got a view of what a VAT looked like. I had easily mistaken it for a factory until I realized it had wheels.

And lots and lots of guns sticking out of it…

But, it hadn't been close to completion. Nonetheless, we continued our way around the last bunch of assembly plants before we came across a metal, linked fence with jagged razor wire wrapped around the top. In the distance, we saw an enormous building, with only little black squares as its windows. Around it was a large open space, leaving the building in the middle. All around, search lights were moving around, always looking for anyone that was trying to escape. It seemed pretty hopeless for anyone locked in there…

I had looked above and saw the same barbed wire we had been trained to remove. All around the wire were blades shaped like pizza cutters. I knew for a fact anyone trying to crawl thorough that would be cut to ribbons…

"Well, I think we made it," Randy said, recognizing the building was the prison. "Now how do we get through the fence and make our way toward the building?"

I looked along the fence but I saw no possible opening or end to the wire. And truthfully, it would be a serious waste of time and risk to run along the fence looking for an opened, which would probably be guarded anyway.

"Must you always doubt my power, Blitz?" Vice asked Randy, giving him an evil stare. "This is nothing. I've dealt with this many times before."

"Careful," I warned him, looking into his eyes. "That's exactly what Lahanas thought before he opened fire on those Wind Strikers…"

"No…" Vice replied. "What he did was just plain stupid. I'm not like that at all."

Vice the told the two of us to step aside, and when we did, he slashed away at the fence. But, he had tried over and over again, but not a single cut was made in the links. Then, after some aggravation, he finally gave up…

"Okay…" Vice hissed, just barely keeping his cool. "I guess we'll need to find another way around."

"Yeah," Randy replied, figuring they would reinforce the fence. "But these Crimson Stars aren't going to let us through the front gate. Is there any way we can pretend we're them…?"

Vice had turned toward Randy, and he looked like he was about to laugh. I had looked at him too, and Randy couldn't understand what was going on.

"Blitz, you're a genius," Vice smiled, patting the little Pichu on the back. "We already have their guns. Now we just need some of their badges and uniforms."

"Badges?" Randy asked.

"Yes," Vice told him. "It helps them bypass security measures and its proof that they belong to the Crimson Stars."

Surely we could find some around here. I had looked left and right, and suddenly I saw two guards walking along the perimeter of the fence. I was surprised they hadn't seen us yet.

"Hide!" I told them, "Someone's coming!"

We had dashed behind the assembly plant ten feet away from us, and just waited patiently. After three minutes, they had started walking down, and I saw it was an Aipom and a Combusken, both in uniform. I had heard the Aipom giggling about something, and suddenly they stopped. The Combusken glared at the Aipom with a look of contempt.

"Just what the hell is so funny?" He asked with a stare.

We waited silently as the Aipom just kept on laughing. Suddenly, he tried to break out of it.

"Do you know who has the worst job here, out of everyone?" The Aipom asked, struggling not to burst out laughing.

"Hands down, it's the prisoners," The Combusken replied. "They never get a break…"

Still, the Aipom shook his head, indicting that he was wrong. Still, he just keep only giggling as we kept waiting silently…

"Yeah, you may think that…" The Aipom snickered, "but it's really Ved. Now that's the worst job ever!"

"You mean the guy who is the caretaker for the Skarmories?" The Combusken asked with surprise.

"Yep!" The Aipom laughed, "No wonder he swears all the time…"

The Aipom was laughing hysterically, but the Combusken still didn't get it, looking at the purple monkey like he had lost his sanity. At that moment, we broke out of hiding, and pointed our guns right at them. Suddenly it wasn't so funny anymore.

"Say cheese." Vice smiled with a grin.

We then opened fire at them, aiming specifically for their heads. My Vulcan rifle roared to life as fire blasted out of the rifle's barrel, connecting with the Combusken's head and causing him to collapse before he even knew what him it. Meanwhile, Vice did the same to the Aipom, sending one lethal bullet into the monkey's head, right between the eyes. Both of them were thrown back against the fence, completely devoid of life. After that, we took off their uniforms, and put them on ourselves. I took the Aipom's uniform and put it on, though it was really a pretty tight fit and couldn't help but make me feet almost too fat to wear it. Meanwhile, Vice seemed to have no problem at all with the Combusken's uniform. I then looked down at the uniform and noticed the badges that Vice was talking about earlier. The one the Aipom had been wearing was shaped like a shield and had three red stars on it against a silver background. I pulled it off and realized it was attached by means of some sticky adhesive strip. I then placed it back. Meanwhile, Vice had also taken the Combusken's Vulcan rifle and threw his old caliber rifle besides his body. We now looked like the enemy.

"What about me?" Randy asked, realizing he was without both a Vulcan rifle and a badge.

"We have to pretend you're a prisoner," Vice told him. "It will be easy if you give me your Zephyr-E. We'll pretend you were the only survivor in the gun fight, and Juno and I captured you. They'll think we're dead, which hopefully gets them off of our back too."

Randy swallowed hard, and looked a little anxious…

"Okay…" Randy responded.

Vice then took away Randy's rifle, and we began walking toward the front gate. By the gate, there was a Bagon and a Golduck both armed with Vulcan rifles, just glaring at Randy. We had approached them, and we tried as much as possible to act like guards.

"We found this little delinquent over by the fence," Vice said, looking especially at the Bagon. "We killed two of his companions as well."

"Heh, really?" The Bagon asked in a gruff tone. "Do you think they were part of the five that had set the whole base on full alert? Those maggots made a mess of the supply depots and they destroyed the missile silos, but I'm sure the boss will at least be pleased to know they're dead. As for this little one, I'm sure he'll bleed nicely."

"Storm Riders," I told the Bagon. "That's who they were."

"Heh, good." The Bagon replied, showing a slight grin on his face, "Don't think we'll be seeing any more trouble tonight."

He then tossed me a single key, and I caught it with my free hand, the one that wasn't holding the Vulcan rifle. I looked it over and then looked up at the Bagon.

"Cell 385 on the third floor should make sure the little squirt doesn't get out," The Bagon snickered. "Don't beat him too much, I'm sure the boss will want to take care of that himself."

"Got it." I responded to the Bagon.

"Now go on and get out of here." The Bagon ordered us.

We then continued walking along the long, cobbled stone path toward the double, brown metal doors. Once I had grabbed the metal handle, it was cold to the touch. I pulled it open, and we peered inside.

When we looked in, we saw the floors, the ceiling, and the walls were made up of crude, dirty metal. Rust was everywhere in patches. I heard a faint clanking and wailing sound in the distance, but another than that, the rooms were dead silent and very dark.

We had walked down the metal hallways, and as I looked into each of the cells, I saw various Silver Rebellion soldiers lying weak and tormented on their rickety, metal beds. Each one of them appeared to be overworked and highly mistreated. I couldn't help but think Alex was going to appear to be the same way.

When we had reached the end of the hallway, we came across more hallways left and right as well as an elevator and a door leading to a flight of stairs leading upward.

"I'd feel much safer with the stairs." I told Vice, looking at the rusty doors of the elevator.

"I'll second that." Vice responded, heading over to the door.

We then opened the creaky metal doors and headed up the flight of metal stairs, which looked even worse than the dirty floor. Plus it didn't have any handrails, so anyone who wasn't careful could go tumbling down to the first floor.

We climbed our way to the third floor, but I had looked up and realized there were at least three more floors above us. How were we supposed to release everyone here without anyone knowing?

As we opened the metal door to the third floor, we came across another hallway to our right and a solitary window to our left, with a metal grate over it. A flicking light above us had lit the hallways with a flashing glow.

As we passed each cell, I saw there was a tiny metal plaque by the door handle. We had come across another intersection of hallways, and I didn't know what direction to take. Suddenly, we had seen another guard, another Bagon had been patrolling around on the third floor.

"And who the hell are you three?" The Bagon asked, looking at the three of us with a stare.

"Your worst nightmare." I told him, aiming my Vulcan rifle right at him.

"What the…?" He asked, backing away.

I then pulled the trigger, and the Vulcan rifle fired and shook furiously as it blasted fire at the Bagon. In only a few seconds time, he had collapsed, dropping everything and soon was lying in a puddle of his own blood…

"You want to get us caught already!?" Vice exclaimed after the gunfire ceased, "What do you think you're doing!?"

"Look," I told him, "I think it's best if we work our way from the top of the building and make our way down, releasing everyone we can. Once we reach the lowest level and have released everyone, we defend the jail at all costs, until we can get some help."

It seemed crazy, but we had already lost too many of our soldiers in this conflict for this to be a full success. Somehow… I was going to need major assistance with this if we were really going to pull it off.

"Just how do you plan on doing that?" Vice asked, looking at me with doubt.

"Somehow, we need to call the Silver Rebellion for help," I told Vice seriously. "Because there is no way anyone is getting out of here by running on foot…"

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 29
Loss of Security​

Unlike my previous assumptions, the prison hadn't been very well guarded, or at least the night watches were very minimal. Still, there was more than enough to cause commotion. Already I had taken quite a big risk by shooting down one of the guards. Still, I could guess there weren't that many guards running around, or at least most of them were inside. While these guys were armed, they probably didn't expect us to get this far into the prison. In fact, they were probably thinking no one would make it this far into Macomb…

"So what's your plan of action, man?" Vice asked me, looking at me curiously. "We don't have a whole lot of time before someone finds out we're here and locks down the whole prison…"

"We need to create a diversion," I told Vice and Randy. "One of us needs to be a messenger to give word to Symarix and send for backup as soon as possible. The rest of us need to secure the prison and make sure no one comes in or out. We may need to lockdown the whole prison to do that…"

Vice looked at me with shock. He shook his head in disbelief.

"You're kidding, right?" Vice asked me with his eyes wide open. "These guys have been here for years. As soon as they hear this place has been taken over, they're going to take advantage of this as soon as they can and run the hell outta here."

"If they've been here for years…" I reminded him. "Then they probably have a very good idea of what its defenses are like."

Randy just looked at me curiously and Vice looked away in frustration.

"Look, once we get rid of the guards, we unlock all the cells and tell everyone to head to the upper floors," I told them both, thinking it all out. "Blitz, you will be our messenger. Once all the prisoners are released, the three of us will head to the roof and Blitz will take Vice's Pidgeot and head back to Symarix. Meanwhile, we'll make sure no one enters through the roof."

"Are you crazy or something?" Vice asked me with shock. "Storm Gale is my Pidgeot, and she's mine only. You don't know what you're doing."

I was getting very tired and very impatient. I didn't want to spend a lifetime arguing this thing out.

"Listen, pal." I scolded him. "As your superior and your commander, I order you to hand over your Pidgeot. Once we get to the roof, you're going to call Storm Gale and Blitz is going to take her back to Symarix."

"Well, thanks for nothing," Vice moaned.

Then, I decided to get down to business. I wanted to finally get out of here, I was hating this place already.

"Blitz, you see if you can find the switch to open up the cells and lock down the prison so no one gets in," I told him, hoping he'd be able to handle it on his own. "Vice and I will take care of the guards."

"Well, this should be a little bit more fun." Vice replied, his apprehensive feelings fading away.

"You got it, Juno." Randy replied, nodding with a little smile.

"And once you're done," I told him, "we'll meet on the roof."

Blitz then picked up the fallen Bagon's weapon and wiped off the blood. After that, he headed downstairs while Vice and I headed upward.

"Let's go, we don't have any time to waste." I told Vice, knowing there was only a matter of time before reinforcements had arrived.

Vice and I had headed up the stairs, after we were convinced the third floor was empty. We had arrived on the forth and the halls were completely empty, which was highly unusual. Nonetheless, we made our way to the fifth floor and I had realized there was only one more floor above us, making six floors in total. Once we had opened the door to the fifth floor, the rusty, metal door hit the back wall and sent a harsh slamming sound throughout the halls. At first, we thought the floor was empty until a massive, hulking Exploud turned around the corner and was holding two rifles in his massive hands. He looked at the two of us and just smiled.

"Well, well," He growled with a low, amused voice, "I don't remember the two of you shrimps ever being assigned guard duty."

"That's because we're not guards!" Vice shouted with laughter. "Up yours and have a bullet breakfast!"

The Exploud readied his two Vulcan rifles and pointed them right at the two of us. With his strength, he could fire both and still have very little recoil in each hand. He then pulled both triggers, and then fire had rushed out from the end of the barrels, and he sprayed the hallway with ammunition and carnage. I then focused and concentrated hard and then bullets slowed to a crawl. Vice and I had pulled out both of our rifles and returned fire.

While we could move significantly faster than the bullets from the Exploud's rifles, that didn't mean our bullets were faster. The two of us had opened fire, and I felt the assault rifle shake violently as ammunition had blasted out from the end of the barrel. The whole hallway was full of bullets, and it wasn't very easy to dodge the ones that the Exploud had fired upon us. Meanwhile, the large and relatively easy to hit Exploud had been struck several times, roaring in pain. He stopped firing and leaned over, and suddenly the two of us had stopping, figuring the Exploud couldn't handle any more. At that moment, I broke my concentration.

But then, our situation had turned grim when suddenly he had laughed off the pain. He pointed his two rifles at us again. But just before he pulled the trigger, Vice and I had fired upon him first, this time at normal speed. The end of our rifles had blasted fire as the loud cracking of the rifles had echoed throughout the metal hallways.

At that moment, we heard the Exploud scream in agony, but we didn't release our pull on the trigger until he had collapsed, falling over and dropping his weapons. He hadn't moved once that had happened…

I released the lock on my rifle, and tossed aside the two empty ammunition cartridges. I then pulled out the last two I had, locked them into place and had reloaded the Vulcan rifle. Vice had done the same, not wanting to run into another guard like that and be out of ammo.

"Come on," Vice replied to me. "We have to keep moving. Blitz will be locking down the prison soon, so we need to make sure there aren't any guards in here with us."

I could certainly agree with that…

We had moved our way through the cold, metal prison, shooting down two more guards. We had already caused a commotion among the prisoners, wondering who we were really. We kept silent until Randy had found the switch to unlock all the prison doors, and he locked down the entire prison, sealing off the front and back entrances with steel security doors. Only then did we tell them we were part of the Silver Rebellion, but we told them to remain in their cells while we called for backup. Though we were trapped inside, we were protected from any outside forces coming in from the ground. Hopefully it would be enough to last until backup had arrived.

We had met up with Randy again on the first floor, and already I could hear banging on the metal panels, meaning there were more Crimson Stars trying to break down the door. We then headed upward, and we made our way up to the top floor, and looked for the entrance to the roof, since the stairwell and the elevator didn't reach all the way up. After looking everywhere for a second staircase, we found the only one, which was behind a rusty metal door with a tiny plaque labeled "Maintenance." I grabbed the doorknob and it was locked. I wasn't very surprised. Vice had looked it over and just shrugged.

"Oh, what the hell is the point?" Vice remarked, readying his sharp claws.

He slashed furiously at the metal door knob, sending a loud and hideous screeching sound into the air. I put my hands on my ears to neutralize the terrible sound as I winced from the pain of the noise. When it was over, I put my hands down and looked to see a twisted metal lock on the floor, with deep cuts into it. I looked at the door and saw Vice had ripped out the lock, knob and all. Now it was just another normal metal door with a gaping hole in it.

"Locks only keep out honest people," Vice said casually, grabbing the ruined door and throwing it open. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"Man, glad I was on the receiving end of that." Randy replied, looking at the knob with disbelief, "I don't think I would have much of a head left after that…"

We headed through the doorway and came across a spiral staircase with rickety metal stairs. We made our way upward and into another small room with a metal door. The tiny metal room was especially dirty, and looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. Regardless, we quickly made our way for the door, and opened it. We then made our way onto the metal roof, and we could see the red and black sky with its occasional lightning flares above us. We walked over to the edge and looked down and saw plenty of Crimson Star soldiers on the ground. There was only one way to escape now, and that was through the air.

Vice had called for his Pidgeot, letting loose a loud whistle that despite the distance, could be heard thanks to the keen level of hearing most Pidgeots had. After a few moments, Vice's Pidgeot had arrived, landing swiftly on the roof. Once her clawed talons had come into contact with the metallic roofing, the brown and beige Pidgeot with its long yellow and pink crest had looked toward Vice, her trainer…

"Listen, Storm Gale." Vice told his Pidgeot, "This Pichu's name is Blitz, and he needs to tell Achilles to send backup for the Macomb attack. Tell him we already have the silos and the weapon depots destroyed."

Storm Gale had turned herself around and spread her wings, signaling for Randy to climb on her. Randy had cautiously made his way over to her, carefully climbed onto her back, and buckled himself in tightly using the leather straps that tied around Storm Gale.

"Fly like a bat out of hell," Vice told Storm Gale seriously. "We're looking at a lot of dead rebels if you two never make it back in time."

"They aren't going anywhere!" We heard a voice shout above us.

The three of us spun around and to our shock, we saw four Wind Strikers and what appeared to be their leader, a green and vicious looking Scyther riding on a Flygon. Vice had stepped back and shook his head.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it…" Vice moaned in fear, "It can't be him… Not now…"

"Who the hell is that?" I asked Vice, never before seeing him in so much fear.

"That's Vorox and Tychal," Vice told Randy and I. "Vorox has killed nearly a thousand Silver Rebellion troops, lead missions that torched five of our cities, and has earned all seventeen ranks of the Crimson Stars…"

Randy had looked up at the Scyther with a fearful look in his eyes. I couldn't believe it either, but I could tell from the Scyther's gaze that nothing

"You mean he's the…?" Randy asked in fear.

"Yeah…" Vice replied, swallowing hard, "…the leader of the Wind Strikers…"

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 30
The Jade Sword​

The four Wind Strikers and their leader Vorox were the only force that could stop us now. And having heard from Vice that Vorox nearly killed a thousand of our troops wasn't exactly the morale-boosting comment we needed to start fighting back…

"Vice, who the hell is this guy!?" Randy shouted in fear, looking at his intimating state before looking frantically back to Vice.

"He's known as the Jade Sword, a ruthless and cunning soldier, maybe one of the best elites of the Crimson Stars," Vice told Randy, a situation that was beginning to make even Vice anxious. "Believe it or not, whoever kills him will be advanced five ranks in the Silver Rebellion Army and will be given the Serious Decoration of Honor. That's how badly… we need this guy dead."

"What an incentive…" I remarked, still not finding that enough to embark on an assisted suicide of fighting this guy.

I then looked to Randy, and knew that if there was any hope of getting the backup we desperately needed, he needed to leave, and now. Plus I didn't want him to be around when this guy broke out into a fury to cut all our heads off…

"Blitz, get out of here, we'll hold these guys off while you head back to Symarix to get help," I told Randy seriously. "Storm Gale, fly as fast as you can, faster than ever before."

"Yeah, you both need to get the hell out of here, and now!" Vice shouted furiously.

Storm Gale had spread her wings, and jumped into the air, flapping her wings to ascend higher and higher into the air. There wasn't enough time for even a goodbye or even a good luck.

"After them!" Vorox shouted to his team. "Kill those two, and do it now!"

Suddenly, the four Wind Strikers flew furiously toward Randy and Storm Gale, and readied their rifles. I gritted my teeth, focused on the four Wind Strikers and aimed my Vulcan Rifle at them. Meanwhile, Vice quickly tried to provide as much support fire as he could, knowing this had become a do or die situation. I then pulled the trigger hard, and the rifle roared to life. I aimed for the one directly behind Randy and Storm Gale, and I aimed right for the Skarmory's abdomen. The heavy ammunition rounds tore their way into the Skarmory, sending the first Skarmory and its Aipom rider spiraling toward the ground. I didn't even wince when I realized both of them would be dying a screaming death.

The second rider was a Lombre, already with his aim on Randy. I concentrated on my aim and again pulled the trigger, blasting the Skarmory with an intense amount of ammunition. I heard the Skarmory scream in agony as it completely lost control of its flight. The Lombre was instantly thrown off of the Skarmory's back only being able to fire his rifle just as his aim had been thrown into chaos from the death of his mount. There was nothing that could save the two of them now…

The third and forth Wind Strikers were riding close together, having only watched their two companions get shot down. I was also running out of time, realizing they were drawing closer to Randy. Both riders, a Breloom and an Abra were only thirty feet away from Randy, both with their weapons drawn. If I didn't stop them now, they were going to kill Randy for sure…

I first aimed for the Breloom, focusing my aim on his back. I then fired the Vulcan Rifle, and I saw the bullets had struck him viciously in the back. Meanwhile, Vice had shot the Breloom's Skarmory, resulting in both of them tumbling to the ground lifelessly. Moments later, the Abra found himself alone, with no one to help him.

But I watched in horror as he already had his aim on Randy before I had my aim on him. He had fired three times before I had fired upon him, shooting him in the back of the head and sending his lifeless body forward, which tumbled right off the Skarmory. I then aimed for the Abra's Skarmory itself, and fired ruthlessly upon him. When all four Wind Strikers were taken down, I had frantically looked for Randy. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw both Storm Gale and Randy were okay, never hit once by the Abra's attack. They were flying safely in the distance, heading right for Symarix with nothing to stop them. I watched both of them disappear in the distance, and sighed in relief that they were going to make it. If Vorox himself tried to pursue Randy, he would be exposing his back to us.

I then turned around and looked right at Vorox. He had glared viciously at me, totally in disbelief at what I had just done. Meanwhile, the burning red eyes of his Flygon named Tychal stared at me with a harsh gaze. Vorox already knew Macomb would be under fire and the amount of damage we had done to it was something the Crimson Stars wouldn't recover from any time soon. Within less than an hour, the whole industrial city would be destroyed, just like what they had done to the many cities of the Silver Rebellion. However, there was still no certainty that this would turn the tables in our favor.

"Those were four of my best and fastest fliers…" Vorox growled angrily. "How was a normal, everyday Pikachu like you able to kill them so quickly!?"

There was silence. I hadn't established any kind of whistle signal or sign with Blazewing the Latias, but somehow, I could feel a connection to her that had only grown more and more as time went on. I then decided to call her by her real name, knowing if she could hear my voice, she would know it was me. I had called out to her using the name "Blazewing," and before long, she had flown from the darkness of the skies to my side, joining me before looking up at Vorox the malevolent Scyther and his vicious Flygon steed.

"I'm no ordinary Pikachu," I told Vorox with a firm voice. "My name is Juno, and this is Blazewing, my friend and ally."

And for one dark moment, Vorox had seemed surprised, struck with the look that I had arrived earlier than he had expected. I could see in his harsh gaze that he had only expected me to come when Symarix was crumbling before him, when the last city of the Silver Rebellion was doomed to fall and there wasn't any hope in the world to save it.

"So, the Gold Rider has come at last," Vorox laughed mockingly. "Unfortunately for you, I don't believe in prophecy. I've ruthlessly slaughtered hundreds of Silver Rebellion pigs without mercy as they prayed for mercy, but there was never divine intervention to support them. And you, Juno… you're just like all the others. At least killing you and your daft Latias will be more of a novelty this time, seeing as how every last Silver Rebellion fool hopelessly looks to you to make up for their helplessness."

"Unfortunately for you, the Crimson Stars I've already faced have thought the same thing," I countered Vorox's statements. "I will make this ruthless campaign of slaughter come to an end, and no one is going to stop me. Not your soldiers, your Wind Strikers, and not you or your Crimson Stars…"

He had laughed, just as a flash of lightning had lit up the dark and twisted sky above him. He had shown me his two gigantic sickle arms and the blood red sky was reflected in them. I could tell he had used those two sickles to kill many honest and pure Silver Rebellion soldiers without mercy. I needed to make sure that they would never end another life…

"Come on, Juno!" Vorox shouted, nearly screaming in laughter. "Let me prove to you I am your worst nightmare!!"

However, deep inside, despite how much he wanted to be that, I had a feeling that there would be far worse than even him in the near future…

I had picked up the Vulcan Rifle and then I jumped on Blazewing's back, quickly strapping myself in with the leather straps that had been tied around her. Once I had secured myself on her back, Blazewing had leapt into the air, and once we had flown above the ground, we turned around to face Vorox and Tychal, our adversaries.

I will let nothing stand in my way of achieving my ultimate goal…

I stared strongly into the eyes of my enemy, and at the same time, he glared into mine. A bitter rush of hate and anger had filled the trenches dug within our hearts, and now it had all come down to this final, gruesome conflict. Blood was going to be spilled, and one of us was going to die. As a harsh and violent wind had blown past us, a flash of lightning had lit the sky. Somehow, at that moment, I felt far more like Juno than the human I used to be…

Having already killed thousands of righteous Silver Rebellion soldiers, Vorox was not going to resist killing me, seeing my death at his hands as a kind of "novelty." And as a loyal leader of the Silver Rebellion army, I certainly was not going to resist taking the life of his…

With that, our gruesome clash had initiated…

Tychal had extended his wings, and then burst toward us in full speed. I tried to concentrate on his flight pattern, but even with all my focus and concentration, Tychal was still flying at an excessive speed, faster than I had expected. I watched in anxiety as Vorox readied his sharp scythe, and prepared to slash upon us viciously. If he ended this in one fell swoop, it would probably be one of the most demoralizing things that have ever happened to the Silver Rebellion during this whole war. It would burn their hearts and souls to know that their prophesized hero had been killed effortlessly by a heartless nemesis that had plagued them since the beginning. I couldn't let that happen…

I had no time to attack, and instead just wanted to evade as soon as possible. I beckoned for Blazewing to ascend upward, and she had surged into the air, just as Vorox had sliced the air next to us. Moments later, Vorox and Tychal had flown past us, and now Blazewing and I were above the two of them, glaring at the two again.

I had felt a hot, burning sensation in my side, and when I had gone to look, I grimaced at the sight. Vorox had cut my side, and a small trickle of blood was running down. It wasn't fatal, but if we had been any slower, that cut would have been a whole lot deeper… and much more life-threatening. Thankfully, the cut was no worse than being struck with a razor blade, but I could tell it didn't take much for him to inflict vicious lacerations and even slice off appendages.

And as I turned around, I saw Vorox, licking the end of his scythe…

"My, I never knew the blood of the Gold Rider was so tasty," Vorox sneered with glee. "I need more… much more…"

Already, I could see how much of an effect the bloody slaughter of Silver Rebellion troops had on his grotesque, blood-drunk mind. In the end, I looked into Vorox's eyes and I saw the mind of a warrior that was blinded with the mind of a butcher.

I then pointed my rifle at the Jade Sword, but I aimed for Tychal instead. I then focused and pulled the trigger, and my Vulcan rifle spat fire and carnage as the metal rifle shook with recoil from the blasts. Regardless, Tychal was extremely fast and was able to foresee where I would be shooting him from given the angles I had my gun facing. I tried to follow his flight pattern and lead the shots so he would run right into the bullets, but he still managed to catch on and dodge the attack. Then, he curved around and headed right toward us, and Vorox prepared to attack again. I was hoping the closer he was, the easier it would be for me to shoot him, but that wasn't the case…

Blazewing and I had dashed away at the last second, and Vorox had swiftly sliced the air furiously. We had flown from the two and dashed away as far as we could, at least several hundred feet away from Vorox and Tychal. When we had stopped, I could hear Blazewing whimpering, and it didn't take me long to figure out what was wrong.

Like me, she had been cut in the side, and it was bleeding as well. Her cut had been even worse than mine, and I could see the forking rivers of blood trickling down her body before dripping down upon the ground below.

"How can we… expect to beat him?" Blazewing asked softly, wincing a bit in pain. "They're too fast…"

"But not invincible," I reassured her, knowing there had to be some way to do this. "No one is. We just need to find a way to fight back, and we need it now…"

And then, Vorox had seen the cut in Blazewing and had only laughed. My anger was only growing worse.

"What's the matter, Juno?" Vorox laughed in taunting amusement. "Am I too fast for you? I really expected much more from the famous 'Gold Rider.'"

"It is prophecy." I told him strongly, hoping for once it would really come to pass after all. "We cannot fail if its true…"

Again, I had aimed my rifle at the two, this time I was going to shoot at Vorox, knowing it wasn't him who was controlling Tychal's flight pattern. Vorox and Tychal were fighting as two minds. I then realized what his weakness was, something I had overlooked this entire time.

Tychal knew nothing of how Vorox was going to attack, and I was going to use that as my weapon. Again I had opened fire, but I got only three shots out of it before the Vulcan rifle had stopped firing, and all that came out of it was a click. For a moment, I was shocked when the cartridges had discharged themselves from the rifle and I realized I was out of ammunition completely. Wincing a bit from the frustration, I had taken the metal rifle, and threw it aside before it tumbled to the ground below. Still, I figured I didn't need it any more. I had my own weapon…

Vorox was grinning when he realized my rifle was empty and I had tossed it away, thinking he had gained yet another advantage in a battle he was already reigning triumphant in. Tychal had flown toward us furiously, and Vorox had prepared to swing his scythe again, thinking I didn't stand a chance. As I saw him closing in, I concentrated and my red cheeks flared brightly with electricity. Tiny bolts of thunder had surrounded them as Vorox prepared to swipe the air. Now, Tychal could not predict my method of attack, for he could not see me clearly from his angle.

Vorox's scythe was in feet of preparing to strike, and then I focused my charged electricity not on Vorox, but on the scythe itself. I sent a thrusting surge of thunder for the joint in his arm, and when the intense voltage had hit it, the power was enough to burn and cut right through his mantis-like chassis, and effectively slice off the scythe itself.

Suddenly, the intensely sharp scythe had spiraled off his arm only inches in front of my face, but thankfully it had missed. Instead, the severed arm fell toward the rooftop of the prison, landing with a sharp metallic clang as if a heavy sword had fallen upon the rooftop. Now, Vorox had one less weapon to use against me.

"My arm!" Vorox shouted in anger and shock, suddenly realizing his left arm was reduced to a burnt and bloody stump. "Damn you, you miserable rodent! You may have taken my arm, but it's a small price to pay for your head!"

"You still don't realize I'm not a typical Silver Rebellion solider, do you?" I asked him with a firm voice.

"You may have won a few victories, Juno." Vorox replied, setting aside the fact that his arm was cut off, "But it's not over yet. I still have plenty of chances to kill you."

I immediately saw Vorox signal Tychal to pull back from the conflict. Then, I realized what he was going to do.

"Dragonbreath." Vorox ordered his Flygon, "Focus hard and firmly."

And then, I got a sickening feeling as Tychal closely watched every single one of our moves. As Vorox and Tychal fought as one, I needed to make the same approach but not make the same mistake. Focusing on Blazewing, I was establish a connection, one that I had never felt before. As I concentrated hard and shut my eyes for a moment, I was able to focus and see what Blazewing was seeing, as if I was her…

Hyper Dragon Claw Attack…

Extreme. That was all I could use to describe the speed that she was moving. The air was blasting past us to the point of burning, and we homed in on our enemy. The raging, bitter fire that was blasting from Tychal's mouth had no chance of hitting us from the excessive speed we were traveling. With the claw of Blazewing sharp and ready, I prepared to bury it into Tychal, and deliver as much pain and suffering to him as I could. Faster and faster I traveled toward him, and when we were suddenly close enough, the claw of Blazewing had thrust its way into the green underside of Tychal, and tore with such fury and anger to the point of incinerating the cut with fire. Within seconds it was over with, and the two of us had pulled upward, and I opened my own eyes again.

Tychal had let loose a horrible shriek, beating the flaming cut with his wing and still attempting to keep afloat in the air. When the fire was extinguished, I could see the vicious tear in Tychal's underside, bleeding very badly and nearly coating his green underside with a slick cover of crimson blood.

And in pure, uncontrollable rage, Vorox ordered Tychal to attack again. Tychal, using his anger, pain, and fury to fuel his vengeance with his last bit of strength flew toward us in a frenzy, desperately desiring to tear the two of us into ribbons.

Again, I had shut my eyes again, and Blazewing flew with a blazing fury toward Tychal. Seconds later, we had arrived at Tychal's under side, and with Blazewing's sharp claws ready, she tore another gaping cut into Tychal, blasting his skin with raging fire and slicing his flesh with claws as sharp as surgical knives. Vorox and his Flygon mount were going to see that we were not the typical Pikachu and Latias we may have appeared to be.

We had flown right past them, and I had watched as Vorox screamed desperately as Tychal spiraled toward the metal roof top, unable to control his flight. Moments later, Tychal slammed into the roof of the prison, violently snapped his neck, and was forced into rolling over several times before stopping and lying on his stomach in a bloody, twisted heap. Tychal lay lifeless, with his wings folded over and his head lying motionless as a pool of warm, crimson blood had surrounded it. I had signaled Blazewing to head toward the roof, and we flew swiftly toward it. When we had arrived, I leapt off of Blazewing, and looked at Tychal's dead body. I had wondered if Vorox had been crushed by the force and weight of Tychal's corpse, but then I saw something rise up, and I realized Vorox wasn't dead…

He had jumped off of Tychal's body, and landed on the metal floor of the prison, still armed with his left scythe. It was certainly more than enough to kill me.

"No one…" Vorox growled in a murderous tone. "You murdered my precious companion. You will suffer for that… suffer great!"

Then, in blinded, uncontrollable fury, Vorox rushed toward me with all the anger and hatred in the world, blasting toward me with extreme speed, holding his left scythe in the air and ready to send it swiftly ripping into my body. I had no time for an electrical attack, and he knew that. There were only seconds before he would get the chance to bury his scythe into my flesh.

I had stepped back for a moment, and I felt my foot step on something firm and hard. When I looked down to see what it was, I saw it was Vorox's severed left scythe.

And in those critical last seconds, I bent down and picked up the scythe, and held it firmly in my hand. I then put my foot firmly on the ground, arched my hand back and vigorously threw it forward, aiming right for Vorox. The sharp scythe had violently spiraled through the sky, slicing the air as it spiraled toward its target.

Suddenly, the sharp scythe had buried itself right into Vorox's face. It had sliced right through his nose and was now half-buried in his head with the bladed end jutting right out of the back of his skull. Even in death, he still ran toward me with his hatred, but every step his body made had become twisted as the last signals from his severed brain transmitted to the rest of his body. At the last moment, his body tripped and fell to the ground, crashing violently before laying face down in a lifeless heap.

Vorox, the leader of the Wind Strikers… was dead. The ruthless days of his onslaught upon the Silver Rebellion were over. Never again would he rise to challenge them…

Or challenge me…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 31
Time Crisis​

It was over, and I was finally glad at last there was one less nightmare we had to face. Despite our victory over Vorox and Tychal, he had scarred Blazewing as well as myself. Regardless, it was well worth it to stop his tyranny. But there was still one more adversary I needed to stop. Zander. And I had a feeling that might be the one battle that would be an even bigger nightmare than Vorox and Tychal…

Meanwhile, I had realized Vice had been watching the whole event, and as I turned to face him, he just stared at me, completely in disbelief. He had slowly approached me, and just shook his head.

"Man…" He replied softly, looking at me at then turning toward the dead body of Vorox. "You're far more powerful than I thought…"

"But this is only the beginning…" I told Vice as he gazed upon the fallen body. "There's much more we need to do before this war is finally won…"

Regardless, we still needed backup from Symarix before we could even think of getting the prisoners out of here. Meanwhile, I had looked off the roof to see several Crimson Stars soldiers banging on the front entrance doors while trying to use all sorts of tools to break the locks open. I could only hope Randy had given the message to Achilles and he was sending backup. Otherwise, we would only be delaying the inevitable…

I then had realized something. The entrance to the roof hadn't been locked down. In fact, the door wasn't even remotely secured. I was wondering why they had gone through all the trouble to ensure that the doors and windows of the prison were sealed up tight while the door on the roof wasn't even the least bit secured…

"I'm wondering…" I said to Vice, "Why would the Crimson Stars go through so much trouble to seal up everything but leave the door to the roof untouched…?"

Vice had looked at the metal door we had used to reach the rooftop, and indeed, it was loose enough to be swaying in the wind.

"Well, there's no way prisoners would come up here to try and escape." Vice replied, "They lock up their Pokémon nice and tight. And jumping off the edge would only be suicide…"

And then, it hit me. There was a perfectly good reason to leave the door to the roof unlocked. It case something like this had happened. No wonder Vorox and his Wind Strikers had appeared. They were going to infiltrate the prison until they had seen us…

"Keep your weapon ready, Vice…" I told him, looking around. "Something tells me we're only going to see more havoc breaking out here…"

Vice had looked at me strangely, not really seeing how that would come about.

"What makes you say that…?" Vice asked with hesitation, slowly pulling out his Vulcan rifle.

"There's a reason why the roof door doesn't lockdown with everything else around this prison," I told him firmly. "It gives the Wind Strikers a way to enter the building, just in case of a crisis. Why do you think Vorox was here…?"

"Oh damn…" Vice moaned, clutching his Vulcan rifle.

We had put our backs to the single metal door. I was without a weapon, which wasn't going to help me considering these Wind Strikers were likely armed with rifles.

I had heard a violent gust of air to my right side, and I had seen three Skarmories and their riders fly over the wall of the prison and landed quickly on the rooftop. The three Skarmories slammed their sharp talons onto the metal roof, and their riders had dismounted. I looked ahead to see our new arrivals had consisted of a Sandshrew, a Plusle, and a Minun. Without a doubt, whatever cuteness anyone could once find about them had been violently erased. With battle scars all over them and seeing them hold a lethal Vulcan rifle, they were anything but cute. Instead, they were a twisted contrasting opposite of what they might have been once, like the horrific and twisted circus clown from a horror movie.

The Minun's eyes had caught sight of Vorox's dead body, as well as Tychal lying in a puddle of his own blood. The other two had caught sight of it as well, and they pointed their rifles right at us.

"I don't believe it," The Minun said with a furious growl, lowering his eyelids and giving us a cold, violent stare. "Which one of you two maggots killed The Jade Sword!?"

"That would be me." I told the Minun with a firm voice, fearlessly admitting I killed their leader in combat. "Juno… The Gold Rider."

The Minun's stare had lessened, now growing tense. He obviously knew who I was, and why I had come here. I could see he hadn't expected to encounter me, and he didn't expect to see Vorox dead, killed on my behalf. Even though all three of us were essentially at his mercy, I could see a fear growing inside of him…

"You were the one who did this?" The Minun growled angrily. "You were the one who killed our leader!?"

I could already sense he was going to strike. I was prepared for him to unleash his attack. I also knew that by my side, Vice was ready with his Vulcan rifle, as well as his sharp claws. Blazewing too, was more than ready to strike furiously if need be.

"You're not going to walk off this rooftop alive, Juno," The Minun growled. "Never…"

And then he pulled the trigger…

The Minun's Vulcan rifle blasted furiously at us, and the only thing we could do was just run from the door. Vice and I had run in opposite directions and Blazewing took to the air, and the rifle blasted the metal door with a round of bullets, slicing holes through the metal. Then, he stopped firing.

"Throw your weapon down and surrender!" The Minun shouted, especially aiming at Vice.

Vice didn't even have his aim on the Minun, and he didn't have a single second to get an aim on him before Minun and the other two Wind Strikers would fire upon him. There was nothing he could do but toss his Vulcan rifle onto the metal ground.

"Kick it aside." The Plusle told Vice, with his rifle pointed right at Vice.

With little choice, Vice kicked the Vulcan rifle to his right with his left foot. Now his only automatic weapon was completely out of his reach. But that wasn't the only thing that was bothering me.

Suddenly, right over the side of the prison wall arrived two more Wind Strikers, this time a Machop and a Tyrogue. The two Skarmories had landed on the roof, with their talons clanging on the metal floor. When their sharp, blade wings had folded up, the Machop and the Tyrogue had dismounted, and had landed on the metal floor, rifles drawn and ready. Things certainly weren't getting better…

"Who are these punks?" The Tyrogue asked, looking at the two of us. "And what is…?"

"That's Juno," The Minun replied with a rough voice, not even looked at who asked the question. "He's the one that killed Vorox…"

The Tyrogue's mouth fell wide open, just gawking at Vorox's dead body. He shook his head in disbelief.

"You've got to be kidding me!" He shouted in total shock. "And he doesn't even have a single arm chopped off…"

"I say we kill him now," The Machop told the others. "After killing Vorox, he certainly deserves to die."

"No, you idiots," The Minun snapped back at them. "Take them alive and then torture them real slowly. Imagine how much its going to wrench the hearts of those Silver Rebellion maggots when they see Juno's tortured and mutilated corpse sent back to them in a gift box with a pretty bow on it."

Already, I knew there was very little way for me to dodge a swarm of bullets firing from five rifles, no matter how much concentration I could use. I had barely escaped when there were two firing at me.

And despite my previous beliefs that there were barely any Wind Strikers left, three more had arrived, and quickly joined the ranks of the others. I could only guess more were going to come up here, and they were going to take us in their custody. Either that, or they were going to shoot us dead, which certainly seemed far more likely.

I was too far away from Vice to say anything, and he was looking to me for a solution. That wasn't a very good sign. We really had no chance of escape whatsoever and we were only getting more and more outnumbered as time went on…

And then, suddenly we heard an explosion below us, and everything stopped. I was wondering what had happened all of a sudden, and then it became clear…

"Open fire!" A familiar voice shouted above.

I had looked into the sky to see dozens of Storm Riders, with Randy leading them. They had aimed at the small group of Wind Strikers below them, and then they unleashed their attack.

The Wind Strikers on the ground had looked up, and couldn't believe their eyes.

"Damn it!" The Machop shouted angrily, aiming his rifle at the group.

But it was far too late for them to do anything about it. Suddenly, I watched in shock as the Machop was struck twice in the chest. When he fell on his knees, throbbing with pain, another bullet had struck him between the eyes. He had collapsed onto the metallic roof as the rifle left his grasp.

Some of the other Wind Strikers had opened fire, but they barely got an attack going before they were blasted by the gunfire of two dozen Storm Riders. A loud cracking of rifles had roared out, but the Wind Strikers were highly outnumbered and unprepared for the attack. A rain of invisible carnage heavily stormed down upon the roof, and when it all stopped, not one of them remained standing…

Randy had then taken Storm Gale and guided her to land on the roof of the building. Then the rest of the Storm Riders had followed, and each of their Pidgeots landed on the roof of the prison safely. Randy had dismounted and then approached the two of us.

"Looks like we got here just in time…" Randy remarked, seeing we would have been doomed without him.

"Hot damn, I owe you one, Blitz," Vice told Randy, looking favorably upon him. "You really saved our butts this time…"

But it certainly wasn't the time to rejoice now. I had heard an excessive amount of gunfire coming from below, meaning the battle was still going on, and at a feverish pace.

It certainly wasn't over yet…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 32
The Passage Home​

The fighting was still going on, and I could hear loud explosions all around me, as well as new fires raging out besides the ones that were already consuming most of Macomb. Already the few remaining assembly plants were under attack by the incoming Silver Rebellion invasion.

On the rooftop, I had seen a familiar face approach me. It was Sever, looking at me with a dense look in his eyes.

"There are transports waiting by the prison entrance, Juno," Sever told me, not surprised at how far I had come. "There should be enough to carry everyone out of here. Take the prisoners and get out of here, by now the guards by the door should be gone."

"You're crazy!" Vice shouted in protest. "You pack 'em up, we still have fighting to do here."

"Sever's right, Vice," I corrected him. "Come on, we've done more than enough here. By now, most of the Crimson Stars have been eliminated."

Vice let out a pout in disappointment, but he realized it wasn't his place to disagree. We had headed back into the prison and prepared to release the locks. This time, we were even faster, heading downstairs and once we found the release, the metal panels on the doors and windows had folded up and were removed. Then, we headed to the group of prisoners on the first floor and guided them to the transports waiting just outside.

The transports were huge, metal APCs with tiny slits for windows to prevent entry of attacks but to allow at least some circulation. Armadillos and Land Splitters were racing all over the Macomb city, shooting down any Crimson Star resistance and tearing apart the little that was left of the industrial city. For once… we were winning, proving we weren't the pushovers the Crimson Stars thought we were.

Once the prisoners from the first floor were packed in, we then brought out the second floor's prisoners, and kept going until the entire prison was empty. Then, Randy, Vice, and I, followed by Blazewing and Storm Gale, had climbed into the final transport. After we got inside, the doors were shut and locked in tightly. It wasn't long before we had begun moving. As I gazed out of one of the holes in the transports, I saw that soon the fighting force that we left behind would follow us home, because there was very little left of Macomb now.

Moving by armored transport was much slower than riding the skies as a Storm Rider. It nearly took triple the time, and certainly wasn't as breathtaking in view. Regardless, we had accomplished our mission, even against all odds. And even as I thought about it, somewhere on one of the transports must have been Alex, though I had no idea which one of them he was. What freaked me out the most was the realization that I led him out into the transport and didn't even know it was him. And in return, he likely didn't know I was the legendary Juno the Gold Rider that had actually accomplished this seemingly impossible mission. But now wasn't the time to start looking for him. That would have to wait until we got everyone home.

Exhausted and weary, I had fallen asleep in the transport, just waiting and waiting…

It was a bright light that had caused me to awake. When I opened my eyes, I realized the transport door had been opened. The other Silver Rebellion soldiers around me had begun heading out, and so did I. And moments later, I had laid eyes on the familiar sight of Symarix. It was great to be back especially after this kind of success. Macomb was definitely a nightmare I didn't want to live over again.

It didn't take very long before word had gotten out that I had slain Vorox, the commander of the Wind Strikers. To say the least, Jamac and Achilles were extremely impressed with my performance, and had promoted me to the commander of the Storm Riders as well as a General of the Silver Rebellion army. I was willing to accept it as well as my new role in this whole campaign. Meanwhile, Sinis had been giving me another odd stare. I really didn't know what was wrong with him, or if he was just jealous of something…

A report had come in concerning Macomb's state, and to say the least the base wouldn't be coming back online, and it definitely would cripple the war effort of the Crimson Stars. Apparently, Vice and Randy were given promotions as well, simply for their contributions in the attack on Macomb.

But somehow, it really didn't surprise anyone that I had already been given an extremely high promotion in such little time. Most of them said it was because I was able to kill Vorox and lead the destruction of a base that had never been penetrated before, setting aside all prophecies and legends, though I had a feeling those had played some role in it. Regardless, this war was far from over. Yet, even for me, I didn't know what lied at the end…

Despite the kindness of Jamac and Achilles, the awards ceremony was pretty unceremonious. In fact, once they had handed me my rewards, it was quickly over with and it was back to business as usual. Achilles asked if I had taken any offense to it and I told him no. It didn't bother me at all. Considering all that was going on, it was understandable why there was no time for celebration, despite how much it might help to boost morale.

After that, I was compelled to find Alex. The free prisoners of Macomb were being held for questioning, asked about what they had assembled and the conditions of Macomb. I had confronted each group of prisoners, asked for Alex, but I pronounced it differently so they didn't think it was a human name, since I had already seen how much typical human names seemed very foreign here…

It wasn't until the fifth group did I actually receive a response. Again, I had asked for Alex, and after some long hesitation, someone had come from the group to meet me. Randy had been with me at the time, and we waited as the small group gave way to the one who was approaching us. When he finally arrived at the front, I had seen yet another tiny Pichu before me, looking pretty confused as to what was going on.

Regardless, I felt we should be talking in private, so I took him away and we ended up meeting behind a building. I didn't say anything to him until we were out of sight.

"Alex, is that really you?" I asked the Pichu, pronouncing his name corrected this time.

"Yes, that is my real name," Alex responded, looking at me strangely. "I know you're Juno, but how did you know my real name?"

Randy then stepped closer to Alex. We both looked at him seriously, but from what I could see, there was nothing really distinct about him that allowed me to link Alex the Pichu with the human that I used to know.

"Alex, we're actually Jake and Randy," Randy had told him. "You remember, from Scottville Middle School?"

"Oh man…" Alex responded, nearly passing out. "How on earth did the two of you find me?"

"It's a long story," I told him, keeping serious with it. "But right now, we need to give you a different name. For some reason the Silver Rebellion thinks human names are the strangest sounding things they've ever heard. In any case, I think its better not to blow the little cover we still have."

Alex looked around with caution, and he appeared to look so lost around here. I couldn't blame him though. It was really strange to me at first, but in time he would get used to it…

"Is everyone is this city a Pokémon?" Alex asked, seemingly shocked at the fact.

"That's right," I told Alex. "I… know it seems really weird but just give it a few moments. After a while, it seems normal…"

Alex was silent for a moment. I don't know why he ended up to be a Pichu like Randy, but I guess that was what Zander really wanted after all. I'm sure he was finding something about this to be incredibly hilarious at our expense.

"You can call me Tek," Alex told the two of us. "Short and simply, you know? Just anything will do really, I really don't care. But I still can't believe Jake is the leader of the Storm Riders. That's freaking amazing. How the hell did you manage to set that entire base on fire, man?"

"Tek, you really need to call me Juno, no matter what," I told Alex seriously, knowing we needed to keep this a secret, for the little that it was worth. "We'll try and find a way out of here, but you need to give it time. Something tells me Zander is behind this entire war and wants us to finish it. We have no choice but to continue on."

Still, Alex remained quiet. He stilled appeared to be in disbelief.

"I still can't believe that was really you behind everything," Alex told me. "Man, you are tough. Macomb completely fell to pieces because of you."

"Well, I'm glad we finally met up together," I told Alex and Randy. "Let's try to keep it that way, for as long as we can…"

I was so relieved that afternoon, finally we had gotten together, once again to try and escape from this unknown world we had been put into. But even now, we had already been here several months, and it wasn't looking so foreign now. It wasn't this world that was becoming foreign actually. It was the one we were supposed to be in. Slowly, I felt like I was beginning to forget what life outside of Kivistal was like. The memory of being human seemed to disappear further and further away, and there were times when it really began to bother me.

Several days later, I had been unable to sleep one night with one strange thing on my mind. The prophecy. Something was telling me I really needed to read it myself, but I had been kept in the dark about it for so long. I wanted to find out who the Silver Rebellion really thought I was, and what they expected me to do.

That next morning, I had approached Achilles. I then walked up to him and popped the question.

"Achilles, I was wondering if you could tell me where I could find 'The Prophecy,'" I asked Achilles, looking at him seriously. "I've wanted to read it myself."

But Achilles had looked at me strangely, almost with the look of that I should have known it already. Instead, that sick feeling in my stomach returned, as if I was bringing a lot more bad suspicion on me again. For a moment, he looked at me like he had no idea who I was, but thankfully, that didn't last for long.

"Look, we have a lot more things that have a higher priority than that," Achilles told me. "We should really start planning our next method of attack on the Crimson Stars. You're a good soldier, Juno, but I don't think this is the time to bring up this 'Prophecy' stuff yet again. We have enough soldiers reciting that on a daily basis already."

I just shrugged and decided to go along with it, though contrary to what Achilles believed, I had not heard it recited as often as he though. I could guess from the way Achilles was looking at me, I was supposed to have known it all already. I could expect it to say something about my arrival and how I was supposed to defeat the Crimson Stars, but I really didn't know the whole depth of it. And I had a feeling it was going to come back to haunt me…

And then, out of nowhere, I had seen Sinis, just giving me a cold, hard stare. He had glared at me for a very long time, and then I just turned away. What was wrong with him…?

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 33
Allies and Enemies​

I had been unable to sleep that night, just thinking about Sinis. What was even more strange was wondering what his purpose was. I never really saw him do anything, but then again, I haven't ever had much of a chance to see him in action.

The whole night, it rained, constantly saturating the thin metal of my bedroom with water. Ever since my promotion, I've gotten a much better place to sleep, but it still wasn't anything special. I could hear every raindrop hammer down from above.

The strangest thing about rain here was that it was a very light, transparent crimson color, and nothing ever benefited from it. Also, the rainwater couldn't be consumed directly, it had to be purified first. If it was consumed in its raw form, not only did it taste awful but it had long-term health problems. And at night, it looked like the whole city was covered in blood…

That next morning, Achilles wanted me to discuss the next attack upon the Crimson Stars in the command center. The room was cold and dark, being the only concrete building in the entire city. All we did was stare at a map and decide what target we would attack next. There were three colonels there, along with Achilles, myself, and Vexcel the Dragonite, another general.

"Now that we're gathered here…" Achilles began, after we had all taken our seats, "I wanted to discuss our next attack. As long as we keep fighting back like we have been, it will protect the citizens of Symarix."

I just keep looking up at the map. I could see the red dots resembled the enemy locations while the blue ones resembled ours. There were a whole lot more red dots than blue ones…

"Considering how much damage we did to Macomb…" Vexcel replied, "Our next best attack location would be Black Rock. It's only a military camp. Attacking that location would reduce the number of Crimson Star soldiers to some degree."

I nearly totally ignored Vexcel and just looked at the largest red dot on the top of the map, labeled Jasandax. There were many other small dots surrounding it, but I couldn't help but keep my eye on Jasandax…

"We're better off destroying all those smaller outposts first." One of the colonels said seeing things differently from Vexcel.

I had turned to face him and looked into his eyes. Wow. That was one nasty-looking Charizard. I didn't even want to ask how he got his rank. It must have been through a lot of deadly anger against the Crimson Stars.

"What do you think Juno?" Achilles asked me, looking at me when I was just barely paying attention to the conversation at hand. "Should we attack the outposts in the northwest or attack Black Rock?"

I sat there, looking at the map and looking for Black Rock. I saw it was nearly a million miles away from Jasandax. In my opinion, attacking the smaller outposts would have been better, but I still didn't think it was the best solution possible. I looked over the whole map, trying to figure out the best way to approach this given the situation. Still, the answer I wanted to say wasn't going to be the one Achilles wanted to hear…

"Juno…?" Achilles asked, after some delay in my response.

I then couldn't help but look back up at the bright red dot of Jasandax, staring at me back in the face. I knew that once that big, red dot had been eliminated, this whole struggle and this brutal war could have a strong chance at finally being ended the way it should have been. I couldn't help but speak the way I felt at that moment.

"I think we should stop wasting time around here and attack Jasandax directly." I responded.

One of the colonels burst out laughing. The others had looked at me very strangely, and Vexcel just shook his head.

"Juno, you just can't attack the head capital of the Crimson Stars like that," Vexcel told me, looking at me like my suggestion was not only bad, but incredibly stupid. "It's extremely dangerous."

"He's right, Juno." Achilles told me, looking down upon me, "There's a lot more that needs to be done here before we could even consider such an action."

I could see it in their eyes. For the first time, I could see that Vexcel and Achilles, as well as the rest of the Pokémon commanders in the room, even doubted their own forces and had very little faith for the Silver Rebellion cause. From their gazes and their sneers, I could see that they felt I was just a rookie commander with a tall tale prophecy behind me. To me, I saw this as a do or die situation. We would either take all or lose all, but under the direction of Achilles, he was giving up the Silver Rebellion cause for a slow and torturous defeat. I had seen the looks of these Silver Rebellion soldiers, and I saw how we couldn't afford for this war to last for much longer.

"First off," I responded, getting a bit impatient, "attacking Black Rock is pointless. Its a million miles away from the main route of their activity. There's almost no reason to attack it."

"It would be easier since there's nothing they can do to protect it." Vexcel tried to correct me.

"It would be a waste of our time and its anyone's guess as to how many soldiers we might lose trying to destroy it," I told him firmly. "If we keep attacking like this, they'll have a second facility like Macomb up in no time. They don't really even need Black Rock. If we were to take every last soldier and use them in an attack against Jasandax, we might be able to bring the city down. We took down Macomb, something that we once believed couldn't be done. Right now, those soldiers believe we have a chance. Let's not waste that morale on something like Black Rock. I say we go all the way and fight to the end, here and now."

Achilles seemed to be losing his patience and looked at me in disgust. I didn't understand this, but in the end, it seemed like the more influence I had on the soldiers around me, the more he began to dislike and distrust me. Exactly what was he trying to achieve?

"I've heard enough." Achilles responded, looking at me with a dark stare, "I'm pretty disappointed in you, Juno. Making you a commander was a mistake. You may have some credentials as a warrior, but it ends there. Had it been up to me, you never would have seen any rank past Captain, but the last thing I need on my hands is the mutiny of the entire army."

I was dumbstruck as I suddenly realized his true colors. It was all beginning to add up. Achilles didn't believe in the prophecy, he didn't believe in me, and he didn't have an ounce of faith in his own troops. In the end, it seemed like he was simply trying to buy time, but for what? And why was I the only one seeing this?

He then turned to face everyone else, leaving me ignored. For a moment, I truly wondered why he would have asked for my opinion in the first place, but I realized that was only to simply agree to every one of his ideas and not question his command. Instead, he found leverage by putting me on the spot and finding an effective way to discredit me in front of every Silver Rebellion commander. Either way, there was no way for me to win.

"As for the rest of you," Achilles said to the rest of the commanders, "I've decided on what would be the best target to attack. We will be attacking Black Rock, as commander Vexcel has suggested."

I sighed with frustration, knowing the lives that would be lost in that meaningless attack would be something beyond my control this time. It was no wonder that the Silver Rebellion was fighting a losing war. Why did we bother attacking Macomb in the first place? But then I suddenly remembered… that was my request… one that wasn't not even Achilles's suggestion. Heck, if I hadn't even been here, Macomb would have been alive and well.

So why did Achilles let Randy and I go to Macomb on a suicide mission? Maybe because he really was hoping it would be suicide after all. But then how long would it have taken to attack Macomb without me…? But… the answer to that question was easy. It would have never happened…

Achilles didn't even want to speak to me after the dour nature of my first commander meeting. He told me I should sit down and think about what I was doing wrong, and in the meantime, they would be attacking Black Rock… completely without me…

To say the least, I was angry. If I was able to destroy Macomb, why didn't they trust me? And then again, Achilles had told me never to participate in a tactical examination again. He even told me that he would have demoted me, but he decided not to because it would hurt his own image. I was slowly beginning to feel my only purpose in this war was to kill Zander and get the hell out of here, as if the Silver Rebellion was just a way to get there. I was getting very tired of this.

The only ones I could trust were Alex and Randy now. They hadn't betrayed me like everyone else here had. I knew no one here anymore. Jamac never spoke to me once after that assault, it was so much touch and go when it came to appreciation here. The more and more I thought about it, the more it seemed like it was Achilles's intention for me to have gotten killed in Macomb.

I had left the command center feeling so downright awful. Why didn't they trust me? It wasn't over yet…

And then… just as I walked out the door, I had sensed someone approach me. I thought it was going to be someone like Vexcel or Sinis but instead, I had laid eyes on a female Pikachu. She seemed so gentle and her eyes were so warm with life. She lightly smiled at me and I couldn't help but smile back…

"I would like to thank you for all that you've done for Symarix," She told me in a gentle voice, giving me a light smile. "It seems a whole lot of other people aren't as thankful…"

"You're welcome…" I responded to her, almost speechless…

To say the least, I was surprised. I really didn't expect that whatsoever. Even after all this misery I endured, it was nice to know someone here still appreciated what I did.

"To the normal everyday citizens of Symarix, you're more of a hero than Jamac himself," She said to me with a gentle smile. "There was much rejoicing when you brought back those captive soldiers. I saw many families were finally brought back together due to your efforts."

I hadn't even thought about that, but the sudden images flashed in my mind as I thought about the many Pokémon we had saved. It was strange, but as I looked at her, she seemed to be that one strong sense of comfort I had left here, a kind of assurance that there was still something strong to fight for here. But, the more I looked to her, the more I felt compelled to know more about her…

"What is your name?" I asked the female Pikachu.

"My name is Sita," She told me, wearing a small but comforting smile. "I will always remember your name. Juno… I never thought I would be this close to the one they call the 'Gold Rider.' It just seems so unfair they're taking all you've done for granted…"

"Yes… it does," I told her softly. "I'm not a miracle maker like Jamac and Achilles think I am. I can only do my best…"

She approached me very closely, and she held out her tiny hand. I then put my hand on top of hers, and I looked up at her. Her eyes were so shiny and beautiful. Every second that passed, I felt a fiery passion lighting up inside me for her. When it seemed like everything had gone dark for me, she had become a light that guided me back to where I was supposed to be.

Sita…

"I will always be by your side," She told me with a warm smile. "You're more amazing than I could ever imagine. Everything you have done for us…"

I stared into her eyes, and I couldn't keep my gaze off of them. Never before had someone truly cared about me, and for the first time I was feeling it more than ever.

"Thank you for you support," I told her, feeling whole once again. "I don't know what I would do without you…"

"I just…" Sita told me, feeling somewhat uneasy, "I know this time won't last forever. I want to be with you for as long as I can. You mean so much to me…"

Still, I was silent. There were many things I wanted to ask her, but I couldn't find the will to ask her the questions that were in my mind. I thought maybe now wasn't the perfect time. But, I felt for certain I would meet her again. No one stood out the way she did… not at all.

"Well, I must be going," Sita told me, seeing it was getting late. "Thank you for being the hope the Silver Rebellion sees in this world."

"Farewell, Sita," I said to her, wishing she didn't have to go. "I hope to see you soon."

She then turned around, walked a few paces and waved goodbye. I had waved back, and I admired the way she respected me. And when she was gone and the distance had claimed her, I realized that despite the fact I had once been human, I had nearly fallen in love with a Pikachu I had only just met. But at that moment, the thought and feeling of once being human felt so distant that I could have considered it to once be a strange dream from many years ago…

It was great to know there were others I could count on other than Randy and Alex. While they were some of my greatest support, Sita gave me the reassurance that the Silver Rebellion wasn't filled with Pokémon that were just as ungrateful as Jamac and Achilles. That was true respect. All that anger I had had slowly melted away, just from Sita.

She really was amazing…

Several days later, General Vexcel and his soldiers had returned from the attack on Black Rock. As I got a look off of him, he certainly looked a hell of a lot worse than he did those few weeks ago. I had seen him leave with three Armadillos packed with soldiers and three squads of Storm Riders, having twenty members per squad. That afternoon, he came back with only one very beat up Armadillo, and seven Storm Riders that had lost every trace of morale…

The attack on Black Rock had been successful…to a degree and for the very little it was worth in my opinion. But all that time, I kept thinking what it was for. Yes, we reduced the soldiers of the Crimson Stars, but they just did the same to us and unlike them, we couldn't afford to lose nearly a tenth as many forces as they could. I had overheard Vexcel telling Achilles that he didn't want to fight again until he had gotten his eyes off of combat for some time. I couldn't blame him for one thing. It was a harsh reality to see some fellow Storm Riders tumble to their deaths after being shot. But then again, it was him who decided to go there in the first place. Everything he had witnessed was his own fault, and I couldn't excuse that.

Considering we had lost three outposts in the last month, we were still losing at a hideous pace. Already, intelligence had given us information about a plan to rebuild Macomb, only this time it would be behind Jasandax, a place that we couldn't reach without a lot of problems. Our casualty list was only getting longer, and the graveyards were only getting larger.

I grew colder when I noticed every male child born on Silver Rebellion soil was already enlisted as a future soldier, though I had my doubts this war could keep going on to the point where even they would see combat. We were certainly getting desperate. Still, Achilles heavily insisted that I was a General by title only. He refused to give me commanding authority over other soldiers or pick my own support members. For the longest time, I had been doing nothing, only hearing about consistent losses. Achilles kept blaming it on weaponry and kept insisting to the weapons manufacturers that they weren't strong enough. But I knew there wasn't anything wrong with the weapons, it was how they were being used. Still, Achilles refused to take my advice. I knew Achilles was the High General of the Silver Rebellion army, but he certainly wasn't a tactician. No one was.

It all came down to one problem, and I figured it out one rainy night in my bed. Achilles was listening to only what he wanted to hear. Never once did he say to himself that he was doing the wrong thing. No wonder he shut me out from saying anything, I was the one voice that was actually saying something against his actions. Vexcel and all the others were probably used to this by now. I then realized something that made me sick. As long as Achilles was calling the shots, we were going to lose in time. For every unneeded outpost we destroyed, the Crimson Stars wasted three of our most vital ones.

And then there was one day when I had lost my patience. I had approached Achilles one more time, just before he was going to walk into the command center for yet another meaningless tactical examination.

"What do you want?" Achilles asked me as I got in front of him, "I have a meeting to attend…"

I didn't care if I was going to be brutally honest. It was either that or be brutally killed when the Crimson Stars were waiting outside to siege Symarix…

"I know where you're going," I told Achilles in a firm and serious tone. "But I'll tell you right now that we've been on the wrong track ever since you stepped into command."

"Are you saying there's something wrong with my battle plan!?" Achilles growled at me, growing angry.

"To put it short, yes," I told him, unafraid of his anger. "Vexcel isn't the brightest General I've ever seen, but you're not doing justice to his failure by following his advice. If our performance stays like this, I suspect Symarix will be overrun in less than a year."

For the longest time, Achilles had been deadly silent. He stared at me for the longest time, and I refused to look directly into his eyes. Never before has he given me such an apprehensive look.

"I would have you thrown into prison for treason," Achilles scowled at me. "But then how would you fulfill the prophecy? That's if, you're even the real Juno and not an imposter…"

"Imposter…?" I asked him, growing very bitter, "Really now, Achilles, is that the best you can come up with? I really don't think an imposter would be able to destroy Macomb with only a few casualties, let alone even find the will to go there."

"I would call you a traitor, but you need to trust someone to be betrayed," Achilles replied, shaking his head, "And I never trusted you. Hmph, let the people worship you like a god, but while you're under my power, you'll never be higher than me or Jamac. We're still your superiors, whether you're actually Juno or not."

I certainly never thought Achilles would ever act like this. Something was telling me that he didn't expect me to perform so well, or either that or he was taking me for granted. Or he was worried about losing his High General position. Yes, that had to be it, why would he keep me from engaging on missions? I could never get a higher promotion if he kept me off.

"You're being extremely selfish," I told Achilles, staring right into his eyes. "You're afraid of me stealing your General position, but that isn't my intention."

"That's a lie," Achilles growled at me. "I know what you're here for and what you're going to do. To tell the truth, life was better here without you. You are already set on taking my position. That's what it says in the…"

"Prophecy?" I asked Achilles, seeing deeper into his soul, "Tell me, what else does 'The Divine Prophecy' mention?"

And then, I was shocked at his reaction. Suddenly, he had lost his anger, and he then looked me over. He shook his head, and couldn't believe it.

"You mean you don't know!?" Achilles shouted, nearly laughing. "The legendary Juno doesn't even know his own fate? How could you be so hopelessly ignorant of something that's been preached so many times in this nation!? I was right… you are… an imposter…"

"Stop it!" I shouted angrily. "This nation is about to die because of your negligence. And if it dies, you go along with it. Right now, that fool Vexcel you promoted to General just lost another good fifty soldiers, and the rest of your lackeys aren't doing anything either! You… you're this nation's biggest threat."

He then glared at me with an evil stare. Achilles had changed, he had become far more worse than ever. He pointed his claw at me, and grew extremely angry. All I could look at was the razor-sharp edge of his nail as he thrust it toward me with such angry disgust.

"Guards!" He shouted loudly, "apprehend this ruffian!"

"Stop this at once!" I shouted at Achilles, "You don't know what you're doing!"

"Yes I do." Achilles responded his voice grew softer. "I'm going to arrest you and put you out of my way!"

At that moment, I had laid eyes on Sever, as well as four other soldiers. They had arrived in a hurry to come to the aid of their commander, but they stopped dead in their tracks as they saw the two of us. This was something they had not suspected of ever happening.

"General Achilles…" Sever replied, looking confused, "you want us to apprehend Juno? The Gold Rider…?"

"On the grounds of treason," Achilles responded with a harsh tone to Sever. "He's been betraying us, but I caught him just in time before he did anything harsh!"

"That's a cold-blooded lie!" I shouted at Achilles. "I would never plot against the Silver Rebellion! I'm here to help them, but its you that keeps standing in my way!"

Still, Sever did not move. I could see behind the skull he wore over his face and into his eyes. I could see that he trusted me more than he actually trusted Achilles, but he didn't say anything, and he didn't make a move. Even the three other soldiers hesitated to move.

"What are you waiting for!?" Achilles ordered in an angry tone. "Apprehend him! He may still be a General but I still have power over him! Treason's a serious crime here!"

With hesitation, Sever confronted me along with the three other soldiers. Two of them held me down while the third bound my hands with metal chains behind my back. I didn't try to struggle this time. I didn't want to make this any worse than it had to be.

"I'm deeply sorry you're making a choice you will regret." I told Achilles, just before Sever prepared to take me away.

"Sir, are you sure about this?" Sever asked, risking even himself by questioning the High General in my defense. "He's one of our key commanders. You remember what he did at Macomb and Black Bay and what he did to Vorox. Is this your way of thanking him?"

"Shut up, both of you!" Achilles shouted. "Take him out of here, I've seen enough of him!"

And then, I was pushed along through the city, headed for the Symarix prison. I already knew something deeply wrong had gone inside the heart of Achilles, and it seemed I wasn't the only one who suddenly felt this way…

They had led me through the narrowest streets and alleyways, trying their best to keep this extremely unsightly scene away from as many civilians possible in fear for what might happen. However, the closer we got to the prison, the more difficult this became for Sever and the other guards. The very sight of me bound in chains was enough to scare the skin out of the citizens that Sever and the others had desperately been trying to avoid. They kept asking Sever and the other soldiers what I had done, but the five of us remained silent. I kept looking down, unable to look at them in the eyes. I was pretty sure I had heard Sita's voice somewhere in the crowds that were quickly amassing, but I didn't look up to check. I was too ashamed to look at her like this… not after all the inspiring things she told me…

It wasn't long before we had arrived at a black, metal building with very tiny windows. I couldn't believe I would be spending time with captive Crimson Stars soldiers, but I didn't have a choice. The gatekeeper, a suddenly very shocked and distressed Slowking, had looked me over, but I didn't look up at him. I was too ashamed to even look at anyone but the ground before me.

"You have got to be kidding me…" He remarked in complete bewilderment."This is Juno for crying out loud! Do you fools even know what you're doing!?"

"General Achilles has ordered us to arrest him on the grounds of treason." Sever told the gatekeeper.

"High General Achilles!?" The gatekeeper shouted in fright. "That means he doesn't even get a trial! What did he even do!?"

There was silence. Obviously they didn't even know, since they didn't even hear anything. Only if they had… they would have seen how ugly their command had become, and how hopeless the future was for the Silver Rebellion…

"We don't know…" Sever replied somberly, looking down.

"There has got to be some mistake," The Slowking gatekeeper replied. "Never in a million years did I think High General Achilles would be sending Symarix's greatest asset to prison!"

But there was silence. Still, I didn't look up. I was too ashamed at the moment.

"I'm deeply sorry, Juno…" The Slowking replied with the sound of desperation on his voice. "But if this order is from Achilles, there's nothing I can do about it…"

Moments later, I was led into the building, which wasn't as bad as the prison in Macomb, but there was one big difference between this one and the one I had seen there. I never thought I would be forced into a cell by my own comrades...

 

[Neo Pikachu]

PART III – THE BLAZING SKIES

Chapter 34
The Binding​

I was wrong, at least for some time. I had been thrown in a small metal cell with only one barred window and a rickety bed, very similar to what I had been presented with at the Black Bay prison. Like some of the other jails I had seen, this had a single metal door with another barred window. Unlike human prisons, the little that I actually remembered about them, these had no way to look into the hallway, but instead consisted of metallic walls. As for the window, when I used it to look outside, all I could see was a metal wall of the building next to the one I was in. I wasn't sure if it was still another part of the prison or another building altogether, but the window was pretty much good for nothing.

I was pretty sure a few days had passed, but I had lost all track of time. During the beginning, Sita, Blazewing, Randy, and Alex had come to visit, but the only way I knew it was them was through their voices. They kept telling me I would be out soon, but that crept further and further away as the days kept marching on with no purpose. Meanwhile, I had no idea how long I was expected to stay here, or if in fact I was serving a life sentence and didn't know about it.

As time passed on, they started to visit less and I found myself more alone than ever before. During those days, I tried to remember the family I left behind, but now I couldn't even remember their faces. I wanted to go back to that place, even though I would have difficulty in trying to adjust to what had happened. There were many times I wished I have never gotten myself in this mess. I couldn't help but think of all the alternative choices I could have made prior to this, and how they might have changed things. Questions of why I had even bothered Randy in the first place, and why I had decided to become Juno in his dream world kept bothering me. But even with all that aside, I began to wonder if I should have just agreed with Achilles, and somehow make the best of a situation that would only lead to a surrender in time.

I could have sworn a year had passed, and I could only guess what had been happening during the time I had been locked up in here. How long was I going to be kept in here? Would this be the place where I die? If it was, there was no point in me living. Sita only came once every few months, telling me the situation was only getting worse. Jamac had gotten power-hungry, demanding more money from the people for a dying war effort. It was hard to tell her that everything was going to be okay when I really didn't believe that myself. Because of that, I never said anything besides thanking her for her comfort, and even letting an "I love you" slip from my mouth. But in those dark moments of being alone, fear was the only thing that was letting me keep my sanity and grip on reality after all this time. Most of the time… I was too scared and tense to let my mind wander and permanently fall into insanity from the waiting and wondering…

Three years later, I had gotten a hideous shock. I had heard an explosion, and then rounds and rounds of gunfire. I heard shouting and screaming from outside, yet still couldn't see anything with the window being as useless as it was. More shots were fired, blasting loudly all around me. Then, I had realized something…

Symarix was under attack…

But, there wasn't anything I could do about it. All I could do was just listen and try to assume what was happening. All I could think about was Randy, Alex, Blazewing, and Sita. Were they okay? Still, until I heard from them again, anything could be happening. They could have already been dead for all I knew.

It took several days for the carnage to finally stop. I could only imagine what happened, but for now it seemed like the city was safe. If we had really been taken over, the whole prison would have been raided to release the captive Crimson Stars soldiers inside. But I knew that only in time the city would fall. It would only be a matter of time before it was attacked again. I could just imagine seeing the door of my cell finally opening, only to reveal a Crimson Stars soldier that would gun me down seconds later. How sickeningly ironic it would be to hold on to hope for so long only to have it end like that…

I had later learned that Sita, Randy and Alex were okay, but they had told me about the gruesome battle, and how hundreds of lives were lost. But still, there was nothing they could do. Jamac had become corrupted, as well as Achilles. Symarix needed new leaders now or the Silver Rebellion would be torn to ribbons. Already the citizens of Symarix had protested against the two of them, but Jamac silenced them with constant threats. As I had learned from Sita, these were threats that he acted upon as well…

And then one day, the impossible happened. I never thought in a million years that it would come to this, but it had. Down the hallway, I had heard the sound of what seemed to be someone collapsing, but with no shout or anything. I knew there were guards on patrol, but wouldn't have someone noticed something…?

And then, I had heard a metal clanging sound in my door, and with a click, the door was unlocked, and it was finally opened after all these years. In the doorway I saw a face I had not laid eyes on for a very long time. And I was surprised to see him, most of all…

In the doorway stood none other than Sinis, the Zangoose I once had a bitter contempt for. In his hands he was holding a large tattered book with a key in the other. He looked at me, and then sighed.

"We're very fortunate you're still alive," Sinis told me, looking straight into my eyes. "We need your help, more than ever. It pains me to think about how long they've kept you in here, but we needed time to prepare, and time to make sure this wouldn't fail. The Rebellion needs reformation, and already the uprising has begun."

"This command is from Achilles?" I asked Sinis, knowing that if it was, it wouldn't be long before I would end up right back in here again.

But… Sinis shook his head, and looked down for a minute. Things… really did change more than I could ever imagine. It was too late to turn back now…

"No, this is from me and me alone," Sinis told me seriously. "And there was something Achilles and Jamac have been keeping from you in the first place."

"The Divine Prophecy…" I realized the book he was carrying.

There was silence. Obviously, Sinis had already killed ruthlessly to even get in here. Judging from what Sinis had told me, the uprising was already beginning within the Silver Rebellion, likely the only thing that could stop the tyranny of Jamac and Achilles. When I looked down at the book, I knew I needed the answers now. What exactly was expected of me, and what had been foreseen of my coming for all this time?

For eons I had wondered what The Divine Prophecy spoke about. How much of it was about me, and why had Achilles and Jamac kept it away from me for so long? What was inside of it that they didn't want me to see?

Sinis stood before me, holding the brown, tattered book. I could already tell that what he was doing could lead to serious punishment, but with the internal uprising that was happening now, this moment was probably the only opportunity he had now. He was breaking boundaries just to do this for me, and it seemed that without the uprising he had likely helped organize, this never would have been possible. While I knew I couldn't trust Achilles anymore, maybe Sinis was different now. Or even then, maybe he had never changed at all…

"Read it, and read it carefully," Sinis told me, handing the book over. "I've marked the area in the book where it describes you…"

When I had taken the book from him, I found a metal clip between some of the pages. I had lightly grabbed the leather bindings of the book, carefully opened it to where the clip was, and began reading the first page aloud…

There will be a time when all hope has faded. There will be a time when fire rushes from the sky and pain and desperation will be closer to your heart than ever. When it seems at the moment that everything is lost and destroyed at the hands of your enemies and your merciless oppressors, there will be one last source of hope that you can rely on.

He will be like the rest of you, no different in appearance from the ones in your ranks. He will fight with you, and risk his life for you to ensure your victory. And he will come at your most dire time of need. He will arrive on a bird as red as blood and as white as lightning. When the skies turn into fire and the land is burnt into ash, he will come. When you have endured the restless masses, the battles, and the nightmares, he will arrive. When the night seems endless and all hope has faded, he will come, and he will go by the name of Juno.

He will lead your people into their darkest battles, but you shall have no fear, for your victory is ensured by his presence. Never once will he betray you, and he will be by your side until you have established a new order.

You will fight on the harshest, twisted fields and with fire and storm thunder you will bring down the enemy. Though courage and determination you will prevail.

And to prove his loyalty to you, he will destroy the worst of your foes. He will fight until the bitter end. The battle will claim his life, but it shall be the same for oppressors. And when the last of the enemy's blood has been shed, a new light will be revealed.

"Claim my life?" I asked, still looking anxiously at the words.

"That was the part Jamac and Achilles didn't want you to see," Sinis told me, looking at the book as well. "Why do you think every time you asked to see it, you were denied the right? They thought that if you knew you were going to die in the end, you wouldn't have bothered. They felt you would be too afraid of death to carry forward."

I was silent. While it did seem to be quite a shock to read it, for some reason I was able to cast the fact aside. I had stared death in the face several times before, and for some reason, despite the fact it seemed to be inevitable here, I somehow felt ready for it, even if it was the ultimate end of life.

"Hundreds of our soldiers march into battle knowing they might not survive the onslaught either," I told Sinis with a firm voice. "Why do they feel I will be any different?"

"They don't usually go into battle thinking they're going to die. They all feel they're going to come out of it somehow," Sinis said to me. "That's what makes them different from you…"

I always thought that's the way it would be in the end as well. And then again, I began to think maybe I wasn't meant to go home. Maybe that's why I was easily forgetting what home looked like, or what a human looked like. After I had realized that, I had completely abandoned any hope of ever reaching my family again. But for once, I wasn't sad about it either. For the longest time… it had almost seemed like this was meant to happen at some point in time. I had begun to think harder around what the Prophecy had expected me to do. And then, another question had come to mind.

"I can see in your eyes that you didn't expect this to happen," Sinis told me. "But I don't believe in prophecies. In fact, I'm about to prove The Candle of Enlightenment wrong."

"Candle of Enlightenment?" I had asked, never hearing it before.

Sinis had looked down toward me, and he realized Jamac and Achilles had truly kept me in the dark about what was going on.

"It ties very closely with the Divine Prophecy as they both rely on each other," Sinis told me seriously. "It has foretold that Jamac and his descendants will be the future rulers of the Silver Rebellion. It has also predicted that you will come and defeat Zander and bring peace. Again, it says that you will die in the process, but I wouldn't worry about that. It even states that you will always be loyal to Jamac and his cause. I like to think of it more as, only loyal to the cause. Jamac was never loyal to you."

"You're going to kill him…" I said, realizing how he was going to break the Prophecy.

"And you're going to help me…"

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 35
Breaking the Threshold​

I had seen Sinis had made quick work of the guards. I never pictured myself fighting my own comrades, but something needed to be done, for the sake of the Rebellion. Upon passing a dead guard, I bent over and picked up his caliber rifle. I had looked over the steel casing of the rifle, and I could feel a cold chill, knowing this same rifle was going to end lives in only mere minutes from now.

Sinis and I had made it to the streets, and I could only guess what was going to happen next. For three long years, I thought I would be happen to view the outside world again, but instead the sites and the sounds were miserable and showed how ugly the situation had really become. We had traveled through the streets like two thieves to keep out of sight. As I looked around, I noticed a distinct difference in how Symarix used to look compared to how it was today. Everything was in anarchy now, and nothing looked familiar. I had also seen some of the damage the recent battle had done, and how no effort to repair it had been made. Some of the buildings were lying in ruins, something I thought I would never see in Symarix…

We had arrived at the tallest building in the city, the same place where I had been accepted long ago. Today, I was entering for a whole different reason. I wasn't going to let compassion get in the way of justice. Not today…

Sinis and I had made it through the front door, and we headed for the elevator. I couldn't help but notice the bronze statue of me and Blazewing again. Betraying the Silver Rebellion? No, it had betrayed me, and Sinis and I were going to set things straight. Today, we were going to shatter corruption, as well as a false prophecy. Sinis was right, more than I could ever imagine. Rank didn't make one soldier's life more important than the other. Everyone has their own dreams, goals and experiences. But right now, Achilles felt those of oblivious Generals like Vexcel were more valuable than the common soldier that would honorably risk his life for this nation.

We had approached the elevator, and I hammered in the security code on the keypad. I still never forgot since it was told to me a long time ago. Once the doors were opened, we entered and pressed the button for the top floor, and soon the doors shut we began ascending. We were just about the only ones who knew that code besides the head guards as well as Jamac and Achilles themselves. When he had arrived at the top floor, the doors opened, and I laid eyes on that familiar hallway. At the end of the hallway was Sever, as well as two other guards, a Magmar and a Breloom. Sinis and I had approached them, still keeping our intentions. I had no idea how they were going to react to this.

"Juno… Is that you?" Sever asked me, looking at me strangely.

I looked at Sever and the two other guards seriously. He knew and I knew what I was capable of. But, I could also tell from the look of their eyes that they knew something dark was about to unfold before them.

"I will give you one choice, Sever," I told him sternly. "You're a good soldier, an honest and a valuable asset to the Silver Rebellion. But you have witnessed first-hand the mistakes of those who rule this dying country. Sinis and I have decided that something needs to be done. Either you let us through, or we will find our own way in there, but either way, we are going to change the way things are done around here."

Sever was struck silent, as well as the other two guards. Sever looked into my eyes, and I could see with his own soul that we were about to break a prophecy that no one would believe in anymore. Yes, the prophecy was right in the fact that I would come to this nation, but it was dead wrong on how it would be resolved. Someone was going to die today. When he looked to Sinis, he could also see that he believed the same, and that the uprising was just beginning to unfold…

"I never thought it would come to this…" Sever replied to the two of us. "I never expected Jamac and Achilles to abuse their power, but is that really punishable by death?"

"We believe it is," Sinis told him firmly. "And that's why we are here. Too many good soldiers have paid with their blood and their lives for the mistakes of these ignorant so-called 'leaders' of the Rebellion. Its time to avenge them, and make sure their sacrifice would not have gone in vain."

But it didn't take long before I saw Sever make his final choice. It was quite different from what I had expected…

"I never thought you would do this, Juno," Sever growled at me. "I never thought in a million years you of all people would betray the Silver Rebellion. Sinis… you were a different story. I never trusted you right from the beginning…"

"I didn't betray the Silver Rebellion, Sever," I told him angrily. "It was Jamac and Achilles who did that. I spent three years in prison, rotting from the inside. They betrayed all of us, especially me. They betrayed the citizens of this city and its loyal army. Sever, if you and your cohorts don't move aside, I won't be afraid to take your life."

I could see Sever quiver with fear. He looked very unsteady, and meanwhile the two other guards turned toward him for an initiative. Then, grabbing his caliber rifle, he made his choice.

"Kill them…" Sever said in a firm but melancholy voice.

Those last few seconds seemed to slow down to a stasis. I had watched Sever take his rifle, and slowly raise it to aim the long barrel at us. But even in those dark moments, I wasn't going to let him stop me, I couldn't. I could see he was not acting upon his personal beliefs, he was acting upon the realm of responsibility. I had raised my caliber rifle before he had the chance to fire, but then something stopped me from firing. The Breloom guard had reached out at Sever, and he placed his hand on the hull of the rifle. Just milliseconds before Sever had pressed the trigger, the Breloom swiftly tore the rifle away from Sever's grasp. I then dropped my firearm, knowing neither one of us was going to die. The caliber rifle had left my hands, and slowly fell toward the ground, and fell over as it hit the floor. I could only watch as the Breloom now held Sever's gun, away from his grasp.

"Do you know what you're doing!?" The Breloom exclaimed at Sever. "You're blind, Sever. You know why they're here. They're here on behalf of everyone in Symarix. The uprising is the only chance this nation still has!"

"Give me my weapon, Lezales!" Sever shouted the Breloom angrily. "Are you betraying the Silver Rebellion as well?"

But it was evident he wasn't going to give Sever his rifle back. The Magmar had grabbed Sever from behind, restraining him from trying to grab the rifle and from attacking Lezales. Sever struggled to break free, but to no prevail…

"Sever, think carefully," The Magmar told him. "Think about what Jamac and Achilles have done to everyone. Think about what they have done to Juno, your family, and even you. Sever, someone needs to stop them, and now. Otherwise we will lose everything."

"Let me go, now!" Sever said angrily, struggling and squirming to break free from the Magmar's grasp. "That isn't for you to decide!"

"Sever, they tortured your brother Avin on a false claim," Lezales said to Sever in a firm voice. "Never in the past have we ever tortured a soldier, not even ones from the Crimson Stars. Don't you see that something is wrong here!?"

Sever froze, and he no longer tried to break free. He stood there, very still now.

"What did… you say…?" Sever asked in a soft and fearful voice.

I then saw it again. Jamac had kept something from him, just like me and the prophecy, so I wasn't at all surprised to see this. I didn't know who Avin was, but it already seemed like something had gone terribly wrong in my absence…

"Sever, they killed your brother," Lezales told Sever seriously. "I saw it with my own eyes. They threatened to kill us if we told you, but I can't hide it anymore. They thought he was hiding enemy intel and money after he came back from a mission, so they tortured him. And because he wasn't hiding anything, there was nothing he could say. So they killed him…"

I could see a dark, hideous fear come into Sever's expression. He began to quiver with fear and anger, not knowing what to think at that moment.

"Sever, Jamac told the two of us that he would kill us if we ever told you, but I don't care anymore," Lezales spoke seriously to Sever. "This is unacceptable, and it cannot be allowed to continue."

But nothing had come from Sever's mouth but silence. I could see his eye was beginning to water with a tear of bitterness and hatred.

"Achilles told me…" Sever said softly, trying not to break, "that he had died in combat… He… showed me where he was buried. He even…"

"The medal he gave to you was just a replica that never went down in the records, Sever," The Magmar told him. "Avin was never given any actual recognition for fighting. He died the worst death possible, at the hands of the ones he trusted with his life. Juno and Sinis never betrayed the Silver Rebellion, it was Achilles and Jamac who did that. They kept Juno in lockup for three years over nothing and Sinis lost all administrative power, condemned to being just a figurehead that was forced to agree to everything Achilles and Jamac suggested. Do the math, Sever, the rumors about the uprising were true."

I could only thank God that Lezales had been able to stop Sever before he fired upon the two of us. If Sever had ever found that out after he killed the two of us, he would regret it to the point of suicide. But even after hearing this, it gave me even more reason to act upon my intentions…

"Juno… Sinis…" Sever said in soft voice. "I'm so damn sorry. I just… didn't know…"

"Sever, it's not over yet," I told him firmly, seeing there was a way to still pull through this after all. "There's still time to correct the wrong that had been done here. Symarix is still standing. The Silver Rebellion is still alive, and that flame of hope that searches for a way to stop Zander is still burning brightly. No one can blame you for the ways you feel given your circumstances."

"This can't be allowed to continue," Sever said, picking his head up from the ground. "There must be no more like Avin. I've served Achilles and Jamac with all my heart and soul… but no longer!"

And then, he bent over and picked up the caliber rifle. No long did he show his contempt for us. His mind was now sent in a new direction. It had appeared the five of us were prepared to do that last right.

The sword of justice was about to be unsheathed…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 36
Tattered Trust​

It would only be moments until it was all over. It would only be moments before the next hour would determine the fate of the Silver Rebellion. But I saw something that Sinis and Sever as well as the other two guards were showing on their eyes. If we were going to die, we wanted to die knowing we tried everything in our power to stop the evil that was being done. I didn't want to die knowing I didn't do anything to try and stop this corruption. There was a reason why were still fought and shed blood. When words alone weren't enough to change intentions, then it had to be done through action. It had to be done through pain and death. There was no other choice.

Putting a dead soldier in the ground didn't mean we had to forget about them. Seeing an entire race oppressed and discouraged didn't mean we could turn our back on them or take advantage of them. But at the moment, it seemed there were others who didn't share these beliefs. Others like Jamac and Achilles…

We had gathered behind the door, claws sharp and weapons drawn. One the count of three, we charged into the door, and it burst open, blasting the two doors aside and slamming them against the wall. We then charged in furiously, gathering in the back of the room with our weapons ready to fire.

Jamac had been in his throne, while Achilles stood out of his chair by Jamac's side. Vexcel had been there as well, along with three other guards. When they noticed the sudden commotion, seconds later, they had drawn weapons of their own and the situation had become a standoff. I didn't expect to see anyone else in the room besides Jamac and Achilles…

We stood there for a few seconds, weapons pointed at each other, ready to begin unleashing hell at any moment. Nothing was going to stand in our way…

"Well, isn't this a surprise…" Achilles said to all of us with sarcastic humor, with his own caliber rifle ready to fire. "I never expected any of you would be one day pointing a weapon at your own leader…"

"Enough of the crap, Achilles," Sinis growled in anger, his claw already set on the trigger of his rifle. "All that was pure in your heart was lost in the bloodshed of your comrades. Comrades that you found disposable and expendable, like this is just some funny, god-damned chess game to you."

I could see Vexcel was looking right toward me. I didn't care who he was looking at, my aim was right on Achilles, right between the eyes. However, I wouldn't be able to kill all of them by myself. I didn't know who everyone else was aiming at, and there was no hang communication I could use that the opposite side could easily pick up on.

"You never knew anything, did you?" Achilles asked Sinis. "Sinis, whenever you lead an army, you have to know that lives are cheap. You can't mourn the death of every soldier. There are far too many. Soldiers have to know that when they are going into combat, they might not make it out alive. In fact, chances are very good they won't."

I grew furious at that comment. I would have shot him right then and there but I was concerned about Sinis and the others. If anyone shot a single bullet, a whole lethal firefight was going to break out, and chances were good someone was going to die on our side. None of us deserved to die, it was everyone on the other side that deserved it. Unfortunately… that kind of wishful thinking was beyond my grasp…

"Our soldiers go into battle to fight for the liberty and in the name of justice they risk their lives for this country!" I shouted angrily. "But I can already hear in your words that something like that doesn't matter to you. Achilles, I ask you, if you don't believe in fighting for this country, then what the hell is your purpose!?"

He had turned toward me, somewhat shocked to see I had made it out of my cell. Regardless, he wasn't going to ask why. I could already tell in his angry, flaring eyes, he flagged Sinis as his number one suspect.

"And so I ask, who are you?" Achilles asked me mockingly. "You're obviously not the real Juno, you're clearly an imposter. But, I would have to admit, the way you killed Vorox as well as destroying Macomb, you actually had us all believing you for a minute. But you're not the real Juno that the prophecy mentions. The real Juno wouldn't betray his own commanders. He would know his place in the Silver Rebellion Army."

"I'm not your killing tool, Achilles." I said to him firmly. "I'm not a disposable resource like the way you think of these soldiers. We have lives, Achilles, just like you and Jamac. That doesn't make any of us less important than the two of you…"

Achilles had let out a chuckle, and I was incredibly insulted. I had looked past his eyes, and I could see a soul shaded in darkness. I could see a commander that had lost the ideals of leadership. One that had lost all the virtues of interest that the citizens of the Silver Rebellion had believed in.

"You don't know your duty as a part of this army, Juno," Achilles laughed. "You duty is to respect your superiors. I am… your superior…"

"I know my duty, Achilles." I told him in a firm, harsh voice, "My duty is to protect the people of this country from all enemies, foreign… and domestic…"

I let those last two words sink into his head, knowing he was the kind of domestic threat that would make this nation fall into ruin. There was a short silence, and then I saw in his eyes he had reached his limit.

"Today, the legends and everything we have ever believed in will die," Achilles said to all of us, almost looking like he was deriving pleasure from it. "All the foundations we have set in stone, all the journeys we have taken and all the praises we have ever given will kiss the darkness. Everything the Silver Rebellion has ever believed in will be shattered like glass smashed against a stone. Juno, Sinis, and all you others… I don't know you anymore…"

It was him who fired the first shot…

Achilles was never one to negotiate. Not even with his comrades or even me. In fact, it was him who threw me in a tiny cell to forget about me. To him I had no purpose and didn't have any use. I was only a tool to him.

I didn't see who he had fired at, but the next thing I knew the room was shattered by the blasting of rifles. I had focused hard and could see bullets streaking across the room in all directions. I pulled furiously on the trigger of my firearm, firing furiously at Achilles, knowing his death was of absolute priority. If I could only kill one of them, it was going to be Achilles. I fired multiple rounds just to make sure he would go down and never get back up.

I had realized I wasn't the only one firing at Achilles. Among the countless screams and ear-piercing blasts of firearms, I could see Achilles had already been shot several times in the chest and face, and was falling backwards onto the floor. On his way down, he still had been pulling down on the trigger, now spraying bullets in random directions toward the ceiling. It wasn't long before he was lying down, and the arm that was holding his rifle had hit the ground, and completely stopped firing. Even though a side of me felt like rejoicing at that moment, there was still opposition, and they were still firing upon us.

Vexcel had been firing at me, but not only was I too small for him to hit but too fast as well. After taking cover for a few moments behind a pillar, I then started returning fire on him, blasting him furiously with as many shots as possible. The only good thing about the fat Dragonite was he was a nice wide target, which was good considering the fact it was going to take a whole lot of shots to bring him down. Regardless, all I could do was inhale, kill, and exhale. Any hesitation could mean the difference between life and death.

Bullets blasted right past my head, only within inches of hitting me. I didn't know who else was trying to shoot me, but I wasn't going to waste time to try and find out. I needed to kill Vexcel, and now. And in Jamac hadn't been killed already, he would have to die as well, though I imagined he didn't have the same level of combat experience that Achilles and his commanders may have had.

The more and more I shot Vexcel, the less and less he was able to get his aim back on me. Blood was gushing from his countless wounds, and blood was beginning to trickle down from his mouth. I tried to aim for more fragile and sensitive targets, but he was constantly shifting back and forward. Soon enough, he was no longer able to support his own weight from the fatigue of severe blood loss, and he collapsed to the floor as well.

There were less Pokémon firing now, and just as I heard a long round of bullets fire from Sinis's gun, I turned and saw the last Machop guard fall backward and lack on his back, his arms lying limply on the floor as a pool of blood began to form around his dead body. I had quickly looked around the room for any remaining opposition, but I had seen that we had completely eliminated the other side.

Suddenly the insane carnage had ended. Achilles was lying in a pool of his own blood and Vexcel had just started bleeding uncontrollably, lying on the floor and not making a single move. I had seen Jamac lying on the floor face-down with his arms laid out also in a widening pool of his own blood. All the guards were dead as well. I dropped my rifle and the metal clanging sound of it hitting the floor shattered the sudden silence. Then there was nothing but the still air of death. No one made a sound now.

And then, I got a sick feeling in my stomach. It wasn't about feeling guilty about what I had done, no. This needed to be done, or everyone would die. It wasn't that which was bothering me…

I had slowly turned to face the ones who had fought with me. I felt incredibly sick at that moment. To my left, the Magmar was dead against the back wall with blood splattered behind and around him, while the Breloom named Lezales was lying down on his side, from having been shot twice in the chest and then once in the head. Behind me, I saw Sinis holding on to his bleeding knee, gritting his teeth in pain but still holding furiously onto his rifle, just in case someone on the other side wasn't dead and needed one last shot to finish the process.

And to further my misery, to my right I saw Sever, lying on the floor. I had rushed to him and I was relieved seeing he was still alive, but critically wounded. I couldn't believe the amount of blood that had pooled around him. I stood over him, just praying he was going to make it.

"Sever…" I said to him with a harsh, dry feeling in my throat. "I'm sorry…"

He struggled to try and say something, but after a few moments, he was able to speak. Blood was coming out of his mouth, and he was having trouble trying to talk with it welling up in his throat…

"What… are you… sorry about…?" Sever asked, looking at me with his sorrowful eyes. "How can you… say you're… sorry when you've… done so much…?"

I shut my eyes tightly for a moment, trying to fight off my anger and misery. I wanted to know who killed Sever. Who thought he was higher than him, because I would deny them from even a proper burial. I was so angry, never before have I been so furious.

"Juno…" Sever said softly, "it's over… They're gone now… You become… a leader for them now…"

"Sever…" I said softly, "just hold on…"

"Lead them to victory…" He whispered, "Do it… for me…"

After he said that, his head had hit the floor, and he lay limply on the hard ground as his eyes softly closed. He didn't move or say anything after that. All I could do was look at him for a few seconds, and I realized he was gone…

"DAMN IT!!!" I shouted furiously, pounding the ground in rage.

I covered my eyes in my hands, wishing there was some way I could bring him back or go back in time and stop it from happening. He believed in me, right from the beginning. Right when I had rescued him from Black Bay Prison. He was the first… to even know who I was. He made me believe I had a purpose in this army. He knew who I was…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 37
Reconstruction​

What choice did I have but to carry on? It wasn't long before everyone had figured out what we did and the uprising that Sinis helped carry out that ended up being a massive success as hope for a better day reigned triumphant over the bleak morale that Achilles and Jamac had been responsible for. It had appeared the general population had cried out in celebration that Jamac and the others had been eliminated. I knew he was bad from what I had been told, but what had been going on since I was in that prison for so many years? I could only wonder what else they had done while I had been behind bars. I wondered if it had anything to do with that battle that had occurred right at Symarix while I was in prison…

I had finally met up with Randy and Alex, and it seemed like forever since I last saw them. To my surprise, they weren't shocked one bit at what we had done to Jamac and Achilles. Still, I could see in their eyes that they appeared to have stayed here too long. Five more years we had been gone. Surely we were given up for dead now, wherever we were…

Blazewing, the Latias I hadn't seen in three years, looked like we had been separated for an eternity. I had also gone to see Sita, and upon seeing me, she had gone up to hug me with tears in her eyes. We stood there for a good two minutes just hugging each other. It seemed like it had been forever since I last saw her, only being able to know she was there by the sound of her voice. She wasn't angry at all from what I had done. If fact, she said she wished she could have been up there fighting with us, but I quickly told her that we barely made it out alive, and that some of us never made it out. Truthfully, I would have hated to lose her, and more and more, I found myself growing more attached to her.

After Sever's depressing funeral, Sinis and I decided that we needed to pick up the pieces and figure out how to get us back on our feet again. Not a whole lot of people were familiar on who Sinis was, but he was accepted as the ruler of Symarix, taking over Jamac's position. During his time as leader, he never made assumptions, stood firm in his beliefs and refused to let anything set him back from accomplishing his goals for the citizens of Symarix. His plans for reformation were made for the Silver Rebellion in mind, and never for himself. Thankfully, unlike what I heard about Jamac, he had become an iron wall against bribery.

With Sinis in command, he felt it was only right I be given the High General position, something that would cause Achilles to twist and turn in his grave. Once that had happened, I had realized there were no Generals except for me in the entire army. I had looked through the documents Achilles had left behind, and Vexcel and myself were the only ones. And as I thought about it, Achilles was never the one doing the fighting. And if I had been locked up all these years, who was left, just Vexcel? This was a crying shame. I was going to have to come up with someone to replace their positions.

When I had finally returned to the command center to discuss tactics among the few that were left, I had already received the nickname of "Suicide Runner," which I didn't look highly upon. I wasn't sure if that was because of my Macomb assault, the Divine Prophecy, the dangerous attack on Jamac and Achilles, or a combination of all three.

"I really don't think ruthlessly slaughtering Jamac and Achilles should reward you with the High General Position." The Charizard Colonel told me, not looking very highly toward me.

"I don't think Achilles's method of sending our soldiers off to their deaths should have retained him that position," I responded to his complaint. "I ask you one question. Are you going to support me, because if you're not, I don't even want to see you here."

The Charizard and two other Colonels had just gotten up and left, just like that. I didn't let it bother me, as I knew they were promoted by the standards of Achilles, who I felt had become an infamous war criminal.

All I was left with for commanding officers was a Tyranitar named Baladax and a Rhydon named Namdor. I was happy at least to have someone on my side…

"So you two are going to support me?" I asked them both.

"Achilles was a fool with power," Baladax responded, looking directly at me. "He was known for throwing out officers that didn't agree with him. But why am I bothering to tell you that, you of all people already know…"

"No one ever said anything, unless it agreed with his plans," Namdor continued to agree with his Tyranitar compatriot. "Likewise, the entire Silver Rebellion relied on him alone to bring us to victory. But that was never going to happen."

It wasn't long before I had promoted both of them to General status. Already they were in charge of commanding forces with Armadillo tanks as well as Land Splitters. I could already see modifications to these machines. The Land Splitters now were adjusted to fit two riders, one driver and one gunner. As far as ground command had gone, we were set.

"What do you plan on doing for the Storm Riders?" Baladax asked me, knowing there was no way I could command such a huge force just by myself. "You can't be the only one to command them. It's far too impossible."

"You're going to need someone else to act as support." Namdor advised me, "Only problem is we don't have any Colonels left, and there's no way we could ever ride one of those Pidgeots…"

"Don't worry about it," I told them both. "I can find someone that can handle that…"

I really couldn't discuss any plans until I had at least most of my major commanders ready to go, which meant finding the people I needed to fill those commanding positions. I already knew who I wanted for those General positions. They had been with me since the first day we were here…

"You want us to do what!?" Randy exclaimed in shock. "Are you serious about this?"

"I need two Generals that can be Storm Riders." I told Randy and Alex. "You two fit that criteria. You're already a Captain and Alex is already a Major…"

"That's besides the point," Alex responded, really unsure about this all. "The only commanding I've ever done was through playing Battle Hammer Elite online. There's a whole hell of a lot of difference between this and a computer game…"

Still, there wasn't anyone else who I trusted more than Randy and Alex. I could trust Baladax and Namdor since they didn't turn their back on me, but it was really Randy and Alex that I could trust the most, above everyone else who was here.

"You are Storm Riders, aren't you?" I asked the two of them. "You do have your own Pidgeots now, right?"

"Well… yeah," Randy replied with a small shrug. "They force you to raise them from being a Pidgey to a Pidgeot so it trusts you more. I named him Fire Blaze, and we get along pretty well."

"Considering how you led that attack on Macomb five years ago," I told Randy, "and how far you gotten since then, you'd make a very good commander."

Randy had just stood there, not really sure if this is what he wanted to do. Meanwhile, Alex just kept looking around, still searching for an answer.

"Look, I have an obvious question," I told Randy and Alex. "Even after three years and then some of the three of us being stuck here, are you still intending to go home?"

There was some silence before they had decided to say anything. While three years was a long time, I was hoping it wasn't long enough…

"It has been awhile since I ever saw home…" Randy replied looking a little depressed with his ears drooping down. "I've tried to look out the window and picture what everything had looked like before this happened, but it gets harder and harder as the months pass by."

"Look, as much as I appreciate everything the Silver Rebellion has done for us, I really have no intention of staying here for the rest of my life," Alex replied, looking away for a small moment. "Once Zander is gone, if there's a way to get out of here, I'm going to take it…"

It was strange, but I felt exactly the same way. Despite how much these people respected me, I felt like I really didn't belong here after all these years. They could make a million gold statutes of Blazewing and I, but inside, I still felt like I had an unfinished life outside of this one…

"The best way for us to get out of here is to work closely together," I told Randy and Alex. "You may not like it but I'm appointing the both of you as Generals. The closer we work together, the better the chances we have of getting close to Zander and getting rid of him forever. Between the three of us, I know I call the two of you Blitz and Tek and you call me Juno, but you're still Alex Davidson, Randy Ferguson, and I'm still Jake Kossak. We're not going to stay here much longer…"

"But what about…?" Randy asked with some hesitation.

"The prophecy?" I asked Randy, figuring that's what he would be asking about, "It means nothing. Sinis and I already proved it wrong by overthrowing Jamac and Achilles. Technically we betrayed a piece of the Silver Rebellion, so it can't possibly be true…"

Regardless, there wasn't much else to say after that. After some time, Randy and Alex had agreed to becoming Generals, and it wasn't long before the five of us had sat down to discuss what we were going to do next. Surprisingly, Baladax and Namdor didn't even ask as to why I had selected two Pichus as Generals. I was glad there were at least some people here who trusted me.

I had looked at the map and I could already tell we had been fighting very defensively, after what I could easily assume had been a very poor offensive. I could already see we had lost Black Rock for all that it was worth, along with many other areas. Regardless, my idea was still possible, even though it would be even more difficult to act upon after the losing campaign Achilles had been responsible for…

As I looked over all the locations on the map, I tried to figure out what would be the best approach. Going after locations like Black Rock were worthless. Supply routes meant nothing to me, there were other ways around them. What I was concerned about was reinforcements. If we were to lead an assault on Jasandax directly, what were the chances of reinforcements arriving from the surrounding areas in time?

And even through all the scribbling that Achilles had left on the map, I realized Zander or whoever was in control of that base believed one thing. We were being attacked from the east and west of Symarix, I could already see that's where they were leading troops, and from what I saw in Symarix, the east and west walls were where most of the damage was done.

It was shameful that the entire Crimson Stars army felt having one outpost called Lorenza would be enough to stop an attack coming from the south. While it was bigger than most outposts, it wouldn't be enough to stop us. It certainly wasn't as big as Macomb was…

"Who agrees with me that Lorenza should be our next target?" I asked the four of them.

"You're not going to attack their military camps or their production facilities?" Namdor asked. "They could supply reinforcements to that area if we don't get rid of their camps first…"

"Not if we strike fast and hard enough…" I told Namdor with a firm voice.