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

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 18
Diving Underground​

The only source of illumination came from the dimly lit street lamps hanging overhead. There was barely any light coming from anywhere else. I walked by myself for hours, with not another soul on the foggy gray streets. For now, everything was either shut down for the night had been closed on a permanent basis. Meanwhile, everyone was gone. Still, I looked in all directions, making sure no one was near me as I walked past huge factories that didn't have even a flicker of light in their square windows. I could only see about three hundred meters in front of me on the ground from the severity of the smog and pollution. Even if I was seen by someone else, I would only appear to be a black silhouette walking among the mist, dressed in the clothing of their comrades. In truth, I almost began to question if bringing Blazewing along would have been that much of a risk.

I drew closer and closer to the largest building in the entire industrial park. Yes, unlike the others, it was still up and operating, but the number of actual personnel would probably only be limited to a few considering how late it was. Still, among its maze of pipes, vats, and buildings, there had to be a way to shut it down completely in preferably a destructive meltdown. My only problem was I had no explosives on me, and I knew nothing of how Synth power plants actually operate. I couldn't help but think about what I could have done if only I had one last Inferno Grenade with me at a time like this. Just one and I could possibly get this entire industrial park to burn the same way Macomb did, possibly even worse due to the fact each factory was closer in proximity. Still, I wasn't going to waste time with wishful thinking…

Finally, I had arrived at the two, solid steel doors that had made up the entrance. The size of the Synth power plant was sickening. I didn't even know where to start when it came to destroying this massive complex, let alone trying to make this look like an accident. Still, even if I managed to get outside with the power off, I had no idea how dark it would be even in the streets with those street lamps off. But I couldn't worry about that now. I simply grabbed the metal pull handle, and opened the door. I then made my way inside with one rifle clenched in my hands while the other two remained strung around my back.

The inside was only dimly lit with small overhead lamps, and plenty of pipes and wires all over the walls and ceiling. Still, the room was a huge, massive lobby with many different passage ways leading out from it. The metal floor was dirty, cold, and firm, and every step I took could be heard echoing through the hall. I kept moving, knowing that whoever was inside would know nothing of my presence, and I would still get the element of surprise. At the same time, the Black Onyx were still in belief that every last enemy had been eliminated. I supposed now would be the perfect time to remind them why no one should ever think that way.

I came to the first room, this time a little more brightly lit, but still, almost as dim as the Azure Islands Library was. The hall continued leading to an even larger room while two elevators were on the sides. The door to the stairs was off to the side, and I quickly took a glace to see if the stairs went down any further. Chances were that whatever kind of reactor core this place had would likely be on the most bottom level. As I peered through the window, indeed the stairs kept going down, but for how far, I really didn't know. Regardless, I opened the door, and made my way downward at least five flights. When I finally reached the fifth sublevel, I saw the stairs kept going…

I had no other choice about it, I was going to have to take the elevator, regardless of whatever risk was involved considering there could be security cameras or monitoring devices in it. It would be impossible for me to climb all these stairs in time to evacuate the building if something was going critically wrong. I just turned to the door, and peered out the window. Again, the elevators were there with another hallway leading to another large metal room. Oddly enough, the only light that illuminated the room was coming from a single red light positioned over the hallway portal, flushing the room with an eerie, red glow. Still, there were no signs of life anywhere…

I opened the door and quickly entered one of the elevators after pressing the call button. I was surprised how deep this building went underground. Nine sublevels was pretty deep, but I could only guess the main reactor had to be kept this underground due to some kind of sensitivity or safety issue. After pressing the "9B" button, I simply waited, and watched the digital readout display as the elevator crept lower and lower underground. Finally, it had arrived, and the two steel doors opened.

The ninth sublevel was nothing like the rest of the power plant. For the oddest reason, the floor was covered in clean, sleek white tiles, while the rest of the walls and ceiling were pure, cold metal. As soon as I stepped off the elevator, I instantly got a very cold sensation. Strangely enough, I doubt I had ever been this deep underground before.

The hallway led to only one pair of sleek, metal doors down a long, long hallway. Yet, the hallway was incredibly well lit, almost like a laboratory. Contrary to the rest of the power plant, this hall way led down in only one direction, and so I continued, slowly making my way towards the doors. I didn't know what would be behind them, but I prepared for anything…

After a long walk, I had arrived at the doors, and I simply grabbed the cold metal handle, and threw the door open, and then stepped inside. Quickly, I had discovered why this had been built so far underground. The chamber was a massive nine story shaft, filled with a pulsing blue glow. And in the center of it all, hoisted above the ground, was a bright glowing sphere of energy, floating in the air while two claw-like projections above and below it were gathering the energy from the forks of electricity that the sphere was shooting off. Meanwhile, I looked around and saw there wasn't a soul around. For the looks of things, it looked like this aspect of the power plant was made to run on its own. Plenty of humming computers encircled the glowing sphere, all on and running plenty of processes.

I just looked at all this mess and was totally baffled. For starters, it was plain and simple that going anywhere near that electric sphere would easily be fatal. So, I walked up to the computers, and looked them over. Mostly all output monitors with lines and lines of bizarre digital readout and bytes of data, and yet barely anything to actually input any commands. I must have spun around the entire ring of computers until I finally find a console with a keyboard and a three button control stick. Meanwhile, the monitor that was right in front of it was huge. I simply just looked at it, hoping to make sense of it all.

The operating system looked easy enough to navigate through and understand. I looked around on the system to find out what kind of processes the computer was running, and there must have been thousands, all given names that don't mean anything in particular. Still, I knew it all must have been in a very delicate and fragile balance. All I needed to do was find a way to disturb that balance, and hopefully make it significant enough to destroy the entire power plant. All easier said than done though…

At first, I picked a few random processes and tried to mess around with their settings. However, everything I tried to do was blocked by some security program called "H Barrier." I must have tried seven times before giving up and looking more into the H Barrier program itself…

Obviously, it didn't let itself get deleted even though I gave it a wild shot anyway. Trying to corrupt the program by messing with its coding didn't work either. But then, I took another look at it. It was installed on its own drive called "S," probably for security purposes. Unfortunately, I couldn't remove the S drive physically since all the wires led into the metal floor. However, I did think of another possible idea…

I then tried to restart the system. Surprisingly enough, it couldn't even let me do that with all the processes running. So, I tried pulling the pull on the power to the main console. Surely enough, the screen went blank, and then some of the other monitors around the console displayed warning messages. However, shortly after, a message came up on each of them that a back up system was kicking in. I didn't even know where it was, but shortly after, everything went back to normal even with my console off. So, I turned my console back on. First came the screen for the motherboard display. When I saw that, I immediately requested to enter the motherboard BIOS program. Easy enough, I managed to get there without entering the operating system. From there, I went to the drive manager. I got a list of drive names, and so I went down to select the S drive. With a few clicks, I managed to set it so the S drive never had boot priority. Interestingly enough, it let me save the settings and went straight to the operating system.

Once everything in the operating system had booted up, I then proceeded to go the process list. Now, it was actually letting me tamper with the processes. For the first few processes, called DYN and PRL, I put the settings from a neutral state to a maximum state. I had no idea what the terms were talking about, all I wanted to do was upset the balance. However, even messing with those two did essentially nothing visible…

FC was my next choice, and I later discovered it stood for "Fusion Control." There were lots and lots of settings all over the place, so I played around with them like a kid at a pinball machine. "Internal Isotope Feed" seemed like a good setting to alter, so I set that to its highest. Plenty of other commands with very complex scientific vocabulary came up, and I screwed around with those too, setting everything to its highest. I saved all my settings, and then they immediately went into effect…

Everything had become unstable. The whole metal floor literally trembled, shaking violently with a loud rattling sound. Several of the computer monitors had fallen over, and burst into a shower of sparks upon smashing into the ground. Meanwhile, all I had to do was look up to see the entire glowing sphere discharging off more electricity than it could handle.

I immediately ran like hell for the doors, and every passing second, it only kept getting worse and worse. The glowing sphere was flaring violently by the time I got to the doors and flew down the hallway as fast as I could. Now that every second mattered, the hallway felt like it was miles long, and even the thick metal doors that I had shut only a half a minute ago were thrown off their hinges. When I finally reached the elevator, I hammered the call button, and immediately the doors opened. I rushed inside, and swiftly pressed the button for the ground floor. I could only hope the elevator would survive long enough to take me there…

Quickly, it ascended upward, but I could still feel the tremors coming from below. There was no going back now, all I could do was wait and hope. Suddenly, my heart stopped for a moment when the elevator's light went out, but I had realized it was only the bulb that likely shattered from the shaking. Only two floors left to go, and already the digital readout in the elevator had been shut off. The shaking was only getting worse, and by the time the elevator reached the last floor, it just stopped. The doors didn't open, and I nearly grew furious at how close I had gotten. Something had been jammed…

I then reached for the emergency release level, and quickly threw in down. Almost immediately, the metal doors were pried opened from the emergency back up system, tearing them through the metal walls and leaving only a small opening to slip through. I quickly took advantage of it, and had already seen that the ground floor was shaking and falling apart piece by piece.

Only seconds after I left the elevator, the two metal doors were suddenly twisted violently, and the elevator fell all the way back down its shaft, never to be seen again. If I had been five seconds too late, I would have fallen down with it. Still, I took the thought out of my mind and I quickly turned around, running furiously toward the power plant's entrance. More debris was falling everywhere, and the whole ground was constantly shaking. The metal panels of the ceiling and floor were being twisted and pulled out, but I quickly ran and jumped past them. When I finally reached the door, I pushed it open, but to my surprise, the entire door suddenly fell down.

Then, I found myself in the streets, looking back to see the power plant falling down upon itself. But now, I could feel the rumbling even through the ground. Whatever was happening to the sphere had to be very severe if it was shaking the ground all the way up here. There was no time to run out of the industrial park, leaving me with only one last option…

"Blazewing!" I shouted as loud as I could scream. "Where are you!?"

Thankfully, not even a second later, she came out of the shadows, speeding by and sweeping me off my feet. I quickly jumped out of her hands and unto her back, holding on for dear life.

"Go!" I shouted to her. "This whole place is going to blow sky high!"

She didn't waste another second, for she could already sense the tremors herself. Quickly, she jetted toward the sky as high and as fast as she could go. We took the fastest way out of the industrial park as we could, and once we were convinced we had gone far away enough from the city, we turned around and just looked at it all.

Whoever said it would wipe out the entire city was very much correct. I couldn't believe the size of the explosion, smothering the entire industrial park with a massive white explosion and tearing all of it out of the ground. Even just the shockwave caused a massive earthquake, ripping every building to the ground while the white ball of fire incinerated it all split seconds later. Blazewing just looked down, totally in disbelief at the massive chaos that was just caused.

I had realized what I had done. Normally, the glowing sphere was set to release only the amount of energy that was needed to power the entire city, nothing more. However, I had set it to release far more than that, putting enormous strain on it and causing it to discharge more and more. So, it only kept getting bigger and bigger until it completely exploded, sending forward all the energy it ever had out in one, massive blast. In a massive, chaotic rush, the white explosion simply consumed everything, relentlessly obliterating anything and possibly anyone that had been within its blast. Both of us had to quickly shield our eyes, not sure if looking at it could result in permanent blindness.

When the dust had cleared and the anarchical noise had finally stopped, we opened our eyes and had seen the industrial park of the Crescent Moon, now a twisted, metallic wasteland. When I saw it all like that, it immediately reminded me of what Symarix now looked like, only much worse. Looking around, I saw heaps and piles of debris, once manufacturing centers for merciless war machines, now in ruins… the way they should be. However, I soon caught sight of another building, protruding out from the darkness among the fallen city. And I quickly realized what that building was, the only building to survive the massive anarchy…

It was the cathedral that had been described in the book I read, the place where I needed to go now. I motioned Blazewing to fly down toward there, but even she didn't have any idea what it was, or how it managed to even survive the massive explosion. The closer we got, the more I found it odd how it wasn't even touched the by the explosion, when dozens and dozens of other buildings around it had been reduced to scrap metal.

When we finally touched the ground, I stepped off of her, and just looked at the cathedral and the massive and very odd seal that was upon the large black doors. Yet those too, showed no evidence of being even touched by the explosion. And even more strangely were the stained glass windows, something that should have definitely been torn apart in that explosion. However, they were perfectly intact. It was the strangest thing, and I had no idea how to explain it. But, all that I could do now was move forward toward what would be the hardest and most difficult part of my entire journey.

"This is it…" I told Blazewing, looking into her bright eyes, "Once we head in there, there's no turning back. I don't care what's down there, I want to see this through."

"I can't believe… the Abyss itself is through those doors…" Blazewing told me, looking a bit anxious.

"We've got to be ready for anything…" I told her, even though I had no idea what the path ahead would be like. "Considering the little that I've heard about this place, we really can't be too surprised with how tortured, miserable, and soulless the surroundings appear to be…"

And there was still the part I hadn't forgotten about. At the end, we would have to die while we were down there. It would be the only way we could make it back to Utopia's shores to continue the journey. I dreaded the thought of it, but I had faced death twice before, and Blazewing herself had faced it once before on the fields of war. It seemed like even though the blackness of death was no longer our fear, the pain, the agony, and the suffering was what we were most anxious about. Both times, I felt pain that made me long and hope that it would just be over soon. It was a pain and an agony that truly reminded you of the price that comes with death…

Regardless for the entire trip, I knew she would be with me, by my sides at all times. And Sita would be there with us in spirit. And all allies we had that were unjustly killed from these horrific wars, I knew they would be with us as well, even if they had forgotten the pain of this world and instead found refuge in the shores of Utopia above.

Their sleeping hope and our resolute will would drive us through all the way…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 19
The Bleeding Depths​

Once I put my hands on the door, I pushed forward, and slowly, after a lot of effort, the door opened. Dust and dirt dropped like rain as the door moved from position, and I could tell it must have been hundreds of years since the door was last opened. Meanwhile, I looked up and could see the seal itself was in fact a locking mechanism to brace the two doors together. However, at the moment, it was completely unlocked, likely for the first time in a long while. It was strange to think this lock operated by light and darkness, but then again, that was only one small feature of this strange and enigmatic cathedral.

Even just pushing the heavy, metal door took a lot of effort, even with Blazewing and I working together. When there was just enough room for us to slip in, we took advantage of it and deftly slipped inside. I had just barely managed to get my tail through the door before it completely slammed shut, dropping more dust from the portal opening. No doubt when the sun came out, the door would be locked again until nightfall. That gave us quite a lot of time, but that was even if they suspected me to even be in here. Again, like my first thought, the Black Onyx Kingdom might easily mistake it for a freak accident. Any proof of me being in here was torn to ribbons. My worry was the fact now the cathedral was the only building left out of this graveyard of factories, and they might investigate it. But then again, it wasn't that I was really afraid of…

"Wow, what a place," Blazewing remarked, looking at everything around her. "Its strange, but it seems not that much different from any other church. There are a few things that seem a little weird about it."

Inside, the cathedral was very small, maybe only good for no more than fifty occupants. Still, it was incredibly dark and cold in that room. Only faint glints of light were coming in through the stained glass windows, softly illuminating parts of the black-tiled floor and the lined up pews, the two dusty chandeliers on the ceiling, and parts of the wall, which once looked like they had murals painted on them. The floor felt incredibly dirty and cold under my feet, almost what an old Egyptian tomb would probably feel like. We moved past the old, wooden pews, which probably hadn't been used in centuries. Still, it was very quiet inside, enough to hear my own heart beat and every one of my breaths. As we approached the altar, we realized there were two passages leading to an area behind it. I couldn't see anything past that though, the light from the windows didn't even touch there. Slowly, we walked carefully toward the left passage, using my hands to avoid bumping into things in the dark. As we walked through that narrow passage, I felt my hands touch the cold, firm surface of the walls as we walked through pitch black darkness.

After a short length from the main room I finally reached the room in the back, obviously making up the rest of the cathedral. Meanwhile, once I stepped into the room, the only light that illuminated the area was by the last two stained glass windows. And in that room, I saw the stairway that the book had described, the only physical way down into the Abyss. Oddly enough, it looked like any other staircase, there was nothing even remotely distinct about it that would make anyone believe it led to such a dark and evil place.

"It's going to be that pitch black the entire way down?" Blazewing asked, looking grimly at the staircase that was take us to the Abyss. "I think my eyes are going to forget how to see."

I hadn't expected this either, but it wouldn't have been the first time I've had to deal with unforeseen circumstances. And I knew it wouldn't have been the last either…

"We'll take it slow just to get used to it," I told her, hoping this wouldn't be too hard after all. "If I start to tumble, please try to catch me. I really don't want to fall all the way down…"

"Ouch… no kidding," Blazewing replied, shuddering a bit just from picturing the kind of pain someone would go through falling down so many steps. "I've got your back, don't worry."

"Well, here we go," I told her, approaching the first of the many steps it would take to begin our descent.

I started at the first stone step, and made my way down step by step with Blazewing closely following me from behind. Darker and darker it became in very little time, and I quickly found myself fumbling downward completely in the dark once again. I didn't find it odd at first, but after a long while, my fear started sinking in. No matter how much I continued, it was still pitch black down there, cold, and it was impossible to see if I was in fact making any progress. I wasn't sure if I should go back up and try to get a light source, but then the other side of me just kept telling me to keep going. So, I continued down, hoping I'd be able to see something soon.

"Are you doing alright, Juno?" Blazewing asked me in the pitch darkness.

In all truth, just hearing her voice brought me incredible relief. I took another breath, and continued on, still feeling some bits of anxiety inside me.

"The darkness is slowly getting to me," I told her, a bit anxious. "It's the thought of what's at the end of all this, and how neither of us know what to expect once we get there."

"Yeah, I know what you mean…" Blazewing replied, revealing she was anxious as well. "Bravery is a luxury when you think about it…"

Further and further we went, and now I needed light. I tried discharging a little electricity from my cheeks to hopefully illuminate something, but all I got was a faint and very brief flash of stone, which was no surprise. Still, just being able to tell I hadn't become blind was enough of a relief. It felt like we had been fumbling downwards in the dark for about three hours now. Going back up would just take another three, and I would only be wasting time, not to mention making it worse on myself.

Another two hours had passed, with nothing different at all happening. Blazewing and I tried to keep a conversation going, which helped in the beginning, but then only revealed how increasingly scared we were becoming together. I tried multiple times to change the subject, but it seemed so inane, and after a while, it almost felt like both of us were losing our sanity at the same time. The fear and the stress was intensifying. Never before had a plunge into the unknown had been so horrifying…

We were ready to scream, and now my electricity was almost completely diminished from just trying to light up the stairway. Blazewing was weeping behind me and I could feel her pain, feeling as if both of us had walked into a trap would be locked in eternity of doing nothing but descending down this dark and horrific staircase. Regardless of our plight, it was definitely too late to go back, and now I was quivering in the dark, thinking this had to be some kind of demonic trap and I was just going down into infinite space, with no light to be ever seen. My feet were aching, my hands were tired, but I still wanted to keep going until I could at least see something, anything, I didn't care what it was…

After one more terrible half hour, I finally saw a faint red glow, and I then saw the stone stairs once again. I didn't understand myself at first, I had actually become excited that we finally reached the Abyss and could see how horrible it really was. We went down further, and the glow suddenly became stronger.

"Is… this the end?" Blazewing asked, barely able to speak.

"It might just be…" I replied, nearly choking on my own fear.

Then, we had finally come to the end of the stairway, which led to a larger opening. Once I got to that point, the room suddenly opened up, and a massive stone cavern with a dark, red glow was revealed. Molten lava was rushing through the channels, and the area distinctly smelled like blood rather than ash. I then realized the walls… the walls were in fact bleeding. Meanwhile, the floor was a wreck, ravaged by chasms that would make crossing it nearly impossible. We continued down the staircase until we reached the cavern's floor. Regardless of how bad and miserable the area was, I needed to stop for a moment, and rest my feet and hands. I felt like they were on fire from the pain.

Blazewing and I were covered with so much dust and first that we were almost gray, like two shadows that had completely lost their way. Meanwhile, the heat was making our eyes dry and itchy.

"I'll fly through while you ride on my back," Blazewing told me, looking at the cavern's floor and knowing it would be difficult for me to cross over. "I think its way too easy to accidently take the wrong step and wind up taking a really hot bath…"

"Thanks, I appreciate it." I told her, definitely agreeing with that after taking a closer look at the unstable terrain ahead.

After climbing on her back, we softly and carefully flew along. However, it didn't take very long until we started noticing that there were small puddles of blood on the rocky terrain below, mostly because it was dripping down from the ceiling. At first, it wasn't too difficult for Blazewing to weave her way around them, but after a while, it became impossible to avoid them. Drops and trickles of blood fell upon our heads.

Down below, the situation hadn't gotten much better. More pools of lava and boiling blood were below, and I saw multiple cases where if it hadn't been for Blazewing, I would have had to jump into them. Still, the terrain below was no way to travel.

We continued through that cavern, having no idea how long our journey through this morbid and forsaken realm would be. Despite the fact this was the Abyss, the souls that had been damned to this place were nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, Blazewing and I were half-covered with the gray dust from the dark stairwell while the other half was blood. Truthfully, both of us looked like the undead, which was ironic considering we were the only two that were actually alive in this realm.

"I honestly don't want to ask if the Abyss gets worse than this…" Blazewing muttered, looking grimly at the bleeding, boiling caves around us.

"I'm almost certain it does," I told her, quite there were fiercer horrors beyond excessive heat and being splattered with blood. "Hopefully it won't be too much longer…"

We carried on for a few more minutes until the pools of blood and lava soon became more of the uneven rocky terrain, and even the walls had less lava and blood coming down from them. Instead, the rocky walls had burning depictions of satanic images and symbols accompanied with what I believe sounded like chanting, though I had no idea who or what that could be. Still, Blazewing kept moving, knowing it would have been pointless to turn back, not after we've come so far already.

Eventually, the walls of the cavern closed in, and we were able to narrowly make our way through the passage until we soon arrived at a lit opening. Once Blazewing flew through it, the whole world opened up around us.

I saw before me what looked like a vast, torched desert with absolutely no sign of life anywhere. Meanwhile, the sky was dark, red, and possibly uglier and more hideous than a bleeding scab. As for the ground, the only thing recognizable was a simple asphalt road, which I swear could have been meant for cars if there were any. Even that didn't make sense. Who or what would pave a road in the Abyss?

We then left the tunnel, and stopped for a moment outside, just looking at the scorched earth and feeling the hot and sickening wind whip all around us, blowing swiftly through my long ears and tail. And I just looked ahead at the road, knowing it had to head toward the City of Dis. Blazewing and I exchanged glances for a moment, and then looked into the distance as we both thought the same thing…

Truly… the Abyss was Hell for Pokémon…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 20
The City of Shattered Souls​

It made me wonder how we could be underground and outside at the same time. As I trudged along that broken down and pitted road as Blazewing lightly floated by my side, I couldn't help but look up at the flaring sky, feeling more alone than ever before. The road ahead of us seemed to stretch for many miles into the horizon among this warped and arid wasteland. Still, I continued anyway, and as I looked back, I had seen that the tunnel we had come from had disappeared in the distance.

There was still no sign of Dis anywhere, though in a place like this, I didn't know whether to be eager to see it with the hopes that we could get out of here soon, or with the dread of wondering how abysmal it would be considering what we've seen of the Abyss so far. Meanwhile, Blazewing looked around her, a bit baffled at how chaotic this realm really was. Still, having her by my side was a relief, and I knew if she hadn't been there, I would have felt like a lost, forsaken soul totally unaware of where I was or where I was even going. Already, this place went beyond paradoxes…

"It almost makes me wish every last evil Pokémon could see what the Abyss is really like," Blazewing told me, philosophizing for a moment. "If they were to see how cold and heartless this place is, world peace would almost be guaranteed. None of them would even dare committing an act of evil."

"Somehow, I get the feeling that very few of them are even aware of what they are doing," I told her truthfully.

I felt like Zander and Skepter were two of those kinds of people. Zander had become so incredibly self-centered that he seemed totally unaware that anyone else was even a living being. Meanwhile, it seemed like cruelty and heartlessness had sunken so deep into Skepter's soul that he was blind to the emotions of others.

"Juno…" Blazewing told me softly, suddenly snapping to attention as she quickly looked up to the sky. "Juno… I think it's raining… blood again…"

I felt it again. It was like normal rain, landing randomly with a soft pattering sound. Only now… it was a scarlet red, leaving visible streaks of crimson liquid as each drop rolled down our bodies. It then started to rain harder, covering the both of us with it, and even making the two of us look like we had been horribly wounded. My yellow fur was now soaked in it, dripping with the blood as the landscape around us became something out of a nightmare. I looked up, seeing the wasteland now layered with puddles and oceans of blood, most of it appearing to look as black as death.

And then, a vicious crack of thunder had burst out, only this time it was black as oil and instead of illuminating the sky, it only shrouded it in darkness. Meanwhile, the entire ground was being soaked with blood, like a battlefield without bodies.

I quickly jumped onto Blazewing's back, and then grabbed on tight.

"Come on, we'd better get out of here." I told her, showing her the road was the way to go, "The City of Dis should be just down that road. As long as you keep following it, we'll be fine."

"Alright, hopefully we'll get there soon." She replied, ready to take off.

We were only within seconds of getting off the ground when suddenly I felt like something struck me in the side of my face and sent me spinning randomly. The whole world suddenly became a blur spinning at a million miles an hour, and then I felt the hard impact of landing on the asphalt road again. Only seconds later, Blazewing had landed right besides me, also struck by the same mysterious force. I screamed out, not sure if we were being attacked of if this was some other ill effect of this horrific place.

Surprisingly, there was no pain, but I was disoriented for a moment. When I got off my back and I could see again for a moment, I was greeted with another fright…

The road to Dis… was everywhere. Rather than a single road coming and going, I suddenly found myself in the middle of crossroads, now with ten other similar looking roads shooting out in all directions from my position. There was no way to tell which road was the real road heading toward Dis, and which ones were fake. They all looked the same to me…

And then, with another blast of thunder, I suddenly heard a loud and hideous mechanical laughter echo outward as the dark scarlet rain continued drenching us. I didn't know if we were still in the same place or where we were even heading beforehand. The amnesia that was crippling me was beginning to make my mind go in circles.

"What on earth was that!?" She asked, totally disoriented like I was…

"Someone or something is trying to stop us from reaching Dis…" I replied, trying to look for some kind of way to tell which road was the correct one.

But then, I noticed something. The original road was straight, and from where I was sitting, many of the other roads weren't perfectly aligned with the counterpart on the other side of the star-like formation of crossroads I was sitting at. I quickly hopped on Blazewing's back, knowing just how to tell which road was the right one. The only risk now… was being sent right back to the tunnel where I came from. But that was far less dangerous than being sent to the middle of nowhere…

"Try to head upward." I told her, holding on tight, "The other roads aren't perfectly aligned, and seeing the junction from the sky will give us a better idea which road is the correct one. It has to be a road that cuts through the intersection without any skewed angles."

And so, Blazewing headed upward, and I looked below. Surely enough, only one road at the entire junction cut through in a perfectly straight line. All the others were at skewed angles, heading toward the horizon. However, I doubted they would lead to anywhere worth seeing.

"Do you see it?" I asked her, hoping she was following the same pattern, "Just follow that one road that cuts through the junction in a perfectly straight line. The others have to be fake."

"Alright, I got it." She replied, immediately heading down the correct road before it could be altered again.

And then, we flew down that asphalt road, hovering above it to make sure we stayed on the correct path. I could only imagine that things were only going to get harder in the path ahead. And neither of us knew just how far away Dis really was…

After a long and treacherous flight of getting smothered by blood rain, we finally caught sight of something in the distance. Slowly, the twisted and dilapidated city of Dis emerged from the hideous scab-colored sky. I was getting closer now, but I had a feeling that this was going to be the hardest part. For now, the city was massive, and I could already tell it might take some time to find The Temple of the Damned in this amass of fallen skyscrapers. I didn't even know what the temple looked like or how big it was. Even worse, I didn't even know if it was still intact or if like the rest of these buildings, it too was nothing more than ruins.

The closer we got, the more hideous The City of Dis seemed to become. Yet… it was surprisingly empty for some reason. Slowly, the blood rain was fading away, and by the time Blazewing had reached the front entrance, it had totally cleared up, leaving pools and puddles of blood scattered everywhere.

"Is this… really Dis…?" She asked, looking around, "I swear I've never seen a place so wretched…"

"And it makes you wonder why so many Pokémon live such an evil life when the stakes are as high as being eternally punished into a place like this…" I replied, just baffled at the sight of it.

I quickly got off her back, and felt my two feet land directly in a puddle of blood, immediately soaking them yet again and sending the murky red liquid splashing in all directions. However, by now they were so soaked with blood that there was hardly any difference from before.

By now, I was feeling exhausted, and I could sense Blazewing was feeling weary herself. The whole time, we had been pushing ourselves, hoping to make this trip quick and as painless as possible, pushing ourselves at a grueling pace. However, it was definitely catching up to us. I sighed, however, not too convinced that resting and sleeping in the Abyss would be such a good idea. I highly doubted we would ever find a safe place to rest in this twisted nightmare.

As I stepped forward, my right foot landed on something cold and metal, and when I looked down, I had seen it was a sign, half covered in blood. I picked it up, and wiped away the blood, and saw it was shaped and colored like an ordinary green sign someone would see on a highway. I looked at its bright white lettering, and just read it…

Abandon all hope, all you who enter these doors. Welcome to the City of Dis…

…Juno.

I could have sworn I just saw my name suddenly appear on the sign, and then suddenly the entire sign felt boiling hot. I threw it down furiously out of shock and pain, and watched it land right into the puddle of blood. Oddly enough, it was hot enough to make steam even out of the blood…

"Are you alright!?" Blazewing shouted shock, never suspecting that to happen.

"I'm… fine." I told her, shaking my paws in a rather pathetic way to cool them off and neutralize the burning sting of pain.

Still, I continued, taking my first steps through those ruined, bleeding streets. The whole city looked like it was bombed out years ago, with ruined cars and buildings laying in pieces everywhere. The husks and ruins of skyscrapers, apartment buildings, and office buildings all around us created a macabre skyline while the streets were pitted and ruined with craters, blast marks, cracks, and at times, jagged chasms that gave the appearance that some hellish earthquake had happened here as well. Other piles of twisted rubble and debris were everywhere, leaving the sidewalks and streets half buried under the ruins. It made me wonder if the Temple of The Damned hadn't been totally destroyed too. Yet, when I arrived at the third block, something totally bizarre happened.

I accidently tripped over a jagged edge in the road and was suddenly thrown face first into another puddle of blood, again, covering my face with that same murky red liquid all over again. But by now, I was almost getting used to it. Blazewing helped me up and I then wiped the blood off my eyes. However, something strange had happened. The entire City of Dis was completely transformed. Where once it was totally destroyed, it suddenly became a dark and thriving metropolis… only now…

"What the…?" Blazewing suddenly asked, looking up to see everything completely different now.

…Everything, but every little facet in the entire town… was directly aimed at humiliating and tearing us apart…

It was such a dark torture. Neon signs in the storefronts, flashing the most incriminating things about us, billboards depicting Blazewind and I as a bloody mess and pointing mockery about it, and the graffiti on the walls… all spelling out how I was the worst thing that ever slithered into this town. And that… that was just the beginning…

I looked back down to see that the puddle of blood was no longer there, neither was the gash in the road that caused me to trip in the first place. Yet, when I turned around to see if the area behind us had changed as well, I was greeted with another horror…

"Eternal damnation never looked so fine, right, rat?" I heard his belittling voice.

Achilles the Vigoroth, exactly the way I remembered him just before I shot him to death, was now standing above me, smiling about it. I quickly reached for one of my rifles, hoping it would still work even after all that blood it had been soaked in. Surprisingly, the automatic rifle roared to life, blasting fire and carnage right into Achilles's face as each spent ammo casing was ejected out of the side. But… it did nothing…

"What… the… hell…" I questioned, wondering why nothing happened…

"Are you really that stupid!?" Achilles laughed, totally in disbelief, "I'm already dead, dammit! How the hell do you think I ended up here?"

As much as I hated everything about him, he was right. I just threw the rifle aside, knowing it wasn't worth the metal it was made out of. In fact, I was totally defenseless. Everything here was either dead or just an illusion…

"I really do have to ask…" Achilles continued after I threw the rifle away, "Why did you two come here anyway? I was totally infuriated when I found out you had reached Utopia and I was thrown down here to rot, but now… I see you're down here with me. But for some reason… you're not actually dead… are you?"

No… we weren't. But what made me wonder was… did I really trip back there, or was the spirit of Achilles was able to push me into that puddle of blood despite he shouldn't have been able to do it if he was only spiritual and I was corporeal. And then… I got an even worse fright. If I had been killed by Achilles or anything else in this city before I reached the Temple of The Damned… would my soul be able to escape… or would it be stuck down here with the rest of them…?

I didn't hang around to find out.

"Let's get out of here!" I shouted to Blazewing, quickly jumping upon her back.

Without even a nod, she quickly flew away, leaving the damned Vigoroth in the distance. For a moment, I felt as if I could have seen a dark smile beam across his face… a disturbing sight that would probably end up as one of the many dark memories in the archives of my mind…

I threw away my other two rifles to remove some of the weight on my back. They wouldn't do anything for me, even after all the walking I had done to get them here. As Blazewing flew through the dark streets, I saw more streets full of paraphernalia that hated every last thing about the two of us. I caught sight of another billboard on an office building, showing a picture of me dashed into bloody pieces, with the words "No, Juno" on the top. I just told myself that it wasn't real, these were just illusions. No doubt, this had to be my own hell, specially crafted and customized just for us to feel miserable. The real City of Dis… was just a wasteland. I had to keep telling myself that…

Still, the city was huge, and the Temple of The Damned could be anywhere in this jungle of concrete buildings. Worst thing was… I had no idea where to begin looking. And I highly doubted that someone would be so happy to give me a map and directions to the place considering how much this entire town hated the very ground I walked on…

Even though I wasn't too crazy about Blazewing flying through the middle of the streets, there didn't seem to be too many options. For now, it seemed the City of Dis was relatively empty, but the sudden and abrupt presence of Achilles only a few minutes ago didn't leave me convinced we weren't being pursued. Problem was, Blazewing wasn't really sure where to go, simply taking street after street, hoping by luck and chance we might find something that could be what we were looking for. However, I hadn't seen anything like it. We were lost and I wasn't sure if there was any quick solution to this problem.

If I had run into Achilles, I had a feeling any old enemy of mine could be running around out there, the Crimson Stars, Jamac… heck, perhaps even Zander, though I had a feeling since this was Hell of Pokémon, I could at least be saved the misfortune of running into him. But the horror of the reality was I couldn't fight any of them, but they… they had everything they needed to kill me and perhaps keep me bound to this miserable place forever. And if not that… it would be enough to make me fail my mission to get to the Stone of Dusk in the Temple of The Damned. And if I failed that, I would be forgotten, King Skepter would rule all of Kivistal, and the Silver Apex would just be dust. I couldn't allow either to happen…

I was very paranoid at the moment, and Blazewing also kept an extremely watchful eye, ready to fight to the death at any moment. I knew that if the Temple of The Damned was totally submerged in darkness, it had to be a building without windows and couldn't possibly be ruins. That didn't give me a whole lot of leads though. Still, searching every inch of this city wasn't going to work either, I would easily be killed before I got to that point.

For now, I just kept watch, looking around for both the Temple of The Damned or anything that might be considered a threat. However, unless we found something to help us, we could be searching this macabre city for years and never find it…

 

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 21
Under the Veil​

More and more, we carefully crept through the alleyways, past stuffed trash dumpsters with newspapers, bottles, cigarette butts, and other trash scattered about randomly. Again, I found more spiteful graffiti, more hatred of me dashed all over the place, but I ignored it. Still, while this undercover route was keeping me hidden, I was blocked from looking at the streets, which meant I couldn't even see the Temple of The Damned. I could be passing it right by and I wouldn't even know about it…

But even then, I mistakenly bumped into a familiar face. Not a friendly one… but perhaps one that was not as hostile as the others…

"Uh huh…" He snickered, nodding his head, "My, this must be my lucky day."

Frank… but in his younger years… for some odd reason. But now, I would imagine that he'd be an adult by now, so this wasn't making sense…

"Frank…" I stated, lowering my eyelids in disgust, "Frank Meyers. Never thought I'd see you here…"

"Haw, never thought I'd see the day Jake Kossak would rather be a cute lil' Pikachu instead." Frank laughed, "Oh wait, that's right. He's dead now. Heh heh, dead."

Meanwhile, Blazewing looked at him strangely, having a good idea of who he was, but it was obvious something in the equation wasn't making sense. I nodded at Frank, shoving that one little detail that I would have liked to put behind me aside. But then, I realized something, something that didn't connect. It just didn't make sense…

"Mind if I ask you one thing, Frank, before you turn me in for this great Juno hunt?" I asked him, knowing that was obviously his intention, "Exactly what are you doing here in the Abyss anyway? Your real self really shouldn't be dead yet, the real you is much older now, and after all, this is the afterlife of damned Pokémon, not humans."

And then… he just looked down, suddenly not so happy anymore…

"Eh… guess you're not as stupid as you look…" Frank whimpered…

And suddenly, just like that, he faded from sight. There wasn't any trace of him, as if he had never been there. But then… suddenly I watched the City of Dis switch back to its ruined and dilapidated state. I looked around me, and saw it was set back to the exact way it looked before I entered. And then it just started to flicker between the dark metropolis illusion of Dis, and the real ruined version. But… to my dismay, it quickly returned to being the illusion again. Blazewing and I looked at each other for a moment, and I knew we had seen the exact same occurrence.

It was the oddest thing, but I knew the real Dis was the ruined version, not this anti-Juno dark city that kept trying to hide me from the truth. But… unlike a trapped soul meant to be stuck in a world where they are hated, I was in physical form, which meant I could still alter and affect the environment around me. It then hit me. To keep Dis in its ruined and true state, I needed to not only think that the dark city was a fake illusion…

I needed to act it…

I immediately looked to the wall on my side. I knew that brick wall with its malicious graffiti and torn posters wasn't really there. So… I walked to it. Then, I held out my hand, and moved my hand forward so it went right through the wall…

Instantly, the entire city switched back to the real version of Dis. And there it was, nothing but the ruins of a building before me. Yes… this is what I needed to do to find the Temple of The Damned. Keep the real Dis lasting for as long as possible, long enough to find the temple, which had to still be intact. After all, the interior couldn't be in complete darkness if the roof or walls of the building were damaged. That only meant it was still standing in even the real version of Dis.

"Look at that…" Blazewing gasped, surprised to see that happen. "Wow, this place is really… really strange."

"It seems the real Dis is nothing but ruins, while the illusion is the custom-designed torture designed to torment whoever walks through here."

Following the example, we both went forward, now no longer moving in the streets or alleyways, but through the buildings themselves, rushing through the walls and leaping over the debris of the city. The interiors of the buildings were nothing but the broken ruins of a post-apocalyptic city, while the illusion made it appear as if the city was actually still alive and thriving. As long as we kept doing this, it was impossible for Dis to return to its illusionary state since I'd be running through the walls at a constant pace.

As we moved through the blocks, we quickly ran out of buildings to run through as we reached the end of the block, and I had to run across a street. Thinking quickly, I jumped on Blazewing's back, and working together, she went full speed ahead cross the street just as we left cover. But, before we made it to the other side, Dis flickered back to its dark city form, but it would only be for a few moments. A movie store selling nothing but DVDs of us being mocked and tortured stood before us now, but Blazewing simply flew right through its door, and again, it all disappeared back into the ruined City of Dis. Meanwhile, I kept an eye out for the temple, now it was much easier to look around with only ruins to look through rather than a full fledged city.

"Whew, it looks so much like we would just end up crashing right into it!" Blazewing exclaimed, almost with a laugh. "Still, I hope no one saw us."

"I hope not either…" I told her, looking behind me. "Still, keep a look out for the temple. There may be a lot to search through, but I'm quite sure the building would have to still be intact."

I decided to stay on Blazewing's back, moving through the rows of apartment and office buildings was our safe area, but it was the streets that were a problem. I could still be seen by the spirits of my enemies, enemies like Achilles, Jamac, and whoever else could want me dead and my soul stuck down here. Still, it seemed like whenever I was inside the ruins of the buildings, I was totally cloaked from sight, but as soon as I ran across the streets, the spirits of my enemies suddenly snapped to attention as they saw me. I guess to them… the dark metropolis illusion was all they could see. Meanwhile, I wasn't even sure if these were the real souls of my enemies, or if they were just another part of the illusion.

We had to fly across three more streets, making sure the coast was clear while we did so. On and on it went, and after a while, we made my way through the ruins slowly, rather than run the entire distance. I couldn't believe how big this place was, and yet still no sighting of the Temple of The Damned. And yet… judging by how much more of the city lay ahead of us, there was still quite a distance to go. Even then, I still had no idea what the temple looked like or how big it was. It could be as small as one of the convenience stores or a very large cathedral the size of a gymnasium.

Another street came before us. Like usual now, I checked both left and right, not only to look for spirits, but to also check for the temple itself. Right across the street was the ruins of a fallen skyscraper, leaning on the ruins of buildings besides it. Once I was convinced the coast was clear, Blazewing sped across the street while I watched our sides and made sure we weren't being pursued..

Soon after, the city returned to its illusionary state, and I saw what that skyscraper really looked like, at least until Blazewing flew right through the glass front doors of the entrance. Once I got there and the city returned to its real state, we simply continued, but we weren't sure how much more area we would need to clear before we found the temple.

The line of buildings was "L" shaped this time, so I encouraged Blazewing to follow the line for as long as possible until we reached the end again. Once again, checked left and right, but for some reason, this area of the city was awfully crowded…

More spirits, some from the Crimson Stars, a few others from the Black Onyx. I also saw a few other familiar faces walking around. Vorox was there, the old leader of the Crimson Star Wind Strikers… until I killed him, of course. Still, he was looking at the other spirits, as if it was some kind of assembly in the middle of the street. I kept quiet and listened in, something about this seemed strange.

"We have a very interesting situation on our hands…" Vorox snickered, now sounding a hell of a lot more sinister than when I last saw him, "I know most of us never thought we'd ever get this chance, but that chance is actually here…"

At first, I thought he was talking about some way to leave the city, but that seemed doubtful.

"He's here…" Another spirit had stated.

I looked toward him and saw Vexcel, the Dragonite that betrayed the Silver Apex along with Achilles. I really wondered who else I'd be running into in this miserable place…

"I don't know why, but Juno is somewhere in this city." Vexcel continued, looking at the other spirits, "And he has that damn Latias with him too. I know you hate his fat, yellow hide as much as I do, but let's not get too hasty. There's obviously a reason why he's here, and the sooner we find out what it is, the sooner we can make him suffer for everything he's done to each and every one of us."

Surprisingly enough, somehow word was spreading around…