The Trial of Juno I: The Dawn of Hope

[Neo Pikachu]

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Chapter 1[/center:2wq4hmw4]
[center:2wq4hmw4]Enemy of the School[/center:2wq4hmw4]

Randy was a loser. Not just any ordinary loser, but Randy must have been the king of losers. Plus he was the only reason why I found interest at school. Whenever I got angry or frustrated, all I had to do was find Randy Ferguson and release my stress upon him. It always made my day.

And Randy’s Pokémon were also losers, and they’d always be that way since they always got beat up badly every time he battled. I must have made Randy’s Pidgey and Nidoran kiss dirt at least twenty times, but I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve really beaten him. Randy also had a Growlithe and a Caterpie, and I’ve knocked their lights out plenty of times. Obviously, Randy was too stupid to know how to really battle.

Alex and David, two of my best friends also hated Randy’s guts. While I liked to slowly torture Randy’s Pokémon in a battle, Alex wiped out Randy’s Pokémon so fast it was hilarious. David on the other hand liked to just outright pound the stuffing out of Randy’s Pokémon with his Rhydon and his Tyranitar until there was barely anything left to identify them. Randy said he’s been a trainer for nearly two years. To me, he was practically on the same level as a beginner who only just started yesterday. If that’s not pathetic, then I don’t know what is.

We only got caught once picking on Randy, and it was in the hallway between classes. But all the other times, Randy pointed blame at us but just had nothing to prove it. One day, Alex put a stink-bomb in Randy’s desk while he was away, and when Randy came back and threw his books in, he broke the glass and the whole classroom smelled like something died in there for the entire day. Of course, we only did it once, just like everything else we did to him. Otherwise he’d begin to catch on, and honestly, I preferred being original.

Another amusement came from my birthday. Normally, whenever someone’s birthday comes up, their mom makes cupcakes for everyone in the class. My mom did the same thing, and I sprinkled them all sorts of colors, red, yellow, blue, and purple. Each cupcake was its own color, but for Randy, I sprinkled his green to indicate to me which one I would hand to him. After I made sure mom wasn’t looking, I slipped a laxative tablet into the green-sprinkled cupcake. When I handed it to Randy the next day, he ate it so fast and it was a struggle not to burst out laughing. After a hilarious series of events, Randy’s new nickname was “potty-pants” for the rest of the school year. Still, he didn’t have an ounce of proof that I had anything to do with it. Again, it was pure genius.

Since my allowance was small, I needed to rely on Randy’s lunch money as a considerable income. I never felt guilty about taking it either. Heck, I figured that if Randy had the school lunch everyday, he’d become just as fat as Frank Meyers, who we’d always call “shirt-burster” on a regular basis. I was doing Randy a favor by making sure he wouldn’t eat such crappy food that day. I then considered that his lunch money was income for my services. It wasn’t much, but a dollar a day ended up being thirty bucks a month. Then count that all up for each day of the school year… hell, I was making out well.

We got a big surprise May 14th. Well, it wasn’t during school like most of our pranks took place, it was after. And it didn’t start with Randy this time…

Alex, David and I had been walking down the stairs out of the back entrance of Scottville Middle School and then we saw it. There he was, Frank Meyers lying down in the mud. His short, blonde hair and his pudgy face were soiled with liquid dirt and his shirt (or what was left of it!) was completely soaked with mud. We didn’t even need to do anything to begin laughing hysterically.

“Hey Frank!” David shouted out over a hard laugh, “What happened to ya!?”

“Chill man.” I told David, “The pig just wanted to cool himself down.”

Frank was in a cross between crying and becoming furious. We laughed even further. Someone who’s in the seventh grade really should’ve learned to stop crying like an infant long ago.

Alex then made the situation more hilarious. He found the backpack that Frank had dropped and opened it up. Alex then threw out Frank’s folders and his books and each of them landed in the mud, effectively soaking the pages full of mud. Frank was getting even worse. Then I saw something that made me laugh even further. Frank had Pokéballs in his backpack that also landed in the mud after Alex threw them out. I really just couldn’t picture a fat, worthless piece of flesh like Frank being a worthwhile Pokémon trainer…

Then, as if it couldn’t even get better, out of nowhere came Randy Ferguson. He was standing before us like he was all high and mighty, with his frizzy orange hair blowing in the wind. He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans in a hopeless attempt to fit in with everyone else at the school. Alex had dumped everything that was in Frank’s backpack before turning around and seeing our special victim.

“Well, if it isn’t potty-pants himself in living color.” Alex smiled at Randy, giving him that special glare, “If you’re looking for the bathroom, it’s inside, stupid.”

“The three of you are going to pay for picking on Frank.” Randy told us, trying to sound tough and totally ignoring Alex’s comment.

The three of us laughed even further. Here was Randy, acting like a big hero for shirt-burster. That idiot had no clue what he was getting into.

“Randy,” David told him honestly, “Even you should be aware that Frank isn’t worth the dirt he’s laying in.”

“You’re wrong!” Randy wailed, again trying to play the hero here, “And I’ll prove it to you.”

Then, Randy reached for his belt and pulled out one of his Pokéballs. I could see where this was going…

Did that idiot really expect to win a battle against us? I couldn’t believe it. All this time, Frank seemed to become more hopeful now that Randy was here to defend him. Frank was just about to learn that his guardian angel wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.

“Go Nidoran!” Randy shouted, tossing his Pokéball forward.

The Pokéball landed on the asphalt of the parking lot, and a moment later, Randy’s worthless Nidoran emerged from its Pokéball. The three of us looked at each other to decide how we wanted to beat the stuffing out of Randy’s Pokémon. It was then decided that I should be the one to do it. To us, time plus torture equaled amusement.

I then removed one of my own Pokéballs and threw it on to the asphalt as well. Out came my fantastic Raichu. After Raichu set his gaze upon his opponent, he realized it was the same worthless Nidoran he had crushed so many times before. Even Raichu looked like he was tried of Randy’s brainless attempts to beat us.

“Raichu!” I shouted, “Use your Thunder Wave against Nidoran!”

It was getting to the point where Raichu didn’t even need commands to kick the stuffing out of Nidoran. It had become so systematic that Raichu could fight almost completely on his own like this had been something he had been trained to do.

Raichu then sent out his Thunder Wave, and when the bright pulses of electricity hit Randy’s Nidoran, he was rendered helpless, completely paralyzed from the shock. All that Nidoran could do now was quiver on his back as sparks of electricity surrounded his body.

“Slam that Nidoran with a Brick-break attack, Raichu.” I told him, knowing this would finish the job with no problem at all.

Raichu then charged at Randy’s Nidoran, and all Nidoran could do was just watch as Raichu rushed up to punish it. When Raichu reached his target, he threw a bone-cracking punch right into his side, sending Nidoran tumbling out of control. Alex and David were laughing again as Randy was losing like he always was.

“Nidoran, return.” Randy moaned in frustration as a red beam shot out from his Pokéball and landed on Nidoran. The pathetic Pokémon was then returned to Randy’s Pokéball.

He then threw out a second Pokéball, and it also landed on the parking lot. Then, out came Randy’s Pidgey. Randy didn’t even need to lose yet and we already began laughing.

“Randy,” David told him, trying to fight the hard laughter for a moment, “Don’t you know anything about type-alignments? Flying types don’t do very well against electric types like Raichu…”

“I don’t care.” Randy responded, “My Pidgey is faster than Jake’s Raichu.”

You wish. Raichu’s signature attribute was his speed, and it was ten times faster than Pidgey’s. This time I showed no mercy.

“Raichu, use your Thunderbolt.” I smiled to Raichu, knowing it would be more than enough to send Randy’s little Pidgey screaming into the oblivion.

And to help Raichu even further, Pidgey took flight. Raichu’s cheeks flared up with electricity and just as Pidgey realized what was happening, a massive fork of lightning emerged from the shining Raichu and struck Pidgey dead-on, blasting him with a bright flash. Pidgey was thoroughly cooked for ten seconds before Raichu released his power, and let the hopeless Pidgey fall from the sky just before the nice, hard and firm asphalt broke his fall. The only smart move Randy made after that was giving up.

“Fine Jake.” Randy said with frustration, “I give up. But some day, I’ll become so strong that the three of you combined won’t even beat me!”

“Randy…” Alex said, nearly laughing, “In your dreams. There’s no way you’ll ever become strong enough to beat us. You can try all you like, but you’ll never do it.”

That normally would have been a very typical day that the three of us tortured Randy. But something else happened that day that we won’t long forget about…

[Luxray13579]

Yes I read all of it wow thats good, when is the next chapter comming??
I'm very excited to see what happens next!

[Neo Pikachu]

[center:1yltnth6]Chapter 2
Out of Nowhere[/center:1yltnth6]

Out from behind the hill came none other that Jeff Huntington. I barely knew who he was, other than the fact he was a sports jock. He seemed to have been watching the whole thing from the distance. He looked like he was just about to go to a lacrosse practice, until he decided to hang around here instead.

“The three of you have some nerve.” Jeff told us, giving us an annoyed glare, “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

“Jeff,” Alex said to him, “Why don’t you mind your own business? If you hung around Randy for even just five minutes, you’d realize just how worthless he really is.”

“If you want a challenge, then try fighting me!” Jeff shouted to the three of us, “I’ll make this a two on two battle. If I beat you, then you have to promise to leave Randy alone.”

“But if we win…?” David asked Jeff, expecting a response.

“Then you won’t hear from me again, understand?” Jeff told David, feeling confident that wouldn’t happen.

Some bargain. The only reward we would be getting out of beating Jeff’s Pokémon is Jeff’s humiliation, which usually came free with every successful battle. But, even if we did lose, we had no intention of backing down.

“Jake,” Alex said to me, looking at me from the corner of his eye, “Let me take care of this idiot.”

“Sure thing.” I said to him, returning my Raichu to his Pokéball.

Alex was quick as lightning when it came to beating Randy’s Pokémon up. Fighting Jeff was going to be even more interesting. Jeff had pulled out two of his Pokéballs and threw them forward.

“Go, Ampharos and Espeon!” Jeff shouted as he threw forward the two Pokéballs.

And, just like Jeff said, out of their Pokéballs came an Ampharos and an Espeon. For once, we were going to see what a real battle looked like rather than the shameful excuses that Randy kept handing to us. And at that moment, Jeff was just about to see what his adversary was capable of.

“Go, Houndoom and Mightyena!” Alex shouted as he let loose two of his Pokéballs.

Obviously, Alex had picked his nastiest Pokémon for the job. I couldn’t wait to see Jeff get wasted.

“Ampharos, use your Thunder Wave attack on Mightyena!” Jeff commanded, “Espeon, use your Light Screen.”

Clever boy. Unlike Randy, he actually had a strategy going. But Alex wasn’t through yet.

Ampharos let loose a pulsing Thunder Wave that unfortunately Mightyena had no way of avoiding. Meanwhile, Espeon coated himself with a shield of light. That wasn’t about to stop Alex’s Pokémon.

“Houndoom, use your Crunch attack on Espeon!” Alex commanded, “Mightyena, use your Howl!”

For now, it looked like Mightyena could fight off the paralyzing effects of Ampharos’s attack. He had let loose a loud howl, filling his body with ripe energy and anger. Now he looked ready to dish out some serious pain.

In the meantime, Houndoom charged right after Espeon, and rendered his sharp teeth to bite down on Espeon. After a harsh bite down from Houndoom, Espeon was knocked back, trying to stay on his feet. His light screen fended off some of the damage, but not all. Alex needed to find a way to get past that Light Screen, and soon…

While Espeon wasn’t looking too great from the Crunch attack, Mightyena looked like the Thunder Wave was starting to get to him, and he found it hard to even move. Alex had to give Mightyena a moment to recover. Meanwhile, he was making sure he was getting the maximum he could out of his type advantage over Espeon.

Jeff commanded his Ampharos to attack Mightyena with a Thunder attack. I was crossing my fingers hoping it wouldn’t hit, but Jeff got lucky this time. Mightyena was barraged with another harsh amount of electricity that slammed right on him like a sledgehammer. Still, he wasn’t down and out yet…

Meanwhile, Jeff ordered Espeon to use his Morning Sun. To our dismay, Espeon was coated with light for a brief second, and every bit of pain Houndoom had dealt to Espeon had been recovered. But Alex knew that Espeon wasn’t too much of a threat because both Houndoom and Mightyena were dark types. While Mightyena needed a brief moment to recover, Alex decided on a new target for Houndoom.

“Houndoom, use your Flamethrower on Ampharos!” Alex shouted.

Houndoom put his front paws forward, arched back his head and then let loose a red-hot stream of flames upon the unsuspecting Ampharos. Jeff’s Ampharos twitched painfully as he was slowly barbecued. Then, to our surprise, when the flames cleared, Ampharos had been inflicted with a harsh burn on his side.

Then, Jeff commanded his Ampharos to also put a Light Screen shield on himself. Ampharos was also coated by the shield, which was going to make things harder for Alex. But, he still had a plan. For now, Mightyena was back in action.

“Mightyena, use your Headbutt attack on Ampharos.” Alex commanded.

Mightyena then charged toward Ampharos, thirsty for revenge. Mightyena then put his head down, and then slammed forcefully into Ampharos, completely ignoring the effects of the Light Screen shield. Ampharos was knocked into a back flip before landing face first on the hard asphalt. Too bad for Jeff, because at that moment, Ampharos didn’t look like it could handle any more.

“Ampharos, return.” Jeff commanded as he summoned Ampharos back to his Pokéball.

Taking down Espeon was Alex’s next objective. Mightyena needed another moment to rest, so Houndoom was up for the fight. Still, Jeff’s Espeon was going to get the first strike.

“Espeon, use your Quick Attack!” Jeff shouted to Espeon.

Espeon then burst into a blur, and slammed right into Houndoom in a flash of fury. However, it was more of a surprise than a really painful attack. Houndoom growled off the pain, and then focused on his target.

“Headbutt attack.” Alex commanded, knowing that too would cut right through the Light Screen.

Houndoom lowered his head, and then charged right into Espeon, again ignoring the effects of the Light Screen. Espeon was hit hard, having very little protection against it. And best of all, Espeon flinched from the attack, hopelessly trying to shield himself with his front paws while wincing from the fury of the attack. And now, Alex was more than ready to attack again while Espeon was in a hopeless trance of trying to fight off the terror.

“One more time, Houndoom.” Alex said with a smile on his face.

Espeon was slammed again, and after rolling over a few times and laying still on his side, he didn’t get back up. Jeff had been defeated, and he looked far more miserable as he returned Espeon to his Pokéball. After that, Alex returned Houndoom and Mightyena to their respective Pokéballs.

“As long as you bother Frank and Randy every day, you’ll have to deal with me.” Jeff warned, “Mark my words.”

“I thought you said you’d stay out of our way if you lost!” David shouted back, annoyed that even puny little Jeff Huntington couldn’t even keep his own deal, “And right now, Alex just beat the pants off of your pathetic Pokémon!”

“Well,” Jeff remarked, crossing his arms, “I changed my mind, just like you three would have done if you lost!”

I was getting sick of this. Why on earth would Jeff want to defend Randy so much anyway? No one seemed to really care except him. Even the many people that were walking around didn’t seem to care at all.

“Fine Jeff.” I told him, staring right back at him in the face, “If you really want to lose to us each and every day of the school year, you can go ahead and be my guest.”

“It won’t be that way for long.” Jeff warned us, “The three of you bullies are going down, and very soon.”

Pathetic moron. He had no idea what he was dealing with. And to even further our amusement, Jeff, Randy, and worthless shirt-burster became friends after that. If that doesn’t make you laugh, I don’t know what will…

While we never really bothered Frank and Jeff as much as we did Randy, everything had changed that next day. Worthless Frank and Jeff were going to suffer just as much as Randy was. And my patience was ending. Why the heck did Jeff come from nowhere and fight us? I just didn’t understand it.

Now that those three clowns were watching each other’s back, it was going to be harder for us to get them one by one. But, all it took was just twenty-four hours and Randy would make the biggest mistake in his life. I just couldn’t believe it until it actually happened.

Right after school, Alex, David and I headed out the back like we usually do, and there they were, Frank, Randy and Jeff just waiting for us. Randy was looking incredibly confident of himself, as if he was packing a pistol and ready to just gun down the three of us.

“Well, if it isn’t the three losers.” Frank giggled like a hog, thinking he had already won.

“Losers?” I asked in some surprise, “Guess what you stupid idiot!? It was Randy and Jeff that lost yesterday, so why don’t you just shut your worthless trap!?”

Jeff seemed to grow more impatient. He looked at the three of us, especially Alex, and seemed to wear a very dark expression.

“Randy is going to become more powerful than any other trainer.” Jeff told us with some kind of idiotic smile, “In a matter of moments, he will become more powerful than you can ever imagine…”

We started laughing hysterically. Obviously Jeff had been hanging around Randy’s brain cell killing aura for just too long. If Randy really wanted to lose again, I would gladly make his wish come true, but there was no way Randy could become better than us in just a matter of seconds.

Then, out of the blue, Randy pulled out of his pocket what appeared to be a blue and black beaded necklace with a large, red crystal as its pendant. He held it with confidence like it was a detonator to blow up the whole planet.

“Ah, so Randy’s into jewelry.” David snickered, “Big deal. How is some ordinary piece of junk like that going to help Randy become a better Pokémon trainer?”

“This is no ordinary piece of jewelry, David Miller.” Jeff told him, “This is a necklace that was worn by Quista, an ancient and powerful sorcerer who imbued it with many powers.”

“Say what!?” Alex asked in surprise, “What the heck are you talking about?”

It was really sad to see Jeff go this far into threatening us. To me, that necklace looked like a fake. Plus I didn’t believe in magic powers or whatever. Jeff and Randy couldn’t win at Pokémon to save their lives, and this was their way of trying to bluff us out. What a joke.

“Jeff,” I told him, “Get a life. You don’t really expect us to believe that, do you? Just where did Randy even get that piece of garbage?”

“I gave it to him.” Jeff told us, “My father is an archeologist, and he found this in an Kavaskian tomb three years ago. He was supposed to sell it to a museum, but he decided not to. You’re not going to believe what kind of power it has.”

“You’re right, Jeff.” I remarked, “I don’t believe whatever you’re saying whatsoever.”

At that moment, Randy took the necklace, and strung it around his neck. He then held the red jewel in his hand while the necklace was around his neck. At that moment, the red jewel began to pulse with light.

“That’s some neat trick you got there.” Alex said sarcastically, “Now why don’t you three lost boys just get the hell out of our way?”

Suddenly, we were instantly blinded by a harsh, ruby light. I shut my eyes tight, thinking the whole thing must have been some stupid electronic device or something like that. Then, with my eyes shut, I felt a harsh wind blow around us, whipping the cloth of my t-shirt and jeans like I was standing in the middle of a windstorm. I then knew that necklace wasn’t some electronic toy like I thought it was…

[Luxray13579]

Wow this is cool did you write this yourself?

[Neo Pikachu]

Heh, of course I wrote it myself. This hasn't been an easy project for me though. There were times where I didn't know how I wanted to start things off. So, it took me weeks to come up with different ways to start this off. Not to mention that it took me months to even create a good plot. In my opinion, this is going to end up being the greatest Fan Fic I have ever written. I am glad that you like it so much, please continue reading as I post the next few chapters up.

I am actually working on the third chapter now. I don't feel like finishing it, but hey... I have time so I might as well get it up here before I hit the sheets. The third will probably be up at around 2:00 AM [Eastern Time]. Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about the Fic or if you get confused, please notify me and I will gladly clear things up for you!

[Luxray13579]

Its like reading a real published pokemon story and it has a VERY good plot and wow I didn't think it took that long to write and if you keep writing more I'll sure be reading it.
Don't rush it or else it might not be as good as it is.

[Neo Pikachu]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I've been putting a lot of time and focus on this one Fic and plot for a while now so rushing isn't anything I'll do be doing. Heck, why start when I've been patient all this time?

Anyway, I know what I want to do with the third chapter, so I'm just going to put the final touchings on it.

[Neo Pikachu]

[center:3bbg188w]Chapter 3
The Unexpected Challenge[/center:3bbg188w]

After a sick feeling of what seemed to be falling, we landed in what seemed to be a dark forest. I thought that little creep might have caused me to break something, but for his own sake, I was fine. First thing I noticed upon getting off my butt was the sky. It was a freakish mix of light and dark gray clouds, and the trees were all dead and twisted. When I looked around, Jeff, Frank and Randy were completely gone, just like that. Alex and David got up off the ground and looked around.

Maybe Jeff was right. Maybe Randy felt he could become a better Pokémon trainer by running away from us. I would have laughed at that thought, but reality told me I still had absolutely no idea where we were, and that certainly wasn’t anything to laugh about.

“What the hell is this place?” David asked, looking around and not recognizing anything.

I took a closer look around, and it seemed somewhat familiar, but not completely. I then guessed it was most likely the same place. I was willing to chance it.

“It looks somewhat like the Hollow.” I told the two of them, “It’s only about three miles away from the school.”

“Think again.” Alex told me, looking up at the sky “Then why does it look like it’s about to rain?”

Alex was right. It didn’t completely look like the Hollow, and the sunny weather we were experiencing just three seconds seemed to have quickly vanished for some weird reason.

“Look,” I told Alex and David, knowing hanging around here was a waste of our time, “Let’s just try to get the hell out of here. Even if we’re all the way in Celadon or something, there has to be some way of getting back.”

“How would Randy’s stupid Egyptian necklace bring us all the way to Celadon?” David asked realistically, “We could be anywhere right now.”

“Just forget about it, David.” Alex told him, putting it past him, “Let’s just try to find some way out of here. Screw the details.”

We then began walking through that dark forest for some time, and the more I looked at it, the more reality kept telling me this sure wasn’t the Hallow like I thought it was. I was sure we had walked at least two miles and nothing had changed. After nearly an hour of walking, the weird and twisted forest had suddenly ended and we came across a large valley along with a cabin down a long beaten path snaking its way through the valley. We decided to check out the cabin and hopefully get some directions back to Scottville Middle School, or at least back to our home town of Viridian. Right now, I was guessing we were someplace out east, but my guess was with a whole lot of doubt…

When we arrived at the cabin, we saw there wasn’t a single window. It was made of wooden logs and only had one door. We just shrugged it off and opened the door. It was pitch black inside, and just as the three of us entered, the door slammed closed completely by itself, and suddenly, the room was filled with light. Out of shock, I quickly looked around and saw the room was completely empty. And oddly enough, I found no reasonable light source anywhere. I then quickly turned around and tried to open the door but it was stuck. We then heard what seemed to be a female giggling, and already I was cursing under my breath.

“If you think it’s going to be that easy, you’d better think again…”

“What the hell!?” David shouted, looking around.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, we saw a cloud of pink dust appear in the corner of the room. After some time, the dust began to form into a smiling fairy with a bright pink dress. When we saw that, we realized we were likely no where even close to Viridian City. This had to be Hell.

“Just who the hell are you!?” David asked the fairy, wondering if it was even real for sanity’s sake.

“My name is Caska.” She replied smiling and staring right at David, “And I know who you three are. You’re none other than David Miller, Jake Kossak, and Alex Davidson. You are the three villains who oppose the king!”

“What?” I asked in surprise, “Who the hell is this king you’re talking about!?”

“Randy Ferguson.” She told us in one quick statement.

We immediately burst out laughing. There was no freaking way on earth Randy would ever be respected by anyone besides some idiot like Jeff or Frank. Nothing was making sense. King? Someone should have been laying off the sauce…

“Randy created this world out of his desperateness.” Caska told us, losing that weird smile of her’s, “This is his world, created by everything he loves and hates, and from his happiness and his anger. He is the supreme ruler here, and the three of you are his worst enemies.”

“You have got to be kidding me.” Alex snickered, “We’re living in Randy’s mind? If that’s the case, then we’re all about to become brain-dead really soon.”

“He created you?” I asked Caska, nearly laughing, “Since when was Randy into fairies and fantasy tales?”

She seemed somewhat insulted by that comment. I was glad at that moment, since if my sanity was really failing me and she was really telling the truth, then everything I would come across had to be considered a threat. Still, as weird as everything seemed right now, I refused to believe any of this rot.

“I represent a part of Randy’s childhood.” She told us, glaring at the three of us, “One of the happier moments of his life. And right now, the two of us are enemies. There is only one way to settle this.”

“You want to fight me?” David asked, turning his hands into fists, “Let’s go.”

“No, Miller.” She said to David, growing in confidence, “I want to battle your Pokémon.”

“Even better.” David challenged.

I couldn’t wait to see David lay waste to a happy moment in Randy’s childhood, if that’s what it even was. Still, the thought of we defeating her and then Randy feeling even more miserable in ways that we would never dream possible was just too damn good to ignore. David had this match in the bag.

“We’ll both use two Pokémon.” Caska told him in a firm tone, “If you win, then you get to make Randy feel even worse and more depressed, which I know is what you want the most.”

“You’d better believe it.” David said with a confident grin.

“But if you lose…” Caska replied, giving him that dark evil fairy stare again, “Then you’ll be the one feeling the depression and humiliation.”

Whatever. As far as I knew, there was nothing that could stop David or make him feel depressed. Caska then pulled out a pink and white Pokéball, and threw it towards the center of the cabin. I had no idea what a fairy would use as a Pokémon, but then it became quite clear.

“Go Blissey!” Caska shouted just before her Pokéball hit the floor.

And out of her Pokéball emerged a Blissey, and the three of us slightly cringed just staring at it. We couldn’t stand such a moronic and cutesy looking Pokémon.

“Go Tyranitar!” David shouted as he threw his Pokéball, ready to release raw carnage.

And just a second later after the Pokéball struck the cabin floor, out came David’s beastly and nasty Tyranitar with a tremendous roar. He looked ready to crush Caska’s worthless Blissey into a pulp.

“Blissey, use your Minimize!” Caska commanded, beginning that annoying smiling spree again.

Blissey suddenly then began to decrease in size, making it harder for Tyranitar to even hit it. However, David certainly wasn’t going to give up that early.

“Tyranitar, Earthquake attack.” David said coldly, ready to terrorize the smaller Blissey.

Tyranitar gladly accepted, and slammed his heavy foot into the floor which sent a violent tremor through the ground that shook the entire cabin. However, it completely missed Caska’s Blissey. There was nothing to explain it but just a case of really crappy luck.

“Minimize again!” Caska shouted, making things even worse.

“This is getting cheap.” David growled, truly despising this type of strategy.

Blissey grew even smaller, still wearing that stupid smile of hers. Our expressions began to grow grim as this just kept getting worse and worse.

“Rock Slide!” David commanded Tyranitar.

But that missed as well, instead making Tyranitar’s summoned rocks tear a hole in the cabin to reveal the outside. David was becoming quickly frustrated. Again, Caska told Blissey to Minimize again and again, and David missed each and every time. But then, it got even worse was Blissey was nearly smaller than a Caterpie...

“Use your Sing attack Blissey!” Caska shouted with glee.

Blissey then began to sing peacefully, and Tyranitar was beginning to lose it. After stumbling around to try and stay awake, Tyranitar crashed to the ground fast asleep, again making us lose even more hope.

“Blissey, use your Metronome.” Caska commanded, happy that she had one hell of an advantage.

Blissey then seemed to dance for a short while, and then all of a sudden, it lunged toward the sleeping Tyranitar, and performed a wicked Cross-chop attack, the worst attack that Tyranitar could’ve been hit by. Tyranitar took a serious beating in an extremely short amount of time. Then, to David’s dismay, he realized Tyranitar was no longer asleep. He had fainted…

“What!?” David protested, “What the hell are the chances of that!?”

“Bring out your next Pokémon, Miller.” Caska told David in a cold voice.

For once, I was somewhat glad not to be in David’s shoes. I seriously didn’t like where this was going. David returned Tyranitar to his respective Pokéball, and chose his next best Pokémon.

“Go Rhydon!” David shouted, getting angry this time, “Make mincemeat of that Blissey!”

Rhydon had emerged, ready for onslaught. We were crossing our fingers in hope that Rhydon would be able to handle an already grim looking situation.

“Rhydon, Stomp attack!” David shouted.

Genius. Rhydon squashed the already shrunken Blissey like a bug with his hard, rock foot. Blissey took a beating, but she wasn’t out yet.

“Sing attack.” Caska commanded.

Again, Blissey sang a peaceful song and Rhydon stumbled around just like Tyranitar, and he hit the ground fast asleep. David wasn’t looking too pleased at that moment.

“Metronome, Blissey.” Caska said coldly to her Blissey.

Blissey danced for a moment, and then we watched in horror as Blissey coated herself with a Reflect shield, which was going to be a pain to get past for Rhydon. Fortunately, Rhydon got up from his slumber quickly, but he was going to have a lot to deal with…

[Luxray13579]

It just keeps getting better and better!

[Neo Pikachu]

*Nods head, smirks and folds arms*

Thanks! Sadly, it stops here for the moment. I don't feel like writing anything else in Microsoft Word at the moment so I'm going to go rest.

[Neo Pikachu]

[center:2dzerzlw]Chapter 4
The Scare[/center:2dzerzlw]

Rhydon was going to have to take down Blissey, and now. Only then would it have at least some chance of defeating Caska’s next Pokémon.

“Stomp attack, Rhydon.” David declared with a sick feeling in his throat.

Normally, that attack would have punished Blissey like last time, but the Reflect shield fended off most of the damage. Then, things went into a sickening turn.

“Softboiled Attack, Blissey.” Caska commanded.

Blissey then surrounded herself with three glowing eggs that had suddenly become a pulse of white energy. Suddenly, Blissey has absorbed the energy, and began to recover a large portion of her health, with David looking like he was ready to vomit. Caska’s Blissey had nearly become invincible…

“Focus Energy, Rhydon.” David said nervously.

That was the best move David could have decided on. Rhydon was steaming with fury and rage, ready to tear Blissey to ribbons. He had this one chance to stop Blissey, and he had to get it just right.

“Metronome, Blissey.” Caska told her Blissey.

Blissey began to dance again, and suddenly, a tremendous jet of water had fired from Blissey’s mouth and slammed into Rhydon, dealing a terrible amount of damage. Rhydon fell to the floor, completely worn out. When Rhydon refused to budge off the floor, we couldn’t believe it. David had just lost to a worthless little Blissey…

“Damn it…” David gasped, “I don’t believe it!”

Caska then began clapping sarcastically for David’s miserable performance. Right at that moment, I had no idea what Caska was about to do to David next, and I really didn’t want to know.

“Ready to receive your punishment for losing, Miller?” Caska asked sweetly, looking like she was already enjoying David’s misery.

“You cheat!” David shouted, “How could you get so lucky with Metronome!?”

“That’s just the way things go, Miller.” Caska smiled to David, “Now its time for you to feel some misery, justice for what you’ve done to King Randy.”

“You better not you stupid...!” David shouted.

At that sick moment, Caska had looked toward the shouting David, and she snapped her fingers. She became a cloud of pink dust, and seemed to have disappeared. We were hoping by some miraculous chance that she just left us alone, but then, Alex and I looked at David, and David had swallowed hard.

Alex and I watched in freakish horror as David slowly began to change into a shiny and pretty fairy just like Caska. His blue jeans suddenly became a sparking bright pink dress, and two fairy wings had emerged right out his back. It was a pretty sick thing to do to a guy in the seventh grade.

“What the hell is this!?” David said as he looked at himself, softly fluttering his wings, “What did she just do to me!?”

We couldn’t help but turn away at that moment. Of course, only then did we hear the door unlock. Still, I didn’t care about anything else. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. As I threw the door open, Alex and David just followed, and again we were outside…

“That does it!” David shouted as we walked out of that nightmare cabin, “If this really is Randy’s world, then we can’t trust a single freakin’ person while we’re here.”

Better late than never, I suppose. Right now, if Randy could see David, he would be laughing hysterically. The last thing I wanted was for the three of us to fight Randy while David ended up looking like a giant Tinkerbell. That would only make matters fifty times worse. I didn’t want to see Jeff acting all high and mighty again and Frank snorting while he had his finger way up his nose. It was enough to make me go ballistic.

“How the hell do we get out of here!?” Alex demanded.

“We probably need to tear apart Randy, but first we need to find him.” I told Alex, knowing he had to be the source of all this idiocy.

We continued our way down the path, and day quickly turned to night, and everything went pitch black incredibly quickly. We had nothing to sleep on except the grass. All I could hope for was that maybe this whole thing was a dream, but it seemed far too real for that to be true. Still, I wasn’t going to dwell on it. We then quickly went to sleep, hoping we would be getting out of here soon.

When morning came, we headed down the path through the valley again. Then, for some strange reason, the grass slowly turned brighter in color. And just like that, ahead of us was another forest, except this one seemed to be more of a tropical one instead. This couldn’t be real. The more I saw it, the more insane I knew it all was.

“We don’t have much of a choice except to continue.” David said grimly, “Hopefully this forest isn’t too big.”

We then continued our way through the dense foliage without a single path to go by. This was just making me sick. All we could do was push forward into nowhere, and then suddenly, we came to a clearing. When we emerged from the forest, we saw what seemed to be some sort of gathering. There were several humans running about, dressed in tie-dye shirts and other colorful clothing, like a bunch of hippies. Nearby were two muscle cars I swear were taken right from the 60’s. Then, in the distance, we saw a large, brown, sac-like object hanging from a post. Normally, I usually find crap like this hilarious and stupid, but the fact it was really before my eyes made me question the mental capacity of the one who created it all…

“Oh yeah baby.” Alex said, nearly laughing, “Now I’ve seen everything…”

“Hey man!” One of them shouted, pointing at Alex, “You must be the one!”

I rolled my eyes. This, without a doubt, had to have been the brain-dead part of Randy’s mind. What else could it have been? I didn’t know what these insane hippies wanted with Alex, and I wasn’t really itching to find out.

“I bet you want to battle, don’t you?” Alex asked, looking like he was honestly hoping the answer was no after what had happened to David.

But they didn’t say anything. Instead, the group of them jumped us, and pinned us to the ground. The guy on top of me had overgrown blonde hair, a rainbow tie-dye shirt with a skeleton on it, while his necklace with a metal symbol for peace was dangling over my face. I struggled to break free, and then I realized it wasn’t me they wanted, it was Alex. But for what reason?

“Let me go, you crackheads!” Alex shouted as he was being pulled away from us.

I struggled with the hippie that was on top of me, hoping to get up and help Alex escape, but for some reason, he seemed so much stronger than me even though he was a scrawny little freak. I then saw Alex being dragged closer and closer to the hanging brown sac by three other hippies. I was crossing my fingers hoping that sac thing wasn’t actually some living creature ready to devour Alex. I kept looking at it not know what the hell it was supposed to be.

“Get your hands off of me you deranged psychos!” Alex shouted as he struggled to break free before reaching the sac.

Then, they had inevitably arrived at the sac, the last thing Alex wanted to find out what it was. Seconds later, they lifted the screaming Alex upward, and dumped him right in like a piece of trash being thrown into a dumpster. Suddenly, the open sac closed up with Alex still inside, and immediately trapped him. After they started laughing, I saw Alex trying to struggle to get out, but there was no escape. And then, after some time, my fear began to escalate.

Alex had completely stopped moving…

David and I both thought that Alex could have suddenly died at that moment. But then again, I thought better. I then realized that Randy didn’t necessarily want us to croak while we were here, he wanted us to suffer. He made David suffer, and now he was going to make Alex suffer. And then to make matters worse, he was probably going to make me suffer somewhere along the line.

“What the hell are you doing to him!?” David demanded, “Let him out of there!”

“Ah, he’ll be comin’ out soon enough.” One of the hippies responded casually.

I stopped struggling after some time, since I was getting exhausted and wasn’t getting anywhere. I only wish I had a handgun to blast open the heads of all these maniacs, but there wasn’t crap I could do about it. I continued to look at the sac, and then I suddenly realized what the hell it was. It was some sort of weird cocoon. I needed to get Alex out of there as soon as possible.

I had only one choice. I struggled to reach for one of my Pokéballs while the freak was still on top of me. Then, I managed to grab one, and I hurled it into the air. When it landed, I saw I had released my Ariados. Now was my chance.

“Ariados, use your Poison Sting to get this guy off of me!” I shouted.

The hippie turned around in shock just to be greeted with a barrage of sharp, poison spikes. He immediately let go of me, and I got up off the ground. I then looked at the cocoon and saw the group of hippies that had dragged Alex guarding it.

“Ariados, Sludge Bomb attack on those hippies.” I commanded Ariados.

Ariados then blasted the running hippies with a hearty helping of sludge, sending them running in all directions. They ran right for the two cars, and once they all got in, they immediately shut the doors, turned on the ignition, and sped off in the distance. I quickly ran to the cocoon and tried to open it up with my hands, but it seemed impossible. And Alex didn’t seem to be moving at all.

“See if you can use your pincers to rip that thing open, Ariados.” I said to my Pokémon.

Ariados approached the sac, and tried to tear away at the cocoon, but it seemed like rubber. After several minutes of trying to tear it open, it seemed hopeless. I then had only one tool left that could possibly help Alex.

I had a small Swiss Army knife that I usually kept in my pocket. I pulled it out, flipped out its sharpest blade, and tried to cut the sac open. I couldn’t believe it. It was like trying to cut through thick rubber with a wooden stick. If that knife couldn’t rip that thing open, then what could? I was beginning to grow frantic.

And then, another horrifying moment arose. Suddenly, I saw the cocoon begin to crack open from the middle. All I could do was back away. I didn’t even want to look, and it was a good thing I didn’t. However, David had been watching in horror while I grimaced and looked away.

“Oh no…” David moaned with utter depression.

“Don’t tell me…” I warned David.

And then, David slapped his right hand against his eyes. I bet at that moment he had regretted watching the whole thing.

“Jake, don’t look.” David warned me, “Don’t look, whatever you do.”

“I’m going to need to look at him some time or another, David.” I told him honestly, “Just tell me in words what happened.”

I could tell there was some hesitation in David’s speech. And then, he let it loose.

“Those sick maniacs just turned Alex into a human butterfly…” David said softly in dismay.

[Luxray13579]

wow I love this story.

[Neo Pikachu]

I've got a feeling I will finish at least five more chapters today because it is snowing here and I'm excited.

[Neo Pikachu]

[center:3dmkhw1a]Chapter 5
Foreign Encounters[/center:3dmkhw1a]

Only then did I look at Alex, and then I really wished I hadn’t been so fast in doing so. His body from head to toe had been completely black like he landed in an oil slick. On his head were two long antennae with bulbs on the ends. And to make matters even worse, on his back were two enormous butterfly wings splashed with a rainbow of colors. Damn, if I had been in Alex’s place at that moment, I swear I would have gone postal.

“THAT LITTLE FREAK RANDY FERGUSON IS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!,” Alex shouted loudly, sending his screaming echo throughout the clearing.

“That’s right.” I supported Alex, trying to calm his rage by agreeing to everything he said, “All three of us are going to slaughter those little freaks. You said it, Alex.”

“Jake…” Alex said softly, trying to calm down all of a sudden.

“What?” I asked him, looking up into his eyes.

There was silence for a dark moment.

“Just shut up.” Alex told me with a bit of frustration in his eyes.

Fine. I was going to let Alex have his way for now, just like David. Since I too, would have been infuriated to the extreme if I was in their position. One way or another, Randy was going to make sure we were humiliated and depressed even before we battled his Pokémon. And since this was his freakish world, we had to expect anything.

And then, we saw what seemed to be a dark figure emerge from behind us. As he got closer, we realized he was wearing a black fedora and trench coat, looking like a Chicago gangster. When he approached us, he shook his head in disgust.

“Ya three didn’t deserve this kinda misery.” The gangster told us.

“And who the hell are you?” I asked him, still with paranoia creeping all over me.

“Name’s Black.” He told us, “I’m Randy’s frustration. I owe ya one.”

We were surprised. But then again, could we really even trust this guy?

“Ya three made me strong by makin’ Randy feel weak.” Black told us with a bit of a sinister smile, “I’ll let ya in on some of Randy’s darkest secrets.”

“And what’s this?” David asked Black, still on his guard.

“Believe it or not, Randy’s world is actually a hundred times bigger than the world as you know it.” Black told us, “An’ the funniest part is Randy warped around the entire planet jus’ because he sucked at Pokémon trainin’. Talk about frustration. There was nothin’ more he wanted than to beat the three of ya.”

I couldn’t understand why worthless little Randy would go through so much trouble to beat us. Couldn’t he just accept the fact he was a natural loser at Pokémon and there was no hope for him in the world?

“But, if ya try ta battle him now, ya’ll most surely lose.” Black warned us, “That necklace gives him enough power ta give him any Pokémon he wants, as well as use any attack, even ones that don’t even exist.”

“Are you kidding!?” David shouted in shock.

“In Randy’s world, if he can think it, it becomes real. His new, super-powered Pokémon are nearly invincible. It’s a good thing I found ya three, because if I didn’t, there’s no way ya would’ve won…”

I had a feeling this might just be one person in all of Randy’s world that we could trust. What he said was certainly making sense. The last time we saw Randy, he seemed ready to do anything, even something like this. We pushed him too far, but even then we didn’t regret it…

“How do we stop Randy and get out of here?” Alex asked Black.

“Ya need ta defeat Randy, and well as Jeff an’ Frank.” Black said to the three of us, “Ya have ta make Randy feel defeated enough to the point where even in his dreams, he still can’t beat ya. Only then will that lil’ twit give up this pointless crusade of his.”

Heh, that was worth chuckling for. Randy would NEVER be able to say he was better than us, because it would be a cold-blooded lie. It then became clear what we had to do.

It was evidently clear that in order to get out of this place, we had to find Randy as well as those little morons Jeff and Frank and kick their butts. I certainly didn’t want to stay here any longer, after seeing what had happened to Alex and David. I had to be extra careful to make sure I didn’t end up like them, which was exactly what Randy wanted to happen…

“There’s only one way ta at least put yaself on the same level as Randy.” Black told us, “Ya need these.”

Then, out of his coat, he pulled out three golden chain necklaces. He handed one to each of us, and we wore them around our necks.

“While those are nothin’ compared ta the Quista Necklace Randy has, they have a similar power while ya use ‘em here.” Black said to us, “Heck, I should know. I know everythin’ that jus’ presses that lil’ boy’s buttons.

And then, he reached back into his trench coat. It seemed he had one more thing to give to us.

“Here.” Black said, also handing a Pokéball to each of us, “These Pokémon will at least put ya on the same level as Randy. Once he throws his Pokéballs and his desired Pokémon comes out, he has no way of changin’ it. But be careful. Make sure he’s the one to send out his Pokémon first, or he’ll always have a type advantage over ya, usually in the worst kind of way.”

“Thanks Black.” I said to him.

“It’s the least I can do for the three of ya.” Black responded, “See ya around.”

And then he turned around and left. I looked over the Pokéball that Black had handed me, just wondering what was inside. Still, now wasn’t the time to play guessing games. And I wasn’t even sure if Randy was watching us from afar.

After that, we headed back into the tropical forest, hoping we would find Randy soon and get out of Randy’s retarded dream world as soon as possible. I was already beginning to hate it here, and I was sure Alex and David were too.

Again, we made our way through the dense foliage, this time I was in the front. I constantly had to lift my feet and swing them over the dense shrubs on the ground, and it was wet everywhere. My jeans were soaked and my t-shirt was damp. I picked up the pace, just wanting to get out of this miserable forest as soon as possible. After some time, I turned around to see how Alex and David were doing.

And then I realized they weren’t there…

I looked back frantically, but I didn’t see them anywhere. Where the hell did they go? I shouted out several times, hoping they were nearby, but there was no sight of them at all and no response. Things were just getting better and better. And I top of that, I felt like I was starving. I hadn’t eaten in nearly a day and a half.

All I could do was keep moving, but after some time, it became night again and I couldn’t even see the path ahead. I had no choice but to wait until dark. Stupid Randy. Just who the heck did he think he was anyway? By now, I had no idea where Alex and David were, and this was just making everything fifty times worse.

Surprisingly, I fell asleep and when I awoke, I could see again. I got up and kept moving, hoping to leave this stupid forest, but it seemed to keep going on forever. After just a few hours, I heard a noise to my right. I thought by some miraculous chance it might have been Alex or David, so I decided to track it down. And then I came across an interesting sight. I came across a small fountain spring, and there were tiny little pixies surrounding it. They all seemed to look at me in shock for one moment, and then they calmed down.

“Oh, it’s only you.” One of them said in relief, “For a minute you had us scared.”

“Who are you?” I asked them, wondering who they were.

“We’re Randy’s mischievous side.” Another told me. “But, unfortunately, Randy doesn’t get into mischief very often, so we’re always put on the back burner.”

Didn’t seem very fair to me. What was the point of creativity if it wasn’t put to good use? Randy disappointed me again. Of course, this was obvious to see though.

“Well, I plan on taking Randy out.” I told them, “Just like I always have.”

“Heh, yeah, go figure.” One of them replied sarcastically, “We knew you would. Plus I don’t know how you’re able to tolerate it being in the mind of the one person you despise.”

I didn’t know either, and my patience was growing short. Hell, she was right about that one. After some of them got up and flew away, only about three of them remained. After they flew to a nearby branch, I suddenly felt my hunger arise again. I couldn’t help but ask if they had anything to eat.

“I’m starving.” I told the three of them, “You… wouldn’t have anything around here to eat, would you?

They suddenly became surprised. They looked at me like I was crazy. One of them giggled a bit, whispered something to the others, and then they looked at me.

“You… still need to eat?” One of them asked, “That’s silly. Obviously you’ve never heard of Sun Water before, have you?”

“Nope.” I told them.

“It comes from that spring.” The pixie told me, pointing to the fountain, “If you drink a few cups of Sun Water, you’ll never need to eat again. Drink, once in a while yes, but eat, never again.”

That sounded ridiculous. But then again, after I stole Randy’s lunch money a countless number of times, maybe this was an element of him that had put up with never having lunch again. Who knows, because in Randy’s world, it seemed like anything was fair game.

I walked over to the fountain and bent down. Honestly, the water didn’t appear to be any different that normal water, so I just shrugged it off. And since these pixies seemed to be another part of Randy’s naughty side, maybe I could trust them. They already looked like they trusted me. Hell, it was like we had already met for crying out loud.

And as my hunger grew stronger, I wasn’t about to argue or start asking stupid questions. I found a pewter cup nearby, and I dipped it into the fountain. I then gathered some water in the cup, held it to my lips, and then decided to drink it. While it looked like water, it tasted super-sweet like sugar. It tasted great, and after I drank down the first cup, I decided to go for seconds.

My hunger melted away immediately, but the Sun Water was so tasty I couldn’t help but keep drinking it. It was addicting as hell. I must have had twelve cups of the stuff before I felt like I had enough of it. There was no soft drink on Earth that had a better taste than Sun Water.

And then, I heard a slight giggling in the distance. I turned around and saw it had come from one of the pixies. I looked up at one of them and she looked at me.

“Boy, you’re going to look awfully cute…” She said before flying away with the other two.

[Luxray13579]

Whats gonna happen?!

[Shadow]

Ah, NP!
This fan fiction is really one of a kind. It's just so interesting to read.
Kudos for such an awesome work! *thumbs up*

[Neo Pikachu]

Thanks Shadow! I put a lot of time and effort into this so I am hoping that every chapter is as good or better as things progress.

Anyway, next chapter is coming right up. Stay tuned!

[Neo Pikachu]

[center:38hdypl5]Chapter 6
Grim Reunion[/center:38hdypl5]

No. No. No. I couldn’t believe what I just did. Randy was going to have me just where he wanted me. I was right, boy was I right. He was going to screw all three of us, and I just walked into one of his sick traps. He just turned David into a fairy and Alex into a butterfly. Now what the hell was going to happen to me?

Those blasted little pixies were gone. Right now I wanted to wring their little necks and twist their little heads off, but I couldn’t do anything. I even said myself we couldn’t trust anyone while we were here. What the hell was I just doing!?

I dropped the pewter cup, and watched it as it fell on the ground. And then I saw my hand. I brought it up it front of me, and saw it had turned a soft light green color, along with the rest of my arm. All of my skin turned a soft green color and completely lost texture, and then my fingernails vanished. I swore under my breath.

And then, in less than a single second, my jeans were torn to shreds as a gigantic dress of rainbow-colored flower petals surrounded my waist and reached down to ground, all in the shape of a giant bell. And then a belt of bright and colorful lily flowers blossomed around me. I shook my head and must have cursed a dozen times…

“Randy Ferguson, I’m going to make you cry blood…” I growled angrily.

But it certainly didn’t end there. I felt the back of my t-shirt tear open as another giant lily suddenly emerged from my back, and when it bloomed, it become a giant, rainbow eighteen-petal lily that covered my entire back. My t-shirt was instantly reduced to ribbons, and lowly fell to the ground. Out of feral instinct I tried to put my hands on my back, only to feel the massive lily flower itself. The thing was a freaking monster…

And then to further my misery, a headband of colorful lily flowers circled around my head. And only seconds later, it felt like someone had just opened up an umbrella over my head, only instead it was another sickening giant lily flower. I nearly screamed.

And then to finish it all off, small bracelets of lily flowers blossomed on my arms, right near my wrists. After that had happened, I stood there for nearly five minutes just hoping it was all over with.

“Oh, somebody please tell me this isn’t real…” I said to myself, looking over the giant flowers that were coming out of my body.

But it was hopeless. My jeans lay completely ruined on the ground, and I was wearing nothing except this stupid flower petal dress. All that I could do was take the belt with my Pokéballs on it, attach the wallet that was in my pocket to it, and put it on. Now all I had to do was find David and Alex to show and tell them what happened. I was freaking furious in ways I never thought were possible. Now Jeff, Frank and that little freak Randy were going to have a laugh and a half just looking at us. I was certain as hell that it couldn’t possibly get even worse than this.

I only needed to walk for fifteen minutes before leaving that tropical forest of nightmares. Then, I saw them. I didn’t expect to encounter them so soon. They had already left the forest, and were waiting for me.

“That…” Alex said softly with sad compassion, “That isn’t you Jake, is it?”

“Randy Ferguson’s not going to have any teeth left once my fist reaches his face.” I told them both with my feral rage.

Then they knew it was me. Alex looked miserable, and David looked even more grim.

“Oh man, Jake.” Alex said with complete depression, “You look like an overgrown Bellossom.”

I certainly didn’t need to hear that. I felt like a complete idiot, and it was growing even worse by the moment. I felt ready to crush Randy’s skull with my own hands, that’s how angry I was. Randy should have been praising the skies above there weren’t any automatic weapons in his world, because if there were, Randy was going to need a whole lot more than Pokémon to stop my incredible rage.

“I’ve never hated Randy as much as I do now.” I told Alex and David, “Never before.”

“Neither have we...” Alex responded, shaking his head in shame.

Part of me felt like staying away from Randy and his two stupid, moronic friends as much as possible. There was still this small bit of hope in me that Randy didn’t actually know what happened to us yet. And then again, there was this small bit of reality telling me that if we didn’t fight Randy for better or for worse, we might just be spending the rest of our lives here.

Regardless, Alex and David wanted to get the hell out of Randy’s world as soon as possible, and I certainly couldn’t blame them. We had already stayed here longer than we should have.

And on top of it all, I didn’t know who to believe anymore. Black seemed like he was trustworthy, and he seemed to have helped us big time. And then again, I thought I could trust those blasted little pixies, and they completely screwed me over. I certainly didn’t want to walk into a trap like that again, but I didn’t want to turn down someone who was only trying to bring us one step closer to defeating Randy.

As we kept walking through that valley, hoping we’d find Randy or at least someone worthy enough to bring us to him, I could only think of one thing. Exactly how were we going to stop Randy? And even if we really did beat him, would we wake up in the real world again? I was certainly hoping this hideous and humiliating transformation wasn’t permanent, because I was quickly getting sick of it.

And after nearly an hour, we encountered another shady figure. When he drew closer, we saw he was wearing a gray cloak with a hood over his head. He moved toward us very quickly, almost running. When he reached us, he stopped, and stood still. I couldn’t even see his face from the shadow of his hood, despite how bright and how close we were to him...

“He… didn’t….” The figure groaned.

“And who the hell are you?” Alex asked in paranoia, looking at the hooded figure strangely.

He stopped, and then slowly turned toward Alex. This guy was really freaking me out.

“Depression.” He mumbled, “That’s right, I’m King Randy’s depression. His worst nightmare. He fears me.”

“Great.” I told him, still a little unsure about this guy, “We’re trying to find him so we can make him feel even more depressed. Do you know how we might find him?”

Depression then started laughing hysterically. He quickly threw off his hood to reveal a gaunt, scarred face with frizzy, gray hair. We were instantly shocked.

“Oh yes.” Depression smiled, still snickering, “Now I know who you three are. I didn’t recognize you at first. Obviously King Randy has gotten to you first, but there’s still time. Yes, time to do lots and lots of damage to King Randy…”

“Where do we find him?” I asked again, hoping he could help us get out of this hideous mess.

He mumbled a bit, and then looked up again.

“He… likes to spend his time in Victory City Stadium.” Depression told us, “It almost seems like… he’s waiting for you…”

“Can you take us there?” David asked, hoping to speed up the process, “We want to make him lose.”

Depression stopped moving, and then he looked at David.

“I can bring you to the city in no time at all.” He told David, “But be warned. He’s knows more about Pokémon and battling than anyone else now. No one has ever beaten him. If you really plan on battling him, you should take these, for the protection of you and your Pokémon…”

He then took his shriveled hand and reached into the pocket of his cloak. Then, he handed us three ordinary-looking silver rings. We slipped them on, and then looked back to Depression.

“I will take you there now.” He said, slightly grinning, “Make him lose miserably. Make me happy…”

Depression snapped his fingers, and instantly we saw everything around us swirl into a blur. Not even three seconds later, we found ourselves standing amongst a gigantic city, with buildings towering hundreds of stories above us. The streets were like any ordinary city. But, there was only one difference…

There wasn’t a single person around. We didn’t even see Depression anymore, it was just the three of us. In a place that should have been brimming with people, there was nothing. Far in the distance, we saw a massive stadium. That was where we had to go. I had a feeling that was where we would find Randy.

And this time, he wasn’t going to cheat. Black and Depression had at least given us some sort of power and protection against Randy’s Quista necklace. At least we would have some sort of fighting chance against him.

Closer and closer we drew toward the stadium, and there still wasn’t anyone around. There were no lights on in the buildings, no nothing as if everyone just got up and left only an hour ago. Behind the stadium, the sun had begun to set, and by the time we had arrived at the stadium, it was night and the stars were out.

The silver stadium was huge. When we entered the field, there were probably enough chairs to seat a million people, and there’s no exaggeration about that. In the center of it all was a gray battle area for Pokémon with the white outline of a Pokéball as the playing field. And then, we saw him. We had suddenly laid eyes on Randy, who was seated on a metal throne on a platform at least fifteen feet high, and he was still wearing his stupid necklace. Besides him were Jeff and Frank, seated on similar thrones on platforms ten feet in the air. And to even further our anger, they were all dressed in black leather and wearing shades, as if they thought they were actually cool. When we approached them in the big, empty stadium, I could hear the snickering. I could feel that feral rage coming right back again.

“Well hello ladies.” Randy snickered.

“Listen here, you schmuck!” Alex shouted to Randy, “I don’t know what your problem is, but if you don’t restore Earth the way it used to be right now and get us the hell out of here, you’re going to have a hell of a lot of crap coming your way!”

Then, Randy took off his shades, and looked at us cynically. After that, he crossed his arms. Now he was starting to act pompous and arrogant, and I swear I was ready to murder him.

“Well, how does it feel?” Randy asked with a sick smile, “Has the utter shame begun to set in alright for you? Let me just tell you this. If you’re here to battle me with your pathetic Pokémon, you’re about to experience a new revelation in losing. It is impossible to beat me.”

“That’s what you think.” I told Randy, “Two can play at your game, Randy Ferguson.”

“Oh really?” He asked, almost laughing.

Suddenly, I heard a snap, and I heard what sounded like metal links hitting the ground. When I looked down, I saw the gold necklace Black had given us, only it was in pieces. Alongside it was Depression’s ring, reduced to a twisted lump. When I looked to my left, I saw Alex and David were without protection either.

“Not good.” Alex said coldly as he looked down at the shattered necklace, “Not good at all…”

“You might as well get used to living here.” Randy said, sitting back in relaxation, “You can spend the rest of eternity in my world, and you’ll always be under my power, under my rules, and don’t forget, you’ll always be weaker than me.”

“Rest of eternity, Randy?” Alex asked, nearly laughing, “I don’t think so. No one lives forever, remember?”

“Well everything is different here.” Randy said with another smile, “In my world, time doesn’t weaken the body. It’s the perfect place… for me anyway.”

I was getting more furious by the moment. I didn’t want to lose to an overconfident jerk like Randy. Then I saw Frank, who just kept giggling constantly by looking at us. I was ready to slaughter him. And there was Jeff, just sitting there like he was big stuff. It was making me sick.

“Frank,” Randy said, looking to his right to face Frank, “I would really enjoy watching you beat the stuffing out of Jake’s Pokémon after what he did to me back in the parking lot. Could you do that for me? Thanks.”

And then, Frank’s metal platform was lowered, and when it reached the bottom, he approached me. I couldn’t stand his fat face with his stupid shades on.

“Hell…o Jake K-o-s-s-a-k.” Frank giggled, “Ready to lose right now, or would you like to do a little curtsy first?”

“Go to Hell, Frank.” I told him, pulling out one of my Pokéballs.

[Yoshi648]

Wow! This is a very nice fan fiction you got going here. I like you writing style and can't wait to see you continue this.

[Neo Pikachu]

I really appreciate you reading my Fan Fic Yoshi. And thanks for your words.

How could I not continue this when I'm getting everyone's opinions on it. The more you guys view and comment, the more it gives me the drive to continue writing. Next chapter isn't far away!

[Luxray13579]

Wow lucky, an ADMIN likes it and its Yoshi thats even more impressive!
MORE MORE MORE!

[Neo Pikachu]

I don't really mind who reads it and likes it. To me, all the readers are equal. Yeah having a member of a high rank boosts your confidence in your writing, but regular registered members have the same affect on me as Mods and Admins do.

Sorry for the Chapter delay. I usually have to go to my dads house in Baltimore every weekend and I cannot get a Wireless Connection over there.

[Neo Pikachu]

[center:17jv5e72]Chapter 7
Against Odds[/center:17jv5e72]

Frank was a little pig freak, and there was no way I was going to lose to him. I had much better Pokémon than he did. Randy could brag all he wanted to, it wasn’t going to help Frank’s situation.

“I want this to be a two-on-two match.” Randy told us both, “It should be rather interesting…”

“It most certainly shall.” Frank agreed with a giggle.

I knew exactly who to send out. I already had my fingers on the Pokéballs I was going to use. There would be no chance little Franky would stand a chance against my Ninetails and Jolteon. I grasped both of their Pokéballs firmly, and tossed them into the field.

And when their Pokéballs hit the ground and opened up, I already got an extremely sickening taste of what Randy could do with his stupid necklace. He made two completely different Pokémon come out, a Bellossom and a Roselia. Not only was he putting me at a disadvantage, but he was mocking me in a really nasty way.

“What the hell!?” I shouted in disbelief, “What happened to my Jolteon and Ninetails!?”

Frank began snorting in humor uncontrollably.

“I’m sorry, Jake.” Randy said casually, looking away for a moment, “Were you saying something?”

Great, just great. I had never raised a grass-type Pokémon in my life, and now I was going to have to handle two of them while fighting one of my worst enemies. Frank just sat there and laughed.

“Prepare to suffer, flower boy.” Frank laughed, as he threw his two Pokéballs, “Go, Moltres and Articuno!”

And there they were. With a flash of Frank’s Pokéballs, I lay eyes on the legendary birds of fire and ice. Moltres was literally a blazing fire in the shape of a bird while Articuno was a light blue colored bird that glimmered like ice. I was ready to kill myself, knowing I was probably at the greatest type disadvantage of all time and all this would just lead to more humiliation. Frank could slaughter me in no time with this kind of power. All he had to do now was decide how he was going to do it. I had no idea how I was going to handle this. I already knew grass-type attacks were going to do nothing.

“Heh, heh, heh.” Randy snickered, “Let the battle begin!”

I knew at the moment the only way I was going to win was to take out them out one by one. I was starting to get a faint idea of one small, yet possible way to at least get my foot in the door on this battle. Still, this was going to be incredibly hard.

“Moltres, protect yourself and Articuno with Light Screen,” Frank commanded, “Articuno, attack Roselia with your Ice Beam!”

I don’t know how Moltres was able to use Light Screen on both himself and Articuno, but it certainly worked. Grass moves were going to do absolutely nothing now. In the meantime, I grimaced as I watched helpless Roselia get barraged by a wickedly cold Ice Beam. I could feel the chill myself, and I was twenty feet away.

“Man, this is going to be a piece of cake.” Frank smiled, thinking he had it in the bag.

“This isn’t over yet, you idiot.” I shouted back at Frank.

And then, an incredibly brilliant idea came to my mind. I had to do it now, or there was no way I was going to win…

Roselia had been badly hit, but she wasn’t about to call it quits right now. And now that Moltres and Articuno were protected by Light Screen, Special attacks were completely out of the question. At that moment, I had come up with an idea, and I was going to need to take out Moltres first if I wanted it to work right…

“Bellossom, use your Sleep Powder attack!” I declared.

Bellossom then immediately sprayed both of Frank’s Pokémon with a cloud of Sleep Powder. Frank’s face changed from excited to panicky the moment both Moltres and Articuno landed on the gray battlefield fast asleep. I knew it wasn’t going to last forever, so I had to act quickly. This was a moment I was going to need to take advantage of to it’s maximum potential.

“Roselia, Sludge Bomb attack on Moltres, now!” I shouted.

And a moment later, Roselia looked to Moltres and blasted him with a helping of thick, poisonous sludge. Moltres’s type-alignments and Light Screen weren’t going to help him here.

“Come on you fools, wake up!” Frank shouted, “We don’t have time for this!”

I needed to have Moltres taken out, and now. I wasn’t going to wait any longer…

“Bellossom, use your Hyper Beam on Moltres, Roselia, use Sunny Day.” I commanded the both of them.

Suddenly, the night sky that was above us quickly faded, and almost a second later, it looked like it was in the middle of the afternoon. The bright sun had returned, and its light poured into the stadium. Meanwhile, Bellossom focused her attention on Moltres, and a moment later, Moltres was hit directly with a devastating Hyper Beam. When the massive, glowing beam had made contact, it exploded violently, and Moltres took a serious beating. But to my dismay, he wasn’t out yet…

“Sunny Day?” Frank laughed, “What, do you want Moltres to roast your Pokémon even faster now!?”

True, Sunny Day was going to make Moltres’s fire attacks even worse, but that wasn’t going to help Frank with Moltres still sleeping. However, things were about to change. While Moltres was still sleeping, Articuno had woken up. Frank wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to screw up with this opportunity at his fingertips.

“Articuno, Arial Ace attack on Roselia.” Frank commanded and pointed at his target with a smile on his face.

And Articuno didn’t even need to blink before taking flight and blasting at Roselia at mach speed. I heard a very nasty slash sound, and only a second later, Articuno had returned to his position. Roselia was hanging on a string.

“Roselia, use another Sludge Bomb attack against Moltres!” I shouted, clenching my hand in anticipation.

While Bellossom was trying to recover from the Hyper Beam attack, Roselia was using her last bit of strength to attack Moltres with another Sludge Bomb attack. The already beat up Moltres had received another helping of sludge, and then, it was all over for Moltres. He had fainted, totally out of it…

“WHAT!?” Frank shouted in fury, “I DON’T BELIEVE THIS!!!”

“You’re going down Frank.” I told him, “Very painfully.”

Frank returned Moltres to his Pokéball, and Frank was in an intense rage. I thought he was going to explode.

“Blizzard attack, Articuno.” Frank growled, his face turning a furious red, “NOW!!!”

And not a second too soon, the entire stadium was frost-blasted with icy, chilling snow. Even I had felt it for a moment, but I quickly shook it off. However, both Bellossom and Roselia took a serious beating. After the harsh blizzard had passed away, Roselia had dropped on the ground, beaten to a pulp. However, Bellossom still managed to hang in there. I couldn’t have expected Roselia to last through that attack, that was no surprise. Frank began to snicker now that Roselia had been taken out. Without getting angry, I simply returned Roselia to her Pokéball, knowing I hadn’t lost yet.

“You are so going to suffer.” Frank sneered, “If you think your pathetic Bellossom is going to win against an Articuno, you’re so dead wrong.”

“This isn’t over yet, Frank.” I told him, “And I have no intention of losing to you.”

I needed more time. Another attack like that and Bellossom wasn’t going to make it.

“Sleep Powder on Articuno, now, Bellossom!” I shouted.

Articuno was sprayed with another helping of Sleep Powder, but to my dismay, it didn’t work this time. Somehow, he managed to resist the attack.

“Let’s finish this Articuno.” Frank said with glee after my attack had missed, “Aerial Ace on Bellossom for the win…”

Before I could say another word, Bellossom was slashed with Articuno’s Arial Ace attack. I shut my eyes, thinking Bellossom wasn’t going to make it. But, to my surprise, Bellossom managed to survive, but she just barely had enough energy to continue the fight. And worst of all, I hadn’t even manage to inflict one attack on Articuno yet. But, I still had on resource left I could rely on.

“Use your Moonlight, Bellossom.” I told her, “We aren’t about to lose now.”

And then, Bellossom summoned the moon in the sky, and the light from both the moon and the sun completely restored her energy, as if Articuno hadn’t done a thing to her. Bellossom was back in action for now.

“You’re only delaying the inevitable, Jake.” Frank sneered, “There is no way for you to win! Don’t you realize that by now!?”

“Shut up, Frank.” I told him, “I’m not about to let a freak like you win against me.”

Frank was now going for an all or nothing attack. He looked at Articuno, and begun to smile.

“Let’s crush Jake’s pathetic Pokémon with another Blizzard attack!” Frank shouted, “Turn that Bellossom into a Popsicle!”

And again, Articuno let loose a devastating Blizzard attack, and I was blinded by the snow for a short time. But when I looked back up, Frank’s reckless attack had actually completely missed Bellossom. Frank wasn’t too happy about that. But right now, I had to give Sleep Powder one more try.

“Sleep Powder attack, Bellossom!” I shouted, still testing my luck.

And this time, when Articuno was engulfed by the powder, he immediately fell asleep. Now was my chance to do some serious damage.

“Sludge Bomb attack on Articuno!” I commanded Bellossom.

And then, Articuno was blasted by a vicious helping of poisonous sludge. Articuno couldn’t stop the attack, but unfortunately, the attack had woken him up. Articuno was back in action.

“Ice Beam, Articuno!” Frank commanded, pointing right at Bellossom.

And at that moment, Bellossom took the nastiest Ice Beam ever, right in her weak spot. Bellossom tumbled on her side, but she still managed to survive it. By now, the sunlight from the Sunny Day had worn off, and Moonlight alone wasn’t going to heal Bellossom enough. I had almost run out of choices for one last final attack, but then, worthless little Randy interrupted my concentration.

“You know Jake, Bellossom has only one chance left to attack.” Randy sneered, “And Articuno still has plenty of health left. Your Sleep Powder isn’t going to work anymore. Articuno’s already gotten used to it.”

“Shut up, Randy.” I growled at him, “I haven’t lost yet.”

“But you’re about to.” Randy continued, “But I hope when you finally lose, you won’t have any hard feelings. I hope you’ll just see the truth and realize that you just naturally suck at Pokémon training.”

I was getting angry. How could Randy feel I had already lost? And worst of all, how could he possibly think I suck at Pokémon training when he had to go through all this trouble just to finally beat us? Still, on the other hand, it was getting desperate. Another Sludge Bomb wasn’t going to do enough damage.

“And after you lose,” Randy said to me with a snicker, “You’ll see that there will be no escape from my world. There will be no hope for you to return to normal, but that’s alright. Bellossom still really loves you anyway.”

And Frank started snickering uncontrollably. He thought it was actually seriously funny that Bellossom and I actually looked somewhat alike.

“Well you know what, Randy…” I told him, now finding a way to finish this, “As much as I hate your guts, I certainly hope you’re right.”

I then looked to Bellossom, who had this one chance to finish off Articuno.

“Return attack, Bellossom!” I shouted.

And at that last moment, Bellossom got up and charged right after Articuno. Frank looked in horror as Bellossom violently slammed into Articuno, dealing a serious amount of damage. When the dust had cleared, Articuno was on the gray battleground with its wings spread out. He had been defeated…

[Neo Pikachu]

[center:3t5scq0c]Chapter 8
Turning Back[/center:3t5scq0c]

Frank looked at Articuno like the whole thing hadn’t happened. He shook his head in disbelief, still unable to figure out why he lost.

“NOOOO!!!!” Frank shouted in horrible anger, “This isn’t possible!!!”

“Man, do you suck Frank.” I told him, nearly laughing, “You couldn’t even beat me while you were cheating. You couldn’t even beat me when you had the greatest advantage possible. How pathetic is that!?”

Frank’s face turned bright red. He looked ready to explode.

“I hate you!” Frank shouted loudly, “You should have lost!”

“Should have?” I asked Frank, nearly laughing, “Man, you just get more amusing by the minute. You really are a sad sack of crap, Frank.”

“Nobody wants to hear stupid comments from your face, Jake!” Frank squealed.

And then, Randy stood up like he thought he was a hero. He looked down at the two of us like we were his subjects. Just the look at his face with his phony shades was driving me insane.

“Shut up, both of you!” Randy shouted menacingly, “Frank, you highly disappoint me. In fact, I’d go as far as saying you couldn’t get much worse when it comes to training Pokémon.”

“WHAT!?” Frank shouted in disbelief, “I thought we were friends, Randy!”

“And I thought you could handle the responsibility of authority, Frank.” Randy said with a cold voice, “But for now, farewell Frank, and I hope we don’t meet again.”

And then, Frank watched in horror as Randy waved his hand, and the image of Frank suddenly vaporized. I didn’t know what happened to Frank, and I certainly didn’t want to find out.

“Well, that’s perfectly fine with me.” Jeff said, breaking his silence, “After all, I didn’t have much respect for him anyway.”

Nice guy. What better way to treat your friends than to utterly betray them? But then again, maybe it took sheer discovery for Randy to realize that Frank was just a piece of dirt anyway.

“Enough Jeff,” Randy demanded, “Right now, I want to see our best friend Alex in complete shame. And I know you have a least half a brain to make it possible Jeff. I want to see their shame, and NOW!”

“Don’t worry Randy.” Jeff responded with confidence, “We’re taking Alex out for good.”

“That’s what you think.” Alex responded, “I’ve only just begun to fight!”

And then, on that gray field, the two of them stood ready for the very nasty battle that was about to unfold. I was hoping Alex was already prepared to deal with Randy’s nasty and unexpected cheating. I only managed to beat Frank by a miracle’s chance…

It was on those gray battlegrounds that Alex and Jeff had exchanged stares. Alex had beaten Jeff before, and now the only thing Jeff wanted was to win and seek revenge. Even with all that had happened to us, Alex wasn’t about to lose because of humiliation. It wasn’t like Alex to feel humiliated, even as a giant butterfly. I could even bet that Alex could lose to Jeff, and he still wouldn’t care. After all, Randy certainly wasn’t playing according to the rules.

“I will be savoring the moment you finally lose, Alex.” Jeff told him, “Jake might have gotten past Frank, but then again, how much of an accomplishment is that!?”

“That doesn’t matter to me, Jeff.” Alex told him, “This is between you and me, and you and me only. Hear that Randy?”

But Randy looked away like he didn’t hear anything. I could just smell another trick in the air, and it was making me sick.

“Get ready for your worst nightmare, Alex.” Jeff said, pulling out two of his Pokéballs, “Go, Ho-oh and Entei!”

Ugh. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Ho-oh, the rainbow bird of complete fiery destruction and Entei, another legendary Pokémon of fire. They both glared menacingly at Alex, but Alex wasn’t going to let a scary face stop him.

But then again, when he pulled out two of his Pokéballs, I could already see the hesitation. Alex’s Pokémon were going to have no defense under the power Randy’s Quista necklace. Now, it was up to Randy to decide what Pokémon were going to come out of Alex’s Pokéballs. And as sad as it sounded, I could already guess which two…

Alex threw his two Pokéballs, not even declaring who he had selected. And then to his disgust and Jeff’s delight, the two Pokémon Alex was going to be stuck using were a Butterfree and a Beautifly. As if the situation I had just experienced couldn’t get any worse, Alex’s example clearly showed it could.

“What the hell is the matter with you, Randy!?” Alex shouted, knowing he was the one responsible, “Can’t you keep your butt out of this!?”

“Keep going Alex.” Randy laughed, “I love to watch you squirm.”

The three of us were furious. How could Jeff even see this as a true Pokémon battle? Butterfree and Beautifly were NOT Alex’s Pokémon, and I knew for sure he wouldn’t use them in a million years. But now he had no choice. It was either going to be a severe struggle to win fighting with the two of them, or just plain losing altogether. This truly was Pokémon battling at its worst.

“As always…” Randy said, nearly laughing as he brushed his hair, “Let the mayhem begin…”

“Thank you, your highness.” Jeff remarked, “This is for Ampharos and Espeon. Ho-oh, Sacred Fire attack on Butterfree. Entei, burn Beautifly to a crisp with your Flamethrower attack!”

Merciless little freak. He was going to go as far as seeing that Alex wouldn’t even get a single turn before it was all over with. Butterfree could only wait as an enormous rush of flames nearly consumed it alive, leaving it with only a fragment of energy left. Beautifly took a similar beating, even though it still was in better condition than his half-barbecued Butterfree. Now, Alex was reduced to all or nothing attacks even on his first round.

“The two of you are cowards.” Alex told them both, “You can’t even battle for real, that’s how poor you are!”

“Alex,” Randy said, snickering again, “This IS for real. My world is real now, and you have to accept it or you have to accept losing. There is no other way around.”

There was nothing Alex could do but continue. If he really was going to lose, at least he would lose honorably. To the three of us, none of this was real. And the only thing that needed to be done to return Randy to the worthless little punk he was before was to swipe that necklace right off his neck. Unfortunately, we couldn’t even get near it.

Alex’s two butterfly Pokémon were badly bruised, but they didn’t give up yet, and neither did Alex. The last thing Alex wanted to do was give Jeff the satisfaction of winning when he clearly didn’t deserve it. However, he was going to need a little luck.

“Butterfree, use your Stun Spore attack,” Alex said firmly, “Beautifly, use Sleep Powder.”

Alex left no holes in the system. Both of them were going to be inflicted with at least something to slow them down. Ho-oh had fallen asleep and Entei was paralyzed. Now was Alex’s chance. Entei’s speed had drastically decreased, and Ho-oh was left snoozing.

Then, Alex ordered both of his Pokémon to use Morning Sun to recover the damage that had been done. Ho-oh was still asleep, but Entei was going to get another chance to strike.

“Flamethrower on Butterfree!” Jeff shouted loudly.

And after a violent rush of flames had blown from Entei’s mouth and smothered Butterfree, the damage had gotten worse. I would have hated to say it, but Alex was going to have to go kamikaze if he wanted a chance to win. He was just going to have to forget about the damage that had been done.

“Butterfree, Psychic attack on Entei!” Alex shouted.

Entei was hit dead on as a blue and white flash had covered his body. However, it certainly wasn’t enough to slow him down at all.

And then, Ho-oh had woken up, and Jeff couldn’t have been happier. After rubbing his hands and snickering, he prepared to strike.

“Ho-oh, Sacred Fire on Butterfree.” Jeff ordered, “Entei, use Fire Blast on Beautifly.”

And then, the unimaginable happened. Butterfree had been stormed with flames, and I just couldn’t watch. Butterfree had been burned to oblivion, and it couldn’t handle anymore. Meanwhile, Beautifly had been struck with the flaming asterisk symbol, and embers were thrown in all directions. When the fire had cleared, both of Alex’s Pokémon had been eliminated. He didn’t have a chance…

As bad as it was, I wasn’t surprised. Alex had an even worse disadvantage than me. Butterfree and Beautifly just didn’t compare to the power of Ho-oh and Entei. I don’t think he could have possibly won that disgusting and dishonorable match…

“Well, that certainly was fun.” Jeff smiled, “Now get out of here. We don’t have patience for losers like you.”

“There’s no way anyone could have won that!” Alex shouted at Jeff, “That wasn’t a real match!”

But, then a wave of silence had kept them both quiet. Randy had stood up and looked at the three of us. I was really getting tired of these antics.

“That certainly was a real match.” Randy told Alex, acting like he knew everything on the planet, “And you lost.”

“Randy, I’m tired as hell living here!” Alex shouted angrily, “I’m tried of you and your pathetic cheating. Is this the only possible way you can win a Pokémon match!? How incredibly pitiful is that!?”

Randy found that rather insulting. He looked at Alex, and couldn’t even feel pity for him.

“Jeff, thank you for your time.” Randy told him, “But now I’d like you to move aside.”

“Are you kidding?” Jeff asked in shock, “The rules are that if they don’t win against me, they have to turn around and get out of here. Losers don’t belong here.”

“I want to battle the three of them myself.” Randy told Jeff, “I’ve been waiting to beat them for a long time…”

I was getting sick of this trash. How could Randy feel like he was a hero when the only thing that was keeping us bound here and keeping Randy in power was a single stupid necklace? Plus on top of everything else, I hated being tossed around like a piece of dirt when it was really us who were more powerful than Randy.

“I want to crush you.” Randy said with a smile, “Your efforts will be so hopeless here.”

And out of all the sickness I was feeling, I couldn’t help but protest against it.

“You know what Randy?” I asked him, “You’re probably right. We don’t stand a chance against your necklace.”

“It’s me who you’re going to lose against Kossak.” Randy smiled.

“No.” I told Randy firmly, “It’s your necklace. If we fail to beat your Pokémon, then we lose to your necklace, but not you.”

Randy was getting furious, but the truth was getting to him. I didn’t want him to start a battle thinking it was through his own power that he was going to win against us. I was on a roll.

“Battle me, you fools!” Randy shouted.

“No Randy, I don’t feel like losing to Quista today.” I told him, “Can’t you see you’re just a hopeless case without your stupid necklace!?”

He looked at me with a dark stare. He knew the truth, he just didn’t want to accept it. But one thing was for sure, he wasn’t going to take it off. That was the last thing he was going to do.

“If you’re not going to fight me, then I want you out of my face.” Randy told us, quickly growing angry.

Even though we had come here with a strong urge to defeat Randy and get out of here, I was getting a feeling that unless we found someway to block Randy’s power, there was no way we were going to win. He already screwed up my Ninetails and my Jolteon. I didn’t feel like making the damage any worse.

“Fine Randy.” I said to him, turned away, “Then we’re leaving.”

Immediately, Alex and David looked at me like I had lost it. They didn’t see that we didn’t stand a chance against Randy at the moment.

“Jake, are you nuts?” Alex asked me, “We have to beat him so we can get out of here!”

“Remember what Black and Depression told us?” I whispered to him, “There’s no way we can beat him. And it’s better if we turn down his offer than lose to him. If we lose to him, then he want to stay here forever.”

“Ugh, I didn’t think of that.” David said with disgust.

Alex was annoyed, thinking we would only need to stay here for only a few more moments. In truth, so was I, but I didn’t want to risk losing to Randy. We would have to find a way to block his power so he couldn’t cheat against us. It was the only way.

And as much as it pained us, we then turned around and began to walk out of that giant stadium. Randy was truly furious, but we couldn’t afford for him to be in absolute glee. We would lose everything…

[Neo Pikachu]

[center:24kbvgjd]Chapter 9
The Separation[/center:24kbvgjd]

It was a long walk to get out of that giant stadium. Longer than it should have been. I had no idea how long we were going to have to wait now until we could fight him on his level, but it already began to feel like ages. We were all losing our patience. Some of us more than others…

“Well, that went swell.” David said sarcastically, looking at me with annoyance, “Just what do you expect to do now, Jake?”

I was silent. I really didn’t know. I wanted a solution as much as David did but there wasn’t one to be found. Still, David was looking at me like I made the worst choice possible.

“Look, maybe we’ll come across a solution.” I told him, “Randy can’t be invincible, not even in his own world.”

“Well hotshot,” David said to me, looking at me with a cold stare, “Why didn’t we battle him? At least we could have given a try you know.”

“David,” I said to him, “If we lost to Randy, we might just be suffering a blow we might never recover from, understand? It could mean being stuck here forever.”

David still looked at me like I was crazy. He just wasn’t understanding anything.

“Maybe not.” David said in a hopeful tone, “Look, it’s not for certain Randy would want to stay here even if we do lose to him. Sooner or later he’s going to get sick of his own world.”

“Yeah David,” Alex said to him, “Not soon enough for me. Randy doesn’t want to ever leave this place. If he gets bored with it, all he has to do is change the scenery to fit his desires. I really don’t feel like living to what Randy desires.”

David still didn’t care. Obviously he wasn’t heeding the warnings that Black and Depression had given to him. Still, he felt there was some hope. I wanted to believe there was something I could do about it myself, but there was nothing. He just couldn’t see the reality of the situation…

“I’m not going to sit here hoping we just happen to bump into a solution.” David said with annoyance, “I’ll battle Randy right now, and I don’t care if it’s all or nothing.”

“Go ahead then, David.” Alex told him, “We’ll see you later.”

And not a second later, David turned right back around and headed back into the stadium. I knew there was no way he could win. If he couldn’t beat Caska, he sure wasn’t going to beat Randy. I didn’t want to stick around to find out he lost.

“Come on.” I told Alex, “Let’s get out of here.”

“Where?” Alex asked me, getting annoyed himself, “You sure don’t seem to have a plan here, Jake. We’re not going to find a way out of here by wandering around mindlessly.”

“Yeah,” I told Alex seriously, “But we’re not going to find anything by staying around here either. There’s nothing for us here.”

Alex really didn’t seem to agree. He just looked away and turned back at the stadium.

“Look,” Alex told me, “I know you’re right about us not being able to win against Randy and all, but I think we could sure do better than just walking around. Maybe we can find something here instead. We can just…”

“Fine Alex.” I told him, “You can stay here and see what you can find, but I think our solution lies elsewhere. To me, this place seems like nothing but emptiness.”

And that was where we split up. I didn’t feel right by leaving Alex and David behind, but I didn’t feel right about staying in this deserted city. After I said goodbye to Alex, I left them all behind, still having a sliver of hope in me that I would at least draw closer to finding the solution to all our problems.

I had hoped to find a way out of this forsaken place, even while I was walking away from the very source that could bring me back home. But even then, maybe Alex and David were right. How was I supposed to find the key to our escape by aimless walking? Where would I be going after all?

I felt like I was slowing going insane. I had been walking for nearly three days now, which seemed so much longer when I was constantly burdened by endless thoughts. Not only that, but the only thing I could consume was water. What a nightmare. I wasn’t even human anymore…

Those endless plains seemed like a desert. By now I was too far away to turn back, and even if I could, what was the point? Could I possibly hope to accomplish the impossible? Nothing would have changed from before, only my morale would be diminished. At the moment, it seemed like nothing could be done about it, and this is how it was all supposed to end…

But on the evening of the third day, everything had changed.

Long and behold, I had come across a two-story brick building within the shadow of a nearby, grassy hill. I didn’t care if death itself was inside, I was ready to cope with anything right now, even that. I approached the small brick building, opened the door, and stepped inside the dimly lit room.

Inside seemed to be what appeared to be a small office, with a large desk, shelves with books and a carpeted floor. I shut the door and the lights became brighter, revealing a middle-aged man in a business suit sitting in the squishy wheeled chair behind the desk. He looked up at me and crossed his arms. He had a serious face and dark black hair.

“I’ve been expecting you, Jake Kossak.” He told me, looking at me like this was some kind of job interview.

“How do you know me?” I asked him, wondering who this guy really was.

He crossed his legs and sat back in his chair as he fiddled with a pen in his hand. I can already tell he knew exactly who I was.

“I’m Randy’s hatred, Jake.” He had told me, “The name is Coldblood. I am one of the strongest forces of Randy’s mind. Because of me, his anger, sorrow, and depression exist in their fullest form. And you, Jake Kossak, are my most valuable ally.”

I was silent. I sure didn’t feel like it at the time. I felt more like a loser that was a waste of space.

“Don’t feel that way.” He told me, reading my expression, “I know how you feel. For the last few days you have been feeling nothing but misery. I can easily take that away.”

“How?” I asked him.

But, he never answered my question, and I never figured it out on my own. He snapped his fingers, and then I felt amazing relief. When I looked down, the flowers were gone. Everything was gone, and I was back in my normal clothing again. But before I could even thank him, he spoke again.

“Jake, someone needs to take Randy out of business, and that someone is you.” Coldblood said to me firmly.

“Not while he still has his stupid necklace.” I told him, hoping I didn’t sound like a whiner.

“That’s all about to change…” He said to me.

I had heard this before, and it didn’t work in the past. Black and Depression had attempted to help us before, and it still didn’t work. What could Coldblood do that they couldn’t?

“Coldblood, Randy destroyed our protection, and he changed my Jolteon and my Ninetails into a Bellossom and a Roselia.” I informed him, “What the hell am I supposed to do about that.”

Coldblood was silent. It almost seemed like… he had been waiting for me to bring this up.

“Give me your Pokémon.” He told me, not giving me a clue as to what he was going to do with them.

What could I have done? I had nothing to lose anymore. I had no choice now but to trust him, even if it was dealing with a very dark side of Randy.

He laid out my Pokéballs on the desk, one by one. He placed his hand on one of them, and the whole Pokéball began to glow white. When the white glow died down, he moved to the next. He had done it to all of them, and I just stood there just wondering what he was doing to my Pokémon.

“What did you just do to them?” I asked Coldblood.

“There.” He told me, “Now they’re the same level as Randy’s, the highest level possible. Your Jolteon and Ninetails are completely back to normal.”

While that certainly made things easier, I had remembered Black telling me Randy’s Quista necklace would allow him to use any attack Randy’s whacked imagination could come up with. And I knew the necklace Black had given us had done nothing.

“What I’m about to offer you is something completely different.” Coldblood told me.

I could swear this guy was reading my mind…

“How so?” I asked him.

“Randy can’t destroy something he can’t see.” He said to me, “You need to have an innate power that Randy can’t touch. I’m just the person who can give you that, so you can attack Randy’s Pokémon with whatever you can think of. Only then will you be put on the same level as him.”

I was sure hoping this wasn’t anything like intensive surgery. But even if it was, I had no other choice. I didn’t want to lose to Randy now.

“It only takes about a day.” Coldblood told me, “You go to sleep, and a day later, you’ll have all the power you’ll need to fight Randy. But be warned, it isn’t half as powerful as Randy’s necklace, which can do much more than make Randy’s imagined attacks a reality. There are some powers that Randy doesn’t even know of yet.”

And so, he took me to a back room where the only thing in the blank, white room was a single, plain bed. He told me to simply go to sleep, and everything would be done as soon as I woke up. I just quickly went to bed, and I knew at that moment I was ready to do anything.

[Luxray13579]

Are you writing anymore NP?

[crapgame]

add mroe!!

[GreenLiquid]

I'm really liking how you play up the subconscious/psychoanalytic angle with the characters that represent emotions and suppressed feelings. I don't think I've ever seen characterization like that.

If I may ask, how exactly does the title relate to story? Is Juno a character we haven't seen yet?

[Neo Pikachu]

With my return comes the addition of more TOJ Chapters.

GL, to answer your question, I am going to have to say yes and no. The reason for that is because Juno is someone who has been in the fic since the first chapter. So, Juno has been introduced but he hasn't been introduced as Juno. You'll get it as the story moves along.

[Luxray13579]

NP! I was wondering what happened to you! Nice to see you back and I'm ready to read more.

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 10
The New Dawn

Contrary to my first belief, I woke up feeling absolutely no different from before. At that moment, I had already begun to believe that perhaps Coldblood had decided not to go through with this. It was possible. Maybe he had decided he liked his new physical form and by giving me the power to fight Randy evenly might result in his dissatisfaction.

“Very painless, wasn’t it?” He asked me as he stepped into the room.

“I don’t even feel anything.” I told him.

“That’s good, because you shouldn’t be.” Coldblood told me, “If you did, then something would have been wrong.”

Outstanding. Now all he needed to do was tell me how I needed to get it to work. At first, I could visualize just thinking up an attack, ordering which Pokémon to attack with, and that would be it. But, it wasn’t as easy as I thought.

“First off,” Coldblood told me, “Randy makes it look easy. He comes up with an attack in his head, sends it to one of his Pokémon in a psychic decoded message, and because he wants to, the Pokémon he sends it to understands it, and immediately attacks with Randy’s desired move.”

“It can’t be that easy…” I remarked in disbelief.

“But it is.” Coldblood said firmly, “Or to him, at least. You’ll definitely need to focus more on what your Pokémon are thinking. You need to make them realize that in Randy’s world, your imagination is probably the most powerful weapon you can wield, and as long as they can listen to you, you and they can make it possible.”

This was crazy. I couldn’t believe Randy had even come up with such a thing. Making up your own Pokémon attacks seemed like a pretty difficult task, and I didn’t even know where to get started. It seemed like the biggest cheating tool of all time in the history of Pokémon battling.

And I was already certain that Randy had done this numerous times. Right now, his simple imagination had become a god-like power. No wonder he was so keen into wanting to battle us. He would wipe the floor with us in no time. It was probably what he was itching to do all this time. All he had to do was see my face, and he would let out his absolute worst.

Obviously, he was expecting me to show up again to battle him. He would probably be enraged that I was no longer the flower princess precious that he expected me to be. I was thinking it would probably be a far better idea to go in disguise than show my face to his. He wanted to crush me more than anything else, but I had to try and fight him looking like someone or something else…

“Absolutely.” Coldblood told me, reading my mind again, “And I already have something in mind.”

Coldblood had already helped me out immensely. Right now, I was all ears for another good idea of his. I had a feeling it would be something completely perfect. I couldn’t wait to see what Coldblood had come up with.

“I had seen what Randy had done to you.” Coldblood said, “He wanted you to feel demoralized and pathetic the moment you stepped up to battle him.”

Definitely sounded familiar. I felt embarrassed as hell when I was in that stadium, and I’m sure that wouldn’t have changed one bit if I were to do it again. I had a feeling Coldblood knew exactly how to turn the tables around in my favor.

“I know of a way you can make Randy feel demoralized, effectively disguise yourself, and encode your commands to your Pokémon, and Randy won’t have a single idea what you just said.” Coldblood said with a hint of delight in his tone.

PERFECT!!! I loved the idea! As if Randy didn’t have enough to worry about now, he was just about to see something that was going to wet his pants even more. If Randy couldn’t understand the commands I was giving to my Pokémon, and they were going to be made-up attacks just like his, he was going to be in deep trouble.

“So what is it already!?” I shouted, eagerly waiting for Coldblood to reveal his outstanding plan.

“I want you to disguise yourself as the one Pokémon Randy has hungrily thirsted for all the years of his life, but has been unable to capture. Seeing this Pokémon will surely bring back some rather bitter memories that Randy will not want to be reminded of. On top of that, Randy will not know it’s really you. And third, your Pokémon will understand your commands as you talk to them in their own language, but Randy will have no clue as to what you have told them.”

Well, that certainly fit the criteria but it certainly wasn’t what I expected. I had never once remembered Randy so desperately wanting a single Pokémon that he couldn’t get. I tried to imagine what Pokémon it would be, but nothing came to mind.

And then, I knew that Coldblood had figured out what I was thinking. He was just about to tell me everything…

It was then that Coldblood had told me about Randy’s childhood, and how even as a little kid there was nothing more he wanted than this one Pokémon. Coldblood told me he asked for it every single birthday and Christmas of his entire life but was left disappointed every time. He also told me how he had failed to capture it three times. At that point, I think I would have been frustrated myself.

“For the longest time, Randy had desperately desired a Pikachu above all other Pokémon. Even at this time, Randy still wants a Pikachu, but his mind is possessed by power and his own idea of what his personal image should be, and therefore he only has the best Pokémon possible rather than having the one Pokémon he really wants.”

Fantastic. Now Coldblood wanted me to square off against Randy as a Pikachu? Things were really starting to get looney now. I had only been normal for a few hours. Couldn’t I at least have a few moments to spend as myself?

“Randy always loved giving his Pokémon nicknames.” Coldblood recalled, “He called his Growlithe ‘Striker,’ his Nidoran ‘Spike,’ his Pidgey ‘Storm Wind’ and his Caterpie ‘Enigma’. He never called his Pokémon by their nicknames while you three were around because he was afraid you would make fun of them.”

Yeah, we probably would, even though for once I personally didn’t feel they were that bad, though his Pokémon were truly weak and probably undeserving of such names.

“If he had caught a Pikachu, he would have named him ‘Juno.’” Coldblood told me, “Of course in Randy’s world, there is such a Pikachu already in existence, but he lives too far underground and too far away to make any use of. Instead, you will inherit Juno’s place and confront Randy. You will become the one Pokémon that Randy craves so desperately.”

It was a bold move to fight Randy as something he truly wanted and desired. Randy would surely hold back some of his power, but I certainly wouldn’t. It would certainly make my day if Randy lost to me just because he didn’t want to hurt the feelings of a Pikachu he really wanted. I loved Coldblood’s whole plan. It was cleverly delicious and sinister, just the way I liked things.

“Very well then, Coldblood.” I told him, “I’ll take Juno’s position and confront Randy.”

“It isn’t that easy.” Coldblood warned me, “Once you become Juno, the real Juno will disappear and become a part of you, and you’ll be stuck as him until you find a way to restore the world back to normal again. Unless Randy forgets about Juno, you’ll have to take his role from here on in, and don’t expect Randy to just completely forget about something he’s been desiring his entire life.”

Good point, but I really didn’t care. The plan was too good to let go, and I had to act upon it. It was definitely worth the risk, even if it meant staying as a Pikachu for the rest of my life. I wanted to be free of Randy’s mind, and I wanted it at any cost.

“Let’s go then.” I told Coldblood firmly, “I’ve made up my mind.”

“Very well.” Coldblood said as he snapped his fingers.

Instantly, I felt like I was falling but I never hit the ground. Everything in the room became huge, as if I was lying on the floor. When it all stopped growing huge, I looked up and I realized now I was only a few inches more than a foot off the ground. I couldn’t help but look at my hands. Sure enough, they were small and yellow with tiny fingers. I had become a Pikachu all right. Again, I was overcome with even more weird feelings.

Then, Coldblood handed me the belt with my Pokéballs, only now they were huge. It was like using a bungee cord to tie basketballs around my waist. And I couldn’t help but think that when I pressed the button the prep the Pokéball for use, it would grow to the size of a giant beach ball. I quickly realized why Pokémon trainers that were Pokémon themselves were extremely few in number…

“You must be careful.” Coldblood warned me, “Anyone that loses to Randy immediately becomes his servant. That’s exactly why happened to Alex and David. David had lost badly against Randy, and after Alex heard the news, he immediately challenged Randy only to fail. If you lose as well, there will be nothing to help bring the three of you back to the real world. Most likely, if you lose to Randy, you’ll be stuck as his favorite Pokémon to train and care for. I’m sure that’s not what you want.”

Hell no. In fact that was probably the last thing I wanted. This was truly all or nothing, and there was no other way about it. I had to win, I had no choice. It hurt to know that now, David and Alex were Randy’s slaves, the one thing in the world they didn’t want.

“Normally, you can’t fight Randy whenever you want to.” Coldblood told me, “There will be a tournament held in only a few days, and the winner of the final round will challenge Randy with the promise of a large cash prize if they win. If you were still were Jake Kossak, you could challenge Randy whenever you wanted to because there’s nothing he wants more than to beat you, but now is different. You don’t want to give Randy any hint that you’re Jake in disguise.”

Of course I didn’t care about the cash. I just wanted to get out of here.

“Of course, no one has ever won this tournament other than Randy.” Coldblood said, “That’s why Randy now has at least fifty slaves. You have to be the one to fight Randy in the final round, and you have to be the one who wins. I can only wish you the best of luck from here on in.”

There was only one thing I could think of as I walked out that door and bid him farewell. Thank God for Coldblood. I have no idea what I would have done without him…

[Luxray13579]

Ahhhh, so Juno is the Pikachu... smart, very smart.
NP, how do you write such great things? Anyways please don't stop.

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 11
The Alter Ego

It was a long march back to Victory City, but it was far more hopeful than when I had left. The three day trek felt like nothing now, even though the distance felt greater now that I was much smaller. I felt like I could march even in the middle of the night, but I didn’t want to exhaust myself. Surprisingly, when I had arrived back in Victory City, the place was jumping. I didn’t understand why the place seemed so empty before, and now it seemed like an oasis of excitement in this desert of pure boredom.

It wasn’t hard to find the stadium again, since it loomed over the rest of the city and easily became a permanent part of the city’s skyline. All I could do was just keep walking toward the giant stadium. As the streets were filled with cars and people, all I kept wondering was why they were here now, and not before. Despite that, I passed the wonder aside and kept moving.

Once I had arrived at the stadium, all I had to do was register at a small desk, but it was quite a shock. Only a tiny handful of names had been on the list, which made me immediately think of hesitation. But nonetheless, I registered my name as “Juno” on the list. The young lady there just looked at me in wonder, blinked twice, and just shrugged.

“It begins tomorrow at 6.” She told me, “You’ll be against Sigon in the Quarter-finals. Remember, you have to be here at 6 or you’re disqualified. Got it?”

She was acting like I was already not going to show up. Clueless. I wanted to get out of here, and now, and if doing all this was the only way, then so be it.

I simply walked away and spent the rest of my day preparing. Other than everything else that was going on, the only trouble I had was finding a place to sleep.

I couldn’t believe I would already be in the quarter-finals. On the other hand, Randy had creamed so many people that probably no one wanted to join. Nonetheless, I told myself not to use any imaginary attacks until I got to Randy. I didn’t want to cause suspicion or create some conspiracy theory.

But even then, it was still easy. That next day at 6, Sigon was pathetic. The battles were all two Pokémon each, and he did pretty poorly. He seemed pretty surprised to be battling with a Pikachu named Juno, but it wasn’t the surprise that made him lose, it was my sheer power. And we didn’t battle inside the stadium like I thought we would. Instead, it looked just like some run of the mill training room with a wooden floor and glass mirrors on the walls. However, I made short work of all his Pokémon. It honestly seemed like a cheap practice round.

“I don’t know who you are, but you’ve made me angry!” Was the last thing Sigon had said to me. Idiot. I was probably doing him a favor by not letting him become Randy’s slave, if he’d even make it that far.

And when he was beaten, that was that. The referee just told me to come back at 7 and that’s when I would be fighting some person by the name of Storm. I just shrugged and walked away. It just seemed like no one really cared about these battles, they only wanted to see Randy whip people’s butts.

The next battle was no different. Storm ended up being a tough, punk female trainer who had actually bothered to raise her Pokémon diligently, but not enough. She ended up whipping out a Clefable that looked like it had been in a bad bar fight and a Hitmonchan from the inner city slums. I was glad that was over when it was. Still, I said nothing and she walked away.

“Your final match will take place at 10 in the evening tomorrow.” The referee told me, “There you will be fighting against the one they call The Immortal Stuyvesant.”

Man, what a name. But of course, to me it sounded like a lot more bark than bite. Already, I had faced people who clearly didn’t have a dying chance against Randy, and I was already thinking this guy really didn’t have a chance either.

And when we finally meet that next day, I got a whole lot of surprise. The guy looked like he stepped out a really bad child’s dream, but then again I thought, “Hey, I really am in a person’s dream after all.” I never figured out where Stuyvesant was from, but he looked like a walking nightmare. He was clad in a dark black outfit with a cape on his back, and his skin was a dark, pale blue. His eyes were a furious red and his hair was slick and black like oil. Meanwhile, his face was extremely menacing and looked like he had only pure evil intent. I would have never expected this guy to be a Pokémon trainer, I expected him to be more of a murderer.

And here I was, just a lone Pikachu. He must have been the one laughing when he saw me, and probably figured I was the most worthless opponent he could have run into. I was just about to prove to him he was dead wrong.

He wanted to begin right away. He was blood-thirsty for a win and he wanted it now. Of course, there was no way I was ever going to give it to him. Not at all. I was sick of being here and I wasn’t about to let a walking freak show get in my way.

“Go Absol!” Stuyvesant shouted as he furiously threw a black Pokéball into the field. Man was his voice was cold and harsh. Where the hell did Randy ever think up this guy?

And out of the black Pokéball came a vicious Absol with the worst attitude ever rubbed off on a Pokémon. I was just hoping he didn’t think I was his opponent.

I didn’t have any fighting Pokémon, so I grabbed the next best thing. I looked over to my left side, grabbed Raichu’s giant Pokéball, and hurled it into the arena.

“Go Raichu!” I shouted.

But of course, Stuyvesant didn’t understand a word I said, and he really didn’t know what Pokémon I was bringing out. It almost made me laugh knowing all he could hear was “Pika Pika Pikachu.” I tried to hold in the laughter. This was just beyond amusing.

When Raichu came out of his Pokéball, he felt something felt oddly strange and he looked behind to see me.

“What the heck happened?” Raichu asked me, “Where’s Jake?”

“It’s me in disguise!” I told him, “But don’t go telling anyone.”

“How the…?” Raichu asked, still wondering how it was even possible.

It was funny how here I was actually speaking to one of my favorite Pokémon, and he had absolutely no idea what was going on. Despite that, I had a battle to win.

“Use a Brick-Break attack on that Absol.” I told Raichu, “It’s one of his top weaknesses.”

“You don’t think I know that by now, Jake?” Raichu asked, looking at me with a bit of humor.

“Call me Juno.” I told him, “I have to keep it a secret.”

And then, Raichu turned around and had advanced on Absol, and Stuyvesant had no idea what attack I had just declared. He watched Raichu carefully, and by the time he realized what was happening, it was too late. Absol was hit with a bone-cracking punch, and this time it did double the damage. Despite that attack, Absol got back on its feet and prepared to strike.

“Bite attack, Absol.” Stuyvesant declared in his hard voice.

“Dodge it!” I shouted to Raichu.

And this is where things really got funny. Stuyvesant thought I had declared another attack. Absol rushed toward Raichu, and Raichu barely jumped out of the way from Absol’s vicious bite. Absol’s teeth clamped down, meanwhile Raichu landed back on his feet.

“Use your Thunderbolt!” I shouted to Raichu.

“Heh, you got it.” Raichu agreed.

The tip of Raichu’s tail had struck the ground, he clenched his fists, and he had charged up an intense Thunderbolt. Just when Absol turned around, he saw a massive wave of electricity rip and tear its way to him. Absol was struck painfully, and he cried loudly. Absol fell to the ground, moaning from the exhaustion.

“I can’t… take it anymore…” Absol moaned in pain.

It was so weird understanding everything they were saying. I would never look at Pokémon battling the same way again. Despite that, Stuyvesant wasn’t very happy learning my Raichu had Brick Break and he didn’t expect it. He only had one more Pokémon to use, and he wanted to make sure he wasn’t the one to lose here. Nonetheless, I was ready for anything.

Stuyvesant had already realized he didn’t know what attack his Pokémon were going to get struck by until it was already too late. I could already imagine the same thing would happen with Randy.

Despite that, Stuyvesant prepared his next Pokémon to enter the battle. He wasn’t looking very pleased anymore…

Stuyvesant launched his next night-black Pokéball into the arena. Now he was gritting his teeth, and clearly had enough of the games. I didn’t care. He should have been more prepared.

“Go Nidoking!” Stuyvesant shouted as he threw the Pokéball into the arena.

The black Pokéball stuck the ground fiercely, and moments later and after a flash of light, Stuyvesant’s Nidoking had emerged ready for combat. He looked at the two of us and gave us a dark stare.

“Which one of you two will be my next victim?” He growled in a low tone.

Raichu looked to me, and he really didn’t look too happy.

“Maybe YOU should try fighting this guy for once.” Raichu complained, “You’ll get a first hand experience seeing how hard it is.”

“Hey man,” I told him honestly, “I never once said this was easy, okay? Just give it your best shot.”

Well, that certainly wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear. “Just give it your best shot” meant he had the odds against him and he was going to feel pain because of it. Of course, I never really thought he would complain to me about it.

“Go on.” Raichu urged me, “How about you give it a try? Maybe for once you’ll see what it’s really like.”

And then, Raichu moved far aside leaving me and this burly Nidoking alone on the field. The ultra violent Nidoking just looked at me with a dark snicker, and then made his advancement. As much as I hated to say it, I was going to have to finish this myself.

“Earthquake on that worthless Pikachu…” Stuyvesant declared.

This was certainly a rare instance where the trainer himself had become the Pokémon he would fight with. As Nidoking lifted up its foot to rip apart the floor, I just had to embrace the hard reality that it was me who was going to fight this guy.

Nidoking’s foot came thrashing down, and the floor began to crack open. All I could think of at the moment was to jump, and jump high. I sprung off the ground, and for a strange moment, I felt like I was flying, and everything suddenly went into slow motion. The arena was slashed apart into pieces, and I remained above the chaos untouched.

I then focused my energy and burst into flames, literally. I then flew toward Nidoking at mach speed, but it was actually much faster since it felt like we were fighting underwater. I slammed into Nidoking, and embers were thrown everywhere, and I landed back on the ground. I saw for an instant Nidoking was slowly stumbling, trying to get back on its feet. I then began to move much faster, while Nidoking was moving slow like molasses. I must have appeared to be a blur to the others, unable to be seen. I jumped off the ground, advanced toward Nidoking, jumped right above him, and targeted his head. He was still letting loose a loud howl from the last attack, which honestly felt like it was half a minute ago.

I must have been breaking every law of physics I could think of. Obviously Coldblood’s power was working, but I never thought it would be to this extreme degree. I could dance around Nidoking at this speed and he wouldn’t even know I was there.

I stood there suspended in the air just watching Nidoking get his butt whipped by me. I put my foot forward, and I flew down toward his head, and slammed down with a thunderous force. Nidoking took a vicious blow to the head, and felt a shock now being thrown in two completely different directions in split seconds. Once I landed on the broken ground, Nidoking was falling, but I had gone over to his tail, grabbed on, and threw him in the air, just like he was a plain old paper ball. Nidoking was now suspended in the air, and I looked up, just seeing him above me like it was a freeze frame.

I then gathered all the electrical power I could, and I could feel an intense energy gather, and a storm of electricity flared from my cheeks, and I looked up and directed the intense electrical carnage at the hopeless Nidoking that was seemingly floating in the air. The blazing thunder struck him violently in ways I had never seen before. At first it didn’t do anything because of his ground type attribute, but only half a second later the power was too intense for that to even matter. Nidoking was roasted thoroughly, and as he slowly came and fell back toward the ground, I simply back flipped out of the way. Nidoking had crashed down, never expecting to get so wasted in so little time. Only then did everything come back to normal speed. Stuyvesant looked like he was ready to lose it.

“How the heck did you do that!?” Raichu shouted in complete shock, looking at me strangely.

“I can show you how…” I told him, looking at the defeated Nidoking.

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 12
The Arrival

It was all over with. Stuyvesant had recalled Nidoking back into his Pokéball, and the battle was finished. We had won, but this victory would only be short lived. The real battle was coming up, the one that would determine whether the three of us would finally reach home, or we would be doomed to stay in Randy’s world forever.

Imagination. That was the ultimate force in Randy’s world. It would be the weapon of choice on the gray battlegrounds of Victory City Stadium. It would come down to one final test, one that meant everything. Someone was going to have to lose everything. Either Randy would lose the chance to live in his own world, or the three of us would lose our freedom and be under Randy for the rest of our lives. And it made me cold to think that Randy could be right, and that our lives would never expire in this bizarre realm of his. I absolutely didn’t want to live here forever.

The days that we fought Randy in the parking lot now seemed like a lifetime ago, even though it was little more than a week since those events had happened. Randy wasn’t thinking logically anymore. We didn’t belong here. None of this should have ever happened.

We were told by the referee to come back to the stadium tomorrow at 10 again. It was then he told us that we would be confronting Randy in the stadium. I really hated this guy’s attitude. He almost made it seem like the real honor was losing to Randy and serving him for the rest of time. He looked at us like we didn’t have a chance in the world. Obviously, he really hadn’t been paying attention.

I could barely sleep that night with the anxiety that was surrounding me. I hated Randy and his stupid world. Randy had no real power, and we all knew it. This was all just an illusion. But as much as I wished it would all go away, it didn’t. There was one thing I needed to do before it would.

Slowly, dawn had come. All this time, I had been sleeping in a cardboard box in an alleyway, which felt very miserable. That whole morning I spent preparing my Pokémon for that final battle. I was able to speak to them, telling them who I really was, and I told them that we were in Randy’s world.

They didn’t believe me at first, but I told them they would certainly believe it once they saw how powerful Randy had become. I told them that if I lost to Randy, they would most likely end up in his possession. They really didn’t like to hear that, but from the look of things, they were ready to believe that this last battle meant everything.

I had only gotten my rest during that afternoon. When I had awoken, the hours were counting down. I made my way to the stadium, and as I saw the many people gather to see this one last final battle, I learned of one sickening thing. They were only here to watch Randy. They only wanted to see Randy nail every trainer who confronted him in the most nastiest, merciless, and unfair ways of all time.

When I entered the stadium, they put me in a closed room behind a metal door. Just outside was the final arena. Another mirthless referee just told me to wait for an official. And then he left me alone.

I stood there for a solid five minutes before someone had actually come. And then I got a sick jump start when I realized the official he was talking about was Alex. While he no longer looked like a butterfly and was back to normal, he looked downright miserable. He just walked up next to me, looked down, and faced the metal door.

“You will be using four Pokémon in a two-on-two match.” Alex told me, not even realizing it was his best friend he was talking to, “Once one of your Pokémon goes down, you are to replace one of them as soon as possible. The battle ends once all four of one person’s Pokémon can no longer fight. Understood?”

But I said nothing, not that he would have understood what I was saying anyway. I could hear a loud cheering through the metal door, meaning Randy must have arrived, thinking he was going to get one more slave today.

And then, suddenly the metal doors opened, and Alex urged me to go out and meet Randy in the center of the stadium. I walked out, and the sight was sickeningly familiar, only now there were a million people watching us. I could swear this was all madness.

“Welcome into the stadium,” An announcer’s voice shouted loud and clearly, “Juno the Pikachu, Randy’s challenger!”

It was followed by a round of sarcastic clapping, everyone thinking I didn’t stand a chance. By now, I could guess Randy was sweating to the point of dehydration. I guess he didn’t expect he would be squaring off against his favorite Pokémon.

And when I got closer to Randy, he was still wearing his annoying black leather jacket and his tasteless shades. He stood there at his respective side of the stadium thinking he was the world’s best hero. Still around his neck was the Quista necklace, the whole reason this misery had begun in the first place. Randy now depended on it, just like it was his lungs or his heart…

We had faced each other. Already, Randy was looking at me very strangely. He obviously didn’t expect me here, and he was becoming tense. Still, he had that impression on his face looking like he had already won.

In only a few moments, we would be engaged in the most outlandish Pokémon battle ever. There practically were no rules now, no limits, no nothing to stop the two of us from spawning ultimate chaos.

And as luck would have it, I found out Jeff was going to be our referee. Great. Randy’s Pokémon were going to have to on the verge of croaking before Jeff would even consider taking them out of the battle. I could already predict there were going to be plenty of false calls. How was anyone supposed to win against Randy?

Regardless, Jeff stood between the two of us. Randy already had his Pokéballs ready, but I was going to wait to see which Pokémon Randy was going to chose before releasing my own.

“This is a match between King Randy and Juno, the challenger!” Jeff’s voice boomed all over the stadium, “This is a two-on-two battle, and each combatant is allowed to use only up to four Pokémon.”

The tension was making me sick. I couldn’t lose this battle no matter what, and I already knew Randy was going to play more tricks to try and win, just like he did last time. And then, at that moment, Jeff prepared for his last responsibility…

“Let the battle begin!!” Jeff shouted loudly, his voice blasting all over the stadium.

Randy hadn’t waited a second longer, and tossed two of his Pokéballs into the air. With a smirk on his face, he looked on appreciatively as the two Pokéballs hit the ground. And then, his two Pokémon came out…

And I began to grow cold and tense when I realized the Pokémon he had chosen were Mewtwo and Celebi. Indeed, they were all right. Randy had access to any Pokémon that existed, and any Pokémon he wanted was his to own…

“King Randy has chosen Mewtwo and Celebi!” Jeff announced to the crowd. A loud applause had rung out.

It was a crying shame I couldn’t use the Mightyena and Houndoom that Alex once had. I would have given a fortune if I had them in my hands. Instead, I had to choose wisely. I didn’t have legendaries like Randy had now. That was already going to be my first disadvantage…

At that moment, I chose to rely on Jolteon and Ninetails. They have always been extremely loyal to me, and have helped me pull through all this misery. Now, I needed them more than ever.

“There’s no way you can win…” I thought I heard Randy whisper to me.

I prepared my two Pokéballs, and then hurled them far into the air. And then, something really strange happened…

Both Pokéballs burst into flames, and looked like flaming fireballs. Forks of electricity were encircling them, and I thought they were going to explode. However, to my relief, when the Pokéballs hit the ground, there were my Jolteon and Ninetails, completely untouched.

Jeff and Randy just looked at them in disbelief. Jeff was shaking his head, as if something had gone wrong. Meanwhile, Randy was looking at the two Pokémon like he had already suffered a defeat. I couldn’t tell what their problem was.

And then I realized what the fire and electricity were about. Randy had tried once again to change my Pokémon, but this time he had failed. I could have laughed, but I didn’t to keep it all a secret. But in the end, Randy was going to have to expect way more surprises than that…

It wasn’t long before Randy had snapped out of his brief trance. He looked at his two Pokémon, and prepared to give his first commands. Now was the time I needed to be more prepared than ever. Right now, I had no idea what their weakness was besides being both psychic…

“Mewtwo, use Silver Guard!” Randy commanded, “Celebi, use Shining Protection!”

And then, both of Randy’s Pokémon were covered by two extremely powerful shields, raising their defenses extensively. Now, Mewtwo and Celebi had a translucent gold and silver wall in front of them. Any damaging attack I used against them would end up doing nothing for damage.

“Try getting through that.” Randy whispered to me again.

That would have been a problem if I wasn’t creative. If Randy thought this was going to stop me, he was just about to enter into a world of hurt.

“Jolteon, use your Thunder Bind attack!” I shouted, “Ninetails, use your Reign of Chaos!”

But Randy understood nothing of what I said. The look on his face was priceless when all he could hear from my mouth was “Pi, Pika, Pikachu.” Still, he wasn’t at all worried. But I could see in his eyes that he had never dealt with anything like this before.

“Yeah baby.” Jolteon snickered, “Give me a piece of these punks.”

Jolteon thrust his front paws into the ground, put his head down, and released a tremendous bolt of thunder and lightning, right at Mewtwo and Celebi. They didn’t know what attack it was either. I had only just created it.

And to their surprise, both of them were inflicted with paralysis and tore their attack to pieces, as well as naturally murdering their speed.

Meanwhile, Ninetails had just stood still silently, and the world around us had become pitch black. Then, all I could see was a suddenly flash of light burst from where Mewtwo and Celebi were standing in the dark. Once the pulsing flash had died down, Mewtwo and Celebi were badly confused, and this time it wasn’t going to go away. It was really too bad for Randy that a simple move like Safeguard could have saved him from so much misery.

“What the hell just happened!?” Randy shouted out in disbelief.

“How… could… they…?” Mewtwo moaned, his head and body throbbing with agony and torment.

The audience was in complete shock. They truly had never seen a battle of this magnitude before. But this was only the beginning. They had seen nothing yet.

“Nice job you guys.” I said to both of them.

“This is so awesome!” Jolteon said in awe, looking at the devastation he had just caused.

Randy sure wasn’t happy after that. However, now he was the one with the disadvantage. And since his poor Pokémon with twitching with pain, it was us who were going to get the first strike this time.

“Jolteon, use your Diamond Break attack on Mewtwo.” I commanded, “Ninetails, once the barriers are down, use your Destructive Inferno attack.”

Jolteon then rushed up to the gold and silver walls that surrounded Randy’s two Pokémon. It was just like an upgraded version of Brick Break, only much stronger. Jolteon tore his way through the shielding, and it shattered like glass. Then, he put his paws forward and slammed right into Mewtwo. The attack itself didn’t do too much damage, but their two barriers were down, and their defenses were set to normal. Then, Ninetails prepared an all-out barbecue attack on Mewtwo and Celebi.

Ninetails gave them both a harsh, cold stare. She arched back her head a bit, and then blew forward a tidal wave of biting, harsh flames. For a solid twenty seconds, Mewtwo and Celebi were roasted alive. Randy’s face turned pale, and I tried hard to hold back the laughter. When the flames cleared, Mewtwo was throbbing and ready to drop, but he still could hold on.

Meanwhile, Celebi hadn’t been able to bear it so well…

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 13
A Sickening Turn

Celebi lay dazed and confused on the ground, not looking like she could handle any more. However, Randy didn’t look too pleased. And Jeff just stood there, and refused to acknowledge Celebi was out and unable to battle. I couldn’t stand this. Meanwhile, the audience was just looking on, some of them not really believing one of Randy’s Pokémon actually fainted. Randy and Jeff certainly didn’t believe it.

This was ridiculous. As if Randy hadn’t gone overboard enough with his absurd Pokémon team, he was unwilling to admit defeat. He just stood there in disbelief, not knowing whether to recall Celebi or not.

“She’s gone man.” Jeff told Randy softly, “Look, just recall her and bring out your third Pokémon. We’ll just forget this ever happened. I’m sure it was just an accident.”

“I don’t know what Juno is doing to the point where he has the same powers I do.” Randy looked at me with disbelief.

Then, Jeff looked curiously at Randy. Something seemed to be picking at his mind…

“Do you… know this Pikachu?” Jeff asked curiously, looking at Randy with an odd look in his eyes.

“No…” Randy muttered calmly right back to Jeff, “Never saw him before…”

Heh, yeah right, you liar. Randy was just acting like he didn’t know me. Regardless, Randy decided not to squeeze blood from a stone. He pulled out Celebi’s Pokéball, aimed the red beam at the unconscious Celebi and returned her to her Pokéball. The audience had realized what had happened, and they had gasped. It was obvious Randy never had a Pokémon faint on him before, or at least in his world he hadn’t.

Instead, he went back to his belt holding his Pokéballs, underneath his black leather jacket. He fingered through his Pokéballs, pulled out the one he desired, and held in tightly in his hand. The battle wasn’t over yet. It was only just about to get worse. This manic was going to unleash another legendary, as if the two he had already sent out weren’t bad enough. He was on the verge of being insane.

“I’m not going to lose to you.” Randy whispered to me, “I created you. I am your master!”

Like hell you are. I couldn’t believe this guy. Now he was just plain losing it.

“Go Groundon!” Randy shouted as he forcefully clutched his Pokéball and furiously tossed it into the arena.

Randy’s Pokéball struck the ground hard, and a moment later and after an intense flash of light, a great shadow appeared over the three of us. As a little Pikachu, looking up at a Groundon is like looking up at a skyscraper. Groundon looked like a walking wall of destruction. We nearly fainted just looking at him.

“Oh man…” Jolteon remarked in hesitation, “This is going to get ugly real fast.”

“How are we supposed to conquer that thing!?” Ninetails asked in shock.

“Randy may have powerful Pokémon,” I told them both, “But it’s not over yet. We still have a chance at winning this. A good chance if we stick together.”

But Randy wanted to have fun. And to him, having a Pokémon faint on him was exactly what he didn’t want. He wanted to win, and he felt like he was entitled to it just because he was the one wearing the Quista necklace. What a chump.

“Go Groundon!” Randy screamed loudly, “Use your Storm Chasm attack! Crush them both, and make them suffer!!”

Groundon let out a low growl, slowly took his foot off the ground, and slammed it into the ground. I instantly lost my balance as everything around me shook violently and forcefully. I shut my eyes, not even wanting to watch the outcome. After a long phase and violent trembling, slowly, the terrible shaking decreased in magnitude, and everything became normal.

As if the attack Earthquake wasn’t bad enough, Randy had created the next worst thing, a ruthless and merciless ground attack named Storm Chasm. And the worst part was Jolteon and Ninetails had a weakness to it. As I slowly put my hands on the floor and lifted myself off the ground and stood back up again, Jeff was laughing hysterically.

“Jolteon is unable to battle, the victory goes to Groundon!!” Jeff laughed, announcing it to the whole stadium.

As soon as I heard that, I quickly turned to see Jolteon, on the ground, who had gotten hurt badly and had collapsed. Ninetails was hurt very badly too, but she looked like she could still go on, even after a terrible attack like that. But Jolteon…

He had turned to me, with the last bit of strength he had left. He wasn’t looking great at all, his body covered with dirt, cuts and bruises. I grimaced at the sight.

“I’m sorry…” Jolteon said to me, looking terribly exhausted, “I wanted to go further, further than this. I wanted… to win together, with you.”

“No, don’t worry about it.” I told him quickly, telling him he shouldn’t fear, “There will be other days. You did an outstanding job Jolteon. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Jolteon was silent for a moment. He seemed really distressed…

“Thank you…” He said to me.

I then pulled out his Pokéball, held it with both hands, aimed the beam at him and returned him to his Pokéball.

Ninetails was going to need a supporting companion, and soon. I needed to think of a new strategy, because Randy was going to think I would use the same one again. He was going to try and do all he could to stop me. It was obvious he wasn’t going to hold back now.

But I refused to lose, I refused. Not after all I had gone through…

They were all waiting for my next choice, the next Pokémon I would decide on to continue this tribulation. I took a glance at Randy’s Pokémon, his Mewtwo still holding his chest, trying to grasp away the pain while his Groundon gave me a cold stare. I had then turned to Ninetails, who had taken the last attack very badly.

I turned back to the Pokéballs on my belt, and went through them one by one. I couldn’t use Raichu, since he was the electric type and Groundon would just knock the stuffing out of him, just like Jolteon. Ariados was poison and Mewtwo could just punish him with a simple Psychic attack, or something even worse…

And then, I came across one Pokéball too long neglected. As far as I remembered, I didn’t recall having a fifth Pokémon, but then it hit me. It was the Pokémon Black had given me. I didn’t even know what Pokémon was inside, and now I was going to face the choice of letting out a Pokémon I was unsure would survive the next attack, or decide to trust Black, and hope his Pokémon would come through for me.

I made up my mind. I took the Pokéball, released it from the leather strap, and prepared to launch it into the arena. I could only hope it was a Pokémon that would be able to help me through this nightmare. I put both of my hands firmly on the Pokéball, and then threw it forward.

They had all watched carefully, all of them, the audience, Jeff, and Randy. There was complete silence as the Pokéball flew gracefully through the air, and then began to fall toward the ground. Jeff and Randy watched it carefully and anxiously, as if it were a grenade about to explode into pieces. When the Pokéball struck the ground firmly, it opened with a flash of light. At that moment, I had summoned another ally to help me win the war against my greatest enemy of all time.

When the blinding flash had died down, I realized who Black had sent to me as a helper, a protector for all of us. It was none other than the powerful dragon and psychic Pokémon Latias. She stood before Groundon and Mewtwo, with a vigorous stare of confidence and trust. She was not going to be an easy picking for both of them.

“Nice choice…” Jeff remarked, unable to hold back the admiration…

“Shut up, Jeff.” Randy growled bitterly at him.

She had turned to me, and was a bit surprised I was the one who was her trainer. But it had not taken her long to realize I needed help more than ever.

“I am poised to strike.” She told me, “Give me your command.”

“Thunder Dragon Slash attack.” I told her, “Go for Mewtwo, he’s already taking a serious hit, and now just needs to be struck in the face…”

And then, at that critical second, she realized I certainly was no ordinary Pikachu. She had felt new power, and I was the source of it.

Then, she leapt off the ground, and flew at a lightning speed toward Mewtwo, letting loose a loud screech from the wind that was blazing past her. All Mewtwo could do was look up, dazed and confused and unable to move. Latias stormed her way to meet her target, and in a split second, the air itself was sliced violently, and Latias had hit her mark with flawless accuracy. The slash sounded like a sharp rake tearing into thick metal. It sounded terribly painful.

“Ouch…” Jeff grimaced as Mewtwo took a nasty blow.

And in no time at all, Latias had returned to my side. I had just looked at Mewtwo, who just completely forgot about the pain in his chest and grasped his face. After he had staggered to stay up, he had fallen, and lost the will to fight. No one could believe what had just happened.

“This cannot be happening…” Randy growled angrily, “No, I will not accept this misery!!”

“Mewtwo is unable to battle…” Jeff said calmly, “The victory goes to…”

“Shut your rotten mouth, Jeff!!” Randy furiously shouted at him, “I can’t lose, remember!? Just who do you think will be getting this victory, huh!? I’m not going to lose to a pathetic… little… Pikachu…”

There was complete silence as Randy recalled Mewtwo, not even thanking him or telling him he did a job well done. I felt a very cold aura of anger and darkness as Randy decided on his final Pokémon. What freaked me out the most was he chose it very quickly. He yanked one last Pokéball from his belt, and held it with a tightening fist, almost to the point of crushing it. Randy was brimming with fury.

“Now you’re dead.” Randy snickered with dark fury in his eyes, “You, him, everybody. All of you are gone! You won’t exist anymore!!”

Heh, whatever. Randy then grasped his Pokéball, and then angrily threw it into the area. The shiny Pokéball struck the ground hard, and after a brilliant flash, we lay eyes on yet another, towering titan. The three of us looked up in shock and bewilderment as we saw seventeen feet above us was one of the most powerful legendary Pokémon of all time, Lugia…

“This is not going to be easy…” Latias remarked, “I’ve never fought anything like this before…”

“There’s a first time for everything.” I reminded her, “We still have a good chance at winning this.”

Lugia had looked down at the two of us. I couldn’t stand the way his dark, menacing eyes glared at us.

“You really think so?” Lugia taunted, “I’m about to show you a whole new revelation in suffering and pain. I’ve never fallen to anyone before.”

Merciless Randy hadn’t been paying attention to us. Only seconds after Lugia had been let out, he turned to Ninetails, who was barely hanging on.

“Go Lugia!” Randy shouted loudly, “Destroy that Ninetails with an Ultra Nova Blast!”

Lugia just turned his back to us, looked at the suffering Ninetails, and just looked curiously at her.

“Well,” Lugia remarked, “This doesn’t look like much of a challenge…”

Lugia opened his mouth, and a brilliant, white sphere of power and energy took form in his mouth. As the sphere accumulated more energy, it become larger and larger until Lugia released his power, and fired a tremendous white beam at Ninetails.

“NO!” I shouted as I hopelessly watched the massive beam slam into Ninetails.

Ninetails shrieked in pain, just before the massive and deafening explosion silenced everything. Torrents of white energy created a shockwave and rocked the entire stadium. I couldn’t even see Ninetails anymore, buried somewhere in that explosive chaos. When the explosion died down, I looked everywhere for Ninetails. And then, I saw her, on the ground and completely motionless. Randy had just pulverized my second Pokémon. Even after all this effort, we were only even now.

I pulled out her Pokéball and returned Ninetails to her Pokéball. She had done the best she could, and that was all. Now, she needed time to rest more than ever. I secured the Pokéball in the leather loop and then decided on my next Pokémon, the last one I could use.

And then I made a choice I won’t long forget. I couldn’t grab the courage to send either Ariados or Raichu into a battle they could easily get clobbered in, but I couldn’t let Latias fight alone. She needed someone to help her…

I decided that if in the end I was going to lose to Randy, I wanted to know that I couldn’t have done it any other way. I reached for the buckle that held the leather straps of my belt together, and separated the straps. I then grasped the belt with my Pokéballs, and threw it aside. I knew what I had to do…

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 14
Into the Breech

Randy and Jeff looked at me with a bizarre look in their eyes, wondering what I was doing. Then, Jeff had suddenly realized what I was doing.

“Juno wants to fight the battle himself…” Randy said in disbelief, “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“Well, if he really wants to suffer too, that’s fine with me.” Randy growled.

Then, Latias had looked at me, with an odd look in her eyes.

“You’re crazy!” She told me, “You can’t enter this battle yourself!”

“Yes I can.” I told her, “It's better if we both go down at the same time then letting him crush us one by one. He’s already obliterated my Ninetails! You saw what he did!”

“But this is extremely dangerous.” Latias warned me, “You must be sure this is really what you want to do.”

“I’ve made up my mind already.” I told her seriously, “The two of us working together is the only chance we have at winning this battle. I can’t afford to lose this battle, but if I do, I want to know that I tried the best I could, the best we could…”

Then, Latias looked forward. It was going to take both of our greatest efforts to take down two of the nastiest Pokémon of all time, two of the strongest legendary Pokémon I’ve ever encountered.

“Boy, is this going to be fun.” Randy said with admiration, “Groundon, let’s show Juno how painful a Storm Chasm attack is!”

“With pleasure, my master.” Groundon spoke in a low growl.

I began to look frantically for a way out, but I saw none. Then, Latias frantically leapt off the ground, and flew toward me.

“Get on my back, or you’re finished!” Latias shouted to me.

I then quickly jumped off the ground, and landed on Latias’s back, and held on tight. We then flew off the ground and went up into the air. Groundon slammed his foot onto the ground, shaking the ground tremendously, but we were totally untouched with the two of us now airborne. We circled around Groundon until we were able to see his back.

“Go for his head.” I told Latias as we flew at an intense pace, “Hit the back of his head with a Cyber Dragon Slash attack!”

And then, Latias flew at Groundon, and everything became a blur. After I focused through the blur, everything around us began to move slowly again while we kept flying at normal speed, just like when I fought Nidoking. It seemed like Groundon couldn’t even move, and then Latias moved in for the strike. For a split second, I heard an ear-splitting shriek as Latias’s claws sunk into Groundon’s rocky armor, and tore into it effectively.

Groundon attempted to try and hit us by wildly swinging his arm. Latias dodged with finesse as he encircled around Groundon again.

“Lugia, get after those two!” Randy shouted furiously, “Destroy them both!!”

Then, Lugia spread his giant white wings, jumped off the ground and flew into the air, vigorously flapping his wings to stay afloat. It didn’t take Lugia very long before he was on our tail. Latias had looked behind her for a moment, and saw we had serious trouble right behind us.

“You’re going to have to get rid of Lugia.” Latias told me with anxiety, “You’re the only one who can.”

And then, we attempted to move at blitz speed again, only Lugia had been catching on and easily kept up the pace. I didn’t think he would be able to follow us at this tremendous speed. It felt like we were going to need a miracle to win this one…

Lugia was now attacking on his own free will. He had been blessed with Randy’s intensive Ultra Nova Blast, and he was already preparing to unleash another beam of destruction on us. He had an extremely aggressive look in his narrow eyes, and he almost seemed to smile while the extreme onslaught he was about to let loose upon us was only growing more powerful and intense by the second. Then, I saw he was about to fire another devastating beam. And it was aimed right for us…

“Pull up!” I shouted to Latias frantically.

We ascended just in time, as a giant torrent of white, blazing energy blasted below us at a thunderous pace. A moment later, there was an intense explosion under us, sending dirt and debris scattering everywhere.

Again and again we circled around the stadium at a feverish pace. If I wanted to get Lugia off our tail, I was going to have to return fire, and now. But how was I going to do it when I needed to hold on?

I slowly turned around, holding onto Latias’s wings tightly with my hands, now facing Lugia straight in the face. I knew that if we got struck by just one of those beams, that was going to be the end of everything real fast. Already, Lugia was fully charged with another shot.

“Bear right!” I shouted to Latias.

She did just that, and just in time. Just only five feet away from us was a torrent of absolute carnage. We made it just in time.

“You’re going to have to make these calls sooner!” Latias complained, still flying around the stadium furiously.

I then looked at Lugia, trying to think of an idea. The only way we were going to get Lugia off our back was if I kept attacking him. I gritted my teeth, held on tighter, and my cheeks began to flare up with intense electrical power. Then, I looked toward Lugia, and aimed for the area between the eyes. I then let loose a powerful Thunder Strike that forked its way violently toward Lugia, and struck him right on target. It stunned him for a moment, but he was able to get back on target very easily.

I prepared to strike again, this time aiming for Lugia’s abdomen, hoping it would hurt him more if I hit him there. At the same time, Lugia was preparing another Ultra Nova Blast. It was going to all come down to who hit first…

I let loose my attack, and the blazing thunder struck Lugia furiously. I thought he was going to go down for sure but he just fought off the pain. And then, he fired his beam of destruction, and I didn’t even have half a second to warn Latias…

It blasted its way right under us, and for a sickening moment it felt like we were riding on top of it. I could feel the intense heat even stronger now. And then, Latias’s had started to lose control of her flying, and all I could think was that she just got hit by the beam. We had done a barrel roll almost three times, and I looked ahead to see we were about to crash right into the ground.

“Latias! Are you okay!?” I shouted frantically, “Pull up, or we’re going to crash!”

But there was no response. I tried to get her attention, but she didn’t say anything. All I could do was just watch the ground get closer and closer to us.

“LATIAS!!!” I screamed loudly…

I couldn’t believe this was how it was all going to end. It was going to be so quick and furious, even when we had been doing so well. We blazed faster and faster toward the ground, and I could tell the impact was going to be extremely painful for Latias, as well as myself when I was going to go flying right off of her.

But then, at that last critical second, Latias slowly began to arc upward, but I realized it might just be too late. Just as she regained control of her flight, we made contact with the ground, and I heard a loud scrape. Latias shut her topaz yellow eyes and winced with pain. At that moment, we started to head upward again. But I could tell Latias was hurt.

“Latias…” I said in dismay, hoping she wasn’t injured too badly.

“I’m fine,” She told me, “But we’re going to have to keep moving if we want to win.”

Thank the heavens above Latias was alright. I saw my life flashing right before my eyes at that moment. I turned back to face Lugia, who hadn’t given up the fight at all. I was furious at that moment. Any ally of Randy was my worst enemy, and right now Lugia was my worst enemy, trying to take away all of our freedom and trying to keep us bound in this forsaken world. I was not going to let him do that to us, not after all we had done to try and get out of here…

Now was my chance for revenge. As we flew at a furious pace, I kept my eyes steadfast on my target, and Lugia had no chance for my forgiveness. It was time for him to be punished…

Lugia then began charging up one more Ultra Nova Blast, trying to make it as huge as possible. I waited patiently for the moment to arise. Then, as the white, glowing sphere of energy was large and filled with a tremendous amount of glowing, white power, I focused hard on my own energy, and my cheeks flared up with more electricity than ever before, and I could feel the intense power surge throughout me. Lugia was within moments of firing off a beam that was so giant that we had no chance to avoid it. It was now or never. I released the most powerful Thunder Strike attack I could, and aimed for the one spot that was going to change everything. I aimed right for Lugia’s mouth. When the intense thunder and lightning clashed with the charging energy Lugia was storing for his attack, there was a massive explosion, starting from Lugia’s mouth.

The white explosion was so massive that Lugia’s entire body looked like it had exploded, and the wave of white energy slowly crept toward us as we tried to race away from it. Moments later, the explosion died down, and Lugia recklessly slammed right into the ground, violently tumbling over and over several times as white fire blazed all over his body. When Lugia stopped tumbling, we saw he lay unconscious, never suspecting his own intense power would be turned against him. He absolutely refused to move, and Randy had no choice but to recall him.

“Nice shot!” Latias congratulated me.

I turned around and then faced the same direction Latias’s was facing. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, a giant, spiked pillar made of chrome metal with razors on its end suddenly threw its way upward, and forcefully slammed right into us. Latias was struck in the head extremely hard, and I was immediately thrown off of her, and then I crashed into the pillar head first, which hurt tremendously.

I shut my eyes from the pain, and all I could feel was a soft wind blow from underneath me as I kept falling and falling. Then, moments later, I slammed right into the ground hard, and I was pulsing with hot, burning pain all over my body. I rolled over a few times, and lay on my back. I opened up my eyes slowly, and gazed up at the stars in the black sky as hot pain continued to cripple my body. I couldn’t move it was so bad. Then, seconds later I heard Latias cry out in pain as she hit the ground and tumbled close by. Then, I heard the tumbling get closer, and she stopped only a few feet away from me. I could hear her moan in pain.

When I slowly turned my head, I saw it was Groundon who was responsible for hitting us. He had hit us with his tail, right at the point when he has used a similar attack to Iron Tail, only it felt like we crashed into something far more durable and stronger than that. I was breathing hard, hoping I could get back up and try fighting again, only it seemed so distant. Jeff had just looked at the two of us fallen on the ground, and he just smiled.

“Juno and Latias are unable to battle!” Jeff shouted out with hideous glee, “The victory goes to Groundon, making Randy the winner!”

After I heard those sick words, there wasn’t any sting of pain that was going to stop me from getting back up and continuing this. I slowly rolled over onto my chest, thrust my hands firmly into the ground, and pushed myself off the dusty floor, and stood right back up again. I was going to enter the fray once more…

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 15
Restless

I was hurting all over, the bitter sting of pain surrounded me, but it wasn’t strong enough to stop my determination. If I was going to lose here, then I was going to lose everything, and I just couldn’t accept that. While we were on the verge of losing, we were on the verge of winning as well. I had decided at the moment that I didn’t care anymore. I would rather bleed to death on this gray battlefield than find myself in Randy’s possession until the end of time.

“It appears…” Jeff said in a calm tone, “Juno hasn’t given up. He still thinks he can fight.”

“Really!?” Randy asked in gleeful amazement, “My, he mustn’t be too smart then. Groudon, let’s prove to this little wimp that he didn’t stand a chance in the first place. Silver Claw Slash, now Groudon!”

The audience was amazed I was still standing. However, I couldn’t bring myself to move. I could barely walk, and only moments later, Groudon came stomping forward, approaching me, and in a split second I found myself thrown off the ground and flying into the air. I must have flown fifty feet before hitting the ground again, and rolling around and around until I hit the back wall. I felt weaker than ever before from the intense pain.

Meanwhile, the audience was rendered silent as they watched me get thrown across the stadium. It had all seemed hopeless now. I had turned to Latias, who was very far away from me. She had fainted, unable to help me now. I was alone, completely by myself. And right now, I didn’t see any hope for me to make it out of this alive. Then, even as I was lying on the floor, trying get back up, Randy decided to strike at me again. I told myself I had to move, or it might just be all over with.

But it was too late. Groudon had stood above me, bent down and grasped my body, and I screamed for him to let me go. But instead, I suddenly felt a great blast of wind rush past me as I was thrown again, flying out of Groudon’s grasp, and flying through the air before hitting the ground once again and rolling over and over again before stopping again. I didn’t want to die like this. Not like this…

And then, I must have let all the hate and anger I had out. Randy could never be forgiven for this. I pulled myself off the ground once again, refusing to lose to my worst enemy, yet again. I looked at Groudon like he was the devil himself.

“You haven’t had enough!?” Groudon growled humorously, “How much more pain do you want!?”

“There is no attack Juno has that can stop Groudon.” Randy remarked firmly, “That hope ended when he lost Latias.”

And as much as I didn’t want to believe it, he was right. No electrical attack was ever going to hurt Groudon no matter how much effort and energy I put into it. I was so scared at that moment. The only thing I could do now was just stand here and lose. Perhaps Randy had grown far too strong to handle. Maybe there really was no way to truly defeat him.

But, I could have smacked myself for thinking like that. I had turned to Latias, and I realized she hadn’t given up after she hit the ground. She worked as hard as she could so we would still have a chance at winning. The two of us had worked so hard to get so far together. The last thing I wanted was for her to wake up and find out we lost, and it was all for nothing. All the hell that David, Alex, and all of my Pokémon had done for all of us was going to be for nothing.

All for nothing… Those sick words made me more furious than ever before. I wasn’t going to stand here hopelessly and wait for Randy to win a battle when he didn’t deserve the victory. I had rushed toward Groudon, trying to think of some, even small, possible way of stopping him. There had to be something. I had a strong feeling it wasn’t meant to end like this.

And then, the perfect solution had come to mind…

Groudon had attempted to stomp on me several times as I made my way around his feet, trying to grab onto his back. He kept turning around and around, but I was far too fast for him to keep up. I didn’t care what pain tried to drag me down, I wasn’t going to accept it. I leapt toward Groudon’s back, and latched on as hard as I could.

“Get him off of you!” Randy shouted furiously.

Groudon had attempted to hit me with his tail, but struggled to avoid it. I slowly and carefully used the black grooves on his back to make my way upward. As I drew closer to the top, Groudon had struck me successfully, and it made the pain even more agonizing. I had to go slower then, struggling and twitching to try and reach my target as I climbed higher and higher.

And finally, at last I had reached the point where Groudon could no longer hit me, or be able to reach for me. Then, I had come across the one way I could have a chance at winning this battle. I had found the area where Latias had struck Groudon in the back of the head, and the claw slashes had gone deep. I then approached the cuts in the back of Groudon’s head, and realized in one small area, his rock armor had been cut away to reveal the softer skin area behind it. I placed my hands on the soft skin, and then focused my energy.

My cheeks had once again flared up with incredible electric power, and I sent the harsh amount of electricity right into the exposed area where my hands were. The powerful electric attack had bypassed Groudon’s armor and had begun to electrocute him within his own rocky skin. He had tried to shake me off, but I held on as tight as I could. I wanted my revenge for what he had done to us. I continuously poured in as much electrical power as I could into the open cut, not even once caring about Groudon’s pleas to make me stop.

The onslaught had lasted almost two minutes, and by the time I had finally stopped, Groudon had begun to collapse. Just before he slammed face-first into the ground, I quickly jumped off, and landed back on my feet. Behind me, Groudon had fallen, no longer able to fight, and I had turned around to face my fallen enemy. Randy didn’t want to believe what had just happened.

“Groudon, get up.” Randy shouted, “Get up!”

I stood there, silently and prepared to enjoy as much as I could of this.

“Randy…” Jeff told him, “There isn’t anything he can do anymore…”

“Jeff,” Randy told him, “Groudon will be getting up, I know it.”

But Jeff shook his head, not believing the totally unpredictable result either, but still acknowledging the fact that Groudon had been finished. There was nothing that could help him.

“I’m sorry Randy…” Jeff said calmly.

“No!” Randy shouted, “NO!! This is not supposed to happen to me! Never! This should not be happening!!”

And then, Randy let loose a hideous scream of agony and frustration. It seemed to get louder and louder, and then seemed so loud it was unreal. Then, everything when instantly black, and I heard a tremendous shattering sound, as if a million panes of glass had been broken. When the awful sounds had ended, there was only the silence of darkness…

I had woken up to find I was no longer Juno the Pikachu, but as my own identity, Jake Kossak. I had my normal clothes on, as well as my belt with my Pokéballs, all five of them. I looked around me and saw I was on the gray asphalt of the school parking lot. I checked my watch and saw it was still 2:18, only a minute after we had met them on that last day of school before the incident. Alex and David had gotten up, and were right besides me.

“Man, what the hell happened?” Alex asked, “For a moment, I heard this hideous scream and then it felt like…”

“It’s over with.” I told them both, “I never want to go through anything like that ever again.”

I had seen Frank, Jeff, and Randy only a short distance away. When I looked at them, they only began to walk away even faster. They said nothing, and Alex and David didn’t want to pursue them, and neither did I. Alex and David had simply turned around, and began to head home, still overcome with a million different thoughts. Meanwhile, I stood there for a few seconds, just content to see the normal world again. The air had never smelled so good.

And then, tiny red glints from the asphalt had caught my eye, and I realized it was the Quista necklace, only now it was in pieces. As I continued to stare at it, it slowly crumbled even further, and turned into dust that was gone with the wind. I was glad that hideous torture device was finally out of my life. I then turned around, and headed home.

It had seemed like months had passed by, when only it had all happened in a minute of real time. The three of us had run into Randy, as well as Jeff and Frank on other school days, but we no longer said or did anything to them. We no longer played the same tricks we used to. And I never did tell Randy that it was really me who was actually Juno. I could have, but it would have gone too far. None of us have ever said anything to anyone…

In essence, it felt like a part of me had completely changed from that day on. I wasn’t the same bully I used to be, and I never was one again. I felt far more comfort in what I found familiar, my family, my friends, and my Pokémon. There was a piece of me that had been changed, and I realized how precious it is to belong to something, and to be a part of it, and to contribute to it as much as you can. I began to see it in everything, as a family, a community, and a brotherhood.

I had arrived home, and my belonging to my family seemed to be more real than ever before. I had lost them for some time, but in the end I had gained them back, as well as something new and different that I had realized was there all this time…

My own room seemed like something that had been a part of me that had been taken away. I had approached the doorknob, grasped it firmly, and opened the door to reveal the one place where I could be myself and not feel ashamed. I had looked around, seeing my bed, dresser, and my desk, as well as all the other things that were a part of me, and I was glad I could be in my own world now.

I’ve been away for a long time…

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 16
Odd Reoccurrence

Only like a week had passed, but it felt far longer than that. Surprisingly, I was able to focus more on school and less on playing around. My whole mentally changed around, and I was no longer the nasty little creep I used to be. And Frank no longer hanged around Randy like he used to, he kept to himself, and we in turn kept our distance from him as well. But I could see in his eyes he wasn’t the same he used to be either. He ate less, talked less, and stayed away from people like they were a plague. I never bothered him anymore, but something else must have been bothering him.

Jeff was too much involved with sports now, always saying to Randy that he had to get to practice for one of the many sports he had signed up for. I had looked at him for the longest time, and all the while it looked like nothing had ever happened. And then again, maybe it was because he was the one least affected by the whole thing after all. The rest of us… we really weren’t the same anymore.

But I would never forget the awful mistake Randy made only a week ago, using a magical necklace to create his own world. I didn’t believe anything of it at first, but all that quickly changed when I found reality torn to pieces in ways I could never imagine. Supposedly, Jeff’s father had found this necklace, once owned by some guy by the name of Quista. After Jeff gave it to Randy, he used its power to create his own world, just for one purpose…

Randy never used to be good at Pokémon, and the three of us, Alex, David, and myself used to brutally pick on him, and beat the stuffing out of Randy’s Pokémon for sheer pleasure. Once Randy had created his own world, he gave himself the most powerful Pokémon he could think of, as well as giving them the power to use any attack he could think of. After Alex and David had lost to him, he made the two of him his servants, leaving me alone. The only way I could get the three of us out of Randy’s world was to prove to him that even in his dream world he couldn’t beat us. The only one who had helped me with this was Coldblood, who gave me the power to put me on the same level as Randy. It was then decided that I would go in disguise, so Randy couldn’t tell who I really was. Coldblood had decided I would disguise myself as a Pikachu, the one Pokémon that Randy had always wanted but had been unable to catch.

But in Randy’s world, this Pikachu already existed. Randy would have called his Pikachu “Juno” if he had ever caught one. Since Juno already existed in the realm of Randy’s dream world, when I took his place, I was stuck as Juno until Randy’s world was destroyed and the real world returned. But Randy never knew I was Juno when I fought him face to face in what had to be the most outrageous battle of my life. I didn’t tell him either, because I knew the consequences of him finding out would be awful.

After a brutal battle, I had won against Randy and it was all over with. I would never forget what I had done, putting even myself into such a harsh situation just to make sure the brutal nightmare would end for all time. But it was over with now, never to happen again. I would never battle Randy ever again after that. I still had thoughts of that brutal experience, and the last thing I needed to do was give myself a reminder of it.

In fact, for a week I had completely avoided Pokémon battling altogether. For some reason, I just did, maybe because I wasn’t so ready to do it again. Still, I kept telling myself that I would get back into it soon enough. I definitely didn’t want to completely retire from it, but there was too much on my mind for the moment.

It wasn’t until I had gotten home one afternoon that things really went wild. For once, I hadn’t even been thinking of the incident only a week ago, I was just trying to get back on my feet and keep going on with life. For once I was able to grab the time to be by myself.

I had gotten home, grabbed my belt with my Pokéballs, and had headed out to the small, grassy backyard we had in the back of the house. Then, we I reached the white, stone patio, I had looked at my belt. While I had all five of my Pokémon, something confused me. I had originally had four while I was in Randy’s world, but while I was there, I had obtained another one. I couldn’t help but think of a single, beckoning question…

How was I able to pull something from Randy’s dream world into the real one? It just didn’t make sense. It made me question just how much did I really pull out of that bizarre place? Regardless, I had grabbed my fifth Pokéball, and tossed it into the air, where it hit the patio stone and released the Pokémon inside, my Latias.

She had emerged from the bright flash, and immediately looked around. She then found me, standing only a few feet away. She looked at me curiously for a moment with her shiny eyes.

“Where… are we?” She asked in question, looking around her and noticing the surrounding was quite different.

“This is my home, as well as yours.” I told her, hoping that in time she would get used to it.

And I could have slapped my mouth at that moment. How on Earth was I still able to understand what she was saying…? No, that was far too strange. I knew she didn’t have a natural ability to talk. There was something else…

But I kept myself quiet. I simply showed Latias around, and then put her back into her Pokéball, and didn’t say another word. Oddly enough, I only made things worse. How was it even possible? Something was seriously wrong. Nothing of any of this was right…

I then, I thought of something. If I had pulled something from Randy’s world, Randy must have had to as well. I had decided I would talk to him tomorrow, yes, the very person that had once been my worst enemy. But something was telling me he wasn’t going to be anymore considering what had happened. I just had to know something.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted, and I didn’t know what it was from. I hadn’t been running around, everything had seemed normal. When I finally settled down to go to sleep, I tried to get my mind off the events of last week. They shouldn’t have been haunting me like this, but I couldn’t get my mind off of it. And to think, I should have been satisfied enough to just be in a real bed again, for once. After I got comfortable and just put it aside, I shut my eyes…

And suddenly I felt like I had been thrown on the floor, which felt like cold, diamond metal against my back. I couldn’t see anything for a harsh, chilling moment as everything was bathed in black, but then I was able to open my eyes.

All around me was metal, cold and dark. It had felt like I was in a normal hallway, only I could barely see anything. And then, in trying to get up, I quickly realized I was not myself anymore. I was Juno, as if I had been Juno this whole time and never once was a human being. I didn’t understand it, but I never thought anything was wrong in my dream trance than just accepted everything that happened.

Then, a bright, red light had emerged from the end of the hallway, and a silhouette of a dark, tall figure was slowly walking toward me, holding some sort of large, blunt weapon in his hands. I put my tiny hands behind me and slowly crept away on my back in a hopeless retreat, and hoping that he wouldn’t notice me or I wasn’t worth his time to kill anyway.

Pipes were blowing steam in front of him, and I had trouble trying to recognize who it was. Still, I frantically tried to crawl away, but I wasn’t getting very far. Then, I had stood up, and began running in the opposite direction, but I was met with a nasty surprise. I had been running in pitch black darkness until I slammed right into a wall. I frantically looked behind me only to see the figure move closer and closer.

He was going to kill me, and for reasons I didn’t know why. I had stayed in the darkness, thinking he wouldn’t see me, but it seemed like he already knew where I was, and he began to approach me, slowly just to keep my anxiety rushing for a longer amount of time. Then, he was standing right above me, and he took his weapon, raised it in the air, and it forcefully came toward me at a feverish pace.

I nearly woke up screaming. I kicked and had thrown off my bed covers, and looked at my hands to make sure I still wasn’t Juno. I had sighed in relief when I realized I was still normal, and more importantly, untouched despite the fear. I simply turned and I checked the clock by my bed and it was only four in the morning.

But I didn’t dare go back to sleep…

[Luxray13579]

This is one intense story NP. Good job!

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 17
The Meeting

That next morning, I got dressed, ate breakfast, and walked to school all in complete silence. I barely said anything to anyone, I just went to school and wanted to keep quiet. I didn’t want anyone to assume anything by looking at my face either, so I tried to keep a calm and neutral expression. Thoughts were constantly stabbing at my mind, and the last thing I wanted to do was talk about it or say something that would only make it worse. I already knew that trying to act like nothing ever happened was going to be impossible. But the least I could do was to avoid making it look so obvious…

I barely paid attention in class, now unable to get my mind off of just trying to meet Randy when we were let out. After four long classes of complete bore, I dashed out the back exit. I couldn’t wait another second to get it out.

“Man, aren’t you in a hurry…” I heard a familiar voice say right behind me.

I turned around and looked back into the stairway to see Alex, one of my best friends. He seemed a bit shocked at the mess I had become.

“You were dozing off in class this morning, Jake.” Alex told me, seeming a bit concerned, “Have you been thinking about something?”

“It’s about Randy.” I told Alex, knowing exactly what that would remind him of, “I think it’s about time we talk to him, and find out how exactly this all happened.”

He was silent. His only response was a simple and quiet nod, and then he followed me. The two of us headed out the door and found Randy in the one place where he always hung out after school: on a black, metal bench completely by himself. The two of us approached him, and he looked up at us with hesitation and anxiety in his eyes.

“Randy, we need to talk.” Alex said firmly to him, “We could really use some answers.”

Randy had already known what Alex was talking about, and he didn’t look like he wanted to fight about it. Instead, he stood up, and looked at Alex in the eyes.

“Look, let’s go some place where no one is going to see or hear us, okay?” Randy asked Alex, already knowing what this was about, “I don’t want this to go floating around.”

“Fine, Randy.” Alex agreed, still keeping it quiet, “How about we talk in one of those dugouts in that old, abandoned baseball field?”

Only about a half a mile away was an old baseball field that hadn’t been used in nearly a decade. After Randy had said yes, we simply walked our way over there, totally out of sight by anyone. Randy moved in a very stiff fashion, seeming like he was very uncomfortable at the moment. I knew he didn’t want to talk about this but if I didn’t say anything about it, it would haunt me for months to come.

When we had arrived, we stepped inside one of the concrete dugouts and sat down on the old, wooden bench inside. Meanwhile, Alex sat down on the concrete stairs leading out into the dusty field.

“I want to know something Randy.” Alex told him, not wasting another second, “You know what happened just last week. You gave us the nightmare of our lives.”

“What… is it that you want to know?” Randy asked Alex, feeling very uncomfortable.

“Who is Juno?” Alex asked coldly, “How was a normal, everyday Pikachu able to beat you?”

I was silent, and felt incredibly sick at that moment. I already perfectly knew the answer to that one, but I didn’t want to say anything at all. Neither of them knew it was me.

“I really don’t know.” Randy asked, trying to fight off the pressure, “I couldn’t understand his commands, and after he decided to enter the fight himself, he just never seemed to go down despite the serious beating I gave him. I hit him with everything I could, but nothing ever stopped him. I just don’t know how Juno was able to do it…”

“No, really Randy.” I asked him, trying to cover my tracks, “Just who is this Pikachu? You obviously know him somehow…”

Randy looked at me for an instant, and then started to look toward the ground by his feet.

“I always wanted a Pikachu.” Randy said sadly, totally avoiding any eye contact with either of us, “Juno is the name I would have given him if I ever caught one. Juno was a side of me that was a burden that wouldn’t go away no matter how hard I tried. It wasn’t any surprise he decided to battle me and he was the one who won. It seemed like he was always doing that.”

Interesting. I never thought of it that way. I was just about to say something when…

“You’re about to see the truth…” I heard a cold voice say out of nowhere...

Randy and I had looked up in complete shock, and Alex frantically turned around to see who had snuck up on us. In a feral instinct of paranoia, I suddenly became very defensive. Before us stood a brown haired man in black cloak, who seemingly just came out of nowhere. He was wearing sandals, and had a very stiff and aggressive look on his face, as if he was ready to fight at any second. He spoke very quickly and aggressively.

“Who the hell are you?” Alex asked in surprise.

“I want to know who the three of you are.” The fair-skinned man replied firmly, “Only now have I been able to track down the location of one of my most prized possessions, only to find it has been completely destroyed…”

He was obviously talking about the necklace. I don’t know how it ended up breaking, but there was something else I really wanted to know.

“You’re Quista, that powerful Kavaskian sorcerer?” I asked the man, not even wanting to guess of what he was capable of unleashing on us.

He started snickering. Instantly, at that moment, I felt like I had said something extremely stupid.

“So that’s who they think I am?” He asked mockingly, “My real name is Zander. I’m not Kavaskian either, someone had stolen that necklace from me thousands of years ago, and I didn’t even get the chance to use it. And no, I’m not a real human either.”

Now we were beginning to freak out. I thought this guy was going to murder us after we smashed his necklace, but for some odd reason, I couldn’t even bring myself to fight him…

“You’re…” Randy stuttered in total fear, “Not human…?”

“I don’t care about that right now.” Zander replied with a cold stare, looking right back at Randy, “One of you used my necklace, and created your own world. That necklace was meant for me. My long search for it had ended in its destruction, and I want to know who’s responsible!”

This was far worse than getting sent to the principal’s office for getting into a fight. This guy looked ready to kill us, and no one would ever find us here for days. Still, we were silent. Something in me said to point to Randy, but I never ended up doing so. Yet, just a week ago with my nasty personality, I would have been fingering him like crazy.

“So who was it!?” Zander shouted angrily.

We were still silent. Then, he gave us a really sick stare, and I was quivering. I thought my life was over at that moment.

“I can make you all become sunken with fear.” Zander glared with fury, “You think I don’t know what happened!? One of you became frustrated enough to use it in the first place, another created an alter-ego for himself, and the third became a servant for the first. The first of you used my necklace to create your own world, for only one pathetic purpose.”

“Stop it, please…” Randy begged, finding out the hard way this guy already knew the truth about us.

“You couldn’t tolerate your companions’ endless defeats, so you created your own companions and made yourself a champion.” Zander growled at Randy, “Can you possibly fathom how much of a waste you made of that necklace!?”

Randy was shaking his head. He didn’t want to believe this was actually happening.

“I couldn’t stand losing all the time at Pokémon battling.” Randy complained, “I needed something to help me win for once.”

“But that isn’t all.” Zander growled, looking angrily upon Randy most of all, “You were able to pull these Pokémon out from your dream world and pull them into reality. They currently remain with you at this moment.”

My question had been answered. Randy really had been able to do the same as I had, pulling something from his world into reality. Just like I had. I couldn’t help but think of all the other things I must have pulled out of there, with the thought of Juno being on the top of that list…

“I was going to use that necklace to go to the place of my desires so I could summon them into reality, but instead it was wasted on you!” Zander shouted angrily out of frustration, “Your purpose for using it was meaningless! It took me nearly a lifetime to craft that necklace!”

I kept my mouth shut. Now I knew why he had come to us from out of nowhere. Randy used his necklace for a stupid reason, stupid compared to what really could have been done with it. Hell, Randy could have created an endless amount of whatever the hell he wanted and pull it back into reality. Yet now… it was way too late for anything like that. I could see what was making this guy so angry.

“You…,” Zander said harshly, now facing me, “You are a completely different story. You wanted to free yourself from this maggot’s world by defeating him. The only way to do it was to hide yourself.”

Now Randy was looking at me in curiosity. Randy was going to find out everything in a matter of moments. I really didn’t want it to turn out this way, but like hell I had any choice about it.

“You disguised yourself from this maggot by turning yourself into his own, living desire.” Zander said with a hint of cynical laughter in his tone, “So you became a Pikachu by the name of Juno, and you defeated this maggot. When his world had vanished, you awoke to find yourself as normal human being. But by becoming another living creature in his world, you took his essence with you. The only reason why you’re not Juno any longer is because your purpose in this world is to serve it as Jake Kossak. But you won’t believe how easily this can be changed!”

“Jake, you were actually Juno!?” Randy asked me in complete shock.

“Randy…” I whispered to him, “Just shut the hell up…”

From the way this guy was sounding, it seemed he only needed a bit more than a snap of a finger to turn me right back into a Pikachu, and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop him…

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 18
The Only Solution

Man, as if Randy’s first mistake hadn’t been bad enough, we were about to suffer a second time for it. I was wondering what the hell I had done to deserve this. I didn’t even know what Zander was if he wasn’t human, and my guess was as good as anyone else’s. The only thing I was aware of was he was angry at us for destroying his priceless necklace. What was to stop him from just making another one? Besides, making our lives a complete misery wasn’t going to help him get it back anyway.

“I don’t see why you would want to turn me back into a Pikachu.” I told Zander honestly, “It’s not like that is going to change anything. Why don’t you just make another necklace and be done with it?”

“It took me thousands of years to make that one!” Zander shouted in fury, despising how little I knew about these things, “I would force you to make a replacement, but you wouldn’t last long enough and you don’t even have half the power to do it. The only thing I can get from you is revenge.”

I thought Randy was going to be furious when I told him I was actually Juno. Instead, he had looked at me, and almost began to feel sick.

“I can’t believe…” Randy stuttered softly, “You went through all that trouble to just beat me. You almost killed yourself out there… I’m really sorry, Jake. I… never meant for you… to go that far.”

He certainly wouldn’t have said that a week ago. It seemed when we were in Randy’s world, all the suffering we encountered wouldn’t have been enough. Now, it seemed like he was truly beginning to regret it. Better late than never I suppose…

“That doesn’t matter now.” Zander said in a serious tone, “You’ve taken something from me that I’ve spent my whole life making and looking for. And here, after all these years, I find the three of you are the reason why that necklace no longer exists.”

“Hey man.” Alex told Zander in a casual tone, “I wasn’t any part of this. I’ll tell you right now…”

“You were an accomplice!” Zander shouted, totally interrupting Alex, “You’re no better than the others. For this, all three of you will be punished. I know only of a few torments that would accurately represent the pain and frustration you have given to me.”

From my side, this all sounded like serious lunacy. He obviously sounded like he had no interest in actually killing us, seeming like that was just an easy way out of it. I couldn’t imagine what this guy was thinking.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re even talking about.” Alex said straight to Zander’s face, “Let’s face it, the necklace is gone, pal. It’s over with. Maybe you should have made it more durable, ever think of that, genius?”

Zander stood there looking very infuriated at Alex. I honestly didn’t fear this guy. I had stopped feeling so afraid, and knew there was little this guy could really do to us. This guy didn’t have his necklace anymore, so what did I care?

“You destroyed my only possession, utterly wasting it on mere, pathetic desires that you didn’t even bother of preserving by making them real.” Zander growled in fury, “You wasted it completely! Now, I’m going to make the three of you suffer for what you’ve done. You’ll see what happens to those who infuriate me!”

Then, he outstretched his arm, opened his hand, and showed us his bare palm. I might have burst out laughing from that gesture, but seconds later the whole sky went black and the whole baseball field became a sick, crimson red. I felt nauseous and shaky as everything in front of me swirled like mixing paint. Everything slowly became black, and I passed out…

* * *


I had awoken, but had not opened my eyes. The air around me was cold, and I could feel a faint breeze coming from above. The floor felt cold and stiff, and only then did I open my eyes and take a look around me. For a moment, I felt paranoid. I knew it wasn’t long ago that I had felt this same feeling.

I then realized it was completely impossible for me to still be on Earth. The room was completely made of metal, mostly rusted scrap. Everything seemed so giant to me until I realized why that was…

I had become Juno again, a sight and feeling far too familiar. Those moments of horror were slowly coming back to me now. The fighting, the suffering, the loneliness were felt all over again. My long, yellow and black tipped ears, my thunderbolt-shaped tail, my posture, and my tiny, yellow hands, all of it made me immediately question if I was to spend the rest of eternity like this. I knew I couldn’t run away from it anymore. I took Juno and all his amazing powers out of Randy’s dream world, but little did I know this confirmation of acceptance would drastically change my destiny forever…

The room was a jail cell as I quickly realized the only window to the outside had bars around it, and the only exit was a circular, reinforced steel security vault door. There was no chance of ever getting past that thing. After looking around, I saw I was alone in this cold cell with no one but myself. No one but my persistent thoughts and fears…

My curiosity had taken a hold of me as I slowly climbed on top of the single, rickety metal bunk bed and made my way toward the window. When I slowly approached it, I had seen what was outside. It looked like Hell itself, like I had been condemned to this miserable place of damnation for all eternity.

The sky was a horrid mixture of red and gray with passing black storm clouds that were constantly moving and mixing. Thunder and lightning were always occasionally lighting up dark patches of sky, and I could feel the rumbling of thunder from far away. Despite how long I looked at it, it never once stopped…

Meanwhile, on the ground it looked like fields upon fields of a wasteland of twisted, dying trees had covered the landscape. In some places, fissures had opened up, seeming to be endless pits waiting to swallow up anything that had fallen in and never release them ever again. But nothing was moving, except for the flashing thunder in the skies above, the swirling of dark clouds, and the swaying of dead trees from a lonesome wind that quickly came and quickly passed.

Randy’s world was a joyful play land compared to this place. I sure didn’t want to stay in this miserable prison, but something kept asking me if going outside was any better. From what I saw, it seemed I was probably better off inside within the safety of my own cell. Even if Randy, Alex and I had gotten out of here, there wasn’t any chance we could possibly travel on that type of landscape. It seemed the land itself had gone mad…

As I looked at my tiny, yellow hands again, and I tried to wonder why Zander thought it was better for me to be a Pikachu. Did he think the whole thing was amusing or something? But no matter what, that wasn’t going to change anything. There probably was no place for Jake Kossak in this world. After all, my strongest belief was that this was a representation of Zander’s mind. Why oh why did I feel like I’d rather be off in Randy’s world, despite how incredibly awful it was? I had only been here for a few minutes, and I already wanted to get out of here.

I already knew the cast iron bars blocking the window were too thick and too close together to bypass, but even if I could, I don’t think I wanted to be walking alone in that geographical nightmare. I was hoping the other side of this prison wouldn’t be as freaky as the other, but I wasn’t going to place my bets on that.

I had approached the vault door, and tried to see if there was any lock whatsoever, but instead, all I saw was the back of the circular vault door, no keyhole or anything. Obviously, the only way to get out of here was if someone opened the door from the other side. I had no idea how long it was going to take before that happened, but waiting around for that to happen wasn’t going to help anyway.

After looking around, I truly saw no way out at all. I knew I wouldn’t get out of this nightmare if I just stayed here and waited to rot away. Someone was going to have to come and at least feed me something, or I would just die of starvation. Then I thought rationally. If Zander really wanted us to die, he would have killed us in that abandoned baseball field. He wouldn’t have waited for us to fall over, rot, and stink up his whole jail, or whatever this miserable place was. That wasn’t our purpose here, so there had to be something else involved.

The floor was made up of solid metal panels of an array of grays, browns, and silvers, all secured with extremely heavy bolts. They were nice and tight on the floor, and they weren’t going to come up without some sort of heavy construction tools, which of course I didn’t have. Plus the bolts were mostly rusted over, which meant they were pretty much stuck in there for good…

I had looked up at the ceiling, now seeing smaller square panels of a deep bluish metal, with smaller bolts on each corner that hadn’t been rusted over like the ones on the floor. I had looked up at all of them, and saw out of the corner of my eyes, there was a panel in the corner on the right side of the window, with one of its bolts missing on the right corner next to the wall.

If I were to remove that panel, it might just be a way out of here…

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 19
The Midnight Struggle

The only problem with removing that panel was it was fifteen feet in the air, and there was nothing for me to even get close to it. I had turned to the bunk bed unit, which would reach high enough for me to remove the panel, but how would I be able to move it? If I were still human, it wouldn’t have been a problem, since the metal bunk bed wasn’t exactly the sturdiest thing in the room. But as a little Pikachu, it might be next to impossible.

Suddenly, to my surprise, the vault door had clicked, and slowly swung open. By the time I had turned around, I had seen a red, clawed hand holding a pewter bowl just suddenly drop the bowl it was holding by the door, and then just like that, it was quickly shut again.

Just for curiosity, I had walked over to the bowl, and I could have puked. It looked and smelled like hot, salty vomit. It was a musty brown and orange color, like somebody tossed their cookies in it, as well as took of dump of diarrhea all over what was there already. I didn’t care if it took me the rest of the week to move that bunk bed, there was no way in hell I was going to stay here.

I had grasped one of the metal poles supporting the upper deck and tried to pull as hard as I could. I must have pulled it five feet away from the metal wall before falling on my hands from exhaustion. I then tried pushing to see if that would change anything. It was a bit better, and I went a few more feet, but it was still at least twenty feet away from the wall, and I needed rest. It felt like pushing a truck in neutral…

After a few hours had passed, I gave it another shot, only to go seven more feet before my hands and feet were aching. I couldn’t go on, and I needed rest. But for now, I needed to get rid of that vomit soup, before they began to assume I was going to starve myself…

So, I grabbed the bowl, walked with it across the room, and dumped the stuff out the window. It was disgustingly lumpy and it smelled even worse as I poured it out, like real barf. I then promptly took the bowl, put it by the door, and then headed for the lower bunk of the bed. I didn’t care for the fact there weren’t any pillows and only one sheet. I was too tired…

The next morning, I was rudely awaked by the door opening again, and other bowl of morning puke to greet me. After the door was shut again, I quickly headed back to try and move the bunk bed. I pushed as hard as I could for as long as I could hold out, and soon enough, I finally made it to the other side of the wall. I then climbed my way up to the top bunk, which wasn’t any better than the first. I had made my way to the loose panel, and saw there were only three bolts I had to remove since one of them had already fallen out. I had put my hands on the first of the three, and turned it counter clockwise. This one hadn’t been in too tight either, and after about twenty spins, it came out. The other two were a bit harder, but after I tried hard enough, all the bolts came out, and the panel fell from the ceiling and onto the top bunk, revealing a hole in the ceiling.

The hole that was left was only a foot by foot square. While I might have had an easier time pushing the bunk bed as a human, there was no way I could fit through that hole as one. But now, being a Pikachu made all the difference. I ducked, positioned myself under the hole, and looked up.

It appeared to be some sort of ventilation duct of some sort, which was surprising since I didn’t see any vent grates in my cell. How considerate of them…

I put my hands on the edge, and hoisted myself into the duct. It was very dimly lit, so I had to first get adjusted to the darkness, and use the dim light coming from the other vents to see. I slowly crawled my way through the vent, making sure to be as quiet as possible. As I made my way about twenty feet, I had come across a vent leading to another room. When I looked through the vent grill, it looked like a guard’s lounge. I took a quick glance around the room and noticed the only ones in the room were an Ampharos and a Skarmory just standing by the table, talking to each other.

The room was completely metal as well, only it looked much cleaner than my cell. The table didn’t look in that great of a shape however, having rust patches all over the surface. The metal seats were crudely made, and two vending machines in the corner were on and humming but duct tape was all over the plastic window of the snack machine.

“I can’t believe they’re going to do it again…” The Ampharos said with doubt to the Skarmory, looking exhausted for some odd reason.

“Doesn’t matter.” The Skarmory quickly replied. “You know what happened to The Bend and Cyphex. Those cities lie in ruins now. This used to be their city too, until we trashed it and took it over…”

I was deeply wondering who and what they were talking about. I kept away from the grate so they wouldn’t see me, and I listened in…

They kept talking for over an hour, and I sat there listening to every bit of it. It sounded like they were talking about a war, one between a league called the Silver Rebellion and the Crimson Stars. It turned out this was a jail run by the Crimson Stars. It made me wonder for a moment. Why would Zander want to wage a war in the realm of his mind? Or maybe I was assuming the wrong thing? Maybe this wasn’t his world at all… But if that was the case, then where was I really?

“When do you think we will fight again?” Skarmory asked, looking curiously at Ampharos.

“It won’t be long before it’s all over.” Ampharos told him with pure confidence, “The Silver Rebellion doesn’t have any leaders left, they’ll all dead or in jail. Once we attack their capital of Symarix, it isn’t even going to matter any more. The rebels are fading.”

Who were these rebels, and what were they rebelling for? I was just about to leave when I realized something. My belt with my Pokéballs was hanging from a nearby rack, along with many others. How could these maggots steal my Pokémon? I sure as hell wasn’t going to let them get away with that. I moved right up to the grate, and kicked it as hard as I could. Perhaps a little too hard…

The grate popped out like it was only leaning against the vent hole’s rims. I didn’t care. Those Pokémon were mine, and no one was going to take them from me. I had looked out the vent, and jumped out, landing on a metal shelf unit that was right below. The Ampharos and the Skarmory immediately looked up at me.

“Who the hell are you!?” The Ampharos exclaimed, looking up at me in shock

“You’d better give back my Pokémon,” I told them both in a firm voice, “I don’t take anyone stealing anything from me lightly.”

“Oh man.” The Skarmory snickered, not taking anything of it seriously, “You are so dead for picking a fight with me.”

Almost immediately, the Ampharos charged up his own electric attack, and just before he fired it at me, I jumped off the shelf unit, and landed firmly on the table. Just a second later, the shelf was blasted with electricity, sending dozens of metal cans flying in all directions.

I shielded myself from the barrage of metal cans, and seconds later they had all hit the floor, creating a loud, clanging noise. When it was all over with, Ampharos had turned to me, not looking very happy at all.

“Boy, you are one dead puppy.” Ampharos sneered, “Do you really think you can take us down?”

“Yep, simply for the fact your electrical power can’t hurt me and your Skarmory friend can’t even take flight in here, so it’s going to be your loss.” I told him, saying it right to his face.

“That’s what you think.” Skarmory said in a cold tone, spreading his silver blade wings, and leaping right at me with steadfast determination.

And I don’t know what happened right after that, but I instantly felt myself go flying backward right of the table, and I saw the table was sliced in two equal pieces. I had hit the wall, and soon slid down the wall and onto the floor. I looked down and saw my chest had been badly scratched. I could feel the burn of pain all over me.

The two halves of the metal table had laid flat on the floor, and the Skarmory had been right between them. I then realized what he had done. I never imagined a Steel Wing attack to be so strong…

“You are nothing.” The Skarmory told me, looking at me in the corner, “I’ve fought much tougher Pokémon from the Silver Rebellion than you.”

“I’m not part of the Silver Rebellion.” I told the Skarmory as I got up off the floor.

For a moment, they actually seemed shocked that I wasn’t. But nonetheless, it was the truth. I didn’t even know who the Silver Rebellion was…

“Really?” The Ampharos asked in surprise, “Then where the hell are you from?”

“Heh, don’t bother.” The Skarmory smiled to his companion, “He doesn’t know.”

That punk. I immediately charged up as much electricity as I could and directed it right toward Skarmory. He only had a split second to react as he saw the incoming thunder, but it wasn’t fast enough…

Skarmory had been struck hard, and he glowed like a light bulb from the blast. After about ten solid seconds of generous toasting, I released my power, and Skarmory stumbled over and fell to the floor, landing on his chest with his thin, metal wings spread out.

But, even as that happened, the Ampharos looked to his fallen companion, and knew Skarmory had the disadvantage and couldn’t help it. But taking down Ampharos wasn’t going to be as easy…

[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. Ampharos was sent flying backward, and then violently hit the back wall. 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 single Primeape guard had been on patrol, and when I opened the door, he spotted me. He was wearing a light blue uniform, and his face was scarred and ugly.

“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!”

Heh, great. This was just what I needed. The Primeape had plucked out one of his Pokéballs, and threw it only ten feet away from me. After the white flash had begun to take shape and become colored, I saw what had emerged from his Pokéball. A dark brown, lethal-looking Ursaring. Upon seeing me, he took his sharp-clawed fists and punched them together, and I didn’t want to imagine what would happen if I got between those fists...

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.

“Ursaring, use your Slash attack!” The Primeape shouted in sadistic laughter.

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.

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.

“Err, Ursaring, return.” The Primeape replied in hesitation as he pulled out Ursaring’s Pokéball, aimed the red beam upon Ursaring’s body, and sucked him back into the Pokéball.

He gave me a glare, and then he was ready to pull out his next Pokémon. I was not enjoying this at all. He pulled out a second Pokéball, and threw it vigorously.

“Nah ha!” The Primeape laughed, “Go Seviper!”

The Pokéball had struck the metal floor, and long and behold, the light that spilled out of the Pokéball had begun to form into the black snake with a yellow diamond pattern running along his body. Seviper had one hell of a face, with long fangs and menacing eyes, along with a tail end that looked like a knife. Once he had fully emerged, he glared at me and hissed.

“Nah ha ha!” The Primeape laughed again, “Seviper, use your Poison Tail attack! Finish off this annoying Pikachu!”

“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.

“Ha! Ha!” The Primeape laughed, pulled out a third Pokéball, “Now it’s all going to end right here! Nah ha!”

I could only just forlornly look up as I saw him holding his third Pokéball. I couldn’t believe it, what was he going to do, send out a third Pokémon on me? Couldn’t he see I was already pretty beat up?

“Pokéball, go!” He shouted as he tossed the Pokéball hard.

And just when he threw it, I realized he wasn’t sending out a third Pokémon. Just when I figured out what he was doing, it was too late. The Pokéball had slammed hard right on my head, and then I felt everything turn white, and felt like I was being pulled hard and fast, and then everything went black…

I tried harder and harder to get myself out of that Pokéball, but I wasn’t sure if I could do it…

It was then, that time itself seemed to slow to a crawl, where mere seconds felt like minutes. All I could do in that dark chamber was to try and push myself out. I struggled and struggled and then, something happened. I suddenly could see the blinding light again, and then, I felt like I was being pulled out of that chamber. Suddenly, when the blinding light had ended, everything came back into view, as if I had just pulled myself out of a daze.

The Primeape and his Seviper had appeared again, along with the rest of the room. I don’t know how I did it, but I somehow managed to get myself out of that Pokéball. The Primeape was surprised, looking at me like something had gone terribly wrong.

“What!?” He shouted in frustration, “Why didn’t that work!?”

I gave him a dark stare, and then Seviper looked 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, “Seviper, use your Bite attack!”

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 recalled his Seviper, aiming the red beam at Seviper and returning him to his Pokéball. But to my surprise, I had suddenly realized that was his last Pokémon.

As he began to back away, I had remembered he came with seconds of screwing up everything. If he had caught me with that Pokéball, I would have been stuck here, as his Pokémon. I didn’t look very lightly upon that at 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.

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 release the scarlet liquid. 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 a Hyper Potion. After digging around for it, I found one and pulled it out of the bag. 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 droplets. I was amazed how this stuff worked, it healed cuts in bruises within seconds. When it was finished, I felt completely refreshed, as if nothing had ever happened. 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 who’s cell I was going to open. 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. 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 to get the hell out of here.

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 forward to getting 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, and headed to the next cell, and found the key. I was really hoping I wasn’t making a serious mistake by doing this. 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, “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.

“Which one is mine?” Randy asked, looking up at the many different belts on the rack.

“Who cares, let’s just take them all.” I told him as I tried to climb to the rack.

I had removed the rack from the wall by ripping out the nails, which were terribly loose and not at all hammered in very well. I dragged the rack back into the hallway, and Randy followed me, helping me pull the heavy rack along. 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. He looked at the Pokéballs like they were the last bit of oxygen on the planet.

“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, looking upon Cubone. He seemed a bit distressed…

“Sir, we had better let loose our mounts before the Wind Strikers arrive…” The Marill said with anxiety.

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

“They’re 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…

Cubone hadn’t taken long before he told me to hand around the belts of Pokéballs. When they started to release their mounts, I realized what these “mounts” were. Each one of them had a Pidgeot on them. Soon enough, at least fifty Pidgeots had been let out of their Pokéballs, and the Pokémon that had released them actually climbed right on their backs and took flight.

“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. Couldn’t blame him. I didn’t know what a Storm Rider was either…

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

“That’s who we are.” Cubone responded, “We’re at war with the Crimson Stars, and some of us use Pidgeots as a means of transportation and 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 I tossed it onto the ground. Sure enough, there was a flash, and the white light had formed into Latias. She had looked around, having 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. Any of the Storm Riders that hadn’t already taken flight had just completely stopped and just stared at me. 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. I had no idea what was going on…

“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…”

“Were you saying something?” I asked Cubone, knowing he really was but wanted to know what it was 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 hell 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, “The enemy comes, part now we must.”

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, “Only my family has known about that for the longest time. I was named after one of the brightest stars in the sky. I don’t know how that Cubone ever found out about it though…”

Neither did I…

[TheRagingTyranitar]

I like the font for the chapter name! What is the name?

[Neo Pikachu]

Originally Posted by TheRagingTyranitar

I like the font for the chapter name! What is the name?

I use Size 5 for the Chapter number and use the Font, "Palatino Linotype," and as for the chapter name I use Size 3 and use the Font, "Courier New."

[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, 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 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. All of them looked like they were unpainted, and were just manufactured for purpose only rather than all the luxury cars that I had seen.

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 Sever.

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

“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 like it does today…”

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. 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.

Cubone 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 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 want Blazewing to be present when we meet Jamac.” Sever told me in a serious tone.

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, not the way he was before I released Latias from her Pokéball. Nonetheless, I just followed him and 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. After looking around, at the shiny metal buildings, I could only guess metal and iron ore were more in abundance than concrete was, but I never really knew the reasoning behind that. 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…

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 me 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. There was a Slowking, a Swampert, a Marowak, and many others. Then, my eyes had caught sight of the one 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 Pikachu riding a Latias with a steadfast look in his eyes. The wind was blowing past his ears, as Latias seemed to be heading forward at a thunderous pace. On a small plaque on 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. Latias and Randy couldn’t believe it either. The Silver Rebellion believed we were already heroes. They made me look more important than… their own rulers. I didn’t understand any of it whatsoever…

“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, 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 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. But I already knew I had rescued one of their Storm Rider regiments. 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…

And then, we had reached the top floor, and the elevator stopped. Then, 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 Vigoroth and a Zangoose stood by his side. Sever continued on, and we just followed him. As we passed by the various ranks of 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. With Randy and Latias at my side, I finally arrived at Jamac’s throne, and I kneeled down, and Randy did the same. I bent down my head, looking down toward the floor.

“So, it’s the one they call the Gold Rider…” The Zangoose said, almost in a cynical tone.

“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, “The honor is mine. I want to thank you for accepting me into your ranks.”

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. After all, I didn’t even know who or what told these guys I was even coming to town.

“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 if it was just jealously or something else.

“Oh come on.” Sinis moaned in an annoyed tone, “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 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.

[Neo Pikachu]

Chapter 23
The Last Prison

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

“What!?” Sinis shouted in shock, “Randy is a human’s name!”

Randy looked up at the Zangoose, and he began to get really nervous. I could already guess humans weren’t exactly liked among the rebels. I got a sick feeling Randy was going to tell everyone that he actually was once a human, and that he wasn’t always a Pichu…

“That’s just the name my mother gave me.” Randy said honestly to Sinis, “I have yet to see a human here…”

Heh, 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 just gave him the name. And they were thinking he never had laid eyes on a human, but Randy just never saw a human here.

“We can’t allow a Pichu with a name too close to a human’s to be within our walls.” Sinis told Randy, looking at him with quite a bit of anger, “I will see to it that he is removed from our premises immediately.”

“While I understand your beliefs, Sinis…” Jamac said to him, looking at the standing Zangoose, “We need only to change his name. Any friend of Juno is welcome in our city.”

They were going to change Randy’s name? I didn’t see this coming…

“Now, what shall you be called…?” Sinis asked, looking at Randy straight in the eye.

Randy just continued to look at them strangely, not expecting a new name from the council. It made me wonder why they found human names so offensive. I honestly didn’t want them to come up with some name Randy was going to roll his eyes at, so I just spoke for myself.

“Blitz.” I told them quickly, just wanting this to end, “We’ll just call him Blitz from now on.”

I gave Randy a slight nudge, letting him know to just keep quiet about it. To my surprise, Randy didn’t say anything.

“Fine, whatever…” Sinis replied, shrugged, “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.

Sever had looked at me for a moment, and I just took a 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. “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.

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 monstrosity 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. He was a real fighter now, one who stood for his beliefs. He was my ally as well…

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. 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, metal 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.”

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…


ON ANOTHER TRACK


Tuesday morning wasn’t much for me. Class was a pain in the butt. My stupid science teacher Mrs. Herman failed me on one of her retarded labs. Plus Jake and Alex hadn’t been in school today, so I had no one to talk to in history and math. Lunch was pretty lonely, but I just dealt with it.

Mrs. Herman hated my guts, which I guess was justice since I hated hers even more. I was running a really low D in her class, and I didn’t give much effort. But this time, I actually tried, and she still failed me on the lab. I should have taken that Sulfuric Acid and tossed it at her face. Of course, then I’d really be in trouble…

History and math were a total bore, since I usually just chatted with Jake and Alex during those endless minutes of class time. Math was the worst, a real clock-watcher class. I’m so sick of learning about variables. Made me wonder who would be dumb enough to leave out a number, and on purpose. What a waste of my time.

And when it was all over with, I finally stepped outside. I hadn’t seen Randy all day long, and I wondered where he was. But I knew that everyday, Randy was on the same, black metal bench, right by a few trees. It was somewhat of a shock to me to see that Randy, Jake, and Alex hadn’t been here on the same day. But, I shrugged it off and just thought it was coincidence. Sometimes it happens…

But I didn’t keep that belief when they weren’t at school again the next day, and there were rumors going around that Randy was kidnapped. There was something about a phone call from his mom to the school, and some kid overheard it. I didn’t know what to believe, until late in the day, someone had told us on the loud speaker that Randy had been missing for the past two days, and that if anyone knew of his whereabouts, they should inform a teacher as soon as possible.

That made me sick, because I knew the same thing must have happened to Jake and Alex. Their parents weren’t too worried, but that was only because of all those stupid random slumber parties we used to have. They would almost never notice us being gone from the house. I had to think clearly on where they would be. I already knew they must have been together, so I was one step ahead of everyone else.

After school the next day, I checked all over the place. All around the school, but I found nothing much and all I really did was waste a heap of my time. Something was telling me that they weren’t far, it didn’t make much sense for them to have gone really far out that day they were gone. I then, I remembered something. The three of us always used to hang around the abandoned baseball field. Even if they weren’t there, I would at least know I tried my best to find them.

It was a pretty long walk, however. Mom and dad were going to wonder where I was again, and I would have no answer or excuse. But my friends were more important than that. I kept drawing closer and closer to the baseball field, and once I stood in the middle of it, I found nothing. I took a look at the visitor’s dugout, but found nothing. It wasn’t until I had checked directly behind me. My jaw dropped. There they were, lying on the ground, all three of them. I instantly thought they were dead. As I slowly walked closer, I expected to see blood all over the place, but those beliefs were quickly extinguished. I looked at Jake’s chest to see if he was breathing, but I nearly vomited when I realized he wasn’t.

“Jake, say something…” I told him, not even expecting a response.

I crouched down next to him, seeing if he had a pulse. For some really weird reason, it was different, not normal at all. It had a different beat, and I was really starting to freak out. When I had gone over to check, Alex and Randy had the exact same thing. What the hell was going on?