Vicky

After hearing that we now had three psychics in our small group, the plan for us to get to the aliens had been changed a bit.

"Right, so we're going to go and search for a way to get to the aliens' hideout without flying," Rally said, standing in front of me.

"And if there's a way in, we can try and sneak in," I said. "If not . . ." I sighed " . . . we are going to have to battle it out. Either way, we have got to save the adults!"

Rally nodded her head as she, Marle and Jewel set off to the building where we found the aliens and Jewel.

Katie

While Marle, Rally and Jewel were out trying to track the Invaders down (apparently all three girls had some sort of Psychic abilities) the rest of us decided to search the rest of the city for weapons - anything - that might help us in the fight against these beings that had taken our parents.

I was with Lizzie, William and Olivia, each of us accompanied by one of our Pokemon. I had let my Ponyta out, while Lizzie had her Skiploom and William had his Golem. Olivia's Togetic was her only Pokemon so she had released the dainty creature from her Poke Ball and she was now fluttering after us.

"Do any of you know where we can find these weapons?" asked Lizzie as we made our way through the deserted streets. Little more than a day had passed, but it was already beginning to feel like we were walking through a ghost town. I was reminded of that tv series called "The Tribe", in which all the adults had died and the kids had to fend for themselves. Except, this time, no-one had died - we hoped . . .

"There's a gun shop not far from here," said William, pointing to the left as he spoke.

"But don't you need a licence or something . . .?" Olivia started. But William cut her short.

"In case you've forgotten, there's no-one around to issue licences," he said. "Besides, I can't see anyone letting a bunch of kids loose with guns."

But would ordinary guns be enough to deal with the Invaders? Or did they have something about their physiology that made them resistent to Earth weapons? I voiced my concerns to the others, but William just shrugged.

"Right now, Katie, anything's better than facing those things unarmed," he told me.

Steve

I turned over the rifle carefully. It was an old bolt action of some sort and accompanying it was a precious few clips of ammunition. I didn't know how to shoot, but it was somehow reassuring to have the heavy rifle slung over my shoulder.

I checked over my belongings - a small cache of firearms stuffed into a medium-sized backpack, thirty feet of rope, a week's supply of beef jerky, a knife and a flashlight. My first priority was to try and escape. I figured tht, if I could find a city airstrip, it would give me my best chance.

Katie

As we left that gun shop - each of us now armed with at least a handgun - I wondered again just what was going on around here. All I knew was that aliens seemed to have taken over the city of Goldenrod and only a handful of kids had escaped.

But had we escaped? Or had we merely been overlooked for some reason? And how long would be be able to stand up to these Invaders? I knew Ponyta, Raichu, Bellossom and Ledian would fight alongside me to the bitter end, but would four Pokemon really be much good against whatever had caused our parents and the other adults to disappear and cut us off from the outside world.

And then there was Marle, Rally and Jewel, all of whom had gone off to try and track down the Invaders. Somehow, I doubted three girls would be able to handle such creatures even with psychic powers . . . Well, Marle and Rally might, but Jewel was still very young. If anything happened to a kid like that . . . let's just say I could imagine how I'd feel if it was Maxine.

"We'd better be getting back," said Lizzie. "Once we're all together, we'll be able to plan what we should do next."

Vicky

I had hidden my gun as soon as I got it. Unlike everyone else, I felt these guns weren't safe; we were untrained and many of us could not aim properly. Those of us that could were struggling to help everyone.

We walked around the city trying to find the Pokemon Center, which had sort of become our headquarters. Everyone was looking round suspiciously, waiting for something to pop round the corner. When we got to the Pokemon Center, everyone sat down on the seats or on the carpeted floor and listened to Katie.

"We know how to get to the Invaders - they are up there," she said as she pointed at one of the tallest buildings in Goldenrod City.

"We must go through the building and arrive at the top. We shall then fight our way in unless we can sneak in," Rally finished.

Everyone in the room cheered as we left the room to go to the building.

Katie

The tallest building in Goldenrod was of course the radio tower, now eerily silent with no-one in it except us. Since the lift wasn't working, we had to trudge all the way up the stairs and I hoped the younger kids (like Maxine and Jewel) would be able to hold out.

It was while we were making our way up the second flight of stairs that Maxine spotted something, a Torchic huddled in a corner and looking lost and bewildered in the deserted building.

"What's that Torchic doing here?" she asked.

"I don't know," Marle replied. "But we can't just leave it."

Maxine crouched down to the Torchic's level and spoke to it reassuringly. As I watched her, I thought of my own Pokemon, of Ponyta, Bellossom, Raichu and Ledian, recalling how eagerly Maxine had been looking forward to next year when she would be old enough to start her Pokemon journey. Provided, that is, we could sort these Invaders out first . . .

Anyway, the Torchic (it turned out to be a female) seemed to trust Maxine and let her touch her on the head. "Looks like we've got another Pokemon on our team," Olivia remarked as Maxine picked the Torchic up in her arms.

"Bring that Torchic with you and come on!" I urged Maxine as we continued on up the stairs and onto yet another deserted floor. Lizzie and Marle were in the lead and the rest of us were following.

Suddenly, there was a deafening crash from outside. It sent us all hurrying up the remains stairs and towards the nearest window to see what was going on.

"It's a plane!" Lizzie shouted. "And it's just crashed into the town square!"

Marle pulled out one of her Poke Balls and released a Pidgeot. "The pilot could need help - I'm going to take a look," she informed us as she mounted the bird's back. "Merlin, use your Hyperbeam to blast a hole in the wall!"

Merlin (which was evidently the Pidgeot's name) threw back his head and sent a powerful blast of energy from his beak. It struck the window frame dead on and blasted it and most of the surrounding wall away.

Vicky

I stood and watched as Marle's Pidgeot flew her over to the crash site. I had been tempted to go and get Dotty ( my Ditto) to transform into Pidgeot and fly over there as well, but I had been advised not to.

I wondered who was on the plane. I supposed that there had been interference in the air which messed up the engine or electrics. I don't know - I'm not a mechanic.

Steve

"Damn it!" I cursed.

Something was yanking at the tail of my aircraft. Invisible but powerful, it was trying to pull the plane towards a nearby building. I had run her up to full throttle, but it was a constant struggle against the invisible force which now tugged my aircraft towards a gleaming office building. I stepped on the rudder pedals and rolled out to try and fight it.

Then I heard the plane groan under the stress. It wouldn't last much longer under this battering, so I had to get to the ground as quickly as possible. The invisible force pulled the plane down just as I tried to descend, and now the street angled up at a gut-wrenching rate. At the last second I used a desperation move - I pulled back on the yoke, carefully trying not to stall, and at the same time extended full flaps, praying that they wouldn't tear off.

It worked to a certain extent. Instead of drilling a hole in the street and pancaking the airplane, I crushed the landing gear into the plane and smacked the propeller into the ground. The engine exploded and caught fire, but even that didn't hold my attention for long and the plane skidded into the town square and careened straight for a statue in the middle. "Oh bugger!" I muttered as I braced myself for the impact.

But the plane bounced off at an oblique angle, finally slamming sideways into a jewelry store on the far side. The weakened section tore free and I suddenly found myself sitting in the burning front half of an airplane inside a jewelry store, strapped in and holding the flight yoke. "That's it, I'm leaving," I announced to myself.

With that, I promptly unbuckled my seatbelt, grabbed my pack and jumped out the new hole behind the cockpit, dazed but otherwise unhurt. Boy, if my instructor was around to see that . . .

A movement in the air caught my eye and I looked up. A Pidgeot circled overhead, apparently having noticed the crash. "Well it's good to see at least SOMETHING alive out here," I said aloud.

"That goes for me too!"

I looked closer. The Pidgeot was descending and there was a girl riding on its back. "Hey, another human! Now we're getting somewhere!" I exclaimed happily.

"Not just me, either," the girl replied, now only a few feet off the ground. "The rest of the group'll be glad to see you." Her pidgeot landed and she dismounted. Up close, I saw that she was pretty.

"H - hi!" I stammered. "Awful nice day to go flying, eh? You also looking for other humans?"

"Not really," she replied. "I'd say most of the population's gone, we're kind of trying to form a resistance."

"Oh? Against them aliens? What are you, some sort of paramilitary force?"

She shook her head. "Mostly just kids," she said.

"Well, add another kid to the list - I'm only eighteen. Steve Hatton, by the way, crash artist extraordinaire." I extended my hand.

"Marle," She replied shaking my hand. "And this is Merlin, my Pidgeot."

"Where's the rest of your group?" I asked.

"Over there." She pointed at the Radio Tower. I noticed a hole in the side and couple of heads peerin out at us. "Come on - I'll get Merlin to carry you over."

She turned and began to mount Merlin.

Vicky

Marle and the pilot, Steve, quickly arrived at the Radio Tower, where the long introduction began. We had to go through everyone before we moved any further upwards. As we climbed up the stairs, I had a sense of being watched. I just hoped it wasn't the aliens.

Katie and a few other people were leading the group up the stairs when they all suddenly stopped, which meant that everyone crashed into the person in front. When we got sorted out, they signalled for us to hide against the wall. It didn't matter where we were though, we could all see what was going on at the top of the stairs. Wires were trailed round the room, some actually coming down the stairs, even though I hadn't noticed them.

I could see the aliens wandering, but they still hadn't noticed us, a biggish group of kids. Round the corner, something was giving off a green light in a dark room.

Katie

"What's that?" asked Vicky.

"What's what?" I asked, keeping a tight hold on my Ledian's Poke Ball with one hand and resting the other on Maxine's shoulder.

Vicky pointed. "That green light," she replied. And I saw it too. It lit up for a few seconds before going out again, giving the whole place a rather sinister air. Could it have something to do with whatever these aliens were doing? I didn't know and I wasn't about to try and find out.

"Whatever it is, it's probably dangerous," I said cautiously. "Let's . . ."

Before I could get any further, the Torchic Maxine had found hopped out of her arms and darted in the direction of the green light. "Torchic!" Maxine shouted, running after the small Fire Pokemon as I tried in vain to restrain her.

"Maxine! Come away from there!" I yelled as, heedless of the danger, I released Ledian and ran after my kid sister. She may be a pain at time, but they say blood's thicker than water so I wasn't about to let her face this alone.

"Well, we're going with you," said Marle. And, with that, she opened one of her Poke Balls and released her Ninetales Firestorm. "There's no way you'll be able to take on the Invaders alone."

I didn't like the thought of them - especially the younger kids like Jewel - putting themselves in danger, but it was probably best if I didn't try to deal with this situation alone. So I nodded my head slowly. "OK, but we'd better keep together and someone'll have to watch the younger kids," I added cautiously.

Marle

Keeping close behind Katie, we continued our climb upwards towards the mysterious green light. I noticed it seemed to be pulsating and wondered, somewhat morbidly, what we might find at the top. There was still no sign of Maxine . . . Without warning, we emerged into a cavernous, brightly-lit room. I stumbled into Katie, taken back by the abrupt lack of stairs. "What the...?!" I gasped.

We were surrounded; well, "surrounded" by three of them but surrounded nonetheless. The stairs had emerged right in the center of the room. I growled, feeling the anger and helplessness build up inside me, pulsating in my chest. Was this what Rally and Jewel had felt?

We instinctively backed into each other, presenting only our fronts to the invaders so they couldn't get in a sneak attack. Firestorm put up a Light Screen just as I prepared to give the command. The aliens seemed to stare at us for a moment as if deciding what to do, before raising some sort of weapons and taking aim. "Oh shit!" I muttered softly, trying to follow the line of fire from the alien in front of me . . .

"Look out!" I screamed, tackling Steve and sending us both crashing to the floor with the momentum as the brilliant laser beam zipped by harmlessly overhead. All around us, the others were screaming and dropping to the floor to avoid the deadly red lights. I opened my eyes to see Steve grinning cheekily and suddenly realized that I was lying on his chest in a rather "compromising" position. Blushing fiercely and not quite sure why, I quickly moved aside.

Firestorm shot me a look as she struggled to maintain the Light Screen. She had followed me and was managing to reflect most of the lasers, but, every once in a while, one would slip through and she would have to move quickly to avoid being hit.

Feeling the fury build again, now fueled by my additional embarrassment, I glared angrily at the nearest Invader. The moment I looked in its direction, my eyes were drawn to meet its gaze. It was as if I had lost control of my own body. I felt the fight leave me, filling instead with something like indifference. Why were we fighting these creatures? I mean, so what if a few people had gone missing? They left us, didn't they? Maybe we should leave them alone.

I could barely stand anymore, let alone think about moving as the creature slowly inched closer . . .

Steve

"Stupid little green men from Mars!" I muttered to myself as I got up. I was just about to go for the sole Poke Ball by my side when I noticed Marle was just standing still with a vacant look on her face. I'd seen something like that before; she looked like someone being hypnotised by a psychic.

"Hey!" I said I grabbed her arm and tried to yank her to cover behind her Ninetales' Light Screen. She stood transfixed and started to lean heavily to one side. I paused, swearing inwardly, then picked her up by the waist and made for the Ninetales. She kept staring on even as the strange phaser-like blasts flashed around us. I traced her gaze and finally realized she was staring at an alien that was closing in on us.

"Break . . . eye . . . contact!" I said slowly, trying to maneuver her to face the other direction. But her face and eyes remained stubbornly opposed to it.

Her Ninetales saw the approaching alien and growled threateningly. I sighed in exasperation and covered her eyes with my right hand. With my left hand, I flicked my wrist and gave the alien the finger, careful not to make eye contact myself. Her Ninetales suddenly lunged . . .

Vicky

My eyes searched round the room for a place to hide. There were only a few places - upstairs, downstairs or behind the equipment. I took the upstairs option. I ran up and noticed that there were two ways to go, through a locked door or through another doorway.

I sent out Spook and Wiggles (my Wigglytuff). "Spook, look through the door to see if there are any of those things!" I ordered. She disappeared through the door and soon reappeared, nodding to tell me it was safe. "Wiggles, use Strength to smack the lock!" I said to my Wigglytuff.

Wiggles smashed the lock and the door swung open. Spook had been right; There was nothing in here, not even a light. I heard someone running up the stairs. I was going to shut the door when I heard Steve shout out: "Let us in!"

I reopened the door as he ran into the very dark room with someone draped over his shoulder.

Katie

I saw Steve running with something slung over his shoulder and, when I got close enough to see what it was, I immediately realised it was Marle. She seemed to be passed out for some reason, but I couldn't tell why and I didn't have time to find out. I had to find Maxine and her Torchic.

Steeling myself, I released all my Pokemon at once so they could help me. I sent Ledian to fly on ahead, telling her to report back if she found anything, while Ponyta, Raichu and Bellossom did what they could to protect me. Ponyta's Fire Attacks were really strong, Raichu could use powerful Electric Attacks and Bellossom . . . Well, Bellossom might not be very strong for a fully evolved Pokemon, but she did know Sleep Powder and that was always a handy move to have. Except, I'd never expected to need it under these circumstances . . .

Anyway, Ponyta trotted alongside me while Bellossom rode on my shoulder and Raichu ran ahead. As we ran up the stairs, I heard Rally calling out to me to "stay with the others", but I ignored it and carried on up the spiral staircase with my Pokemon. Maxine might need me even now. I couldn't let her down.

It was as I was making my way through what usually served as the cafeteria that I felt it, a sharp pain in my head as if something was probing my brain. In the same instant, I saw it - Maxine secured to a table by her wrists and ankles while three of these things hovered over her like menacing shadows. I could see the fear in her eyes as they lowered a strange device towards her face . . .

"Maxine!" I yelled as, forgetting everything except what I had just seen (or imagined) I ran across the deserted cafeteria, knocking aside litter bins as I did so. Ponyta and Raichu were hot on my heels as I ran on, the image of my sister on that table dominating my mind. I had to get Maxine out before these things did something horrible to her, but I had no idea where to start looking and, even now, it might already be too late.

"No!" I told myself, dismissing the thought even as it occurred to me. "It's a trick by the Invaders. It's got to be - if I was psychic, I'd know by now."

Then, Ledian came winging back and beckoned to me. I followed her and found . . . Maxine waiting for me, clutching her Torchic and looking completely normal. I returned my Pokemon and went to hug her.

"Maxine! Thank goodness you're safe! Don't ever wander off like that again - it's dangerous with these things here," I told her, not sure whether or not I should scold her for making me worry.

"Sorry, Katie," she said. "Let's get back to the others." She reached out to touch me and, as she did so, I noticed something strange about her left hand. It was glowing with a purple light.

But I had no time to wonder what it was since we had to get back to the others quickly. I retraced my steps towards where I had last seen the others, but there was no sign of them.

Then, I noticed a Misdreavus drifting around outside a door and remembered that Vicky had a Misdreavus she called Spook. Was this the same Misdreavus or had another Misdreavus been left behind in the building the way Maxine's Torchic had been? Although I didn't know why, something told me it was the former.

And, moments later, Olivia flung open the door. "Katie and Maxine, in here!" she called.

In response, Maxine and I ran into the room and found ourselves plunged into darkness. "Er . . . does anyone have a torch?" I asked sheepishly. The light on Maxine's hand glowed faintly, but it wasn't enough to let us see each other clearly and I could hear some of the younger kids whimpering in the dark.

"No, but my Togetic knows Flash," said Olivia.

"Well, why don't you use it!" Rally's voice snapped from somewhere nearby.

Vicky

I blocked my eyes from the light as Olivia's Togetic used Flash. Even though I hadn't been able to see anything because it was pitch black, I had got used to the darkness.

When my eyes had finally adjusted to the light, Marle, who was now conscious, looked around. "Wow! It's a computer room!" she said.

She was right. There were lots of computer in rows, all connected up to the plugs. I walked over to one and switched it on. "What are you doing?!" Lizzie exclaimed. To be truthful, I wasn't exactly sure myself. I had often watched my brother try and hack into the Goldenrod High School website and mess it up. It drove them crazy.

Like my brother, I could quite easily use any computer and I soon found the map of the three levels - the first one with the aliens, the one we were on and the one above. "Maybe, just maybe," I thought to myself as I furiously tapped away at the computer.

"Yes!" I called out as a thermal sensor came up. On the level below us. All the aliens showed up as white on the screen. There were also some moving around on the level above. Where we were, there were many red, orange and yellow shapes, which was obviously us. But, in the middle of us, I saw a small purple shape. I looked at it curiously.

"Does anyone know what that is?" I asked.

Katie

"Does anyone know what what is?" I asked as I edged over to Vicky.

"That," she said, pointing to the mysterious purple form on the screen.

I had no idea and told her so. I could count one thermal image for every human in the room plus Maxine's Torchic and, with the purple one included, there were more thermal images than there were lifeforms to make them.

Then, William spoke up. "Maybe there's something invisible in here," he said. "Does anyone have a Pokemon that knows Foresight or something so we can see what it is?"

We all looked at each other. In the end, it was a small girl named Donna (who happened to be Allan's kid sister) who reached into her pocket and pulled out a Poke Ball. "Hoothoot, go! Use your Foresight!" she called.

The Hoothoot's eyes glowed as it scanned the area, but, no matter how hard it tried it couldn't seem to find anything. "Weird," said Lizzie. "I've never known a Foresight to fail before."

There were no two ways about it - we were in trouble.