Katie

The idea of taking a Pokemon that didn't belong to me was not one I was particularly happy with. But, as Steve said, the way things stood now, it didn't look as though their rightful trainers would be back any time soon. Even so, I couldn't help feeling a slight pang of guilt as I grabbed a couple of Poke Balls at random - I half-expected to see a red R appear on my top . . .

It was this more than anything that brought home to me how much our lives had changed, how much the presence of the aliens had altered everything. I only hoped that, whatever Pokemon I had just acquired would be able to handle whatever lay in store. As soon as we got back to where we were based, I opened all my Poke Balls.

Soon, Ponyta, Raichu, Bellossom and Ledian stood in front of me like a quartet of loyal bodyguards. Then I opened the Poke Balls I had taken from the Pokemon Center . . .

The first one proved to be a handsome Golduck and that pleased me since I'd heard how powerful a Golduck could be. It was hard to believe something so graceful and elegant could evolve from that rather clueless Pokemon called Psyduck. I just hoped I would be able to handle a Golduck that didn't officially belong to me.

Then I opened the other Poke Ball and a Skitty popped out looking bewildered and lost. I felt a pang of sympathy for the little creature and reached down to cuddle it. "It's all right, no need to be frightened," I whispered soothingly. "Your trainer's . . . gone away so I'm going to look after you for a while." At least I hoped it would only be for a while . . .

But who knew what was happening anymore? Was the Skitty's original trainer (and the Golduck's if it came to that) even still alive?

We decided to head back to the National Park and put the Pokemon we had acquired through their paces. As we walked, I tried to recall what Attacks a Golduck and a Skitty could learn - no-one else in the group had a Golduck or a Psyduck and I hadn't been paying much attention when Donna was battling with her Delcatty . . .

My thoughts were cut off by the sudden appearence of a glowing orb like the one that appeared on the night before all this started. We all panicked, wanting to run but knowing there was nowhere to run to. Jewel and Maxine were clinging to me and I could feel both their hearts hammering away as Maxine's Torchic huddled deep in her arms.

"Oh my God!" gasped Matt as he stood dumbstruck, his hand clutching his Kadabra's Poke Ball.

Matt

I hadn't taken any Pokemon; I had always had my Kadabra and always would. And, when that orb appeared, I was ready with my trusted friend in my hand, to jump into action at any moment.

Vicky

I held onto the quivering Magby as it snuggled into my arms. I remembered these lights from when it all began and still half-expected a group of show people to jump out and say it was the new show in town. Of course, that never happened.

The other Pokemon, a Scyther, instantly went back into its Poke Ball as soon as the lights appeared and I had told my other Pokemon to do the same. Unfortunately, the Magby was too frightnened to go back in and had to stay outside with me.

I stared at the lights for what seemed like a very long time. As I stared at them, time and space felt like they were passing me by. I ws still aware of everything as I could tell that the Magby remained in my arms, but . . . I just can't explain it. I noticed that the lights began to disappear. Or was everything going black around me?

I just don't know. I do know that everything around me eventually disappeared into blackness.

Katie

We must have all blacked out at the same time because the next thing I remember is finding myself lying on the ground with two of my Poke Balls clutched in my hand.

"Wh - what happened?" I groaned as I struggled to sit up. The lights were still hovering menacingly over us and I would have called out one of my Pokemon, but I didn't seem to have the energy to throw a Poke Ball. Besides, I wasn't about to risk them against the aliens . . .

Around me, I could see the others beginning to stir and was suddenly aware of the fact that Jewel and Maxine were clinging to me. The purple glow on the latter's hand was now more instense than ever. It hurt me to look at it and I began to wonder what these aliens had done to my sister.

We were totally transfixed, powerless to get away, as we were suddenly caught up in a large blue beam of light that levitated us into the air. Donna, who was afraid of heights, screamed and I wished there was some way to get down.

Was this what had happened to our parents?

Matt

I couldn't even move my mouth to ask what was going on. The blue light completely encompassed all of us. My Poke Ball still clutched in my hand, I prepared for the worst.

Katie

Suddenly, we found ourselves in a vast metallic room lined with panels that had flashing lights on them.

"Where are we?" Lizzie asked, her normally confident voice trembling slightly as she clutched her Poke Balls.

"I don't like this!" whimpered Jewel, clinging to me as we all looked around in confusion. I stroked her hair soothingly, wondering as I did so what lay in store for us now.

"I don't know what this place is," Allan said at length. "But I'd be willing to bet it has something to do with the Invaders and we'd . . ."

" . . . better find a way out fast," I concluded, guessing what he was going to say.

The only question was - how would we escape?

Matt

I released Kadabra and had him search around for a door, but he couldn't come up with one.

"Kadabra could try to Teleport us out," I said. "But it would take a lot of energy . . ." I let my voice trail off.

Vicky

I would usually have jumped at the chance to get out of here, but what was the point in getting away again? "No, we'd best save Kadabra's energy in case we get into trouble and really do need to get out of here," I said.

I got a few shocked looks, but most poeple saw the sense in what I said. "Vicky's right," Katie said. "We were going to try and find the power source before we got here. So let's get looking!"

Most people turned to Steve. After all, he was a student pilot and knew the most about flying machines.

Katie

"This is more complex than anything I've ever flown," Steve said. "But I'll give it my best shot."

"Let's try to find the power source first," I added cautiously. I knew whichever option we chose was bound to be dangerous, but looking for the power source seemed marginally safer than trying to fly what was obviously a spacecraft when none of us knew much about such things. Some of the boys had harboured a longing to find themselves in an alien spaceship, but this wasn't some sci-fi film. This was real life . . .

"Where's the power source likely to be?" Marle mused.

I shrugged - I didn't know any more than she did, but I knew we wouldn't get anywhere unless we started looking. "OK," I said, glancing round at everyone. "We'd better keep together and have our strongest Pokemon ready to back us up. There's no telling what we'll find in here . . ." I released Ponyta and decided to keep the Golduck I had brought from the Pokemon Centre in reserve in case something happened to my loyal fire horse.

Steve let out his Arcanine. Then, William and Allan released a Golem and an Ekans respectively. Marle let out Firestorm, who was now completely healed and stood swishing her nine silken tails. Then, Rally called out her Espeon. But, before any of the others could summon a Pokemon, something strange happened.

Maxine's hand glowed brightly and, with an oddly intense expression on her face, she pointed down a nearby corridor. "That way," she told us.

"What?" I asked, not entirely sure what she meant.

"That way," Maxine repeated. "That's where the power source is."

"How do you know?" Lizzie asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Well, it's the only clue we've got so I guess we'd better chance it," I said, cutting her off before she could make any further objections. Just because Maxine was only nine years old didn't mean she couldn't help us in any way.

Vicky

We all walked down the corridor which was supposed to lead us to the power source. I wasn't sure about Maxine, but something was telling me to go along with this, but what worried me was that somewhere in my mind, this made sense.

We soon arrived at the end of a corridor, which was a dead end. But it was no ordinary dead end. Have you ever wondered what alien controls look like? Well, I wasn't one of these people who liked to watch the stars at night and wonder if there were little green men living on Mars, so it wasn't that it was wrong to my imagination. It was just a shock. The wall seemed to be covered in a layer of liquid purple light. "There must be more," I thought to myself in confusion.

"Where's the rest?!" I heard someone exclaim.

"Maybe it's hidden behind this stuff," someone else said.

Katie

"Well, how the hell are we supposed to get to it?!" Allan demanded.

"I don't know," I said honestly, instinctively standing well clear of the strange liquid light. Whatever substance it was made from, if it had anything to do with the Invaders, it was bound to mean trouble for us. I wondered if a Pokemon might be able to break through with an Attack, but which ones should we use?

"We'll try Electric Attacks first," suggested Rally as she released her Pikachu, Tiger, and I released my Raichu. The two electric mice tried with all their might to blast through that stuff, but it simply wasn't working and I could see they were only succeeding in exhausting themselves . . .

"Return!" Rally and I called simultaneously as we put our Pokemon back in their Poke Balls. Next, my Ponyta and the other Fire Types tried their Attacks, but they didn't have much luck either. And nor did the Water Pokemon (including the Golduck I had brought from the Pokemon Centre) when we got them to try.

"Ice Attacks," said Lizzie as we stood staring at that wall with increasing frustration. "We'll try freezing that stuff and maybe we'll be able to break through it." Recalling having seen a Golduck use Ice Beam in battle once, I left mine (I was already starting to think of him and Skitty as belonging to me) out and Vicky did likewise with her Marill, Bubbles. Donna let out her Delcatty and the three of us stood facing that seemingly inpenetrable barrier.

"Ice Beam Attack!" we called. And Golduck, Bubbles and Delcatty tried as hard as they could, blasting the barrier with powerful beams of ice. But, after around five minutes, it was still standing and we knew time was running out. If we didn't get away soon, there was every risk we could get caught.

"Forget it and let's get out of here!" Olivia said urgently, clutching her Togetic's Poke Ball to her chest.

"Never!" Steve shot back. "Not until we've shut that forcefield down!"

"Yeah, but how do you proposed we do that?" asked Marle. "We've tried Electric Attacks, Fire Attacks, Water Attacks and Ice Attacks! And nothing can get through that barrier. Face it, guys, we're stumped." She sat down on the floor and looked morosely at two of her Poke Balls.

"Maybe not," I said. "Marle, you have an Espeon, don't you? And so do Rally and Jewel."

"So?" asked Jewel, curious to know what I was getting at.

"So, Espeons are Psychic Pokemon," I replied. "And I was thinking that a Psychic Attack might be what we need here . . ."

"Maybe you're right," Jewel admitted as she held the Poke Ball containing her mother's Espeon, Ruby. "Al could help too," she added as she pulled out the Ball that held her father's Alakazam.

"And so could my Kadabra," added Matt as he readied his one Poke Ball.

Marle, Matt and Jewel made ready to call their Psychic Pokemon, but, before they could do so, I spotted Maxine out of the corner of my eye. She was walking towards the barrier with a strange expression on her face. I panicked - what chance did an unarmed kid have against whatever that thing was made of?

"Maxine! Get away from there!" I yelled. But it was too late; she was already touching the substance. Then, as we watching speechlessly, the barrier seemed to melt away.

Now, we could get through. But what would we find on the other side? There was only one way to find out . . .

I didn't know how Maxine had managed to melt that barrier, but we had to find out what lay beyond it. So, moving cautiously, we stepped forward.

What we found was something that looked like a computer (for want of a better term), but a quick glance at it told me this was not just your ordinary PC. Lights flashed on and off in sequence as we stood staring at the technological marvel lining the wall. I wondered how much data it could contain.

"Guys," Steve said, gesturing towards the computer, "I think this is it . . ."

"What?" I asked, not entirely sure what he meant.

"Where they've been powering the forcefield," Steve replied. "And we need to figure out a way to shut it off."

If we can even figure out how it works, I added silently. This looked far more complicated than any computer I'd ever seen and what were the odds that we would accidentally trigger some sort of self-destruct sequence if we pressed the wrong button? But I also knew we had to at least try.

"Let's get going then," I said. "Marle, William and Rally, stand guard - let us know if you hear anything. Lizzie, Steve, Vicky, Matt and I will work on this. The rest of you, keep back and make sure the younger kids don't wander off."

This was a risky operation, but we had to try. Maxine, Jewel and the other young kids deserved better than having to constantly run from these aliens. They need to be free to leave Goldenrod and, once they were old enough, go on Pokemon journeys if they wanted to.

Vicky

Although I was pretty good with computers, I didn't think I could work out the first part.

"So how are we supposed to work this out?" Lizzie asked as we all stood round the computer.

"Er . . . does anyone know how we're meant to work out the sequence if we don't have anything to type into?" I asked, looking around for a keyboard or something. As we all did so, Matt's hand drifted over the screen and revealed a selection of buttons in different colours. We now knew how to work out the sequence, but actually getting the sequence was going to be a lot harder.

Katie

"Oh great!" I groaned at the sight of that screen. "How are we supposed to solve this?!"

"Let's try several combinations," suggested William. "That way, we'll probably hit the right one sooner or later."

"Maybe . . ." Lizzie admitted from where she stood clutching the Poke Balls containing her Wooper and Skiploom. "Or maybe we'll trigger an alarm or something the second we type in a wrong combination."

"Still," added Steve, gesturing towards that screen with its coloured buttons, "we can't hang around here forever so I guess we'd better try something . . ." With that, he moved his hand towards a red "button", but, before he could touch it, Maxine yelled at him to stop.

"No! The red buttons will set the alarm off!" she shouted. I stared at her in amazement, wondering how on Earth she could know. Surely it was too much of a coincidence that red should mean danger to these aliens as well as us. Even so, it was probably safer not to take chances.

"OK," I said. "Forget the red ones. But that still leaves us with the problem of figuring out which ones we should touch." Not only that, we had to work out the sequence as well and, even without the red "buttons", there were God only knew how many possible combinations.

This was going to take some time . . .

Matt

"The blue?" I asked Kadabra as his eyes glowed. "OK. Try the blue button - Kadabra's getting something from it," I said to everyone else.

Katie

Gingerly, I reached towards one of the blue buttons and touched it with my finger. I waited with baited breath, half expecting to hear an alarm go off, but the only thing that happened was the blue buttons disappeared off the screen.

Now we had to work out which colour we should try next and a mistake could have serious consequences. I turned to Matt. "Is your Kadabra getting any feelings about the other buttons?" I asked.

Matt put this question to his Kadabra, who nodded and pointed to one of the green buttons. As I reached towards it, I began to wonder what we would find if we did manage to shut down this forcefield. Were the other towns and cities in Johto carrying on as normal or had they been invaded too? And what about the rest of the world? I had a penfriend over in Hoenn and I longed to know if she was all right.

Vicky

Slowly but surely, Kadabra told Matt the combination and Katie pushed the buttons. I really wanted this forcefield down and I desperately wanted to know what had happened to my family. Were they safe? Or was I . . .?

Even in my mind I didn't want to say it. "I have to stay positive," I told myself. "If I don't, I'll stop bothering at all."

Katie pushed the buttons and we watched as they all disappeared, leaving only the red ones. These didn't fade away; they swirled together to form a blob on the screen. "Do we have to push that?" I asked, wondering if this was all we had to do. Matt once again turned to Kadabra for the answer.

Katie

"Kadabra, do we need to push that blob?" asked Matt.

"Kadabra," his Kadabra said, pointing to the blob and shaking his head.

"Well then . . . what?!" I demanded. I glanced round at the others, hoping against hope that they would know what I was supposed to do next. We all wanted that forcefield down so we could find out what had happened to the people the aliens had taken. Part of me was afraid it wouldn't be bad news, but the rest of me wanted to know because, at least then, we wouldn't have to live with the uncertainty of not knowing whether or not our families were safe . . .

"I think I can touch it."

It was Maxine, who stepped forward with that oddly intent look on her face and raised her glowing hand to the blob on the screen. I wanted to pull her away, but something told me she would be all right touching that thing so I resisted the urged and just watched as she placed her hand on the blob.

The effect was instantaneous. A glowing light surrounded my sister and the whole place began to shake . . .

That's the last thing I remember before I woke up to find myself lying on the ground in the midst of the others. They were all coming around as well; Marle sat holding her head, while Lizzie rubbed her eyes and Jewel looked around in bewilderment. I blinked, sat up and took stock of my surroundings.

From the look of things, we were back in the National Park. Now, all I had to do was make sure the others were all right.

"Everybody OK?" I called as I staggered to my feet.

They all said they were fine. The next order of business was finding out if we had managed to shut down that forcefield.

Matt

I immediately called Kadabra, who had a major headache, into his Poke Ball. "Well, that was interesting," I stated bluntly. I started walking towards the exit. "Let's see if that field is dead, or if we just made the aliens angry."

Katie

"Wait!" I called as Matt walked towards the exit that led onto the Ecruteak City road. "We can't take chances! Let's throw something and see if it gets destroyed. If it does . . . well, we know what that means."

The question was what would we throw? We spent several minutes looking around in the grass before Lizzie came up with something, an empty Coke bottle. Normally, I hated litterbugs for spoiling the environment, but now I couldn't help feeling grateful to whoever had left it there.

"Will this do?" asked Lizzie as she handed me the bottle.

"Sure," I said. "Everyone, stand back!" I ordered the others as Marle, Steve and Lizzie tried to restrain some of the younger kids. "Give me room!" With that, I threw the bottle out through the gate. We all paused, half-expecting it to get blasted, but . . . nothing happened. The bottle just went through the gate and landed on the path beyond.

"I think it's safe now," I said cautiously.

Matt

"Well, where do we go now?" I asked.