Matt

I laughed nervously as we all stepped out of the ship. I had never been away from Goldenrod before and was a bit more than scared, especially since this city looked as deserted as Goldenrod. No, it was more deserted. How was that possible?

"Don't worry," thought Kadabra. "We'll be fine."

I prayed he was right. Then, I thought I saw something fly into the Tin Tower.

Vicky

Ecruteak looked like a ghost town. Actually, if it was a ghost town, there would be ghosts running round. This place had nobody; not even a wild Pokemon ran through the town. But that might be because a huge spaceship had landed.

"Let's go," Sedrask thought to everyone. We all nervously walked towards the Tin Tower.

Katie

Ecruteak was just as unnervingly quiet as Goldenrod had been since the Xantoli showed up and I wondered once again what had happened to all the people. Could it be true that our band of kids was all that remained of the human race?

As we approached the Tin Tower, I plucked up the courage to ask Sedrask a few questions. "Sedrask?" I ventured. "What happened to everyone?"

Sedrask looked at me gravely. "The Xantoli are ruthless in their desire to conquer," he told me. "Whenever they need to colonise a new world, they unleash a . . . weapon which causes everyone it touches to vanish, never to be seen again . . ."

"So everyone is . . ." I paused as I struggled to say the word. " . . . dead?"

Sedrask seemed to nod, but I couldn't tell for sure. It was what we had all been dreading from day one, the news that we were the last, the survivors, the ones who lived while everyone else did not. I slipped my arm around Maxine's shoulder as she clasped her Torchic to her chest.

"Well, how come we survived?" Marle demanded. "What is it about us that stopped us from vanishing?"

"No-one knows," Sedrask told her. "No-one knows why there is always a small group that escapes the Xantoli's initial purge. But what I do know is that they have to be stopped."

I couldn't help agreeing with that and nor could any of the others. We had to free ourselves from this menace if it was the last thing we did. Indeed, Steve was already rallying everyone together.

"Let's do it!" he declared, releasing his Arcanine as he spoke.

"Yes!" seconded Rally as she let out her Charizard. "Down with the Xantoli!"

Matt

Kadabra came out as I was still taking his Poke Ball out of my pocket.

"We're ready!" I declared. "The Xantoli will pay!"

Katie

Before long, we had all let out at least one of our Pokemon and were bracing ourselves to rush the Tin Tower. My Ponyta was pawing the ground nervously so I gave her a reassuring pat. Actually, I was a little on edge myself, knowing we were about to face the battle of our lives and wondering if we had any real hope against the Xantoli. We had already lost Allan to these creatures and I sure as hell didnīt want us to lose anyone else.

"Donna," said Lizzie, whose Skiploom was hovering beside her, "get your Hoothoot to check for any signs of danger."

"OK," replied Donna, turning to her owl Pokemon. "Hoothoot! Use your Foresight!"

In response, Donnaīs Hoothoot began to scan the area around the Tin Tower, checking for any Xantoli that might be hidden nearby. Their habit of appearing out of nowhere and vanishing as abruptly as they appeared had led some of us to suspect they might be able to make themselves invisible somehow.

But, before the Hoothoot could locate anything, a laser blast suddenly zinged from the Tower and we were forced to duck.

"What was that?!" demanded Marle.

"I donīt know," William replied. "Whatever it is, weīve got to put it out of commission . . ."

"I know that!" I cut in. "But how are we going to get close enough?"

I turned to Sedrask, hoping he had the answer. "Iīve seen this thing before," he told us. "Itīs a Xantoli . . ."

He was cut off as the ground suddenly began to shake violently, causing buildings to fall down and plants in the now overgrown gardens to uproot themselves. And I knew from geography lesson at school that Ecruteak was not in an earthquake zone - so what was going on here? Williamīs Golem and a couple of other Pokemon belonging to members of our little group knew Earthquake, but no Pokemon (except maybe Groudon) could do this . . .

"Into my ship!" Sedrask ordered. "Itīs our only chance!"

Steve

When everyone had piled onto the ship, Sedrask lifted it off the ground and floated it backwards away from the tower. This didn't go unnoticed by the weapon emplacement in the tower; it fired repeatedly in our general direction, but didn't connect.

"Are they really bad shots or something?" I asked.

"I've activated the cloaking mechanism," replied Sedrask. "They are tracking us via our energy signature, which means they can't effectively hit us."

We descended into a street with two-storey buildings on either side and flew down it at almost ground level, often scraping the sides of the buildings as they flashed by. Sedrask made a couple of turns and random maneuvers before setting down in what appeared to be the main loading bay of an old clothing warehouse.

"We should have lost them by now," he said. "I'm powering down all systems except the cloak."

Katie gave Sedrask a concerned look. "What was that earthquake? Was that another Xantoli weapon?"

Matt

"That was something I have never seen before," Sedrask told us. Seeing the looks on peoples faces, he quickly added: "Well, there is a good chance it isn't Xantoli then."

This didn't exactly reassure anyone.

Katie

I was not altogether reassured by what Sedrask said. What if the earthquake had been triggered by something the Xantoli had developed since his last encounter with them? And there was still the matter of Maxine's glowing hand to deal with, so I told Sedrask everything I could in the hope that he might have some sort of answer.

"You say your sister's hand has been glowing?" he asked me.

"Yes - since she got separated from us in the Radio Tower," I replied. "And it seems the Xantoli have been on our tail ever since."

Sedrask shook his head gravely. "A Bio-tracker," he commented grimly. I was about to ask what a Bio-tracker did, but he answered the question for me. "Whenever the Xantoli discover those that have escaped their purges, they catch someone and implant one of these devices. It allows that person to sense what they are up to, but it also lets them follow that person's every move . . ."

My eyes narrowed in distaste as I glanced round the warehouse. Maxine was with some of the other young kids, who were playing with her Torchic and the Skitty I'd brought from the Pokemon Centre, looking like a regular nine-year-old girl. How could the Xantoli be using her like this? And was there a way to stop them?

"Is there anything we can do?" I asked, hoping desperately that the answer would be positive.

"Once a Bio-tracker is implanted, nothing can remove it. Therefore, the only thing we can do is rid this planet of the Xantoli as quickly as possible."

"And how do you plan to do that?"

It was Marle, who had approached unnoticed with four of her Pokemon at her side and Rally and Olivia close behind her. "Don't get me wrong," she said with a slightly ironic laugh. "But didn't you say getting rid of those . . . things could involved destroying whole cities?"

"It appears we have little choice."

Olivia looked fearful. "But what about the people?" she asked. "There must be others who escaped!"

"Not in Johto," Sedrask told her. "I have scanned every settlement and found no humans other than your group. In Kanto, I found two families in Pallet Town, but the Xantoli got to them first. As for Hoenn . . ."

A sudden rumbling noise cut him off in mid-sentence and we all rushed outside to see what was happening. "Oh my God!" gasped Vicky when she saw what was approaching down the street. I gasped too - it looked as though the entire Xantoli warfleet was headed our way.

Flying in a v-formation, the fleet seemed to consist largely of battle craft resembling giant paper darts and I would have laughed at the comparison had the situation not been so serious. As I turned to look at the others, I knew it was now or never.

The final battle was about to begin . . .

Vicky

My hands were shaking. My whole body was trembling in fear and then, inappropiately, the song Final Countdown popped into my head. Well, it wasn't really inappropiate for the situation, but it was for how serious it was.

I got hold of five of the Poke Balls at my waist. Soon, Dotty, Bubbles, Spooky, Wiggles and the Scyther I had picked up at the Pokemon Center all stood in front of me, ready to fight.

Katie

I looked across at Sedrask, wondering how the Xantoli could have found us when he was supposed to be cloaking us.

"How the hell did they find us?!" demanded Steve from where he stood with his Arcanine. "I thought you said we were hidden from them!" Clearly, the same idea had occurred to him.

"They must have broken through somehow," suggested Rally as she let out her Charizard and a Tyranitar I had never seen before.

"You never told me you had a Tyranitar," I remarked as I stared at the large Rock/Dark Pokemon.

Rally grinned at me. "Titan's a little self-willed," she told me. "But these . . ." She indicated the Charizard and Tyranitar. " . . . are my strongest Pokemon."

The Xantoli ships had landed by now and their occupants were getting ready to storm the building. Then it occurred to me that someone had better get the younger kids to safety in case these . . . beings overwhelmed us. I put the idea to Marle, who was poised to battle with her Pokemon, but she shook her head.

"There's no time," she told me. "Besides, if we get killed, who will protect them? We fight together."

Jewel ran up to me and let out Ruby (her mother's Espeon) and Al (her father's Alakazam). "I'm gonna fight too," she said with a degree of bravery beyond her years.

"And so am I," added Maxine as she positioned herself beside me with her Torchic.

Matt

I grinned at the little ones sending out their Pokemon, bravely standing up to the threat. I couldn't help but wonder how many Pokemon battles they had each been in.

Kadabra was itching for battle. He didn't like side work much - and that was what I was giving him lately. He loved battles and a lot of my opponents claimed he had "mind lust". he loved breaking down the brains of the enemy. I knew he was only using the tactics I raised him with, but they didn't care.

Then, the Xantoli swarmed through. "Now!" I yelled.

Kadabra fired a large Confusion at the things, while, beside us, many other Attacks were blasting at them. "Keep going!" I yelled at everyone. It wasn't like me to cheer someone else on, but, then again, it wasn't like aliens to be invading such a nice place.

Marle

"It's the end of the world as we know it..." I sang softly to myself. Or so I thought until I caught Steve looking at me strangely.

Blushing a little, I shrugged and muttered something along the lines of "seemed appropriate" before turning back to my Pokemon. Everyone has their own way of "whistling in the dark" and morbid humor just happened to be mine. I had to do something or I'd end up going insane. Without quite knowing why, but realizing that I simply could not get my mouth to shut up despite what my brain told it, I turned back to Steve. "So . . . no more philosophy about life and death?"

"No, guess not," he replied, after a moment's puzzled glance.

I sighed in the following awkward silence. "Personally, I'm always up for a little gallows humor," I muttered to myself. The silence was soon broken by Katie, who suggested I take the younger kids to safety before the fighting broke out. I told her there was no time. By the time I found somewhere safe, wherever that would be, the fighting might be over. Plus, if this really WAS the last battle and we lost, there would be no more safe places. On a more personal level, what would I do with a bunch of young kids? Besides, if we got killed, who would protect them?

As I said the last line, Steve turned and our gazes met for a brief second. I saw something like understanding and . . . something more, before we both turned to the sounds of the approaching Xantoli. I took a deep breath to try and soothe the squirming feeling growing in my stomach and nearly jumped when I felt someone grasp my hand suddenly. I whirled around, surprised to find myself face-to-face with Steve.

"Be careful, OK?" His voice sounded strained and it was all I could do to nod and try to control my breathing. "And remember, I'm watching out for you." Before I could reply, Steve had pulled me into a tight, almost bone-crushing hug.

Next thing I knew, Steve was gone, making last-minute preparations for the battle with his Arcanine. I stood there in a daze for a moment, wondering what just happened. Shadow nuzzled my hand worriedly, bringing me out of my thoughts and back to the moment. I shook my head, hoping to clear my senses. I needed to be alert for the last battle, if this is what it truly was.

I sat down to have a last word with my Pokemon before the battle. Looking around the semi-circle, I thought of all that we'd been through together - Firestorm, Shadow, Jewel, Merlin, Kita, even Miyoko - and it could all be wiped off the face of the earth in a matter of minutes.

Whatever I was about to say would remain unsaid as the two sides clashed and chaos reigned. With no idea how I could help, I joined the fray, determined to do whatever I could to rid the Earth of these vile creatures. There was too much worth saving to give up hope now.

Matt

"Kadabra, on your right!" I screamed, warning Kadabra of a claw coming in quickly. Then I realized there was little chance of our survival. "Kadabra, forget . . ." I began.

What was I thinking?! Giving up wouldn't work. "Uh . . . use Psychic on that one!" I said, pointing to an abnormally large Xantoli.

It flew back into three of its fellows. "Good job!" I grinned, looking to see how the others were doing.

Katie

"Ponyta, try a Flamethrower!" I yelled, watching as she snorted a blast of fire at several Xantoli. "Raichu!" I called to my electric mouse. "Thundershock Attack!"

Raichu leapt into the air, sparks flying from his cheeks as he charged up. Then, with a powerful crash of thunder, he zapped a nearby Xantoli and put it out of action. I cheered his efforts and turned to where Golduck and a few other Water Pokemon were using their Attacks to bombard any Xantoli which ventured within range.

Donna was fighting like one possessed; her Hoothoot and Delcatty and Allan's Quilava and Ekans kept up a constant barrage of Attacks. It was clear from the expression on her face that she would not quit until every Xantoli in the place was dealt with, but I was worried about the Pokemon. Her Delcatty was breathing heavily and she had fired so many Ice Beams that she was beginning to run out of energy.

"Donna!" I called across to her. "Recall Delcatty - it can't fight in this condition!"

"Never!" she shot back with a steely glare in her eyes. "Not until I've made these . . . things pay!"

The odds seemed stacked against us, but we kept on fighting anyway. Even Maxine's Torchic had managed to get in a few Attacks. But Donna's refusal to ease up worried me - it was as if she had an obsession with taking out as many Xantoli as possible and never mind what happened to her or her Pokemon. I decided something had to be done.

"Bellossom!" I called as I released my Grass Pokemon, who had not been involved in any of the fighting.

She emerged in a flash of light. "Quick!" I ordered. "Use Stun Spore on Donna! And don't argue - this is an emergency!"

Reluctantly because she'd never had to use her Attacks on a human before, Bellossom turned to Donna and, with a few quick movements, sprayed her with powder. In an instant, Donna keeled over and I hurried over to her, recalling Bellossom as I did so.

"I had to do it - no time to explain," I said as I called Hoothoot, Delcatty, Quilava and Ekans back into their Poke Balls and slung Donna over my shoulder.

Vicky

I ordered my Pokemon to continue attacking. All except Dotty - I had kept it as a Ditto as I had an idea.

"Sedrask!" I called, running towards him. "How many Xantoli are there inside their ship?" I asked urgently.

"There is no chance of getting inside the ship - not even if you teleport," he thought to me.

I'd forgotten he could read my mind. "We need to do something!" I insisted. "Our Pokemon are too weak to battle the Xantoli!" I stared at him.

"You can't find anyone?" he thought to me.

I really wished he would let me think in peace. "What about Hoenn?" I asked. "You never said anything about it."

"There are a few people still in Pacidfilog Town and on islands just outside of the Hoenn region, but we can't teleport there."

"We need help, don't you understand?! With the Xantoli here, we can go get them and ask them to help us!" I felt like a fire was burning in my eyes. I was determined to get to Hoenn, whether it was on my own or not.

Matt

"If we can get to the Tin Tower," I said, "maybe Ho-oh will help us to Hoenn. I mean, it would be to save the world. And we could teleport there, right?"

I prepared to give Kadabra the signal to start Teleporting us.

Katie

As I was trying to get Donna to safety, I overheard what Matt said. "Wait!" I told him as his Kadabra got ready to Teleport us to the Tin Tower. "If the Xantoli have the Tower armed, it'll be too dangerous to go near it. Besides, I doubt Ho-oh is still there - it's kind of hard to . . ."

I was cut off as a gang of Xantoli started firing on us, forcing us to fling ourselves to the ground. "Got any other bright ideas?" Matt said sarcastically.

"Right now, all I'm interested in is getting out of here," I told him from where I was shielding Donna. I glanced across at Sedrask, who nodded grimly.

"We'll have to start destroying the towers, he told us. "I hoped it would never come to this, but . . ."

"What about Ho-oh?" Lizzie demanded from where she was attending to her Wooper, who had been injured in the skirmish.

"Ho-oh is no longer at the Tin Tower," Sedrask told her simply. In fact, no trace of it has been found since the Xantoli arrived."

Sedrask's revelation alarmed me - if a Legendary Bird had deserted the city it was said to guard, the world was in big trouble. And, with our Pokemon rapidly running out of energy, I knew we had little choice but to strike hard and fast, wiping out the Xantoli in one fell swoop.

"Into my ship!" Sedrask ordered us.

As we ran towards his ship, recalling our Pokemon and dodging the Xantoli as we did so, something occurred to me. The Ecruteak Pokemon Centre must still have Pokemon in it and they didn't deserve to die when we destroyed the Tin Tower and, with it, the city of Ecruteak. I made a bolt for it.

"Katie! Where are you going?!" Maxine called after me.

"To save the Pokemon in the Pokemon Centre," I replied.

"Then I'm going with you," said Marle.

"And so am I," added Vicky.

I knew this was a foolish risk to take, but I felt I had to do something for those Pokemon.

Matt

As the rescue team ran to the Pokemon Center, I held their backs with Kadabra. "Just a little longer, my friend!" I told him.

Katie

Marle, Vicky and I raced towards the Pokemon Centre. As we made our way through the deserted streets, we were constantly on the alert for any Xantoli that might be after us.

Luckily, we reached the Pokemon Centre without incident and got in through a side door which had, conveniently, been left open. "OK," said Marle. "Let's go look for those Poke Balls."

"They'll be in a store-room," I told her. "Like the one in Goldenrod . . ." I paused as I thought of the city I'd lived in all my life and which I'd never see again after today. Tears pricked at my eyes as I silently cursed the Xantoli for ruining all our lives.

"C'mon, Katie!" Vicky called as she and Marle nipped through the door that led to the part of the Centre that was off-limits to the public.

I sighed and followed them. Inside the room were row upon row of Poke Balls, most of them the standard type. Here and there, however, I could see other types of Poke Ball - several Park Balls from the Bug-Catching Contest, some green Safari Balls, a few of the special Poke Balls made from hollowed-out Apricorns, the odd Dive Ball and even a Luxury Ball. I tried to count them, but I gave up after the third shelf.

"Oh my God!" gasped Vicky. "How can we carry all those?"

"We can't," Marle said shortly as she stuffed her pack with as many Poke Balls as it could hold. "Just the ones we can carry."

I saw the sense in what she was doing so, rather than try to save all the Pokemon, I just took as many as I could. "We can only do so much," I reminded Vicky as she nodded reluctantly and grabbed a selection of Poke Balls at random.

"Now we'd better get back to the others," said Marle.

"But what will we do with all these extra Pokemon?" I asked, heaving my bag (now filled with Poke Balls) over my shoulder. The Poke Balls housing my own Pokemon were in my pockets, ready to be used if we ran into any trouble.

Marle shrugged. "Release them into the wild, I guess."

Matt

Katie, Marle and Vicky returned, with Poke Balls filling every available pocket and bag.

We all rushed into the ship. "This isnt that hard," I lied.

Katie

Marle, Vicky and I had saved as many Pokemon as we could and all that remained now was to deal with the Xantoli. We had boarded Sedrask's ship and were flying high above Ecruteak, which, from the air, looked like any other city. Looking through the windscreen, I could see the city's Pokemon Gym, clearly recognisible because someone had painted a Haunter on the roof.

But the scene was deceptive for we all knew that there were no humans left there, that the Xantoli had destroyed them. Well, now it was our turn to do some destroying. We were heading for the Tin Tower and were going to take it out with the weapons Sedrask had developed.

"We must strike hard and fast," he told us. "If we can take out all the Xantoli . . ."

"How can we be sure this will work?" Lizzie asked sceptically. Her Wooper and Skiploom, who were perched beside her, nodded in agreement.

"We can't, but we have to try. Their conquest of this planet cannot be allowed to succeed."

I got up and paced the floor of Sedrask's command deck. "OK, so we kick some Xantoli butt," I said. "But what then? What's going to happen to us?"

We all exchanged uneasy glances, knowing that Sedrask's plan to destroy all towers meant possibly wiping out whole cities, including our home city of Goldenrod. After today, everything we had ever known would be gone and that wasn't a pleasent feeling. But, even if all the Xantoli were now in Ecruteak and we took them out with one attack, that still left us with the problem of dealing with the long-term future. Sooner or later, without anyone to repair them, buildings which survived our assault on the Xantoli would begin to fall down.

"Good point, Katie," said Steve. "It's all very well chasing aliens and saving the world. But it looks like we'll be the ones to inherit whatever's left - us and those people in Hoenn that Sedrask mentioned."

By now, the Tin Tower was looming, looking just like it did on a postcard I'd seen once. I tensed, half-expecting us to get shot at again, and waited while Sedrask armed his ship's weapons.

"We're going to use something called an Ultrashock," he told us. "It will reduce that tower to dust and cause extensive damage to nearby buildings . . ." He paused. "Believe me, if there was another course of action, we would have taken it."

Vicky

I stared at Ecruteak City, my eyes open wide. I wanted to take a picture of this, just so I could remember the city like this forever.

I saw Sedrask hit a few buttons and I think he thought to us that it was ready. I couldn't tell, though; my mind just continued to look at the houses below me.

Matt

I didn't want to watch as the Tower was destroyed, but I couldn't look away. Sedrask pushed a button and the building fell.

"An Ultrashock is completely undetectable; that is why you couldn't see it," he said, even though no one had asked.

With that, we waited silently as Sedrask's ship brought us to our next destination.