The Village Guardian
A Poke’mon fan-fiction written by Philip “Dr. Mack Foxx” Byard with some help 
from Aaron “Aaraboga Jones” Byard

This is a work of fan-fiction and may not be modified or sold under any 
circumstances.

Original Story, Characters and all other Original Content are Copyright 1987, 
1995, 1999 and 2006 Philip “Dr. Mack Foxx” Byard and Aaron “Aaraboga Jones” 
Byard

Poke’mon and all related content and characters are Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 
1999, 2005 and 2006 to Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures and The Poke’mon Company

Questions or Comments?

Dr. Mack Foxx may be contacted at:
drmackfoxx@yahoo.com
drmackfoxx@hotmail.com
dr.mack_foxx@dbzmail.com
sith_lord_darth_vader@dbzmail.com

Aaraboga Jones may be contacted at:
aaraboga@dbzmail.com

Visit our site at:
http://birdtownstudios.tripod.com

With all that said and done, I hope you will enjoy my story.
-Dr. Mack Foxx
-1-
Today started out like any normal day for Dr. Mack Foxx. Mack was sitting 
comfortably in a chair in front of one of his super-computers. He was drinking a 
cup of coffee and reflecting on what had happened during his journey over the 
last several years. This journey started in his home town with the completion of 
a new device for his star fighter, named, the Firefox. This device allowed Mack 
to travel between dimensions and even through time. All seemed well the day he 
left his lab back home. Mack had no idea that someone had sabotaged the Firefox. 
Thus began a long, strange journey through one dimension after another, until he 
finally wound up here: in the world of Poke’mon. Just barely a year ago, Mack’s 
journey with his friends Ash, Misty, Brock and others had finally come to an 
end. After releasing all his Poke’mon back into the wild, Mack retired back to 
his hidden laboratory to complete his latest projects as well as make repairs to 
the Firefox. As Mack’s robotic companion, K-1, pointed out, the intricate 
systems on the Firefox had been severely damaged hundreds of times so far from 
frequent crash-landings into dimensions. K-1 had been discovered in a forest a 
few miles north of Mack’s home. Mack managed to repair K-1, who looked like a 
large, metal cat’s head on a steel box with legs. K-1 also had some doors in his 
chest which he could open and then extent arms from. Due to the damage, K-1 
estimated that it would be roughly 5 more years until the Firefox would be fit 
to send them home. Mack was getting so bored; he was just about ready to start 
another Poke’mon journey. He looked to the left and stared at his glass trophy 
case. Inside the case, all the badges and trophies he had won were on display. 
His super-computer crackled to life.
	“Good morning, doctor,” said the computer with a feminine voice.
	“Ah. Good morning to you as well, Central,” replied Mack as he drank the 
last of his coffee. Central was an artificial intelligence program that Mack had 
developed while he was in his home world. Mack had made sure that Central was 
uploaded to the Firefox before he departed and now Central resided quite 
comfortably within a much more powerful computer.
	“I still can’t get a trace on that recent seismic disturbance,” said 
Central. Just minutes ago, a powerful earthquake had rocked an area that had 
never experienced quakes since record keeping began. Not only that, but the 
quake only effected a few square miles. The magnitude of this quake should have 
destroyed the terrain for several hundred miles from the epicenter. Instead, 
there was almost no physical evidence that a quake had even occurred. Central 
had been shaken up and had to spend most of her power on restoring corrupted 
data, hindering the effort of locating the quake’s epicenter. The quake was 
strange, but was of little concern to Mack, compared to his latest invention. 
Mack stood up and walked to another display case. This case contained a new 
cannon he had developed for his S-100 Type I battle armor: the Capture Claw. The 
capture claw was designed for one purpose: to instantly capture wild Poke’mon. 
After all, Mack was about to start another Poke’mon journey and had no Poke’mon 
of his own left. Mack was not about to use heavy weapons to get his first new 
Poke’mon. The capture claw would make acquiring a Poke’mon painless and almost 
effortless. Of course, the S-100 was a work of art in itself. This suit of 
electronic armor had been in development for thousands of years. Mack has 
constantly been improving the design since his journey began, adding more 
devices, more powerful weapons and also improving the power and shield 
generators. Thicker, stronger armor didn’t hurt much either. Fortunately, Mack 
had never had to break out this awesome weapon of war in the world of Poke’mon. 
His Poke’mon were always ready to defend their trainer and his friends, but now 
Mack had no Poke’mon. With rumors of Cipher being in the area, Mack was not 
going to take any chances. Cipher reminded Mack of Team Rocket, an organization 
that was formed to conquer the world using Poke’mon. Team Rocket, of course, was 
no more. However, Mack had heard that Cipher was proving to be more ruthless and 
dangerous than Team Rocket, Aqua and Magma combined. Still, this was all based 
on rumors. Few people even believed that Cipher even existed. Mack pondered this 
thought until the lights in the lab went dim.
	“Now what…?” muttered Mack.
	“There appears to be a problem with the power conduit at the ground 
surface,” said Central as Mack grabbed the capture claw and ran for an elevator. 
Mack grumbled about his bad luck. The last time this happened, whatever had 
caused the power fluctuation was long gone by the time Mack had gotten to the 
surface, only to find the panels on the conduit torn apart. As the elevator 
ascended, Mack pressed some switches on his watch and instantly, his armor 
appeared and unfolded all over his body. He clipped the capture claw into a slot 
on the back of the armor’s right shoulder. Mack wondered what kind of Poke’mon 
was causing the trouble and the possibilities were enough to make Mack chuckle 
with glee. When the elevator door opened, Mack was somewhat disappointed. Just 
as the door opened, he saw several Pikachu run from the conduit. There were 
still at least a dozen of them holding live wires that had been torn form the 
conduit. Why, the little rodents were leaching off power from the lab!
	“Wonderful…” thought Mack as he started waving his arms around.
	“Go on! Get lost!” shouted Mack as he tried to scare off the timid 
Pikachu. Most of them ran off, but one of them stubbornly held onto a live wire 
and continued to leech off the high voltage.
	“Hey! I said to get lost!” thundered Mack as he stomped towards the 
pikachu. The Pikachu let go of the wire and casually turned towards the strange 
metal beast.
	“Pika,” said the Pikachu rather smugly as its checks lit up with 
electricity. Before Mack could realize what was happening, the electric rodent 
fired off a bolt of lighting right at him. Mack dodged out of the way just in 
time. The S-100 helped make Mack more agile, but he still almost took a direct 
hit. Mack stared at the Pikachu. The Pikachu glared back. This was a first for 
this veteran trainer. Mack had always heard that Pikachus were timid and shy, 
but this one certainly had a bad attitude. The onboard computers also confirmed 
that this particular Pikachu was unusually strong. The Pikachu continued to 
glare at Mack.
	“It’s toying with me,” thought Mack, “The little bugger is sitting there, 
waiting for me to make the next move.” Mack slowly tilted the capture claw down 
into position while the onboard computers acquired a targeting lock. The Pikachu 
suddenly charged Mack, blazing with an aura of electricity.
	“Bad move, buddy!” laughed Mack as he fired the capture claw. The cannon 
came to life with a loud “BANG!” and the Pikachu was enveloped in a beam of red 
light. The light turned the Pikachu into a ball of energy and then quickly 
dragged it down into the barrel. There was a loud “HISS!” as steam vented from 
the cannon. A few seconds later, a Poke’ ball was dispensed from the cannon. 
Mack clutched the Poke’ ball in his gauntlets, staring at it in disbelief. The 
capture claw had worked better than Mack had ever expected. He figured it would 
take several repeated tries to capture a Poke’mon and he would probably have to 
weaken it first.
	“Well, looks like you’re staying with me, little fella,” said Mack with a 
grin as he boarded the elevator and headed back for the lab. He would have K-1 
repair the conduit later. Mack removed his faceplate as the door opened. The lab 
was one of the few places he could do this. Mack was certainly not human, but 
more of a human/fox hybrid. Now this life form was common in Mack’s world, but 
not in this one. Whenever he went out in public, he wore a mask, black leather 
gloves and a trench coat to help hide his tail. Not only did he stick out like a 
sore thumb in his disguise, but he had to explain often that a horrible accident 
had destroyed his face and that no doctor could fix it. So far, no one caught 
on.



-2-
Cecil Drake: a name known far and wide throughout Cipher, for he was one of the 
top administrators. So far, his plan was working. The moderate quake had shaken 
up the local village. Soon, it would come. Cecil had been waiting for this 
moment for over a year. Soon, he would have what he needed for what he thought 
would be the ultimate shadow Poke’mon. Cecil turned towards his assistant, Dr. 
Newman. Dr. Newman was an enigma within Cipher. No one really knew where he came 
from and why he always had a team of Alakazams following him everywhere.
	“Do remind me what we are doing here?” asked Dr. Newman as he fiddled with 
his computer.
	“You’ve forgotten, eh?” replied Cecil as he coldly stared at Dr. Newman, 
“We are here for one reason: to capture an unusually strong Poke’mon. With it, 
we will have the makings for quite possibly the most powerful shadow Poke’mon 
ever.”
	“What about the rumors of this XD001?” asked Dr. Newman.
	“Bah! They’re thinking too small. Besides, that project has been in 
development for months now with no results! They have yet to even find the right 
Poke’mon for their project. However, I’ve been watching this Poke’mon for months 
and know exactly what to do. No other admin in Cipher has a clue what I’m about 
to bring in,” said Cecil triumphantly. Something on one of the video monitors in 
the room caught Dr. Newman’s eye.
	“What have we here?” said Dr. Newman as he walked over to the monitor for 
a closer look.
	“Excellent. The cameras have spotted it,” declared Cecil, “Do we still 
have that prototype?”
	“The Master Ball? It’s still in storage under lock and key,” reporter Dr. 
Newman.
	“Good. Have it brought up to me at once. I’m going to set out at once and 
intercept it,” said Cecil as he started to leave the room. Dr. Newman did not 
quite understand what was happening. Why would Cecil want this Poke’mon so 
badly? More importantly, Dr. Newman had never seen this particular Poke’mon 
before.
	“Excuse me, sir,” asked Dr. Newman quietly.
	“What is it?” replied Cecil.
	“Pardon me for asking, but what Poke’mon is this?” asked Dr. Newman as he 
pointed at the monitor.
	“Ah. That, my friend, is a Gardevoir. According to our research, this 
particular Gardevoir is the most powerful on record. For some reason, I have 
seen this one in the nearby village quite often,” explained Cecil, “It always 
seems to react whenever the village is in danger. That moderate quake was just 
what we needed. It will track down the source of the quake and will ultimately 
stumble into my trap! One of the most powerful psychic Poke’mon in existence and 
soon, it will be mine.”

-3-
Mack had been looking everywhere for K-1 for the last hour. Where had he run off 
too? Mack figured it was as good a time as any to meet his new partner. With a 
flick of his wrist he let the Poke’ ball fly. With a bright flash it hit the 
floor, releasing the Pikachu into the lab.
	“Pika? Pika-chu?” it said.
	“Hmmm…it seems curious…” thought Mack as the Pikachu wandered about, 
“Reminds me of my old Pikachu…” K-1 came into the room.
	“Good afternoon, Mack. I just finished fixing the GAH!!” shouted K-1 as he 
noticed the Pikachu. The little rodent made a beeline right to a power socket 
and was happily siphoning the power. “What is the meaning of this?!” demanded K-
1.
	“Calm down, K-1. I want to you to meet my new partner,” said Mack, 
pointing to the happy rodent.
	“Ah, another one. What will you name him?” asked K-1. Mack pondered for 
awhile.
	“He seems a lot like my first Pikachu. I think I’ll call him, William!” 
declared Mack.
	“Pika-chu!” said William with delight.
	“I see he likes his name,” said K-1 as Central clicked to life.
	“Here is the report, doctor,” said Central.
	“Okay. Lay it on me,” said Mack as he sat back down at the console.
	“All data restoration is complete…”
      “Good,” said Mack.
      “I have also tracked the epicenter of the quake. It seems to be coming 
from Mt. Terror,” explained Central.
      “Mt. Terror? What kind of a name is that?” asked K-1.
      “Apparently, the first group that climbed the peak had a horrible time. 
They all made it to the summit and back, but there were plenty of times when it 
seemed that one of them would fall to their death,” explained Mack as he checked 
some maps of the region, “However, something doesn’t ring true. None of these 
mountains within 200 miles have ever experienced earthquakes. This region is 
certainly not known for volcanoes.
      “I suspect you’re going to check it out?” asked K-1 with curiosity.
      “Of course,” answered Mack.
      “I’ll mark the exact spot on your armor’s map,” said Central as she looked 
at William with one of the cameras in the room, “I see the capture claw did not 
need any adjustments after all.”
      “Indeed,” said Mack as he slipped the faceplate back into place. He ran 
for the elevator and started on his way back to the surface.

-4-
Cecil had been waiting for this moment. The Gardevoir was racing straight to the 
source of the quake and Cecil was right in the path, camouflaged behind some 
bushes. Cecil looked through some binoculars and soon caught sight of his prize. 
Cecil readied himself and got the Master Ball into his hands.
	“This is it…” he muttered as Gardevoir unknowingly ran right to him. Cecil 
threw the Master Ball and it hit its mark, capturing Gardevoir.
	“Success!” he laughed. Then, something odd happened: the Master Ball 
started jumping and shaking around violently.
	“I thought the Master Ball never failed…” thought Cecil as the ball 
started to spark, “Heh. Fight all you want! You’re mine!” The Master Ball 
suddenly stopped moving. Cecil ran over and grabbed his prize. He held the ball, 
perplexed. Never had anyone recorded a capture with a Master Ball like this one. 
The Master Ball had looked ready to explode. The capture was supposed to be 
smooth and without a fuss. Undaunted, he started back to the mountain base, 
chuckling about the possibilities.

-5-
Mack had been in hot pursuit, heading towards the source of the quake as fast as 
possible when something hit him. He stopped at once. For some reason, he sensed 
fear and sadness for a few seconds, and then the feeling vanished as quickly as 
it had come. Mack had all kinds of tricks in his arsenal. Aside from the S-100, 
Mack possessed strong psychic powers as well as an unusual power over light. He 
rarely used these abilities as they would weaken him quickly. More than once, he 
had nearly died in combat. Not from injuries, but from the overuse of his power, 
sapping almost all of his strength.
	“How strange…” muttered Mack as he pressed some switches on his left 
gauntlet. Mack decided to check the area using his spectrum analysis visor. 
Using this visor he could see in the ultra-violet, infra-red and x-ray 
spectrums. Almost nothing could hide from him. Mack saw nothing on ultra-violet 
and normal heat from the infra-red mode. He soon picked out what looked like the 
entrance to a cave, roughly 20 miles from his position.
	“May as well check there,” thought Mack as he ran towards the cave. He 
continued his jog until something else caught his eye. “Hmmm?” Mack clearly saw 
what looked like a small town, nestled in the valley, roughly 5 miles away.
	“That’s strange…” thought Mack as he checked his maps, “This village 
doesn’t show up on any of my maps. Why, the nearest town is over 180 miles 
away.” Mack saw that the village was right in his path and he also sensed 
something about it.
	“Looks like I’d better start my search there, at the village. Maybe I can 
get some answers,” thought Mack as he ran off.

-6-
Dr. Newman had never seen anything like this before. Suspended in a glass tube 
was Gardevoir, surely one of the most beautiful species of Poke’mon he had ever 
seen. Dr. Newman eyed Gardevoir, wondering if Cecil was right. Cecil entered the 
room.
	“Ah. I see the specimen is ready,” said Cecil.
	“Yes it is, sir. Gardevoir is asleep and my new psychic jammers will 
ensure that even if it does wake up, its psychic powers will be useless,” 
explained Dr. Newman.
	“Are you certain those new machines of yours will work?” asked Cecil.
	“Of course!” laughed Dr. Newman, “Besides, I can’t take all the credit. 
They helped me, of course.” Dr. Newman pointed to his row of six Alakazams.
	“Very well then. Let us begin,” said Cecil as Dr. Newman powered up the 
machinery in the room. Dr. Newman frantically got all the machines ready, ready 
to create the strongest shadow Poke’mon in existence.
	“We’ll be ready to start the infusion within half an hour,” said Dr. 
Newman.

-7-
Twenty minutes and one thermos of coffee later, Mack had arrived at the 
outskirts of the small town. Mack was hesitant to enter the village for he knew 
his battle armor would draw too much attention, but something compelled him to 
enter the town. As he started down one of the streets, a sign caught his eye.
	“Gardev? Is that the name of this place? Hard to believe that my lab has 
been just miles away from this place, but I’ve never set foot here, let alone 
even see this village,” thought Mack as he walked down the street. The town 
seemed eerily deserted. As Mack entered what he suspected was the center of the 
village, a large granite statue caught his eyes.
	“What is this?” thought Mack as he closely examined the monument, “Why, 
it’s a statue of a Gardevoir!”
	“Freeze!” said a voice behind Mack. Mack slowly turned around and was face 
to face with the business end of a shotgun.
	“What business do you have here?” asked the man angrily, “You’re with 
them, aren’t you?” Mack knew the shot-gun was useless against the S-100, but the 
last thing he wanted to do now was make a scene or start a fight.
	“Jake! Relax. He’s not with those bandits,” said an old man as he walked 
up to Mack.
	“If you insist, sir,” said Jake as he lowered his weapon.
	“Thank you,” said Mack, “Am I correct that you’re the village elder?”
	“In a way, yes. I’m also the mayor of this small town. My name is Warren,” 
explained Warren, “My family has been running this place for generations. Sure, 
we hold elections, but my family always wins, fair and square.”
	“I see,” said Mack.
	“Come with me to city hall,” said Warren. With that, Mack followed the 
mayor. They sat down in a small office at the back of the building. Warren 
offered Mack some coffee, but Mack politely refused. There was no way he was 
going to remove his faceplate.
	“What brings you to my town?” asked Warren calmly.
	“To tell you the truth, I found this place while searching for…something,” 
answered Mack, “I had no idea this place even existed.”
	“Most people aren’t aware of this town,” explained Warren, “The residents 
live here because of how isolated this place is. It’s 180 miles to the nearest 
town and anyone who comes by way of car or truck has to navigate over 100 miles 
of treacherous roads. Of course…that didn’t stop those fiends from stealing 
records from city hall.”
	“What do you mean?” asked Mack.
	“A bunch of wackos came thundering through the village minutes after that 
freak earthquake occurred. They were wearing these strange white uniforms. They 
threatened us that if we didn’t give them what they wanted, they would steal our 
Poke’mon. We were outnumbered and were not about to let those devils make off 
with our friends,” explained Warren.
	“Have you notified the police?” asked Mack.
	“No point. In order to make telephone calls that go outside Gardev, the 
signal has to travel over 200 miles of radio towers. The towers were installed 
instead of telephone cables since it would be easier to maintain a few towers 
rather than several thousand telephone poles and miles of cable,” said Jake.
	“Ah, ha,” replied Mack.
	“However, there have been a lot of thunderstorms lately in these parts. 
You go thirty miles in any direction and you’ll run into powerful thunderstorms. 
These storms come here once a year and last for weeks. The lightning is causing 
too much interference; therefore, we can’t just call the police,” said Jake with 
a scowl.
	“Even if we did reach them, it would be hours before even a single 
policeman would arrive by car. I doubt they would send helicopters. Any wise 
pilot knows to avoid these mountains like a plague whenever the thunderstorms 
arrive. As for the bandits, they ran in the direction of Mt. Terror. Perhaps you 
could help us?” asked Warren. Mack stood up.
	“Perhaps, but I must mention that I’m not some honor-seeking warrior or 
hero. I’m usually a mercenary, a bounty hunter. If you want my services, I will 
have to be compensated,” declared Mack.
	“Of all the nerve!” shouted Jake as he stood up.
	“Quiet, Jake,” said Warren as Jake sat back down and continued to glare at 
Mack. Mack stood still and heard Jake whispering to Warren.
	“We don’t have the money to hire this warrior! Besides, he’s an outsider! 
We can’t trust him!” whispered Jake angrily into Warren’s left ear. Mack didn’t 
think he was being unreasonable. After all, Mack’s previous Poke’mon journey had 
nearly used up all his money. Not to mention the expenses of getting the 
materials and machinery needed to repair the Firefox. Mack was listening to 
Warren and Jake, argue quietly, until something hit him. Mack suddenly sensed 
pain and fear like nothing he had experienced in centuries. Whatever was going 
on, it was coming from near Mt. Terror. This didn’t bode well. Mack knew he had 
no time to fight for payment.
	“We need his help!” whispered Warren angrily at Jake.
	“No way! We can’t trust this outsider!” said Jake. Warren noticed that 
something was bothering the iron-clad mercenary.
	“Is something troubling you?” asked Warren. Jake fell silent.
	“I’ll do it,” said Mack.
	“You’ll what?!” shouted Jake with astonishment.
	“I’m heading towards where those bandits came from anyway. I’ll be more 
than happy to deal with them and recover those lost records,” said Mack.
	“Oh!” snapped Jake, “And how much will we have to pay you?”
	“At this point, nothing,” said Mack. Warren whispered something to Jake.
	“You must be joking. Should we really tell him that?” whispered Jake. 
Warren nodded.
	“What is your name?” asked Warren.
	“My name is Dr. Foxx,” said Mack.
	“Well then, Dr. Foxx, there is something I need to tell you,” said Warren 
as Jake eyed him cautiously, “There is a Gardevoir that has gone missing. I last 
saw it heading towards Mt. Terror just moments after the quake struck.”
	“That doesn’t make much sense,” thought Mack, “If the quake really did 
strike here, what stopped this village from getting torn apart?”
	“At any rate, I don’t want to imagine what would happen if it was captured 
by those fiends. If you find it, try and bring it back here unharmed,” said 
Warren.
	“Understood,” said Mack as he got up and headed for the door, “I’ll be 
back with Gardevoir and those records.” Mack shut the door, leaving Jake and 
Warren alone.
	“I’ve never heard of this character before. Why do you trust him?” asked a 
shocked Jake.
	“There’s more to that warrior than meets the eye,” said Warren as he 
adjusted his glasses, “Besides, I believe his intensions are honorable.”

-8-
Just minutes ago, Dr. Newman and Cecil were ready to infuse the Gardevoir with 
pure darkness, making it an unfeeling fighting machine.
	“All systems are at 100%,” reported Dr. Newman, “Conditions could hardly 
be more ideal.”
	“Excellent,” said Cecil as he stared at Gardevoir.
	“We are ready to begin at your command,” said Dr. Newman.
	“We?” asked a bewildered Cecil as he turned around. Dr. Newman pointed at 
his group of Alakazams.
	“I see,” said Cecil as he turned his gaze and focus back on Gardevoir, 
“Begin.” With that, Dr. Newman pulled a lever and slowly, a black aura 
surrounded Gardevoir.
	“How long will this take?” asked Cecil impatiently.
	“Only a matter of minutes,” said Dr. Newman as one of the warning lights 
on the control panel in front of him lit up, “What’s this? The dark energy has 
no effect on Gardevoir.”
	“Then turn up the power level,” said Cecil.
	“Yes, sir,” said Dr. Newman as he pulled the level further, “Increasing 
power to 25%.” The black aura around Gardevoir got thicker and blacker. “Power 
at 25% and holding, but there is still no effect.”
	“Then what are you waiting for? Increase the power level to 75%!” ordered 
Cecil.
	“75%? We’ve never had to go that high on the scale. It could be 
dangerous,” warned Dr. Newman.
	“You have your orders. Do it,” commanded Cecil.
	“Yes, sir,” said Dr. Newman as he quickly pulled the level several 
notches. The dark aura around Gardevoir was filling the glass tube. Gardevoir 
seemed to be writhing in pain. “All this and still it refuses to give in, even 
in its sleep. No Poke’mon has ever resisted the shadow chamber at this power 
level. Fascinating.”
	“Grrr!” growled Cecil, “Let me guess: No effect. Crank up the power to 
85%! NOW!”
	“That’s too dangerous! That could kill her!” protested Dr. Newman.
	“Do it or you’ll be dealt with quite harshly,” growled Cecil. Dr. Newman 
was almost convinced that this experiment should cease at once. He quickly 
glanced at one of his Alakazams. It nodded its head in agreement. Cecil flipped 
open a glass panel on the control console and pressed the kill-switch, instantly 
shutting down the machinery.
	“What are you doing?!” thundered Cecil as he turned around to face the 
scientist. Dr. Newman sternly glared at Cecil.
	“I cannot continue this. If I had turned the power up further or left the 
machinery on much longer, the dark power would have killed her!” shouted Dr. 
Newman, “Isn’t it obvious?! We cannot turn this Gardevoir into a shadow 
Poke’mon! Plain and simple!” Cecil turned towards the glass tube. He glared at 
Gardevoir, who was slumped at the back of the tube.
	“Very well. Take it to the holding room and lock it up,” ordered Cecil.
	“Pardon? Shouldn’t you return it to its Poke’ ball? It needs to rest,” 
said Dr. Newman with concern.
	“Have it shackled to the wall and have some of those psychic jammers of 
yours placed outside the room so it can’t escape. If I can’t have complete 
control over it as a shadow Poke’mon, then I will just have to teach it to fear 
me. That way, it will think twice about disobeying my orders. You know what will 
happen if you don’t follow my commands to the letter,” said Cecil with hatred.
	“I will obey. I’ll have it transferred at once,” said Dr. Newman as Cecil 
left the room. Dr. Newman had heard rumors that Cecil was cruel, but the rumors 
were nothing compared to what he had just heard.

-9-
Mack was racing towards Mt. Terror. The cave entrance was less than a mile away, 
but Mack still could not figure out where the feelings of pain and fear had come 
from. Was it another human or a Poke’mon? As Mack drew closer to the cave, he 
once again sensed fear and sadness, but much weaker this time. Mack stopped 
running and turned on his radio.
	“Central, I want William teleported to me at once in his Poke’ ball,” said 
Mack.
	“At once, doctor, but why?” asked Central.
	“I think this is Cipher we’re dealing with. If I’m challenged to a 
Poke’mon battle I will not refuse,” said Mack.
	“Teleporting now,” said Central. Mack heard the Poke’ ball teleport into a 
holding box on his back.
	“Good. I’ll report back to you later,” said Mack as he switched off the 
radio and resumed the chase.

-10-
Gardevoir awoke in a dark room. She tried to move, but soon noticed that she was 
chained to the wall. She closed her eyes, focusing, trying to call on her power, 
but nothing happened. Gardevoir almost broke down and cried, but then she sensed 
something, something that gave her hope. Someone was coming for her. Some sort 
of valiant warrior was coming and he was not about to let anything stand in his 
way.

-11-
Mack finally arrived at the cave entrance.
	“Time to clean house,” thought Mack as he pressed some switches on the 
control panel on his left gauntlet, “But first I need to check this place out 
more carefully.” Mack suspected that there were people down there somewhere and 
wasn’t about ready to be seen. After he pressed the last button, the jamming 
array activated. Mack had spent almost as much time on the jamming array as the 
S-100 armor itself. Currently, this device made Mack and his armor invisible to 
radar, infra-red scanners, ultra-violet scanners and even the naked eye. This 
wondrous machine also silenced his every move. The jamming array also defeated 
X-ray scanners, but Mack suspected that no one had developed one yet. The only 
X-ray scanner on this world was the one built into the spectrum analysis visor 
on his armor. The only way anyone could possibly detect him now was for the 
person to walk right into him. The only flaw is that the jamming array required 
almost all the power his armor’s generators could produce, so firing any of his 
weapons would be impossible while cloaked. The armor suit itself also weighted 
over 800 pounds and required a sensitive hydraulics system to allow nimble, 
precise movement. So Mack could fire his weapons while cloaked, but the noise 
would give him away and the hydraulics would instantly shut down. The weight of 
the armor was too much for Mack to bear for long. Mack walked to the edge of the 
cave entrance. To his surprise, there was a 300 foot drop straight down into the 
cavern. Someone had also taken the time to install stairs and platforms on the 
walls for easy access to the surface. Mack jumped down the shaft, using his 
armor’s jet boots to control his fall. He flew silently towards the bottom of 
the shaft. To Mack’s horror, a Cipher trooper of some sort was right where he 
was going to land! Mack quickly adjusted his fall and landed inches from the 
trooper. Mack landed silently, but the ground still shook when his feet touched 
it. The trooper turned around, trying to figure out where the brief shaking had 
come from. Dismissing it as nothing important, he left the area. Mack breathed a 
sign of relief. That landing had been a lot harder than he expected. After he 
pulled himself together, he stood back up and started to explore. This 
underground facility was larger than Mack imagined. It would take hours to 
explore this place on foot.
	“May as well try a new feature,” thought Mack as he switched his X-ray 
scanner for Map Mode. In this mode, the x-ray scanner could see up to one 
thousand feet through solid rock and then generate a 3D map on Mack’s heads-up-
display on the visor. After just a few moments, something got his attention. 
Just 800 feet away was a gargantuan machine of some sort. He ran down the halls 
and corridors with his map to guide him. After 15 minutes of running and dodging 
guards, he entered a large room. The machine was right in the center of the 
room, about as big as the Poke’mon Center in Viridian City and was shaped like a 
cylinder. It was covered with panels that projected a strange, pulsing yellow 
light. Whatever this machine was, Mack was not going to allow Cipher to use it 
any longer. This was no time to be looking for lost records. He looked up 
towards the ceiling in the room. There were four guards in the area. Not a 
problem. Mack jumped to some higher platforms and got right behind two of the 
guards.
	“Here we go,” said Mack, “Stun Mode.” With his command, four small cannons 
popped out of his gauntlets: one on the top and bottom of each wrist. He pointed 
two of the cannons at each guard. Mack clenched his fists and two bright bolts 
of orange light hit the guards in their backs. They dropped to the floor 
unconscious. The jamming array shut itself off instantly.
	“What was that?!” shouted another guard.
	“Captain?!” shouted another as they ran towards their fallen comrades. 
They looked down the corridor and saw what looked like a metal fox. Mack 
clenched his fists again and the guards were hit with orange energy bolts and 
then collapsed. Mack then walked back into the large room and pulled some timer 
mines out of a compartment in his armor. These mines were as big as a deck of 
cards, but had enough explosive force that they could be used to knock down 
buildings or bridges with ease. He placed them all over the room and the 
machine. He then placed one mine near the fallen guards.
	“Twenty minutes should be enough,” thought Mack as he armed the mines via 
his gauntlet control panel, “These guards will wake up in a minute or less and 
see this time bomb right in front of them. If they have any sense, they’ll 
evacuate this place at once. I want to take these cretins alive!” Mack started 
running when he saw one of the guards waking up. The guard looked down at his 
feet and saw what looked like a small box. A small LED display said “19:20.”
	“Nineteen minutes and twenty seconds?” asked the groggy guard to himself, 
“WHAT?! A time-bomb?!” He looked around the room and soon discovered that the 
walls and the machine in the center of the room were covered with mines!
	“Wake up, Captain!” shouted the guard frantically as he shook his leader.
	“What is it?” he asked.
	“Look!” shouted the guard as he pointed to the mines that covered the 
area.
	“Impossible!” shouted the Captain as he ran down one of the hallways and 
pulled an alarm. Cecil was caught off guard and immediately radioed the captain 
of the guard.
	“What is the meaning of this?” demanded Cecil over the radio.
	“Sir! Someone broke into the base undetected and planted time bombs all 
over Sector-13!” shouted the captain frantically.
	“You mean…?” asked Cecil with disbelief.
	“Yes, sir! The machine has been mined! We have to evacuate this facility!” 
said the captain as he tried to calm down.
	“Just disable the little pieces of junk,” said Cecil without concern.
	“We can’t possibly disable all of them! There must be 60, no 80 of these 
mines in here!” shouted the captain. Cecil could not believe what he was 
hearing.
	“Fine! I order this facility to be evacuated at once! Have all personnel 
head to the launch bay and board the helicopters at once. Launch them as soon as 
they are full. We have to get everyone as far away from here as possible!” 
ordered Cecil. Just as Cecil was going to turn around and say something to Dr. 
Newman, he spotted something on one of the video monitors in the room. Some sort 
of assassin or bounty hunter dressed as a metal fox was running down the halls. 
“So…” said Cecil to himself as he seethed with anger, “This is who to blame for 
this outrage.” Cecil faced Dr. Newman.
	“What is it, sir?” asked Dr. Newman.
	“You will lead the evacuation. I’m going to deal with this intruder 
myself. Have our helicopter ready. After that machine goes up, it will be only a 
matter of minutes until this whole facility goes up in smoke,” said Cecil as he 
grabbed a strange collar from a glass case.
	“Very well, but what do you need that restrainer for?” asked Dr. Newman.
	“None of your business. Now go!” shouted Cecil as Dr. Newman called his 
Alakazams back to their Poke’ balls. Meanwhile, Cecil went running down the 
hall. “That fool is heading right for the training room. I’ll head him off 
there.” Cecil quickly threw open a door. Gardevoir jumped and backed into a 
corner of the room.
      “You’re coming with me,” snarled Cecil as he lunged forward and put the 
collar over Gardevoir’s neck, “This will make sure you don’t disobey me. It will 
let me disable your powers if I have to.” Gardevoir backed further into the 
corner. Cecil laughed.
      “Good. I can see that you know better than to toy with me!” snapped Cecil, 
“Time to prove yourself!” With that, Cecil called Gardevoir back to the Master 
Ball and then he ran off to confront the saboteur. Mack was sure he was getting 
close to the exit. His map said that the fastest way back to the entry shaft was 
through a large, dome-shaped room. Mack entered the room and after looking back 
and forth discovered that this was some sort of underground coliseum or training 
field. Just as he was at the other end of the field, he heard a voice.
      “Come back here, you coward!” shouted a man. Mack stopped in his tracks 
and turned to face him. “Surely you would not refuse a battle with me. I am 
Cecil, administrator of this facility. I challenge you to a Poke’mon battle. Of 
course, you could just run away like a dishonorable piece of scum!”
      “As you wish,” said Mack. He sensed something about Cecil. Whatever it 
was, he didn’t like the looks of this man at all.
      “Let us begin!” shouted Cecil, “Onyx! Go!” commanded Cecil as he let a 
Poke’ ball fly into the center of the arena. The giant rock snake towered over 
Mack.
      “I only have one Poke’mon,” said Mack.
      “That’s just fine with me!” laughed Cecil, “I’ll be happy to crush you at 
a one-on-one fight!” Mack threw his Poke’ ball into the arena.
	“William! Get ready!” shouted Mack as the Poke’ ball hit the floor and 
opened with a flash, revealing his Pikachu.
	“Is that the best you can do?” said Cecil with cruel laughter, “You don’t 
have a chance against my Onyx. Onyx! Focus!” At Cecil’s command, the Onyx sat 
still, building its energy.
	“William! Static Electric!” commanded Mack as he pointed at Cecil’s Onyx. 
William blazed with electricity and then fired several green bolts of lightning 
into Onyx. Onyx didn’t even flinch.
	“You must be joking,” said Cecil with a grin, “Onyx, Takedown!” At Cecil’s 
command, Onyx charged at William.
	“William! Thunderball!” ordered Mack. William again blazed with lightning, 
but this time, tried to focus it in his hands.
	“What are you doing?” asked Cecil with bewilderment. Onyx went airborne, 
ready to crush the miniscule Pikachu beneath its massive boulders. William 
stared at the incoming behemoth and grinned. With a flick of his wrists, William 
sent a small ball of lightning at Onyx. The lighting ball exploded on contact, 
enveloping the Onyx in raw electricity. Onyx howled in pain and dropped to the 
ground, unconscious.
	“What on earth was that?!” thundered Cecil.
	“Simple. Static Electric makes the target’s weakness electricity. After 
that, a shot of Thunderball, one of the most powerful electric-type attacks, 
slams into the target mercilessly. Very few Poke’mon can learn these attacks,” 
explained Mack, “This Pikachu, William, is one of them.”
	“You’re as good a trainer as you are a saboteur,” remarked Cecil as he 
called his Onyx back to its Poke’ ball, “But let’s see how you handle this one.” 
Cecil reached for a strange Poke’ ball on his belt and Mack paused.
	“That’s a Master Ball!” thought Mack with shock, “What could he possibly 
have in it and why do I have this foreboding feeling about his next Poke’mon?”
	“Time to prove yourself!” shouted Cecil as he threw the Master Ball into 
the ring. It opened with a flash and revealed Gardevoir.
	“Oh, no! This must be the Gardevoir that Warren needed me to save!” 
thought Mack with shock. The Gardevoir seemed sad and fearful.
	“So this is why I kept sensing those feelings. It must have been trying to 
lure me here to save it,” thought Mack. He considered using the Capture Claw to 
save Gardevoir, but that move would have haunted Mack’s conscience for the rest 
of his life. “I can’t stoop that low and steal a Poke’mon, no matter what.” 
Never had he been so reluctant to battle before.
	“What’s the matter? Has the warrior lost his touch?” said Cecil with cruel 
laughter. He pulled out a remote control of some sort. When he pressed the 
button, the lights on the Gardevoir’s collar turned from red to blue. 
“Gardevoir, Use Psychic on that little rat! Shut it down!” With that, Gardevoir 
reluctantly started focusing her power.
	“William! Thunderbolt!” shouted Mack as he turned away.
	“PIKA-CHUUU!!!” yelled William as a bolt of lightning struck down 
Gardevoir.
	“I can’t watch…” said Mack, hiding his face while Gardevoir screamed. Mack 
slowly turned back and removed his hands from his faceplate. Gardevoir was on 
the ground, struggling to get up. William sat down on the floor, panting from 
exhaustion.
	“What?! That can’t be!” exclaimed Cecil with rage.
	“What happened?” thought Mack, “That Thunderbolt was all William had left. 
That should not have done the trick…unless, unless Gardevoir was already 
weakened! That explains the horrid pain I sensed! What on earth have these 
fiends done to it?!”
	“Grrr! Worthless!” shouted Cecil as he stomped on the floor. Cecil then 
pressed a switch on the remote control. The lights on Gardevoir’s collar turned 
red. Mack studied the collar closely.
	“That looks like some sort of restraining device. Hold on, why do I have 
the feeling I’ve forgotten something important?” thought Mack.
	“GAH!!! The timer-mines!!” shouted Mack.
	“WHAT?!” yelled Cecil. Deep in the facility, the mines detonated all at 
once, blowing the mysterious machine to bits and shattering the rock walls. The 
shockwave knocked the combatants to their feet.
      “I don’t have time for this,” growled Cecil as he got to his feet and ran 
for an elevator at the other end of the field.
      “Where do you think you’re going?” said Mack as he started running after 
Cecil. Suddenly, an explosion blew through the floor under Mack’s feet, sending 
him flying. There wasn’t enough time to fire up the jet boots and land safely. 
Mack landed hard on his stomach and the impact knocked the air out of him. As 
Mack struggled to breath, some rocks from the roof came down, smashing into the 
back of the S-100. Mack howled in pain as one warning message after another 
appeared on his HUD.
      “No! The power generators were damaged!” thought Mack with fear as he 
struggled to get out from under the boulders. They seemed too heavy for the 
hydraulics to handle as his armor started to lose power.
      “I have no choice now…” muttered Mack as he tried to relax and focus. 
Cecil stopped in his tracks, turned around and saw a strange aura enshrouding 
the boulders. The boulders slowly lifted into the air and were then thrown to 
the opposite end of the field.
      “What kind of assassin is this? He can’t possibly be human!” thought Cecil 
as he started back for the elevator. Much to his surprise, Gardevoir was there, 
leaning on the door. Mack struggled to get to his feet, but without the 
hydraulics working, the armor was unwieldy, especially since he still couldn’t 
catch his breath. That was the one real weakness of the S-100: virtually 
indestructible armor, but the internal systems were always much more fragile and 
could be damaged or destroyed by direct, hard hits. Cecil glared at Gardevoir.
      “So you want to come with me, eh? Because I’m your master?” asked Cecil 
with a harsh tone. Gardevoir nodded as Mack started to push up from the ground. 
Cecil growled.
      “Guess what?” said Cecil as he seethed with hatred and clenched his right 
fist, “I don’t want to be your master anymore, you worthless beast!” Mack 
couldn’t believe what he was seeing as he saw Cecil strike Gardevoir into the 
floor. Mack eyes glowed red through his visor.
      “And you call yourself a Poke’mon trainer?!” shouted Mack as loud as he 
could. Cecil boarded the elevator.
      “What else do you do with garbage besides toss it out?” said Cecil calmly 
as the elevator started on its way up.
      “Come back here!” yelled Mack with rage as he struggled to get to his feet 
with his eyes glowing even brighter. Gardevoir looked up and saw the elevator 
disappear into the blackness up above. Suddenly, a panel up above exploded and a 
live wire dropped from the ceiling onto Gardevoir. Gardevoir shrieked in pain.
      “What?! NOO!!!” thundered Mack as he summoned up all his strength and 
jumped forward with all his might. He grabbed the wire with his left gauntlet 
and quickly plucked it off Gardevoir as raw power surged over his armor. Mack 
threw the wire aside and tried to catch his breath.
      “What on earth was that? That must have been over 500,000 volts! If it 
wasn’t for my armor, I would have been fried! What would they need that kind of 
power for?!” said Mack. His gaze turned to William who was hiding under a nearby 
bench from fright. Mack pounded on the control panel, trying to get anything to 
work. The radio crackled to life.
      “Doctor? This is Central. What is happening over there?” asked Central 
with concern.
      “I’ll explain later! Teleport William out of here!” ordered Mack.
      “Understood,” said Central as William vanished with a flash of light. Mack 
rushed over to Gardevoir’s side and managed to take off the collar. Gardevoir 
was still breathing.
      “Thank heavens,” said Mack with relief, “She’s alive…barely. Central! Get 
us out of here!”
      “Compliance,” said Central, “Warning! Your reserve power-cells have been 
damaged! There is just enough power to bring you back.”
      “What do you mean?” demanded Mack.
      “You’re the one wearing the armor, so it would take less power to focus 
the energy to send you back here,” explained Central, “There isn’t even enough 
power to remove your armor and send it here. You will have to come with it.” 
Mack had to choose between his own safety and that of Gardevoir. For Mack, that 
was no choice.
      “Fine! We’ll escape on foot!” declared Mack as he took Gardevoir up in his 
arms and started running. Without a map, the going was more difficult than 
expected. Nevertheless, he managed to retrace his steps. As he was running, 
Gardevoir awoke and saw the metal face of her rescuer.
      “Don’t worry! I’ll get you some help! Just hold on,” said Mack softly as 
he continued to run. Mack wished he was as optimistic as he sounded. He could 
teleport them both out of there, but that would drain enough of his energy to 
kill him. There was no way he was going to force Gardevoir to send them to 
safety, not in her current condition. Gardevoir soon fell back asleep. All was 
going well. Mack could see the shaft just yards ahead. Then, without warning, 
another rogue explosion sent Mack off his feet and into the floor. He struggled 
to get to his feet and soon discovered, to his horror, that he was almost 
completely buried under a rockslide. Only his helmet and arms weren’t under the 
debris. He looked up and saw that Gardevoir had been thrown from his arms. Mack 
tried to get out from under the rocks with all his strength, but his armor’s 
power had been drained and he was starting to grow weak. Mack let his arms drop 
to the floor.
      “So this is it,” thought Mack, “All my years of traveling, trying to get 
home…was it all in vain?” Mack shook his head. “What am I talking about? I can’t 
give up!” Mack faced the ground, dug his gauntlets into the ground and tried to 
pull himself out from under the rubble. Mack heard some soft footsteps and he 
stopped what he was doing. Mack looked up and saw Gardevoir on her knees in 
front of him.
      “You’re okay?” said Mack with relief, “Good! Now get out of here! Escape 
before it’s too late!” Gardevoir just stared at Mack. She seemed to be worried 
about him.
      “I’ll be fine! Just go!” said Mack as he continued to claw into the 
ground. Gardevoir didn’t move.
      “Who am I kidding? When this place goes up my armor would survive, but 
I’ll probably be torn to shreds from the shockwaves. Either that, or I’ll die 
from energy loss,” thought Mack as Gardevoir grabbed his right hand. She closed 
her eyes and a blue aura surrounded her and Mack.
      “What is she doing? Why, she’s trying to teleport us out of here!” thought 
Mack as his gauntlet control panel started sparking. Mack glanced at the panel, 
“What in the world? The teleportation systems are going haywire!” Mack passed 
out as he and Gardevoir vanished in a blue flash of light.
      Meanwhile, Cecil was sitting in his chair onboard his helicopter across 
from Dr. Newman. Cecil watched as one side of Mt. Terror erupted into a giant 
cloud of black smoke. Cecil had no idea on how he would explain this disaster to 
his boss: of all the resources that had been lost just to capture a single 
Gardevoir. Cecil’s only relief was that Gardevoir had probably perished inside 
the facility. If he couldn’t have it, no one would.
      The blast caught the attention of the entire town of Gardev. The residents 
looked on with disbelief as Mt. Terror vanished behind a puff of smoke.
      “What in blazes was that?!” shouted Jake.
      “I think Dr. Foxx found more than he expected,” said Warren, “I hope he 
and Aura are okay.”
      One of the town residents was a young girl named Sakura. The explosion 
from Mt. Terror had gotten her attention, but soon afterward, a faint white 
flash of light appeared in the forests outside the village.
      
-12-
      “What on earth just happened? Where am I?” thought Mack as he finally 
awoke. Though his vision was blurred, he could tell that he was now in the 
middle of a dense forest. Other than that, he couldn’t tell where exactly he 
was. His senses seemed to be scrambled at the moment. He tried to get up, but 
his body refused to move.
      “Looks like I’m safe,” thought Mack as he sighed with relief, “K-1 should 
be by to pick me up soon.” Mack started to lose consciousness again.
	“I’ve survived, but where…where’s…Gardevoir…?” thought Mack as he blacked 
out.

-13-
Sakura was running down the pathways in the forest with her mother right behind 
her.
	“Mommy! I swear I saw something over here!” said Sakura as she continued 
running.
	“Okay, just be careful!” said Sakura’s mother, Makoto, as she followed her 
daughter. Sakura suddenly stopped in the middle of the pathway.
	“Did you find that light?” asked Makoto as she came alongside Sakura. To 
her shock, Makoto saw Gardevoir on the ground, unconscious.
	“I think she’s hurt!” said Sakura with fear.
	“You stay here,” said Makoto, “I’ll be back with Warren. He’ll know what 
to do!” Makoto ran back to the town while Sakura kept vigilance over Gardevoir.


-14-
K-1 was absolutely stunned as he watched Mt. Terror vanish behind thick, black 
smoke from Central’s viewing screens.
	“Try again!” ordered K-1.
	“Impossible,” declared Central, “I cannot acquire a lock on Mack’s 
location. Either the S-100 was destroyed or every last ounce of energy was 
drained from the power cells.”
	“Blast it all!” grumbled K-1. William walked beside K-1 and squeaked 
mournfully. K-1 opened the doors on his chest, extended an arm and then softly 
stroked the frightened Pikachu. “You’re worried too, aren’t you, little guy?” K-
1 worried that if the S-100 wasn’t located soon, Mack might die from energy loss 
or worse still, he might even be captured in his weakened state.
	“I must point out that I did detect the energy signature of a 
teleportation just moments before the explosion,” said Central.
	“What do you make of it?” asked K-1 as William’s ears perked up.
	“I can’t be sure. The signature seemed rather…distorted. I suspect this is 
simply because my sensor range is quite weak. Personally, I believe that Mack is 
alive and well. I think we’ll see him soon, it just might be a few days or even 
a week,” said Central.
	“You sure are optimistic,” said K-1, “At any rate, continue to search for 
Mack and the S-100.”

-15-
Just hours after the destruction of Cipher’s facility on Mt. Terror, Cipher 
administrators deemed that the facility was safe enough to conduct a short 
reconnaissance on. Thus, some of Cipher’s lowest agents were sent in to 
investigate. This time, it was the Hexagon Brothers. This group of sextuplets 
had all joined up with Cipher just weeks before and they certainly did not enjoy 
getting stuck with the dirty jobs.
	“I still can’t believe they sent us here of all places,” grumbled Blusix.
	“Relax, Blusix, we don’t have to stay here very long,” said Redsix. The 
brothers had entered the ruined facility though the old service shaft. Oddly 
enough, the stairways and platforms were still intact. A shiny object in one of 
the hallways caught the attention of Greesix.
	“I think I see something down there!” said Greesix as he and his brothers 
ran down the hall. At the end of the tunnel, they found what looked like metal 
just sticking out from under a pile of boulders.
	“What do you suppose this is?” asked Blusix.
	“Maybe it’s a broken machine of some sort,” said Redsix as he glanced at 
Greesix, “I’ll bet you could yank it out of there.”
	“Me? Sure!” said Greesix as he grabbed the object and with one yank pulled 
it out from under the rocks. To his shock, he realized that he had just pulled a 
helmet out from under the debris. Greesix shrieked, fearing that he had just 
beheaded someone. His brothers laughed.
	“Relax!” laughed Redsix, “It’s just a helmet.”
	“Looks like more than a helmet,” said Blusix as he and his brothers 
removed some of the rocks to reveal a suit of some sort of armor. Redsix closely 
eyed the armor and soon discovered that this chunk of metal was highly advanced.
	“What is this thing made of?” asked Greesix as he struggled to lift the 
armor off the ground.
	“I would like to know what happened to the pilot!” said Blusix.
	“That’s not important!” said Redsix with a grin, “All that matters is that 
we have something very valuable here. I bet if we report this find to our 
officers, we’ll get a big promotion out of it!”
	“Dr. Newman would have a field day with this thing. I’ll bet he would be 
able to get it to work, too!” said Greesix with excitement. 
      “I don’t know what this thing does, but it would be the perfect 
replacement for these uniforms!” laughed Blusix. Redsix pulled out a radio and 
told the support team that they had found something considerable. The support 
team would arrive in a few minutes to collect the armor.
      
-16-
Mack awoke with his vision blurred. He could tell that he was in a room and in a 
bed. A woman and what appeared to be her daughter were sitting in a chair near 
the bed.
	“Ah! You’ve finally woken up. You’ve been asleep for almost a week,” said 
the woman with a sigh of relief, “Are you feeling better?”
	“No worse than usual,” replied Mack as he slowly sat up. Mack wasn’t quite 
sure, but his voice had sounded rather strange. Mack rubbed his eyes, but this 
felt unusual too.
	“Maybe my senses are scrambled again…” thought Mack “Wouldn’t surprise me 
if they were. I was almost killed.”
	“Well,” said the woman as she held her daughter in her arms, “We’ll just 
leave you to rest for now.” After they left the room, Mack staggered to his 
feet. To his surprise, the room he was in was spacious and quite fancy.
	“Looks like I’ve been copping some ‘Z’s in a four-star hotel,” said Mack 
to himself with a bit of laughter, “I wasn’t expecting to be paid like this. I 
must have completed my mission. I’ll have to go see Warren when I get the 
chance.” Mack saw a bathroom in the left corner of the room. He walked towards 
the bathroom.
	“May as well see what’s left of me,” he thought. As he entered the room, 
he found a large mirror over the sink, but in the mirror, he did not find his 
own face. He jumped back out of the bathroom. He rubbed his eyes again, trying 
to get them back into focus.
	“Okay…” he thought, “My senses are either scrambled or I’m having a 
nightmare of some sort.” He slowly walked back into the bathroom and stared into 
the mirror. Mack came to a conclusion: his senses were working just fine and he 
was definitely not dreaming. In the mirror, he saw not his face, but the figure 
of Gardevoir. He jumped back with a shriek and set his back against a wall 
outside the bathroom.
	“Alright, doctor, calm down! You’ve been in situations like this before,” 
thought Mack. He slowly took another look in the mirror. “Okay, maybe not QUITE 
like this, but still, you’ve got to keep your cool and figure out what 
happened.” Mack thought back and remembered being pinned under some rocks in the 
S-100 when a Gardevoir grabbed his hand and then teleported both of them away. 
Mack also remembered that his gauntlet control panel was sparking like crazy as 
a message on his visor warned him that the teleporter was malfunctioning. Mack’s 
mind was blank after that, until when he awoke. Mack had always known that using 
a damaged teleporter was dangerous and always had unexpected results, but still, 
this was a new one.
	“So I’ve been fused with a Poke’mon,” thought Mack, “I never expected 
this. That Gardevoir was a psychic type anyway; surely she knew that this would 
happen! Perhaps this is fate?” Mack suddenly heard some people talking outside 
the door to the bedroom. Mack walked over quietly and pressed his head against 
the door. He could clearly hear Warren, Jake and some other people talking.
	“What do you think happened?” asked Jake.
	“I think Dr. Foxx was successful in dealing with those bandits. I even 
suspect that he rescued Aura from them,” said Warren.
	“Aura? Is that the name of the Gardevoir I got fused with?” thought Mack.
	“I still can’t believe that our guardian failed,” said a woman’s voice.
	“That’s not the case!” said Warren with impatience, “I suspect that there 
is more going on here than we realize.”
	“No kidding…” thought Mack.
	“Ever since this village was established over one thousand years ago, a 
Gardevoir has been watching over us,” explained Warren, “We may not have ever 
had earthquakes before, but we’ve had more than our fair share of disasters: 
avalanches in the winter, floods in the spring and then there is the occasional 
forest fire that gets sparked to life by those thunderstorms. Each time, the 
village guardian has preserved us and our homes.”
	“I know the story,” said Jake, “And your family has been providing the 
Gardevoirs with food and shelter for just as long.”
	“Yes,” said Warren with a chuckle, “That’s probably why a member of my 
family has been running Gardev since it was founded.”
	“That explains a few things,” thought Mack.
	“Why, one of my ancestors even had that statue erected in the town square 
roughly 300 years ago to honor the Gardevoirs who have protected our village, 
but most importantly, it honors the Gardevoirs who have died protecting this 
place,” explained Warren, “I’m glad we have not had to add Aura’s name to the 
memorial.”
	“I’ve heard tales about Gardevoirs giving their lives for their trainer,” 
thought Mack, “So, not only have I fused with a Gardevoir, but I’ve fused with 
the guardian of this village. This problem just keeps getting bigger.”
	“Why, I think Aura did a superb job holding this village together during 
the quake,” said Warren.
      “But what about those bandits? They slipped right in and took whatever 
they wanted,” said Jake.
	“We’ve never had an earthquake before. I’ll bet that Aura sensed something 
strange and then ran off to find out what had happened,” said Warren.
	“And what of that warrior? He still hasn’t returned,” said Jake, “Oh, 
well. At least he didn’t come back and demand payment. I hope he’s alright, but 
I also hope that he’s long gone by now.”
	“You still don’t trust him, do you?” asked Warren.
	“Yes! I still don’t trust him! That outsider! Heh! I hope he never comes 
back!” said Jake with anger.
	“’Never comes back?’” muttered Mack, “I have yet to leave.”
	“Show some respect,” said Warren in an angry tone of voice, “He may have 
died up there on Mt. Terror trying to save Aura. You had better hope that Dr. 
Foxx returns, because the last thing I want to do is place another memorial in 
the town square!”
	“I’ve heard enough,” thought Mack as he walked away from the door. He soon 
noticed an object on a desk in the room. He walked closer and soon discovered 
that this object was his custom-made ID card. This card would allow him easy 
access to his lab and any equipment he might need. Mack grabbed the card and 
then heard a knock on the door.
	“Aura?” asked Warren “Is it okay for me to come in?”
	“Yes, please come in,” said Mack. This new voice was going to take some 
getting used to. Warren opened the door and walked into the room.
	“I see you’ve awakened,” said Warren as he eyed the card in Aura’s hands, 
“I also see you’ve found Dr. Foxx’s ID card. Apparently, Sakura found it near 
you.”
	“I see,” answered Mack as Warren sat down in a nearby chair.
	“I don’t suppose you know what happened to him. I sent him to find you and 
to deal with those bandits. Do you know where he went?” asked Warren. Mack was 
not going to bother explaining what had happened on Mt. Terror.
	“He disappeared. I have no idea where he went,” said Mack.
	“He must have gone through quite a lot to save you. Well, I hope he’s 
alright,” said Warren.
	“I’m quite alright, sort of,” thought Mack as he set the ID card back on 
the desk, “And rescuing Aura didn’t quite turn out how I had planned.”
	“At any rate, please get some rest,” said Warren as he left the room. Mack 
ran back to the bathroom and gazed into the mirror.
	“Despite that teleportation accident, Aura probably saved our lives,” 
thought Mack, “Most perplexing. Not only will I need to deal with Cipher, but 
I’ll have to find a way to safely split Aura and I apart.” Mack walked out of 
the bathroom and sat on the bed. He then noticed a coffee mug on the desk.
	“Okay. For the time being, I’m a psychic Poke’mon. It should be a piece of 
cake to use telekinesis, and other powers now,” thought Mack as he focused and 
tried to lift the mug off the desk. However, the mug didn’t budge. Mack 
continued to try, but he couldn’t even get the mug to slide an inch on the desk. 
Mack growled and he tried to fire a beam of explosive light from his hands at 
the stubborn coffee mug. Mack was disappointed, yet relieved that he had not 
blown a hole in the wall.
	“This isn’t good…” thought Mack, “I can’t use any of my powers or even 
Aura’s!” Mack sat still, trying to regain his composure.
	“If Cipher returns to this village I’ll be the only thing standing in 
their way, but how am I supposed to fight back without weapons or my abilities?” 
thought Mack, “Speaking of weapons, what ever happened to the S-100?” Mack 
looked out a window in the room and at the peak of Mt. Terror.
	“It’s probably still buried in that shaft,” thought Mack as he jumped to 
his feet. Mack grabbed a thin cloth band from a drawer in the desk and clipped 
his card to it. Mack then ran out of the bedroom and down the hallway. Just as 
he was reaching for the front door knob, Warren was walking out from behind a 
corner in the hallway.
	“Huh? Where are you going?” asked Warren with concern, “You should be 
resting now.”
	“There’s something I need to check,” answered Mack as he opened the door.
	“Okay, just be careful out there,” said Warren as he saw Aura close the 
door. Mack was now walking down Main Street and his new reflection in the 
windows of nearby houses was starting to get on his nerves.
	“I need something…” thought Mack, “Something that’s more my style.” Mack 
walked further down the street and found a general store with an ATM out in 
front.
	“Maybe they’ll have something I can use,” thought Mack as he stood in 
front of the ATM and slid his card into the machine. Just as the ATM gave him 
some cash, Mack turned around and saw that a few people were staring at him.
	“Haven’t these people ever seen a Poke’mon doing their banking before?” 
thought Mack, “What am I thinking about? I’VE yet to see a Poke’mon do banking 
either!” Mack walked into the store, while the villagers tried to make some 
sense of what they had just seen.
	“Did you see that?” asked one of them.
	“Yes, but why what would Aura need money for?” asked another. As Mack 
entered the store, the shopkeeper greeted him.
	“Welcome, Aura!” said the man with a grin, “What brings you here?” Mack 
instantly saw a name in his mind.
	“I’m just looking for something, Paul,” answered Mack.
	“Go ahead! I have just about anything you’ll need!” said Paul as Mack 
started wandering down the isles.
	“All I need is a pair of good sunglasses…” though Mack as he soon caught a 
glimpse of a pair of Gargoyle sunglasses. “This guy really does have 
everything.” Mack grabbed the shades and went over to the counter.
	“How much for these?” asked Mack as he counted his wad of bills.
	“On the house!” said Paul.
	“What? Don’t you have a family to provide for?” asked Mack.
	“Please! Consider those sunglasses as a gift. Don’t forget, you’re the one 
who saved my family and shop from that freak earthquake,” explained Paul, 
“Besides, those things have been on the shelf for years.”
	“Okay,” said Mack as he put of the shades, “Thank you.” Mack started 
walking for the front door.
	“Excuse me, Aura,” said Paul.
	“Yes?” answered Mack.
	“May I suggest you try a different style? I don’t think those suit you,” 
said Paul.
	“How so?” asked Mack.
	“They make you look cold and unfeeling,” said Paul with a bid of 
embarrassment, “But who am I to argue with a customer? Have a nice day.” Mack 
started walking out the door.
	“It’s nice that Aura has returned, but something about her has…changed,” 
thought Paul. Mack clearly heard what Paul was thinking about.
	“You have no idea…” grumbled Mack, “But at least I have telepathy at my 
disposal.” As Mack was walking towards the edge of town, he noticed that other 
people were staring at him.
	“What’s with the sunglasses?” asked a villager.
	“Beats me,” said another.
	“Looks like I found another good way to draw too much attention to 
myself…” sighed Mack as he started running through the forest towards Mt. 
Terror.

-17-
Though a week had passed since the disaster on Mt. Terror, Cecil was still 
feeling the backlash. The top administrators were not only displeased with the 
massive loss of resources, but also that this was all the result of trying to 
capture only a single Poke’mon.
	“Confound it all,” grumbled Cecil, “My plan was perfect: draw that 
Gardevoir into my trap and then create the most powerful shadow Poke’mon in 
existence.”
	“No one could have predicted this,” said Dr. Newman, trying to reassure 
Cecil, “Who would have thought that Gardevoir would completely resist the shadow 
process?”
	“It doesn’t matter now…” said Cecil, “Not only was an entire base 
destroyed, but now we’ve lost the seismic generator too.”
	“Don’t forget who built the device,” said Dr. Newman with a scowl, “I 
still can’t believe you used my creation in an attempt to wipe an entire village 
off the face of the earth!”
	“Easy, Dr. Newman, I knew that Gardevoir would manage to save the village. 
It always did whenever that place was in danger. I knew that causing an 
earthquake would draw it right to the machine you built,” explained Cecil.
	“Maybe so, but I never intended for the seismic generator to be used in 
such a fashion. I originally designed that machine as a way to either nullify or 
reduce the power of a real earthquake. Just imagine, being able to prevent the 
destruction of a large city with the push of a button,” explained Dr. Newman.
	“Yes, but enough about that pile of scrap,” said Cecil, “Tell me, how goes 
research on that…object the hexagon brothers retrieved?”
	“I’ve made considerable progress,” said Dr. Newman, “I managed to reverse 
engineer the cannon on the armor’s right shoulder and even had several exact 
copies made, just as you ordered. Of course, Isaac, Albert, Benjamin, Thomas, 
Leonardo and Galileo made this endeavor possible.”
	“Who?” asked a bewildered Cecil. Dr. Newman pointed once again at his 
group of six Alakazams.
	“This cannon appears to be some sort of a ‘Capture Cannon’ that would 
allow the user to capture Poke’mon easily,” explained Dr. Newman.
	“And even allow the user to steal Poke’mon from their trainers?” asked 
Cecil with interest.
	“Well, yes,” said Dr. Newman with a frown, “But such a thing is certainly 
not ethical.”
	“Splendid!” said Cecil triumphantly, “How about you outfit some of our 
troops with these cannons? We can have them storm Gardev and then steal the 
Poke’mon from all the citizens with ease.”
	“I suppose…” said Dr. Newman with a scowl, “I have 20 of these capture 
cannons ready to go, but stealing Poke’mon from their trainers?! Besides, I 
still don’t even know what all of the circuitry within the cannon is for.”
	“We need to cover our losses somehow, besides, have you made the 
adjustments to the shadow chamber at this base?” asked Cecil.
	“Yes,” replied Dr. Newman.
	“Perfect. We’ll be able to create an army of shadow Poke’mon in less than 
a day, then,” said Cecil as he started for the door, “You, Dr. Newman, will 
outfit the troops and instruct them on how to use the capture cannons. We’ll 
send the troops after wild Poke’mon, since you’re too afraid to steal Poke’mon.”
	“Yes, sir…” replied Dr. Newman as Cecil left the room.
	
-18-
Hours later, Mack arrived back at the shaft where he had discovered Cipher’s 
mountain base. Mack was amazed that not only he wasn’t extremely tired, but the 
shaft was completely intact. He slowly descended into the ruined base using the 
stairwells. Minutes later, he was on the ground.
	“Now, where was I?” asked Mack to himself as he gazed left and right. His 
gaze soon fell on the collapsed corridor where he had been pinned. Mack ran to 
the rock pile in the hallway and to his horror, found that someone had already 
unearthed the S-100 and had stolen it.
	“Wonderful…” grumbled Mack, “At least if the S-100 was stolen, no one 
would be able to understand how it works.” Mack decided he was going to need 
some help. Before he started to leave, Mack took a closer look at the pile of 
rocks. Though he could not see it, there seemed to be something under one of the 
rocks. Mack removed the rock and, much to his surprise, discovered a ruby 
pendant of some sort. He picked it up and gazed into the gem.
	“Aura must have been wearing this. I didn’t even notice it,” thought Mack.
	“At any rate, I’d better go back to my lab,” thought Mack as he started 
running up the stairs to the surface, “Somehow I’ll have to tell K-1 what 
happened. Maybe he and Central will be able to split Aura and me apart safely. 
Of course, Cipher will have to be dealt with too. I’d better drop this pendant 
off back at Gardev before I go to my lab, though.”

-19-
It was now late in the afternoon when Mack arrived back at his hidden lab. 
Getting into the lab would be easy with his ID card, but dealing with K-1 and 
Central would be another story. Mack could not imagine what would happen if K-1 
thought a Poke’mon had broken into the lab. Nevertheless, Mack inserted his card 
into a hidden slot in a rock wall. The rock wall moved aside to reveal the 
elevator and Mack stepped inside. With the press of a button, he was on his way 
back into his lab. As the door opened, Mack ran to a corner and quickly gazed 
into the main room: no one was there and the only sounds he heard were the 
electronic clicks from Central. Mack cautiously turned around and faced the wall 
behind him. In the wall there were a few glass cases with weapons inside them. 
Quietly, he opened one of the panels and pulled out a black rifle. As Mack 
turned off the safety, it came to life with a soft click. This weapon was an 
FIW-36 Disruptor Rifle: its purpose was simply to disrupt complex electronics 
and machinery without damaging them. Mack knew K-1 would not recognize him, so 
this rifle would allow Mack to deal with K-1 without hurting him. With the rifle 
in his hands, he slowly entered the main room and started to approach Central’s 
main control panel. Just as he was reaching for the keyboard, K-1 walked into 
the room. K-1 went slack-jawed as he saw a Gardevoir holding a rifle.
	“What’s the meaning of this?!” shouted K-1, “How did you get in here?!”
	“K-1, take it easy,” said Mack.
	“How do you know my name? Ah! You’re a psychic Poke’mon! Of course! If you 
give me that rifle back right now and leave, I won’t hurt you,” said K-1.
	“K-1, I was fused with a Gardevoir while trying to escape from Cipher’s 
base on Mt. Terror. To make matters worse, I think they stole the S-100. I’m 
going to need these weapons and your help to…” explained Mack.
	“Enough! I don’t know what you’re doing here, but you’re not leaving now,” 
said K-1, “I’m sure Mack will be quite thrilled when he learns that I captured a 
Gardevoir for him!” K-1 took a few steps back and grabbed a Poke’ ball from a 
nearby shelf. Before K-1 could throw the Poke’ ball, Mack pointed the rifle at 
K-1 and pulled the trigger. With that, a blue bolt of energy shot out of the 
rifle and then slammed into K-1, knocking him off his feet.
	“Urrg…” crackled K-1, “System…disruption detected…”
	“Let me explain!” shouted Mack.
	“Central…” said K-1 with a few clicks, “Activate…security protocol #34…6…” 
Mack stood back and readied himself. As soon as K-1 finished giving the command, 
the entire security system in the lab would go off.
	“Pika!” said William as he wandered into the room. K-1 stopped speaking. 
K-1 noticed that William was staring at the Gardevoir.
	“Hmmm?” said Mack as he gazed at the Pikachu.
	“Pika! Pikachu-pika!” is what K-1 heard William say.
	“Mack? Is that you?” asked William.
	“I can understand him,” thought Mack.
	“Mack!” said William has he happily jumped into the Gardevoir’s arms.
	“William! Get away from that Gardevoir!” exclaimed K-1.
	“Mack! Where were you? I was worried that you had been hurt,” said 
William, “What happened to you?”
	“It’s a long story…” started Mack as K-1 stared on in disbelief.
	“Either I’m going mad, or William seems to know this Gardevoir very well,” 
thought K-1 as he activated his translator. K-1 listened carefully.
	“I’ll bet you don’t know who I am,” said William with a grin.
	“Really? Who are you then?” asked Mack.
	“I was your Pikachu, remember?” said William.
	“Is that so? If you’re my old Pikachu, why did you attack me?” demanded 
Mack.
	“Simple, my friends and I wanted to score some serious voltage. So I led 
them here and while we were recharging, you came out in that weird armor of 
yours and scared off my friends,” said William, “I recognized you instantly, but 
since I didn’t want to be your partner at the time, I figured I would give you a 
run for your money.”
	“And your attempt failed miserably,” laughed Mack.
	“Yep,” chuckled William, “I never expected you to use that cannon to 
capture me. You’ve outdone yourself as usual.”
	“Can someone please tell me what’s going on?” asked K-1 as he got back on 
his feet. The effects of the disruptor rifle were finally wearing off.
	“Let me explain,” said Mack as he then told the story of how he had come 
across a hidden village, a secret Cipher base and his rescue of Aura, the 
guardian of the village Gardev. K-1 and William listened carefully.
	“But how did you get fused with that Gardevoir, Aura?” asked K-1.
	“I think I know what happened: Aura was trying to teleport her and me to 
safety when the control panel on my left gauntlet starting sparking,” explained 
Mack.
	“Let me guess: the S-100’s teleportation systems malfunctioned,” said K-1.
	“Yes,” said Mack, “Now I need you and Central to figure out a way to 
safely separate Aura and I.”
	“I think we can handle that,” said K-1 as he saw Mack grab a few more 
rifles from the glass cases in the hallway, “but what do you need those weapons 
for?”
	“Isn’t it obvious?” said Mack as he grabbed some spare power cells from a 
nearby shelf, “As long as Aura and I are like this, I will have to watch over 
the village.” K-1 was bewildered.
	“Again I say, what do you need those weapons for? You’re a psychic 
Poke’mon now! You should be able to crush anything that gets in your way,” said 
K-1.
	“If only it was that simple,” groaned Mack, “I can’t use any of my powers 
except for telepathy now… These weapons are all I have now. If Cipher tries 
anything again, it will be up to me to deal with them.”
	“Now I’ve heard it all,” said K-1 with dismay, “A psychic Poke’mon that 
can’t use its powers and has to use a bunch of high-tech weaponry.”
	“At any rate, I’m going back to Gardev. I’ll take the S-12 hovercycle with 
me and any other supplies I’ll need,” said Mack as he put the extra power cells 
into a black satchel and then put the satchel on his right shoulder.
	“Can I come too?” asked William eagerly.
	“If Cipher comes back to the village, it will be dangerous, but you can 
come if you want,” said Mack.
	“Yeah!” said William happily as he jumped onto Mack’s left shoulder.
	“Central and I will get to work at once. I’ll report to you if I find out 
anything interesting,” said K-1 as Mack started to leave.
	“Okay. See you later,” said Mack as he left the room.

-20-
Less than an hour later, Mack drove into Gardev. For the villagers, seeing their 
guardian wearing sunglasses and doing banking was one thing, but now their 
guardian was driving into town on a flying motorcycle with rifles and a Pikachu 
on her shoulders.
	“As if I couldn’t draw enough unwanted attention…” muttered Mack as he 
drove to Warren’s house. Makoto and Sakura were stunned as they saw Aura drive 
by.
	“Mommy, what does she need those guns for?” asked Sakura.
	“I don’t know,” replied Makoto. Warren and Jake were nearby.
	“This just keeps getting weirder and weirder,” said Jake with disbelief. 
Warren watched Aura as she drove up to his house.
	“Something is wrong here,” said Warren, “I think Aura is trying to hide 
something.” Mack managed to sneak into Warren’s house and into Aura’s room where 
he quickly stashed the rifles and his other supplies under the bed. Next, he 
pulled some drafting paper and pencils from out of a suitcase he had managed to 
smuggle in. He laid the paper flat on a desk in the room and then sat down in 
the chair. Picking up a pencil he feverishly started sketching and calculating, 
trying to find a solution to the problem of separating him and Aura. Hours 
later, Mack threw his 35th drawing of a machine into the trash and broke the 
pencil in half out of frustration.
	“Can’t figure it out, eh?” asked William as he sat down on the bed.
	“I’ve always known what could happen if a teleporter were to malfunction, 
but I’ve never had to put any though into finding a way to reverse the effects,” 
sighed Mack as he threw the broken pencil out a window.
	“Maybe you should sleep on the idea?” suggested William.
	“I couldn’t agree more…” yawned Mack as he shut off the lights in the room 
climbed into bed, “At least this bed is comfortable.” Mack and William soon fell 
into a deep sleep.

-21-
K-1 paced back and forth as Central put every ounce of her power into finding a 
solution to Mack’s problem.
	“A most perplexing situation,” said Central.
	“Indeed,” groaned K-1, “But at least the long range sensors are back 
online again. Plus Mack placed a small sensor array somewhere in Gardev.”
	“Still no sign of the S-100 Type I either,” said Central.
	“Figures…” muttered K-1 as he continued to pace.
	“Wait…what have we here?” said Central as the picture on the main view 
screen changed.
	“Huh? Looks like the same signature as the tracking device we put in the 
capture claw, but why are there 20 of them?” asked K-1.
	“Illogical. There is only one capture claw,” said Central as she started 
running calculations, “The chances of someone being able to reverse engineer any 
of the primary components of the S-100 Type I is 1 to 3.678 trillion.”
	“What about the capture claw itself? That machine isn’t nearly as complex 
as the rest of the armor,” said K-1.
	“Correct, but it would take a human with an IQ of 150 and centuries to be 
able to understand the full workings of the capture claw,” said Central.
	“Whatever those things are, they’re heading straight for Gardev,” said K-1 
as he checked a shelf full of radios, “And Mack did not take a radio with him 
either.”

-22-
Mack awoke swiftly to find William on his chest and yelling at him to wake up.
	“Wake up, Mack! Wake up!” shouted William as Mack jumped to his feet. 
William slid off his chest and fell head first onto the floor.
	“What’s wrong?!” demanded Mack.
	“Can’t you hear it? I think there’s something going on in the town 
square,” said William as he got to his feet and glanced out a window. Mack 
looked out the window and in the darkness he saw several shadows and flashes of 
red light in the darkness. He could hear people and other Poke’mon screaming.
	“They must have returned!” said Mack with fright as he quickly grabbed 
some power cells and an FIW-37 Combo Rifle from under the bed. The FIW-37 was a 
multi-purpose weapon. It featured a stun cannon, a turbo plasma cannon, a plasma 
thrower and it could also fire bursts of several small bolts of plasma, much 
like a shotgun fires dozens of metal balls at high speeds. The FIW-37 could also 
be used as a long-range rifle that was accurate up to 1,000 yards. Mack jumped 
out a window in the room and started running. Mack figured he could head them 
off at the entrance of Gardev. As he ran unnoticed through the darkness in the 
town square, he could just barely see people. Many of them were either crying or 
pounding the streets with their fists in anger.
	“What happened here?” thought Mack, “They all seem like they’ve lost 
something very important.”
	Mack soon caught sight of two Cipher troopers just at the town entrance. 
Each of them had a strange cannon mounted on their right shoulders. Mack readied 
himself. He got the rifle off his shoulder into his hands and set it for stun 
mode. Mack opened fire on the two troopers, but much to his shock, Mack 
discovered that he had became extremely inaccurate. Using a rifle with only 6 
fingers instead of 10 was a new experience for Mack. The troopers stopped in 
their tracks and faced Mack as bolts of orange light flew past them.
	“What’s this?” asked one trooper.
	“Another Gardevoir?” asked the other.
	“A replacement must have arrived, or something.”
      “A Gardevoir with a machine gun?”
	“No matter! Open fire! Cecil will be pleased to have a replacement for 
that failed experiment.” The troopers opened fire and red blasts of light flew 
at Mack. Much to Mack’s surprise, he was still very nimble and acrobatic despite 
the white gown that he now wore and dodged the blasts with ease. Mack could 
almost see the shots coming before they were even fired. Mack quickly dove 
behind a large boulder at the town entrance for cover as more orange beams 
lanced harmlessly off the large rock. Mack clutched the rifle close to his 
chest.
	“I really wish I had done some target practice before I left the lab,” 
muttered Mack. The two troopers continued their attack.
	“It’s no good! We can’t capture it while it’s behind that rock!” said one 
trooper.
	“No matter, we’ve got enough of a haul as it is. Let’s retreat back to the 
base!” said the other trooper.
	“Roger that!” said the first trooper as the two of them started running 
for the forest. Mack poked his head out from behind the boulder and took a quick 
look at the troopers’ mysterious cannons. The design seemed very familiar, but 
he could not quite tell because of the darkness. Mack pressed a switch on the 
rifle and a scope immediately popped out of the top of the rifle. Mack then 
pressed a small switch on the scope, turning on its night vision mode. Mack 
looked through the scope and chose his target. He figured that if he stunned or 
killed one of the troopers, they would be back with an even larger force. He 
soon found his mark and quickly pulled the trigger. With that, a bright red beam 
shot out of the rifle and hit one of the troopers’ cannons right where it was 
attached to his shoulder. The trooper shrieked with fear as the cannon fell to 
the ground as a bunch of Poke’ balls flew out of the cannon onto the ground.
	“What was that?!” demanded the other trooper, “Are you hurt?”
	“I’m okay!” said the trooper as he quickly collected the loose Poke’ 
balls.
	“This doesn’t make any sense!” thought Mack, “Why would a cannon be filled 
with Poke’ balls?”
	“I’ll grab the cannon!” said the trooper as he ran to his comrade’s 
damaged weapon.
	“Oh, no you don’t…” growled Mack as he feverishly pulled the trigger. The 
trooper jumped back as several beams of red light hit the ground and exploded 
just inches from his feet.
	“Forget this! Retreat!” said the trooper as he got his comrade to his 
feet.
	“What about the cannon?” asked the other trooper.
	“Forget about it! It’s probably broken anyway!” said the trooper as they 
ran into the darkness of the forest. Mack got out from behind the boulder as he 
heard some sort of vehicle start up and then drive away with great haste. Mack 
pressed a few switches on the rifle and it teleported back to Aura’s room with a 
flash. Mack grabbed the damaged weapon and walked back towards the town square. 
As he did, the townspeople stared at him. Mack could sense that they were all 
horrified and grieving. Mack walked past a little girl as she was holding onto 
her mother.
	“Its okay, Sakura…” said Makoto as she tried to console her daughter.
	“Mommy…” sobbed Sakura, “Why did they take my Mawile?”
	“I don’t know,” said Makoto softly, “I don’t know why they took everyone 
else’s Poke’mon either.”
	Mack walked by, trying to hide his face behind the damaged cannon. He 
glared at the half-melted weapon.
	“Cipher stole their Poke’mon…but how?” thought Mack as he examined the 
cannon closely, “It’s virtually impossible for any human to replicate such a 
weapon as the Capture Claw in only a few days!” Mack walked back into Aura’s 
room, tossed the damaged weapon onto the desk and fell on the bed, burying his 
face into one of the pillows. Mack could not believe what had happened. He could 
have at least recovered the Poke’ balls that had fallen from the cannon after he 
had blasted it cleanly off of the trooper’s shoulder, but he didn’t.
	“First day on the job…and I’m a failure…” groaned Mack, “but what choice 
did I have?! I’m powerless!”
	“What happened?” asked William gently as he rubbed against Mack’s left 
arm.
	“You don’t want to know…” sobbed Mack. Crying was very unusual for him. “I 
let everyone down…now Cipher has taken some of their best friends away…” William 
jumped onto the desk.
	“And what about this thing?” asked William as he prodded at the cannon, 
“What is it?”
	“I really don’t know…” muttered Mack.
	“Maybe it’s just me, but this piece of junk looks a lot like your Capture 
Claw,” said William. Mack sat up on the bed.
	“That’s impossible,” said Mack as he dried his eyes.
	“I think I would know a Capture Claw when I see one. Remember, I’ve seen 
one of these things inside and out,” explained William as Mack walked over 
towards him and eyed the cannon more closely.
	“You’re right…” said Mack with astonishment and fear.
	“Maybe you didn’t notice because of how dark it is out side?” suggested 
William.
	“That’s possible!” said Mack as he checked the cannon more closely.
	“Maybe we’re on to them! Maybe we can stop them!” said William with 
delight. Mack slumped back into bed.
	“And stop them with what?” said Mack in a depressed tone, “I can’t use any 
of my powers except telepathy, I can’t use any of my usual weapons and the S-100 
has been stolen…”
	“Maybe you’ll feel better in the morning,” sighed William as he turned off 
the light in the room.
	“Perhaps I will…” said Mack as William jumped onto the bed and fell asleep 
at Mack’s feet.

-23-
It was a bright sunny day in Gardev. The only thing that seemed to be ominous 
about this day was the thunderstorms looming off in the distance. Warren was 
sitting at his desk, signing some papers, when he noticed something strange: the 
coffee in the mug at his desk was starting to shake back and forth. Warren 
looked into the coffee mug with curiosity as the coffee shook back and forth 
faster and faster. Soon, much more than his coffee was shaking. Warren gripped 
his desk tightly to steady himself as he felt the floor under his feet shake 
back and forth more and more ferociously.
	“An earthquake? Here?! That’s impossible!” shouted Warren as Jake ran into 
the office, barely able to stay on his feet.
	“What’s going on?!” shouted Jake with fear.
	“Be quiet and get in the door frame!” ordered Warren as he climbed under 
his desk. Jake braced himself in the doorframe of the office. The shaking seemed 
to be getting worse as time ticked by. Warren and Jake weren’t the only ones who 
were noticing this freak earthquake. Just across town, Paul was in his store and 
could not understand what was going on.
	“This can’t be happening!” shouted Paul as he jumped under the desk at the 
front of his store. He watched fearfully as the shelves in his store started 
teetering back and forth.
	“And THIS is why I left San Francisco!” muttered Paul, “I thought that 
this place never had earthquakes!”
	Sakura and her mother, Makoto, had fallen to their feet while in the 
street. Makoto watched with disbelief as cracks appeared in the pavement and 
started to get wider with every second. Sakura screamed as a white flash 
suddenly flew overhead. Sakura and Makoto looked up and saw Aura, floating above 
them. Aura crossed her arms and closed her eyes. Warren sat still and looked on 
with amazement as a blue aura surrounded everything in his office, including 
himself and Jake. Loose objects in the office were also floating a few inches 
into the air. Paul was equally surprised as his shop lit up in blue light.
	“Is the end near? Am I seeing things?” thought Paul. Sakura and Makoto 
looked on as the entire town became enshrouded in a blue aura. The shaking 
suddenly stopped. Makoto looked around and saw that the ground just outside the 
village was shaking violently. Suddenly, the shaking stopped. Aura opened her 
eyes and clapped her hands together once. With that, a blue wave of light 
traveled out in all directions from her. Makoto watched with amazement as the 
cracks in the pavement closed up while the huge fissures in the ground outside 
the village quickly closed up as well. In a matter of minutes, it seemed almost 
like no earthquake had even struck. Aura floated down near Makoto and Sakura.
	“Are you okay?” asked Aura softly. Sakura ran up and hugged Aura. Aura 
wrapped her arms around Sakura as she laughed.
	“Thank you, Aura!” said Sakura with a smile. Warren climbed out from under 
his desk just as the floating papers and pencils landed quietly back in their 
places. Warren glanced out the window and saw Aura as she held his grand 
daughter. He breathed a sign of relief and wiped some sweat off his brow.
	“What on earth just happened?” asked Jake. Sakura continued to hug Aura. 
Aura’s gaze soon turned towards Mt. Terror. Sakura looked up at Aura’s face.
	“Do you have to leave now?” asked Sakura with some sadness.
	“Yes,” said Aura as she gently set Sakura back on her feet, “Something is 
wrong. I must find out what happened.”
	“Wait! You almost forgot something!” said Sakura as she quickly ran to 
Warren’s house. Minutes later, Sakura returned to Aura with a small gold box in 
her hands. Sakura opened the box and slowly removed a large ruby pendant. Aura 
knelt down on one knee and smiled as Sakura put the pendant around her neck.
      “Thank you, Sakura,” said Aura with smile as she dashed past Sakura and 
Makoto and off towards Mt. Terror. Warren watched as Aura disappeared into the 
forest.
	“I’m really glad they’ve become such good friends,” said Warren. Mack 
suddenly sat up in bed. He looked at the desk in the room. The pendant was still 
there.
      “What kind of significance does that pendant have anyway?” thought Mack as 
his attention quickly shifted to the bedroom door. He heard some faint voices 
outside the door. It was still dark outside as well.
	“Yes. Sakura and Aura are good friends, but what do you make of this?” 
asked Jake.
	“I’m not sure,” said Warren.
	“I think Aura is hiding something,” said Jake.
	“I agree, let me talk to her,” said Warren. Mack wasn’t sure what was 
going on, bit he felt somewhat…different. Warren entered the room and sat down 
in a chair in one of the corners of the room.
	“Aura, is there something you need to tell me?” asked Warren. Mack closed 
his eyes and bowed his head in dismay. “You don’t have to answer right now,” 
said Warren softly, “But whatever you do, please…please save our Poke’mon from 
those devils. I don’t want to imagine what they might be doing to our friends 
right now.” Mack wasn’t sure why, but he felt very confident now.
	“I’m going to rescue them,” said Mack as he got to his feet.
	“Okay, Aura, just be careful out there. Dr. Foxx never did return and I 
can’t lose you. You mean so much to the people of this town,” said Warren.
	“Don’t worry,” said Mack with a friendly smile, “Leave everything to me.”
	“Very well. Good luck, Aura,” said Warren softly as he got up and picked 
up the pendant, “Don’t forget to take this with you.”
      “Of course!” said Mack with a smile as he put the pendant around his neck. 
Mack did not care much for jewelry, but he decided that he had better do what 
ever he could to convince the townspeople that he was Aura. Warren left the room 
and closed the door behind him. Mack glanced at his hands and then at the coffee 
mug on the desk. It seemed like this time, he would succeed. He waved his hand 
in the air and the mug slid across the desk.
	“That was almost effortless,” thought Mack as he tried using telekinesis 
on every object in the room. Soon, all the furniture and everything else in the 
room was floating in the air, including William as he finally woke up.
	“Hey! What’s the big idea?!” demanded William as Mack carefully set 
everything back in its place.
	“Sorry…” said Mack with embarrassment, “I got a bit carried away.”
	“Oh, I see…wait…did you just do what I think you did?” asked William with 
disbelief.
	“Yes!” said Mack happily, “I think I can use my powers again!”
	“How about teleporting?” asked William. Mack suddenly disappeared with a 
flash and then promptly reappeared on the other side of the room.
	“Okay…how about a few psychic attacks?” suggested William. Mack hesitated.
	“I don’t think that would be such a good idea, especially since we’re 
indoors right now. I don’t need to tear this house apart, agreed?” said Mack.
	“Agreed,” said William bashfully, “But I know of a good spot to train!”
	“Really? Lead the way!” said Mack with excitement. With that, Mack and 
William ran out the door, out of the house and soon they were running though the 
forest.
	“Just follow me, Mack. I know of a good meadow that you can train at,” 
said William. Soon, they came to a clearing in the forest that was covered with 
flowers. The meadow seemed to go on for miles. Off in the distance, they heard 
the rumbling of the thunderstorms. It almost seemed ominous to what lay ahead.
	“Here I go,” said Mack.
	“Just let it all loose here,” said William, “but first, let me get to 
safety!” As William ran off, Mack faced the mountains. Mack stood still as the 
sun started rising over the craggy peaks. As the warmth hit his face, he 
focused. He flung his hands outward and a psychic wave shot along the ground, 
rustling the flowers. Mack focused even more and tore boulders out of the 
ground. He threw them off into the distance, but before they hit the ground, he 
brought them back to the meadow and carefully slid them back into the ground 
using telekinesis. Mack paused and noticed that many of the flowers around where 
he had pulled the boulders up were bent and broken.
	“I can use Aura’s psychic powers. They are just like mine…but what about 
my own power?” thought Mack. He stood still and focused. As he did, a white 
light radiated from his right hand. He slowly brought his right hand forward. As 
he did, a slow wave of white light moved along the ground. As it passed over the 
ground, the flowers were healed as the light moved onward.
	“Just a few more tests,” thought Mack as he slowly floated into the air. 
He focused and flung his left hand forward. Suddenly, a beam of light shot out 
into the distance. Mack focused deeply now as a bubble of light formed around 
him and as the panels of his gown fluttered.
	“This is it!” yelled Mack. With a shout, the bubble exploded into a bright 
light that lit up the mountains. The people of Gardev looked on as the brilliant 
flash got their attention.
	“What on earth?” asked Paul to himself as he jumped out the front door of 
his shop. Warren and Jake looked on.
	“Was that Aura?” asked Jake with amazement.
	“It must have been,” said Warren as he gazed through his glasses, “But 
where did she learn something like that?” Mack slowly floated back to the ground 
as William ran up to him.
	“What do you think?” asked William.
	“I think its time to strike. Let’s head back to Warren’s house, first,” 
said Mack. With that William and Mack headed back towards Gardev.

-24-
Minutes later, Mack and William arrived back at Warren’s house. Much to Mack’s 
horror, he found Warren and Jake with shotguns pointed at K-1!
	“Keep back!” shouted Jake.
	“Don’t make us do this!” warned Warren as he cocked the shotgun.
	“Hey! Stop!” shouted Mack. Warren and Jake lowered their weapons.
	“What is this thing? Some sort of robot? Is it yours?” asked Warren with 
confusion.
	“He’s not exactly mine, but he’s my friend,” replied Mack.
	“Okay. I’m sorry,” said Warren as he and Jake walked away.
	“Nice timing,” said K-1 with relief.
`	“What are you doing here anyway, K-1?” asked Mack.
	“Well, I tracked you here via the tracking device in the FIW-37. That and 
I couldn’t just sit still after that light show this morning that lit up the 
mountains for miles!” explained K-1 with some irritation in his voice.
	“Yes. Mack certainly made quite a spectacle of himself, didn’t he?” 
laughed William.
	“Say, have you and Central made any progress?” asked Mack anxiously.
	“You mean about safely splitting you and Aura apart? None so far, I’m 
afraid…” replied K-1 with sadness, “Perhaps if I ran some tests on you…”
	“That will have to wait!” interrupted Mack. He felt something and it was 
compelling him to go back into the forest.
	“Okay, but what are you up too?” asked K-1.
	“The people of this village lost their Poke’mon to Cipher and I couldn’t 
do a thing about it,” said Mack, “But now, I know what I have to do. I have to 
go after them and rescue the town’s Poke’mon!”
	“What should I do in the meantime?” asked K-1.
	“William, show K-1 the cannon I recovered last night,” said Mack as he ran 
off towards the forest. K-1 seemed bewildered.
	“What cannon?” asked K-1.
	“I’ll show you. Follow me,” said William as he led K-1 into the house.

-25-
Mack didn’t know why, but he felt like he had been in this part of the forest 
before. Mack also pondered about the dream he had last night. He figured that he 
had somehow seen some of Aura’s memories of the day the quake had struck Gardev. 
Aura must have also remembered what other people were doing and what they were 
feeling and seeing at the time. At any rate, Mack felt like he was getting 
closer to his goal in the woods, but he was not sure where he was going. 
Suddenly, some small, steel towers loomed over the forest. Mack stopped in his 
tracks. He must have come across the main facility for Cipher in the area. Mack 
hid behind some trees and checked out the buildings. The towers each had several 
guards in them. The entire facility, itself, was behind thick concrete walls 
that were covered with barded-wire. Mack noticed something else, mostly about 
himself. For once, he was not the least bit tired, despite all the exercise he 
had gotten this morning testing out his powers. Mack pondered for a moment and 
tried focusing again. Mack concentrated carefully as beams of white light 
surrounded him. The light soon started bending. When Mack opened his eyes, there 
was a faint aura of light around him.
	“Here goes,” thought Mack as he stepped out in the open. The guards did 
not seem to see him. He jumped up and down, making faces at them, but they 
didn’t budge. Mack grinned as he picked up a small rock and threw it at the 
nearest tower. The rock hit a window on the tower, cracking it.
	“What was that?” asked one guard as he dropped a doughnut onto the floor.
	“What was what?” asked another guard with his face buried in a magazine. 
Mack was ecstatic. He had finally managed to bend light around himself just 
right in order to become invisible.
	“At least getting in will be easy,” though Mack, but he knew he would have 
to be very careful. It took a lot of concentration in order to stay invisible. 
If something caught him off guard, he might loose control of his power and would 
be seen by the guards. Mack was not about to be caught in a Capture Claw by some 
Cipher peon.

-26-
Dr. Newman was furious. He pounded his desk with frustration. Just hours ago, he 
had heard what the troopers had done. Dr. Newman had been told just after the 
troops had been deployed that they were off to hunt wild Poke’mon with the new 
Capture Cannons. Instead, the bums had walked right into Gardev and had stolen 
every last Poke’mon from the town’s citizens. He couldn’t believe that Cecil had 
lied to his face about this. Still, a few things puzzled Dr. Newman as he 
finally regained his composure and sat down at his desk. First, no one could 
figure out where this strange suit of armor had come from. Second, the reports 
from two of the troopers were most perplexing. They both spoke of a Gardevoir, 
wielding a strange machine gun of some sort. One mentioned that the Gardevoir 
managed to blast the capture cannon of his shoulder as he and his friend were 
escaping. Dr. Newman almost wished that they had left the Poke’ balls behind 
that had spilled out of the damaged cannon. Dr. Newman was certain that the 
guardian of Gardev, Aura, had returned. Either that or a replacement had been 
sent. His theory was confirmed only hours earlier when a mysterious flash lit up 
the surrounding mountains.
	“Do you think I’m crazy, Albert?” asked Dr. Newman to an Alakazam with a 
green necktie. Albert shook his head in disagreement. Dr. Newman soon turned his 
attention to the computer screen on his desk. After typing in a few commands, he 
got a view of two other Poke’mon he had never come across before. There, 
sleeping in glass tubes, were a Kirlia and a Ralts. Dr. Newman was quite 
relieved when Cecil said that he could have them. The two Poke’mon had been 
discovered behind a dumpster in the facility and were immediately captured. Some 
of the personnel had suspected the two Poke’mon of spying. Dr. Newman was at 
least glad that the capture cannons were painless. Cecil suddenly entered the 
room. Dr. Newman glared at him.
	“What’s bother you?” asked Cecil with confusion.
	“What’s bothering me?!” shouted Dr. Newman, “You lied to me! You said 
those troopers were going to capture wild Poke’mon and instead, they stole 
Poke’mon from the citizens back at Gardev!”
	“Relax,” said Cecil, “We had to cover our losses somehow, especially if we 
want the boss to continue funding our projects. The boss was very pleased with 
the haul the troopers brought in: over 100 Poke’mon!”
	“Stolen Poke’mon,” grumbled Dr. Newman.
	“At any rate, the boss has approved our plans for Project Epsilon and 
wants us to begin at once!” said Cecil with glee, “The possibilities are endless 
for this project.”
      “I’ll get to work on that right away. I just need access to the armor 
suit,” said Dr. Newman.
      “Granted,” said Cecil as he started to leave the room.
      “By the way,” asked Dr. Newman, “When will I receive that Kirlia and Ralts 
that were captured?”
      “I’ll have them released to you within the hour after they have been 
through the shadowfication process. Now, get busy! I want to be able to give the 
boss a demonstration on his next visit to this facility,” said Cecil as he left 
the room. Dr. Newman turned towards his Alakazams.
      “Cecil is going to have them turned into shadow Poke’mon?!” thought Dr. 
Newman with fear, “What’s the point in that? Ralts and Kirlia are known as the 
feeling and emotion Poke’mon. What would they be like as unfeeling, well, 
robots?! I hope the guardian, wherever it is, breaks in here and gets them out 
of here! I’d rather they went back to the wild safe and sound, than to be a 
couple of shadow Poke’mon, agreed?” The Alakazams nodded their heads in 
agreement.

-27-
Mack was almost bewildered and disappointed on just how easily he had gotten 
into the facility. Still, he had a close call at the gate when one soldier 
unknowingly stepped on a back panel of his skirt. Fortunately, the soldier kept 
walking and Mack didn’t end up tripping and falling on his face. He just walked 
through the complex almost silently as guards and soldiers were on patrol or 
just killing time. He almost wished he had gone into the facility, blasting 
everything in site. Still, it’s rather hard to explore an area while you’re 
being shot at. The last thing Mack needed was to be caught by a soldier who 
happened to have a capture claw on hand. Mack walked over to what seemed to be a 
back door on the largest building in the facility. After unlocking it with just 
a bit of telekinesis, he slipped in and started exploring the hallways. Oddly 
enough, Mack once again felt like he had been here before. Not just that, but he 
could swear that he heard some voices coming from one of the rooms and they were 
not human. Mack stood still as something came to his mind.
	“Holding room number 2 is in sector 5, just down the hall to the left,” 
thought Mack as he walked down the hallways. Soon, Mack was at the main entrance 
to the building. To his left, a sliding door opened as a soldier walked out. 
Mack dashed into the room as the door shut. He soon discovered where the voices 
had been coming from: two Poke’mon, a Kirlia and a Ralts were in glass tubes and 
were awake. Mack checked the area for more guards, then he let his invisibility 
wear off.
	“See? I told you she would come!” said Kirlia with a smile as she noticed 
the Gardevoir.
	“Good thing she did come for us!” snapped Ralts, “I heard that they were 
going to turn us into shadow Poke’mon!”
	“What are shadow Poke’mon?” asked Kirlia.
	“I don’t know, but I don’t like the sound of it,” said Ralts with a 
shudder.
	“Um…” said Mack with hesitation, “What are you two doing here?”
	“We heard that you were captured! We were not going to let those meanies 
hurt our big sister!” said Kirlia. Mack paused.
	“This can’t be good…” thought Mack.
	“So much for our rescue,” muttered Ralts.
	“Yeah,” said Kirlia with embarrassment, “Say, Aura? Would you please let 
us out of these things?”
	“Um…of course!” said Mack as he searched for and the quickly found a 
control terminal. With the press of a few buttons, the tubes opened up. Ralts 
and Kirlia walked out of the tubes. Suddenly, the Kirlia ran at Mack and jumped 
into his arms, crying.
	“Thank you for saving us, Aura! I was so scared!” sobbed Kirlia as Mack 
held Kirlia with a worried look on his face.
	“I hate to break up our reunion, but I think we had better be quiet,” 
warned Ralts and he heard a guard walk by the door. Things had certainly gotten 
more complicated for Mack. Not only did he have to locate and rescue the stolen 
Poke’mon, but he would have to keep a close eye on Ralts and Kirlia. To make 
matters even more daunting, this Ralts and Kirlia were Aura’s little brother and 
sister. Mack set Kirlia back on her feet.
	“Let’s get out of here!” said Ralts as he tugged at Mack’s left hand.
	“I can’t go yet,” explained Mack, “These people stole all the Poke’mon 
that belonged to the people of Gardev. I have to find them and get them out of 
this facility.”
	“Can we help?” asked Kirlia with excitement.
	“I’m afraid not,” replied Mack.
	“No fair!” said Kirlia with disgust as Ralts started laughing.
	“Some things never change,” chuckled Ralts as Mack started focusing his 
power.
	“What are you doing?” asked Kirlia.
	“I’m teleporting you two out of here. You can wait for me near the front 
gate, but stay hidden. I don’t want to have to rescue both of you again, okay?” 
asked Mack.
	“Sure thing, sis!” said Ralts with a salute.
	“If we have too…” answered Kirlia with a sigh. A few seconds later, they 
disappeared in a flash. Mack quickly turned invisible as a guard rushed into the 
room and discovered that the Kirlia and Ralts were missing.
	“Oh, no! Cecil is going to have my head for this!” shouted the guard as he 
ran out of the room and down the hallway.
	“I better make this quick,” thought Mack as he ran silently out of the 
room and down another hallway. Once again, Mack felt like he knew where he was 
going, despite the fact that he had never set foot into this building. Mack 
stopped in front of a large metal door. He examined the door carefully and tried 
to decide how to open it. He pulled a satchel off his left shoulder and looked 
at the gadgets he had brought with him. He could just blow the door off its 
hinges with a few timer mines, but that would draw far too much attention. He 
could also cut through the door with his trusty plasma saber, but the extreme 
heat generated by it could set off alarms or start a fire. Mack then grabbed a 
small device about the size of a Gameboy and placed it next to the electronic 
lock. With a few electronic beeps, the little machine started hacking the door 
controls. He stood still as a few more guards ran by.
	“Cecil won’t like this!” said one guard.
	“No kidding! That Ralts and Kirlia were for Dr. Newman! He might not mind 
so much that they got away, but Cecil might have us all demoted for losing 
them!” said the other as they ran by Mack. 30 minutes later, the door finally 
opened. Mack entered a large dark room. Despite the blackness, he could see 
several Poke’mon in cages and kennels. Each cage and kennel also had an 
electronic lock.
	“I can’t hack all of them quickly enough,” though Mack as he searched for 
a computer terminal. He soon found one in the far left corner of the room. All 
the Poke’mon seemed to be asleep. He stepped up to the terminal and tried using 
his little electronic hacker, but the terminal was a lot more secure and the 
little device could not manage to hack it. Mack let the invisibility wear off as 
he put the device back into the satchel.
	“This is going to take all my concentration,” though Mack as he tried to 
access the console manually. Half an hour later, Mack finally had found what he 
needed. He was just about ready to press the button to open the cages, when he 
heard a voice from outside.
	“Let’s check the store room!” said a guard as he opened the door, “That’s 
strange…who left this door unlocked?!”
	“I must have been me sir, after I checked the Poke’mon out about an hour 
ago,” replied another guard as Mack quickly dove behind the terminal out of 
site. He turned invisible again as the two guards entered the room. They walked 
to the terminal. The more experienced guard seemed irritated.
	“You left the terminal on too?!” thundered the guard.
	“I’m sorry, sir!” replied the other guard.
	“No matter, this time,” said the guard as he switched off the terminal and 
started walking out of the room with the other guard, “You’re new here, so I 
won’t have you punished this time.” Mack concentrated and focused his power 
again.
	“Are you sure you want to do this? What would your friends and family 
think if they found out that you were part of a criminal gang?” asked Mack to 
the younger guard via telepathy.
	“Thank you, sir,” said the young guard.
	“Well, its time for you to go off duty anyway,” said the older guard.
	“I think I’ll head into Gardev for some snacks. Paul always has something 
tasty in his shop. I’ll make sure they don’t know who I’m working for,” said the 
younger guard as the door closed. Mack ran towards the door and tried to open 
it. Much to his dismay, it was locked again. Since it would take half an hour to 
hack it again, Mack walked back to the terminal, switched it back on and soon 
was at the menu for the cage and room controls.
	“This should open the cages,” though Mack as he pressed a few buttons. 
With that, the cages and kennels in the room swung open.
	“May as well turn the lights on, too,” thought Mack as he gazed at the 
computer monitor and pressed a few more switches. Mack suddenly froze in his 
tracks as the lights came on and when the Poke’mon started to wake up. Mack kept 
his face on the monitor as a strange feeling of fear and panic came upon him.
	“Why do I feel like I’ve made a horrible mistake?” asked Mack to himself 
as he slowly peeked out from behind the computer screen. For some odd reason, 
the Poke’mon all had red eyes and were slowly walking towards him.
	“What’s going on here?” thought Mack fearfully as he tried to focus his 
power. Mack jumped back into the corner and shrieked when he found out what was 
wrong: all the Poke’mon had a dark aura surrounding each and every one of them. 
Through telepathy, he got no emotions or feelings from the Poke’mon. They had 
only one thing on their minds: destroy any and all intruders and obey their 
masters.
	“Shadow Poke’mon?!” thought Mack with fear, “So…they are real!” Mack 
turned to his left. A Mawile was just a few yards from him. It turned its back 
to him with its giant maw of sharp teeth. It opened its mouth and drooled onto 
the floor.
	“Oh, no!” thought Mack as he tried to focus and concentrate, but he 
couldn’t. He was in too much of a panic to think straight as the one hundred 
some Poke’mon came ever closer. Suddenly, the Mawile jumped forward with its 
toothy mouth, ready to consume the intruder.
	“NO!!!” shouted Mack as he threw his hands forward. Instantly, a ray of 
light shot out, hitting the Mawile. The blast sent it flying backwards into the 
wall on the far side of the room. Mack glanced at the shadow Poke’mon as they 
hesitated to come any closer. Mack quickly gazed at the Mawile. It was standing 
back up on its feet. It seemed dazed and somewhat confused.
	“Where am I?” asked the Mawile. Mack focused and took a closer look at 
Mawile. The dark aura that had surrounded it was completely gone. Mack could 
also sense its feelings and emotions. The Mawile seemed perplexed and somewhat 
scared as it looked around the room.
	“Eureka!” shouted Mack as he got to his feet. The shadow Poke’mon glared 
at him and started running towards him.
	“Huh?” asked Mawile as she faced the Gardevoir, “What are you doing, 
Aura?” Mack focused deeply and started floating a few inches off the ground as 
the panels of his skirt fluttered. Mawile watched, amazed, as Aura was building 
up her power.
	“I’ve never seen Aura use power like this before. What’s going on?” 
thought Mawile as a bubble of light surrounded Aura. Moments later, the bubble 
of light exploded outward into a wave of light that swept through the room, 
knocking all the shadow Poke’mon to their feet. Mawile held onto the doorframe 
as the wave passed over him. Mack set back down on his feet and looked around 
the room. The other Poke’mon no longer had the dark auras around them and they 
were now getting back to their feet. Another Kirlia ran over to the Mawile.
	“Are you alright?” asked the Kirlia.
	“I’m just fine, thanks to Aura,” said Mawile. Mack glanced at them.
	“You know each other?” asked Mack.
	“Of course! I’m Sakura!” said Sakura the Kirlia.
	“The name’s Li,” said Li the Mawile.
	“Interesting,” said Mack.
	“Sakura named us after some characters from one of her favorite anime,” 
explained Sakura.
	“It’s rather confusing sometimes. Whenever someone calls out the name 
Sakura, we’re never sure whether they mean the little girl or the Kirlia,” 
laughed Li.
	“I see,” chuckled Mack, “Now we need to get out of here.”
	“Where are we anyway?” asked Li.
	“We’re in the middle of a Cipher facility of some kind. I came here to 
rescue you as well as the rest of the Poke’mon those morons had stolen from 
Gardev,” explained Mack.
	“I remember!” said Sakura, “Those men in white armor. They came into town 
and started stealing all the Poke’mon. We were powerless against them.”
	“That reminds me,” said Li, “Where did you learn that power? I’ve never 
seen you attack with light before.” Mack hesitated.
	“I’ll explain later, for now, we have to get back to Gardev,” said Mack as 
he stared at the door, “First, its going to take another half hour to get this 
door open.”
	“Piece of cake!” said Li as he pointed his large mouth at the door. He 
slowly worked his teeth into the edges and then, with one mighty chomp, bent the 
door off its frame and spat it out on the opposite side of the store room.
	“Alright then,” said Mack as his hands became surrounded in a white aura 
of light, “You all head for the front gate. It’s at the other end of this 
hallway and out the front door of this building. I’ll protect you all.”
	“Okay then! Let’s go!” shouted Sakura as she and Li ran down the hallway 
with the rest of the Poke’mon behind them. Mack followed closely behind them. 
Fortunately, there were no guards in the building. Or, at least there were none 
in the hallways. Meanwhile, Dr. Newman was at his desk, drinking a cup of green 
tea. He was somewhat happy that the Kirlia and Ralts had managed to escape, but 
no one could figure out how they did it. The glass tubes had psychic jammers 
near them, plus the tubes themselves had powerful energy shields around the 
inside area to make sure they could not either teleport and blast their way out.
	“It must have been the guardian. There’s no doubt about it!” though Dr. 
Newman as he looked at his computer screen and switched the view to that of one 
of the security cameras. Dr. Newman promptly spat his tea onto the computer 
screen when he saw a Gardevoir run by the camera with what seemed like a large 
army of Poke’mon.
	“Those are the Poke’mon that were stolen from Gardev!” thought Dr. Newman 
with disbelief, “The guardian freed them!” Dr. Newman wasn’t quite sure about 
whether he should activate the alarms or pretend that he didn’t see the escaping 
Poke’mon. As he reached for an alarm panel, Albert, the Alakazam with the green 
necktie, softly grabbed his hand, preventing Dr. Newman from activating the 
alarm.
	“I couldn’t agree more!” said Dr. Newman with glee as he sat back down at 
his desk, drank some tea and whistled innocently. His Alakazams seemed to be 
laughing. Soon, Mack and the rest of the Poke’mon were at the front door. The 
only problem now was that the guards were all outside, patrolling between 
buildings and on the streets. Plus, there were the guards in the steel towers 
along the walls of the complex. Mack looked over the Poke’mon, trying to find a 
way out of this mess. He soon noticed that a Butterfree and a Beautifly were in 
the group and he got quite an idea.
	“Butterfree, Beautifly? Do you both know sleep powder by any chance?” 
asked Mack.
	“Of course we do,” replied Butterfree.
	“But won’t the guards see us?” asked Beautifly with concern.
	“That won’t be a problem. I can just make the two of you invisible with my 
power. I need both of you to quickly fly around and use sleep powder on the 
guards. I’ll need you to move quickly, though. I don’t know how long I can keep 
both of you invisible,” explained Mack.
	“Couldn’t you just make all of us invisible and then we could run out the 
gate?” asked Li.
	“It takes a lot of concentration just to make me invisible, Li. I can’t 
possibly make all of us invisible, plus this whole group would make too much 
noise if we ran out all at once through the gate,” explained Mack.
	“We’re ready,” said Butterfree as he and Beautifly flew higher into the 
air.
	“Okay. Good luck and work quickly,” said Mack as he closed his eyes and 
focused. The other Poke’mon looked on as Butterfree and Beautifly slowly 
vanished.
	“Incredible,” said Sakura with amazement. Li carefully opened the front 
door and then the two flying Poke’mon silently flew out the door. They split up 
and started spreading sleep powder all over the complex. Li quickly shut the 
door as some sleep powder nearly drifted into the building. Within a matter of 
minutes, all the guards were asleep. Mack couldn’t help but laugh when he 
noticed that one of the guards in the towers fell asleep with a doughnut in his 
mouth. Mack concentrated carefully and told Butterfree and Beautifly to fly back 
to Gardev. Mack and the rest of the Poke’mon would not be far behind. Mack let 
out a sigh of relief as he relaxed and Butterfree and Beautifly slowly became 
visible again as they flew off into the distance. Meanwhile, Cecil was running 
down the hallways towards Dr. Newman’s office. Cecil was very worried about how 
he had suddenly lost all contact with the guards in the facility. He found Dr. 
Newman at his desk with a cup of green tea at his lips.
	“Dr. Newman?!” thundered Cecil, “What is the meaning of this?! I know you 
designed the communication systems that we use here! So, what the heck is wrong 
with them now?! I can’t get a hold of any of the guards and we’re still trying 
to track down that Kirlia and Ralts that escaped!” Cecil slowly turned his gaze 
towards Cecil.
	“I wasn’t aware that the communications systems had failed. Why the only 
thing that could possibly knock out communications is for someone to destroy the 
central radio array at this complex,” said Dr. Newman as he typed on the 
keyboard to bring up the required information, “There. Everything is functioning 
normally.” Cecil stood over Dr. Newman’s shoulder as he continued typing, 
checking the surveillance cameras. Dr. Newman stopped in his tracks when one of 
the cameras showed a Gardevoir in the hallways with a large group of Poke’mon.
	“How the heck?!” shouted Cecil with rage, “This makes no sense, unless 
another Gardevoir was sent to replace the one that was killed at Mt. Terror.”
	“Strange…how did it get past the locks, guards and security system? It 
would have had to be invisible and be able to hack computers in order for it to 
break into the store room,” said Dr. Newman with amazement. Cecil looked more 
closely at the Poke’mon. The Poke’mon no longer had the red tint to their eyes.
	“Impossible! Could that Gardevoir have also…healed the shadow Poke’mon?!” 
yelled Cecil with surprise.
	“That seems to be the case, though I have no idea how,” said Dr. Newman as 
Cecil grabbed a capture cannon from a nearby shelf.
	“This Gardevoir is even more promising than that failure I captured near 
Mt. Terror. I must have it! I don’t even care if the rest of those Poke’mon 
escape!” said Cecil as he ran out the door with Dr. Newman close behind.
	“I think you’re being too hasty, sir! Won’t the boss be angry at you if 
those Poke’mon escape?” asked Dr. Newman with concern.
	“It won’t matter! Besides, is Project Epsilon ready?” asked Cecil as he 
powered up the cannon.
	“Of course it’s ready! We’re set to begin the first test!” answered Dr. 
Newman.
	“Excellent. Now to catch that Gardevoir! If it can heal shadow Poke’mon, 
then we can’t let it run wild!” said Cecil as he and Dr. Newman ran down the 
halls. Meanwhile, Mack slowly opened the front door of the building and 
cautiously peeked out. The guards all seemed to be asleep.
	“Make a break for it!” said Mack as he ran back into the building and 
behind the rest of the Poke’mon as they ran out the door and through the front 
gate. Mack stood still and watched them as they disappeared into the forest.
	“Time to make my exit!” thought Mack as he started running back for the 
door.
	“Hold it right there!” said a familiar voice behind Mack. Mack quickly 
turned around and came face to face with Cecil. Mack jumped back roughly 20 
feet.
	“Oh, my!” said Dr. Newman with amazement.
	“You won’t escape me, my pretty little prize!” laughed Cecil as he fired 
the capture cannon. Mack stood still and focused, praying that there was hope. 
Mack glanced down just seconds before the blast hut him and noticed that the 
ruby on his pendant was glowing brightly. Mack blacked out as the energy blast 
hit him, turned him into a blob of energy and then dragged him down into the 
cannon. Cecil was ecstatic.
	“Success!” shouted Cecil. Dr. Newman was less enthusiastic.
	“He’s probably going to force me to try to turn this Gardevoir into a 
shadow Poke’mon too…” thought Dr. Newman with dread. Suddenly, the capture 
cannon on Cecil’s left shoulder started smoking and sparking.
	“What is the meaning of this?!” shouted Cecil with fright, “I thought 
these cannons worked flawlessly!”
	“Cecil, you fool!” exclaimed Dr. Newman as he yanked the cannon from 
Cecil’s shoulder and then threw it down the hallway. Seconds later, the cannon 
exploded into a cloud of fire and smoke. Cecil and Dr. Newman stared down the 
hallway with bewilderment. The smoke slowly cleared and revealed the form of 
Gardevoir with a glowing red pendant.
	“Impossible! What are we dealing with here?!” shouted Cecil as the 
Gardevoir slowly got back to its feet.
	“Is this…the power of this pendant?” though Mack as he gazed into the 
pendant. He was fading fast and he knew it. His senses were scrambled and his 
vision was getting blurry.
	“It seems like we can not capture the Guardian of Gardev,” answered Dr. 
Newman. He couldn’t believe how relieved he was that this Gardevoir had managed 
to escape capture.
	“I’d better get out of here…” thought Mack as he staggered out the door. 
Cecil and Dr. Newman followed close behind and watched as the Gardevoir ran 
through the front gate. The Gardevoir seemed to be having trouble with its 
footing and zigzagged into the forest. Cecil paused to look around the complex 
and soon noticed that every guard was asleep at their post.
	“Extraordinary…” said Cecil, “Maybe with Project Epsilon we could capture 
if for sure.”
	“I suggest we try a different target first. The boss will be arriving 
within a matter of days anyway,” said Dr. Newman.
	“Good point,” said Cecil as he started walking back to his office, “By the 
way, don’t bother the guards. May as well let them sleep for now. They can have 
a break while we figure out what Poke’mon we should target first with Project 
Epsilon.”
	“We should choose a Poke’mon that is both extremely rare and powerful,” 
said Dr. Newman.
	“Indeed,” said Cecil. Meanwhile, Mack was staggering through the forest. 
The Kirlia and Ralts watched as their sister ran by them.
	“Huh?” said Ralts with confusion.
	“Wait for us!” said Kirlia as they ran after Aura. Mack kept running, 
though he could not tell which way he was going. His blurry vision and scrambled 
senses made the going almost too difficult to bear. Suddenly, Mack collided with 
a green and white object and fell to his feet.
	“Whoa!” said a voice as Mack and someone else hit the ground.
	“Sorry…” said Mack.
	“Are you alright?” said the voice. Mack tried to focus his vision and 
senses a bit. Mack soon discovered that he had crashed right into a male 
Gardevoir while running blindly through the woods.
	“This can’t be good,” thought Mack with fear, “Have I run into Aura’s 
boyfriend or something?”
	“Sis? What’s wrong? You don’t look so good,” said the voice with concern.
	“Pardon…?” asked a groggy Mack.
	“You don’t recognize me? I’m your younger brother, Ramirez!” said Ramirez 
as he helped his sister to his feet.
	“Sorry, but I need to be alone…” said Mack as he ran off into the forest.
	“That was strange,” said Ramirez as Kirlia and Ralts walked up next to 
him.
	“Have you seen Aura?” asked Ralts.
	“Yeah. She ran off. She did not look very good,” said Ramirez.
	“What are we waiting for, then? Let’s catch up to her!” said Kirlia.
	“Yeah!” said Ralts as they ran off after Aura. Minutes later, they found 
her on the ground, out cold and the pendant was still glowing with a bright red 
light.
	“Aura must have finally figured out how to use that pendant. We’d better 
get her back home…” said Ramirez with concern as he took Aura up in his arms.
	“She knows how to use the pendant now? That’s interesting. Are we going to 
take her back to Gardev?” asked Ralts.
	“No. We’d better take her to our home. The elders should know what to do,” 
said Ramirez.
	“Good idea!” said Kirlia as Ramirez teleported them all away with a flash 
of white light.

-28-
Sakura laughed as she wrapped her arms around her Kirlia and Mawile. Makoto 
looked on as the rest of the townspeople celebrated at the return of their 
Poke’mon in the town square. Warren was not surprised. He knew that Aura would 
succeed.
	“All the Poke’mon came back!” said Jake happily.
	“Yes, indeed, but where is Aura now?” asked Warren as he glanced back and 
forth. Sakura’s Kirlia closed her eyes.
	“Sakura says that Aura stayed behind to make sure that they all escaped,” 
said Sakura. Some of the townspeople seemed confused.
	“Oh, she named her Kirlia after herself,” said Makoto with a nervous 
smile.
	“Where could Aura be?” asked Warren with concern. William and K-1 were 
watching through a window in Aura’s room.
	“Looks like Mack completed his mission,” said K-1 as he turned his 
attention back to the capture cannon.
	“Its nice that the entire town’s Poke’mon came back, but where is Mack? 
I’m getting worried about him,” said William with fear.
	“I’m worried about Mack, too, but this cannon has me more concerned than 
anything else right now. Whoever made this thing, managed to copy every last 
circuit! With the exception of the white, metal casing, this cannon is 100% 
identical to Mack’s FIW-74 Capture Claw!” said an astounded K-1.
	“I though it was impossible to copy any of Mack’s technology,” said 
William.
	“It’s virtually impossible. Besides, the capture claw itself is much 
simpler in design than any other part of the S-100,” remarked K-1 as he closely 
studied the cannon.
	“I wonder who managed this?” asked William.
	“Beats me, but whoever copied the capture claw managed to do it within 
less than a week. If this person managed that, who knows what could happen in 
the next few weeks. It’s extremely unlikely, but Cipher may be having someone 
reverse engineer the rest of the S-100 as we speak,” explained K-1.
	“How could a human do this anyway?” asked William.
	“Either we are dealing with someone who is hundreds of times smarter than 
Albert Einstein, a powerful super computer with an advanced artificial 
intelligence program or…I have no idea what else could successfully copy the S-
100. Without Mack, I don’t know how we’re going to proceed. Cipher must be 
stopped soon or I fear that a far greater terror will strike soon. Something far 
more horrible than having your Poke’mon stolen,” said K-1.
	“Definitely,” replied William as K-1 shut off the light in the room.
-29-
Weeks passed since the escape of the Poke’mon from Cecil’s facility. He could 
hardly believe what was happening now. The leader of Cipher was now visiting his 
facility and he was most eager to witness Project Epsilon in action. The leader 
of Cipher kept his face hidden and made certain that all his subordinates called 
him “Boss,” mostly because he felt no need to show his face or reveal his 
identity to his subordinates. Dr. Newman was explaining how the machine worked 
to the boss.
	“The process is simple,” said Dr. Newman.
	“I’m looking forward to your explanation, but first tell me where you got 
the knowledge for this technological wonder that you’re constructed,” said the 
boss, “With the help of your Alakazams, of course.”
	“Thank you, sir. If you will please turn your attention to these windows,” 
said Dr. Newman as he pressed a few buttons on a nearby control panel. After he 
entered the few numbers for the access code, a thick, steel door slowly opened 
to reveal the tattered remains of some metallic body armor. A few damaged 
cannons were lying to the left and right of the suit of armor.
	“What on earth is this?” asked the boss with amazement.
	“The Hexagon Brothers unearthed it from the ruins of our Mt. Terror base. 
With several weeks of hard work, I’ve not only discovered that this suit of 
armor and its weapons are highly advanced, but I have been able to reverse-
engineer many of its components and systems with some help,” explained Dr. 
Newman.
	“Is it some sort of alien technology?” asked the boss.
	“Whatever it is, it can’t be from this world,” answered Dr. Newman.
	“Just leave it to Dr. Newman to be able to put this…thing to good use,” 
interrupted Cecil. The boss seemed to be delighted.
	“You never cease to amaze me, Dr. Newman. Only you or your brother could 
have accomplished something like this,” said the boss.
	“Sir, if you please, I would prefer if you would not mention my brother to 
me. You know I don’t care much for his…methods,” said Dr. Newman.
	“Of course, of course,” said the boss as he turned his gaze back to the 
giant machine in the room, “Now, explain to me how this wondrous device works.”
	“Very well,” said Dr. Newman as he walked to another control panel and 
started pressing buttons and flipping switches, “This, sir, is Project Epsilon. 
This machine is made up of three main components: the tracer, the teleporter and 
the holding chamber. The tracer relies on a super computer. When combined with 
our small network of satellites, we can track any Poke’mon in the world based 
solely on its DNA signature. When we get the proper trace, we can then use the 
teleporter to bring it into the holding chamber, which in this case, is a series 
of large capsules. The capsules are heavily reinforced and are also protected by 
energy barriers that I was able to copy from the suit of armor. We can 
essentially capture any Poke’mon from any location on earth with the press of a 
few buttons, but the system is too inaccurate to rely only on the computers and 
satellites. We have to be accurate to the nearest 5 feet. Therefore, a field 
team has to be sent in to get a visual of the target and then relay information 
about the target’s location. Getting the required information is also simplified 
with some more technology that was copied from that suit of armor. Using a 
computerized visor, the field team member can instantly get information on the 
Poke’mon, such as size, weight and its precise location. The Poke’mon can’t 
hide. These visors can see anything: heat, ultra-violet light and can even see 
through several hundred feet of solid rock or metal. Anyway, technicians here 
simply throw a few switches after the data has been automatically uploaded to 
our computers at this base. With all that said and done the target Poke’mon is 
teleported into one of the holding capsules. No Poke’mon should be able to break 
out of the capsules. On top of that, one of my other inventions, known as a 
psychic jammer, will prevent any Poke’mon with psychic powers from teleporting 
away or using telekinesis to manipulate machinery or equipment on the other side 
of the capsule wall.”
	“What if the Poke’mon tries using other attacks, such as hyper beam?” 
asked the boss.
	“The energy barriers that line the inside of the capsule will absorb any 
energy-based attacks, like Fire Spin, and send it back at the Poke’mon,” 
explained Dr. Newman, “A painful solution, but that should prevent the Poke’mon 
from trying to blast its way out of the capsules. Plus, the shielding will 
absorb any physical attacks and even prevent Ghost Poke’mon from phasing through 
the capsule walls.”
	“I hope I won’t have to wait long for a demonstration,” said the boss with 
glee.
	“You won’t have to,” interrupted Cecil, “We already have a field team in 
place. They are tracking our first target and are already uploading the data we 
need as we speak.”
	“Splendid!” said the boss with triumph as Dr. Newman signaled the 
technicians to get ready. The computers soon notified them that all the needed 
data was acquired.
	“We are ready to begin,” said one of the technicians as Cecil walked up to 
the boss’s right side.
	“Feel free to give the order,” said Cecil as the boss grinned at him.
	“Commence at once!” ordered the boss. With that, the technicians quickly 
threw switches and pressed buttons on their control panels.
	“Everything must be done quickly, yet precisely. If our target moves too 
much now, we will have to start over,” said Dr. Newman as one of the holding 
capsules started glowing with a bright, white light.
	“Looks like we won’t have any failures with the first test,” laughed 
Cecil.
	“By the way, what Poke’mon are you capturing right now?” asked the boss 
with curiosity.
	“Just wait a few seconds,” replied Dr. Newman as the bright light in the 
capsule turned into a blinding flash. The light quickly dimmed down to reveal 
the figure of a Lugia, the legendary psychic bird. The boss and Cecil were 
stunned. They looked on as the Lugia tried furiously to break out of the 
capsule.
	“When you said you had a surprise for me, I had no idea that this was what 
you had in mind!” laughed Cecil.
      “Splendid! With this machine, Cipher will be unstoppable!” said the boss 
triumphantly as the Lugia started charging up its power. A small orb of light 
started growing in its mouth.
      “What is it doing now?” asked Cecil with concern.
      “If my observations are correct, Aero Blast,” said Dr. Newman. The boss 
and Cecil watched carefully as the Lugia unleashed its furry with an Aero Blast, 
only to watch the beam ricochet off the walls and back into the Lugia. Lugia 
screeched in pain then flopped to the floor of the capsule. Everyone in the room 
could not believe what they were seeing, except for Dr. Newman.
      “Sorry about that…” said Dr. Newman softly to Lugia. Dr. Newman had indeed 
built Project Epsilon, but he was unsure if Cipher or anyone should have such a 
machine at their disposal. He was becoming increasingly doubtful about the 
capture cannons as well. As he gazed at Lugia he almost wished that he could 
press a few buttons and teleport the Lugia back to its home.
      “We confirm the target’s teleportation,” said a voice over a radio. It was 
the field team.
      “Return to base at once. That is all,” ordered Dr. Newman.
      “Yes, sir!” was the reply as the radio connection turned off.
	“So,” said the boss as he stared at Lugia, “As long as we have a field 
team tracking a Poke’mon, we can teleport it here for immediate capture?”
	“That’s correct. We could even steal powerful Poke’mon from trainers. They 
wouldn’t know what hit them!” said Cecil with delight. Dr. Newman examined Lugia 
more closely and soon discovered a silver collar around its neck.
	“Speaking of trainers, what do you suppose this collar is all about? Do 
you suppose it belonged to another trainer at one time?” asked Dr. Newman.
	“Doesn’t matter,” said the boss, “All that matters is that Project Epsilon 
is a complete success and that this Lugia now belongs to me. Dr. Newman, I want 
you to analyze this Lugia as soon as possible. I want to know if it will be 
compatible with project XD001. Lugia is one of the few species we have left that 
has not been tested.”
	“I’ll begin at once,” replied Dr. Newman reluctantly. Dr. Newman knew that 
his treacherous brother was on the research team for XD001 and could only 
imagine the horrors he was concocting.
	“Further more, I want all evidence of the Mt. Terror facility destroyed,” 
ordered the boss.
	“Already done. I had a team take care of that last week,” answered Cecil.
	“Good. Cecil, in light of your recent progress, I forgive you most recent 
failures; however, if you mess up again, I’ll have you demoted back to a foot 
soldier, is that clear?” warned the boss sternly.
	“I understand,” said Cecil with a salute.
	“Of course,” said the boss as he started to leave the room, “I can 
understand it if something comes your way that you can’t handle. You should not 
have been toying around with the Guardian of Gardev. Hopefully, there won’t be 
any further reprisals from her. If she comes back, capture her. If you can’t do 
that, kill her at once.” Dr. Newman gasped at the boss’s last command as he left 
the room. The steel door closed behind the boss with a loud metallic crash.
	“Surely the boss doesn’t think we should use lethal force on a Poke’mon?!” 
shouted Dr. Newman with anger.
	“He meant every word of it,” said Cecil calmly as he started to leave the 
room as well, “I’ll have to issue high-powered rifles to all the guards. Your 
brother managed to provide us with 100 of his new weapons. Supposedly, these new 
rifles fire high-velocity bullets that can go right through the barriers that 
some Poke’mon can generate. This includes psychic barriers. Then, the bullet 
tears a large hole through the target.”
	“You sound like you’re enjoying his command,” snarled Dr. Newman.
	“Of course I’m eager. I’m looking forward to getting vengeance on that 
Gardevoir once and for all,” said Cecil as he left the room. Dr. Newman stood 
alone in the room, stunned at what he had just heard. Dr. Newman was about ready 
to leave Cipher for good, but if he left at a bad time, he would surely be 
captured. Dr. Newman certainly could not go to the police. It was over 100 miles 
to the nearest police station and taking a helicopter to the nearest town was 
suicide as long as the thunderstorms surrounded the mountains. That and he 
feared what Cipher would do to him if he told the police about Cipher and what 
they were planning. After all, if they could kill a Poke’mon with out regret, 
surely they would think nothing of murdering Dr. Newman. He glanced at one of 
his Alakazams. It told Dr. Newman to be patient. Dr. Newman then laughed at what 
he heard next. The Guardian of Gardev and an alien warrior would be his only 
chance of escape.

-30-
Mack awoke once again with his vision blurred and his senses scrambled. He sat 
up and tried to focus his vision. As his vision started to return to normal, he 
hoped that everything that had happened in the last few days had just been a 
nightmare. Either that or he would wake up to find that he and Aura had been 
separated. Moments later, his vision cleared and he looked down at himself. He 
still had the green hands and the white gown of a Gardevoir.
	“So much for that wish coming true…” thought Mack with a sigh as he slowly 
climbed out of bed. Much to his surprise, the room didn’t look anything like 
Aura’s room. If this really was Aura’s room, someone had spent a fortune on 
remodeling. The walls were all pure marble, as well as the bed frame. Mack 
quickly ran to a nearby window and looked around. Wherever he was, he was now in 
some sort of small city. The city all seemed to be made of marble and gold. Mack 
jumped back and ended up hitting his head off a tall dresser. Suddenly, Mack 
started getting computer readings of his immediate area. Centuries ago, Mack had 
Central and K-1 implant a small super computer into his head. Though it was only 
about the size of a six-sided die, it could provide him with information 
concerning his current location, altitude and even display maps of the 
surrounding areas through his field of vision. It also provided Mack with 
information on the status of his health. At least the small computer was working 
now, but most of the functions didn’t seem to be operational except for the 
maps. He was somewhere roughly 90 miles south of Gardev, but he could not find 
this city on any of his maps. He heard a knock on the door.
	“Who is it?” asked Mack nervously as he focused his senses. He could sense 
a Gardevoir, a Kirlia and a Ralts on the other side of the door.
	“It’s me,” said a familiar voice, “Ramirez.”
	“Can we come in too?” asked another familiar voice.
	“Not this time, Anna,” said Ramirez, “Why don’t you and Fredrick go play 
outside for now?”
	“Okay…” sighed Anna the Kirlia.
	“Come on, Anna! Let’s have some fun!” said Fredrick happily as he 
thundered down some stairs with Anna right behind him. Ramirez slowly opened the 
door. Mack sat back down on the bed.
	“You’ve been asleep for two weeks. I was afraid that you would never wake 
up,” said Ramirez. Mack tried to distance himself from Ramirez.
	“What’s wrong Aura? Don’t you remember me? I’m Ramirez, your younger 
brother,” said a bewildered Ramirez. Ramirez looked over his sister a few times. 
Mack gulped.
	“I think you should see the elders now, especially since you figured out 
how to use the pendant. Apparently, none of the last six Guardians of Gardev 
were able to use its power,” said Ramirez. Mack stood back up and tried to 
speak. He wanted to explain what was going on, but was too scared, which was 
also quite unusual for Mack. Very few things really frightened him anymore. 
Ramirez held Mack’s left hand.
	“I know you aren’t exactly my sister, Aura, and I don’t know what happened 
between you and her, but you don’t have to be afraid,” said Ramirez calmly.
	“Thanks,” said Mack as he wiped some sweat off his brow.
	“Besides, considering your deeds, I believe that you only want to do 
what’s right. After all, you risked your life twice trying to rescue the 
Poke’mon that Cipher had captured. Plus, you saved my siblings from another one 
of their little adventures,” explained Ramirez with a laugh, “At any rate, we 
better go see the elders. They need to know about the turn of events.” Mack and 
Ramirez left the room and walked downstairs. Mack could tell that the Gardevoir 
in this place lived very well. Soon, a blue sapphire pendant in a glass case 
caught his eyes.
	“What’s this?” Mack asked himself as he took a closer look. The sapphire 
pendant was an exact match to the ruby pendant around his neck.
	“Ah. This pendant is meant to be a present to whoever Aura chooses to be 
her mate,” explained Ramirez, “The red pendant is meant for a female while the 
blue pendant is meant for a male Gardevoir. I’m still glad that Aura is alive, 
somehow. I’m not ready to wear the blue pendant and be the next Guardian of 
Gardev.”
	“Where are your mother and father?” asked Mack with curiosity.
	“They disappeared a few years ago in the forests that surround Gardev. All 
we found were their pendants. Whatever happened, they were probably killed,” 
said Ramirez with grief in his voice, “At least you’ve managed to protect Aura, 
though no one would have ever expected something like this to happen.” Mack took 
one last glance at the sapphire pendant then left the room with Ramirez. Soon, 
they were walking down the street. Mack looked back and forth as his computer 
started making maps of the area. Everywhere he looked, there were Gardevoir, 
Kirlia and Ralts.
	“Have I come across some sort of paradise for Gardevoir, Kirlia and 
Ralts?” thought Mack.
	“You could say that,” said Ramirez. The other Poke’mon seemed to sense 
something and stared at Mack as he walked by.
	“What’s with them?” asked Mack.
	“They know that there’s something different about you. There hasn’t been 
an outsider in this city for nearly a thousand years,” answered Ramirez. Within 
minutes, Mack and Ramirez arrived at what looked like a palace made entirely out 
of white marble. They walked through the front gate, through the gigantic front 
door and down the cavernous main hallway. Soon, they arrived in a large room. In 
the room, right in front of Mack, sat seven Gardevoir in chairs of gold behind 
fine wooden desks with gold trim.
	“I’ll wait outside. Don’t worry,” reassured Ramirez as he left the room. 
Mack looked back and forth at the Gardevoir in front of him. The Gardevoir 
glanced back and looked over Mack carefully. Minutes later, the Gardevoir in the 
center slowly stood up.
	“You are Dr. Mack Foxx. A traveler and warrior from another world, 
correct?” asked the standing Gardevoir.
	“Yes. You know my name, but what is yours?” asked Mack.
	“I am Glacian, head of the elders and ruler of this city,” said Glacian, 
“You don’t need to fear us. Just tell us what exactly happened with you and 
Aura.” Mack then told the story of how he had tried to rescue Aura from Cipher 
on Mt. Terror, but then got fused with her after a teleportation accident. Mack 
then also told them how he came back to protect Gardev and had managed to rescue 
Aura’s siblings as well as the Poke’mon that Cipher had stolen from the people 
of Gardev. Mack also mentioned how the ruby pendant had glowed brightly right 
before he had managed to break free of one of Cipher’s capture cannons. He then 
told them about a suit of armor that he normally used for protection and for 
devastating power in combat. Mack explained how the suit of armor had probably 
been stolen by Cipher from the remnants of their base at Mt. Terror.
	“Incredible,” remarked Glacian, “A traveling bounty hunter gets fused with 
the Guardian of Gardev and then protects the town.”
	“Money is the least of my concerns right now,” said Mack. Glacian started 
conversing with the rest of the elders. Minutes later, they fell silent and 
Glacian faced Mack again.
	“So, what are your intentions now?” asked Glacian.
	“I intend to protect Gardev until I find a way to safely separate me and 
Aura,” declared Mack.
	“Most admirable, Dr. Foxx, though, you do realize that we can’t give you 
anything in return, don’t you?” asked Glacian.
	“I don’t need a reward,” replied Mack. Glacian paused and glanced at the 
other elders. They nodded in agreement to some unsaid question.
	“Perhaps I should explain a few things to you. After all, you are the 
first outsider to enter this city in nearly a millennium. Tell me, do you know 
why a Gardevoir has protected Gardev for so long?” asked Glacian.
	“I don’t know,” answered Mack.
	“Then let me explain. I think I owe you that in the least for your 
services to Gardev so far,” said Glacian, “You see, one thousand years ago, a 
ancestor of the current mayor of Gardev, founded the village, nestled in one of 
the most beautiful and fertile valleys in these mountains.”
	“Ah. An old member of Warren’s family,” remarked Mack.
	“Indeed,” said Glacian, “Anyway, that winter, during a brutal blizzard, 
the village founder was trapped in the storm. Fortunately, he was able to figure 
out where he was and then started back towards his home. Along the way, he found 
a Gardevoir lying in the snow, barely alive. Her name was also Aura. He carried 
Aura all the way back to the village despite the cruel weather. Days later, Aura 
awoke to find that this man had saved her from certain death. Ancestors of this 
city had also been looking for her and were surprised to see a human taking such 
good care of one of our own. Other humans at the time hunted us down as well as 
other Poke’mon for our powers. It was a dark age for Poke’mon. Poke’mon were 
captured and forced to become weapons of war. One notorious samurai army was 
hunting for the legendary Gardevoir city, where they would hope to capture 
everyone here. A large army of Ralts, Kirlia and Gardevoir would have been 
unstoppable. Anyway, while Aura was resting, the founder of the village did some 
exploring of the mountains. For weeks he continued onward through the glaciers. 
One day, the weather turned foul once again and a gust of wind blew the man into 
a glacier fissure. He blacked out during his fall and expected that he would 
die. Instead, he woke up here, in this city. Another Gardevoir had saved him. 
This Gardevoir had witnessed his acts, especially how he saved Aura from 
freezing to death. He was brought before the elders of that time and he promised 
to never tell anyone about this city. The elders believed him and he was sent 
off the next day with fresh supplies and another Gardevoir to guide him home. A 
week later, he could see his home village in the snowy valleys. When he was just 
miles away from the village, he heard a loud roar. Looking up towards the peaks, 
he saw a giant avalanche thundering down the mountainside, heading straight for 
the village. Just when he thought that his village would be utterly destroyed, 
he saw a bright light from his home. The light flew into the air. The man 
watched with awe as the avalanche became covered in a blue aura and was then 
split in half. The avalanche continued on, leaving the village intact. He ran 
back to the village and found Aura waiting for him. The village was grateful and 
asked if Aura would stay. She agreed. The man then named the village Gardev, in 
honor of Aura and the other Gardevoir who had saved the village and himself. He 
also gave to Aura two pendants, a ruby and a sapphire pendant: his family’s 
treasure. Legend said that the pendants could make Poke’mon more powerful. As 
soon as Aura put on the pendant, it glowed brightly. She then asked what she 
should do with the sapphire pendant. The man said that she could give it to 
anyone she wanted. She immediately ran up and put it around the neck of the 
Gardevoir who had been the man’s guide on his way back to Gardev. The two of 
them were married that night. Months later, the two Gardevoir and the man would 
stop an entire army of samurais. The man had been watching them carefully for 
days as they drew ever closer to our city. No one here knew they were coming. 
The man and Aura came up with a plan to rid this place of the samurai. The man 
ran to the camp, yelling and screaming about demons. The samurai leader was 
about to have him killed, when ghostly apparitions of dragons and other horrible 
creatures seemed to fill the air. The samurai quickly packed up their camp and 
started running. They didn’t stay in the same place for long. You see, with the 
power of the pendants, Aura and her mate used their amplified powers of 
telepathy to make the samurai see those demons and monsters. Aura, her mate and 
the man followed them closely until they had chased them out of the mountain 
range. Aura then teleported herself, her mate and the man back to Gardev. Back 
at this city, we all realized just how close we were to disaster. If the samurai 
had continued on their course, they would have come across this city within a 
matter of days. We did not have guards or an army. With a surprise attack we 
probably would have all been captured and would have been forced to become 
soldiers in their army. The elders were quite aware of the frequent disasters 
that plagued the valley that Gardev was set in: floods, avalanches and wild 
fires. As way to thank the man, the elders asked that Aura and her mate protect 
Gardev from the natural disasters that occurred often in the valley. They 
agreed. Since then, a Gardevoir has protected Gardev and, when the time came, 
the Guardian would choose a mate to carry on the blood line through the years. 
The guardian seeking a mate would always give the proper pendant to their mate 
of choice. The blue sapphire pendant is for a male and the red ruby pendant is 
for a female. Years have passed since then. Some of the guardians gave their 
very lives to protect the village as it grew over time. After 6 centuries, 
though, the pendants seemed to loose their power. The last eight guardian 
couples could not use the pendants’ power at all. One of those couples…well…” 
Glacian hesitated.
	“They disappeared? Were they Aura’s parents?” asked Mack.
	“Yes,” answered Glacian, “Two years ago they were exploring the forests 
around Gardev and disappeared. Only the pendants were found. No one has seen 
them since.”
	“Most perplexing,” said Mack, “I’ve been living near the valley for years. 
Maybe I’ll be able to find some clues to their disappearance.”
	“If you want to, go ahead, but remember that Gardev comes first. You may 
go now,” said Glacian, “I’ll have Ramirez get you back to Gardev for now.”
	“Thank you. I won’t let you down!” said Mack as he started to leave.
	“One moment,” said Glacian. Mack turned back around to face him.
	“Yes?” asked Mack.
	“Please give my dear friend Warren my regards,” said Glacian.
	“Certainly,” said Mack as he was about walk out of the room.
	“I have one more thing to say, if you don’t mind,” said Glacian.
	“Okay. What is it?” asked Mack.
	“You know…it’s almost time for Aura to choose a mate,” said Glacian with 
hesitation.
	“Perhaps, but what do you mean?” asked Mack.
	“Well, I think it’s a pity that you aren’t really a Gardevoir. You and 
Aura would be perfect for each other,” said Glacian with a bit of embarrassment. 
Minutes later, Mack walked out of the palace with a stunned look on his face.
	“Is something wrong?” asked Ramirez.
	“Nothing, nothing at all. Would you please take me back to Gardev, 
Ramirez?” asked Mack.
	“Of course, Dr. Foxx,” answered Ramirez.
      “Who told you my name?” asked Mack with confusion.
      “I already knew. Besides, I think you’ve had enough unwelcome surprises 
for now,” said Ramirez with a chuckle, “Please take good care of my sister.” The 
two Gardevoir soon vanished in a flash of white light.

-31-
K-1 and William jumped back and screamed as Mack and Ramirez suddenly teleported 
into the room in a blinding flash of light.
	“Must you do that?!” yelled K-1 in fury.
	“Yeah! Do you HAVE to scare the heck out of us?!” thundered William.
	“Are these your pets?” asked Ramirez as he pointed at K-1 and William.
	“Not quite. That Pikachu, named William, is a pet. While that robot, named 
K-1, is my best friend. He’s been traveling with me for…a long time,” explained 
Mack.
	“I see,” said Ramirez, “Well, I won’t keep you from your duties. Farewell, 
Mack.” With that, Ramirez disappeared with in a bright flash. K-1 and William 
were bewildered.
	“Perhaps you care to explain where you’ve been for the last few weeks?” 
asked an irritated K-1. Mack then explained how he had rescued the Poke’mon from 
Cipher, but had almost been captured. Mack then told them of a hidden city of 
Gardevoir where he had learned more about Aura and the reason why a Gardevoir 
had been watching over Gardev for so long.
	“I see, but what are we going to do now? Central called me a few days ago 
and reported that she had picked up some powerful energy readings from that 
Cipher base you were at. Central said that someone in Cipher must have developed 
a teleportation device of some sort. At least that is what she could tell from 
the energy signatures,” explained K-1 as he walked back over to the melted 
capture claw.
	“Someone not only managed to copy the capture claw, but now we have 
someone who managed to reverse engineer the teleportation systems of the S-100? 
Who are we dealing with here?” asked Mack.
	“Whoever they are, they must have copied your energy shielding 
technologies as well. Central detected the same energy signatures that your 
shield generators on the S-100 give off,” said K-1.
	“Okay,” said Mack as he started pacing, “And what of this copied capture 
claw?”
	“Whoever built this thing did not know what all the circuits and parts do. 
They copied everything down to the remote self-destruct systems that melt and 
fuse the delicate parts to prevent anyone from copying the technology should it 
be captured,” said K-1.
	“How about the remote tracking systems?” asked Mack.
	“They copied that too, but it’s no longer functioning now. When you shot 
this thing off that foot soldier, you damaged the tracking systems. From what I 
can tell, they are using the tracking systems on their other capture claws. Why 
when those soldiers came into Gardev to steal Poke’mon, Central picked up the 
tracking signals from several capture claws. I would have contacted you, but you 
didn’t bother to take a radio with you,” said K-1, “The tracking signals from 
the other capture claws point directly to that base, so they must have other 
computers that are tracking the capture claws to keep a close eye on them.”
	“Could you try tapping into their signal and activate the self-destruct 
systems that way?” asked Mack.
	“I already tried that. The signals are heavily encrypted and they keep 
changing their codes. By the time I figured out how to de-encrypt one code set, 
they had already gone through two others,” said K-1 with frustration.
	“So, the only way to destroy all the copies of my capture claw would be to 
go into the base and activate the self-destruct systems from one of their 
terminals,” said Mack with enthusiasm.
	“I don’t think it would be wise to risk a full frontal assault. There is 
no telling what kind of…’precautions’…Cipher might have taken just incase you 
return to their base,” said K-1 with concern.
	“Ah. I certainly don’t want to blindly run into a trap,” said Mack as a 
nearby radio started beeping.
	“I brought a radio with me, just in case,” remarked K-1 as he answered the 
call, “Hello?”
	“This is Central. I have finally located the S-100,” reported Central 
through the radio.
	“Excellent! Where is it?” asked K-1 with enthusiasm.
	“Locked in a vault in a base just a few miles west of your location,” said 
Central.
	“Wonderful…we’re going to have to get it back as soon as possible! What if 
they managed to copy the jamming array or the FIW-59 Type C Elemental Cannons?!” 
shouted Mack with fear. The FIW-59C was a smaller version of the FIW-59A that 
Mack usually carried as a sidearm. The FIW-59’s could fire concentrated beams of 
energy of virtually any element. There was a hidden feature in the FIW-59’s that 
also would mix all the elements at once, creating a field of extremely 
destructive energy. The S-100 itself could barely stand a direct hit from this 
kind of weapon.
	“Um…so what would happen if they copied your elemental cannons anyway?” a 
confused William.
	“They would have the power to level cities with the push of a button. I 
haven’t had to use the full destructive power of those cannons for nearly a 
century, though. The last few worlds I’ve visited, including this one, have been 
quite peaceful compared to others,” explained Mack as he held the pendant in his 
hands and stared into the jewel. Suddenly, Ramirez teleported into the room and 
scared K-1 and William out of their wits.
	“Not again…” growled K-1 as he got back on his feet.
	“I can’t take much more of this…” grumbled William as he slowly emerged 
from a dresser drawer. Mack could sense that something was wrong.
	“What’s the problem, Ramirez?” asked Mack.
	“It’s Fredrick and Anna. They seem to have disappeared again…” said 
Ramirez with a scowl.
	“They went on another ‘Adventure,’ didn’t they?” asked Mack.
	“Probably,” answered Ramirez with a sigh. Mack stood up and grabbed his 
satchel from the desk.
	“K-1, William, you two stay here,” ordered Mack.
	“Affirmative, Mack,” replied K-1.
	“If I have to,” muttered William with disappointment.
	“Let’s go,” said Mack as he and Ramirez ran out the bedroom door, through 
the hallways, almost through Warren and finally out the front door.
	“How come Mack won’t take me with him?” asked an irritated William.
	“Don’t feel bad. Mack rarely lets me go into the field, too. It’s mostly 
because he doesn’t want me to get damaged or destroyed. After all, I’m the only 
one who has stuck with Mack for his entire journey,” explained K-1.
	“How long has he been traveling to different worlds, then?” asked William 
with curiosity.
	“I’m afraid that information is classified,” said K-1 with a smirk.

-32-
Anna, Fredrick, Li and Sakura the Kirlia were walking through the woods. It 
seemed like a nice day. The sun was out; the Pidgeys, Tailow and Spearow were 
singing…or squawking. The forest seemed to be completely peaceful.
	“I was hoping you two would come visit us again soon,” said Sakura with a 
smile.
	“Yeah, well, it gets boring at my home, and my big brother never lets us 
venture out much,” said Anna with a frown.
	“Speaking of which, Ramirez will probably have our heads for venturing out 
without him again,” warned Fredrick.
	“Let’s just get this over with so we can get back and have a snack,” 
muttered Li. He was hoping he could snag some of Makoto’s cookies while no one 
was looking. Suddenly, they started hearing some strange humming, coming from 
somewhere deeper in the forest.
	“What’s that?” asked Anna.
	“Sounds like some sort of monster!” chuckled Li as Sakura quaked with 
fear.
	“Don’t scare me, Li!” exclaimed Sakura as she threatened to pound Li into 
the ground with a Thunder Punch.
	“Strange,” remarked Fredrick, “That sounds more like some sort of 
machine.”
	“Let’s check it out!” said Anna with excitement as she blindly ran off 
deeper into the woods.
	“I guess we’d better go after her,” said Fredrick with a sigh as he, Li 
and Sakura frantically ran after Anna.
	“Anna! Come back here!” shouted Sakura.
	“We don’t know what’s out there!” yelled Li. Anna suddenly came to a stop. 
The others soon caught up with her. They could not figure out why Anna was 
looking up towards the sky. They also looked upwards and to their shock, saw 
several steel towers looming over them.
	“How long has this been here?” asked Sakura as Li took a closer look.
	“Looks like some sort of military base, but I never heard of the army 
having a place like this so close to Gardev,” said Li with amazement.
	“Bah! It’s just some stupid base where those idiots from Cipher live,” 
said Anna smugly.
	“I didn’t think we run into this place again so soon,” said Fredrick as he 
cautiously glanced left and right, “I really don’t want to get captured 
again…not by these twerps.”
	“They won’t catch us,” said Anna with a grin, “They’ll never see us if we 
go through our ‘Secret’ entrance.”
	“Not again…” grumbled Fredrick, “Didn’t we get caught last time because 
you were trying to get at a fresh bag of chips that some loony had thrown into a 
dumpster?”
	“We won’t get caught! If we do get busted, it won’t be because of me, so 
nyah!” said Anna with an attitude.
	“Sure we won’t…” muttered Fredrick to himself. Anna led them around to the 
back of the complex. Somehow, the guards didn’t even notice them.
	“Are they blind or something?” asked Li with surprise.
	“Maybe it’s because of my treasure!” said Anna with a smile. Sakura, Li 
and Fredrick suddenly noticed that Anna was holding a small, black box in her 
hands.
	“What on earth is that thing?” asked Fredrick.
	“This?” answered Anna as she held the small device higher into the air, 
“Oh! I found this under Aura’s bed in a suitcase back in Gardev. I don’t know 
what it is, but whenever I press this small green button, no one can see me! 
Best of all, if I play with these gray knobs a bit, I can make other stuff 
invisible too, like you guys!”
	“That explains a lot,” said Fredrick.
	“Yeah, like what happened to Makoto’s first batch of peanut butter 
cookies,” said Li.
	“How did you know about that?!” asked Anna with surprise.
	“You just told us,” said Sakura with soft laughter.
	“Whatever,” said Anna as she moved a piece of sheet metal on the wall to 
reveal a large hole.
	“How did this get here?” asked Sakura as she gazed the hole in the 10 foot 
thick concrete wall.
	“Simple,” explained Anna, “I had Fredrick blast a hole in it about a month 
ago.”
	“I thought we were going to die…” grumbled Fredrick, “Those guards came 
right after us. If Ramirez had not shown up, we would have been captured for 
sure.”
	“But this time they can’t see us!” snapped Anna.
	“Aura won’t like this. You stole one of her things!” said Fredrick with a 
scowl.
	“Please…this little machine can’t be Aura’s. What would she want with 
something like this anyway?” asked Anna as she and the rest of the group started 
climbing through the hole in the massive wall.
	“I guess it can’t be Aura’s,” said Fredrick, “But who else could it belong 
to?”
	“Maybe it belongs to that metal fox that came into town a few weeks ago,” 
suggested Sakura.
	“Could be,” said Li with agreement, “No one has seen that guy for weeks 
now. Apparently, he went to Mt. Terror to go after those robbers. I hope he’s 
alright.” Soon, Anna led them to an access panel on the side of the largest 
building in the complex. After removing the panel, she and the rest of the group 
climbed through the ventilation shafts.
	“Where are we going anyway?” asked Sakura.
	“I wanted to thank that strange man for letting us escape,” said Anna as 
she climbed through the shaft.
	“What strange man?” asked Fredrick as Anna stopped while over a vent.
	“That one!” said Anna with glee as she pointed at a man in a lab coat.
	“Who is that?” asked Fredrick.
	“That’s Dr. Newman…” said Sakura softly as she glowed faintly with a blue 
aura, “He seems like a very nice person. One of the few in this place…”
	“Reading his mind, eh? Good call,” said Li as he looked around in the 
room. Soon, a strange sight caught his eye. There in a giant glass tube of some 
sort, there was a Lugia with a silver collar, lying at the bottom of the tube.
	“How did he get here?” asked Li with surprise.
	“Beats me,” replied Fredrick, “I thought that Lugia lived under the sea. 
What is one doing way out here, over a thousand miles from the nearest ocean?” 
They soon heard another strange sound. It sounded like some metal was under too 
much strain and was starting to bend. They all realized to their horror that the 
vent they were standing on was about to break. Before they could react, the 
panel flew out from under them and they went crashing into the floor. Dr. Newman 
jumped back and was about to activate the alarms.
	“Wait!” said Anna as she grabbed Dr. Newman’s left leg. He stopped in his 
tracks and looked down.
	“Did you just say something?” asked a perplexed Dr. Newman.
	“Thank you for helping us,” said Anna politely as she offered a curtsey.
	“Huh?!” said a shocked Dr. Newman.
	“Really! If you had thrown the alarms while we were trying to escape, we 
probably would not have made it out of here,” explained Anna.
	“So NOW Anna is all polite and friendly,” thought Fredrick. Dr. Newman was 
stunned. He staggered back to his desk and sat down.
	“You were the Kirlia that was caught behind a dumpster, weren’t you?” 
asked Dr. Newman.
	“Yes,” replied Anna.
	“Don’t remind me…” said Fredrick out loud.
	“Ah! You were with her, too, eh?” said Dr. Newman with a chuckle, “I’m 
glad you two were able to escape. If you hadn’t, there was nothing I could have 
to done to stop Cecil from having you both turned into shadow Poke’mon.”
	“What’s a shadow Poke’mon?” asked Anna. Sakura and Li knew all too well 
what shadow Poke’mon were.
	“Oh, dear…” said Dr. Newman. He soon recognized the Mawile and the other 
Kirlia in the room.
	“What’s wrong?” asked Anna as she faced Sakura and Li. They were cowering 
in a corner.
	“You must have been with the Poke’mon that were stolen from Gardev,” said 
Dr. Newman, “I hope you can forgive me. There was nothing I could do to stop 
them.” They stayed in the corner, shaking with fear.
	“Well? What is a shadow Poke’mon?!” demanded Anna. Dr. Newman regained his 
composure.
	“A shadow Poke’mon is a Poke’mon who has had its heart closed off. Shadow 
Poke’mon don’t feel anything and are pretty much just mindless fighting 
machines. They have no emotions and just follow orders. They will even attack 
humans if ordered to do so by their trainers,” explained Dr. Newman as he 
glanced at Sakura and Li, “From what I can gather, the process is also extremely 
painful.” Dr. Newman slowly walked up to Sakura and Li, knelt down on his knees 
and then he gently stroked them on their heads.
	“I told you he was a good man,” said Sakura as she smiled and closed her 
eyes.
	“I don’t know why I’m not going to turn you guys in or why I’m going to 
tell you this,” said Dr. Newman as he stood back up, “I’m not really sure why, 
but I don’t think I belong here as a part of Cipher.”
	“You’re nothing like your brother,” said Fredrick.
	“How do you know about my brother?!” asked a surprised Dr. Newman.
	“I’ve seen him walking around outside this place before,” answered 
Fredrick, “I didn’t like what I sensed about him.”
	“There are a lot of rumors about him,” said Dr. Newman with dread, “He’s a 
lot like me, but uncaring, cold, devious and sometimes I think he’s just evil. 
He almost makes Cecil look as harmless as a Jigglypuff.”
	“I think we’d better run along now,” said Li as Sakura lifted them all 
back into the ventilation shaft using telekinesis.
	“Farewell,” said Dr. Newman. Soon, the group of Poke’mon was crawling back 
to the exit of the ventilation shafts, leaving Dr. Newman alone. A radio 
suddenly crackled to life.
	“Dr. Newman? Cecil? Is anyone there?” asked the voice. Dr. Newman picked 
up the radio.
	“This is Dr. Newman. What’s going on?” asked Dr. Newman.
	“This is field team bravo. We’ve located the next target,” said the voice.
	“Next target?” asked a puzzled Dr. Newman.
	“You haven’t heard? Cecil sent us out here to track down a Mew. I assume 
the technicians are ready to teleport it into the holding chamber?” asked the 
voice. Dr. Newman knew nothing of this. Cecil had never mentioned to him that a 
field team had been deployed to search for a Mew. Dr. Newman’s fear rose even 
more. He could barely imagine what would happen if Cipher had a shadow Mew. 
Cipher would be virtually unstoppable. Cecil suddenly ran into the room.
	“I see the field team already has results! Brilliant!” shouted Cecil 
triumphantly.
	“Why was I not notified about this?” demanded Dr. Newman.
	“Because I was pretty sure that you would object,” answered Cecil.
	“Indeed,” grumbled Dr. Newman.
	“I hope you know where your loyalties are,” warned Cecil, “You seem to be 
far too squeamish. It’s a pity that you aren’t more like your brother, Dr…”
	“Don’t say that…and do NOT mention my brother’s ‘Name’ in my presence!” 
growled Dr. Newman with clenched fists.
	“Dr. Newman, are you there?” asked the trooper through the radio.
	“What is it?” said Dr. Newman as he started to regain his composure.
	“I don’t know what the problem is, but the computers in our visors say 
that the DNA signature of the target is a near-match. What does that mean?” 
asked the trooper.
	“A near-match? Impossible! It would have to be a mutant or something,” 
said a perplexed Dr. Newman.
	“Shall we proceed anyway?” asked the trooper.
	“Proceed,” commanded Cecil as he ordered all the technicians to enter the 
room and get to their stations. Lugia awoke from all the noise and soon figured 
out what was up. Lugia could only imagine who the next unfortunate soul was 
going to be teleported into this prison.
	“Everything is set,” said one of the technicians.
	“We have a lock on the target,” said the trooper.
	“Begin!” ordered Cecil. With that, the technicians started pressing 
buttons and throwing switches furiously. A white light soon started forming in 
another capsule.
	“Shields are at full charge,” said another technician as the light got 
brighter. Dr. Newman walked up to a control console and then threw the master 
switch. With a bright flash and a loud boom, the Poke’mon was teleported from 
its home into the holding capsule at the base. The light subsided. Everyone in 
the room gasped at what they saw.
	“What is the meaning of this?” demanded the Poke’mon through telepathy.
	“What on earth is that?” asked a shocked Cecil. Dr. Newman barely 
recognized the Poke’mon that now stood before them.
	“I think I might have a lead,” said Dr. Newman as he sat down to a 
computer and feverishly started looking through files and other data. Finally, 
something of interest came up on the screen.
	“Oh, dear…” stammered Dr. Newman as he let his glasses fall to the ground.
	“What is it?” asked Cecil as he ran to Dr. Newman’s side and stared at the 
screen, “Where did these records come from?”
	“These must have been recovered from the headquarters of Team Rocket after 
the building was destroyed roughly…7 years ago!” said Dr. Newman with amazement.
	“But what is this THING?!” demanded Cecil as he pointed at the strange 
Poke’mon.
	“Species number one hundred and fifty. Name: Mewtwo,” said Dr. Newman as 
he read through the records, “A genetically altered clone created from a Mew 
fossil. Mewtwo is supposedly more powerful than Mew.” Dr. Newman continued 
reading through the information.
	“Incredible…” said Cecil as he closely eyed Mewtwo. Mewtwo glared back.
	“According to this, Mewtwo completely destroyed Team Rocket headquarters 
in a matter of minutes. Considering these old blue prints, that Team Rocket 
facility was monstrous and he completely leveled it. Not just that, but Mewtwo 
was believed to have annihilated the scientists who created him and also 
destroyed the lab where he was…’Born’ roughly 8 years ago,” said Dr. Newman as 
he fearfully read the records.
	“A major powerhouse and its mine,” said Cecil with glee.
	“I belong to no one,” snapped Mewtwo.
	“That’s what you think. Once I’m through with you, you’ll be obeying my 
every command,” said Cecil.
	“You won’t succeed. I already know that you are going to fail miserably. I 
don’t know how, but you will pay dearly for this mistake,” said Mewtwo.
	“Ha! We’ll see about that, my little pet!” snapped Cecil as he shook his 
left fist at Mewtwo.
	“If you had done this to me years ago, I would have destroyed you and 
everyone here without hesitation,” said Mewtwo as his eyes glowed a bright red, 
“But someone, taught me something important years ago.”
	“And what was that?” demanded Cecil.
	“I don’t need to explain myself to a fool like you,” scoffed Mewtwo. Cecil 
stomped out of the room with anger.
	“Just wait…” grumbled Cecil as he left the room. The other technicians 
soon left as well.
	“You have this situation under control, right, Dr. Newman?” asked a 
technician as he walked out of the room.
	“He can’t get out. Don’t worry,” replied Dr. Newman. After everyone had 
left, Mewtwo turned his gaze towards Dr. Newman.
	“I know what he’s planning, but it will never see the light of day,” said 
Mewtwo as he calmly sat down.
	“What makes you think you can escape? Why, I would let you and Lugia loose 
if I wasn’t going to get in trouble, but still. There is no way out of those 
capsules except by being turned into a shadow Poke’mon or by someone cracking 
the access code,” explained Dr. Newman with some sadness in his voice.
	“You’ve heard the stories about this place, have you not?” asked Mewtwo.
	“Yes,” answered Dr. Newman.
	“I’ve heard a lot about these mountains and about Gardev from other 
Poke’mon that I’ve come across over the years. Besides, your Alakazam already 
know at least who is going to stop him,” explained Mewtwo calmly.
	“They told you?” asked Dr. Newman as he Mewtwo nodded his head. Dr. 
Newman’s Alakazam nodded at Mewtwo and stood behind their trainer.
	“Yes. The Guardian of Gardev and an alien warrior are going to put a stop 
to this and they will deliver you to safety,” said Mewtwo, “The image of the 
alien warrior intrigues me, though. I think I’ve seen him somewhere before…many 
years ago.” Dr. Newman sat back down at a computer terminal and closely examined 
the records, trying to figure out who had found them. He gasped at the name he 
found: it was his brother who had discovered these records, Dr. Alvin Namwen.

-33-
Mack was pacing back and forth in Aura’s room with the pendant in his right 
hand, staring into the glowing ruby. He and Ramirez had not been able to find 
Anna, Fredrick, Sakura or Li.
	“Mack! We have an alert from Central!” said K-1 with alarm.
	“What is it?” asked Mack with concern as he quickly turned around to face 
K-1.
	“Central detected another massive energy spike emanating from Cipher’s 
facility just minutes ago. She can’t quite make out what exactly it is, but the 
energy signature looks something like that of your teleporters, Mack,” explained 
K-1.
	“Another one, eh?” asked Mack as he heard some soft footsteps outside his 
door. Moments later, there was a knock at the door.
	“Can we come in, Aura?” asked a familiar voice. Mack glanced back and 
forth, making sure that he didn’t have anything suspicious out in the open.
	“Come on in, Anna,” answered Mack softly. The door opened and Mack heard 
footsteps, but he didn’t see anyone.
	“What on earth is going on?” asked a bewildered K-1.
	“Can’t you see us, sis?” asked Fredrick. Mack had his suspicions and 
thrust his left hand forward. He grabbed onto a metal object that was invisible 
to the naked eye. He yanked the object from unseen hands and pressed a small, 
hidden switch on the device. Immediately, Sakura, Li, Anna and Fredrick appeared 
in the room.
	“Just as I thought,” said Mack with some laughter.
	“Hey! That was my treasure!” complained Anna.
	“It must have been Aura’s to begin with since you found it under her bed,” 
said Fredrick with dismay.
	“It’s okay. I’m just glad that you brought it back and that it isn’t 
broken. You aren’t in trouble,” said Mack softly as he put the box back.
	“You aren’t angry that they stole one of your cloaking devices?” said K-1 
with astonishment.
      “What’s a cloaking device?” asked Anna. Mack smiled.
      “A cloaking device is a machine that makes people, Poke’mon or other 
things invisible so no one can see them,” explained Mack.
      “What’s this?” asked Anna. Mack gasped as he saw Anna take the FIW-37 
Combo Rifle out from under Aura’s bed.
      “Put that down! That’s dangerous!” shouted Mack as he quickly snatched the 
weapon away. Sakura, Li and Fredrick were stunned.
      “What would you need a gun for?” asked Fredrick.
      “Aura? What’s with you?” asked Sakura. Li looked on the desk and noticed 
the damaged capture cannon.
      “What’s that doing here?!” exclaimed Li. Sakura jumped behind Li for 
protection.
      “Who are you?!” demanded Sakura with fear in her voice, “Aura would never 
want to be anywhere near these terrible machines!” Mack knew he could no longer 
keep his secret from Aura’s friends and other siblings.
      “I should have told you all about this sooner,” said Mack as he sat down, 
“You can relax. I’m not going to hurt you guys, besides, I’ve saved all of you 
from Cipher once already.”
      “Good point,” said Sakura as she calmed down.
      “The truth is, my name is Dr. Mack Foxx,” said Mack as he hung his head in 
shame, “I was the metal warrior who ran to Mt. Terror to rescue Aura and recover 
some valuable documents that had been stolen from Warren here in Gardev.”
      “I didn’t know you were a Gardevoir just like Aura!” said Sakura with a 
smile on her face.
      “I’m not really a Gardevoir…” said an irritated Mack.
      “But what happened to my sister?” asked Anna with some sadness in her 
voice.
      “You see, I managed to rescue Aura, but I soon got trapped in the base at 
Mt. Terror. Just as it seemed like all was lost for me, Aura grabbed my right 
hand and tried to teleport both of us to safety, despite how weak she was. 
However, the teleportation systems on my armor were badly damaged and when we 
teleported away, we were both fused into one body. On the outside, I look just 
like your sister, Aura, but inside, I have the mind of me, Dr. Foxx,” explained 
Mack, “Though I seem to be able to see Aura’s own memories from time to time.”
      “You could have told us. Maybe we could have helped you more,” said 
Sakura.
      “Yeah,” said Li, “You’ve helped us and the people at Gardev quite a bit. 
We trust you.”
      “You’ve done pretty well for your first few weeks as the Guardian of 
Gardev,” giggled Anna. Fredrick seemed worried.
      “Surely you don’t intend to stay bonded with my sister, do you?” asked 
Fredrick.
      “Of course not. I want to find a way to safely split Aura and me apart. 
Though I enjoy Aura’s power and the fact that she never gets tired like I do 
whenever I use my power, I can’t stay like this,” answered Mack.
      “Cipher still need to be dealt with, too,” said Fredrick.
      “I know. Considering what’s been happening in the last few hours, I 
believe its high time I put an end to Cipher’s presence in these mountains,” 
said Mack sternly as he stood back up.
      “Let us come with you!” said Sakura excitedly.
      “Surely we can help you!” said Li.
      “Cipher won’t be able to stand up to all of us!” said Anna with glee.
      “But how dangerous is this going to be?” asked Fredrick with caution.
	“Indeed,” said K-1, “Cipher’s base is certainly no place for young 
Poke’mon.”
      “I think you had better stay here,” said Mack as he started to leave the 
room. Anna ran over and wrapped her arms around his right ankle.
      “Please! Aura would let us come with her!” protested Anna.
      “Really? Do you think Aura would want to take you some place where you 
could get badly hurt or killed? Or how about getting captured and turned into a 
shadow Poke’mon?” asked Mack sternly.
      “I guess not…” sobbed Anna, “Just, please…be careful, Mack…”
      “I’ll be fine,” said Mack as Fredrick closed his eyes, “I will return.” 
Mack closed the door behind him. Sakura, Li and Anna then heard Mack run down 
the hallways and out the front door of Warren’s house. Fredrick sat silently, 
glowing with a soft blue aura around him.
      “I’d better be off as well,” said K-1 as he jumped out a nearby window and 
then started running for Mack’s lab, deep in the forests. Fredrick sat silently 
as the other Poke’mon stared at him. Suddenly, Fredrick stood up.
      “We have to go with him!” shouted Fredrick. The rest were shocked at his 
decision.
      “What?!” yelled a surprised Sakura.
      “What’s with that all of a sudden?” demanded Li.
      “Mack is not going to be alright. We have to catch up to him, otherwise 
both him and Aura will die!” said Fredrick with alarm.
	“How do you know this?” asked Anna with fear.
	“I saw the future,” said an uneasy Fredrick.
	“Really? You’ve never been able to do that before,” said Anna with 
amazement.
	“What did you see?” asked Sakura.
	“I saw Gardev. Everyone was gathered around the Gardevoir memorial statue 
in the middle of the town square. They were all grieving. Me, Anna and Ramirez 
were there too, but I couldn’t see any other Poke’mon. Not even Sakura or Li 
were there,” said Fredrick, “But that’s not all: Ramirez was wearing the blue 
sapphire pendant and crying. Next, I saw the little girl, Sakura, place flowers 
on the statue. Finally, I saw the engraved names on the statue. The names of Dr. 
Mack Foxx and Aura had been recently carved there!” said Fredrick with terror.
	“That settles it! We’re going after him!” said Sakura.
	“We can sneak back into the base using my secret entrance,” said Anna.

-34-
Moments earlier, Mack was running down the driveway of Warren’s house when he 
found William asleep on the seat of the hovercycle.  William was jolted awake.
	“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” demanded William.
	“I’m off to destroy that base of Cipher’s,” answered Mack.
	“Take me with you, then!” said William as he jumped off the hovercycle and 
onto the ground.
	“It’s too dangerous!” said Mack.
	“Look! I’m supposed to be your partner! I’m sure I’ll be able to help you! 
You know I can handle myself!” protested William. Mack sighed then smiled at 
William.
	“Okay my little friend, lets get going!” said Mack as he ran off towards 
the forest with William in hot pursuit. Minutes later, they were just a matter 
of yards from the front gate of the facility. Mack soon saw the guards and then 
dove behind some trees for cover. William jumped into his arms. Mack held 
William closely and carefully looked over the guards. He could barely hear two 
of them talking while they were sitting in one of the guard towers. For some 
reason, all the guards were carrying strange weapons.
	“I still can’t believe that Cecil ordered us to carry these guns around 
just in case the guardian comes back,” said one guard.
	“I know. I don’t know if I could kill such a beautiful Poke’mon just like 
that,” said another guard.
	“Apparently, these guns are capable of blasting through the barriers that 
some Poke’mon can generate for protection. Why, the guardian is practically 
defenseless,” said the first guard.
	“I also heard that Dr. Newman’s twisted brother created these weapons,” 
said the other guard.
	“Speaking of Dr. Newman, have you heard the latest rumor about him?” asked 
the first guard.
	“What is it this time? Is this the one about how he’s the clone of 
Einstein?” laughed the other guard as he grabbed a doughnut from a nearby box 
and started eating it.
	“No, not quite,” said the first guard, “You know how he never goes 
anywhere without his group of six Alakazams, right?”
	“Of course!” snapped the other guards as candy sprinkles fell onto one of 
the control consoles in the tower, “I wouldn’t go anywhere without my Poke’mon 
either!”
	“Well, apparently, he has a special purpose for his Poke’mon,” explained 
the first guard, “Not only are they his dear friends, but they are also his, 
well, his brain trust.”
	“What on earth do you mean by that?!” laughed the other guard as loud as 
he could.
	“Anyway, Dr. Newman supposedly has the power of telepathy; therefore, he 
communicates mentally with his Alakazams and combines their immense intelligence 
with his own. This way, he is able to think thousands upon thousands of times 
faster than any normal human being,” said the first guard.
	“That would explain how he was able to build those capture cannons as well 
as Project Epsilon,” said the other guards as he finished his doughnut.
	“That’s not all,” said the first guard with a grin, “I also heard that the 
capture cannons and Project Epsilon were created from alien technology that was 
found in the remains of the Mt. Terror facility. He got the ideas while studying 
an alien suit of armor that had been brought up from there!”
	“I think I’ve heard enough,” grumbled the other guard as he put some 
Boston Cream doughnuts over his ears. Mack and William looked at each other.
	“So, they have been ordered to kill me if I show up,” said Mack.
	“Can’t you just turn invisible?” asked William. Mack tried to focus and 
concentrate, but to no avail.
	“It’s no use…” sighed Mack, “I can’t concentrate enough. I have too much 
on my mind.”
	“Then we need a diversion!” said William with a fiendish grin on his face.
	“What?” said Mack with surprise, “You aren’t really going to try anything 
dumb, are you?”
	“Dumb? Perhaps, but consider this,” explained William, “They’ve been 
ordered to kill the Guardian of Gardev, but what about a relatively harmless 
Pikachu? Who would suspect that such a cute little creature could be so much 
trouble?” Mack grinned at him.
	“Okay. Go get ‘em you little trouble maker!” chuckled Mack as William 
started climbing up the nearest tower.
	“I’m telling you, there’s more to Dr. Newman than meets the eye!” said the 
first guard as the other guard cleaned chocolate frosting out of his ears.
	“Pika-pika!” said a high-pitched voice behind the guards. They quickly 
turned around and came face to face with a Pikachu.
	“Hmmm? What have we here?” said the second guard.
	“Looks like a Pikachu!” said the first guard as he took a few steps away 
from the electric rodent.
	“Please…” said the second guard as he walked up and gently stroked the 
Pikachu. The Pikachu squeaked with delight.
	“You sure that’s such a good idea? That’s a wild Pikachu! It might fry 
you!” warned the first guard.
	“Come, come,” said the second guard as he continued to pet the content 
Pikachu, “Pikachu are usually very shy, but also very friendly. Trust me; this 
little fellow isn’t going to give us any trouble.” Suddenly, William jumped out 
from under the guard’s hands and grabbed the box of doughnuts with his mouth.
	“Huh?!” said the first guard as he jumped back with surprise.
	“Hey! Those doughnuts are mine!” shouted the irritated second guard. 
William put the box of doughnuts down on in front of himself and then started 
dancing about the room.
	“Pika, pika, piiika!” taunted William before he grabbed the doughnut box 
and jumped out the window on the tower.
	“After that little moron!” shouted the second guard as he and his partner 
climbed down the tower.
	“What did you say about the little freak not giving us any trouble?” asked 
the first guard with sarcasm.
	“Shut up!” replied the second guard as he kept his eyes on the Pikachu. 
William was running left and right in the streets, dashing between guards and 
drawing a lot of attention.
	“What’s the meaning of this?” demanded another guard.
	“A wild Pikachu broke into the base!” said the first guard.
	“And he stole my doughnuts!” complained the second guard as the third 
guard laughed to himself.
	“No matter! Hunt down the little rat! Use the capture cannons on it!” 
ordered the third guard. The guards dropped their rifles, picked up capture 
cannons and then futilely tried to stop the marauding Pikachu. Mack couldn’t 
help but laugh as he watched the guards run back and forth in pursuit of a 
thieving Pikachu. Mack tried focusing his power again, but he still could not 
bend light around himself enough to become invisible. Mack decided that he had 
better not waste time and he stealthily approached the base. With the guards 
busy, Mack was able to slip in the front gate unnoticed. Moments later, Mack hid 
behind a large crate as William ran by with all the guards after him. William 
ran into the largest building in the complex. The guards followed right after 
him, but could not keep up. Minutes later, they found the doughnut box in one of 
the hallways. The second guard picked it up and to his horror; he discovered 
that the box of pastries was now empty.
	“Gadzooks! Not only did that little rat make fools out of us, but he ate 
all my doughnuts!” complained the second guard.  A loud belch from down another 
hallway confirmed his fears. While the guards searched every nook and cranny for 
Mack’s irritating Pikachu, Mack ran silently down the hallways. He felt drawn to 
a certain room in the building. He didn’t bother wasting the time to hack the 
digital lock, so he blasted the door open. As the door fell, Mack gasped. In a 
large glass tube in the middle of the room, sat Mewtwo. Mack slowly entered the 
room, staring at Mewtwo, wondering how he had been brought here.
	“Is Cipher really strong enough to capture one of the world’s most 
dangerous Poke’mon?” thought Mack as he walked closer. Mewtwo slowly opened his 
eyes and then gazed at the figure of a Gardevoir as it walked towards him.
	“The Guardian of Gardev is more beautiful than I had ever imagined,” said 
Mewtwo through his powers of telepathy.
	“Hey! Don’t get any funny ideas!” shouted Mack in Aura’s voice. Mewtwo 
closed his eyes and focused his power more closely. He opened his eyes again. He 
seemed to be rather disgusted.
	“Hmmm…I know you from somewhere…” remarked Mewtwo as he stood up, “You’re 
really that metallic, alien warrior, Dr. Mack Foxx!”
	“We meet again, Mewtwo,” said Mack, “I was wondering when we would meet 
face to face again.”
	“How could you remember me? I thought I had erased your memory as I 
departed from that island,” said a perplexed Mewtwo.
	“You really think I would let someone tinker with my memories? Your powers 
are strong, but your attempt to eradicate my memory of you and everything that 
happened on that day failed,” explained Mack.
	“It doesn’t matter anyway,” said Mewtwo, “It seems what they have foreseen 
indeed came true: the Guardian of Gardev and an alien warrior have come to save 
us. I never imagined that both of you would come in the same body, though.”
	“What do you mean ‘Us’?” asked Mack.
	“Oh, my new friend here was also brought here by the same machine that 
captured me,” said Mewtwo as he pointed to a capsule behind him. Mack was 
shocked at what he saw: in the capsule, sat his Lugia. He even still had the 
silver collar that Mack had given him all those years ago.
	“Xavier?!” shouted Mack with shock.
	“Who said my name?” asked Xavier with a yawn as he got to his feet. He 
took a close look at the Gardevoir who stood before him.
	“Mack? Is that you? What have you done to yourself?!” demanded Xavier.
	“To keep a long story short, I was fused with a Gardevoir named Aura, who 
I was supposed to rescue but I ended up being fused with her due to a 
teleportation accident,” explained Mack.
	“Are you going to stay like that?” asked Xavier.
	“Of course not! While I’m here trying to stop Cipher, Central and K-1 are 
trying to find a way to safely split Aura and me apart. Until that happens, I’m 
going to have to protect Gardev. It’s the least I can do for Aura since she 
saved my life,” said Mack as he walked over to a control panel.
	“I see, but you still make a cute Gardevoir,” said Xavier with laughter.
	“I see you haven’t changed much over the last 2 years,” grumbled Mack as 
he tried to hack the terminal. Mack was almost able to open the capsules 
containing Mewtwo and Xavier when he heard a voice from behind him.
	“Halt!” said the voice. Mack quickly turned around and came face to face 
with Dr. Newman and Cecil.
	“Of all places for you to wander into!” growled Cecil, “Hold it off as 
long as you can, Dr. Newman. I’ll be right back.” Dr. Newman gulped at this 
command: he knew exactly what Cecil was planning, but he knew he had better 
comply. After all, if Cecil was about to hastily kill a Gardevoir, what would 
stop Cecil from killing Dr. Newman with the same weapon? Dr. Newman grabbed six 
Poke’ balls from his belt into his hands and then he quickly threw them to the 
floor right in front of Mack. Mack took a few steps back as six Alakazams 
appeared before him.
	“Isaac, Albert, Benjamin, Thomas, Leonardo and Galileo: attack that 
Gardevoir! Subdue her quickly or Cecil will try to kill her!” ordered Dr. 
Newman. The Alakazams’ eyes glowed in response to their trainer’s order and they 
were soon enshrouded behind an aura of blue light.
	“So, each of them is named after a famous inventor or scientist, but how 
am I supposed to fight in a Poke’mon battle when I have no Poke’mon? Of course! 
What am I thinking?! For the time being, I AM a Poke’mon!” thought Mack as he 
started focusing his power, “My psychic attacks might not be very useful against 
these Poke’mon, but I do have one trick up my sleeves that Aura can only dream 
about.” Dr. Newman stood still, stunned as he watched the Gardevoir focus a ball 
of light between her hands. Mack quickly thrust his hands forward, launching the 
ball of light at the row of Alakazams. The ball of light hit the ground right in 
front of them, exploding into a bright flash and knocking all the Alakazams to 
the floor. Mack jumped into the air, focusing his power even more and then fired 
beams of explosive light from his hands at his targets. The Alakazams were blown 
into the walls around Dr. Newman.
	“Don’t give up!” shouted Dr. Newman, “The Guardian’s life is at stake! We 
can’t let Cecil come back and find out that we haven’t stopped her! He’ll kill 
her!” The Alakazams slowly got back on their feet and staggered towards the 
Gardevoir.
	“What is that guy talking about? No matter. These Alakazams are no more 
than punching bags against me,” though Mack as he started concentrating even 
deeper. Dr. Newman looked on as the Gardevoir become surrounded in a bubble of 
light and then started to float in the air with its skirt panels fluttering. Dr. 
Newman clenched his fists. He gazed at his Alakazams: they were all barely able 
to stand because of the guardian’s attacks. Never before had Dr. Newman seen or 
even heard about a Poke’mon that could attack with the power of light. Dr. 
Newman knew very well what he had to do now.
	“Mercy! Mercy!” shouted Dr. Newman as he fell on his knees with his face 
to the ground, “Oh, Guardian of Gardev, please! No more! No More! Please don’t 
hurt my friends!” Mack glanced at Dr. Newman and then he slowly set his feet 
back on the ground as the bright bubble of light quickly vanished.
	“You give up?” asked Mack.
	“Yes! Just please!” sobbed Dr. Newman, “Please leave my friends alone! I 
won’t stop you…” Mack looked over Dr. Newman.
	“A man like you really has no place in a criminal gang like Cipher,” said 
Mack, “Your very job is threatened and you still don’t sacrifice your Poke’mon 
for yourself.”
	“I don’t want to see them suffer any more,” said Dr. Newman with tears, 
“Please have mercy on us.”
	“As long as you stay out of my way, I have no need to hurt you or them any 
further,” said Mack as he closed his eyes. Dr. Newman looked up to see the 
Gardevoir glow ever brighter with a white aura. Mack pointed his hands at the 
ground and a wave of white light slowly glided across the floor. As the wave of 
light moved on, Dr. Newman watched his Alakazams get back to their feet with all 
their wounds healed. The light faded as Mack opened his eyes.
	“You are foolish, Guardian of Gardev,” said a voice from somewhere in the 
room. Mack turned around and faced a glass window in the room. Behind the 
window, stood a short man with his face and body obscured by shadows.
	“Who are you?” asked Mack. Dr. Newman trembled as he gazed at the short 
man.
	“I am the leader of Cipher. I need not tell my name to garbage like you. 
You may call me ‘Boss’,” said the short man, “Soon, maybe you will call me 
master, instead.”
	“That will never happen! I will not be anyone’s slave!” shouted Mack.
	“Indeed,” said the boss with cruel laughter, “Come: it is time we left 
this place.” Mack saw two much taller men escort the boss out of the small room 
behind the glass.
	“No one will be your master alright!” shouted Cecil with rage. Mack 
quickly turned around as Dr. Newman shrieked. Mack’s eyes went wide as he stared 
down the barrel of a strange gun.
	“I beg you, Cecil! Don’t do it!” pleaded Dr. Newman.
	“Give my regards to hell, you worthless beast!” yelled Cecil as he cocked 
the gun. Suddenly, an air vent panel exploded outward as two Kirlia, a Ralts and 
a Mawile landed on Cecil. Cecil shrieked as the gun flew out of his hands. The 
gun hit the ground and went off, blasting a giant hole in a nearby wall.
	“That was too close!” thought Mack. Dr. Newman stood still, stunned at 
what a single shot of his brother’s weapons could do.
	“My horrid brother Alvin built those terrible weapons and one of them 
almost killed the Guardian of Gardev…” thought Dr. Newman as he faced the 
Gardevoir. They quickly turned around to face Cecil. He was still fighting with 
Anna, Fredrick, Sakura and Li. With a howl of rage he threw them off into a wall 
to his left, knocking the little Poke’mon senseless. He quickly grabbed the gun 
and pointed it at the young, dazed Poke’mon.
	“You can die with this horrid Gardevoir, too!” growled Cecil as he put his 
finger on the trigger. Dr. Newman fell to the floor as Mack rushed forward, 
tackled Cecil and pinned him to the ground.
	“It ends here!” said Mack as he pressed Cecil’s wrists to the ground. 
Cecil smiled and erupted with evil laughter.
	“I never imagined that the new Guardian of Gardev would be this much 
trouble!” laughed Cecil as he struggled to shake the Gardevoir off himself.
	“New Guardian?” said Mack with laughter, “The previous guardian still 
lives and is right before you!” Cecil froze and took a closer look as the 
Gardevoir that was pinning him to the floor.
	“You…you’re that worthless guardian, Aura!” stammered Cecil with fright.
	“Indeed,” said Mack as his eyes glowed white, “Did you really think that 
the destruction of your Mt. Terror facility would stop us?” Cecil stared at 
Aura, bewildered.
	“Us?” asked Cecil as he stared into Aura’s eyes, then screamed with shear 
terror.
	“Figured it out?” asked Mack as his eyes glowed brighter.
	“I never thought such a thing could happen: one life form being fused with 
another,” said Cecil as he marveled at this sight, “Dr. Alvin Namwen would love 
to know of this.” Dr. Newman gasped as Cecil threw Mack into a wall with 
surprising strength, knocking the air out of the noble guardian. Cecil glared at 
Dr. Newman. Dr. Newman crossed his arms as his Alakazams gathered around their 
master to protect him.
	“How about you give up right now?” asked Dr. Newman with a scowl.
	“Because, thanks to you, this appalling mutant and your dear brother,” 
said Cecil as he pointed at Dr. Newman and Aura, “I now have what I need to make 
Cipher invincible! Farewell!” Cecil started running for the nearest door.
	“Stop him!” commanded Dr. Newman as his Alakazams combined their 
telekinetic powers to grab Cecil into the air, but strangely, nothing happened. 
Cecil didn’t even slow down.
	“Again, I thank you!” shouted Cecil with evil laughter as the door closed 
behind him. Moments later, the control panel on the door started sparking.
	“He used a psychic jammer to evade my friends’ power,” said Dr. Newman, 
“And then he destroyed the electronic lock on the door. Open that door!” Dr. 
Newman pointed at the door and his Alakazams tried to focus their power again, 
but the door didn’t even budge.
	“It’s no use,” said Cecil from behind the door, “I’m wearing a psychic 
jammer and have placed another jammer by the door. You won’t be able to follow 
me now. It’s a real pity that you didn’t follow in your brother’s footsteps. 
I’ll give him your regards.”
	“My evil brother…” said Dr. Newman softly.
	“That Gardevoir’s head would have made a great trophy, too! Since I can’t 
have that, though, I’ll just have to settle for the complete destruction of 
Gardev!” said Cecil with maniacal laughter. Dr. Newman listened carefully as 
Cecil’s insane laughter got quieter and quieter as he ran down the hallways. Dr. 
Newman ran over and quickly helped Mack and the other young Poke’mon to their 
feet.
	“Thank you…” said Mack as he tried to regain his balance.
	“I should be thanking you. With your help, I can finally leave this 
horrible place!” said Dr. Newman with glee.
	“Aren’t you forgetting about something?” said Mewtwo as Mack and Dr. 
Newman faced him, “This machine: Project Epsilon. It needs to be destroyed at 
once as well as all information that relates to it. Otherwise, Cipher will be 
able to build another one and be able to instantly capture any Poke’mon from 
anywhere on the earth.”
	“You’re right!” said Dr. Newman as he ran for a nearby desk in the room. 
Mack stood up straight as Sakura, Li, Anna and Fredrick ran up and hugged Mack.
	“Thank you all very much,” said Mack softly as Sakura and Anna giggled.
	“We weren’t gonna let that bad man hurt you!” said Anna with glee as she 
held the body of her sister tightly. Dr. Newman gasped and stood up.
	“The back up disks…they’re gone…” said Dr. Newman with fear.
	“What?!” yelled Mack as the Poke’mon around him let go, “What about my 
suit of armor?” Dr. Newman ran over to a steel door in the room. He quickly 
punched some keys to disable the electronic lock. Moments later, the door opened 
to reveal an empty storage space.
	“Someone took all the disks and my armor?!” shouted Mack. Dr. Newman found 
a small, folded note near where the armor had sat. He opened the note and read 
it out loud:
	“My dear brother, thank you for all these wonderful gifts. I’ll make 
perfect use of them. Sincerely, your superior brother, Alvin,” said Dr. Newman 
with rage as he read the note.
	“They may have all the needed data and my armor, but destroying this base 
and Project Epsilon will still deal a nasty blow to Cipher!” said Mack with 
resolve.
	“Agreed!” said Dr. Newman as he ran up to a computer console and furiously 
pressed some switches. Seconds later, the capsules with Mewtwo and Lugia opened.
	“Ah! I can finally stretch out again!” said Xavier with relief as he 
spread his wings.
	“Still, I never did find those records that were stolen from Gardev,” 
sighed Mack.
	“Those records?” asked Dr. Newman, “You can find them in the archival room 
about 100 yards down the hallway.”
	“How about we get them?” asked Anna, much to Sakura’s, Li’s and Fredrick’s 
surprise.
	“Maybe,” said Mack as he faced Mewtwo as he floated in the air, “Can you 
watch over them?”
	“Of course,” replied Mewtwo, “You set me free. Guarding these young 
Poke’mon is the least I can do for you.”
	“Xavier, I want you to take Dr. Newman to safety,” ordered Mack.
	“You’ve got it!” said Xavier, “Climb on guys!” Dr. Newman and his 
Alakazams quickly climbed onto Xavier’s back.
	“Okay, Xavier, you fly Dr. Newman back to Gardev,” said Mack as he faced 
the group of young Poke’mon and Mewtwo, “You guys will grab those stolen records 
and then make your way back to Gardev. Move quickly! There’s no telling what 
will happen when this machine goes off!”
	“Right!” said Xavier, Mewtwo, Dr. Newman, Sakura, Li, Anna and Fredrick in 
unison.
	“Now go! You’ve got ten minutes!” shouted Mack. Xavier focused his power 
and quickly blasted a hole in the ceiling using Hyper Beam as Mewtwo and the 
young Poke’mon ran down the hallway. As Xavier flew out the fresh hole in the 
ceiling, Mack closely studied the machine, trying to figure out the best and 
safest way to destroy it. Something about one of the computers in the room 
quickly caught his eyes.
	“What have we here?” thought Mack as he quickly typed on the keyboard. 
Mack soon discovered that this computer was tracking all the capture cannons 
that had been built by Cipher.
	“Too easy,” thought Mack with a grin as he hacked the tracking program. 
Moments later, a message came up on the screen warning that the self-destruct 
sequence on the capture cannons had been activated. Then another message came up 
saying that the process had been completed.
	“That did the trick. The self-destruct systems on those cannons just fused 
the complex circuitry, making them useless,” thought Mack with relief. He 
quickly got back to work while waiting for his friends to escape.

-35-
K-1 quickly ran to the window at the sound of a distant explosion. He saw a 
faint orange beam of energy miles away.
	“Energy spike detected,” said Central through K-1’s built in radio.
	“No kidding…” grumbled K-1 as he stared out the window, “You better come 
back in one piece, Mack.” Warren, Jake, Makoto and her daughter, Sakura also 
noticed the strange beam of light.
	“A Hyper Beam?” asked Jake with astonishment.
	“Something big is going on,” said Warren. He had a bad feeling about what 
was happening.
	“Has anyone seen Aura lately?” asked Sakura with concern.
	“Perhaps she found those thieves’ hideout?” suggested Jake.
	“They must have found their hideout,” said Warren with some relief.
	“Excuse me, but what do you mean ‘They’?” asked Jake with suspicion.
	“Isn’t it obvious? Aura and that metallic mercenary have been working 
together for the last several weeks. Where else would Aura get those weapons 
that we found under her bed? How else would you explain the robot that wanders 
about Aura’s room these days?” said an irritated Warren.
	“I guess you’re right,” muttered Jake.
	“Aura will be okay. Won’t she?” asked Sakura as she hugged her mother.
	“Of course she will,” answered Makoto softly.
	“Your Poke’mon will be glad to see her soon, too,” said Makoto with a 
smile.
	“My Poke’mon?” asked Sakura, “I haven’t seen them all day.”
	“Maybe they are helping Aura and the mercenary?” suggested Makoto.
	“Wouldn’t surprise me,” laughed Warren, “They’ll be safe with Aura.”

-36-
Mewtwo, Sakura the Kirlia, Anna, Fredrick and Li were running down the seemingly 
endless hallways and corridors of the building. Anna heard a metallic thud from 
a nearby air vent.
	“What was that?!” shrieked Sakura. They heard some moaning and groaning 
from the vent as some soft footsteps got louder.
	“What is going on here?” asked Fredrick with curiosity.
	“We haven’t much time,” cautioned Mewtwo. Li grabbed the vent with his 
giant maw and effortlessly tore the panel out of the wall to reveal a Pikachu.
	“Thanks…” groaned William as he staggered into the hallway, “I was 
starting to think I’d never get out of those vents. All the other panels were 
locked and I’m too sick to blast them with electricity.”
	“Hey! You’re my sister’s new pet, aren’t you?” asked Anna with glee.
	“I beg your pardon! I’m Mack’s Pikachu!” shouted William as he slowly 
walked towards Sakura.
	“Close enough,” said Fredrick.
	“I suppose so, since Aura and Mack are in the same body right now…” said 
William as he fell on his face in front of Sakura.
	“What happened to you? You look very sick,” said Sakura with some concern.
	“I’ve had worse days…” said William with a belch, “Just remind me to never 
eat half a dozen Boston Cream doughnuts in under two minutes again, okay?”
	“Okay,” said a confused Sakura as she picked William up into her arms.
	“We most move quickly. We have less than eight minutes before Mack 
destroys this facility,” warned Mewtwo as the group started running down the 
halls again, stopping at a large door.
	“This must be the archival room,” said Fredrick. The door was locked 
tight.
	“Stand back, kids,” said Mewtwo. The young Poke’mon stood back several 
feet as Mewtwo started glowing. Seconds later, the door to the archival room was 
torn from its hinges and thrown through a few walls. They stepped into the room 
and gasped: everywhere in the room there were large filing cabinets and huge 
boxes covering every square inch of the floor with a few paths in between.
	“How are we going to find the right papers in this?” asked Anna with a 
sigh.
	“We’ll just have to take them all,” said Mewtwo as he lifted all the 
cabinets and boxes into the air.
	“Are you sure?” asked Anna.
	“I can handle all of these, now let’s go!” said Mewtwo as they started 
running for the exit. Suddenly, a trooper jumped out from behind a corner.
	“Halt!” said the trooper as he quickly studied the Poke’mon, “Trying to 
steal our records, eh? I’ll just have to put a stop to you.” The trooper lowered 
his capture cannon into place. Sakura and Li cowered into the wall behind them. 
Something seemed amiss to Fredrick.
      “Why does it smell like burnt electronics?” thought Fredrick as he closely 
eyed the trooper’s strange cannon. A small amount of smoke was coming from the 
vents of the cannon. The trooper pulled the trigger, but nothing happened, 
except for more smoke to come pouring out of the cannon’s vents.
	“What is blazes?!” shouted the trooper as he threw the cannon to the floor 
behind him, “It isn’t working now?! But how?!”
	“Looks like someone found a way to destroy those terrible weapons just a 
few seconds ago,” thought Fredrick.
	“We’ll just have to do this the old-fashioned way then!” said the trooper 
with anger as he threw a Poke’ ball to the ground. The Poke’ ball opened with a 
bright flash, revealing a Murkrow.
	“How are we supposed to defeat that?” thought Anna.
	“And just to make things interesting,” said the trooper as he pulled out a 
small box and flipped a switch on it, “Now you can’t use any of your psychic 
powers on me or my Poke’mon!”
	“Another psychic jammer? Great…” muttered Mewtwo as he tried to keep the 
boxes and cabinets behind him from falling to the ground. Sakura jumped behind 
Li for protection while holding William tightly. Anna got behind Mewtwo.
	“Can’t you do something, Mewtwo?” asked Anna with fright.
	“I’m afraid not. I’m having enough trouble trying to keep all these boxes 
and cabinets in the air,” said Mewtwo. Fredrick jumped in front of the Murkrow.
	“What’s this? You want to be first, eh? Fine with me! This will be easy,” 
said the trooper, “Murkrow, attack!” The Murkrow charged at Fredrick. However, 
Fredrick just sat still with one arm behind his back. Just as the Murkrow was a 
few feet from Fredrick, Fredrick lunged forward with his right arm blazing with 
electricity and hit the Murkrow squarely in the face with a Thunder Punch. The 
Murkrow went flying backwards and collided with its trainer. The trooper stared 
at the little Ralts with disbelief, and then went running down the hallways to 
escape the pint-sized terror with the psychic jammer in his arms. Anna was 
amazed.
	“That was a nice shot, Fredrick!” said Anna as Fredrick started glowing 
brightly.
	“What’s this?!” asked Li as Anna jumped behind Mewtwo for cover. The light 
got brighter and brighter, becoming almost blinding. The light quickly faded, 
revealing Fredrick, as a Kirlia.
	“Ah,” said Mewtwo, “So he evolved.”
	“He’s cute,” giggled Sakura.
      “I though I was…” groaned William. Anna jumped for joy then ran and 
wrapped her arms around her brother, Fredrick.
	“Yay! My little brother evolved!” shouted Anna with happiness.
	“I beg your pardon?!” said Fredrick with surprise, “I’m older than you!”
	“Then how come she evolved before you did?” asked Li. Fredrick shrugged.
	“Perhaps it’s because Anna has been in a lot more fights than I have. My 
little sister has quite the temper,” chuckled Fredrick as Anna glared at him.
	“You’ve proved your point,” said a nauseated William, “Now let’s get out 
of here!” Anna, Fredrick, Mewtwo, Li and Sakura with William in her arms 
immediately began running down the hallway towards the exit. Mewtwo was 
strained, trying to keep hundreds of heavy objects in the air as he floated 
after the young Poke’mon. Soon, they were out the front door and out the front 
gate. Meanwhile, Mack was still studying the machine known as Project Epsilon. 
Mack focused his power and was able to track his friends as they ran for safety. 
There was no telling what was about to happen when this gargantuan machine was 
destroyed. Mack decided to wait for his friends to get safely to Gardev before 
he unleashed his wrath upon Project Epsilon.

-37-
K-1 had jumped back with fright as he saw the remains of the capture cannon 
start sparking and smoking.
	“What on earth just happened?!” thought K-1, “Ah! Mack must have finally 
found out how to destroy all the copies of his capture claw!”
	“K-1? Are you busy?” asked Central though K-1’s radio.
	“K-1 here, what’s up?” asked K-1.
	“According to my sensors, the counterfeit capture claws have all been 
destroyed,” reported Central.
	“No kidding…” muttered K-1 as he glanced at the smoldering wreckage that 
was on Aura’s desk.
	“Unfortunately, I have also detected the destruction of the original 
capture claw. From what I can gather, repairs will be impossible,” said Central 
with some disappointment.
	“Maybe its better that way: Imagine if Cipher had managed to mass-produce 
those cannons? There would be almost nothing to stop them from stealing Poke’mon 
whenever they pleased. Now that’s impossible,” said K-1 with some relief. Warren 
suddenly stormed into the room, drawn in by the smell of burning machinery.
	“What in blazes is going on back here?!” demanded Warren. His gaze soon 
caught the smoking, half-melted cannon on Aura’s desk. Warren glared at K-1.
	“It wasn’t me!” pleaded K-1.
	“Either way, that desk has been in the family for hundreds of years!” 
shouted Warren.
	“Please…” muttered K-1 as he extended an arm from his chest compartment, 
picked up the smoking weapon and then casually tossed it out the nearest window. 
K-1 heard a metallic “Klunk!” followed closely by a much louder “OUCH!!!”
	“And you just struck Jake…” grumbled Warren. K-1 was not paying any 
attention to Warren, but at the commotion that was happening in the town square.
	“What’s going on here?” asked K-1 to himself as he jumped out the window 
and started running for the town square. Warren ran outside, helped Jake to his 
feet and then they started running after K-1. Many of the town’s citizens were 
gathered near the Gardevoir memorial statue. K-1 walked over for a closer look. 
Standing in front of the statue was three Kirlia, a Mawile and a Poke’mon that 
no one had seen before as well as several hundred filing cabinets and boxes.
	“What is the meaning of this?!” exclaimed a thoroughly surprised Jake.
	“Looks like Dr. Foxx had a few friends help him recover our records and 
then some…” stammered Warren as he thought he was going to have a heart attack. 
K-1 took a closer look at the strange Poke’mon before him.
	“Hmmmmm…” said K-1 as he closely analyzed the Poke’mon, “Ah! Species 
number one hundred and fifty. Name: Mewtwo,” said K-1.
	“Do I know you?” asked Mewtwo via telepathy. Somehow, K-1 was able to hear 
Mewtwo’s psychic communication.
	“We have never met, but Mack told me all about you,” answered K-1.
	“What is going on here? Not all of the records could possibly belong at my 
city hall!” shouted Warren. Mewtwo and the other Poke’mon faced Warren and Jake.
	“Aura had us bring these here,” said Anna politely.
	“I know that voice,” said K-1 as he went down the line of young Poke’mon, 
“Anna, Li, Sakura, William and Mewtwo all helped.” K-1 didn’t recognize one of 
the Kirlia.
	“Either you’re new here, or you evolved…” muttered K-1 as he closely 
studied the unidentified Kirlia.
	“I’m Fredrick! Sheesh!” said Fredrick with a scowl.
	“We did not have enough time to sort through all this information,” 
explained Mewtwo, “So, I decided we should bring it all here. You should be able 
to sort out your own papers from this junk within a few days.”
	“What a gold mine!” said K-1 with excitement as he peered into the filing 
cabinets and boxes, “There is bound to be a wealth of information in here about 
that criminal organization as well as their latest activities!”
	“And I was starting to wonder what had become of that metal mercenary,” 
said Jake with some relief.
	“I suppose you would not object to rewarding Dr. Foxx now?” asked Warren.
	“I suppose,” answered Jake with a sigh.
	“Speaking of Mack,” said K-1 as he faced the young Poke’mon and Mewtwo, 
“Where is he?”
	“Mack…erm…and Aura are preparing to destroy those thieves’ facility,” 
answered Fredrick with uneasiness.
	“I hope he doesn’t come back too soon…” said K-1 with sadness.
	“What? Why shouldn’t Mack come back too soon?” asked a confused Sakura. K-
1 motioned for the young Poke’mon and Mewtwo to follow him.
	“Excuse us for a moment,” said K-1 as he walked back to Warren’s house 
with the group of Poke’mon behind him. After they entered Aura’s room, K-1 shut 
and locked the door.
	“Now can you explain what’s going on?” asked Anna impatiently.
	“I don’t have the heart to tell him this, but I just got some results from 
Central,” said K-1.
	“Who’s Central?” asked Li.
	“Central is the name of Mack’s powerful computer, most specifically, the 
artificial intelligence and sentience program,” explained K-1, “Anyway, I got 
some results from Central. She has been running simulations and calculations for 
the last several weeks and…”
	“And what?” asked Sakura as she gently set William on Aura’s bed. K-1 
hesitated.
	“There seems to be no way to safely separate Aura and Mack,” said K-1 with 
disappointment.
	“How come?” asked Anna.
	“Well, there are several ways to split them apart, but there always seems 
to be the chance of either one or both of them dying in the process or even 
some…unusual side effects,” explained K-1. Everyone in the room became silent.
	“So that’s the story,” said Warren as he unlocked the door and entered the 
room. K-1 jumped back into a corner from shock.
	“Oh, no!” shouted Anna.
	“Relax,” said Warren calmly, “Now I know the whole story. So, Mack was 
bonded with Aura when he tried to rescue her. Do you think Mack would stay here 
and continue Aura’s duties as guardian?”
	“Unlikely,” said K-1, “Mack and I have been trying to return to our home 
world for several…years now. I don’t think he would want to stay here for long.”
	“Then something is just bound to happen!” said Anna.
	“We could always try one of those methods that Central came up with and 
just pray for the best,” said Fredrick.
	“That’s if Mack makes it back here alive,” said Mewtwo as everyone stared 
at him with shock, “There really is no telling what will happen when Project 
Epsilon is eliminated.”

-38-
Mack took one last quick survey of Project Epsilon as well as the room. He 
looked up at where Xavier had blasted a large hole in the ceiling. He would have 
used that for his escape, but Xavier must have damaged some high-tension wires 
and now there was lightning lancing back and forth. If the electricity here was 
as powerful as it was in the Mt. Terror base, then his psychic barriers would 
not provide any protection against the lethal currents. His attention soon 
turned back to Project Epsilon.
	“Such a fine piece of machinery,” thought Mack, “It really is a pity that 
I must utterly destroy it.” A computer monitor in the room lit up and Mack ran 
over to it. The computer was flashing a message, saying that reinforcements 
would be arriving within the hour. Mack took a look at the amounts of Cipher 
troops and equipment that were going to descend on the base within a matter of 
minutes.
	“There’s no time then,” thought Mack as he glared at the monumental 
machine. He closed his eyes and started focusing his power. Mack slowly floated 
off the ground and started glowing with a blinding white light as the panels of 
his skirt fluttered. Mack glanced at his chest and watched the pendant glow ever 
brighter.
	“Here we go, Aura!” said Mack loudly as he fired a giant beam of light 
from his hands. The light hit the giant machine and a bright flash lit up the 
room. Mack looked onward as his beam of light cut into Project Epsilon, tearing 
up metal and severing thick wires. Electricity shot through the room, but was 
deflected by Mack’s psychic barrier.
	“Time to leave!” thought Mack frantically as he turned around and started 
flying for the nearest door. Mack turned around and stopped in his tracks at 
what he saw next. Strange blobs of energy, almost as colorful as a rainbow, were 
shooting out of the massive gouges in the machinery. Before Mack could react and 
fly out of the room, one of the blobs of energy collided with him. The energy 
went right through his barrier and enshrouded him with a multi-colored aura. 
Mack fell to the ground as his body started to seize up. Mack gazed at his 
Gardevoir hands as they glowed bright from the strange energy.
	“I’ve never seen energy like this before in all my travels!” marveled Mack 
as he writhed with pain. His vision started to blur. He brought his hands to the 
sides of his head.
	“I…I feel like I’m being…torn apart!” thought Mack with sheer terror as he 
blacked out. Moments later, a bright explosion of light and smoke lit up the sky 
for miles around. K-1 and everyone else in Aura’s room ran for the nearest 
window and stared at the massive cloud of smoke that was coming from the forest.
	“Mack succeeded!” shouted K-1 with excitement, “That should teach Cipher a 
lesson or two!” The Poke’mon with K-1 were not so excited.
	“Do you think Mack made it out of there in time?” asked Anna. Mewtwo 
closed his eyes and focused his power.
	“I think he did. He should be back here in a matter of minutes,” reassured 
K-1.
	“Can Mack’s computer find him?” asked Li.
	“Central should be able to locate him quite easily,” said K-1 with 
confidence as he tried to contact Central through his radio, but the only 
response he got was garbled speech.
	“Is something wrong?” asked Li.
	“Something is disrupting my signal,” said K-1 with astonishment, “That 
explosion must have generated some serious magnetic disturbances and disrupted 
Central’s data arrays. At least that’s what my sensors say.”
	“In other words?” asked Sakura.
	“The explosion from Cipher’s base was weird and it messed up Central. I 
can’t contact her now. She’s probably using all her available power to quickly 
reconstruct the information that was corrupted from that bizarre blast,” 
explained K-1 as best he could in Layman’s Terms.
	“Mack wouldn’t go down that easily, anyway,” said William as he sat back 
up, finally getting over his sickness.
	“I am not so sure,” said Mewtwo.
	“What are we waiting for then? Let’s get over there and find him!” said 
Anna sternly. They all ran out of the room and towards the forest.
	“I hope he’s alright,” said Sakura concern.
	“He better be,” said Fredrick, “If he didn’t make it, neither did our 
sister.” Meanwhile, Cecil stood on a hill, miles from what was left his 
facility. Cecil seethed with rage. Not only had his entire base been demolished, 
but Project Epsilon was destroyed. That fact that the Guardian of Gardev had 
survived the destruction of his Mt. Terror facility was bad enough, but the 
guardian had also laid waste to the last base under his command. The rare 
Poke’mon that had been captured using Project Epsilon were now gone too, 
especially Mewtwo, the one-of-a-kind Poke’mon that could have very well made 
Cipher unstoppable. Also, Dr. Newman, Cecil’s greatest asset had betrayed him 
and mysteriously disappeared. Despite all these shortfalls, Cecil was still not 
ready to give up. A Cipher trooper walked up to Cecil.
	“Is everything in place?” asked Cecil.
	“Yes, sir! All the supplies are here and accounted for. It’s very 
fortunate that we evacuated when we did,” replied the trooper.
	“Indeed,” said Cecil as he gazed at the hillsides near Gardev, “I want you 
to get the charges in place as soon as possible.”
	“As you wish, but are you sure you want to do this?” asked the trooper. 
Cecil glared at the trooper.
	“You dare to question me?!” thundered Cecil.
	“Of course not, sir!” answered the trooper with fear.
	“Good. How soon will your men be finished?” asked Cecil.
	“It should only take a week at most to lay the charges and cables,” 
answered the trooper.
	“Excellent,” aid Cecil as he returned his gaze to Gardev and glared at the 
small town nestled in the valley.

-39-
Mack awoke in a world of blurred vision. He senses were also scrambled enough 
that he couldn’t tell which way was up, down, left or right.
	“I made it…” thought Mack as he rubbed his eyes. This felt unusually 
strange to him.
	“He’s awake!” said a familiar voice with excitement. Mack’s vision started 
to clear.
	“Where am I?” asked Mack as his senses started working properly again. He 
saw a bright yellow blob sitting on his chest.
	“You are in Gardev. To be precise, you are on the second floor of the 
mayor’s house in a guest room and it’s also 4:00 in the afternoon, just incase 
you wanted to know,” said the voice smugly.
	“William?” asked Mack as his vision returned to normal.
	“Were you expecting someone else?” asked William. Mack looked closely at 
his body. His orange and white fur had returned. Mack jumped out of bed and ran 
to the nearest mirror and was greeted by his fox-like face.
	“I’m back to normal…” thought Mack.
	“Glad to see that you’re still alive,” chuckled Warren from behind Mack. 
Mack quickly turned around, shocked that someone had seen his true form. He 
slumped on the bathroom counter as the little strength he had quickly faded.
	“Please relax, Dr. Foxx. You’ve been asleep for almost a week,” said 
Warren as Jake helped Mack back into bed.
	“What happened?” asked Mack, “Where’s Aura?”
	“Right here!” said a feminine voice as Mack felt some strong arms wrap 
around him.
	“Gah!” exclaimed Mack with surprise as Warren laughed. Mack soon realized 
that he had just been blindsided by a Gardevoir.
	“Let me explain,” said Warren as he handed Mack a cup of coffee, “You see, 
after the destruction of Cipher’s base, the whole town went out to find Aura. In 
the middle of a crater, we found you out cold with Aura in your arms. It looked 
like you were trying to protect her. You’ve been asleep for almost a week. Aura, 
on the other hand, woke up days ago and hasn’t left your side.” Mack looked 
around the room. Makoto, K-1 and Sakura were in the room too as well as the 
young Poke’mon: Li, Sakura the Kirlia and Anna. There was one other Kirlia too 
that Mack didn’t recognize.
	“Is that you, Fredrick? Did you evolve?” asked Mack.
	“You bet!” said Fredrick with a grin.
	“You sure made a heck of a mess out of those buildings back in the 
forest!” said William.
	“Where’s Xavier and Mewtwo?” asked Mack as he tried to pry Aura’s arms off 
of himself.
	“I’m back here, with Dr. Newman,” said Mewtwo through telepathy. Mack sat 
up and saw Dr. Newman standing next to Mewtwo.
	“There’s only one thing I don’t get, though,” said Mack as he faced K-1, 
“How did Aura and I get split?”
	“To be honest, the explosion that was generated at the Cipher facility 
caused extreme magnetic disturbances among other things,” explained K-1, “It 
appears that some this unidentified energy is responsible for crudely separating 
you and Aura. I’m very glad to say that both of you are alive and well.”
	“No kidding!” laughed Mack as he continued to try to get free from Aura’s 
embrace.
	“However, there are some problems that we must consider,” said K-1 grimly, 
“In all of Central’s simulations; there was always the chance that either one or 
both of you would die from the process. On top of that, there was a high risk of 
various…side effects.”
	“Side effects?” asked Mack with concern, “Like what?”
	“Well…for starters, you can still completely understand Poke’mon without a 
translator,” said K-1.
	“Yep!” said William as he rubbed against Mack’s left side.
	“I was wondering about that,” said Mack with a sigh.
	“There’s something…different about me, too,” said Aura softly.
	“How so?” asked Mack. Aura responded by holding out her right hand. She 
closed her eyes and formed a small orb of white light in her hands. Mack gazed 
into the orb with astonishment. A few moments later, Aura closed her hand, 
making the orb vanish
	“Aura seems to now have power over light, just like you do,” remarked K-1, 
“But I still don’t know the full effects of this crude separation.”
	“Is Central working on this?” asked Mack as Aura continued to hold him 
tightly.
	“I’m afraid not,” said K-1 with some sadness, “Central’s memory and data 
banks were completely corrupted. Central, herself, is alright, but it will take 
months for her to sort out and recover all the information that was damaged from 
that freak explosion. I’m working on the problem right now, but it could take 
months.”
	“So, how are you going to accomplish this anyway?” asked Mack with 
curiosity as he gave up trying to get free from Aura.
	“Gardevoir aren’t the Embrace Poke’mon for nothing,” giggled Anna.
	“Anyway,” said K-1 as he paced back and forth, “All I can do is thoroughly 
analyze a previous DNA sample of yours and compare it to your current DNA 
structure. It might take a few weeks or a few months to find any differences. 
Nevertheless, there don’t seem to be any negative side effects so far.”
	“That’s a relief,” said Mack as Aura held him even tighter, “Is something 
bothering you Aura?”
	“Thank you…” said Aura softly, “I knew you would never abandon Gardev or 
my family. You see, back at that Mt. Terror base, both of us had been weakened 
so much, that I couldn’t control my power very well when I tried to teleport us 
to safety. Thus, we were fused together. I tried to help you as much as I could 
along the way by showing you my memories in your dreams and to also help guide 
you. It was the least I could do for saving me and for protecting the people of 
Gardev. Thank you.”
	“Your welcome,” said Mack.
	“I must thank you as well,” said another familiar voice. Mack looked to 
his right and saw another Gardevoir standing next to the bed.
	“Ramirez?” asked Mack.
	“Of course. I want to thank you for taking good care of my sister and for 
saving her from those thieves. I’m not ready to become the next Guardian of 
Gardev,” said Ramirez.
	“It’s nothing, really. I just did what was right as well as necessary,” 
said Mack with a shrug.
	“You completed your mission,” said Warren as he sat in a chair near Mack, 
“You saved Aura and you managed to recover the stolen records. Of course, you 
also had plenty of help along the way.” Warren pointed at Anna, Sakura the 
Kirlia, Li, Mewtwo, Fredrick and William.
	“Thank you for bringing back my friends,” said the little girl, Sakura. 
Suddenly, the sound of a series of loud explosions filled the room.
	“What on earth?!” exclaimed Warren as he ran outside. Mack started running 
for the door of the room, trying to follow the other people and Poke’mon, but 
his strength had still not fully recovered. Aura stopped next to Mack, put an 
arm around him and helped him outside. Once outside, Mack soon saw what was 
wrong: someone had set off several bombs on the nearby hillsides and now, two 
massive land slides were heading straight for Gardev. Mack looked around and saw 
that there was no escape from the valley.
	“Now what will we do?!” shouted Jake to Warren as the thunderous sound of 
rolling boulders got louder and louder.
	“Its no use…” muttered Warren, “Mack is too weak and Aura is still 
recovering.” The landslides seemed to go on for miles in both directions 
parallel to Gardev.
	“Someone must really want to wipe this small town off the map…” said Mack 
as he struggled to stand.
	“I won’t let this happen!” shouted Ramirez as he suddenly flew into the 
air, surrounded by a soft blue aura of energy. Mack and everyone in Gardev 
watched in amazement as Ramirez glowed brighter and brighter. He pointed each of 
his hands at one of the malicious landslides. Mack looked on as the giant rocks 
started to glow blue and also started to slow down. Ramirez writhed in pain 
while in the air. The unimaginable weight of the ground and rocks was almost too 
great to bear. However, Mack and Aura watched as the moving rocks and earth came 
to complete stop. Moments later, the ground and rocks started to move in 
reverse.
	“You can do it, brother!” shouted Aura with confidence.
	“Go for it, bro!” said Fredrick.
	“Don’t give up, big brother!” yelled Anna. Ramirez yelled loudly as the 
rocks and ground were moved back in place. The blue glow on the ground slowly 
faded, as did the bright blue aura around Ramirez.
	“He did it,” said Mack with amazement.
	“It’s over…” said Ramirez to himself as he closed his eyes and fell from 
the sky. Aura tried to focus her power and float Ramirez slowly to the ground, 
but she was still too weak. Mack watched, horrified, as Ramirez kept falling. He 
wanted to get on his feet, dash under him and catch him before he hit the 
ground, but his body wouldn’t allow him.
	“Brother! Why?!” shouted Aura with anguish as Ramirez continued to fall. 
Just when Mack was about to howl with rage, a white light surrounded Ramirez. 
Mack looked on as Ramirez slowed down in his fall and slowly disappeared behind 
a building. Minutes later, another Gardevoir was slowly walking out from behind 
the building, with Ramirez in its arms. Aura looked up with tears in her eyes to 
see that her younger brother had been saved. The Gardevoir glanced at the people 
and Poke’mon who had gathered in the streets.
	“Surely you don’t think I would allow my great-grandson to be harmed, do 
you?” asked the Gardevoir.
	“Glacian! We meet again at last!” said Warren with delight as he ran up to 
Glacian. Glacian smiled at his old friend and gently put Ramirez in Aura’s arms.
	“You know each other?” asked Mack.
	“Yes,” replied Glacian. Jake was soon shooing the crowds away. They soon 
went back to their homes, leaving Mack, Aura, Glacian, Ramirez, Fredrick, Anna, 
Sakura the Kirlia, the little girl Sakura, Makoto, Li, William and Dr. Newman 
alone in the street. As they walked back to Warren’s house, Warren and Glacian 
were discussing something while Aura carried Ramirez. Aura’s siblings stayed 
close to their sister and brother while Mack tried to piece an elaborate puzzle 
together.
	“So, how come you know Glacian?” asked Mack.
	“The mayor of Gardev has more responsibilities than just tending to the 
citizens here,” explained Warren, “The mayor of Gardev is also trusted with the 
location of the secret Gardevoir city.”
	“That city has been protected for generations by the mayor of Gardev and 
his family. There are those who would try and capture us. Even enslave us. Force 
us to do unspeakable things,” said Glacian.
	“Cipher…” growled Mack. Glacian nodded as the group entered Warren’s 
house. Off in the distance, Cecil glared at Mack and his friends through a set 
of binoculars.
	“Why can’t I have that kind of power at my disposal?!” thundered Cecil as 
he crushed the binoculars in his hands.
	“Unbelievable,” said a nearby trooper, “A single Gardevoir stopped your 
landslides and saved the town.”
	“I know that already! So much for having my vengeance on that hateful 
little village!” growled Cecil, “The boss is not going to be pleased! All the 
facilities that were under my command have been completely destroyed! Not just 
that, but all my plans to capture the Guardian of Gardev failed one after 
another! I couldn’t even have Dr. Newman turn that beast into a shadow 
Poke’mon!”
	“I have heard legends of an ancient Gardevoir city,” said the trooper.
	“Yes,” said Cecil, “The Guardian of Gardev is said to know the location of 
the Gardevoir city. With those capture cannons, we could have hit and harvested 
a colossal gold mine of psychic Poke’mon. Turning them into shadow Poke’mon 
would be a snap with Dr. Namwen’s improved shadow camber.”
	“I’ve heard unspeakable things about him. Dr. Newman has told many of us 
about his brother’s atrocities!” said the trooper with anger.
	“It’s all for a good cause. Even if half of the Poke’mon from the 
legendary city were killed from the shadow process, we would still have an 
unstoppable army of hundreds of shadow Ralts, Kirlia and Gardevoir. Possibly 
even more,” said Cecil without any concern.
	“A pity those records we stole from Gardev yielded nothing,” said the 
trooper.
	“Indeed. The mayor might know of the city’s location, but I bet he would 
sooner die than talk,” muttered Cecil.
	“What will we do now?” asked the trooper.
	“We’ll have to return to headquarters of Cipher and I will have to explain 
this mess to the boss,” said Cecil.
	“What will happen to you?” asked the trooper with fear.
	“Nothing will happen to me,” said Cecil with some laughter, “Dr. Namwen 
will vouch for me. Despite the terrible losses of resources here, Dr. Namwen 
gained some valuable information about Mewtwo while he was imprisoned in that 
capsule. He also made several other discoveries. Plus, we still have that 
alien’s armor at our disposal.”
	“We should leave now before we’re discovered,” cautioned the trooper.
	“Of course,” said Cecil as he followed the trooper for a few minutes until 
they came to a helicopter. The thunderstorms around the mountains had finally 
cleared and it was only a matter of time before police would arrive.
	“Have all the necessary precautions been taken?” asked Cecil to the 
trooper as he boarded the helicopter.
	“Yes, sir!” replied the trooper.
	“And what of the destroyed facilities?” asked Cecil.
	“Not a trace of them remains,” answered the trooper as he boarded the 
helicopter. Minutes later, the helicopter departed. Cecil glanced out the 
window, glad that at least he would never have to gaze at these mountains or the 
town of Gardev ever again.

-40-
Weeks passed since the day Cecil had tried to utterly destroy Gardev in a fit of 
rage and hate. After the thunderstorms had finally cleared until the next year, 
police helicopters were sent to Gardev. The police and several detectives 
carefully searched the places where the Cipher facilities had been, but they 
discovered nothing. There was not a trace that the bases had even existed. It 
was soon discovered that the Mt. Terror facility had been built completely into 
natural caves that had been carved into the mountain by small streams and 
underground rivers. All that remained of the facility that used to be a few 
miles from Gardev was a clearing with long green grass. Mack had finally 
recovered his strength and also helped with the investigation, but he also found 
nothing. Even with his X-ray scanners with their ability to see up to one 
thousand feet through solid ground, he found not even a single scrap of metal.
	“Those fiends covered their tracks well,” said Mack as he brought some 
water to Ramirez, who was still recovering. Glacian, Jake, Aura, K-1, Aura’s 
other siblings, Sakura the Kirlia, Li and Warren were in the room as well.
	“So, they left the area,” said Warren with relief, “Good.”
	“Dr. Foxx,” said Jake with some hesitation, “I want to apologize for the 
way I treated you before.”
	“I forgive you,” said Mack with a friendly smile.
	“We can’t offer you much as payment…” said Jake.
	“And you don’t have too,” said Mack, much to Jake and Warren’s shock.
	“Nevertheless, please take this as a gift from the people of Gardev and 
from me,” said Warren as he placed a large wad of bills into Mack’s right hand. 
Mack quickly counted it up.
	“$78,000?! Are you sure?!” said Mack with extreme surprise.
	“If I could give you millions for what you did here in Gardev over the 
last month, I would,” said Warren.
	“Same here!” said Jake happily.
	“At least you no longer have to hide your face in public, Mack,” said 
Glacian, “You are now regarded as a hero and as a citizen of this country. You 
are also welcome to visit my city at any time.”
	“I may not have to hide anymore, but I’m still a celebrity,” sighed Mack 
with some laughter, “And thank you, Glacian.”
	“My pleasure. We’re going to become good friends,” said Glacian as K-1 
walked into the room.
	“I helped sort out those records,” said K-1, “Except for the paper records 
from Gardev, the rest was all data tapes and disks. I tried to read them, but 
the information is heavily encrypted. Besides, I’m using almost all of my CPU 
power just to investigate the status of your DNA.”
	“And I’m very glad about that,” said Mack, “We need to be sure that 
nothing is wrong with me. Speaking of which, how much longer will it take for 
you to know and for Central to be back on line again?”
	“It will still be weeks if not months. So far, I haven’t found anything 
abnormal, but I’m only 37.9% complete with the task,” said K-1 in a depressed 
tone.
	“You just keep at it,” said Mack as he gently patted K-1’s large head.
	“Don’t forget about me!” said William as he leaped into Mack’s arms. 
William squeaked with delight as Mack gently stroked him.
	“What will you do next?” asked Fredrick.
	“Are you going to leave Gardev?” asked Sakura fearfully.
	“I do need to leave Gardev for awhile,” said Mack as the younger Poke’mon 
started crying.
	“But why?” sobbed Anna.
	“Cipher is still out there,” said Mack as he gazed out a nearby window. 
The sun was now rising and the sky was ablaze with fiery colors.
	“So, what will you do?” asked Glacian.
	“I’m going to find them out where ever they are and put a stop to them!” 
said Mack resolutely, “I can’t allow them to continue their thieving. I will 
also not allow them to turn any more Poke’mon into shadow Poke’mon.”
	“I can agree with that,” said a shuddering Li.
	“Me too…” said Sakura with fear as she put her arms around Li and 
Fredrick.
	“I knew you would say that,” said Glacian as he gazed at Mack, “And that 
is why I think you should take Aura with you. It would be good for her to go out 
into the world for a while.” Aura jumped to her feet and Ramirez quickly sat up 
in bed.
	“Who will guard the village, then?” asked Aura.
	“Obviously, one of your siblings will protect Gardev while you are gone 
with Mack,” said Glacian.
	“Then…” said Aura as she started to remove her pendant, “I don’t need this 
any more.”
	“On the contrary!” interrupted Glacian as he put the pendant back around 
Aura’s neck, “You must take the pendant with you. You will need it.” As soon as 
the pendant was back around Aura’s neck, Glacian closed his eyes. In a bright 
flash, two pendants appeared in his hands. Glacian handed Aura the sapphire 
pendant.
	“I should take this one with me too?” asked a perplexed Aura.
	“You will need this on your travels, for you will find your mate during 
your journey,” said Glacian. Aura blushed, took the pendant and held it close to 
her heart. Glacian then walked over to Ramirez with another pendant hidden in 
his other hand.
	“I…I’m not worthy…” said Ramirez weakly.
	“You are indeed worthy to protect this village. Just like a few weeks ago 
when you almost gave your life for the people of this town, for your friends and 
for your family,” said Glacian.
	“Yeah!” said Anna.
	“You’ll be just fine,” said Fredrick.
	“Then I accept,” coughed Ramirez.
	“Then I hereby appoint you as the Guardian of Gardev,” said Glacian as he 
put the pendant around Ramirez’s neck. When Glacian moved his hands away, 
everyone saw that Ramirez was now wearing an emerald pendant. The pendant glowed 
and Ramirez felt his strength return to him in an instant. Ramirez stood up as 
everyone in the room smiled.
	“Thank you,” said Ramirez.
	“It has been centuries since the emerald pendant has been used,” said 
Glacian, “The emerald pendant is given to either the brother or sister of the 
current Guardian of Gardev whenever the guardian needs to rest for a long time 
or when the guardian will be gone for a long time.”
	“Please take good care of our sister,” said Anna with sadness.
      “I’ll take good care of Aura. I promise,” said Mack.
	“I know you will,” said Glacian as he held Anna in his arms.
	“When will we leave, then?” asked Aura.
	“I need to prepare. I’ll have to get back to my lab and gather supplies,” 
said Mack as he suddenly stopped in his tracks, “That reminds me: what happened 
to Mewtwo and Dr. Newman?”
	“Mewtwo left a few hours ago, saying that his job here was done. He said 
he was going to rest in the Gardevoir city before he returned to his home,” 
explained K-1.
	“I see,” said Mack with some disappointment.
	“However, Mewtwo did swipe one of your radios and told me that if we 
should need his help, we should not hesitate to ask,” said K-1.
	“Excellent,” said Mack with a smile.
	“Oh! Dr. Newman is hiding at the lab,” said K-1 sheepishly.
	“What?!” shouted Mack with surprise, “What is he doing there?!”
	“Calm down and I’ll explain,” said K-1, “You see, Dr. Newman was scared 
when the police arrived. He figured he would be taken into custody and 
interrogated about Cipher. Dr. Newman mentioned that anyone who had tried to 
leave Cipher secretly or tried to tell the authorities has never been seen 
again. Therefore, Dr. Newman is residing at the lab, helping with Central as 
well as helping me make repairs to our star fighter, the Firefox. Besides, he 
also has his Alakazams for company and to help him with mentally complex tasks.”
	“He can stay there for now,” said Mack.
	“Dr. Newman did say that he knows he has to face the consequences for his 
actions, but he doesn’t want to end up being silenced by Cipher’s agents. 
Besides, he says he’s no use to us in jail or in the grave,” explained K-1, “As 
soon as Cipher has been dealt with, he wants to turn himself in to the 
authorities.”
	“Such an honorable man really had no place in Cipher,” said Mack.
	“Definitely!” said Xavier as he popped his head into the room through a 
window.
	“Ah, Xavier!” said Mack happily, “What will you do now?”
	“To tell you the truth, I want to come with you on your journey!” said 
Xavier with enthusiasm.
	“Don’t forget me, either!” said William with excitement.
	“Very well,” said Mack as he called William back to his Poke’ ball. Mack 
then threw a Poke’ ball at Xavier and captured him again. Aura seemed worried as 
she saw Mack’s Poke’mon go into their Poke’ balls. Mack sensed her anxiety.
	“You won’t see the inside of a Poke’ ball again as far as I’m concerned,” 
said Mack. Aura breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at this news.
	“You both should get going,” said K-1, “I have the Hovercycle powered up 
and ready to go.”
	“Then let’s get going. We have a long drive ahead of us just to get the 
nearest city,” said Mack as he strapped his trusty FIW-59 Type A Elemental 
Pistol to his right thigh. Aura followed Mack closely.
	“Take good care of our sister!” said Anna with an attitude.
	“Will do!” said Mack as he hopped onto the hovercycle. Aura said her 
goodbyes and hugged her siblings. She also held the little girl, Sakura in her 
arms.
	“I’ll be back. You’ll see!” said Aura as she winked at Sakura. Sakura 
giggled then walked back to her mother. Aura sat down on the hovercycle behind 
Mack. Aura rode side-saddle on the hovercycle and wrapped her arms around Mack.
	“The embrace Poke’mon,” said Mack with some laughter, “Are you ready, my 
friend?”
	“Let’s go!” said Aura. With that, Mack started up the hovercycle and 
slowly rode down the streets of Gardev: past the Gardevoir memorial statue and 
past Paul’s shop. The people of Gardev walked into the streets to say goodbye to 
Aura, the Guardian of Gardev and to Dr. Mack Foxx, the honorable mercenary. As 
they drove out of town, Aura gazed into the deep-blue, sapphire pendant, 
wondering who her life-long mate would be. As Mack and Aura disappeared from 
view, Glacian stood by Warren. Something seemed to be bothering Glacian.
	“What’s troubling you, my old friend?” asked Warren with concern.
	“That mercenary, Dr. Mack Foxx: he has an unusual fate ahead of him. I can 
only hope that he’ll be able to cope,” said Glacian.
	“What do you mean? What have you foreseen?” asked Warren. Glacian stood 
silent.
	“Is Mack going to be killed?” asked Ramirez.
	“No,” said Glacian, “He has something else ahead of him that could either 
empower him or destroy his mind.”

-41-
Elsewhere, Cecil was standing before the boss at Cipher headquarters. The boss 
was enshrouded by shadows and could not be seen.
	“I’m very disappointed in you, Cecil,” said the boss.
	“I know,” said Cecil.
	“I should have you demoted to being a lowly foot soldier once again,” said 
the boss.
	“If you would hear me out, I think you’ll change your mind,” said another 
voice from the shadows. The voice was raspy and dry.
	“You really think so?” asked the boss with surprise.
	“If you would only permit me to explain, you will see my point and will 
gladly pardon my dear friend Cecil,” said the voice.
	“Very well,” said the boss, “I don’t think there is a word you can say 
that can change my mind about this, but feel free to explain, Dr. Namwen.”
	“Thank you, sir,” said Dr. Namwen as he stepped out of the shadows. Dr. 
Namwen looked just like Dr. Newman. They were identical twins, but Dr. Namwen 
was a mirror image of his brother. His gray eyes were portals to the madness 
that ruled his powerful mind. Dr. Namwen pressed some buttons on a control 
panel. Moments later, a view screen descended from the ceiling and turned on, 
showing an image of the Guardian of Gardev with Dr. Foxx.
	“The alien mercenary and the Guardian of Gardev: so what?” demanded the 
boss.
	“Thanks to Cecil’s leadership, we now have the very technology that this 
alien uses at our disposal. I have learned much thanks to my brother’s work: 
Project Epsilon, the Seismic Generator and even about the most powerful Poke’mon 
in existence: Mewtwo! Plus, we now have the prime candidate for Project XD001!” 
said Dr. Namwen.
	“I know of these accomplishments and also about your brother. Especially 
how he betrayed us,” grumbled the boss.
	“But, my dear brother’s research will continue with me. I will use his 
discoveries and that alien’s technology to realize your dream, master,” said Dr. 
Namwen, “There are limitless possibilities between that alien’s technology and 
my brother’s work. Trust me; we need to continue to have Cecil as a high-level 
leader here in Cipher. After all, he’s the one who helped me steal all the 
information that my brother had concerning his projects and the alien suit of 
armor that now sits at your feet.” The boss looked down from his throne to see a 
group of troopers carrying the strange suit of armor on a stretcher.
	“Very well,” said the boss with an unseen grin, “I forgive you, Cecil. At 
least you didn’t lose this alien weapon.”
	“Thank you, sir!” replied Cecil as he saluted his boss.
	“I owe you, Dr. Namwen!” said Cecil with happiness.
	“Indeed you do,” thought Dr. Namwen, “But you have no idea what this is 
going to cost you…”


To Be Continued…