-26: Even with all their enemies, far more sinister conspiracies are still at work. And the Dragon Riders are about to find out the hard way…
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The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong
to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author’s permission.
The
Chimera Saga and the Legendary Dragons belong to Theo ‘Blitz’ Leung and are
used with permission.
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Power Collision
By Gregory Stephen nightdragon0@hotmail.com
Firestorm
“Think you can get it working this time?” I asked Serac.
“Should be.” The 26-year old woman muttered, fiddling with a screwdriver in her hand.
After a brief trip
back to
The New Year had come too, but definitely not a joyful one for any of us.
Trying to tune the tracking bug so that we could use it to find Jade was more difficult than she’d expected. Probably because she had to first disable it so Sliph’s SFs couldn’t track us.
It really ticked me off that I’d been so close to getting Jade back and now he was as far away as ever. I pounded my fists against the wall as I thought about it.
“It’s delicate work.” Serac muttered, taking it as a sign of my impatience. “And I still haven’t gotten used to having my fingers back again.”
“Yeah. Not like Aigul… erm Lugia would’ve been able to do any better.” Dracia whispered.
We were in a more secluded part of the city park, beside a couple of large trees. Although it was late at night, and there weren’t many people around, I was beginning to feel that having a Dragonite out in the open was a bad idea.
“Excuse me, you need help with that?” A teenage girl of about 16 approached us.
She was slim built with brown eyes and black hair. She was dressed in a pink pair of denim shorts and a dark blue short sleeveless shirt that left her stomach uncovered. A green sweater was also tied around her waist. She immediately reminded me of Kris, except my trainer wasn’t a girl to wear revealing clothing.
“I… err…” Serac staggered, unsure of how to continue.
I too was wondering what a young girl would be doing out so late at night.
“You don’t have to be afraid to ask.” The girl knelt down and took a look at the tracking bug in Serac’s hand. “Oh, I see. You’ve got to wrist the green wire that way, and turn that piece around to reverse the polarity.”
Without waiting for Serac to respond, the girl did just that and the device gave an affirmative beep.
“Wow, thanks.” Serac gasped.
“But isn’t this…” The girl began. “Hmmm… looks like the ones I’ve handled before.”
I was hesitant of whether or not to knock her out.
“You guys on bad terms with Team Rocket?” The girl whispered. “Cause there’s a couple of them somewhere around the corner.”
“Damn, they won’t give us a break.” I muttered.
“Hey, I’m one of their runaways.” The girl whispered. “It would be mutually beneficial if we could help each other.”
“How I know we can trust you?’ I growled.
“I should be thinking the same about you.” She replied. “Besides, if I were with them, I would already have turned you in. And I need to get away from them as much as you, so please…”
“It’s all right with me.” Serac spoke up. “But you’re getting into more trouble than you can imagine kid.”
“Enhustan. Nala Enhustan. And don’t worry about me. Since a couple of Pokemon helped get me out of Team Rocket’s clutches, I think I’ll handle whatever’s coming this way.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet.” Dracia said.
“I get the picture.” Nala nodded. She didn’t seem really surprised to hear a talking Pokemon. “Aw slag, here they come.”
Nala indicated, with her eyes, the pair of men in the brown trench coats as they came down the path. They couldn’t see us yet, but they would soon.
“I’m Storm, and she’s Serac.” I quickly introduced. I bit my lip realizing I’d let my real name slip out since I was supposed to ‘be Jade’, but there wasn’t time for that now. “I’ll distract them. Dracia, you get the ladies out through the back.”
“But…” Dracia protested.
“Go!” I ordered.
I jogged into the open, towards the two disguised Rockets and made sure they saw me. When they did, I sprinted in another direction, away from the rest of my group. Both started yelling and gave chase.
I wasn’t worried about them catching up, but more of them calling for reinforcements.
Right on cue, a uniformed Rocket stepped out from behind a fountain in front of me. I rolled forward as he swung a baton at me, blocked a second blow and rammed him with my shoulder, sending him into the fountain with a splash.
Bullets whizzed past me as the two Rockets behind decided to fire. I dashed into the bushes and scaled a fence, which led over to the road. I was suddenly blinded by the headlights of a speeding van.
Desperately, I leapt to the side, barely managing to avoid the vehicle. There was a deafening screech of tires followed by a loud bang as the speeding van hit a tree.
“Storm!” Serac called. She was behind the wheel of a white pickup truck, Nala in the passenger seat and Dracia in the back.
I realized she’d saved my life by ramming the van out off course. I didn’t waste any time in leaping on.
“Hang on!” Serac yelled as she floored the accelerator.
“Where’d you get the truck?!” I asked, as the wind roared past my face.
“Erm… hehehe…” Nala grinned nervously.
“Oh boy.” I muttered. “You stole it, didn’t you?”
“We’re not stealing. Just borrowing it for a while.” Nala insisted.
“Heads up, we’re not out of the water yet!” Dracia alerted us to four Rocket bikers which had decided to trail us.
“Yargh!” I shouted as Serac swerved to avoid a Hyper Beam. I glanced up to see a pair of Noctowl in the sky preparing for another round. “Dracia!”
“I’m on it!” The Dragonite roared, taking the battle to the two owls.
That left the four bikers to deal with. Serac led them along the winding highway and made a sharp turn. Unable to replicate her stunt, one crashed, but his comrades hardly seemed to give a damn.
One biker came up just behind the truck. I was preparing to throw a fire attack at him when he lashed at me with a whip, catching me on the arm and causing me to fall, screaming.
He took the opportunity and abandoned his bike, leaping up onto the truck. I sprang to my feet only to receive a punch in the face. I returned the favor, getting us into a vicious fistfight aboard the speeding truck.
Meanwhile, his two comrades were catching up, intend on boarding our truck as well.
In the midst of struggling, Serac suddenly swerved, causing me to fall backwards against the back rail of the truck. My opponent was instantly upon me, grabbing my neck with both hands. One of the remaining bikers had reached the truck and was grasping onto the rail.
Taking a deep breath, I heaved, bringing my legs up and throwing my opponent over the side.
The Rocket collided with his comrade, causing him to lose his bike. The rider-less machine spun out of control and broke apart after hitting a road divider. One of them managed to gasp the rail in time, with his colleague desperately holding on to his waist.
The speeding truck was making it difficult to them to climb back up from their position. I, however, was able to get back to my feet and give them an evil grin.
“You are the weakest link. Goodbye.”
And stamped on the Rocket’s fingers, causing him to scream and let go, sending both flying onto the road. It so happened they collided with the third rider, taking him down at well.
“Oh Yeah!” I roared in triumph.
“Storm!” Serac yelled. “Watch out for that tree!”
“Oh shit…”
I spun round and saw the low hanging tree branch about 2 seconds before the moment of impact. The next second, my world was spinning wildly. The last thing I saw was the road rushing up to strike me in the face.
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Dracia
I dodged the Quick Attack and spun my body sideways, sending myself into a rapid spinning motion that slammed one of the Noctowl and sent it spiraling to the ground below.
The other quickly used a Double Team, creating several mirror images of himself as he dashed around me. My opponent got several cheap jabs at my back while I struggled to come up with a plan. Recalling what I’d trained with Jade and the others, I closed my eyes and listened for the beating of the wings.
Sensing it, I timed
myself and fired the Aeroblast technique I’d learnt from Arist. The small explosion of feathers was a definite
reward.
I quickly scanned the ground for the truck, which I saw far ahead. I was preparing to follow when it suddenly spun round and came back towards me.
No, I realized. They couldn’t see me, but were going for Firestorm, lying sprawled across the road. The area seemed clear, with no sight of the Rocket bikers from earlier. Serac and Nala leapt out of the truck, releasing Mirage to help.
There was a sudden screech of tires as a black van came charging out of nowhere (actually, it was a side road), and deliberately crashed into the truck, sending it rolling over onto its side.
As everyone scrambled to get away from the spinning truck, Mirage shot a Fire Blast at it, igniting its fuel tank and blowing it up. The girls barely escaped the explosion, but were tossed roughly to the ground.
A group of masked soldiers leapt out of the van and fired a couple of grenades, which exploded into a greenish fog.
Knockout gas! I realized.
Serac, Nala and Mirage coughed and struggled against it for a while, but finally submitted to its effects.
“No!” I cried.
I was tempted to go charging to the rescue, but my better judgment told me it would be useless. The gas would only affect me as well. Instead I remained in the sky, out of sight, and watched as the soldiers load my unconscious friends into the van.
My only option was to follow the van and wait for a better chance.
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Nightslice
“Are you sure about this?” Hazuki asked for the fifth time.
“Let me assure you, if I weren’t, I would’ve quit way ahead.”
“But it’s stealing!”
“Stealing a few files from the police to take out the bad guys. I’d say it’s a good tradeoff.”
The small settlement
near the base of
We’d come here after our encounters at the hidden temple to plan what to do next. The town seemed isolated enough for us to work with. Although Hazuki had earlier offered to bait Team Rocket by using herself, I’d decided against it after realizing we had another enemy in the form of Sliph.
However, it gave me an idea that I could use. TR and Sliph didn’t like each other, as we’d seen so far. While TR was the criminal group, Sliph was supposedly just a Pokemon pharmaceutical company on the outside. And if TR had either attacked or raided some of Sliph’s facilities, the police would probably have it recorded as robberies and such.
What I knew was that TR usually took great risks only with a valid reason, so I just needed to check up on the recent TR activity and see if any Sliph facilities had been attacked lately.
Hence, us sneaking into the police post in the middle of the night. Being as far out as this, the station wasn’t fully staffed and mostly relied on automated security alarms. Nothing a ninja-trained Scyther couldn’t get through, especially after Hazuki had cut a few wires on the main circuit board.
We walked as silently as possible and entered a room marked ‘Records’.
“We’ll have to make this quick.” I said, shifting into human form. It would be easier for me to browse through the file cabinets with hands instead of bladed claws.
Hazuki nodded and started searching on the other side of the room.
I was pulling out a folder when my ears picked up the sudden footsteps coming from outside the door. I caught sight of another door leading out of the room and jumped to the most obvious response.
“Back door! Quick!” I whispered hastily, dashing for the smaller door, which connected to an adjacent locker room.
However, I’d forgotten Hazuki didn’t exactly have my reflexes. And she froze in panic.
Thinking fast, I gestured towards a desk next to her. Hazuki dove under it and curled up just as the door opened.
“Think it should be here?” A familiar sounding voice asked.
“Yes, and keep it down Aaron, or we’ll get caught.”
I peeked through a creek from behind the door I was hiding behind.
Now, haven’t seen those two for a while. I thought. Aaron and Scarlet.
While not two particularly bright or high ranking Rockets, Kris’ old Team Rocket ‘rivals’ had caused us quite a few problems in the past.
“You search over there and I’ll take this part.” Scarlet decided.
“OK.”
The pair spread out and begun rummaging through the file cabinets, just as Hazuki and I had been doing earlier. I could only remain silent and watch, wondering what they were after.
I cringed realizing Aaron was getting nearer to Hazuki’s hiding place. My mind raced on whether to attack or remain hidden.
“Hmmm?” Aaron was standing right over the desk Hazuki was hiding under.
As he began to crouch down, I made the decision to move.
Suddenly, another person stepped into the room. He dressed in a night watchman’s uniform and carrying a flashlight, which he shone into the room.
“Team Rocket!” He gasped, noticing Aaron and Scarlet’s uniforms. “No! They must be after the Blue Card!”
“He must be the undercover Sliph agent!” Aaron muttered.
“Yeah.” Scarlet nodded. Then, to the Sliph soldier. “And sure as hell we want that keycard, so don’t try anything funny.”
“Requesting bac…” That was as far as the soldier got on his radio before Aaron’s Golbat snatched it out of his hands.
“Not so tough now, are you?” Scarlet taunted.
“Damned Rockets! Die!” The Sliph soldier let out a Croconaw. “Water Gun!”
“Nidorino! Horn Attack!” Scarlet sent out her Pokemon.
“Gastly, Confuse Ray!” Aaron too released his second Pokemon.
The Confuse Ray hit the Croconaw first, stunning it and making it wobble about unsteadily. Nidorino then barged into the water Pokemon, sending it spinning around. Its Water Gun went off course, right into the table Hazuki was under.
“Argh!” Hazuki cried as the table broke into pieces, sending her rolling over.
There was a moment of silence as everyone stared at their new intruder.
“It’s the Chimera!” The Sliph soldier realized.
“The Chimera?!” Aaron gasped. “Urgh!”
Hazuki kicked the Rocket in the shin, causing him to stumble in pain.
“Hazuki!” I charged onto the scene.
The Sliph soldier whipped out a gun and fired, causing everyone else to drop to the ground. He hadn’t been intending to hit us, but rather distract us as he tossed a grenade.
It exploded into a foul smelling gas that caused everyone to start coughing. The soldier swiftly snapped on a gas mask and dashed towards Hazuki. He knocked the stunned girl out with a punch to her stomach.
“Hazuki! No!” I coughed.
The Sliph agent quickly recalled his Croconaw, hoisted Hazuki over his shoulder and sprinted for the window.
“The tracker, quick!” Scarlet ordered, coughing.
“Gargh!” Aaron fired something from a rectangular box in his hand.
I saw a brief glint of metal as it hit the fleeing Sliph agent.
“I got it!” Aaron cried as the Sliph solder fled. “We’ve got his signal!”
Stuffing the folder I was holding under my arm, I held my breath and rammed Aaron in the chest.
“Arigatou!” I called, catching his device and leaping out the window.
I shifted into Scyther form as I did, and scanned the area outside for signs of Hazuki. I was just in time to see a car speeding off.
“F***!” I cursed furiously, slamming my claws on the ground.
“Who’s there?!” A female voice demanded from inside the police station. Officer Jenny and several policemen barged into the room, only to see the two Rockets and their Pokemon.
“Freeze Rockets! You’re under arrest!”
“Wait! We didn’t do anything… hehehehehehehe!” Scarlet abruptly began laughing.
“She’s right… hehehehe… we were just… hehehehahahaha!” Aaron burst out.
“Save it!” Jenny growled. “You have to right to… hehehehe… remain… hahaha… what’s going… hahaha… on?!”
“It’s… hehehehe… laughing gas!” Another officer realized.
The Rocket’s Pokemon had burst out laughing as well.
“Doesn’t matter. Hehehehehahah… take em’ in! Hahahaha!”
Leaving Aaron and Scarlet in the hands of the police, I grabbed what I’d taken in my mouth and flew into the forest.
“Hazuki…” I sighed, depressed. I’d lost her and Kyle too, whose Pokeball she’d been carrying. Just like I’d lost Kris.
But at least I had a chance. I switched back to human form and got out Luminair to provide some lighting. The Jolteon could tell by the grim expression on my face that something was wrong, and decided not to say anything.
As I shifted the file I’d been holding onto, a bunch of papers slipped out. Together with it was a blue colored card. I stared in disbelief, recalling the conversation between my enemies from earlier.
I glanced from the Blue Card to the stolen tracking device and back again.
A keycard? I wondered. An undercover Sliph agent, whom they were attempting to pass this keycard to.
I stared at the screen of the palm-sized tracker and nodded in resolution. The location of my target was blinking. My course of action was clear.
“Let’s move!”
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Swordia
I turned towards the Mewtwo in front of us. Not the actual Mewtwo, but one transformed from a human. Mewtwo itself was already a genetically engineered Pokemon, and that left Syndrea as far away from being ‘natural’ as one could possibly be.
I still saw in my mind how she’d single handedly torn the Rocket Base down, leaving nothing but ashes and twisted bits of metal and concrete.
Giovanni had of course, fled before the base went up in flames, disappearing once again into the shadows.
Alugard and Scantrix were further down the slope, going through data on a laptop they’d taken from the Rocket base. We’d decided to take Syndrea out for a bit and let her ‘enjoy’ the outdoors after being confined in a lab for so long. Now, she stood in the edge of a cliff, silently glancing up at the moon.
I couldn’t imagine what must’ve been going though the former human’s mind at that moment.
<Thank you for helping me. > Syndrea said so suddenly that I started.
“Huh? Oh, yes, don’t worry about it.” I caught my composure.
<I could feel there was something different about you that first time we fought. > She told me. <Especially that last attack. >
“Yes. When we saw into each other’s minds.” I nodded. “That was how I learned your name, and that you existed. But I didn’t recall much until recently.”
<Whatever it is, I am still grateful. And will always be. > The Mewtwo spoke, before going back to gazing up at the moon.
“Swordia, take a look at this.” Scantrix called me over.
I gave Syndrea a quick glance to make sure she was OK, and then flew over to the Skarmory’s side.
“Here’s some interesting info Team Rocket spies got from Sliph.” He said, pointing the edge of his wing at the screen. “The plans for creation of a virus.”
“And an actual one, mind you.” Alugard added in.
“What kind?” I asked.
“That’s the thing the Rockets don’t know.” Alugard explained. “But Sliph has plans to design a new virus. Even if it’s just in the planning stages…”
“It could be potentially dangerous, knowing them.” I nodded.
“And such, we need
to get into one of Sliph’s bases and find out.” Alugard said. “And we’ve found an
ideal one near the
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Firestorm
I groaned, feeling my consciousness finally returning.
[Storm, can you hear me?! Storm?]
“Ugh, Mirage?! What the?!”
I found myself tied to a chair, in the middle of a dark room illuminated only by the Ponyta’s flames. She too was tied up like a parcel and strapped down beside me. There was barely enough space in the muzzle for her to open her mouth and talk.
[Sorry, we got caught.] She muttered.
“I figured.” I groaned, still very weak. My muscles were badly cramped too. “The Rockets?”
[No, someone else.] The Ponyta said. [They took the girls and us here in a van, but Dracia escaped.]
I nodded.
[But there was something else. I was unconscious for most of the trip, but I remember waking up and seeing them sticking a bunch of needles into you. They were drawing blood, I think.]
“My blood? What would they want that for?” I wondered aloud. “And who’s the ‘they’ for that matter anyway?”
“Really my dear Chimera, I thought you’d know better by now.”
I realized there was another person in the room. He was a Japanese man with his long black hair tied in a samurai-style ponytail. He was dressed in a black business suit with a matching tie and long trousers.
“Jubei Gantuskou.”
He introduced. “Commander of Sliph’s new Special Forces. And I welcome you to
our base, behind the
“A military commander in a suit?” I muttered.
“Well, there sadly are formal occasions that come with the job.” Jubei laughed. “Like the one right now.”
The SF commander snapped his fingers and a door opened. A trio of soldiers in green walked in and roughly dragged Mirage and myself out the door.
“You’re about to meet a rather high up person on Sliph’s ladder.” Jubei laughed.
I could almost swear I heard him whisper ‘but not for much longer’.
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Serac
“Hey! Lemme out this instant! Do you hear me?!” Nala pounded the steel barricaded door.
“Don’t waste your energy.” I told her. “It’s no use.”
The featureless gray room was entirely surrounded by reinforced metal walls. As far as I could remember, Nala and I had woken up in it.
“Grrr… I just feel so… yyyaarrggghh!”
I was utterly surprised when she tossed off a white beam at the door. A Hyper Beam.
Nala seemed equally shocked.
“What the?! How did I…?” She staggered.
“Nala, let me show you something.” I clenched a fist and electricity gathered around it. With a yell, I launched it at the door. However, my Thunderbolt produced no better results than her.
“You can…” Nala shook her head. “It’s too weird. You and Storm, you’re both Chimeras?”
“Not actually… hey, how do you know about the Chimera thing?!”
“See, when I was working in Team Rocket, I sort of made friends with this high up guy. His name was Alken, one of the Rocket Elites then. He accidentally spilled the beans to me, so I promised to keep it a secret that I knew about it. But not like it matters now. I got word that Alken died on a mission where a cruise ship blew up.”
“I see.” I nodded.
“But it’s strange. If I were a Chimera, I would’ve most likely known. Unless…” Nala looked down at her arm. “Looks like I’ve been injected with something.”
“Either that, or you’ve had something taken out.” I muttered, rubbing my own right forearm. Apparently, I’d been subjected to the same treatment.
“Whatever it is, I guess we’ve now got big red ‘X’s stamped on out butts.” Nala sighed.
“Well, Storm and I aren’t actual Chimeras, but I think we must have a similar genetic makeup to what they expect Chimeras to have.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a long story.” I said. “But since we’re not going anywhere soon, I guess we have time to talk…”
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Jade
My strength drained, I collapsed against the side of the tank. Not like there was much space in the tight-fitting translucent cylinder that was my prison.
The last things I could remember were the battle in the valley and having the net being thrown around me. When I next awoke, I was here, trapped in this thing. No amount of flames or slashing could seem to break through.
Finally, I’d submitted and sat silently. However, I looked up and took notice of my surroundings.
An office. The thought came to my mind. But how did I know that?
That was a human thing. I’d never been under humans before… or had I?
As I turned my head, I saw an elderly human. He was seated at a desk, facing away from me. A door across the room opened and another human with black hair stepped in.
“This is Mr. Winters, Head of Sliph’s advisory committee.” The black haired human introduced.
“Thank you Jubei.” The old human nodded.
The next figure that stepped into the room was someone I recognized.
Firestorm! The Charizard/human I’d fought alongside during the battle in the valley. He was accompanied by a Ponyta, likely the one from before was well.
However, they were tired up with ropes and being shoved by another group of three humans. Firestorm turned directly towards me. I roared and banged the glass, but Firestorm acted as if he hadn’t seen or heard me.
And perhaps he can’t. I could be behind a three way mirror. I thumped my head against the wall, utterly confused. Those human-like thoughts had popped up again, but from where? What was I, really?
Whatever it was, I had no choice but to watch for now.
“I compliment you for leading us on this merry chase for so long, Chimera.” The human, Winters, laughed.
“Pleasure’s all mine.” Firestorm growled, not the least amused.
“But now we’ve gotten what we needed; ample blood and DNA samples from you and your friends.”
“For what reason?” Firestorm demanded.
“Oh, I can’t tell you that, now can I?” Winters grinned evilly. “But I can tell you it was thanks to our archenemies, Team Rocket, that we conveniently found out about you. You should be thankful actually, Team Rocket would not have been as merciful as we have.”
“You’re all evil, sadistic bastards, nothing more.” Firestorm spat.
“You can believe what you want.” Winters replied. “Jubei, once you’re dealt with him, take the samples back down to headquarters. Our researchers there will prepare them for Operation V-X.”
“No.” Jubei folded his arms.
“WHAT?!”
“I’m executing Operation V-X on my own.” Jubei said calmly. “I don’t need the assistance of your puny technicians.”
“I am giving the Special Forces a direct order from the Sliph Executive Committee!” Winters roared, jumping up.
“My Special Forces are no longer under Sliph’s command.” Jubei replied. “You paper pushers can go hire another mercenary army to call your special forces. I’m sure you have enough money to do that.”
“How dare you?! Under who’s authority is this?!” While no one else in the room could see it, I could because I was located behind Winters’ desk. He pushed a button beneath it.
A pair of guards came running in. Jubei whipped out a gun and gave both headshots before they had time to do so much as even draw their own weapons.
“Mine. Right now.”
“The Sliph President will hear about this betrayal!” Winters yelled, slamming his fists on the table, more outraged than anything else.
“The President, doesn’t have to know.” Jubei’s gun went up and fired repeatedly, making dozens of bloody holes in Winter.
“This is a conspiracy.” Firestorm muttered as Jubei calmly kicked the Executive’s lifeless body to the ground.
“Catch on quick, don’t you.” Jubei laughed. “He did want me to put you down for good, but I’m going to give you a chance to get out alive. Provided you accomplish the task I have for you.”
“I don’t like the sound of it.” Firestorm growled.
“It’s simple really. Dlyin, my second in command was followed here by a Team Rocket agent. And I want you to kill him.”
“Why should I?”
“Because…” Jubei pushed a button on the table.
The three way mirror had been keeping me out of Firestorm’s sight slide down. I could confirm it because Firestorm gasped in shock upon seeing me.
“There’s something else too.” Jubei pulled out a remote control and pushed a button. A screen on the wall lit up. The image was very far away from me, but I could just make out two humans inside a large, gray room.
“Serac! Nala!” Firestorm shouted, even through they couldn’t hear him.
“Now, this.”
The screen changed to show another human standing outside what seemed like the large steel door of a building. Once again, I couldn’t really see what he was doing, but the door eventually opened.
“See that card he’s holding? It not only activates certain locks here, but is also the key to the cells of the females and your Charizard here. But to make it more challenging…”
Jubei’s men grabbed the Ponyta and strapped something onto her. She was then tossed into an adjoining room and locked in.
“This C4 will go off in 10 minutes.” Jubei explained. “While the card will also release this lock, you’ll have to be quick. Regardless of your actions, this place is going up in flames after those same 10 minutes.”
“You are an utterly despicable, sickening son of a b****!” Firestorm roared.
Jubei only remained silent and pushed another button. However, this one affected my prison instead. I roared in pain, feeling a cold chill coming over my body. I struggled in vain as ice crept over my entire body, freezing me solid. I couldn’t imagine the terrified expression my face must’ve been contorted into.
While I couldn’t move a single muscle, I was still fully conscious.
Firestorm went red in pure rage. His fists clenched and his whole body vibrated, but he couldn’t come up with anything to say.
“You’re time’s ticking down now, so better hurry.” Jubei reminded as emotionless as ever as his men tossed Firestorm out of the room.
With a sinister laugh, the crazed commander and his men departed, leaving me to a fate that was at best, described as uncertain.
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Nightslice
“This is it.” I said to Luminair and Ahsura.
Following the
signal, I’d morphed into Scyther form and flown all the way to this hidden
facility close to the
The huge metal door ahead was almost beckoning me to enter.
“I need you guys to stay out here and keep watch.” I told my companions.
[But, you can’t just go in there by yourself!] Luminair protested.
“I’m sorry. I need to. And I can’t risk losing anyone else.” I switched back to human form and dropped my pack, taking only the sword. “I’ll be back, I promise.”
Leaving them in the bushes before they had any time to protest, I jogged up to the steel door and examined it. Definitely no easy way of forcefully getting through without making one humongous racket. I then caught sight of the card reader at the side.
I pulled out the Blue Card and slid it through. With a metallic hiss, the doors opened.
I took several steps in before the doors suddenly slammed shut, startling me. I had entered what appeared to be a metalwork factory.
I moved cautiously in, tediously checking all around for any signs of danger.
Automated machines were moving, steam hissing, and water dripping from the pipes and flowing across the floor. It was a dark, dimly lit place.
Perfect spot for an ambush.
No sooner had that thought hit my mind did I hear a soft click. I rolled away as a sharp metal pole impaled itself in the floor I’d been standing on. I glanced up so see its thrower, poised on a set of machinery above me.
He was a strong built male wearing gloves that exposed the back of the palm and the fingertips. He was dressed in a white T-shirt, blue jeans and a pair of sports shoes. A black jacket was also on over the shirt. His hair was orange with red streaks, coming down past his shoulder length. His fierce brown eyes seemed to have a fiery glow in them.
“Game’s over, Rocket.” He growled, leaping down to my level.
“What are you talking about?!” I demanded, furious at being called a Rocket.
“You don’t need to fake it. Hand over the Blue Card and you’ll live!”
“Over my dead body!” I yelled. “Who knows what you Sliph bastards will do once you have your precious key back?”
“Don’t you dare associate me with those foul creatures!” He roared.
“Now you’re the one who’s faking!” I placed my hand on my sword.
“I see there’s no other way around this.” He muttered, stepping into a fighting stance. “Draw your weapon fiend, and we battle!”
I hesitated.
“What’s wrong?”
“There is no honor in drawing my sword against an unarmed opponent.” I declared, tossing the blade aside.
“Noble act, but it won’t save you!”
“Say that about yourself!”
And so, we stood tense, ready to tear each other’s hearts out. All at once, it begun.
Hatred had
overtaken me. It had consumed all of us for that matter. If we’d only known
back then…