-27: Fate has kept the group apart for so long. Now, fate will bring them together again, but not all reunions are always happy ones…

Pokemon and all related trademarks belong to Nintendo. 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.

(http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=23675)

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At the Eleventh Hour

By Gregory Stephen nightdragon0@hotmail.com

Dracia

I circled the base uneasily, not really sure of what I should do. It been no simple task keeping up, but I’d finally reached the base and seen the van drive in.

After my tenth round, I decided to take a rest and flew down to hide in the forest nearby.

A helicopter was just taking off from the rooftop. I stared up at it, again with doubts and indecision filling my mind. I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I failed to notice the other Pokemon nearby until it accidentally snapped a twig. I spun round and barely dodged in time as a Jolteon flew past.

However, he landed on the balls of his feet, rolled forward and turned to face me again. I roared, and had my air supply abruptly cut off as a pair of vines was wrapped around my neck. The Ivysaur pulled back, pulling my head up and distorting my aim.

The Jolteon pounced and I realized in horror that the maneuver had also exposed my throat to be ripped wide open. I closed my eyes, expecting my thoughts to end anytime.

When nothing happened, I risked a peek and found instead the Jolteon was perched on my shoulder, sniffing.

[Could it really be…?] He muttered. [Dracia, is that you?!]

“Who…” I stopped short. “Jolteon? Ivysaur?”

[Dracia, is really you!] Ivysaur cried happily, releasing his vines. [Awesome, you evolved to a Dragonite!]

“Ivysaur, it’s great to see you again too.”

[I’m called Ahsura now. And Jolt’s called Luminair.]

“But what are you guys doing here?” I asked. “After you disappeared with Kris, my group’s been through some absolutely crazy stuff!”

[It’s Nightslice. He came to rescue Hazuki.] Luminair explained.

“Nightslice is here?! And who’s Hazuki?”

[Long story.] Ahsura muttered. [You have to read the entire fic to find out.]

“I’m here because Storm’s group was captured by these people.” I spoke. “And I came to rescue them.”

“Well, you shouldn’t been standing around here having your little reunion then.” A deep voice spoke, startling all of us.

“Alugard!” I told the others as the armored Scizor stepped into view.

Luminair and Ivysaur growled menacingly. Whether they were intimidated by Alugard’s new form was not shown on the surface.

“What do you want now?” I growled.

“Relax my dear, I’m not here to fight you this time at least.” The Scizor laughed, folding his arms. “In fact, it might be mutually beneficial for us to go in together on this one.”

“You expect us to believe that?”

“Look, my agents report that the base is going to kingdom come in less than 10 minutes now. You have things you need from there, and so do I. Besides, I would’ve just let your friends blow up if I wanted all of you dead.”

I glanced from Luminair to Ahsura, who gave me their conformational nods. They wanted me to make the call.

“All right Alugard, we’ll play it your way.” I sighed reluctantly.

“There, not too hard was it? Now, first thing is to get into the base itself.”

“I checked around it. All the doors seemed to be shut tight.” I said.

“Actually, you should remember that stealth is no longer necessary.” A wide grin crept across Alugard’s face.

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Firestorm

I attacked first, not wanting to give my opponent a chance. He gracefully stepped out of the way of two punches and did a back flip up onto a stack of crates.

Not bad. I thought, leaping up after him.

The young man climbed up a little and shoved a crate down at me. With a yell, I swung my fist and smashed it to pieces. I saw him gasp as I charged towards him.

My kick connected, sending him flying back into the wall. The soldier quickly pulled himself to his feet, ducked my following punch and knocked my feet out from under me.

Immediately, he disappeared into the darkness of the second level walkway.

I stood on guard, waiting for him to make his move, at the same time wondering how he was able to see wearing sunglasses in the dark. A flicker of movement caught my attention, causing me to turn around.

A little too late, I realized he’d taken off and thrown his brown vest as a distraction.

The kick from behind sent me stumbling into a set of machinery. My shirt got caught on a gear as I pulled away, tearing it from the right sleeve all the way across to the bottom left corner.

He hadn’t been expecting my quick retaliation as I threw a side kick followed by a combo of punches.

My opponent took several hits before he managed to get his guard back up. He caught my hand and threw me sideways.

I hit the ground hard, and he followed up with a ‘slamming’ move. I rolled away and gave him an uppercut to his chin, halting his attack midway.

Infuriated, he stumbled backwards, wiping his bleeding lip with the back of his hand. I realized blood was flowing down from a cut on my forehead.

And the fight continued.

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Swordia

Sneaking through a base was one thing. However, running through one about to blow up was another story.

Under the cover of the night and forest, our party had arrived just in time to see a helicopter flying off. We had split off from Alugard with the intention to sneak in separately.

Syndrea had come along, but we’d decided against forcing her to undertake the task against her will.

Scantrix and I had been climbing in through a window when the self destruct message started playing. And we’d started flying as quickly as we could.

“Darn, this is going to get a record timing if we make it out alive.” Scantrix muttered.

“Yeah, it’s a good thing we decided to make this a 3-mon mission.” I nodded.

A pair of Hyper Beams easily blew open the control room’s door.

“Remember, just stick the device in.” Scantrix instructed.

“I know.” I said, lifting my left claw.

Prior to this, a square device had been strapped to its flat end. Another of Alugard’s gadgets, this one supposedly containing a self executing program to download information on the virus we’d heard about.

Although the Scizor had intended to come and break through the security codes himself, it was fortunate that someone had left the computer running.

Scantrix opened a section on its side and I pushed the device in. The screen flashed with the words ‘searching’, then gave a confirmation message.

“We’re rolling.” I said as the download counter started going upwards.

“Just don’t take your claw away from there.” Scantrix instructed, flying over to a set of monitors at the other side of the room.

I could swear I’d heard him gasp.

“I’ve got to do something, all right?” He squawked hastily. “Just wait here. I’ll be back.”

The Skarmory was out the door before I even had time to contemplate his sentence.

“Scantrix? What was that about?” I wondered.

Out of curiosity, I called the one of the files about the virus. I choked at what I saw.

‘Phase 1 of V-X project complete. The new virus has successfully been engineered to recognize and infect various Pokemon DNA strains. Once infected, the virus replicates itself using the host cell’s DNA and spreads to other cells. It is a slow inflicting virus, causing much pain as body systems fail, eventually proving fatal to the host. Now, all it needs it a sample of DNA from a Chimera to be incorporated into it, and the V-X virus will be ready to enter its final stages…’

“What the hell?! Those b*******! They don’t even deserve to be called human!”

I was so enraged that I pulled my claw, and the device away from the main computer, cutting off the download.

“OH SHIT!!!!”

I shoved the device in and reactivated the download. Now, it would take longer.

Still swearing, I turned my head and noticed the flickering items on some of the screens. They were showing images of various rooms around the base.

One, however, caught my attention.

“Nightslice…?!”

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Hazuki

[Hazuki! Hazuki! Wake up!]

“Urgh…” I groaned, finding myself staring up at a gray ceiling. Slowly, the previous events came back to me.

Sneaking into the station, the fight, me getting kidnapped, looking up at a brightly lit room, people sticking needles into my arm…

I bolted up, shaking my head.

[Hazuki!]

“Kyle!” I gasped.

I was in a large, gray room with strong-looking, reinforced walls. Kyle was trapped in a transparent, water-filled ‘crystal ball’ in the center of the room.

“What’s been going on? Where did they take us?”

[I have no idea.] The Lapras shook his head. [I only remember them sticking some needles into you. Man, the size of those things even scared me.]

“How’d you get in there?” I asked.

[Oh, the fairy godmother waved her magic wand. Those b******* stuck me in here of course!]

I stepped back and gave his prison a kick, succeeding only in hurting my foot.

[Don’t you think I’ve tried that?! Someone obviously doesn’t want us getting out.]

I put my hand on my chin and thought for a moment.

“Why don’t you try freezing the water around you?” I suggested.

[What?! And turn myself into a Lapras Popsicle?!] He protested.

“When waters freezes into ice, it takes up more space. It should shatter the glass ball pretty quickly.” I explained.

[There’s no way I’m going to…]

A computerized voice beep as alarms began sounding.

“The self destruct system has now been activated. The self destruct system has now been activated. Base will detonate in 8 minutes. All personnel please proceed to your designated evacuation points. The self destruct system has now been activated…”

Kyle and I stared at each other in shock.

[I’m doing it!] The Lapras declared.

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Dracia

“I’ll lead you to where your friends are being held, after that, you’re on your own.” Alugard said as we ran through the corridors. The monotonous self destruct message was really starting to seriously piss me off.

“Yeah, sure.” I nodded.

[Make sure of it.] Luminair growled.

Alugard had simply lead us to the roof and down through the emergency stairway. Whoever had taken the helicopter out of there earlier had left it unlocked in their hasty departure.

“Here.” Alugard threw open a door and lead us into a security room, filled with screens and monitors. He pushed several buttons and pointed to an image on one of the screens.

It showed Serac and Nala in a gray room, pounding on the door. They’d obviously heard the warning message too, now at 7 minutes.

“We have to save those girls.” I declared.

[Room 05/11.] Ahsura read the words on the bottom of the screen.

[That’s a couple floors down.] Luminair said. [We’ll have to hurry.]

“Alugard, where…” I stopped short. “Dammit!”

We’d taken our eyes off the cunning Scizor for a few seconds and he’d disappeared.

[We don’t have time to worry about him.] Ahsura decided. [Let’s go. We can for the elevator!]

[You’re not supposed to use those in emergencies!] Luminair protested.

[Yeah, but nobody said anything about using the elevator shaft!]

The pair dashed out of the room.

I was about to follow when a radio in the room hissed.

“Dracia!” I female voice called from the other end. “Dracia, Storm and Nightslice are fighting each other.”

“What?! Who is this?!”

“My name is not important. Down on the factory level. Hurry!”

“Wait!” Too late, the connection was severed.

I happened to look up at a screen and saw the scene. Two humans fighting in what looked like a metal works factory. One was Firestorm, but the other…

“This is not my day!” I roared, taking flight.

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Serac

I pounded the door again, with little effect.

“Damn! Damn! Dammit! I don’t want to die!” Nala was screaming.

“We’re not going to, all right?!” I gasped, gathering up my energy for a Thunderbolt. “Not if I can do anything about it!”

“I…ugh…” Nala knelt down and put her hands to her head. “Your voice, I hear it…”

I didn’t have time for queries as I threw off the lightning attack.

All of a sudden, the door slid open and my Thunderbolt went out, creating a large, blackened spot on the corridor, accompanied by a loud bang.

“What the?!” Nala and I stared mouth opened at each other in shock.

“Well, don’t just stand there!” A voice from outside yelled. “After I went through the trouble of hotwiring this stupid control panel, you’d better get out of here alive!”

We dashed out to see a Skarmory hovering in the corridor.

“What…who…?” I began.

“No time. Nala, just get out of here. But take this.” The steel bird tossed a shiny object onto the ground and darted round to the left corridor.

“I’m confused.” I admitted.

Nala bent down to pick up the object, a pendant in the shape of a fox’s head.

“Serac, there’s something I have to do.” She said.

“Nala, this place is going up in like, 6 minutes.”

“Someone is calling out to me. Someone in this building. I need to find out whom. I promise I’ll get out in time.” The dark haired girl insisted. “Please, just go on first.”

“All right.” I gave in, seeing nothing was going to change her mind anytime soon. “Hurry, and be careful.”

Nodding, Nala sprinted for a nearby stairway, climbing up two steps at a time.

Another deafening explosion shook the area. This one too, was nearby, but to the right instead. I sprinted around the bend to see a Jolteon and Ivysaur furiously pounding on a door with their Thunderbolt and Solarbeam attacks.

[Hurry, I know Hazuki’s in there! I can smell her!] The Jolteon barked. [We’ve got to get her out!]

“Someone’s in there?” I asked, running towards them.

[Who…hey, she’s one of those Dracia told us to rescue!] The Ivysaur realized.

“Dracia? She’s here too?”

[Whoa, she understands us.] Jolteon gasped.

[Hey, we can do intros later.] Ivysaur told him. Then, he turned towards me. [We’re on the same side lady.]

“I figured.” I nodded. “If someone’s locked in there, I’ll help.”

Both Pokemon stared mouth opened as electrical energy gathered around my hands.

“Together guys.”

[Erm, right away!] Both did somewhat variations of a salute with their vine and paw respectively.

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Nightslice

The fellow was good. Really good to take me on.

It had been a brutal duel of strength and skill. Both of us were bruised and bleeding all over.

The fight had taken us up to the second level catwalk, overlooking the various conveyer belts and machinery.

I used a back flip to get out of my opponent’s way, but he changed his direction and used a back thrust. It caught me in the gut, but I managed to land on my side and roll away. I was now right at the end of the walkway, overlooking a conveyer belt.

Scrambling to my feet, I prepared myself as he charged towards me.

Man, if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that was…

“Firestorm! Nightslice! Stop fighting each other you two buffoons!”

Two things immediately hit my mind. One was that the voice belonged to Dracia. And the other was…

Firestorm must’ve realized that as well. However, his motion had already brought his body beyond his control.

“Yargh!” I screamed in pain as he rammed me over the edge. My sunglasses went flying, disappearing somewhere into the darkness.

“Nightslice!” He yelled, leaning over. “Nightslice, is that really you?! I’m sorry! I didn’t know!”

Dracia flew and landed by his side.

“Storm?! Dammit, what the f*** is going on?!”

“Later. For now, I need that blue card you’ve got.” Firestorm said. “I need it to save Jade and the others!”

“5 minutes until self destruct.” A computerized voice beeped.

We’d been so wrapped in our fight that we hadn’t even noticed. Still dizzy with tension, I took a step back and accidentally hit pushed a leaver. The conveyer belt jerked to life throwing me onto my back.

“Nightslice!” Firestorm called.

“Catch!” I tossed my entire belt pouch and shifted into my Scyther body, the rest of my clothes seemingly melding into the form.

Storm ripped off what was left of his shirt and tossed it away, before changing back into his Charizard self. Dracia caught the belt pouch and fished out the blue card.

“Watch out behind you!” Dracia suddenly shouted.

I realized the moving conveyer belt had brought me under what seemed like a compressor. Apparently, this machine was meant to nail two metal sheets together. One sheet was held up on its flat surface and I was lying on the other.

The hum of the machine carrying out its job snapped me back to the reality that it was about to flatten me. I propelled myself away, but not quickly enough.

My right claw was caught between the two sheets as the machine fastened them together.

“Nightslice!” Storm and Dracia exclaimed simultaneously.

“Both of you go save Jade and the others! Don’t worry about me!” I insisted. “There’s another girl named Hazuki. Get her out as well!”

“But…” Storm protested.

“GO!”

The pair finally complied. However, I turned and realized the entire conveyer belt moved under a series of similar compressors. And I was pinned down to it.

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Nala

“Where are you?” I asked no one as I ran. “Who are you?”

I was basically running blind, following this mysterious voice I’d suddenly begun hearing in my head. It could very well lead to me getting lost, and thus blown up with this facility.

However, something made me push on.

I approached a pair of white double doors and stepped into what appeared to be a hatchery. All around were tables with computers and incubators filled with broken egg shells. Rows of books and chemicals lined the appropriate shelves. The lights had been damaged and were flickering on and off, making it very difficult to see in the darkness.

“There’s nothing…no, wait!”

Noticing a greenish glow, I jogged towards the back of the room. Lining the wall was a series of cylindrical glass tubes, which looked like the kind they’d use to grow embryos in.

All of them were broken or shattered in some way or another…all except for the last one.

Heart pounding, I stepped up to it and pressed my face against the glass. Although the cylinder was filled with a thick, greenish liquid, I could just barely make out some shape inside.

I could see bubbles, as well as some part of the creature moving.

It’s alive! I realized.

All of a sudden, its eyes opened.

Startled, I rapidly backed away. The creature started thumping on the glass from within its prison, eager to break free. I screamed as cracks began appearing. The sight of its razor like fangs and claws got me running.

Unfortunately, automated programming sealed the door just as I got to it.

“NO! NO! NO!” I cried in terror, pounding my fists on it.

The ear-splitting crash of the glass tank shattering soon filled the room. I turned to see the dark shape dashing towards me.

And I passed out.

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Hazuki

I covered my face as shards of glass went flying.

“Great job Kyle!”

[Whew, I never want to do that again.] The Lapras panted.

The task had really been much tougher than I’d imagined it to be. Kyle was probably holding back all his colorful swear words, considering how bad it must’ve been for him.

The Lapras looked quite exhausted, having frozen the water from within his prison. Not only had he risked freezing himself into submission, but possibly having the weight of the ice crushing his body.

I ran my hands across his head and neck, realizing what I’d just put him through. I hadn’t really considered all those things.

“I’d sorry about you having to do that.” I apologized. “Guess I’m not good at making decisions.”

[Don’t worry about me.] He managed a weak smile. [Concentrate on getting out of here before you start pouring me with kisses. And no autographs please!]

The doors were abruptly blown open, revealing Luminair and Ahsura, together with a blond haired woman.

“Guys!” I cried, the two Pokemon leaping into my arms. “Boy, am I glad to see you!”

“I’m Serac.” The woman introduced. “And I’m here to get you out!”

“Is everybody all right?” A new voice asked.

I stepped out into a gray corridor, pretty much as featureless as the cell had been. A Dragonite had just entered the scene.

“Yeah, doing fine.” Serac told her.

“Are you Hazuki?” The Dragonite asked.

“Yes.” I nodded.

[They’re friends.] Luminair said to me.

“Where’s Storm?” Serac asked.

“Gone after Jade and Mirage.” Dragonite replied. “I’m going to go help him out. Can you get everyone else out of here, right now?”

“Leave it to me.” Serac gave a thumbs-up.

[Don’t die on me, OK?] Kyle muttered.

“Momantai.” I smiled, recalling him into a Pokeball.

Things were really going fast now. Joining my new friends, I ran.

“3 minutes until self destruct…”

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Jade

Self destruct…that meant blow up.

I didn’t give a dammed how I knew anymore. But what I was sure of was that I didn’t want to die here, not like this.

Screaming in silent rage, I pushed against the ice around my body. My muscles burned with exhaustion as I strained them to their limits. I managed to wiggle a bit. Then, a little more. However, barely enough to shift my frozen body slightly.

Despite my best efforts, all seemed in vain.

Strength alone will not win this battle. A voice told me.

Who…? I started.

Forgotten me, have you Jade? It laughed. Well, it doesn’t matter now. You’ve always had that inner fire. Now is the time to unleash it…

I held my breath and focused. I could feel my tail flame grow stronger.

One strike is all you need Jade…

“Jade!” With a hiss, the door slid open and Firestorm rushed in. Whatever he really was, he was Charizard for now. “Hold on!”

Running up to my prison, he slid a card through some machine in front of it.

“F***! It’s busted!” He roared, pounding on the machine. “Jade, I’ll get you out myself! Hold on!”

Snarling, he backed off and rammed my glass prison. Again and again.

One strike… I thought. It was hard to remember exactly what I did, but I knew that I drove everything into it. My will and strength. And the ice shattered.

Dripping with sweat, I collapsed against the glass wall, panting wildly. Several sharper shards of ice had cut me in too many places to count.

Firestorm was yelling something I was too dazed to understand, but I figured he wanted me to keep hitting. Every movement added on to my already bruised body.

It was a while before we punched a small hole in the glass, allowing me to hear Firestorm’s swearing better.

“Damn! Damn! DAMN! DAMN!” He cursed. “I need more power dammit! RRRRAAGGGGHHHHH!”

Firestorm backed away and prepared for a final charge.

A thought just snapped into my mind. I just…knew what Firestorm needed from me. With a last burst of strength, I gathered up what energy I had left and fired an intense burst of flames through the hole. Instead of hitting my companion however, the flames wrapped themselves around his claws.

Time seemed to slow down as the leapt forward, claws outstretched and alit with flames. Even his eyes seemed to grow brighter by the power of the flames.

“X-Strike!”

I knew time had sped up again when I heard the crash of the glass finally giving in. As much as I felt the pieces piercing into even my tough scales.

I was aware of my face hitting the floor, but nothing more…

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Dracia

I barged in just in time to see Firestorm pulling Jade up from the floor.

“Guys!”

“Dracia, good timing.” Firestorm panted, looking on the verge of passing out himself. “The card…Mirage…in the next room.”

I carefully took the frail piece of plastic from his claws and nodded.

“Just hurry and get Jade out of here.”

He hoisted Jade over his shoulder and moved briskly out the door, presumably to the nearest window.

I dashed for the only other door in the room and slid the card through the reader.

[Dracia!] I heard Mirage’s voice, and squeezed my body through before the doors were fully open.

“On my way!” I roared.

The Ponyta was tied up and lying on her side at the far end of the room. I shoved scattered pieces of furniture away as I approached my friend to remove her bonds.

[Don’t touch it!] She warned. [This thing on me is a bomb!]

“How do I…of course, the card!” I realized, bringing it up again. There was a nice slot for the card on an electronic lock holding the straps and the bomb to Mirage’s body.

[Hurry, I heard them say that this bomb will blow up at the same time this place does.]

“Don’t worry Mirage, I…”

[Watch out!]

I felt the vibration of the room as something in the corridor outside exploded. I was suddenly thumped from behind by pieces of the falling wall, blown free by the blast.

I hit the ground hard, losing the keycard in the process. All my senses had seemed suddenly blank out.

No…

Mirage was yelling something I couldn’t hear. Desperately, I tried to push myself up, but the weight of the metal and concrete pieces covering me was too much. I was seeing much more than stars in front of my eyes.

I’m…sorry…

I gave in, dropping back to the ground.

I had failed my friends…again.

If only…if only I’d fought on. Then, maybe…