Dr. Westwood fell back and off his chair, clutching his heart. James and Misty both stood up, throwing their chairs back in total surprise, too distracted to tend to Westwood as he lay there and simply died. They watched the scene with the smell of roasted death and the sight of smoke pouring around as if it were a thick, gray mist. Many, if not most, of the people in the hall panicked as the smoke surrounded the area.
Misty and James took a few steps back as they brought out their weapons, James with a silenced pistol and Misty with her Magnum. Can this have to do with the League prisoner brought in yesterday? Misty wondered, as the smoke began to slowly clear out. Some charred and unrecognisable bodies began to show themselves on the concrete dirtied by the flame as the smoke steadily diffused, spreading out into invisible particles in the air.
When they could finally see the wall in the way of the explosion, there was nothing left of it but sharp, broken and blackened concrete debris, charred remains that looked like shadows because they were burnt to the ground, remains of wood, and food turned into carbon dust decorating the gray debris. Through the window, everyone there could see some figures, which Misty recognised as the League's elite Shock troopers, dressed heavily and heavily armed. Behind the troopers they seen, snow flew around the area and that alone caused the room to chill itself to a harsh temperature. Everyone was beginning to freeze.
((|\/\/~They're community people! Shoot on sight!\/\/|)) Lily ordered. Lily began firing the machine gun as the sound of the weapon firing was barely heard, yet heard, through her helmet. Her troops started firing in unison, aiming at different targets to kill and slowly moving closer and closer.
Lily noticed a man in his thirties with gray hair who took out a gun and started firing his pistol at Lily. The bullets hit the hard glass screen Lily was holding and didn't go any further, looking rather spooky as if they were frozen in place. Good thing this is bulletproof glass, Lily thought devilishly. Lily found him familiar from somewhere, but she shrugged it off and fired her automatic at the man. 3 new bulletholes entered his chest, tearing it open as he fell lifeless to the ground, spewing blood from deep within his chest. Lily couldn't hear anything, but she seen pandemonium ensuing within the croud of people there.
Misty sobered up as she had a brief glimpse of James' torn corpse, then looked at the troopers, aiming at different people, specific targets, and she seen people drop dead around her one by one. Shocked and angry, she aimed her pistol at the nearest Shock trooper and fired. The Magnum bullet pierced the bulletproof glass and blood spitted through the trooper's helmet. She could hear a muffled scream coming from within the helmet.
((|\/\/~FUCKITFUCKITFUCKITFUCKIT!\/\/|)) Hairnes screamed in denial, followed by a groan and the rapid spitting of blood caused by the forced exhalation of his last breath (which was clotting up his radio, matter-of-factly).
Hairnes collapsed to the ground, death overtaking him as the bulletproof glass-penetrating bullet settled in his head. A shiver ran up Lily's spine. Maybe we shouldn't have radar in our helmets after all, she thought, if every casualty is going to turn out like this.
Lily found the woman vaguely familiar, but she shrugged that off immeadiately. She's comunity and she killed Hairnes so whoever she is, I'll teach her, Lily mused as she aimed her automatic at the woman's chest and squezzed the trigger as hard as she could. Instead of hitting the woman's chest, the bullets hit her head, passing through it in a uninterrupted passage. Blood and dangerously sharp cranial fractures sprayed in all directions around her. As the bulletholes hit the chords of her spinal vertebrae, Misty's head tore apart from her shoulders and flew off to the side of her. The decapitated corpse of Misty turned around under the force of the bullets and staggered backwards to where she once sat (with the force of the bullets), belly-flopping against the chair she once had sat on.
((|\/\/~Nice shooting, Lily\/\/|)) one of the troopers commented, somewhat affected by what had just happened to Hairnes yet still fixed on shooting down the people one by one, not flinching, not twitching.
((|\/\/~Thanks. I always liked splashy exits.\/\/|))
Light smoke coming from the barrels of several machine guns filled the area after all of the troopers had done their job. Everyone other than them in the room was reassuredly either dead or dying. Lily sighed. She could always reflect on Hairnes' death, but there was no time for that; she could have time for that after.
((|\/\/~Alright, off to work. Let's look for some more people in the area. Kill all Community members in all other places.\/\/|))
***
Samurai jumped up as he heard a loud bang, followed by many less significant bangs.
"This is probably the work of you, spy!" Samurai yelled at Blaine once he heard the loud bang, beginning to blame everything on him.
Blaine looked somewhat more surprised than Samurai was because he wasn't jumping to conclusions. Samurai was surprised at Blaine's expression. Although he tried not to show it, Blaine could see Samurai's change in behavior because Samurai's aim with his gun was shaking- it wasn't before it happened. Samurai seemed to calm down, wondering if Blaine was really supporting the league after all. Still, Samurai thought, I must still presume that he is. The league have some expert liars and they can fake innocence just as well.
"Follow me," Samurai ordered, walking out of Ash's room as he thought about just what he was going to do with him. What else could Blaine do but follow suit?
The loud noises came from the mess hall, Samurai calculated, worried about Misty and James. Right then, even though he didn't see what happened, Samurai imagined two things: the first where everything was fine when he would enter the room, and the second where everyone was dead, and the building was somehow on fire, Misty and James half-burnt, half shot through, lying right beside eachother, and...
Samurai stopped thinking about it, knowing that it would be too much for anyone to go into detail as it would in dark reality. They were in a long, wide passageway. Blaine was behind Samurai, hands in his pockets this time instead of up in the air.
Blaine decided to ask, "hey, do you know where we'r-" Blaine, nearly at the end of a corridor before a simple 90° intersection, was cut off by the sound of footsteps. Both of them stopped moving or breathing.
The footsteps were more like running struts as what Blaine and Samurai heard was noisier than walking. Samurai brought out his pistol and walked over to the turn in the hallway, not strutting, not tip-toeing, just walking. Samurai walked over to the corner to check and see what was past it. Blaine didn't see what happened, but Samurai sure did. Unexpectedly for Blaine, Samurai leaped in the direction of Blaine, screaming with a look of fear in his eyes.
As Samurai skidded on the floor just missing Blaine, they could both could hear an automatic weapon firing. 3 bulletholes appeared on the concrete wall, briefly smoking before just appearing there, just being there. Samurai didn't have a good look at what fired at him, but he thought that it was a League shock-trooper in some sort of winter clothing. In this case, Samurai had an idea.
Blaine tried to back out a little in formal rejection as Samurai held Blaine's hand, but to no avail. Not knowing what Samurai was doing, Blaine heard Samurai's gun being handled at the back of his head as a sign of serious threat. Samurai stood behind Blaine, sidestepping with Blaine at secure gunpoint, forcing Blaine to do what he thought Samurai was making him do. Samurai and Blaine appeared at the corner to see a heavily armed League shock-trooper, with a barely visible Lt. insignia. The trooper seemed to recognise Blaine, cocking its helmet in a quizzical manner. Blaine, seeing someone of the League, panicked and almost whimpered at gunpoint from both sides.
Samurai was the first to speak. "I have a hostage! If you don't leave this base with everyone of your own kind within 12 hours or present a threat to me, I will kill him!"
The trooper seemed to look undisturbed. However, the trooper dropped its invisible screen and took off its helmet to respond. The trooper was a woman in her early-thirties, with red hair and a pale face. A radio stook up from her suit, covering her mouth. Shit, Blaine thought, it's Lily!
She lowered her weapon with one hand and flicked the 'off' switch on her radio with the other hand. She then hastily lifted and handled the automatic again, with an apparent grin on her face.
"You can kill him. Unless you want me to kill him first."
Samurai cocked an eyebrow. He was presented with mind-games before. He could not tell if Lily was tricking Samurai or not, though, so if she was presenting Samurai with one, she was cartainly good. Lily edged closer and closed one eye shut, aiming at Blaine's chest.
"You seem to present a threat to me," Samurai stated, "I will shoot in 3 seconds unless you back off and lower your weapon. Counting now. 3..."
Lily didn't move.
"... 2..."
Lily didn't move. In fact, she was grinning with apparent anticipation, but Samurai didn't notice that.
"... 1..."
Blaine, with all of his guts, dived to the side, landing with an awkward side roll. The timing was excellent. When Samurai fired, the bullet missed Blaine and hit Lily's nose. Her nasal passages filled with blood draining into her windpipe via her mouth, choking her to death. Samurai looked down to Lily, who was frothing and spitting warm blood through her mouth. Her last words: "glup." That was when Lily died, head moving to the side and blood flowing down from her [nose]and mouth into a thick red puddle on the floor.
Disconcerted and discombobulated, Samurai looked to his left and right-the last thing he seen before being tacked to the ground, to his right, was Blaine, leaping on Samurai, hands bared and not in fists. Samurai hit the concrete wall with a bang. Samurai's gun flew from his hands and skidded around on the floor. Blaine kicked Samurai in the stomach and grabbed his pistol off the floor. Samurai was lying down against a the corner, the blow to his stomach stunning and distracting.
Blaine was breathing heavily, his right leg on Samurai's chest and the silenced pistol aimed at Samurai's head.
"Go on, you can kill me now, or rape me," Samurai told Blaine, head cocked to the side, surrendering.
Blaine didn't do either, instead he backed off toward the now-white, blood drained corpse that had once been Lily. Blaine picked up the screen shield that Lily was holding a moment earlier and could have saved her life.
"If you cannot comprehend my innocence," Blaine stated, "I will have to leave you here. Perhaps we can meet under more pleasant circumstances. If you survive, that is."
Blaine took off Lily's winter gear and put down the silenced pistol, now holding Lily's automatic. Samurai stared into space but still seen Blaine take Lily's clothes off until she had a simple, blue uniform on, consisting of a long-sleeved shirt and pants. Blaine put all the clothes that he took off Lily on, piece by piece as Samurai watched everything. Blaine slid on Lily's helmet, pulled up the screen of bulletproof glass and aimed her automatic at Samurai's head, slowly backing away. A thought suddenly passed through Blaine's mind: I guess this is the appropriate situation to carry an automatic and wear a woman's clothes, isn't it?
Same place-about 10 minutes later
Samurai staggered up to a standing position beside Lily's carcass, a look of discombobulation on his face, wondering why Blaine didn't shoot him or kill him some other way. Getting back to his senses, Samurai changed his expression immeadiately. Right in front of him, Samurai was staring at his gun. Blaine had left it behind, most likely on purpose for me to get to it, Samurai thought, recalling what Blaine had told him.
"If you cannot comprehend my innocence, I will have to leave you here. Perhaps we can meet under more pleasant circumstances. If you survive, that is." Samurai registered that. Blaine was probably not playing mind-games, otherwise he really didn't need to back off and say that. He would've simply killed him there with his own pistol- and not leave it behind, of course. Samurai started to piece things together. If the League trooper had made it here, everyone in the open areas was probably dead.
I must save myself, Samurai thought, if not anyone else in the base's population.
"Why did Blaine take Lily's clothes?" Samurai asked himself, before concluding, "perhaps he's using it as a disguise to escape-or do whatever he had to do."
Hmm, Samurai thought, I guess that I must escape too, somehow. But how? Samurai paced around dizzily, wondering how to get out-when he banged his head against something. Samurai shook his head and rubbed it, backing exactly two steps from where he hurt himself-ah! Samurai suddenly found himself staring at what he banged his head against. It was a vent shaft grill, big enough for him to crawl into and stretching horizontally for crawling. Samurai picked up his gun, shot the 4 bolts off the vent grill and climbed inside.
***
Blaine walked through the corridor, focusing on nothing but the hallways in front of him. I suppose it's time to turn on the radio, Blaine guessed, wondering about what the other troops were thinking. Blaine flicked the switch on with his teeth. Be careful not to talk, Blaine mused as he heard the radio crackle, or else they will wonder who you are.
***
League shock-trooper high-ensign Damien Turner aimed his weapon in front of him as he proceeded through the corridors.
((|\/\/~Lt. Lily, where are you? Please respond!\/\/|))
((|\/\/~Damien, for the last time don't be concerned. Lily is fine, she just won't give a shit about you\/\/|)) another trooper responded, ((|\/\/~stop trying. What, do you think that you're going to fuck her cunt or something like that?\/\/|))
Damien had a touch of anger in his voice as he replied to the trooper, who was most likely a junior officer or an ensign lower than his rank, ((|\/\/~she could've died.\/\/|))
((|\/\/~Whatever you say. Like anyone could kill her.\/\/|))
((|\/\/~Yeah. Just like they killed Lt. Hairnes. There are such things as ARMOR-PIERCING BULLETS, you know.\/\/|))
The other trooper stopped talking, outsmartened, which was fourtunate for Damien because he didn't feel like arguing. He was alone, with only his radio, solely for talking to his annoying peers, as any form of communication. With his teeth, he turned on the public transmitter to hear everything that was going on over the public bandwidth.
((|\/\/~Ensign Turner here. Anyone know what happened to Lt. Lily?\/\/|)) Damien Turner asked over to the public transmission, pacing while he talked, which was rarely something he did.
The responce was from whom he recognised as Ensign Hurley, chuckling as he replied, ((|\/\/~no, I didn't. Are you doing this because you want to become in command?\/\/|))
Damien reflected on that for a moment. With Hairnes dead, he was the new second in command and if Lily died then, well...
((|\/\/~I'd sure like to be in command, to tell you the truth, but that does not have to do with Lily's safety per se.\/\/|))
((|\/\/~Good point. Look for her if you can't get a response.\/\/|))
Psywave Networking-about 8:15
Earth orbital bearing 1 055 456 P-Y 1027/1425 aprxdt: 327 680/1 000 000...
••••••••••••
Subjects...
1. Not off topic-type Chansey
2. Ain't my radius-type Clefairy
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Ain't my radius: What is it?
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Not off topic: You'll have to return the eye. IR and his troops are beginning to find out. Fourtunately, I am leading them on the wrong track. You must return the eye to where you are and leave.
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Ain't my radius: Okay, I'm doing it... I think that the community people are under attack. I heard a loud bang and since then I have heard a lot of machine-gun fire.
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Not off topic: Have you dealt with the league before, or are you new to them?
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Ain't my radius: No, I have not been with the league, only the community.
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Not off topic: Shit! You must leave now. If the people attacking are league troops-which I presume they are-they'll shoot you on sight and attach a time-bomb to the monitor controller.
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Ain't my radius: Certainly. Okay, now-hey, who is this? In red suits-
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Not off topic: Get out now! Get out with your modified metronome's teleport NOW! NOW! NOW!
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Not off topic: Hello? Hello? Hello?!
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Not off topic: I'm fucked. Just my luck. When the Pokémon of the world see the floating eye's machinery, they will look for me. I must leave...
Community post B8 under Indigo Plateau-in the meantime
Damien Turner had stumbled across an open vent.
"Hmm... Strange that it's open," Damien stated to himself with the radio off, speculating as to what happened.
Damien looked down to see, quite strangely enough, the vent panel with the bolts shot off. Wonder what this is, he thought, observing it-Damien seen something, in the corner of his eye. Something red. Blood. He turned around to see where it came from and nearly fainted. Swallowing hard and turning the radio on with his teeth, Damien announced to the public bandwidth: ((|\/\/~everyone, something has happened that none of you will like or accept, but it has happened. Lily has been killed. Her riot gear is gone, along with her machine gun.\/\/|))
Of course, there were a lot of replies to that quite quickly.
***
((|\/\/~Everyone, something has happened that none of you will like or accept, but it has happened. Lily has been killed. Her riot gear is gone, along with her machine gun.\/\/|))
Blaine had heard the public transmission and turned off his radio so he could swallow hard. Shit, Blaine thought. Well, now that I mention it, Samurai has not been mentioned. Maybe he escaped, Blaine mused, but that doesn't matter anymore. If they see me with Lily's clothes on, I will be killed. I should have bothered to put away the body, perhaps in the vents.
Blaine suddenly thought about his new Pokémon, under all his riot gear and attached to his pants. Maybe they can help, Blaine realised, especially Golem, who can withstand bullets. I'll have to strip first, though. Blaine took off his helmet and put down his screen shield, and bent down to take off his boots-a Pokéball? Blaine stared at it. I mustn't have noticed it when I put on, he realised as he took it off his riot gear's reinforced pants. Okay, he thought, I wonder what's in it... Blaine pressed the pokéball button and it revealed an Abra, covered in winter wear. Blaine quickly put his helmet back on, so that Abra would mistake Blaine for Lily, which apparently worked as Abra did nothing strange (well, it did nothing, really).
"Abra... Teleport me out of this structure, just outside."
Blaine picked up the riot shield and stayed close to Abra. For a brief moment, Blaine shined white, followed by his molecules dematerialising piece-by-piece and reappearing right outside.
Blaine returned Abra to find that it was snowing heavily outside. Some snow around the place, riot gear, heart beating fine, fire in the distance... I escaped, Blaine thought to himself with sudden happiness, what a stroke of luck... Aw, what the heck! Blaine aimed his automatic in the air and fired a few shots. Blaine yelled, with nobody near to hear, "yahoo! I can't believe it! I'm out! I'm out!"
***
For Samurai, who was sliding around in the vents aimlessly, it was another matter. Samurai did not know where he was because all he seen was the enveloping claustrophobic darkness that was the vents. Not being a claustrophobe himself, Samurai was concentrated on a good place to leave, looking for another vent panel somewhere leading to a good place to exit.
***
Ensign Niall Hurley of the League carried the dead Clefairy from the tail with one of his hands in front of him, looking at Ensign Smith. Although Ensign Hurley had a quizzical expression with a bit of disgust on his face, his helmet covered his head, concealing his facial expression.
((|\/\/~What do I do with it?\/\/|)) Ensign Hurley asked.
((|\/\/~Chuck it somewhere and look at this.\/\/|))
Ensign Smith was at a computer that the Clefairy was sitting beside. The computer was big hulk of grey metal with a keyboard and a monitor in the front, and inside it- who knew? Niall stood at his comrade's shoulder, holstering his automatic into his riot clothes, seeing what Ensign Smith was doing, or at least looking at.
((|\/\/~Check this out\/\/|)) Ensign Smith stated with a slight chuckle, typing in commands to the computer and grinning at what he seen with slight disbelief. What Ensign Hurley seen on the monitor was quite surprising. The monitor showed Pokémon from a height, talking to each other without noticing the eye.
((|\/\/~What a sight. Never thought that I would see any Pokémon again besides this Clefairy we shot, and quite brutally, too\/\/|)) Ensign Smith added, making Niall look at the Clefairy, which indeed was quite gored, white blood flooding around the bulletholes and dripping to the ground like a tap.
The face was no longer present on the Clefairy, what was left of it and still attached to the Clefairy were what was left of its brains, its eyes and its nasal passageways, covered with mucus as well as white blood.
((|\/\/~Ha, ha ha. No shit, nobody needs to perform an autopsy on it because it's already been taken apart\/\/|))
Niall threw away the dead Clefairy, blood hurled to where he had thrown it with the force of inertia. The dead Clefairy's crushed and gored face slid to the floor, beginning to seperate from the rest of its body.
((|\/\/~This looks like a camera projection\/\/|)) Ensign Smith observed, pointing out the Pokémon and how far away they were. The eye was about 400m high, judging by how far away the Pokémon seemed to be standing.
((|\/\/~I wonder what the Community have done with it\/\/|)) Ensign Hurley asked nobody, wondering to himself how a sort of floating camera could make it to where the Pokémon of Mewtwo were without detection.
10 minutes later
Samurai had reached an area in the vents where there was another vent panel. Light shone through the cracks of the panel, almost blinding Samurai as he had been in the dark vents for a while. Samurai looked through the panel while his eyes slowly adjusted to the light.
Rubbing his eyes, Samurai focused on what was through the panel to see a well-lit area, with a metallic surface. The vents were on the floor instead of above it like it was in the more usual hallways. Samurai could hear a fan running. The metal in the room was covered with rust, and the recycled air seemed to run better through the metal area than in the usual concrete halls that he was used to. Wonder what's inside, Samurai thought as he brought out his gun to shoot off the bolts...
***
Ensign Hurley looked at the computer, and so far nothing had happened with the Pokémon shown some distance away from the floating camera's projection, and Niall had already made out what the Pokémon were. One of them was a Lickitung, the other an Exeggutor and the last one Niall could barely recognise as a Dragonite.
((|\/\/~They must be quite high-ranked Pokémon, I figure\/\/|)) Ensign Hurley pointed out to Ensign Smith, but he didn't seem to be listening.
((|\/\/~Officer Smith, anyone in there, in that brain of yours?\/\/|)) Ensign Smith was sitting up beside the monitor, busy with handling a big, red circular device and attaching it to the computer somehow.
((|\/\/~I'm busy here. You know, with the usual routine\/\/|)) Ensign Smith was obviously very preoccupied, showing in both his voice and his attention span. The circular red metallic device had a red button in front of it.
((|\/\/~Ensign Hurley, time to leave. Contact the others, we're blowing this joint\/\/|))
Ensign Smith pressed the red button, and that was when Ensign Hurley recognised just what it was, wondering to himself why he didn't recognise it immeadiately as it was standard procedure to saboutage computers.
It was a time-bomb.
***
Inside the room of metal he had crawled into, Samurai sat down and thought of what to do next. The room was empty except for one gas mask with a full supply of air strewn on the floor, and a metal gate, which had, clearly enough, a vertical fan behind it blowing into a seemingly endless dark tunnel, blowing air into the metal room, the vents and the rest of the base itself.
"Behind the fan, the air is recycled," Samurai thought out loud, "this must be also part of the vents. With this gas mask, I can have my own air without the air outside affecting me, to some extent. However, the shock troopers have cracks in their suits and air holes that they can breathe from, so they aren't protected from the air. Then..."
Samurai never thought that he really had to do what he did right then, but it was a good idea, however risky. Samurai actually had 2 Pokémon left, and they were rare ones. Knowing what to do, Samurai lifted up one pokéball and chucked it to the floor to let it open.
When the pokéball opened, Samurai felt a chill come through his spine. He was afraid of Pokémon, they had killed many people right in front of him. Even if they were his, Samurai was very afraid that his Pokémon would leave-nobody ever thought that Pikachu would leave his master, but he did to fight with Mewtwo, and very dilligently too. Enough, Samurai thought, opening his eyes when he realised that they were clenched.
"Freee?" The Pokémon he chose, Butterfree, asked.
Samurai came back in action and fitted the gas mask on his face. The air in the mask should last a couple of hours, Samurai figured as the elastic band in the mask fitted on with a slap.
"Butterfree, aim your sleep powder toward the fan," Samurai commanded, his voice a little muffled by the gas mask over his mouth and nose. Butterfree was happy to oblige, spreading glittering powder all over the fence and the air flowing in a stong gust past the fan.
The air propelled the sleep powder through the tunnel and the vents. Samurai chuckled a bit. This is probably going to work, Samurai figured, and then, freedom... I can tell everyone what I done!
***
((|\/\/~Ensign Smith, how long will the bomb last before explosion?\/\/|)) Ensign Hurley asked, still in the room where the bomb was planted.
((|\/\/~2 hours. We got plenty of time. It might explode by the time that we tell Koga that it was a success, despite losing Hairnes and Lily\/\/|))
A sort of foggy blue powder entered the room as Ensigns Smith and Hurley were leaving the room. ((|\/\/~What's this?\/\/|)) Ensign Hurley asked Ensign Smith, holding some of the powder in his hands as it trickled on.
((|\/\/~Probably just crushed snow, entering the vents somehow. Don't wor-\/\/|)) At that moment, Ensign Smith collapsed. A huge weight was suddenly felt on Niall's shoulders, and he started to fall down, a feeling of tiredness overcoming him.
((|\/\/~It can't be. It shouldn't be. Is it? Noooo...\/\/|)) Niall collapsed into a deep sleep as the powder entered his nostrils.
And the bomb ticked on.