Chapter 14: String Shot A fleet of helicopters took flight from Charteruse City. Their target- the Flame Force fortress, and surrounding bases. Each trainer had recieved a bag full of healing items. They contained 25 Hyper Potions, 20 Revives and 40 Full Cures. "These things cost a fortune," Booster had told them. "So don't lose them. Use them as nessessary." Their Pokémon had been fully healed, and given another dose of status boosters. Another squad of helis joined the main group- the Rock Brigade! Uiru saw Curtis in the chopper next to his. He waved. Curtis waved back. However, they weren't going to the same place. Rock Brigade was going to be attacking the base head on. After a few hours, Fire Strike pulled away from the main group. The pilot steered the chopper straight at Ruby Torch. It landed about half a mile away. Fire Strike hopped out and casually started walking towards the base. A small squad of Flame Force sentries ran out to stop them. Showers and Nick silently summoned their Water Pokémon and in moments the sentries were defeated. Ruby Torch knew that Fire Strike was coming. The gates were closed and dozens of guards appeared on the walls, their Fire Pokémon ready to fry anything that came their way. When they reached the base, Uiru hailed the guards with a friendly greeting. When they swore back at him, he said, "Well, if you're going to be rude about it," and summoned his Wartortle. Alex and Jessica called out Starmie and Staryu, and they took to flying over the Fire Pokémon and spraying them with Water Guns. From the ground, other Water Pokémon fired their hydro powers up at the sentries. When Thunders saw they were all wet, he called out Jolteon to finish them off. "So how are we gonna get in?" Patrick asked. "Watch!" Uiru replied. "Sandslash, Dig under the wall!" Uiru had planned to form a tunnel under the wall, but instead, the wall collapsed. Uiru shrugged. Fire Strike stormed Ruby Torch! The base was simple- a small building surrounded by a wall. The small plaza didn't allow much room for battling, so Fire Strike took out the trainers in little bunches. Uiru had his Sandslash use Rock Slide on an incoming Charizard. Staryu and Starmie flew up and attacked from the air. Fire Pokémon began assailing them from the roof. Nick hopped on the back of Staryu, and Showers climbed on Starmie. Both floated up to the roof and engaged their attackers. Down below, Machoke and Primeape began strongarming their way through the assembled ranks. Both were whupping some serious arse until a Magmar hit them with Confuse Ray, whereupon they both began fighting each other. Jessica and Allison recalled them. A troop of Water Pokémon appeared to deal with Sandslash and Marowak, which Jessica had just called out. Matt and Patrick unleashed their Grass and Bug Pokémon to battle them, but when a Vulpix and Growlithe attacked them, they recalled their fighters and stepped out of the way. When Vaporeon beat them, Matt sent Oddish to take care of the Water types, and after beating them senceless, it evolved into Gloom! Thunders sent out Magneton and Electabuzz to battle the Water Pokémon. Uiru had to recall Sandslash, but sent out Kadabra. Kadabra quickly cut a swathe straight through the Flame Force. Up above, two Butterfree and a Venomoth were dumping loads of Sleep Powder and Stun Spore on the enemies and their Pokémon. This tactic improved Fire Strike's position considerably. Erin and Geoff released their Poison Pokémon- far from Uiru's Kadabra, of course. Nidorino and Erin's five Pokémon engaged tough opponents like Rapidash and Ninetails, bringing them down with teamwork and Poisoning abilites. Geoff also sent his Dratini into battle It used it's Thunder Wave and Wrap tactic to disable many of the Flame Force soldiers. It wasn't long before Booster started calling for the Flame Force's surrender. It wasn't long before they did. Booster released their Pokémon and told them to get the hell out of there if they knew what was good for them. Then Venomoth and it's Butterfree cohorts used Sleep Powder on all the soldiers. "The tunnel's in here," Booster announced. Fire Strike entered the Ruby Torch base. "Hey, a healing unit!" Nick declared. "We can use this to cure up our Pokémon." As the trainers ran their Pokémon through the unit, Allison made an even more important discovery. "Evolution stones!" she shouted. Although she had never seen them before, she knew these must be evolution stones. They were chunks of colored rock with the icon of their element inside them. "Hold it!" Booster shouted. "You have to think carefully before using evolution stones. Your Pokémon won't learn any new attacks naturally if you use a stone on them. Only evolve Pokémon that you've had for a long while." "Yeah," Matt agreed. "For example, I'm going to evolve my Weepinbell and Exeggcute, but not my Gloom because it just evolved and hasn't finished learning all it's attacks." Matt took three Leaf Stones, and put one in his pocket. He used the other two on his Grass Pokémon. In an instant, he had a Victreebel and an Exeggutor. Jessica took a Water Stone and evolved her Staryu. Alex used one on his Shellder. Showers also took one and evolved her Poliwhirl. They became Starmie, Cloyster and Poliwrath! Uiru took a Thunder Stone and in an instant, evolved Pikachu into a Raichu. Thunders also took one for his Pikachu, but didn't want to use it right away. Erin took out three Moon Stones, and handed one to Geoff. He pocketed the mystical rock. His Nidorino wasn't ready to evolve just yet. Erin's Nidorans weren't ready to evolve at all. It would be a long time before she used the Moon Stones to evolve her future Nidorino and Nidorina into Nidoking and Nidoqueen. Allison, Booster and Geoff weren't ready to use Fire Stones on their Growlithes, but took them anyway. When their Growlithes were finished growing, they would evolve into the formidable Arcanine- but not yet. Lastly, Uiru pocketed one each of the five stones. When asked why by Nick, he replied, "My sixth Pokémon might need a stone to evolve. Might as well be ready." Nick nodded. "All set?" Booster asked. "The tunnel's down here. Let's go!" Fire Strike headed down the corridor and into the tunnel. The few guards remaining down there were instantly wiped out by Alex's Starmie and Geoff's Dratini- which, by defeating an Arcanine and a Rapidash, evolved into Dragonair! "All right!" Geoff shouted. Dragonair was much more powerful then Dratini, and sported a sharp horn on it's head. "Now when Sunder's boss asks me for his Dratini, I won't be lying if I say I don't have it." Erin hit him. "Be sure to use it to cream them," she reminded. He nodded. Ruby Torch was about two miles from the Flame Force base. Booster told Fire Strike to walk, because if they tried to glory-charge the whole thing, they'd be too pooped to fight by the time they reached the end. "Does anyone else have the feeling that we're going down?" Jessica asked. "Yeah," Matt replied. "What do you think's up with this?" "These underground tunnels connect with the base's subterrainian levels," Booster explained. "We'll probably come out in some heavily defended sector of the base, so be careful." "You know, Booster, you don't have to keep telling us to be careful," Thunders stated. "We aren't idiots. We know where we are." "I know, it's a habit," Booster explained. It took a while, but they finally reached the end. An ominous door faced them. On three, Booster and Thunders kicked down the door. Flareon and Jolteon barged into the room, ready to nuke the place if nessessary. It wasn't. Someone had been here already, because the technicians were covered in String Shot and stuck to the walls. Patrick laughed. "Looks like someone's been creative with their Butterfree," he chuckled. "I wonder who's been here already?" Nick looked at the wall. "Arctic Point was here," he read. Someone had scribbled their unit's name on the wall. Nick found a large black marker and scribbled under it 'Fire Strike was here too'. "I wonder if Arctic Point use Ice type Pokémon?" Alex asked. "No," Booster replied. "Their leader probably does, but it's members can use whatever they like. Just like 'Fire Strike' only has two Fire Pokémon besides mine." "Arctic Point are on our side, right?" Thunders asked. Showers smacked him in the back of the head. "No, genius, Flame Force just decided to stick their technicians to the walls." "Yeah." Booster answered Thunders' question. He went over to a technician on the wall. "Tell us. Where's your boss hiding out?" "Top floor," he answered. There was genuine fear in his eyes. "Good man. I'm sure that String Shot stuff will dissolve in a few hours. I hope none of you need to use the bathroom." Showers laughed. "You're bad, Booster," she told him. "The stairs are this way. From the looks of them, they head straight to the top." "Isn't there an elevator?" Jessica asked. "You never take elevators in situations like this," Uiru replied. "It's way too easy to get trapped. You always take the stairs." After seeing the stairs, however, Uiru was quite willing to go find an elevator. They stretched around in a wide spiral, and went up so high they couldn't see the top. "Do we have to...?" Erin whined. "The tunnel was bad enough!" "We're never going to get anywhere standing down here complaining about it," Matt declared. He started up the stairs. The others followed him. It took two and a half hours to reach the top. Halfway there, Nick had written 'Fire Strike is Not Amused' on the wall with the marker. "They built these stairs like this on purpose, didn't they?" Jessica said when they were almost there. "Yep," Uiru replied. "Add the Flame Force architechs to the list of people we have to rip new ones." "Noted," Booster declared. "Can we take a break?" Geoff asked. "Where's a vending machine when you need one?" Alex asked. The young trainers of Fire Strike sat down a few steps from the large ornately carved double doors that marked the entrance to the Boss of the Flame Force's chambers. They sat around and complained about their situation for about ten minutes, then Booster spent another five trying to rally them to battle. When Fire Strike was finally ready to fight, they charged through the doors like a wrecking ball, ready for war. And found themselves in an empty room. "Ah damn," Uiru complained. "Now we gotta charge through that set of doors too." They were bigger and had more carvings of rare Pokémon on them. Probably twice as expensive too. Before they could bust through the second set of doors, it opened and a group of beaten trainers came from it. "You with the PLM?" a trainer asked. "Yeah. We're Fire Strike. Who are you?" Booster asked. "Arctic Point," the leader replied. "The Boss is in there, he's got two Dragonites and an Aerodactyl. All of them have Hyper Beam and they're rather accurate with it." "And it stings," a young trainer complained. "Our Pokémon have been beaten to hell. Do any of you have a Chansey?" Fire Strike shook their heads no. "I know what to do," a young woman declared. "Pidgeotto, come out!" Pidgeotto appeared next to the girl. She scribbled a short note on a scrap of paper and gave it to the Pidgeotto. "When Pidgeotto gets to our base, they'll give it a bag with some Poké Balls in it. They'll have Chanseys for us to use. They'll help cure our Pokémon." Pidgeotto took the note and flew off. "But that'll take time!" Alex complained. "I say we bust in there and blast the Boss before he can heal up his Pokémon. You did weaken them somewhat, didn't you?" "Well..." Arctic Point looked around. "They kinda blew us off the map," the young trainer replied. "Oh my. Anyway, let's go!" Alex declared. "We'll take care of 'em for you." "That's easy for you to say," Patrick replied. "You've got Ice types." "You're not getting scared now are you?" Nick asked. "TWO Dragonites. I'm not sure I wanna fight ONE. AND, an Aerodactyl." "Patrick's right," Showers said. "We should at least have a plan before we bust in there." "Listen," the leader of Arctic Point began. "The thing with Hyper Beam is the user has to recharge before attacking again." "So we should open with Pokémon that have good defence, then sub in Ice types, and switch again?" Thunders suggested. "Right." "So, which ones should we use?" "Sandslash has high defence," Uiru began. After a quick discussion, it was decided that Sandslash, Marowak, Machoke, Cloyster, Omanyte, Kabuto and Dragonair would draw the Dragon Pokémon's fire, while Alex and Showers used their Ice type attacks. The others would distract the Dragon Pokémon and maybe the Boss as well. "We ready?" Allison asked. "Ready!" Fire Strike shouted. They summoned their first wave, and charged through the doors like a train! "More victims for the emergency room?" the Boss asked. "Dragonites, Aerodactyl! Hyper Beam them!" Sandslash and Machoke took Hyper Beams while Cloyster charged it's Aurora Beam attack. It's shell protected it from the third Beam. Sandslash and Machoke were bruised but otherwise okay. Lapras, Dewgong, and both Jynxes now struck with Blizzard! Cloyster opened up and fired an Aurora Beam at Aerodactyl. The dragons took heavy damage but prepared to fire their Hyper Beams again! Omanyte, Kabuto and Marowak blocked the next salvo of rays while Sandslash and Machoke recieved Hyper Potions. Another quadra blast of Blizzard slammed the Dragon Pokémon. "Damn!" the Boss shouted. "All right, show these puny fools your real power! Aerodactyl, Take Down! Dragonites, Slam Attack!" The three dragons blasted through the defending Pokémon and blasted the Ice types! A Dragonite started crashing against Cloyster, but with it's shell shut, it could do no damage. The other Slammed a Jynx into the wall, rendering it unconscious, then fired a Hyper Beam at Lapras. The other Jynx attacked Dragonite with an Ice Punch, distracting it and allowing Cloyster to strike with an Ice Beam which froze it! The Boss returned it and swore. "His team of Dragon Pokémon are powerful against Fire," Booster declared. "That's how he climbed to the top of the Flame Force. Nobody here uses Ice type Pokémon!" "Very good," the Boss declared. "Apparently I underestimated you children. However, I'll be back to settle this! Aerodactyl, come!" The Boss leapt on back of Aerodactyl and the giant Rock type Pokémon flew for the window. "I'll see you in hell!" he shouted. "He's not getting away from us!" Alex declared. "Starmie, come out! Lapras, Cloyster, Jynx, return!" "Can I borrow your Starmie?" Nick asked Jessica. She called it out. "All right, thanks. I'll take good care of it." Alex and Nick, riding on back of the Starmies, flew after the Boss. "All right, now what?" Allison asked. "Let's go down and help the main forces," Showers suggested. "You mean go DOWN all those stairs?" Erin shouted. Geoff's Poké Ball started vibrating wildly. "What the hell's wrong with Magikarp?" he asked. He called it out. Magikarp was flopping around and glowing! It wasn't long before it started to evolve! "It's not!" Matt said. "It is!" Uiru replied. Magikarp evolved into Gyarados! "Gyarados!" Geoff shouted. It was twenty feet long and had huge fangs in it's giant gaping maw. Gyarados looked to be the kind of Pokémon you didn't walk away from. "I knew it would become something good!" "We can use Gyarados to fly down to the ground," Thunders suggested. A commotion was heard in the other room. "What's going on out there?" Booster asked. A group of Flame Force soldiers burst into the room! "Damn!" Booster shouted. "More scum to clean up." "We can handle this," Uiru declared. "You guys go down and fight with the others." "Are you sure?" Erin asked. "We'll be fine!" Jessica declared. "The four of us can take them down. There's only ten of 'em." "Yeah, get going!" Allison shouted at them. "All right. Be careful!" Booster said. "Booster..." Thunders began. "Oh shut up!" Booster, Showers, Thunders, Geoff, Erin and Patrick hopped on Gyarados and flew out the window. "Big mistake, boy!" one of the soldiers shouted. "Now we're gonna fry you!" "Not likely!" Matt shouted. "Bring it on!" "Sandslash, Wartortle, Kadabra, go!" "Kabuto, Primeape, Diglett, attack!" "Marowak, Machoke, Haunter! I choose you!" Matt decided to sit back until some Water types appeared. No sence having his Pokémon faint for nothing. A bunch of Charmeleons, Growlithes, Rapidashes and Magmars appeared and attacked! Diglett and Sandslash caused an Earthquake which shook the entire room, and Marowak sent it's Bone Club flying through, doing major damage to everyone it hit. Primeape got in a scrap with a Charmeleon, and Wartortle began firing it's Bubblebeam at a Growlithe preparing to use Fire Spin. "Haunter, Hypnosis!" Jessica shouted. Haunter put three Fire Pokémon under at once. "Now use Night Shade!" "Try Dream Eater," Uiru suggested. "Kadabra, Psychic blast!" Several Fire Pokémon fainted. "What's that?" Jessica asked. "It's a power that will drain sleeping Pokémon's HP and add it to Haunter's," he replied. "Sounds useful. Machoke, Seismic Toss!" An unlucky Growlithe was thrown into a Rapidash. The Flame Force guards finally scored a hit. Kabuto was hit with a Flamethrower attack, and Diglett was assaulted by Growlithe's Take Down move. The Charmeleon fighting Primeape nuked it with Fire Spin. Kabuto weathered the attack rather well, the others had to be recalled. Kabuto reared back and launched a Hydro Pump at the enemy! Striking multiple targets, the powerful Water type attack had the Flame Force contemplating retreat. Haunter was attacked by three Growlithe at the same time, however, their charges and bites passed right through it. Laughing manaically, Haunter sent Night Shades all around and then put them to sleep. A Rapidash attacked Haunter with Fire Spin, but couldn't hold it. The slight damage it did was healed when Jessica had it use Dream Eater on the Growlithe. Sandslash was easily pounding the Magmars assailing it. It couldn't use it's Dig or Rock Slide power indoors, but that was fine- it's Slash attacks were doing quite well. Wartortle backed it up with Bubblebeams and Water Guns. Marowak was battling from afar, using it's Bonemerang to strike enemies at a distance and clonking anything that got too close. Allison's Kabuto was firing Hydro Pumps left and right until it suddenly stopped. "What's wrong Kabuto?" she asked. "You okay? Do you want a Potion?" All Kabuto wanted was a bit of space... to evolve! Kabuto evolved into Kabutops! "Wow!" Uiru shouted. "That thing is huge!" "Check out the blades!" Jessica added. Kabutops had two giant scythes mounted on it's arms. "I'm glad you're on our side, Allison." "All right Kabutops! Slash attack on... those guys!" Allison pointed, and Kabutops charged like a snowblower. The Flame Force soldiers were lucky to survive the attack. They ran! "All right!" Allison shouted. "Way to go Kabutops!" "Don't get cocky!" a voice shouted. It was Sunder, there to annoy yet again. "Electabuzz, go!"