The Trial of Juno Saga [PG-13]

[Neo Emolga]

Howdy, just me again.

:D

The fight with Groudon...always a treasure. But while I seem to remember this odd sort of finality and hopelessness to the original fight, Blazewing did a wonderful job lifting not only Juno's spirits, but mine as well. It still hurt when she hit the ground, a lot, but she inspired me as a reader to never give up hope in Juno's crusade. The personalities given to Randy's legendary Pokemon was also something that struck me. The same kid who could imagine such hateful, destructive, and monstrous creatures could also imagine something as noble and precious as Juno the Pikachu. It spoke to me, as, based off of my own experiences, creativity comes most powerfully and uncontrollably from the darkest and the brightest places. We humans devote our energies to our dreams, but not just the happy ones, but also the revenge plots, the loathing and bitterness that come with that. Randy's refs (I know, I keep coming back to them) are bland, soulless constructs because the teachers and bystanders that they represent are not the important part of Randy's humiliation, but it was rather the weakness of his Pokemon. If a Lugia had a mindset like the one you portrayed, there's a story right there, but to have such a deranged and powerful creature under the control of a middle schooler? Now that's scary!

One of the things that I added while doing this refurbishing was how Juno saves Blazewing the Latias by wishing and bonding with her right before she was supposed to disappear with the rest of Randy's imagined world. I had a good explanation for how Juno enters reality, but the way Blazewing does was kind of a loose end that didn't quite make sense. While going over it, I saw it as a good opportunity to delve a little further into this and make it have a bit of an emotional ping (I would be lying if I said PMD2's ending had no inspiration on that idea at all).

Also, I like hearing your interpretation of Randy's world and his creations, it's definitely very close for the perspective I was trying to go with where in Randy's world, everything is flipped upside down where he's the grand master, once-authoritative figures now obey him, and he only focuses on making himself even more powerful.

Perhaps the one thing that really struck me reading these last few chapters was the implications of Jake bonding to Juno. Not only is he wrestling with new feelings of guilt and displacement, but the effect on his personality and outward appearance is causing concern from his family and his teachers. Maybe I never realized it before, but no matter how good of a person one becomes, the idea that there is something overwriting your personality is somewhat alarming especially since Juno is a dream, not technically "real". The idea of dreams becoming reality is certainly an apt metaphor, but instead of getting bogged down in these paradoxes and existentialism, we have Blazewing to pull us out. Nonetheless, Jake briefly wonders what Randy might have brought back from the world created by the Quista necklace, and while I like to imagine it was a few valuable lessons, I'm wondering if there was something physical that came with as well, like the shades or, my worst fear, one of those murderous legendary Pokemon inside of a previously nonexistent Poke Ball. Jeepers.

Actually, a lot of this is new. Before, in the original version, Jake was just a little wary about it, but it seemed to brush off too easily, and I felt that didn't seem very realistic. To hear your own soul has been bonded with a Pokémon made from dreams, and now he's having total influence on your personality... I think anyone in that position would be shocked and anxious. Plus, in the original version, there weren't enough examples of it affecting Jake's personality, hence why I added in that little dinnertime segment.

Speaking of Randy, I couldn't help but notice the banner for Part II and find myself wondering if the other Pokemon are the replacement for the Pichu and Charmander in the original telling. If so, I'm glad that Alex got to keep his dark-type theme going.

Bingo, you got it. Before, I just had Randy and Alex become Pichus. And then I got to thinking... why? That's not exactly a close match to either of their personalities, especially not Alex. I went with Pachirisu for Randy because he's the kind of person that looks docile on the outside, but can very much get out of control, and Zorua for Alex because of him being dark, sly, and aggressive.

One final note, in addition to loving the new Blazewing, I also found myself really enjoying Vicky. Both of them share a kind of bluntness, but Vicky's honest bewilderment in the opening chapter of part two made me laugh out loud, which is probably a warning that I shouldn't be reading fanfiction in the office while I'm on break, but c'est la vie. As always, looking forward to what comes next.

Ha, ha, glad you found that funny. :D

And again, that whole part is a new addition also (heck, Vicky just exists as a nameless sister that maybe gets mentioned once in the previous edition). Before, this particular chapter had a "bare bones" kind of feel that somewhat implied Jake had changed a bit, but he didn't reflect on it that much, and I wanted to bring it out a lot more and further explain exactly how Jake made Juno become a reality on the technical details.

Again, thanks for your great reviews, I really appreciate them. :D

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 17
The Meeting

The next morning, I was groggy and sluggish from not getting much sleep, but as school goes, too bad, class will start with or without you. I got dressed and ate a simple breakfast of cereal and milk while mom and Vicky had bacon and eggs, and again. Vicky was still unsure if I was telling the truth yesterday at dinner. Again, that morning, things were peaceful again, and we didn't fight or argue at all.

I could tell from the look in Vicky's eyes that she still was very curious to know what exactly caused such a change in me, and she wasn't liking the fact I was still hiding it. I could tell she was hoping I would have revealed it by now, and I knew there was no way I could do that. But in the meantime, the thoughts were constantly stabbing at my mind, and it was impossible to hide it.

Once I got to school, I barely paid attention in class, now unable to get my mind off of just trying to meet Randy when we were let out. Four long classes of math, history, science, and literature simply went all over my head as my mind was focused on other things. I got called on twice by the teacher and didn't even respond. I knew I couldn't keep this up, or else they would start thinking I was clinically depressed or had learning disabilities.

But when school was done, I knew I needed to get to Randy. Before, I didn't want to have anything to do with him, but yesterday, after letting Latias out of her Pokémon and discovering the cold, hard truth about all this, I needed to know from him as well. As a result, I dashed out the back exit as soon as the bell rang. I couldn’t wait another second to get it out.

“Man, aren’t you in a hurry…” I heard a familiar voice say right behind me.

I turned around and looked back into the stairway to see Alex with his long, black hair, his black Zenith Death metal band t-shirt, and his blue jeans. He seemed a bit shocked at the mess I had become.

"Dude, you're okay, right?" He asked me, really wondering what was going on.

I gave him that look that said "yeah, it's about what you think it is." He nodded and knew the exact incident I was talking about, but he didn't know anything about Juno or Latias. I wasn't ready to tell him about that either...

"I need to straighten things out with Randy," I told him, finally being the first out of the three of us willing to confront him about the whole incident a week ago. "Something about it still bothers me."

"No kidding, it's been making you act strange," Alex told me, not realizing there was a whole other level to that. "Look, let me come with you. David's off at the after school debate club, but we'll be fine on our own."

I nodded, and then he followed me out the back exit. Things seemed normal for now, and most of the other students leaving for the day didn't suspect anything. I was sure maybe a few of them were a bit surprised we weren't bothering people like we used to, but to them, it wasn't that significant of an issue for them to even think long and hard about.

When we stepped outside, we looked across the busy parking lot and found Randy in the one place where he always hung out after school: on a black, metal bench completely by himself. His frizzy orange hair and his orange shorts were definitely easy to spot. I wasn't sure who or what he was waiting for, but the rumor was he was often here for an hour just waiting for his dad to pick him up.

The two of us approached him, and he looked up at us with hesitation and anxiety in his eyes. I could tell he had noticed we had changed, but it would be the first time we've confronted him about this since the actual incident itself.

“Randy, we need to talk,” Alex said firmly to him. “We could really use some answers.”

Randy had already known what Alex was talking about, and he didn’t look like he wanted to fight about it. Everything had gotten awkwardly silent about all this. Only we knew about the "incident" that happened a week ago, but to us, it was a pretty big deal. He looked a little bit anxiously at Alex, and then just wanted to avoid eye contact.

“Look, let’s go some place where no one is going to see or hear us, okay?” Randy asked Alex, already knowing what this was about. “I don’t want this to go floating around. I... I already feel terrible about it.”

“Fine, Randy,” Alex agreed, still keeping it quiet. “How about we talk in one of those dugouts in that old baseball field?”

Only about a half a mile away was an old baseball field that hadn’t been used in nearly a decade. After Randy had agreed, we simply walked our way over there, totally out of sight by anyone. Randy walked in anxious manner, seeming like he was very uncomfortable at the moment and might have been thinking we were about to beat him up over what happened. I knew he didn’t want to talk about this but if I didn’t say anything about it, it would haunt me for months to come.

When we had arrived, we stepped inside one of the concrete dugouts and sat down on the old, wooden bench inside. Meanwhile, Alex sat down on the concrete stairs leading out into the dusty field so that he could face Randy.

"So... what is it that you wanted to know?" Randy asked, looking like he just wanted to get out of there.

“You know what happened last week,” Alex told him seriously, not wasting another second. “Randy, you gave us the nightmare of our lives. You had a power trip and we barely got out of there.”

“I... I know what I did was wrong,” Randy replied sheepishly while squirming in his seat. "I'm sorry. Please, don't hurt me over this. You don't know what it's like to be bad at almost everything."

Well... we did during that whole incident...

"I hope you learned something from that," I told Randy as I looked into his eyes, hoping to reinforce the whole idea of why I really came after him. "Raising Pokémon is something that takes time, there's no quick way about it. To me, it was like your dream world was sending all the wrong messages about how it's really done."

"I know, you're right," Randy flushed, backing up a bit until he had his back up against the concrete wall. "I'm not good at raising Pokémon and it's one of those things I probably should have asked for help with instead of... doing something like that."

"I don't even get how it ended either," Alex continued, wanting to know more. "You clobbered all three of us, constantly win your own tournaments against trainers that I swear would give the Elite Four a run for their money, and it's a Pikachu named Juno that nails you? What the hell, man, it doesn't make sense."

I was silent, and felt incredibly sick at that moment. I already perfectly knew the answer to that one, but I didn’t want to say anything at all. Neither of them knew it was me, and I still didn't want to speak up about it.

“I really don’t know,” Randy muttered, trying to fight off the pressure. “I couldn’t understand his commands, he gave his Pokémon and himself strange and powerful attacks, and after he decided to enter the fight himself, he just never seemed to go down despite the serious beating I gave him. I hit him with everything I could, but nothing ever stopped him. I just don’t know how Juno was able to do it…”

“No, really, Randy,” Alex cornered him, believing there was more than just that. “It was your world, you should have had him butchered in a heartbeat."

Randy looked at Alex for an instant, and then started to look toward the ground by his feet.

“I always wanted a Pikachu,” Randy said sadly, totally avoiding any eye contact with either of us. “Juno is the name I would have given him if I ever caught one. And I’ll admit, I imagined him to be way more powerful, nice, and selfless than a normal Pikachu would ever be. Juno was a side of me that was a burden that wouldn’t go away no matter how hard I tried. It wasn’t any surprise he decided to battle me and he was the one who won. It seemed like he was always doing that in some way. I was always losing against him. Could never catch him, could never trade for him, could never get him as a gift. It's... so overwhelming.”

Interesting. I never thought of it that way. I was just about to say something when…

“What a lovely story…” I heard a cold voice say sarcastically out of nowhere.

Recommended Listening: Fallout 1 OST- Acolytes of a New God

Randy and I had looked up in complete shock, and Alex frantically turned around to see who had snuck up on us. In a feral instinct of paranoia, I suddenly became very defensive. Before us stood a pale-skilled, brown haired man in black cloak, who seemingly just came out of nowhere. He was wearing sandals, and had a very stiff and aggressive look on his face, as if he was ready to fight at any second. He spoke very quickly and aggressively.

“Who the hell are you!?” Alex shouted at the cloaked figure in surprise.

“I want to know who the three of you are, first,” The pale-skinned man replied firmly. “I had been tracking that necklace for ages, and once I felt it's power being used, I headed toward the signal as soon as I could. And yet, I come here only to find it has been completely destroyed…”

I don’t know how it ended up breaking, but there was something else I really wanted to know. Still, how was he able to track us down, and even get here in the first place? Just where did this guy come from?

“You’re Quista, that Kavaskian sorcerer?” I asked the man. "You're the original owner of that necklace!?"

He started snickering, and at that moment, I felt like I had said something extremely stupid.

“So that’s who they think I am?” He asked mockingly. “Amazing what lengths people will go to in order to fill in the gaps. My real name is Zander. I’m not Kavaskian either, or whatever that drivel is supposed to mean. Someone had stolen that necklace from me thousands of years ago, and I never got the chance to use it.”

“Thousands of years ago...?" Randy recited as he became very tense. “…how could you still be alive…?”

Was this Zander person even human? I really didn't get how any of this was possible, or how someone like him even becomes a sorcerer in the first place. If he really was human, he should have been dead a long time ago, so what was he really?

“I don’t care about that right now,” Zander replied with a cold stare, looking right back at Randy. “One of you used that necklace, and created your own world from it with all the things you could ever desire and imagine." He then looked furious at the three of us, drawing closer. "That necklace was meant for me! My long search for it has ended with it being hopelessly destroyed, and I want to know who’s responsible!”

It was strange to think that as Jake Kossak, I would have gladly fingered Randy. But, as Juno inside, I refused to throw him under the bus like that. In fact, if a fight were to break out, I knew I would be the first one out of my seat to stand before him.

“So who was it!?” Zander shouted angrily.

We were still silent. Randy was quivering, but Alex and I were within a heartbeat of attacking him both at once, ready to summon whatever Pokémon we needed to take him out.

"Hmp," Zander scoffed. "Fine, don't bother, because I already know what happened anyway. You don't think I do?"

I was quiet, figuring this would be a real test of his power.

"You, Randy," Zander spoke harshly, pointing his finger directly at him, "became frustrated at your own failures enough to use it in the first place. You wasted it just to get a taste of what it was like to win all the time at Pokémon battling... wrongfully!"

“Stop it, please…” Randy begged, finding out the hard way this guy already knew the truth about us.

“You couldn’t tolerate your companions’ endless defeats, so you created your own companions and made yourself a champion,” Zander growled at Randy. “Can you possibly fathom how much of a waste you made of that necklace!? You used it as a tool to make up for your own incompetence!"

Randy was shaking his head. He didn’t want to believe this was actually happening.

“I couldn’t stand losing all the time at Pokémon battling,” Randy complained. “I needed something to help me win for once.”

"The whole reason why I went through the utter hell of creating it in the first place was so I could use it for what it was really meant for!" Zander shouted angrily.

I wanted to stay quiet, but something inside of me pushed me to speak up.

"You wanted to create impossible things using your imagination and then pull those things into reality," I spoke up, knowing I was the only one that could have known that.

Randy and Alex looked at me strangely while Zander just sneered a grizzly grin.

"Ha, ha, figures you would be the one to know that!" Zander laughed with a dark smile. "And yes, Randy here was so dejected about being defeated in his own dream world that he abandoned and erased everything!"

So that's what happened to Randy's legendaries. Randy gave them all up simply because they didn’t win that last fight for him. Meanwhile, Jeff, Alex, David, and Frank didn’t look like they managed to pull anything out of Randy’s dream world either. It seemed like I was the only one that uncovered this secret unintentionally.

"Endless wealth, power, empires, and grandeur were at your fingertips, and you wasted all of it!" Zander shouted at Randy. "That was all meant for me. Your purpose for using it was meaningless and you gained nothing form it! It took me nearly a lifetime to craft that necklace!”

I sighed, now knowing what the story behind that necklace was. How Zander became a sorcerer was still beyond me, but at least I knew why he made that thing in the first place. Compared to what could have really been created from it, I could see where Zander was furious. And on the flip side, maybe it was a good thing it was gone now so this strange and agitated sorcerer couldn't ever use it for dark reasons.

“You…” Zander spat harshly, now facing me. “You're the only one that discovered it's dark secret. You wanted to free yourself from this maggot’s world by defeating him. And the only way to do it was to hide yourself.”

Now Randy was looking at me in curiosity. As I gritted my teeth from the realization of this all, I knew Randy was going to find out everything in a matter of moments. I really didn’t want it to turn out this way, but I didn't have any choice about it.

“You disguised yourself from this maggot by turning yourself into his own, living, childhood desire,” Zander snarled with a hint of cynical laughter in his tone. “So you soulbound yourself to become this Pikachu named Juno, and you defeated this maggot with the help of a Latias that you life-bonded with. Do you have any idea what you did to yourself by doing that!?"

"No, I honestly don't," I told him, telling him the truth.

"Unbelievable!" Zander laughed, making it sound like I made a grave mistake by doing that. "I don't know which one of you two I hate more."

I wasn't too concerned with how he thought of me for what I did. In my defense, I didn't know becoming Juno would do that, and I didn't see too many other options when it came to finding a way out of Randy's dream world. Honestly, deep inside, becoming Juno was making me a better person, although still shaken and uncertain of what kind of future this would entail.

“Jake... you were actually Juno!?” Randy asked me in complete shock.

I just looked at him from the corner of my eye, and then looked away, never directly answering that, but he took that as a "yes, but I really don't want to talk about it." In Zander's eyes, we had totally wasted the true potential of what that necklace could have been used for in the hands of someone who knew what they were doing with it.

I also didn't entirely know what it meant to be soulbound, but according to both Latias and Zander, who seemed to know way more about this than I did, I was essentially a dream Pikachu just in a human body now.

In the end, that was really only just the beginning to a whole other undertaking...

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 18
The Only Solution

Zander had to realize the necklace was gone and he was never getting it back. All the anger and frustration in the world wouldn't put something like that back together, and in a way, I was actually glad about that. A relic like that was too powerful for someone like him to use it for dark intentions. It was good the only thing that walked away from it was a Pikachu and a Latias, both with good hearts and good intentions. In truth, the necklace could have been used for both good and bad.

Still, what was to stop Zander from just making another one? Besides, making our lives a complete misery wasn’t going to help him get it back anyway.

“So what is it you want from us?” I asked Zander honestly, shrugging at seeing any real solution to us besides just dropping it and moving on. “It’s not like this is going to change anything. Why don’t you just make another necklace and be done with it?”

“It took me thousands of years to make that one!” Zander shouted in fury, despising how little I knew about these things. “I would force you to make a replacement, but you wouldn’t last long enough and you don’t even have a fraction of the power to do it. I will at least make you suffer for it!"

I thought Randy was going to be furious when I told him I was actually Juno. Instead, he had looked at me, and almost began to feel sick.

“I can’t believe…” Randy stuttered softly, “…you went through all that trouble to just beat me. You almost killed yourself out there… I’m really sorry, Jake. I… never meant for you… to go that far.”

He certainly wouldn’t have said that a week ago. It seemed like when we were in Randy’s world, all the suffering we encountered wouldn’t have been enough. Now, it seemed like he was truly beginning to regret it. It made me wonder... did the necklace corrupt him in a way? Either way, at least we finally got over brutally hating each other…

“That doesn’t matter now,” Zander muttered in a serious tone. “You’ve taken something from me that I’ve spent my whole life making and looking for. And here, after all these years, I find the three of you are the reason why that necklace no longer exists. And for reasons even an imbecile wouldn't understand!”

“Hey, man,” Alex told Zander in a strong tone. “It happens. Suck it up, get over it, and stop being a whiner. ”

“You fool!” Zander shouted, totally interrupting Alex. “You’re no better than the others. I will make you pay for this even though little compares to the kind of frustration you've dealt to me.”

From my side, this all sounded like insanity. If all he wanted to do was kill us, wouldn't he have just done it already?

“I don’t know what the hell you’re even talking about,” Alex said straight to Zander’s face. “Let’s face it, the necklace is gone, pal. It’s over with. Maybe you should have made it more durable. Ever think of that, genius?”

"I'll watch you rot for a while before I end your miserable existence," Zander growled at the three of us, gathering dark energy in the form of what looked like a black and violet-colored ball of shadows, surrounding a glyph that was on the palm of his hand. "That's right, you'll have the chance to live for a little while longer before you witness the rise of my own personal apocalypse in a world where you're lost, confused, and hopeless!"

Then, he outstretched his arm, opened his hand, and showed us his bare palm with the glowing glyph. Alex and I tried to tackle him to the ground, but we were frozen, paralyzed helplessly where we sat.

"Da...mn... it..." Alex struggled to speak, trying to fight back with no success. "Just... di..e..."

Seconds later the whole sky went black and the whole baseball field became a sick, crimson red.

I felt nauseous and shaky as everything in front of me swirled like mixing paint and struck me with a force that must have been similar as to getting hit by a car. I wanted to get up and move, but all I could do was just sit there, paralyzed as we were just like puppets to this guy's incantations. Everything slowly became black, and I passed out…

* * *

I had awoken, but had not opened my eyes. The air around me was cold, and I could feel a faint breeze coming from above. The floor felt frozen and stiff, and only then did I open my eyes and take a look around me. For a moment, I felt shocked. I knew it wasn’t long ago that I had felt this same feeling. but I couldn't recall the exact nature of it..

I then realized it was completely impossible for me to still be back at the old baseball field. The room was completely made of metal, which immediately made me think this was some kind of vault or storage container. Everything around me seemed so giant to me until I realized why that was…

I looked down at my yellow paws and feet and realized had become Juno again, a sight and feeling far too familiar. Despite how strange and foreign it should have felt, it didn't. In fact, it was starting to feel more appropriate than even being human. Again, that word "soulbound" came back to me, and I was really beginning to wonder what kind of impact this was going to have on how I was going to spend the rest of eternity.

As I looked around, I had nearly forgotten how I ended up here in the first place. Instead, I looked over my long, yellow and black tipped ears, my thunderbolt-shaped tail, my posture, and my tiny, yellow hands, all of it made me immediately question if I was to spend the rest of eternity like this. Soulbound. What did that really mean!?

I knew I couldn’t run away from it anymore. I took Juno and his amazing powers, angelic demeanor, and compassion out of Randy’s dream world, but little did I know this confirmation of acceptance and assimilation would drastically change my destiny forever. I was something that should have ended with a dream, but instead, now I took that highly-adored desire and gave it flesh through my own, willing sacrifice.

I almost wondered... if Coldblood had made me aware this would happen back in Randy's materialized dream world, would I still have done it? Even if it was the only way to end it all?

I had no choice but to say yes to all of it. I was not sure what kind of power had turned me back into this now natural state, but I quickly recalled it was Zander that brought us here...

...wherever this place was.

As I looked up and glanced upon my own surroundings, I realized this was actually a prison cell. Off to my right, the only window to the outside had bars around it, and the only exit was a circular, reinforced steel security vault door. There was no chance of ever getting past that thing. After getting up, getting accustomed to walking and moving as a Pikachu again, I started looking around. I realized I was alone in this cold cell with no one but myself...

...and plenty of thoughts swimming in my head for company.

My curiosity had taken a hold of me as I slowly climbed on top of the single, rickety metal bunk bed and made my way toward the window. When I slowly approached it, I peered through the bars to see what was just outside.

I nearly jumped.

The sky was a horrid mixture of red and gray with passing black storm clouds that were constantly moving and mixing at unnatural, violent speeds. Thunder and lightning were occasionally lighting up dark patches of sky, and I could feel the rumbling from far away. Despite how long I looked at it, it never once stopped. Seeing that nightmare sky definitely cued me in that I had to be somewhere far, far away from home. This... this couldn't have even been the same planet.

Meanwhile, on the ground, it looked like fields upon fields of a wasteland of twisted, dying trees had covered the landscape. In some places, fissures had opened up, seeming to be endless pits waiting to swallow up anything unfortunate enough to fall in and then never release them ever again. But nothing was moving, except for the flashing thunder in the skies above, the swirling of dark clouds, and the swaying of dead trees from a lonesome wind that quickly came and quickly passed. I had to look away.

Immediately, I recalled what Zander told us before this happened, and it was very startling.

"That's right, you'll have the chance to live for a little while longer before you witness the rise of my own personal apocalypse in a world where you're lost, confused, and hopeless!"

Quite frankly, out there, it looked like the apocalypse had already happened. He was right though, I was lost and confused as to where I was, and with Randy and Alex nowhere in sight, I didn't know what had happened to them either.

I put my back up against the metal wall, slid until I sat down, and sighed with my Pikachu ears drooping down alongside my head. Randy’s world was a joyful play land compared to this place. Victory City wasn't such a bad place, and I ended it in exchange for this?

Thoughts of escaping this strange jail cell came to mind, but something kept asking me if going outside was any better. From what I saw, it seemed I was probably better off inside within the safety of my own cell than to chance going into a bizarre shadow storm like that along chasms where one slight misstep meant instant death.

As I looked at my tiny, yellow hands again, I tried to wonder why Zander thought it was better for me to be a Pikachu. Did he think the whole thing was amusing and did this to try and make a point? Or was this actually something he didn’t actually have control over?

It just seemed there was no place for Jake Kossak in this world, whatever this place was. At first, I believed this was a world Zander created, though that seemed unlikely considering if he could do that already, he wouldn't have taken the loss of his necklace so seriously. My guess was this was just another harsh world that Zander wanted to slowly destroy for whatever reason, and he brought the three of us here to be a part of it.

The more I thought about it, the more I couldn't understand why oh why did I feel like I’d rather be off in Randy’s world, despite how incredibly awful it was? I had only been here for a few minutes, and I already wanted to get out of here.

I already knew the cast iron bars blocking the window were too thick and too close together to bypass even with a small-sized Pikachu frame, but even if I could, I didn’t think I wanted to be walking alone in that geographical nightmare. Maybe, by some strange hope, this prison was just built in a really horrible spot.

I had approached the vault door, and tried to see if there was any lock whatsoever, but instead, all I saw was the back of the circular vault door with no keyhole or anything. Still, I couldn’t pick a lock for the life of me anyway, especially with only my bare hands and nothing to use as picking tools. The only way to get out of here was if someone opened the door from the other side. I had no idea how long it was going to take before that happened, but waiting around for that to happen wasn’t going to help anyway.

After looking around, I truly saw no way out at all. I knew I wouldn’t get out of this nightmare if I just stayed here and waited to rot away. Someone was going to have to come and at least feed me something, or I would just die of starvation. At least that didn't seem like how Zander wanted us to die. It sounded more like he wanted us to all see and feel whatever fiery and monstrous cataclysm he had in store for this place. Or, maybe it was a slow, painful death.

I decided not to take that to heart and instead, I was determined to at least go down fighting if I had to. Even if it meant having to somehow accept this form and possibly accept I might be having to let this strange world become my home for some time, I had to at least try to survive.

I checked and unfortunately, I didn't have any of my Pokémon with me. Meanwhile, it felt like the prison was designed to withstand Pokémon attacks anyway. I decided to take another approach.

The floor was made up of solid metal panels of an array of grays, browns, and silvers, all secured with extremely heavy bolts. They were nice and tight on the floor, and they weren’t going to come up without some sort of heavy construction tools, which of course I didn’t have. Plus the bolts were mostly rusted over, which meant they were pretty much stuck in there for good…

I had looked up at the ceiling, now seeing smaller square panels of a deep bluish metal, with smaller bolts on each corner that hadn’t been rusted over like the ones on the floor. I had looked up at all of them, and saw out of the corner of my eyes, there was a panel in the corner on the right side of the window, with one of its bolts missing on the right corner next to the wall.

If I were to remove that panel, it might just be a way out of here…

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

Trial of Juno, remastered edition. Huehuehuehue. I was not expecting this but I am certainly enjoying it.

I wonder, if a certain RP will get a remastered version as well, huehuehuehue. I would have loved to participate had I actually been there for it. At all. Nevertheless, I would have liked the chance.

[Neo Emolga]

Trial of Juno, remastered edition. Huehuehuehue. I was not expecting this but I am certainly enjoying it.

I wonder, if a certain RP will get a remastered version as well, huehuehuehue. I would have loved to participate had I actually been there for it. At all. Nevertheless, I would have liked the chance.

Hey, glad you're reading this also! As for that certain RP, hmm... maybe, maybe, maybe. I'd kind of have to get past the part where the RP takes place first before thinking about it, and that might be a little while.

I didn't get around to updating this today (busy!), but I definitely haven't forgotten about it.

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 19
The Midnight Struggle

The only problem with removing that panel was it was fifteen feet in the air, and there was nothing for me to even get close to it. I had turned to the bunk bed unit, which would reach high enough for me to remove the panel, but how would I be able to move it? If I were still human, it wouldn’t have been a problem, since the metal bunk bed wasn’t exactly the sturdiest thing in the room. But as a Pikachu, it might be next to impossible.

Suddenly, to my surprise, the vault door had clicked, and slowly swung open. By the time I had turned around, I had seen a red, clawed hand holding a pewter bowl just suddenly drop the bowl it was holding by the door, and then just like that, it was quickly shut again. Was this how they kept prisoners fed?

Just for curiosity, I had walked over to the bowl, and I could have gagged. It looked and smelled like hot, salty vomit. It was a musty brown and orange color, as if someone threw up and then took a diarrhea dump all over what was there already. I wouldn't have appreciated a nice, warm meal, but I wasn't starving enough to even think about eating that. However, I knew I only had a limited amount of time, and I highly doubted rejecting this... whatever it was, would mean an exchange for something better.

I had grasped one of the metal poles supporting the upper deck and tried to pull as hard as I could. At first, I thought I was making absolutely no progress whatsoever, but I did notice that when I looked down, I made a little bit of progress and moved the bunk bed unit a few inches. After hours of struggling, I must have pulled it five feet away from the metal wall before falling on my hands from exhaustion. I then tried pushing to see if that would change anything. It was a bit better, and I went a few more feet, but it was still at least twenty feet away from the wall, and I needed rest. It felt like pushing a truck in neutral. Not to mention I wouldn't get too far if I tore my paws apart in the process.

After a few hours of rest, I gave it another shot, only to go seven more feet before my hands and feet were aching. I couldn’t go on, and I needed to stop for a while or my hands were going to start bleeding. But for now, I needed to get rid of that vomit soup, before they began to assume I was going to try and starve myself.

So, I grabbed the bowl, held my breath after getting a small but appalling whiff of the nausea-inducing soup, walked with it across the room, and dumped the stuff out the window. It was disgustingly lumpy and it smelled even worse as I poured it out. I then promptly took the bowl, put it by the door to make them think I finished off the whole thing, and then headed for the lower bunk of the bed. I didn’t care for the fact there weren’t any pillows and only one sheet. I was too tired…

I woke up around midnight, still feeling a little disoriented. However, after I came back to my senses and remembered what I was trying to do, I quickly headed back to try and move the bunk bed. I pushed as hard as I could for as long as I could hold out, and soon enough, I finally made it to the other side of the wall. I then climbed my way up to the top bunk, which wasn’t any better than the first. I had made my way to the loose panel, and saw there were only three bolts I had to remove since one of them had already fallen out. I had put my hands on the first of the three, and turned it counter-clockwise. This one hadn’t been in too tight either, and after about twenty spins, it came out. The other two were a bit harder, but after I tried hard enough, all the bolts came out, and the panel fell from the ceiling and onto the top bunk, revealing a hole in the ceiling.

The hole that was left was only a foot by foot square. While I might have had an easier time pushing the bunk bed as a human, there was no way I could fit through that hole as one. But now, being a Pikachu made all the difference. I ducked, positioned myself under the hole, and looked up.

It appeared to be some sort of ventilation duct of some sort, which was surprising since I didn’t see any vent grates in my cell. I figured keeping the prisoners comfortable was not a strongpoint of this place.

I put my hands on the edge, and hoisted myself into the duct. It was somewhat tight, but I could manage. As a human, forget it, I'd be stuck eating vomit soup until they found some other use for me.

The vent was very dimly lit, so I had to first get adjusted to the darkness, and use the dim light coming from the other vents to see. I slowly crawled my way through the vent, making sure to be as quiet as possible. As I made my way about twenty feet, I had come across a vent leading to another room. When I looked through the vent grill, it looked like a guard’s lounge. I took a quick glance around the room and noticed the only ones in the room were an Ampharos and a Skarmory just standing by the table, talking to each other. Oddly enough, the Ampharos was wearing what looked like crudely made combat armor and gear, which was surprising. It definitely seemed military in nature, but who goes through the trouble of making armor for Pokémon?

The room was completely metal as well, and I figured it must have been a break room with several metal chairs of varying sizes and shapes and tables at different heights. That was quite a surprise for me, but then I realized why that was. Furniture and utilities came in different heights for different Pokémon sizes. Regardless, everything was crudely made of metal, and there were two electronic storage containers that I guessed were some kind of vending machines judging by the display windows showcasing what I guessed were some kind of drinks and snacks.

It was nearly empty except for a single Ampharos and a Skarmory. They had laid out several bags on the table containing what looked like military hardware including even what looked like a crudely-made metallic rifle. It actually looked like it was just right for the Ampharos's size, but... since when do Pokémon use firearms?

"So what's the story?" The Skarmory asked the Ampharos, taking a glance at the contents of the bag. "There's a rumor going on that some of those new prisoners aren't actually Silver Rebellion soldiers. Where the hell are they from then? Conda? Crescent Moon?"

"I have no clue, I just process them," the Ampharos shrugged. "We don't keep records on these chumps. Besides, at the rate we've been sacking their cities, it won't matter."

Silver Rebellion? Conda? Crescent Moon? What exactly was that and why would two Pokémon be talking about it?

I listened in, quietly keeping by the grate but still out of sight. Something about all this really didn't add up, and I was really beginning to worry I really was on a whole different world. I've never heard of a Silver Rebellion before and definitely no mention of a place like Conda or Crescent Moon near Kanto. Not to mention it didn't make too much sense for two Pokémon to be so directly involved with something like that. Where the heck was their trainer anyway?

"Did they have anything useful?" The Skarmory asked, looking closely at the bag. "Doesn't seem like you kept much of it."

"No, mostly just useless clothes and broken technology," The Ampharos replied, bringing out the few belongings. "The quartermaster ordered for most of it to be incinerated. He told me that if it doesn't look like anything like Crimson Stars technology, burn it. The last thing he wants is us using enemy technology that would sabotage our operations."

I wasn't sure what he was talking about, or if these guys were in fact affiliated with the Crimson Stars, whoever they were. With the few pieces I had, it seemed like there was definitely some kind of war going on between these two, but I wasn't even sure why. I wasn't sure why Zander would drop me off in the middle of this, but I had no intention of playing along.

“I sure hope we fight again soon,” The Skarmory muttered, looking away from the Ampharos. "I thought our rotation was almost up."

"Still got two weeks left," The Ampharos told him, grabbing and looking over the rifle that seemed to be an appropriate size for him. "Don't count down the days, trust me. Besides, the Silver Rebellion doesn’t have any real leaders left. The only ones that actually posed any kind of threat are all dead or in jail. Once we attack their capital of Symarix, it isn’t even going to matter any more. The rebels are fading.”

Who were these rebels, and what were they rebelling for? Regardless, I checked down the vent and this was as far as it would go. The only other choice was to head back the other way, or barge in on these two. I was just about to check down the other side of the vent when I noticed something. After checking out his rifle, the Ampharos went through the rest of the equipment. One of them kind of looked like a crudely-made communication radio, then two hand grenades, a few other strange-looking devices that I couldn't tell what they were for, and a few other belongings that I could only guess what their purpose was.

"So what's all this junk?" The Skarmory asked, glancing at each of the items on the table.

"Most of these are Silver Rebellion weapons we confiscated off of the prisoners..." The Ampharos replied, checking through each item. "If we can identify it, the quartermaster says keep it. If we can't, it gets incinerated."

He then pulled out a strange looking hand-grenade that was painted orange and shaped like an aluminum soda can, covered by a metallic grid-like covering.

"This looks like one of those two Inferno Grenades I've heard about," The Ampharos said, looking over the orange-painted grenade. :As for this..." he continued, picking up a strange, metallic tube-like object, "...pretty sure this is one of those pain-killer devices. And this thing..." he said, picking up a Poké Ball, "...I really don't know. Never saw anything like this before in my life. Makes me wonder if this is a new kind of grenade."

Now that was very, very strange. Almost all Pokémon instinctively knew what Poké Balls were. Any time a human trainer came along to try and catch a Pokémon, most Pokémon were quick to recognize a Poké Ball and fight against being captured in one. Many of them even knew how to destroy them so they wouldn't be caught. But here, we had two Pokémon obviously very in tune with civilization with no clue as to what it was.

There was no doubt about it. This had to be a completely different world...

I looked at the Poké Ball closely, and I recognized it as the one that held Latias in it. I almost gasped, worried about what it was doing in this Ampharos's possenssion. It was strange, but like Latias herself, the Poké Ball that contained her was recovered from Randy's dream world, making it look the same, but I was able to recognize that it was very different from any other Poké Ball.

"Shouldn't it have been destroyed with the rest of the junk?" The Skarmory asked.

"I was just about to get to that," The Ampharos told the metallic bird with a bit of a surprised expression. "It's weird, but this was the only one that wouldn't burn in the incinerator."

My heart sank like a rock when I heard that.

No... they didn't...!

"Odd..." The Skarmory nodded.

Was he seriously telling the truth? Did they stupidly just toss all four of my Pokémon into an incinerator and just mindlessly kill them that way!? I trembled with fear and anger, and I just couldn't hold it in anymore.

"NO!" I shouted and screamed.

They both looked in my direction, suddenly surprised and alarmed. I had no choice now, I leapt and tore my way through the grate, which was easily accomplished just because it was barely fastened in the first place. I then landed on a metal shelf that was right below while the Ampharos and the Skarmory immediately looked up at me.

“Who the hell are you!?” The Ampharos exclaimed, slowly trying to inch toward his rifle.

I wasn't in the mood for a conversation with these two. If they really just tossed Raichu, Ariados, Jolteon, and Weavile into a god-forsaken incinerator and never even gave them a chance to defend themselves, they weren't worth the breath it would take to talk to them.

I angrily charged toward the Ampharos, not caring if he was almost four times bigger than I was. He quickly grabbed the rifle, but his attempt to quickly take aim and fire failed when I slammed right into his chest. Unfortunately, the armor absorbed most of the impact and the recoil did hurt a bit, but it did cause him to stumble and crash into a smaller-sized table behind him.

The Skarmory quickly charged in to help his companion with his blade-like wings fully spread, forcing me to be wary those things might be capable of instantly decapitating someone. I quickly charged a powerful Thunderbolt attack at him, which while it was nothing like what I was capable of unleashing back in Randy's dream world, it definitely did have a lot more electrical power than what an average Pikachu was capable of. Everything in the room was hit hard, including several of the metal tables and the metallic shelf, causing dozens of small metal cans to be sent rolling and rattling in all directions. The Skarmory was hit hard, but after having hit the metallic floor, he got back up on his feet and gave me a deathly glare.

I shielded myself from the barrage of metal cans, and seconds later they had all hit the floor, creating a loud, clanging noise. When it was all over with, Ampharos had turned to me, not looking very happy at all.

“Boy, you are one dead puppy,” Ampharos sneered. “Do you really think you can take us down?”

“Yep, simply for the fact your electrical power can’t hurt me," I told him, knowing one electric type Pokémon against another was a bit of a stalemate.

"You dumb idiot, what do you think the gun is for!?" The Ampharos laughed, quickly reaching for it again.

Suddenly it all made sense. If that Ampharos really could use that rifle, what would he ever have to worry about fighting other electric type Pokémon? Or heck, with it, he could even stop several ground Pokémon with no trouble at all, making up for his weaknesses easily. It was a grizzly thought to think here, Pokémon showed no fear or hesitation about shooting and killing other Pokémon.

He took aim and fired twice only to just barely miss and hit the metallic wall instead, forcing me to charge with blitz-speed to avoid getting shot. Going for anything that was armored was a bad idea. I quickly charged and leapt up to his head, grabbing onto his back in the process. He tried to shake me off, but he couldn't use his hands while they were still on the gun. In the time he had dropped it again, I had slammed his ears with my fists, causing an immense amount of ringing pain to him. I then attacked another pressure point in his neck, striking his throat painfully.

He threw me off, winded all of a sudden and barely able to breathe. While it would have been ironic for him to be shot by his own gun, the rifle was made for him, and to me, it was too big to handle. Unless I only wanted to shoot his feet, there would be no way I could actually aim and pull the trigger.

The Skarmory charged at me again, spreading his wings and prepared to use their slicing power against me. I didn't have much choice with where to go, so I quickly used one of the metal tables as a shield. I was shocked when his wings sliced through it and cut it completely in half. Not only that, but they cut so far through that my chest had been lightly slashed and was bleeding a bit.

The pain stung, but if I hadn't used the table as a shield, I would have been easily dissected alive...

"Come on and fight me!" The Skarmory taunted. "I swear, you Silver Rebellion worms are nothing!”

“I’m not part of the Silver Rebellion,” I told the Skarmory as prepared to strike back.

For a moment, they actually seemed shocked that I wasn’t. But nonetheless, it was the truth. I didn’t even know who the Silver Rebellion was…

“Really?” The Ampharos asked in surprise, “Then where the hell are you from?”

“Heh, don’t bother asking,” The Skarmory smiled to his companion. “I swear, these Rebellion idiots have gotten even worse at lying.”

I immediately charged up as much electricity as I could and directed it right toward Skarmory, casing my red cheeks to flare with a violent amount of electrical power. He only had a split second to react as he saw the incoming thunder, but it wasn’t fast enough…

Skarmory had been struck hard, and he glowed like a white-hot flare from the blast. After a few seconds of intense electrocution, I released my power, and Skarmory stumbled over and fell to the floor, landing on his chest with his thin, metal wings spread out.

But, even as that happened, the Ampharos looked to his fallen companion, and knew Skarmory had the disadvantage and couldn’t help it. But taking down an armored Ampharos wasn’t going to be as easy…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 20
Hostile Conflict

Recommended Listening: Metal Gear Solid 4 - Infinite Loop

Everywhere, the room was a mess, with cans laying all over the floor, as well as the three metal chairs that had been knocked over and the two pieces of what as left of the metal table. I had looked over to the shelf unit and saw it was still smoking from my own lightning blast.

Ampharos charged at me in a berserker fury, and lunged toward me, and I jumped into the air to avoid his grasp, sailing right over his body and landed right behind him as he slid through the slick of whatever dark-colored liquid on the floor. Ampharos had realized he had missed me, and after he got up, and turned around, I jumped into the air, turned myself in the air and smacked him right in the face with my sharp, jagged tail, again, going for a part of his body that wasn't armored. Ampharos was sent stumbling backward, trying to grab on to something before he fell on his back.

Ampharos quickly got back up again and gave me a nasty glare. He began to sway his tail back and forward, quickly gathering up a harsh amount of electricity. Then, he released it, and I was surprised when practically the whole room lit up with an intense electrical power. Everything in the room except for the two of us had been struck hard with his electrical power. Behind me, the two vending machines had exploded, and a barrage of what seemed to be soda cans had blasted right out and went rolling onto the floor. The floor was suddenly dripping wet with mixing beverages and what seemed to be some kind of soda. A can that hadn’t been destroyed had rolled right next to me, and I thought of an idea.

The Ampharos was trying to get a hold of his rifle, but bending over to pick it up would leave him vulnerable. However, I knew getting shot with that thing would be fatal.

"You Silver Rebellion bastards are all the same," He snarled at me, frustrated his electrical attacks were doing next to nothing to solve his situation. "Can't even fight without cheeky, infantile tactics."

At this point, I stopped caring if he thought I was part of whatever rebel group he was talking about. I was not going to mix myself into this whole war or whatever they had going on here.

Ampharos came rushing toward me, and I quickly grabbed the nearby soda can and shook it as hard as I could, hoping this actually was a carbonated beverage and would do what I thought it would do. I then pointed the mouth of the can at Ampharos and pulled the tab, spraying him with a cloud of amber-colored root beer, blinding him for an instant. I tossed aside the half-filled can and struck Ampharos with the hardest punch I could muster, right between the eyes. Ampharos was sent flying backward, and then violently hit the back wall with his head, which thankfully did most of the damage.

I wasn't sure how much of that commotion was heard by anyone else in this place, but I wasn't about to take chances. I quickly grabbed the Ampharos's belongings and tried to find whatever useful things I could use. I wasn't sure about these Silver Rebellion Inferno grenades, but they were the only weapon I had. I had no clue what the rest of this equipment was about. I found a metallic-gray and white armored uniform, which was definitely not meant for a Pikachu and I figured probably belonged to some unfortunate soldier that was either killed or imprisoned here.

So, it was just two Inferno Grenades, myself, and Latias's Poké Ball, all strapped to an improvised belt made of worn chain links. I was going to have to work with this the best I could.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" The Ampharos snarled as he crawled on the floor toward me, trying to get back up on his feet. "I'm not done pulling your head off!"

He killed my four Pokémon and almost killed Latias. I figured there was no time like the present. I looked at one of the Inferno Grenades, and found that triggering it involved yanking out a T-shaped metallic bolt. I pulled it out, and then tossed it right next to him and his snarling face. I then rushed out of there, thrashed my way out the scratched and beaten metallic door, and tried to clear as much distance away from the room as possible.

"YOU TWISTED-" The Ampharos screamed loudly before he was cut off.

I turned around to see the break room had instantly turned into an incinerator out of control. Ravaging, consuming fire was even leaking out of the door and into the hallway I was in. I was surprised some kind of alarm hadn't gone off, but then again, I wasn't even sure if this place or even this world had such a thing in existence.

I had no idea where Alex and Randy were being held, and I still needed to find a way out of here. I was still in dismay at the thought these maniacs had killed four of my Pokémon, but I knew if I didn't get out of here, I was probably going to get killed also. Meanwhile, there could be other guards or more of these Crimson Stars soldiers. I doubted anyone would notice I escaped the jail cell considering no one even bothered to look at me in there, but the break room being on fire with the two burnt corpses of a Skarmory and a Ampharos was not going to go unnoticed. Plus I wasn't sure if anyone heard those loud gun shots either.

I then moved my way into the dimly lit hallway. Like the prison cell and the break room itself, the hallways were completely metal, as if this was a submarine. Pipes and wires ran across the ceiling, while metal panels similar to the ones in the cells covered the floor. It was reminding me a lot of that dream, and it was unnerving.

My first objective was to find Alex and Randy, and hopefully get out of here. I headed to the right, knowing I would be heading back in the same direction that my cell was. I had made my way down, knowing if anyone were to come down this hallway, there was no way for me to hide, and I would have no choice but to fight. I had come across another rusty, metal door that had a pull latch for a handle. I jumped, grabbed the metal latch, and kicked back to open the door.

My assumption was correct. I had seen rows upon rows of heavy steel, circular vault doors. The room was much larger than the hallway, but I saw something that made me jump. A Primeape, Beartic, and Seviper had been on patrol, and when I opened the door, they spotted me.

The Beartic was the easiest one to notice, as the giant, white polar bear with his night-black claws and razor-sharp teeth could only be made worse by covering him with black and red plated armor. Even for a Beartic, he was burlier and angrier than usual. He too, was holding a gun, only this one looked like a combat-worn heavy machine gun that looked like it would usually be mounted on a tank.

His Primeape companion was a fuzz-ball pig monkey with brown arms and legs with shackles. He was wearing custom-fit Crimsons Stars armor as well, but his face was scarred and it looked like he had been in several close-combat fights before. He was also holding a dirty sub-machine gun of sorts.

As for the Seviper, he was mostly a scarred black and violet snake with yellow hexagons on his back. He was without armor, although he did have a black and red bracer around his neck.

But in the end, all three of them were filthy. When they saw me, I couldn't help but feel small and overwhelmed at that moment.

“Butt-naked and helpless... well, it looks like we have an escapee,” The Primeape laughed, looking at me. “Decision time... strangle him with his own colon or play seconds of life countdown after we rip off his head?"

“Let me handle him, Captain,” The Beartic snarled with a wicked smile as he gently put his massive machine gun aside to use his massive fists instead. “The damned janitor never cleaned our bunk this morning, so I'm making sure this one's remains are especially hard to mop up."

I wasn't sure about these Silver Rebellion guys, but I was already beyond sick of these Crimson Stars and their barbaric pleasures. I really didn’t need this, and all I wanted was to find Randy and Alex and figure out what we needed to do to get out of here. The Beartic looked me over as he took his sharp-clawed fists and punched them together, illustrating what would happen if I got between then.

The giant, white polar bear with his night-black claws and razor-sharp teeth had growled at me. The Primeape had rubbed his fists together, thinking this was going to be an easy picking.

“Don't stop until he's nothing but goo, Slenx,” The Primeape captain grinned in sadistic pleasure. "I want to count the seconds he's still twitching before he dies."

The Beartic named Slenx came stomping toward me, and outstretched his arm. While he was a hulking beast of a Pokémon, he was still held down by his slowness and his heavy armor did nothing to help his finesse and dexterity. I needed to make that something I could use. He threw his clawed fist down powerfully, and I quickly leapt out of the way just a split-second before his claw ripped into the metal floor, nearly ripping his nails off in the process. He charged again, but thankfully, being a light-weight Pikachu made it easy to leap several feet into the air and dodge the shambling giant's attacks. As his hand smashed and clawed nothing but the walls and floor, he was doing more harm to himself than to me. However, if I messed up just one evasive maneuver, it would probably mean getting half the bones in my body smashed to pieces.

"Fight me, you worm!" He shouted, thrashing angrily.

I focused my attention, and began charging electricity. I then sent the massive wave of electricity right at Beartic, and struck him in the chest, knowing his armor would only provide some protection against the electric blast. The giant polar bear Pokémon staggered back, grasping his torso and moaning in pain as forks of electricity coursed around him. Oddly enough, it seemed to hurt him more than the average Thunderbolt. Again, I wondered... was it because I was Juno and not just an ordinary Pikachu? I seriously had to keep practicing at this.

Then, I had crouched down and lowered my head. Slenx wasn’t going to move now that he was paralyzed. After he had shook off the pain and began to approach me, I blasted right off the ground and everything around me became a white blaze of electric fury. I slammed right into Beartic’s chest once again, sending him staggering backwards. He fell over and the back of his head powerfully struck one of the larger pipes leading up from the floor into the wall. After he had hit the metal floor and landed on his back, he appeared too weak to get back up and the powerful blow to his head had to have resulted in major blunt force trauma.

“Lucky little bastard,” The Primeape spat at his fallen comrade before looking at me. "How does a guy like him get so pummeled over by a Pikachu of all things?"

Maybe not just an ordinary Pikachu. I was Juno, after all. A Pikachu born from a kid's dreams and imagination. I figured maybe the signs weren't so obvious on the outside, but I knew I was doing things a normal Pikachu couldn't.

He gave me a glare, and then he looked over to the Seviper waiting impatiently besides him. When the Primeape Captain gave a nod, the Seviper grinned wickedly, licking his lips.

“Yessss…” The Seviper hissed with sadistic glee. “I ssshall make ssshort work of him…”

The black snake with a yellow diamond pattern running along his body slithered his way across the floor, moving with an unpredictable advance. Seviper had one hell of a face, with long fangs and menacing eyes, along with a tail end that looked like a knife.

“You are finisssshed!” The Seviper hissed at me, just before blasting toward me like a bullet.

I couldn’t even see Seviper it was so fast. For a moment, it seemed like it just disappeared, and then a split second later, I felt an intense spark of pain suddenly slide down my back. Only then could I see Seviper, only it was too late. I felt so much pain coming from all directions. And then, I started feeling terribly sick and nauseous, and it only got worse every passing moment. I was too weak to continue fighting, and I could barely move.

Maybe it was luck with the Beartic. I still wasn't used to fighting as a Pikachu and I certainly was no soldier like these guys were.

“Get me the chains, I want the little maggot wrapped in them until he chokes,” The Primeape captain grunted.

“Yesss.” The Seviper began to obey.

I tried to focus, doing my best to ignore the pain that was beating all around my body. After managing to get back on my feet, I looked back at him, letting him know I wasn’t about to give up yet. I gave him a dark stare, and then Seviper looked back at me, ready to start fighting again. Yet, despite what had happened, again the Primeape had just snickered and was ready to start again.

“Forget that,” He said, shaking off his anger. “Put the maggot back on the ground!”

Seviper had lunged toward me like a bullet, and then I had remembered something. Even with Seviper dashing toward me with its mouth open as it readied its fangs, I concentrated and began to focus. I remembered I managed to pull off this feat back in Randy's world as Juno. It hadn't been that long, I figured I could give it another shot. With some concentration, I grew faster and faster as the rest of the world around me just suddenly slowed down.

Suddenly, Seviper’s speed had slowed to crawl, and then I dashed toward him, still rushing at my normal speed. Seviper moved around like it was crawling through tar, so it made it easy for me to get right on its back. I then charged my electricity, and sent the forking thunder and lightning right into the back of Seviper’s head, and kept it tearing through him, coursing through all his nerves until I figured he couldn’t stand having his brain continuously electrocuted.

Then, everything had returned to normal speed, and I jumped off of the collapsing Seviper, and faced the Primeape, who just stood there in disbelief.

“What the hell...!?” The Primeape asked in shock. “I've never seen a Pikachu pull that off! What kind of damned drugs do they have you on!?”

Drugs. This was definitely nothing like drugs, but I could tell he didn't want to give me credit for anything. Still, it was something far more powerful than any kind of performance enhancers. Without a doubt, Randy definitely had given Juno an arsenal of some pretty powerful attributes and moves. I figured I might as well use everything he gave me and try to learn as much as I could.

He had ignored the fallen body of his comrade, and prepared to attack with his sub-machine gun. I figured all the evisceration and butchery games these three had thought up were no longer being considered.

"To hell with you!" The Primeape shouted. "Eat lead and die, you god-forsaken, drugged-up lab rat!"

He opened fire, and I absolutely had to focus to avoid getting shot. Like before, he slowed down, and I could actually make out every bullet coursing its way toward me. I leapt out of the way, and then I focused my energy. My red cheeks flared up with crackling electricity again, and as he tried to reposition his aim to compensate for my blinding speed, I focused on his head, directing the blazing bolt of thunder to strike him right between the eyes. It hit him hard, and I made sure his brain was so thoroughly damaged by the thunderous attack that it would practically render him in a permanent vegetative state.

He was thrown back and his firearm went sailing out of his hands before he landed on his back, still sizzling from the attack. He lay there, completely still and unable to fight back. Really, a normal Pikachu's Thunderbolt attack wouldn't have hurt a Primeape that badly, but Juno's... definitely seemed to be a heck of a lot more effective.

I had approached his fallen body, and found a cloth bag he had been carrying. Since I couldn’t pull it off with him lying on the floor, I opened the flap and looked inside.

Inside was a stockpile of healing items, antidotes, potions, and loads of other stuff. Right now, I had no choice but to use them, or otherwise I was going to collapse because of the harsh poison that Seviper injected into me. They seemed to be a little different from the medicines that I typically gave to my own Pokémon, but they were simple enough to figure out how to use them.

I hated using antidotes on my Pokémon, just because the things look so darn painful. It was a hypodermic with scarlet liquid it, not the most comforting of things to see. All I could do was expose the needle, prick myself with it, and inject the scarlet liquid by pressing down on the plunger. Never once did I ever imagine I was going to have to one day use this on myself. Despite that, I had to hurry, or I wasn’t going to make it…

I removed the plastic covering on the needle, tossed it aside, and pricked myself with the sharp needle right in my side. Well, without a doubt, it sure was painful. Next, I put my tiny yellow hand on the release button on the top of the hypodermic, and pressed down. I didn’t want to watch as the scarlet liquid left the hypodermic’s container and entered into me.

But, amazingly, the sting from the poison was quickly flushed out and gone within only a few seconds. I pulled the hypo’s needle out from my side, and tossed it away. After quickly taking a glance at the empty hypodermic, I was not looking forward toward ever doing something like that again.

I had gone back to the bag and looked around for something to heal the cuts with. After digging around for it, I found a medical spray that looked easy and simple enough to use. Mostly similar to the potions back home, but with a differently shaped bottle and a clear liquid. I removed the cap that stopped the potion from accidentally releasing the spray within the bag. I then pointed the nozzle at myself and pressed down on the spray lever, showering myself with tiny, revitalizing droplets. I was amazed how this stuff worked, it healed cuts and bruises within seconds, though there was still some scarring and damage that would take a little longer to fully and naturally heal over time. When it was finished, I felt completely refreshed, almost as if nothing had happened, though there was still some aching. Still, I couldn’t always rely on these things. I was definitely going to have to be more careful about it.

For the Primeape's submachine gun, while it was a bigger and definitely oversized, I could actually use it. Trying to figure out how to eject the used magazine to replace it with a fresh one took me a while, and I realized these firearms used a trigger that was a straight rod instead of a curve. Meanwhile, their bullets were also a dark silver color, which was unusual.

Next, I found the Primeape’s belt along with the ring of metallic alloy keys he had been carrying. Keys here were also very different, and instead were T-shaped and used an array of metal imprinted bar codes. I almost didn't recognize them as keys until I took a glance at some of the locks on the prison doors and made the connection.

I unloosened his belt, slid the metal key ring along his belt and removed them.

Now I just needed to find Alex and Randy…

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 21
Crossing the Threshold

I had realized that in order to find Randy and Alex, I was going to have to go through cell by cell, and since I couldn’t see into them, I didn’t know whose cell I was going to open, and I was a little bit wary thinking about it. There was no telling who or what was going to be behind the door, and the chance of someone lunging for my throat was always a possibility. I was hoping anyone here would be happy I was giving them their freedom, so I couldn't see too much harm coming out of it.

I didn’t really know what the Silver Rebellion was or who was in it, but I could already assume this place was loaded with them from all the prison guards I had to take out. I hated these sick-minded Crimson Stars, but for all I knew, the Silver Rebellion could be just as bad.

I had gone over to the first cell along the left wall, all the way at the end. It read, “V17” on a metal plaque by the keyhole, and I had looked at the key ring and found the corresponding key. The whole metal bar-coded key took a little getting used to, but once I figured out how it worked, I put the key in, turned, and slowly opened the heavy metal door.

Inside, the cell was exactly like mine, only by the bedside, I had seen a Cubone, a Chespin, and a Buneary lying against the metal bunk beds. They had been wearing gray and white armored uniforms, although the Cubone was still wearing the skull helmet. The Chespin was sleeping on the bunk bed near the window, but I could tell from his scarred brown face and some of the missing and shredded leaves on his head that he had seen plenty of fighting. Meanwhile, the Buneary was soiled and her brown fur was dirty. Meanwhile, she was wearing a black eye-patch over her left eye.

They looked exhausted, but when they saw me open the door, they looked up.

“Who are you?” The Cubone asked me, suddenly surprised to see the door open for once.

Good question. I wasn't even sure myself anymore.

"I'm nobody, let's just bail out of here," I told him, knowing there wasn't too much time to do this. "We don't have a whole lot of time."

I figured I was going to need some help getting out of here anyway.

In an excited ecstasy, they had gotten up, and scrambled to the door. The Chespin and the Buneary had run out the door and prepared to keep a lookout, but the Cubone had stopped in the doorway, and looked at me curiously for a moment. I could see past the skull he was wearing to look directly into his black eye.

“That’s funny, I don’t recognize you from the Silver Rebellion…” The Cubone told me, looking me over strangely. "Did they rip off your uniform? Wouldn't be the first time they've done that."

“No, I'm not from the Silver Rebellion,” I told him with a casual but polite smile, hoping to avoid being caught up in this war.

“Heh, well, you should be!” The Cubone replied in a somewhat amused tone. “Leading the charge on breaking open a Crimson Stars military prison? That takes guts!”

I admired his support, but I was no soldier. I had been nearly shot, pummeled, bitten, and shredded to death and had it not been for Juno's special powers, I would have been long-dead.

I had turned around, headed to the next cell, and found the key that corresponded with the door. I was really hoping I wasn’t making a serious mistake by doing this, but so far, the few Silver Rebels that I had met didn’t seem to be so bad. I put the key in the keyhole, and turned it clockwise until it stopped. After I heard the release pulled in, I opened the cold, metal door. Again, it was the same setup as before, only now I found a Meinshao and a Marill inside the cell, both looking like they’ve been in there for way too long. The white and purple weasel-like Pokémon looked like he had seen far too much fighting and the scars on his body proved it. Meanwhile, the round-shaped, aquatic mouse looked terribly malnourished and in dismay.

“Am I seeing things?” The Meinshao asked, looking at me, “You’re not one of them, are you?”

“Nope,” I told them quickly. “Come on, let’s go before someone catches us.”

They both dashed for the door with sudden, lifted spirits, and after the cell was empty, we then shut the door. I quickly moved to the third cell from the wall, and found the key I needed. Now, I felt like I needed to move faster and faster.

"There might be more coming," The Cubone warned me, urging me to go faster. "We don't have a whole lot of time."

"I'm trying..." I told him, feeling the urgency as well. "Not used to dealing with keys like these."

Once I unlocked the door, I handed the keys to the Cubone to take care of the rest.

Inside was a solitary Pachirisu, sitting on the bed with his eyes staring at the floor, his ears drooping downward, and his giant, fluffy tail laying by his side. I was surprised for a moment. His white and cyan-colored fur was relatively clean unlike the others. He didn’t seem to be in such bad shape like the others had been, like he had just gotten here. That, and unlike the Silver Rebellion soldiers, this electric squirrel wasn't wearing armor either. I walked over to him, and he still looked down, not willing to face me, even though he had been aware of my presence.

“I don’t know who you are, but I don’t belong here,” The Pachirishu said to me, just trying to push me away so he could be by himself. "I don't know why they did this to me or why I'm here."

“That’s why I’m taking you out of here.” I replied, trying to comfort him.

“You don’t understand, this isn’t the real me,” He said sadly, shaking his head in disbelief as he looked away. “I’m…”

I couldn’t understand what he was trying to say. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he had been here way too long…

“I’m…” He stuttered, trying to continue, but finding it really hard to, “not… actually… a Pachirisu…”

Was this what I thought it was?

"Is that... you, Randy?" I asked.

He then immediately looked up, and I instantly knew my hunch was right. Instantly, he recognized me as Juno the Pikachu, but I didn't understand... why would Zander have Randy get turned into a Pachirisu?

"No... way..." He muttered.

"Seems it... happened to me also," I told him, still trying to wrap my head around this strange situation we were in. "Something really is weird. I... don't think there are any humans here."

"Jake..." Randy muttered, looking oddly at me. "You... you look really awesome as Juno. But... do you know where we are?"

"It's a military prison of some sort," I told him, not knowing much about the situation either. "I had to fight off some armored Pokémon with guns from some group called the Crimsons Stars."

He just seemed overwhelmed by it all, and I could tell that as he got up from his bed and tried to move around, he was definitely not used to walking as a Pachirisu. I knew the others would think it might have been either injury or weakness, but they didn't know what was really going on here. Still, if Zander turned Randy into a Pachirisu, I was quite sure he had probably turned Alex into a Pokémon as well, wherever he was.

Randy had looked at me, unable to believe. He then shook his head, unable to understand. But then, he looked at me closer and seemed to recognize me much more easily.

Just then, Cubone had poked his head out from behind the door and peered in.

“Hey, what’s taking you so long in there!?” He shouted out. “We’ve got to get out of here as soon as possible!”

“Come on,” I told Randy, knowing we could sort this out later. “We'll figure this all out once we're some place safe.”

Randy just hopped off the metal bunk bed and landed on his feet. I then began to head out of the room, and he began to follow me.

I then continued to unlock door by door, releasing what seemed to be practically a small army of Pokémon. I hadn’t been faced with resistance for quite a few minutes now, but even if someone had come to stop us, they wouldn’t stand much of a chance with all this united effort. Almost all of them were obviously Silver Rebellion soldiers judging from the silver-gray and white armored uniforms they were wearing.

“Come on!” Cubone shouted, “I know where the exit is!”

I tried to look among the crowd for a Pokémon that might be Alex, but there was no way of telling. There were at least three dozen other Pokémon and while most of them were wearing armor, I didn't get an opportunity the unarmored ones if they were Alex.

"Is there anyone named Alex here!?" Randy asked the whole group.

They looked at him strangely, and then at each other. It definitely looked like they had never heard that name before.

“Where is he?” He asked me, knowing we didn’t find him in any of the cells. "None of these guys look like they know him.

“We have to go find him…” I told Randy, heading in the opposite direction that the rest of the Pokémon were heading.

“Where do you think you’re going!?” The Cubone asked me in shock, seeing I was running in the other direction. "The way out is the other way!"

I had stopped and turned back for a moment. I had noticed Randy was following me.

“There’s someone I know that should still be here!” I shouted back. “We need to go find him!”

“There can’t be…” He shouted back. “I've unlocked all the other cells in the whole prison. He would have to be held somewhere else…”

That didn’t make sense. If Alex wasn’t here, then where was he? I was just about to turn around and follow Cubone when Randy had got my attention, lightly tapping me on the back with his white paw.

“Do you know where are they hiding my Pokémon?” Randy asked me, looking up.

I felt sick at that moment and had to back against the wall to avoid fainting as I felt so light-headed from stress and despair. I had no clue how I was going to explain this with the little amount of time we had. I tried to look into his eyes, but I couldn't, and the best I could do to share this horrible news was just look down at my own two yellow feet.

"Randy, they..." I told him, taking a hard breath as I was struggling with the words, "...they threw all of our human stuff into an incinerator. Pokédexes, medicine, PokéNavs, and... and the Poké Balls..."

"No... no... nooo, why would they do that!?" Randy suddenly cried, sobbing into my shoulder. "No, please, those were my Pokémon! Didn't they know there were living Pokémon inside them!?"

"I don't think they would have cared even if they did..." I replied to him, putting my paw on his back to try and comfort him.

It was brutal to see him so emotionally wrecked, and I felt like such a horrible person for all the times I heartlessly beat up his Pokémon and insulted them. I shut my eyes and despite Juno's power, there was nothing I could do to revive them and take back all the horrible things I did to them.

"I... I don't get it..." Randy sobbed with tears in his Pachirisu eyes. "Why them...? Why did it have to be them...!?"

I felt the same burn in my heart as he did. Even beyond the battles, I grew up with Raichu, Ariados, Jolteon, and Weavile, and to know they were dead and I never got the chance to say goodbye...

"I just want to wake up already..." Randy cried with tears burning in his eyes. "I hate this dream. I hate everything about it."

I could only wish it was one, though. But the pain was far too real for it to be one.

"Let's go, we need to hurry!” The Cubone shouted to the two of us from down the hall. “We don’t have much longer. Once they initiate the lockdown of the whole prison, there will be no way out of here!”

"We gotta go," I told Randy, knowing there was nothing we could do about it. "I'm sorry, Randy, I... lost all my Pokémon save for one."

"Save for one?" He asked.

"For some reason, they couldn't incinerate the Poké Ball that held Latias," I told him, showing him the one Poké Ball I had left. "I think it's because... they're made from your dreams."

Randy was a bit shocked, unable to understand it completely, but it surprised him also.

"This is all so... weird," Randy replied, still unable to believe this was all really happening.

"We'll try to figure it all out later," I told him, knowing we were still in dangerous territory here. "Right now, we've got to go follow that Cubone. I don't know about these Silver Rebellion soldiers, but I'm sure if they wanted to kill us, they would have done it already."

He nodded, and got up on his own two white furry feet. He was slowly getting the hang of traveling as a Pachirisu, which I could imagine wasn't easy for him considering he spent the last decade and a half as a human.

Already, everyone else but Cubone had already left the building, and we quickly rushed to follow him. Just past the second metal door of the jail room, there was a metal exit leading out. Randy and I quickly made our way outside. I could only hope Alex wasn’t still in there, and I was willing to take the Cubone’s word for it, but if that wasn’t the case, we would never be able to get to him now…

Outside, I got a full view of just how ravaged and torn apart this strange and foreign alien world was. As Randy and I looked upon the fields, the black ruins of a massive city had lied before us with the dark thunder still raging on overhead. The land was charred black in various places, and the fragments of tall buildings lay around us like twisted, jagged thorns. All that was left was a field of twisted, empty shells. Above it all was the fiery colored sky with its occasional flashes of thunder endlessly clashing in the air, the same nightmare I had seen from my cell window…

I was wondering what caused all this, and I was just about to ask the Cubone about it before stopping myself. I then figured it might be a good idea to not so quickly reveal Randy and I were former humans by showing ignorance. For all we knew, this could be new, or it could be something these Pokémon have always had to deal with.

And then, the Marill had emerged from the group, mounted upon a fierce-looking Pidgeot. I had no idea where he had gotten that massive bird from, but he was now equipped with all kinds of riding gear and armor. He looked down upon Cubone. He seemed a bit distressed…

“Sir, we had better leave before the Wind Strikers arrive…” The Marill warned him with anxiety. “Your mount is awaiting, and most of the others have already mounted up and are ready to leave. But there’s not much time.”

“Wind Strikers…?” Randy asked, feeling a bit worried.

“I guess you two really aren't from around here,” The Cubone told him. “They’re aerial sentinels who ride Skarmories. They’re fast, lethal, and they simply enjoy killing. Their weapons are also highly advanced.”

So, I figured that Ampharos in the break room had to be a Wind Striker. His Skarmory was certainly no joke and neither was that massive rifle he was using.

It wasn’t long until the rest of the released prisoners had come forward, all of them mounted on Pidgeots that were equipped with riding gear and armor. From what I could tell, these Crimson Stars guys had locked up their mounts in another area of the prison. A Pidgeot without a rider had come forward to the Cubone, and it seemed like Cubone had known this particular Pidgeot before. I figured the other Silver Rebellion captives had found out where they had been keeping their riding mounts and managed to release them. Soon enough, the Cubone jumped up upon the Pidgeot’s back, and strapped himself in with the riding saddle that was on the giant bird's back, now ready to ride.

At that moment, Randy and I just looked at each other, and we were both thinking the same thing. Randy and I then looked back at the Cubone and his other riders, and the question of whether these Pidgeot mounts could support two riders came up, but judging from the saddles and the gear they were wearing, it seemed like an obvious answer. There was no way we were getting on those things, and I didn’t feel like holding onto one of their backs for dear life.

“Uhhh…” Randy said to the Cubone in hesitation, “We don’t have a Pidgeot…”

“You don’t?” Cubone asked in some surprise. “No flying mount at all? How did you end up in the same prison as us Storm Riders?"

Randy seemed a bit embarrassed, and I couldn’t blame him since I was pretty much in the same situation as he was in. I didn’t know what a Storm Rider was either, and these Pokémon had a way about them that made you feel a little stupid for asking.

"Well, like I said earlier, we're not part of the Silver Rebellion," I told him, trying to put it casually. "Hence... the lack of a Pidgeot mount."

“What are the Storm Riders anyway?” Randy asked, looking at Cubone in curiosity.

“That’s who we are.” Cubone responded, putting a fist to his chest in a proud salute. “We’re the aerial forces of the Silver Rebellion, and we use Pidgeots as a means of transportation and as a means of attack.”

I had to admit, it was pretty impressive what these Storm Riders managed to create. An aerial attack force of two Pokémon working together.

“Wow, that's... awesome…” Randy said in awe, just looking at all the Pidgeot riders. "But... are you sure we can't get a ride? I have no idea how we're going to get out of here otherwise..."

"I've got it covered," I assured him.

I didn’t have a Pidgeot, but I certainly still had Latias. I unstrapped Latias’s Poké Ball from my waist, and pressed the primer button, enlarging the Poké Ball a bit to be prepared for release. A few of the Storm Riders looked curiously at what I was doing, probably having never seen a Poké Ball in action before. Regardless, I took the Poké Ball and I tossed it onto the ground. Sure enough, there was a flash, and the white light had formed into Latias.

Once the light had become her and she had looked around at the scorched earth, it was clear she had no idea where she was again.

"Holy cow, someone please change the channel," She blinked twice at the ravaged world she saw before her. "Okay, who ordered apocalypse and forgot the fries?"

She then turned and looked at me to realize... I was Juno the Pikachu again. I figured this was probably looking pretty weird to her right now, but I figured I could fill her in on the details later. Still, I couldn’t blame her for feeling so confused at that moment…

"Uh huh, okay," She nodded cynically. "Yep, something's weird again."

And then, suddenly, all of the Storm Riders were looking at Latias and I. Every single one of them and even their Pidgeot mounts had just completely stopped and just stared at the two of us, some of them just gaping at the sight with a few gasps here and there. They just looked at Latias and me blankly for a few moments, and said nothing. I had looked back at them, and had absolutely no idea why they were looking at me that way. For a moment, I thought it was because Latias was a pretty rare and legendary Pokémon, but their mesmerized reaction magnified to something even well beyond that.

“...And he will come at your most dire time of need…” Cubone had softly murmured, still blankly staring at me in a strange way, “He will arrive upon a bird as red as blood, and as white as lightning…”

I looked at him strangely, suddenly realizing he was reciting something from somewhere he must have read. Even Latias was looking at him strangely, having no idea who this strange Cubone was. It was… quite eerie to see him so hasty for a moment to get out of here, and then be totally mesmerized into this kind of behavior.

“Were you... saying something?” Randy asked Cubone, wondering what he was exactly talking about.

“When the skies turn into fire and the land is burnt into ash, he will come. We have waited too long for this day to arrive…” Cubone stated in a firm tone, “The restless masses, the battles, the nightmares… When the night seems endless and all hope has faded, he will come, and he will go by the name of Juno…”

Now he was freaking me out. How the heck did he know my name? And why was everyone staring at me? He sounded like he was reciting something like he had read countless times. I thought we needed to get out of here before the Wind Strikers came. Why was everyone just waiting around?

"How did... you know my name?" I asked him, knowing there was no way he could have just guessed that.

"Could someone be so kind to tell us where we are?" Latias asked, looking around curiously. "And most importantly, the quickest way out!?"

“I will show you, Blazewing,” Cubone said to Latias, seemingly proud to be in her presence. “We must make haste.”

Blazewing? He knew Latias's name before even I did?

"No way!" She exclaimed with shock. "If that was a lucky guess, forget this place, we're hitting the roulette wheels!"

Wow, I just didn’t get it. Still, before I could even say anything, Cubone had just looked forward, patted the side of his Pidgeot, and she spread her wings, and took flight into the sky. Soon after, the rest of the Storm Riders had lifted off the ground, and just left us along.

“Come on Randy, let’s go.” I told him, pulling him by the hand and making my way onto Latias’s back.

“How did he know your names?” Randy asked me, looking at Cubone and his Pidgeot strangely.

Hell if I knew. I was asking the same question myself. Soon after, Latias jumped off the ground and we flew swiftly through the air, looking upon the charred remains of the city below. The fissures consuming the city were deep. It was pretty easy to see there was no way to cross this land without flying over it. Still, I had a big question that really needed answering.

“Blazewing, huh?” I suddenly asked her. "That's a pretty cool name.”

“You bet!" She told me with a smug smile. "How the Cubone dude managed to know that... wow, no clue on that one. Heck, I didn't even get around to telling you yet! I wonder... does he somehow know I came Randy's dream world, or that I resembled his optimism too?"

"I haven't got the foggiest idea..." I told her, looking up at the sky in wonder.

[Suicune's Fire]

Typos and errors first! :]

Chapter 9

because to know one's enemy is dangerous knowledge to expose to expose to him.

Double 'expose to'!


Chapter 10

Spoiler:

No wonder he was so keen into wanting to battle us.

I find this wording to be slightly odd. 'into' should be 'on'? Or get rid of "into wanting."

Everything in the room was hit with force and wind, and even Coldblood himself had to steel himself against the celestial wind as even the whole building trembled

The double 'even' in this sentence puts me off a little.

almost seemingly glowing white for a few seconds before it settled. It actually took me a few seconds to start breathing again.

Just double "a few seconds." :]

“Obviously, no one has ever won this tournament other than Randy,” Coldblood told me the obvious. “That’s why Randy now has at least fifty slaves. You have to be the one to fight Randy in the final round, and you have to be the one who wins. I can only wish you the best of luck from here on in.”

Hearing Coldblood say this makes me wonder how long, exactly, Randy's imaginary world has been around. It was my impression that it's been less than a week, but the way Coldblood is describing it makes it sound like it's been years, or months, or something. If it has been under a week, then saying "nobody has ever beaten him" sounds a little extreme. Also, he says nobody can just go up and challenge Randy willy-nilly, so it sounds as if he'd only have tournaments every so often. Unless it was explained that this world has existed for years, and I just missed that. xD

Chapter 11

Spoiler:

It was a long march back to Victory City, but it was far more hopeful

"I" was more hopeful?

Oddly enough, inside, I was feeling sensations that I'm sure regular Pikachus never feel.

I'm sure you know that the plural of every pokemon species doesn't end with an s. This should be "regular Pikachu never feel," unless you're consciously rebelling against it and stuck an s on there for that purpose. xD

And when we finally meet that next day, I got a whole lot of surprise...

This whole sentence sounds kind of awkward. The tense is mixed up - unless you mean "I've got" - and "a whole lot of surprise" seems like an odd choice of words. Maybe it's just me. xD Also, if this is him looking back, then I find it a little puzzling, since we have never gotten a hindsight Jake/Juno before. I'm sure it's just a typo though.

I wasn't sure what was going through tis brain,

Should be its.

with an sharper horn and fierce, white fur.

Should be a.

When Raichu came out of his Poké Ball, he felt something felt oddly strange and he looked behind to see me.

Extra "felt" in there!

The black Poké Ball stuck the ground fiercely

I love fiercely sticking to things!

clad in jade and black scales with crimson claws and bladed scythe blades on both sides of his face,

Bladed scythe blades. Cool.

Chapter 12

Spoiler:

In a battle like this, there was so such thing as overcompensating too much.

Should be no instead of so.

I was a bit worried my fatigue might cause me to slip up on the battle.

I think that's meant to be in the battle.

I had only gotten my rest during that afternoon as I was finally able to push away the thoughts of anxiety and concern away.

Double "away."

I was led toward the room that was just outside was the final arena.

I believe you require a "that" between 'outside' and 'was.' Or better yet, rewording it would be good!

I just blinked twice said nothing, not that he would have understood what I was saying anyway. I left it with a simple nod and left everything else carry on.

You need an 'and' between 'twice' and 'said', and that second 'left' should be 'let,' I think.

When there was a sudden and massive roar, I knew that must have meant Randy have arrived,

All one of Randy have arrived.

I walked out, and the sight of the stadium was painfully familiar from the last incident Alex, David and I confronted Randy, Frank and Jeff only to lose painfully.

You need a 'when' before 'Alex.' Probs a comma after 'Jeff' as well.

I was thinking more about showing them all that Randy made a grievous mistake by carelessly forget about a truthful, good-hearted, and genuine Pikachu.

'forget' should be 'forgetting.'

Already, Randy was looking at me very strangely, and I could see from the look in his face

'in' should be 'on.'

Randy’s Pokémon were going to have to on the verge of dying

There should be a 'be' between 'to' and 'on.'

“This is a two-on-two battle double battle, and each combatant is allowed to use only up to four Pokémon!”

Get rid of that first 'battle.' xP


Chapter 13

Spoiler:

They didn’t know what attack it was either, but I could tell their by their power,

Snipe that first 'their'!

While they were able to understand the Pokéspeech that I called it "Thundersurge Chain Lighting," but it didn't tell them anything about the real nature of the attack.

This whole sentence is a little bit muddled. I think rewriting it as this might work better...

While they were able to understand what I called it in Pokéspeech - "Thundersurge Chain Lighting" - it didn't tell them anything about the real nature of the attack.

Chain Lightning came out exactly as I imagined it and I was pleasantly surprised and taken back at how this amazing power worked.

Taken aback?

Then, all I could see was a suddenly storm of dark shadows burst from where Mewtwo and Arceus were standing in the dark.

Should be 'sudden.' Also, repetition of 'dark' here. Not a biggie. x)

“Thank you…” He said to me.


"Don't worry about me!" He shouted me.


"Holy... sweet mother of mercy, how can you..." She replied

All of those 'he' and 'she's should have lowercase letters.

Then, she flew off the ground, and flew at a lightning speed toward Arceus,

Again, just the repetition of a word (flew).

And in no time at all, Latias had returned to my side, almost to my own surprise,

This sentence is either unfinished, or that comma should be a period. x)

“I’m sorry…” Jolteon gasped to me, looking terribly exhausted, “I wanted to go further, further than this. I wanted… to win together, with you.”

It says Juno is further enough away from the giant fissure to avoid it and not be harmed, but then he can hear Jolteon's quiet speech (or what I imagine is quiet, given his physical state), even at the distance, and speak to him back? I think there should be some indication that Juno moved closer to him. I also imagine that anything that isn't yelling would be hard to hear at all in this absurdly noisy arena, given that the crowd is so loud.

There we go! All errors accounted for...of the ones I saw. Which hopefully were all of them. xD But you never know! Those sneaky little buggers can be hiding anywhere. O:< There were other random little places that I would change personally, but some are too insignificant to bother mentioning, like the occasional comma use. xD

I think I like this tale more as it progresses, and now that Jake is getting somewhere with his plan to overthrow Randy and get the heck out of there, I think it's becoming more interesting. I did quite like Coldblood, and the points he raised were quite good--such as Jake having to go in disguise. On that note, I was sort of surprised how quickly Jake accepted the change from a human into a pikachu, especially when he said he would become a pikachu for the rest of his life if it gave him a shot at getting out of there. I can see how he would be quite keen, but it seems just a little extreme that he has little to no issue with it. If that were me, I'd be terrified if I had to become something else for the rest of my life. Your entire life would be morphed, from your family life to your friend life, to your career, future family, etc. I dunno...it was a little unsettling how fast he took the opportunity. I suppose I'm basing it too much on my thoughts, though. Jake obviously isn't me. Also, there hasn't really been much clarification on how the necklace works, which leaves me puzzled at some things, such as how the pikachu-changing would work. I could see how he would be a pikachu for the rest of his life inside Randy's mind, but once they broke free of it, wouldn't he return to normal, because Coldblood's powers wouldn't work outside of it? And if he's just a figment of Randy's imagination as Juno, it seems a little odd that he can become real. I'm not up to when they escape Randy's mind, though, so maybe I'm speaking about things that have already been answered, but I feel like Jake doesn't think enough about it. He could have asked Coldblood how it worked. Asked him a simple "What will happen to me after I leave Randy's mind?" but he doesn't, which is what is weird to me.

During all that travelling that Jake did to Coldblood's building, and then the three day trek back, I expected to see a little more of his adventure. It skipped each day with a sentence or two, when I think there could have been an awesome chance for a short little adventure or something, even if it was to show that Jake really was willing to give up everything for a chance to escape. The main thing that disappoints me is that there's never any interaction between Jake and his pokemon. Surely, for the three days that he wandered away from Victory City and towards Coldblood's building, there must have been a time when he let out his pokemon and had them there for company, or needed their help, or whatnot. I would have been satisfied if there was a sentence somewhere saying "Despite how lonely he got, Jake elected not to send out Raichu or Ariados for fear that they may wind up like Jolteon and Weavile" or something. But then on the way back, he sort of had no excuse not to send out his pokemon, especially because he had three days to kill as a pikachu. Instead, I can imagine him being absolutely silent for the entire three day journey, and then, when he's in the middle of a battle that will lead up to his plan, he decides to reveal to his pokemon that he's a pikachu now. Not only that, but he'll "explain it later"? Wouldn't it be helpful if his pokemon knew what they were going up against, and how Jake planned to do it? I just feel like he could have given them a little warning. Why didn't he take advantage of that three day walk to talk to his pokemon, explain what was happening, and even practice some imaginary attacks? It would make a lot of sense if he had done that, especially for the purpose of training with his raichu/jolteon so he could actually learn how to use his electric powers. I get that he's half (or more, or less) Juno now, but surely the Jake in there has no idea what's going on. I think it was pretty irresponsible and rude that he didn't even talk to them once over the span of six days... xD I mean, not even to let out his two pokemon to show them that their bodies had returned to normal? I dunno; it just seems like a wasted opportunity and in that position, I thought that Jake would have wanted all the help he could have gotten.

Despite that, I'm quite enjoying it. x) I'm still yet to see how this battle ends. The arrival of that latias is cool, though Juno sure does take a reeaallly fast liking to her. I suppose that's him in his excitement and joy that he's got a legendary on his side, though. xD I'm enjoying his made up attacks, too. Also I searched up the height of a lugia and oh my god it's 17 feet tall. I mean, it's no wailord, but it's still huge!

I shall now return to the shadows and continue reading. :3 I really wanna see them get out of here. xD Also I was quite surprised to see that Alex had become one of his slaves. I mean, I expected it, but it sucks that he has to do what Randy commands. I wonder what David's doing. At least he changed them back. xD Jeff seems so smug, too. The 'good guys' really annoy me to be honest. xD I want Randy to lose miserably and for that necklace to break because I'm SUPER lovely.

[Kentucky Fried Torchic]

Ah, so we're finally in Kivistal! At least I hope it's still called Kivistal, and I'm honestly a little impressed with myself for remembering the name, but I digress!

I've always believed that you could have focused entirely on the Gray Battlegrounds and the human world that you created alongside Randy's dream world and still have crafted a beautiful series, but I don't think that the rush, the excitement, and the shock would have compared to taking things in a whole new direction by setting them inside a world where Pokemon use guns and fight wars. Even after all these years, the description of Pokemon like Primeape and Ampharos wielding high-powered weapons and working in a prison for warriors from a rebellion still lights up my world. Seriously, Mystery Dungeon eat your heart out!

Now, as part of my unofficial duties of my unofficial title of "guy who notices differences", here's what I've got for these last few chapters: First, it was always a little strange in the original tale that the relationship between humans and Pokemon was never entirely explained. There were hints of conflict with humans in the past, as when the Silver Rebellion was hostile to Randy because he bore a "human name" and he was coerced into adapting a new identity, as Blitz I believe. It seemed like there was a lot of potential (perhaps even a prequel I hoped :3) to what happened to wipe out all of the humans of Kivistal and teach Pokemon the art of warfare. This version simply has its benefits, without the lose ends of humanity's fate in Kivistal and the questionable morality of Pokemon keeping other Pokemon in Poke Balls, but it still surprised me a bit when I read that the Skarmory and Ampharos had not known what Poke Balls were.

And then if that wasn't enough, they killed Jake's Pokemon (and Randy's too I suppose)! I was hoping that they would be set free and join the Silver Rebellion, maybe get caught up in some political intrigue and jockeying for power, but no, they were disposed of. I can't say I was a huge fan of the Crimson Stars during past read-throughs (despite my affinity for jerks, it would appear), but that they would kill eight Pokemon out of ignorance, not even malice, really boils my blood, rustles my jimmys, and grinds my gears! Augh!

Ahem, with that out of my system (and comforted because maybe Alex's supercool Pokemon survived :D), it does raise the prospect of Juno breaking Blazewing's Poke Ball or doing something similar where she isn't confined in it, not only to fit in more with the other members of the Silver Rebellion, but also to give our favorite Latias more screentime. Because honestly, I think you could sell t-shirts with Blazewing's lines on them and make a healthy profit.

With all of these updating of species, there is one thing that I am hoping won't change, and that's the species of Skepter, especially now that the first Pokemon in Kivistal that Juno battles is an Ampharos it would seem poetic to me if things worked out in a bookends kind of way. I was actually kind of hoping that this Ampharos was either Skepter or one of his relatives, but then Juno set him on fire so I guess that hope went out the window.

On top of all of my fan theories and geeking out, these battle scenes of yours still have a beautiful pace to them, and almost kind of heartbeat that gets my blood pumping and keeps me addicted to the story. What I delight in most is that you not only bring this kind of energy and cinematic focus to the fights between Juno and big bads like Lugia and Groudon, but even fights with henchmen in the prison cell. I'm not usually one for "soldiering stories" outside of the Star Wars expanded universe, but you definitely have made me look at the more realistic (if you can call it that when the fighters are furry little Pocket Monsters) types of conflicts with a more open mind.

Perhaps my chief complaint was the shortage of music suggestions in these last few chapters. I happened to have Explosions in the Sky playing, and then the score from Batman Returns, and while they worked in some places, it was still clear to me that I am but a novice in finding the appropriate background music for such a thrilling tale!

As always, I'm eagerly anticipating what's up next (especially hoping for that rooftop battle with a Scyther from last time)!