Chapter 33
Allies and Enemies
We maybe only had a few hours to get Alex and quietly get out of here. Blazewing and I weren't exactly crazy about us being the subject of so much controversy either. We had the support of some, but if we didn't have the support of the Silver Rebellion's own leaders, there wasn't much we could do besides go vigilante, and I highly doubted that would win us the war against the Crimson Stars.
With Blitz leading the way, we finally arrived at the refugee camp, which mostly consisted of worn tents, old sheds, and other temporary buildings with relief aid in the form of food, medical personnel, and sleeping areas. I looked around, but didn't quite see any Zoruas.
As we entered the camp, a few of the Pokémon there recognized me and either expressed their thanks, saluted, and some just stood there blankly, not sure what to say. With all that was going on, I couldn't blame them. Things had changed in a strange way.
Eventually, after working our way past a few crowds, tents, supply crates, and transport vehicles, we came across one medical tent, which seemed to be for those suffering from mental trauma. Inside, there was a Servine, a Hawlucha, and the Zorua. The Servine was sitting on the rickety metal cot as the grassy snake was shaking her head, looking like she was suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder as she was mumbling things to herself. The Hawlucha was sleeping on another cot, although the colorful fighting bird didn't look like it was having a pleasant dream at all and kept twitching, tossing, and turning. And then there was the Zorua, staring off into space as I imagined the dark, shadowy-colored fox was contemplating everything that had happened recently.
I approached him carefully, keeping in mind that to him, I was just another Pikachu.
"Are you..." I started asking the dark fox, "...Alex?"
I managed to get his attention, but I figured it wouldn't be too surprising if he had shared his human name with other Pokémon around here and discovered it was an unusual circumstance.
"I..." he replied, probably dizzy from all the thoughts racing in his head.
"Hey, just come with us for a minute," I told him, trying to assure him with a warm smile.
He nodded, and we made our way to a quiet area of the refugee camp away from all the other activity. It was a small area behind all the tents where they were just storing a few pieces of furniture. Alex seemed to recognize Blitz as a Pachirisu, having revealed himself as Randy from before. From what I could see, he was learning to walk on all fours alright. For a minute, I thought he would be having trouble trying to relearn how to walk.
"I... I really have no clue what's going on here," the exhausted Zorua told us. "I... you gotta believe me, I don't think I belong here."
"Dude, relax," I told him, trying to assure him things were fine. "I'm Juno, the Latias is Blazewing, and the Pachirisu is Blitz. Though you might remember us more as... Jake and Randy."
And that shocked the daylights out of him. As he jumped back in surprise with his eyes wide open, I just nodded to myself, knowing that was definitely proof this Zorua was Alex after all.
"Holy crap, guys...!" Alex exclaimed. "I swear... I seriously swear I was having a nightmare. And Jake, seriously, you're Juno!? There's a hell of a lot of Pokémon around here that talk about you."
"It's got to be our little secret," I told him, not sure what exactly would happen if they found out I was once human. "And listen, but... we need to scrap your human name."
Alex seemed to have already figured out there was something wrong with human names the hard way, but at least he could pass it off as just being drugged the same way Blitz did. Still, when it came to deciding on a name, he was drawing a blank.
"I gotcha, but..." Alex shrugged, not knowing what to go with, "I... whatever, just pick something for me, as long as it's not lame. You know more about what Pokémon name themselves here than I do."
I had a few ideas, but I just decided to go with one of the quicker ones that came to mind.
"Axzen sound okay with you?" I asked him, wondering what he thought of it. "I figured it sounded badass enough to match your style."
"Yeah, I can roll with that," he nodded, looking up with a dark smile. "Axzen the Zorua. Not bad, not bad."
I wasn't even sure if it was possible to catch him up on everything that happened. Still, as "Axzen" seemed to get his bearings, I knew we were already going to need to pull him out of here.
"Well, we got bad news," Blazewing sighed, bringing us to the next issue. "Turns out, the fat cats on top think we're a problem."
"Wait... what, you!?" Axzen exclaimed, looking shocked. "You kidding, you guys saved the lives of almost everyone here! Who the hell has a cactus so far up their ass to the point where they're making you a target!?"
I sighed, looked down, and shook my head. There was a lot behind this that I didn't understand, and I wasn't sure how to fully explain it, but I figured to try and give it my best shot possible.
"Emperor Jamac the Excadrill and his Head General Kamax the Vigoroth seem like they were expecting a totally different prophesized hero from that whole Divine Prophecy legend they have here," I told Axzen. "Despite having brought down Macomb and saved these Pokémon, they feel our methods are rowdy and unorganized. They talk like we don't know what we're really doing."
"That's bullcrap!" Axzen shouted with anger. "That's just a front to keep you under their control! It's a stupid government ploy trying to make you their killing machine or something!"
Was it? Now that he mentioned it, he did make me wonder if there was some sort of agreement between Jamac and Kamax to make sure I didn't rise too high, too quickly. Either they didn't really believe the prophecy, or they figured keeping me as a pawn to leverage for whatever they wanted was the best way to profit from it.
"Yeah, tell me about it," Blazewing agreed, rolling her eyes at the stupidity we've had to deal with. "We're thinking of blowing this popsicle stand before they get cheeky enough to start making false accusations up."
"Hey, I'm fine with that," Axzen nodded. "This place sucks anyway. Where're we heading?"
"Dunno," I shrugged. "Anywhere but here, I guess. We'll figure something out, but I'm not crazy about this war. I think both sides have problems."
We then headed back into the refugee camp, which seemed to have been quieting down as the daylight hours were fading. I figured the cover of the night might give us an easy means to quietly head out of here before anyone came looking for us. From what I could tell, Axzen had gotten adjusted to walking on all fours as a Zorua now. For the most part, it seemed like all three of us had simply gotten used to the idea of being Pokémon now. We didn't even know if we would ever be human once again, but for the time being, we could live with it.
We walked right into the main, open square that was usually used for the refugees to socialize and get a breath of fresh air. It was mainly the four of us now as everyone else had gone to sleep or went elsewhere as the red sun was almost gone and dusk had rolled in.
And then all of a sudden, we were surrounded. They had been waiting and watching the entire time, taking cover in some of the vacant tents, supply containers, and whatever else they could hide behind. I must have counted at least eight or nine Symarix guards suddenly appear from behind where they were hiding. And they were armed.
"Juno, Blazewing..." One of them, a stern and resolute Magmortar, spoke to us. "By decree of High General Kamax, you two are under arrest for impersonation and treason. Don't move, or this is only going to get worse."
"Wait... what!?" Blazewing exclaimed in disbelief. "Seriously, guys, and I thought my jokes were bad. Call me crazy, but I didn't ever picture Kamax as being the type to clown around with something like this."
"This isn't a joke," the Magmortar told her seriously. "Jamac and Kamax have come to the conclusion that you aren't the real Juno and Blazewing, and that you're impersonating them to take advantage of the Divine Prophecy. Whoever you two really are, we don't trust you and believe there is an ulterior motive you are keeping to yourselves."
THAT was the conclusion they were jumping to? I really just wanted to go to a corner and weep that there were some Pokémon out there that could make that kind of idiotic assumption. Here we were, a Pikachu and a Latias that were capable of taking down a massive military base and nearly avoid death. What more proof did they need? Did they really expect yet another Pikachu and Latias with the same names to come along and do it even better than we did? I really didn't get it.
"Uh..." Blitz muttered, tapping his chin with his white paw, "exactly how do you want them to prove it to you?"
"I swear, this city is full of idiots," Axzen spat. "Silver Rebellion... Crimsons Stars... maybe you all should just die in a fire."
I hadn't taken my Firefang submachine gun and neither did Blitz. I honestly didn't even think I'd need it. There were far too many to fight anyway, and it wouldn't be pretty at all. Besides the Magmortar, there was a fully armored Ursaring, a Nidoking, and a Garchomp. Even with all the guns we needed, it would still be a very brutal and risky fight and we would look beyond guilty if we fought like that.
I looked down, sighed, and shrugged, figuring there wasn't much choice but to give it up. I figured we might be safe when the citizens found out about this and hopefully threatened to riot. Either that, or someone would be pushed to come to their senses.
"Just follow orders and don't make a scene," The Magmortar muttered sternly. "Do that and no one gets hurt."
"No one gets hurt!?" Blazewing exclaimed, looking like she was ready for a fight.
I lightly put my yellow paw on her, urging her just to stand down.
"Let's not be the guilty ones here," I told her, hoping this was just a stupid misunderstanding that would be cleared out. "If we fight back, it'll make Kamax look right for arresting us. They can't possibly hope to keep the public under control with this."
"Well... fine," Blazewing sighed, looking bleak. "I'm looking forward to the trial. Should definitely be amusing."
With a groan, I allowed the soldiers to put shackles and chains on my wrists and ankles. I couldn't help but smirk a bit though. Blazewing was right, the trial couldn't possibly hope to win. Kamax may have shoehorned in an excuse to not give a promotion, but to arrest us? That was definitely far beyond crossing the line.
I was surprised they apprehended Blitz and Axzen, however. I really didn't know what kind of charges they were going to be throwing on the two of them.
"Uhh..." Blitz muttered, not knowing why he was being arrested, "what exactly did I do?"
"Orders were to arrest all known accomplices," the Ursaring told him with a gruff voice. "That includes you, Pachirisu."
He simply shrugged and went along with it. Axzen wasn't at all happy about it either, but it seemed like he understood what we meant about the trial being a complete shutout. Once they had all four of us bound in chains and shackles, we were led out of the refugee camp.
There weren't too many Pokémon outside, but the few that had noticed us were genuinely shocked. However, before long, once we were out of the camp, we were pushed into the back of a large, heavily armored military transport vehicle. Unfortunately, not too many Pokémon were going to see what had happened on our way to the prison, but I was confident word would spread around quickly and do its damage.
Once we were inside the cold, metallic interior, they shut the heavy metal doors behind us, and drove us off. There were no windows, so we couldn't exactly see where we were going.
"Well, ain't this swell," Axzen grumbled, shaking the chains attached to his wrists. "Who did you two piss off to go from town heroes to enemies of the state?"
"I'll take 'Things I Also Wish I Knew' for $500!" Blazewing laughed sarcastically. "No, really. One minute, everyone seems happy we toasted Macomb, then suddenly we're denied promotions by the big shots on top, and then this crap happens. I swear, we were going to scram out of here the second we picked you up."
"Kamax and Jamac think the prophecy may be false," I told him, figuring this was the real reason. "Either that, or deep inside, they're afraid of it."
"Why do this, though?" Blitz questioned. "Whether they believe the prophecy or not, can't they see you two are trying to help them?"
I just shook my head, really wondering myself. Did they think Blazewing and I would betray them when they got their guard down? What motive would that be for?
After only a few minutes of riding through town in a vehicle that felt like it was quickly turning into an oven, I kept trying to figure out what went wrong. But, before I really got a chance to really think it over, the ride was over sooner than I expected and the heavy, metal vehicle came to a stop. I wasn't sure how exactly the court system worked here, but I figured whatever they had, it was going to make Kamax and Jamac look especially corrupt.
Or at least I hoped it would...
When the heavy metal door finally opened, we were quick to want to get out of that stifling oven of a transport. Hopefully when it came to the trial, I had someone else besides Sever. His heart was in the right place, but he seemed to lack the experience and charisma to appeal to anyone higher up.
As we were marched forward, I saw they had taken us to some kind of prison. It was a somewhat intimidating black, metal building with tiny windows. I figured it was just a holding cell for now until it came time for the trial. Still, I kept looking down, honestly depressed as my long, black-tipped ears limply rested at the back of my head as I nearly had to drag my thunderbolt tail along the ground. This was just plain shameful and depressing, and I didn't even have the words for it anymore.
I had seen the Symarix prison before, but never thought I would have to step inside, and never once thought I'd be doing it as a prisoner. I couldn’t believe I would be spending time with captive Crimson Stars soldiers, but I didn’t have a choice. The gatekeeper, a suddenly very shocked and distressed Slowking, had looked us over, but I didn’t look up at him. I was too ashamed to even look at anyone but the ground before me.
“You have got to be kidding me…” He remarked in complete bewilderment, “This is Juno and Blazewing for crying out loud! Do you fools even know what you’re doing!?”
“High General Kamax has ordered us to arrest them on the grounds of treason.” the Magmortar told him. "Superior's orders."
“High General Kamax!?” The Slowking gatekeeper shouted in fright as his eyes went wide, knowing all too well what that meant. “That means they don’t even get a trial! What did they even do!?”
My heart sank like a rock and Blazewing couldn't help but just gasp as the sound of it. I went from being depressed to suddenly gripped with shock.
"That's... that can't be!" I exclaimed, actually struggling to talk. "There's... there's got to be some kind of examination about this whole thing, doesn't there?"
"Not if it's under superior orders," the Magmortar snapped at me. "The Emperor and the High General can imprison and pardon whoever they wish. Without trial."
Without trial. So there really was no system of checks and balances. It essentially meant they were above the law and were totally unstoppable. This was just unreal.
"Well, ain't that a damn, fine, steaming pile of crap," Axzen muttered. "You bastards are just as corrupt as the Crimson Stars."
The guards that escorted us looked very, very enraged at that comment, but I said nothing. He was totally right and I just turned away, not even wanting to look at the guards anymore. I just couldn't even dig for the right words to say just how disgusted I was, but any words wouldn't have helped anyway.
“There has got to be some mistake,” The Slowking gatekeeper replied. “Never in a million years did I think High General Kamax would be sending Symarix’s greatest heroes to prison!”
But there was silence. Still, I didn’t look up. I was too ashamed at the moment. My breathing was becoming harder, my heart was racing, and I was totally wrapped in an agonizing squeeze of stress and depression.
“I’m deeply sorry, Juno…” The Slowking replied with the sound of dismay in his voice. “But if this order is from Kamax, there’s nothing I can do about it…”
Moments later, we were led into the building, which wasn’t as bad as the prison in Macomb, but there was one big difference between this one and the one I had seen there...
I never thought we would be forced into a cell by our own comrades...
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