The Trial of Juno Saga [PG-13]

**Neo Emolga** · 06-02-2015, 12:30 AM

The Trial of Juno Saga

Foreword

Some of you might remember this story from PE2K. Guess what? It's gotten a huge makeover and I've decided to change the way it ultimately ends. Also, because PE2K has been forever deleted, it's almost impossible to read the whole thing in its entirely. Besides, I think this version is much better. If you've never read it, now's the perfect time.

The Trial of Juno Saga is in four parts, detailing the trials and tribulations of a human schoolyard bully named Jake Kossak entering a world of Pokémon as a Pikachu named Juno, a gifted Pikachu made possible only through the dreams and desires of one of Jake's bullied victims. What starts off as a squabble between classmates and bullies plunges into a dark, twisting rabbit hole where Juno, foreseen as the savior of the tormented Pokémon world of Kivistal, must fight not only through the dark wastelands of this new, ravaged world, but also through the agonizing depths of the Abyss (the Pokémon rendition of Hell) and journey through the high heavens of Utopia (Pokémon rendition of Heaven). Throughout his dark journeys, not only must Juno fight his corrupted fellow Pokémon, but also the sickening horrors of the Abyss, and one of the most intimidating and menacing enemies of all: himself, the selfish, heartless human that he used to be. The question is can Jake/Juno overcome all of these dark obstacles, and what really lies at the final end of it all?

The Trial of Juno Saga is rated PG-13. While there is some harsh language, most of the rating comes from the violence and graphic themes (especially with the Abyss). Also, I plan on posting roughly one chapter per day, so hopefully that's a manageable amount for people to keep up with it.

So sit back and enjoy the story.

NOTE:

Some areas of the story have a "Recommended Listening" tag with a link to a music track on YouTube. This is simply an optional link to a song that I feel very accurately fits the mood and emotion for the upcoming part in the story and would be the song I'd personally select if it were to have a soundtrack. It's up to you if you want to listen to it while you read.

Chapter Directory

Spoiler:

**Neo Emolga** · 06-02-2015, 12:31 AM

THE TRIAL OF JUNO I
THE DAWN OF HOPE

PART I – THE GRAY BATTLEGROUNDS

Chapter 1
Enemy of the School

Randy was a loser. And besides being an epic failure at everything including Pokémon battling, he was the only reason why I found interest at school while keeping my mind off the garbage that happened at home. Whenever I got angry or frustrated because of stupid teachers or homework, all I had to do was find Randy Ferguson and release my stress upon him.

Randy’s Pokémon were also losers, and they’d always be that way since they always got beat up badly every time he battled. I must have made Randy’s Pidove and Nidoran kiss dirt at least twenty times. Randy also had a Growlithe and a Sewaddle, and I had beaten the stuffing out of them more times than I could remember. Obviously, Randy was too stupid to know how to really battle, but the way he kept on trying rather than giving up kept renewing the fun.

Alex and David, two of my best friends, also hated Randy’s guts. Alex was a taller kid with long, black hair, a love for black t-shirts and worn-in blue jeans, metal music, and intimidating Pokémon. He was often loud, aggressive, shouted at people he couldn't stand, and wasn't the kind of kid you wanted to mess with or get on his bad side. While I liked to slowly torture Randy’s Pokémon in a battle, Alex wiped out Randy’s Pokémon so fast it was hilarious.

David, on the other hand, was a smart aleck with a blonde crew-cut, blue eyes, a devious smile, and liked to wear polo shirts and cargo pants. He was also a schemer and a sly kid who wouldn't think twice about framing someone innocent just for fun. Alex and I were probably the only people he trusted. As for Pokémon, David loved his giants. If it was huge, heavy, and liked to squash smaller Pokémon flat, chances were good David loved it.

When the three of us took turns battling Randy, the amount of overkill was just so funny that it was almost obscene. Randy said he’s been a trainer for nearly two years. To me, he was practically on the same level as a beginner who only just started yesterday. If that’s not pathetic, then I don’t know what is.

In the meantime, life at home was crappy enough to the point where I'd actually rather be in school pestering Randy. My parents were going through yet another divorce custody and alimony battle and I was sick of having lawyers always coming our house to see what we were doing. Meanwhile, Vicky, my idiotic younger sister with her stupid and fake blonde-dyed hair, was always a materialistic and condescending snot who liked to break and steal my stuff. And I hated doing stupid chores like taking out the trash, cleaning filthy dishes that I swore Vicky made filthier on purpose, and cleaning my bedroom that I really didn't feel like spending precious hours organizing again.

But when it came to Randy, most of the time getting caught picking on him only resulted in nothing more than a slap on the wrist by a teacher that was too busy to care. And pummeling Randy's Pokémon was nothing any teacher could give a student over. Besides that, Alex, David, and myself had plenty of episodes where we set off stink bombs in Randy's desk, stole his homework, and snuck a laxative in Randy's lunch, winning him the title of "Poopy Pants" following a series of hilarious events.

Randy's lunch money was a helpful source of income given my crappy allowance. I never felt guilty about taking it either given the fatty, toxic waste the cafeteria served. Heck, I figured I was doing Randy a favor by encouraging him to fast by not having enough to buy anything. If I did nothing, he’d become just as fat as Frank Meyers, who we’d always call “Shirt-Buster” on a regular basis. I considered his lunch money was income for my services. It wasn’t much, but a dollar a day added up nicely over time.

This had been going on for almost two years on an almost daily basis, but we got a big surprise on May 14th. It wasn’t during school like most of our pranks took place, it was after. And it didn’t start with Randy this time.

Alex, David and I had been walking down the stairs out of the back entrance of Scottville Middle School when we saw it. There he was, Frank Meyers lying down in the mud by the stairs in that little ditch that accumulated water from the rain last night. His short, blonde hair and his pudgy face were soiled with wet filth and his shirt, or what was left of it, was completely soaked with mud. We didn’t even need to do anything to begin laughing hysterically. I had no clue how it happened, but with his level of clumsiness, I was disappointed I missed out on seeing the events that lead up to it.

“Hey, Frank!” David shouted out over a hard laugh. “What happened to ya!?”

“Chill, man,” I told David casually. “The pig just wanted to cool himself down.”

Frank was in a cross between crying and becoming furious. We laughed even further. Someone who’s in the seventh grade really should have learned to stop crying like an infant long ago.

Alex then made the situation more hilarious. He found the backpack that Frank had dropped and opened it up right over the mud puddle. Frank’s folders and his books and each of them landed in the mud, effectively soaking the pages full of sludge. Frank was getting even worse.

"Just... stop!" Frank cried. "Why did you have to do that!?"

Then I saw something that made me laugh even further. Frank had Poké Balls in his backpack that also landed in the mud after Alex threw them out. I never realized Frank was a Pokémon trainer. I really just couldn’t picture a fat, worthless piece of flesh like Frank actually training Pokémon when he couldn't even train himself.

Then, as if it couldn’t even get better, out of nowhere came Randy Ferguson in the flesh. He was standing before us like he was all high and mighty, with his frizzy. orange hair blowing in the wind, probably because he still hadn't figured out what a comb was or how to get a haircut. He was also wearing that dumb t-shirt with the Cobalt Crew logo, which was a puke-inducing pop music band most sane people couldn't tolerate. Meanwhile, his orange cargo shorts had to be the stupidest-looking pair of pants on the planet while his dirty, white sneakers had those annoying lights that flickered everywhere he walked.

He was just watching everything in disgust, furrowing his brow and squinting those beady brown eyes of his. Alex had dumped everything that was in Frank’s backpack before turning around and seeing our special victim.

“Poopy-pants!” Alex shouted at Randy, giving him that special, evil smile. “I was wondering where the hell you were. If you’re looking for the bathroom, it’s inside, stupid.”

“What did Frank ever do to you?” Randy asked us, stupidly feeling remorse for this dirty, pile of flesh. "Leave him alone, he doesn't want any trouble."

Recommended Listening: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky OST - Combat Song 3

The three of us laughed even further. Here was Randy, acting like a big hero for Shirt-Buster. That idiot had no clue what he was getting into. Exactly how was this day going to be any different from all the others?

“Randy,” David told him honestly, “even you should be aware that Frank isn’t worth the mud he’s lying in. How do you think a chump like him ended up in there in the first place?”

“It was an accident!” Randy wailed, again trying to play the hero here. “Leave him alone, I know it's me you want!”

Then, Randy reached for his belt and pulled out one of his Poké Balls. I could see where this was going. Teachers didn't want students battling Pokémon near the school building, and Randy was willing to risk getting in trouble for it. Not like I cared about stupid school rules anyway.

Still, did that idiot really expect to win a battle against us? I couldn’t believe it. All this time, Frank seemed to become more hopeful now that Randy was here to defend him. Frank was just about to learn that his guardian angel was just as much of a dimwit as he was.

“Go, Nidoran!” Randy shouted, tossing his Poké Ball forward.

The Poké Ball landed on the asphalt of the parking lot, and a moment later, Randy’s worthless purple, spiky bunny Nidoran emerged from its Poké Ball in a flash of white light. The three of us looked at each other to decide how we wanted to beat the stuffing out of Randy’s Pokémon.

"Not it," David quickly chimed in. "I battled this twit last time."

"Kind of busy with fatty here," Alex replied, leaving it up to me. "Besides, I like the way Jake usually sacks that dumb Nidoran."

Some of the other kids that were around the parking lot were beginning to watch, curious to know who was gutsy enough to start a Pokémon battle on school grounds where it wasn't allowed. A few of the wiser kids already knew it was Randy and weren't expecting much of an exciting battle, while a few of the other ones that hadn't seen this before thought this would actually be exciting.

"Hey, you know you can get in trouble for this, right?" One black kid with a gray Scottsville Staraptors sweatshirt and blue denim shorts asked Randy.

"I'm not going to let them get away with picking on Frank!" Randy shouted back at him.

Please. But when it came to me taking on Randy, I nodded, and decided why not, I was in the mood for easy Pokémon pummeling. I then removed one of my own Poké Balls, pressed the central button to prep it for release, and threw it on to the asphalt as well, not caring if we were having a battle in the parking lot where it wasn't allowed.

When the Poké Ball struck the ground, it burst open with a flash of light and released my fantastic Raichu. The burly, orange and white-bellied mouse Pokémon emerged, looking ready for action as he lashed his whip-like tail around, striking the asphalt with the thunderbolt tip at the end. However, when he looked ahead to see who his opponent was, he sighed and realized it was the same worthless Nidoran he had crushed so many times before. Even Raichu looked like he was tired of Randy’s brainless attempts to beat us.

"Oh, no contest!" A blonde-haired, blue-eyed female student with a black tank top laughed when she saw what Pokémon Randy's Nidoran would be up against.

I just laughed. As some people gathered to watch, others passed a glance and walked away, figuring they already knew how this one was going to end.

“Raichu!” I shouted. “Use your Thunder Wave against Nidoran!”

It was getting to the point where Raichu didn’t even need commands to kick the stuffing out of Nidoran. It had become so systematic and routine that Raichu could fight almost completely on his own like we actually rehearsed for this on an everyday basis.

Raichu then sent out his Thunder Wave attack, charging up bright pulses of electricity from the yellow cheeks on his face and directed them right at Randy’s Nidoran. The small, purple poison rabbit Pokémon was rendered helpless, completely paralyzed from the shock and left there, twitching and curled up in a fetal position. All that Nidoran could do now was quiver on his back as sparks of electricity surrounded his body. Paralyzing Nidoran wasn't even really necessary because it was a guarantee Raichu could finish him off in one swing, but hey, why not prolong the misery?

“Slam that Nidoran with a Brick Break attack, Raichu,” I told him, knowing this would finish the job with no problem at all.

While everyone was watching the battle play out, Raichu then charged at Randy’s Nidoran, and all Nidoran could do was just watch in stricken horror as Raichu rushed up to punish it for existing. When Raichu reached his target, he threw a bone-cracking punch right into his side, sending Nidoran tumbling out of control before lying on his back, wincing with his tongue hanging out. Alex and David were snickering again as Randy was effectively slapping yet another epic failure on his already comical losing streak.

“Nidoran, return,” Randy moaned in frustration as red recall beam shot out from his Poké Ball and landed on the sacked Nidoran, turning him into a red, dematerialized silhouette of energy before pulling him back into the ball.

Raichu was then tapping his foot impatiently as Randy put Nidoran's Poké Ball back on his belt before deciding on his next victim. Some of the onlookers weren't sure if Randy was going to call it quits.

"Give it up, he's out of your league!" One of the students in the crowd shouted to Randy.

"I can handle him!" Randy shouted back to the crowd. "He wasn't my best, I'll admit!"

Please, trying to watch Randy save himself from his own self-created public humiliation was just comical. But, as escalation of commitment goes, he then pulled out a second Poké Ball, prepped it for battle, and threw it forward. Just as the crowd was expecting something bigger and better when the Poké Ball hit the parking lot, all that came out was Randy's Pidove. Yep, nothing more than a common gray and black pigeon Pokémon that most people didn't bother with. Randy didn’t even need to lose yet and we already began cracking up hysterically.

“Randy,” David told him, trying to fight the hard laughter for a moment, “don’t you know anything about type-alignments? Flying types don’t do very well against electric types like Raichu.”

“I don’t care,” Randy responded. “My Pidove is faster than Jake’s Raichu.”

You wish. Raichu’s signature attribute was his speed, and it was ten times faster than Pidove’s. This time I showed no mercy. Idiocy like that had to be punished. And some of the people in the crowd just left, knowing exactly where this was going.

“Raichu, use your Thunderbolt,” I smiled to Raichu, knowing it would be more than enough to send Randy’s little Pidove screaming into the oblivion.

As if to help Raichu even further, Pidove took flight, thinking he could get an advantage that way. Raichu’s cheeks flared up with electricity and just as Pidove realized what was happening, a massive fork of lightning emerged from the shining Raichu and struck Pidove dead-on in the air, blasting him with a bright flash. Pidove was thoroughly cooked for five whole seconds as electricity coursed through him before Raichu released his power, and let the hopeless Pidove fall from the sky just before the nice, hard asphalt broke his fall. The only smart move Randy made after that was giving up.

“Fine, Jake,” Randy spat with frustration as he returned the pulverized Pidove to his Poké Ball. “I give up. But some day, I’ll become so strong that the three of you combined won’t even beat me!”

“Randy…” Alex said and he shook his head in disbelief as he was nearly laughing, “…in your dreams. There’s no way you’ll ever become strong enough to beat us. You can try all you like, but you’ll never do it.”

As the crowd just shook their heads and left after a Pokémon battle that really wasn't worth spending the time to watch, we were ready to just head on home and get out of here. That normally would have been a very typical day that the three of us tortured Randy. But something else happened that day that we won’t long forget…

**Neo Emolga** · 06-02-2015, 09:18 PM

Chapter 2
Out of Nowhere

When the crowd dispersed, I caught sight of Jeff Huntington, a Scottsville Staraptors lacrosse player who was dressed in his uniform and look like he had been waiting to head to practice before noticing the whole battle. Unlike everyone else, he remained behind.

“The three of you are quite the jackasses,” Jeff told us, giving us an annoyed glare. “Congratulations, you've beaten him for the millionth time. How about leaving the kid alone for once and why not try finding someone more in your own league?”

Alex, David, and I just couldn't believe it. Why would a guy like him care? I just looked at him, really hating that annoying brown, combed-back haircut, and overly serious face. I barely knew who he was, other than the fact he was a sports jock. Really, that punk should have just minded his own business rather than trying to poke his nose at us.

“Jeff,” David said to him, surprised he was willing to even start with us, “why don’t you mind your own business? If you hung around Randy for even just five minutes, you’d realize just how worthless he really is.”

“Right, I've heard all that before from you guys,” Jeff replied to him, looking irritated at the same time. “You pick on the same kid every day for no good reason. You know, since I'm tired of seeing and hearing it all the time, try battling me for once."

Really? Well, now this was interesting. None of us have ever battled him before, but whatever, I didn't give it any second though.

"Make this a two on two battle," Jeff told us. "If I beat you, then you have to promise to leave Randy alone, because I'm tired of seeing you guys harassing him every minute of the day.”

“But if we win…?” David asked Jeff, expecting a response.

“Then you won’t hear from me again,” Jeff told David, feeling confident that wouldn’t happen.

Yeah, what a raw deal. The only reward we would be getting out of beating Jeff’s Pokémon is Jeff’s humiliation, which usually came free with every successful battle anyway. But, even if we did lose, we had no intention of backing down. To me, there was no issue with breaking a promise with a guy I couldn't possibly care less about.

“Jake,” Alex said to me, looking at me from the corner of his eye with a smirk on his mouth, “let me take care of this idiot.”

“Sure thing,” I said to him with a smile and shrug, returning my Raichu to his Poké Ball.

Alex was quick as lightning when it came to beating Randy’s Pokémon up. Fighting Jeff was going to be even more interesting. Jeff had pulled out two of his Poké Balls, prepped them for yet another forbidden battle on school property and threw them forward.

“Go, Ampharos and Espeon!” Jeff shouted as he threw forward the two Poké Balls.

Just like Jeff said, out of their Poké Balls came an Ampharos and an Espeon. I got a good look at them and saw they weren't too shabby, but it still was pretty much a naked yellow electric sheep and a psychic purple cat up against whatever ferocious onslaught Alex was about to bring out. Jeff actually made a fairly decent attempt to keep them nicely trained, groomed, and fit.

For once, we were going to see what a real battle looked like rather than the shameful excuses that Randy kept handing to us. At least Jeff actually had evolved Pokémon, unlike Randy who couldn't even get his Pokémon trained enough to get to that point. Still, despite all of Jeff's efforts, he was about to see what his adversary was capable of.

“Go, Houndoom and Mightyena!” Alex shouted as he let loose two of his Poké Balls.

Obviously, Alex had picked his nastiest Pokémon for the job. Leave it to Alex to show off two vicious, blacker-than-death hellhounds with glaring eyes and teeth that look like they could kill people they hadn't even met yet. Mightynea was a ferocious, black and gray wolf Pokémon while Houndoom was like a savage doberman from hell with white horns, bone ribs on his back, and bone bracers on his ankles. When they appeared in the wake of the flash, I rubbed my hands in sneering anticipation. I couldn’t wait to see Jeff get wasted.

When people got to seeing what Pokémon were fighting, this was easily getting a lot more attention than Randy's lame excuse for a battle.

“Ampharos, use your Thunder Wave attack on Mightyena!” Jeff commanded, acting like some hotshot military commando, “Espeon, Light Screen.”

Unlike Randy, he actually had a strategy going and seemed to act like he knew what he was doing. But Alex wasn’t through yet. This party was just getting started and I was looking forward to seeing Alex's Pokémon wipe the floor with these clowns.

As the onlookers were gathering, Ampharos let loose a pulsing Thunder Wave that unfortunately Mightyena had no way of avoiding. Meanwhile, Jeff's Espeon coated himself and Ampharos with a bubble shield of violet, reflective light. He could try all he'd like to shield himself from the wrath Alex was about to unleash upon them. When it failed, it would make it that much more comical.

“Houndoom, use your Crunch attack on Espeon!” Alex commanded pointing his index finger at his intended targets, “Mightyena, use your Howl!”

For now, it looked like Mightyena could fight off the paralyzing effects of Ampharos’s attack. He had let loose a loud howl that echoed throughout the entire parking lot, filling his body with ripe energy and anger and even got some applause from the audience. In his fury, he gnashed his sharp teeth, and I knew Jeff’s Pokémon were in for a world of pain.

In the meantime, Houndoom charged right after Espeon, and rendered his sharp teeth to bite down on Espeon. Jeff's Espeon winced in pain as the hellhound’s sharp teeth tore and lacerated his side, sinking his teeth down hard before throwing the Espeon away like a wad of gum down the trashcan. A bunch of students in the crowd winced while others grew excited.

While the Espeon wasn’t looking so hot in the aftermath of the Crunch attack, Mightyena looked like the Thunder Wave’s paralysis was starting to get to him and slow him down. After growling and struggling to fight back the agony, he found it hard to even move under the strain. I figured it had probably been a while since Alex's Mightyena had to deal with a worthy opponent. Still, Alex had to give Mightyena a moment to recover.

"Come on, Jeff, you can waste this punk!" Obviously one of Jeff's friends called out to him from the crowd.

"Ha," David laughed back at him. "Looks more like he's losing!"

While some of the students watching tired to warn Alex and Jeff about battling on school property, others just didn't care and wanted to see the battle unfold. And still the battle went on, gathering more attention by the minute.

Jeff commanded his Ampharos to attack Mightyena with a Thunder attack, trying to show no hesitation after what happened to his Espeon. I was crossing my fingers hoping it wouldn’t hit, but Jeff got lucky this time. Mightyena was barraged with another harsh amount of electricity that slammed right on him like a sledgehammer from above. The hit was pretty brutal, but thankfully, he wasn’t down and out yet. Still, it did look like he was sincerely getting sick of it. Mightyena snarled at Ampharos, likely thinking Ampharos must have been really stupid to anger him.

Meanwhile, Jeff ordered Espeon to use his Morning Sun. To our dismay, Espeon was coated with light for a brief second, and every bit of pain Houndoom had dealt to Espeon had been recovered as the cuts and tears had been sealed. But Alex knew that Espeon wasn’t too much of a threat because both Houndoom and Mightyena were dark types. While Mightyena needed a brief moment to recover, Alex decided on a new target for Houndoom.

“Houndoom, use your Flamethrower on Ampharos!” Alex shouted.

Houndoom threw his front paws forward, arched back his head and then let loose a red-hot stream of flames upon the unsuspecting Ampharos. Jeff’s Ampharos twitched painfully as he was slowly barbecued under the consuming fire. Then, to our surprise, when the flames cleared, Ampharos had been inflicted with a harsh burn on his side, all while he was wincing and trying to soothe the pain with his floppy, yellow hands.

"Don't let him get away with that!" Another kid shouted to Jeff.

"Wouldn't dream of it!" Jeff shouted back with a smile, trying to impress the crowd.

He still had a plan, turning back to his Ampharos and telling the yellow, fleeceless sheep to attack the black wolf with a Thunderpunch. Ampharos jumped around Mightyena to bewilder him, and when Mightyena least suspected it, Ampharos charged in and struck the dark wolf in the jaw with an electrified fist that Ampharos made by folding one of his hand flaps over. Mightyena snarled angrily at the pain, wanting payback in blood for that.

“Mightyena, use your Headbutt attack on Ampharos!” Alex commanded. "Beat the stuffing out of that stupid sheep!"

Mightyena then charged toward Ampharos, thirsty for revenge. The dark wolf then put his head down, and then slammed forcefully into Ampharos, completely ignoring the effects of the Light Screen shield. Ampharos was knocked into a back flip before landing face first on the hard asphalt. It was too bad for Jeff, because at that moment, Ampharos didn’t look like it could handle any more.

“Ampharos, return,” Jeff commanded as he summoned Ampharos back to his Poké Ball.

Some members of the crowd booed, and Alex just smiled, knowing that even though Jeff was the fan favorite here, he was still winning. In fact, knowing Alex, having the opportunity to beat Jeff in front of his friends was definitely not a bad deal.

Meanwhile, taking down Espeon was Alex’s next objective. Mightyena needed another moment to rest, so Houndoom was up for the fight. Still, Jeff’s Espeon was going to get the first strike.

“Espeon, use your Quick Attack!” Jeff shouted to Espeon.

Espeon then burst into a blur, and slammed right into Houndoom in a flash of fury. However, it was more of a surprise than a really painful attack. Houndoom growled off the pain, and then focused on his target.

“Headbutt attack,” Alex commanded, knowing that too would cut right through the Light Screen.

Houndoom lowered his head, and then charged right into Espeon, slamming the purple psychic cat with a forceful blow that had to hurt. Espeon was hit hard, having very little protection against it. And best of all, Espeon flinched from the attack, hopelessly trying to shield himself with his front paws while wincing from the fury of the assault. Alex was more than ready to attack again while Espeon was in a hopeless trance of trying to fight off the terror. The crowd was disliking where the battle was going, but it didn't matter to the three of us.

“One more time, Houndoom!” Alex shouted with a devilish smile on his face.

Espeon was slammed again after Alex's Houndoom rammed right into him, and after rolling over a few times and lying still on his side, he didn’t get back up from the asphalt. Jeff had been defeated, and he looked far more miserable as he returned Espeon to his Poké Ball. After that, Alex returned Houndoom and Mightyena to their respective Poké Balls.

The crowd left disappointed, but Jeff didn't seem to care he lost, as if he meant to do it.

"You got lucky, Harper, don't let it go to your head!" One of Jeff's lacrosse friends shouted to Alex.

And that was when one of the teachers showed up. Yeah, I knew where this was going. It was none other than Mr. Dennis Browning, an old, balding, annoying math teacher who would have done the school a big favor retiring years ago. And man, did I hate that vest and those stupid khakis of his.

"Boys, school property is not the place for a Pokémon battle!" He shouted before adjusting those dorky glasses on his nose. "You know it's against the rules, and if I see it again, it's going to get both of you suspended!"

"Won't happen again, sir," Jeff assured him with a nonchalant smile that was just asking to meet a fist.

"Yeah, okay," Alex nodded, not really caring an ounce about getting yet another suspension on his record.

It was then that Balding... I mean Browning, headed back toward his ugly, green sedan and it was just us now. The three of us were just done for the day with this moron while stupid Frank and Randy looked at Jeff like he was some kind of superhero to them.

“As long as you bother Frank and Randy every day, you’ll have to deal with me,” Jeff warned us. “Mark my words. I'm sick of seeing you guys pull this crap every day, so I hope you enjoy getting sick of me as well.”

“I thought you said you’d stay out of our way if you lost!” Alex shouted back, annoyed that even puny little Jeff Huntington couldn’t even keep his own deal. "I just beat the stuffing out of your pathetic Pokémon!”

“Man, you're slow,” Jeff remarked, crossing his arms, “Did you really think I was serious? Because really, even if we had that deal and I won, I knew you guys wouldn't stop harassing Randy.”

I was getting sick of this. Why on earth would Jeff want to defend Randy so much anyway? No one seemed to really care except him. We had been doing this for quite a while and the most we ever got from someone else was either a laugh or "that wasn't very nice" but beyond that, nobody wanted to step into the middle of it until now.

“Fine, Jeff,” I told him, staring right back at him in the face. “If you really want to lose to us each and every day of the school year, you can go ahead and be my guest.”

“We'll see,” Jeff warned us. “I wouldn't get too comfortable with this setup, Jake."

Pathetic moron. He had no idea what he was dealing with. And to even further our amusement, Jeff, Randy, and worthless Shirt-Buster became friends after that. If that doesn’t make you laugh, I don’t know what will. Those two dimwits suddenly admired Jeff probably because he had more guts than they could ever hope to have. And I figured Jeff liked being the stupid chivalrous type by protecting the weak. It just made me sick.

While we never really bothered Frank and Jeff as much as we did Randy, everything had changed that next day. Worthless Frank and Jeff were going to suffer just as much as Randy was. I really didn't mind adding more morons to the list of clowns I liked to punish for getting into my face.

Now that those three maggots were watching each others' back, it was going to be harder for us to get them one by one. I figured that was the reason pests and insects liked to work in swarms.

After taking the bus home and walking through the front door, Mom always asked how school was going, but I just gave her brief and vague answers. She was usually pissed about the divorce issues going on and it usually led to a nasty discussion anyway. Meanwhile, dad didn't care to reply to voicemails, and I'd rather stab myself in the thigh with a fork than talk to my stupid sister, Vicky.

I got home, headed up to my room, and went to drop off my backpack and school junk only to find that both my headphones and my gift cards to Video Castle were missing and not on my dresser where I knew I left them. I hadn't made the bed, my desk was a mess, and I had clothes, board games, movie and CD cases, and papers all over the floor, but I knew I left those headphones and gift cards on the dresser. She had to be the one to take them because my headphones were so much better than her dinky earbuds and she could use the gift cards on anything at the store. I swore, if she used those cards on a stupid chick flick movie or girly cartoon DVD that I wouldn't be able to return to the store, I'd make her pay like hell for it. That was my birthday present and I had been saving them for a good movie to come out.

I headed into her room, and it made me want to puke at how pink, organized, and cute she tried to make it with her pink bed nicely made, her desk chair in the back corner had the chair pushed in, and there wasn't a single thing on the floor. I tore my way through there, knocked over a tiny table she used for nothing more than to put her stupid, oversized Slurpuff plush doll on, and attacked her dresser first, starting with the upper drawers. What a neat freak for junk. What did she need five different combs for? And why so many tacky plastic hair clips? I rummaged through almost every drawer, not caring if I made a mess of it to find my stuff. However, she came in only a minute later and started screaming at me. I swore, every time I saw her with that fake, blonde hair and that stupid baby blue dress of hers with the asinine Marill on it, I just wanted to rip it all apart.

"What are you doing to my stuff!?" Vicky screamed. "You stupid punk, get your filthy hands out of there!"

"Where did you hide my headphones and my gift cards!?" I shouted back at her. "Stop stealing my stuff, I know you have them!"

"Why don't you first try looking through the crap heap you have for a bedroom before you accuse me!?" She snapped back. "They're probably buried somewhere in all that junk you have! And why would I want your headphones!? I wouldn't want something that's been on your filthy ears!"

I swore, I couldn't stand her guts, and I figured I'd just have to come back later when she wasn't around. I just grabbed the closest pink box of crap I could get my hands on, and threw it at her as I stormed out the door, sending the box and all of the stupid and tacky earrings that were inside of it flying in all directions before scattering on the pink, carpeted floor. The box just barely missed her, but I headed out of there before she was able to retaliate. When she tried to chase me, I quickly headed into my room, slammed the door on her before she could enter, and locked it, leaving her pounding at it, screaming for half a minute before giving up. You'd think she'd learn.

The next day wasn't really too eventful. In the morning, classes were the usual bore and I spent most of the time staring at the clock, which I could have sworn had suddenly frozen. I hated math and the books we were forced to read. At least in science class, we occasionally got to burn something or dissect a dead Rattata or Patrat. That sure beats working with stupid numbers or reading about fictional characters I couldn't possibly care less about. That day we learned about viruses and diseases in science class, which caught my interest more than whatever the heck pi was and whatever stupid thing Tom Joad was doing.

Ten minutes before the last class was supposed to end, Alex, David and I headed out the back like we usually do to avoid running into any teachers or nosy faculty members that kept lecturing us about our grades. By this time, everyone else was still in the last ten minutes of class and it was a great opportunity to avoid running into anyone. After stepping out the door, there they were, Frank, Randy and Jeff just waiting for us. Funny, for a brief moment, I had actually forgotten about them and what happened yesterday during my classes, but it suddenly all came back to me.

Randy was looking confident for once, which was odd even for him. It really made me wonder how they arranged this and how long they've been waiting out here. Usually we snuck out of class early before everyone else, so it was surprising to see they did the same. There was no one else out here yet, but I knew soon enough, the back parking lot would be mobbed with people like it was yesterday.

“Here we go, there they are!” Frank giggled like a hog.

Uh huh. This was different, but I didn't feel like battling these losers again and risk getting grounded for getting suspended from school. I'd way rather be here than be stuck at home. Still, the three of them looked oddly confident, and while it was a different look for Frank, it was still idiotic.

“Hilarious,” I replied with some surprise. “You guys jumped out of class early just to find us? Exactly what the hell for?"

Jeff seemed to grow impatient and excited, looking like he had been waiting a while for something. He looked at the three of us, especially Alex, and seemed to wear a very dark smile.

"If this works, it's going to be awesome," Jeff told Randy, but loud enough for us to hear.

"Just what the hell are you talking about?" Alex asked him, thinking Jeff had his head up his anus.

I was beginning to think Jeff had been hanging around Randy’s brain cell-killing aura for just too long. I just didn't think twenty-four hours was enough time to do so much damage. If Randy really wanted to lose again, I would gladly make his wish come true, but definitely not here. I seriously didn't want to run into Balding again.

Then, out of the blue, Randy pulled out of his pocket what appeared to be a blue, red, and black-beaded necklace with a large, red crystal as its pendant.

“Ah, so Randy’s into jewelry,” David snickered. “When did you come up with the idea that raiding mommy's jewelry box was a good way to barter your way out of this?”

“This is no ordinary piece of jewelry, David,” Jeff told him with a smug grin. “You want to know what that is? It's a necklace that was worn by Quista, an ancient and powerful sorcerer who imbued it with many powers.”

For a minute, I was seriously beginning to question if my ears were working correctly. Or, if Jeff's brain just suddenly passed through his colon.

“Jeff, I don't know what you're smoking, but man, it must be bad!” Alex laughed.

It was really sad to see Jeff go this far into threatening us, and he looked like he didn't even mean this as a joke either. To me, that necklace looked like any ordinary piece of junk jewelry he could have gotten from some random pawn shop or as David mentioned, probably his mom's jewelry box, which would have been even more pathetic.

“Jeff,” I told him straight to his face, “get a life. You don’t really expect us to believe that, do you? Just where did Randy even get that piece of garbage?”

"He got it from me," Jeff told him. "My dad is a lead archeologist, and he and his team found this in an Kavaskian tomb in the Desert Resort just a week ago. He had it locked up in one of his lockboxes but... ha, I know where he keeps his keys to them."

Seriously? Jeff was willing to break into his dad's precious stuff for a stupid necklace, and then just give it to Randy? Some chump he only just met yesterday?

"How hilarious," David shook his head. "Why would you ever give it to Randy?"

"We want to see if it really does have powers," Randy smiled.

"Newsflash, moron," Alex told him, totally disbelieving it. "It doesn't. And Jeff, your dad's probably going to kill you when he finds out you broke into his stuff."

Jeff really didn't seem to care, however. Obviously he knew about this necklace way more than we did, but give me a break. I was just waiting for Randy to jingle it, shake it, spit on it, and throw it up in the air only to find out it really didn't do anything special after all. As if their idiocy couldn't get any worse, they were resorting to stupid trinkets now. It actually would have made more sense if Jeff, Randy, and Frank decided to ambush us with silly string instead.

"Randy and I had a nice chat yesterday," Jeff told us with a smirk, going into a story we really didn't care about. "We talked for quite a while about all the stuff you've done to him over all this time. Now, usually I don't do this kind of favor for people, but you three pricks have been on his case for what feels like forever. If this Quista necklace really does what my dad and his team of diggers all say it does, then I really would love to see Randy hit you with it in full force."

"Ha!" David laughed. "Why give it to him and not use it yourself if it's so powerful and special? Oh, I know. It's so you don't look like the idiot when you find out it doesn't work!"

"Hey, it's not me who finally deserves a shot to turn the tables," Jeff casually smiled. "I've got to see if this thing really can do what they all say it does..."

I swore, the three of them could have broken out into musical song and dance, and it wouldn't have seemed any less idiotic, stupid, and unpredictable. At that moment, Randy strung it around his neck over the stupid, blue graphic t-shirt he decided to wear today. He then held the red jewel in his hand while the necklace was around his neck. After he started rubbing the red gem with his thumb, the red jewel began to pulse with crimson light.

“Seriously, are we finished here?” Alex asked with impatience. “I've got some shopping to do at Video Castle, so go buzz off and be someone else's problem.”

Suddenly, we were instantly blinded by a harsh, irritating, ruby light. I shut my eyes tight, thinking the whole thing must have been some stupid electronic device or something like that. There was no way Jeff could have been telling the truth about that stupid thing...

Then, with my eyes shut, I felt a harsh wind blow around us, whipping the fabric of my t-shirt and jeans like I was standing in the middle of a windstorm. That was then that I felt like I was being pulled right off the ground and then thrown into a sinkhole.

When I reopened my eyes, everything had already gone dark.

**Neo Emolga** · 06-04-2015, 01:15 AM

Chapter 3
The Unexpected Challenge

Recommended Listening: Ori and the Blind Forest OST - Lost in the Misty Woods

After a sick feeling of what seemed to be falling without actually being able to see anything, we woke up in what seemed to be a dark forest. After getting up off my back, I saw nothing but gnarled, dead trees in every direction, along with a hazy, dark fog surrounding them the more I looked into the distance. I thought that little creep might have caused me to break something, but for his own sake, I was fine. First thing I noticed upon getting off my butt was the sky. It was a freakish mix of light and dark gray clouds, making it pretty much impossible to tell what time of day it was. When I looked around, Jeff, Frank and Randy were completely gone, just like that. The school, the parking lot, everything was just wiped off the face of the planet and replaced by whatever the heck this was supposed to be. Alex and David got up off the ground and looked around, and the end result was all three of us didn’t have a clue as to where we were. Okay, so there was something more to that necklace than we thought, but I was still in major denial that most of what Jeff said was true. Whatever, I figured we could work around it.

Maybe Jeff was right. Maybe Randy felt he could become a better Pokémon trainer by running away from us or by playing some stupid trick. I would have laughed at that thought, but reality told me I still had absolutely no idea where we were, and that certainly wasn’t anything to laugh about. For now, I figured I would prepare myself for this to be some kind of prank. That way, in the end, it would backfire on Randy when it didn't work out the way he wanted it to.

“What the hell is this place?” David asked, looking around and not recognizing anything.

I took a closer look around, and it seemed somewhat familiar, but not completely. I then guessed it was most likely the same place. I was willing to chance it.

“Has to be some part of Viridian Forest,” I told the two of them, though I felt that might be a pretty wild assumption. “Jeff probably got a bunch of his idiot friends to drag us here after we passed out.”

“Think again,” Alex told me, looking up at the sky. “Why does it look like it’s about to rain?”

Alex was right. It didn’t really look like Viridian Forest at all, and the sunny weather we were experiencing just three minutes ago seemed to have quickly vanished for some weird reason.

“Look,” I told Alex and David, knowing hanging around here was a waste of our time, “let’s just try to get the hell out of here. Even if we’re all the way in Celadon or something, there has to be some way of getting back.”

“How would Randy’s stupid necklace bring us all the way to Celadon?” David asked realistically. “We could be anywhere right now. I have no idea what the hell it just did, but this is seriously screwed up.”

“Just forget about it, David,” Alex told him, putting it past him. “Let’s just try to find some way out of here. Screw the details. Randy would be laughing if he saw we were about to panic.”

Definitely a good point. Things always get ugly when you give a freak like Randy any kind of leverage. Again, it was probably best to play along with the idea that this was just a prank of his.

We then began walking through that dark forest for some time, and the more I looked at it, the more reality kept telling me this sure wasn’t anything even close to Viridian Forest. I was sure we had walked at least two miles and nothing had changed. After nearly an hour of walking through dense trees and dark fog, the weird and twisted forest had suddenly ended and we came across a large valley along with a wooden cabin down a long beaten path snaking its way through the valley. I knew for a fact I had never been around here before.

We decided to check out the cabin and hopefully get some directions back to Scottville Middle School, or at least back to our home town of Viridian City. Right now, I was guessing we were someplace out east near Indigo Plateau, but my guess was with a whole lot of doubt. I was in denial I was lost.

When we arrived at the cabin, we saw there wasn’t a single window. It was made of wooden logs and only had one door. We just shrugged it off and opened the door, not really caring what was inside or about being polite by knocking first. We had been walking for over an hour and I didn’t feel like passing up the chance to actually talk to someone. Once we swung the creaky door inward, we saw it was dimly lit inside, and just as the three of us entered, the door slammed closed completely by itself, and suddenly, the room was filled with light. Out of shock, I quickly looked around and saw the room was completely empty. Like a walk-in closet, it was simply composed of wooden log walls. And oddly enough, I found no reasonable light source anywhere. None of us were even casting shadows. I then quickly turned around and tried to open the door but it was stuck. We then heard what seemed to be a female giggling, and already I was cursing under my breath, wondering what kind of crap was going on.

“If you think it’s going to be that easy, you’d better think again…”

“What the hell!?” David shouted, looking around.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, we saw a cloud of pink dust and smoke appear in the corner of the room. After some time, the dust and smoke began to form into a smiling human-sized fairy with long, blonde hair, a bright pink dress, and large insect wings. Meanwhile, she held a wand in her right hand. Man, it was so stereotypically cheesy it was almost physically painful to see.

I swore, this had to be part of some stupid game that those three idiots must have spent all night trying to arrange, and maybe this was actually Jeff's stupid mom or whatever. But if this really was still a big prank, those three rats definitely went all out. Definitely a lot of time and thought well-wasted.

“Just who the hell are you!?” David asked the fairy, wondering if it was even real for sanity’s sake.

“My name is Caska,” She replied smiling and staring right at David. “And I know who you three are. You’re none other than David Miller, Jake Kossak, and Alex Davidson. You are the three villains who oppose the king!”

“What?” Alex asked in surprise. “Who the hell is this king you’re talking about!?”

“Why it's none other than his royal highness, Randy Ferguson.” She told us in one quick statement.

We immediately burst out laughing in sheer, utter disbelief. This definitely had to be something Jeff's mom arranged, or something idiotic just like that. There was no freaking way on earth Randy would ever be respected by anyone besides some idiot like Jeff or Frank. Nothing was making sense. King? The only things Randy could be a king of were things that even the stupidest freaking people on the planet wouldn’t respect.

“Randy created this dimension world out of his desperation,” Caska told us, losing that weird smile she had been flashing earlier. “This is his world superimposed upon your own, created by everything he loves and hates from his happiness to his anger. He is the supreme ruler here, and the three of you are his worst enemies.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Alex snickered at the stupidity. “We’re living in Randy’s mind? If that’s the case, then we’re all about to become brain-dead really soon. Please, for once, wretch, tell me something that makes sense.”

“He created you?” I asked Caska, nearly laughing. “Since when was Randy into fairies and fantasy tales?”

She seemed somewhat insulted by that comment. I was glad at that moment, since if my sanity was really failing me and she was really telling the truth, then everything I would come across was part of Randy's mind and was subject to harassment and destruction. Still, as weird as everything seemed right now, I refused to believe any of this rot.

“I represent a part of Randy’s childhood,” She told us, glaring into our eyes. “Unfortunately for you, I am one of the happier moments of his life. And right now, the two of us are enemies. There is only one way to settle this.”

“You want to fight me?” David asked, turning his hands into fists. “Let’s go. I’ll tear you apart so badly that they’ll have to bury you in a lunch box.”

“No, Miller,” She said to David, growing in confidence. “I want to battle your Pokémon. Your loyal, trusted companions. The same ones you use against the king.”

“Even better,” David grinned wickedly.

I couldn’t wait to see David lay waste to a happy moment in Randy’s childhood, if that’s what this fairy thing even was. Still, the thought of us defeating her and then Randy feeling even more miserable in ways that we would never dream possible was just too damn good to ignore. David had this match in the bag.

“We’ll both use two Pokémon,” Caska told him in a firm tone. “If you win, then you get to make Randy feel even worse and more depressed, which I know is what you want the most.”

“You’d better believe it.” David said with a confident grin.

“But if you lose…” Caska replied, giving him that dark evil fairy stare again. “Then you’ll be the one feeling the depression and humiliation.”

Whatever. As far as I knew, there was nothing that could stop David or make him feel depressed, and it definitely wouldn't come from her. Caska then pulled out a pink and white Poké Ball, and threw it towards the center of the cabin.

“Go Blissey!” Caska shouted just before her Poké Ball hit the floor.

And out of her Poké Ball emerged a Blissey, and the three of us slightly cringed just staring at it. We couldn’t stand such a fat, pink, moronic, and cutesy-looking Pokémon. Her stupid face made me feel like smashing it with my fist while screaming obscenities. I really hated Pokémon like these and the morons who trained them.

“Go Tyranitar!” David shouted as he threw his Poké Ball, ready to release raw carnage.

And just a second later after the Poké Ball struck the cabin floor, out came David’s beastly and nasty Tyranitar with a tremendous roar. The giant, pale-green, spiky colossus glared at the Caska's fat, piece of trash and looked more than ready to torment her. With claws and teeth like this, he looked ready to crush Caska’s worthless Blissey into an unrecognizable pulp.

“Blissey, use your Minimize!” Caska commanded, beginning that annoying smiling spree again.

Blissey suddenly then began to decrease in size, scaling down to try and make it harder for Tyranitar to even hit her. However, David certainly wasn’t going to give up that early.

“Tyranitar, Earthquake attack,” David said coldly, ready to terrorize the smaller Blissey.

Tyranitar gladly accepted, and slammed his heavy foot into the floor which sent a violent tremor through the ground that shook the entire cabin. Rocks and jagged stones tore up through the ground, ripping apart the wooden floorboards. However, it completely missed Caska’s Blissey. Somehow the stupid thing managed to squeeze herself between the jutting rocks and fissures. There was nothing to explain it but just a case of really crappy luck. To make it worse, Caska’s damned Blissey even giggled.

“Minimize again!” Caska shouted with glee, making things even worse.

“This is getting cheap as hell,” David growled, truly despising this type of strategy.

Blissey grew even smaller, still wearing that stupid smile of hers. Our expressions began to grow grim as Blissey was just laughing at the frustration of David and his Tyranitar.

“Rock Slide!” David commanded Tyranitar.

The hulking green juggernaut tore up heavy stones from the ground and hurled them savagely at the shrinking pink fatso, but that missed as well, as Blissey was so small that the rocks Tyranitar threw simply bounced around her and instead buried themselves in the walls. David was becoming quickly frustrated. Again, Caska told Blissey to Minimize again and again, and David missed each and every time. But then, it got even worse by the time Blissey was nearly smaller than a Caterpie...

“Use your Sing attack Blissey!” Caska shouted with glee.

Blissey then began to sing peacefully, and Tyranitar was beginning doze off.

"Come on!" David shouted. "Don't fall for that crap, stay in there!"

After stumbling around to try and stay awake, Tyranitar crashed to the ground fast asleep, making this one of the lamest battles I've had the misfortune of watching.

“Blissey, use your Metronome,” Caska commanded, happy that she had one hell of an advantage.

Blissey then seemed to dance for a short while, and then all of a sudden, it lunged toward the sleeping Tyranitar, and performed a wicked Cross-chop attack, one of the worst attacks that Tyranitar could’ve been hit by. Somehow, an itty Blissey struck Tyranitar furiously and made him take a serious beating in an extremely short amount of time, despite the fact she was now only a hundredth of his size. Then, to David’s dismay, he realized Tyranitar was no longer asleep. He had fainted and was passed out cold…

“What!?” David protested. “What the hell are the chances of that!? That's bullcrap!”

“Bring out your next Pokémon, Miller,” Caska told David with a sarcastic, smug grin.

For once, I was somewhat glad not to be in David’s shoes. I seriously didn’t like where this was going and something was seriously shady about this. David returned Tyranitar to his respective Poké Ball, and chose his next best Pokémon.

“Go Rhydon!” David shouted, getting angry this time. “Make mincemeat of that damn Blissey!”

Rhydon had emerged from the Poké Ball’s brilliant flash, ready for onslaught. With his gray rock armor and powerful drill mounted on his nose, Rhydon was a vicious, armored beast of death to be reckoned with. We were crossing our fingers in hope that David's Rhydon would be able to handle an already grim looking situation and make up for Tyranitar's screw up.

“Rhydon, Stomp attack!” David shouted.

Genius. Rhydon charged forward and used his heavy, rocky foot to squash the already shrunken Blissey like a tiny, withering maggot. Blissey took a strong hit, but after rolling around a few times, she simply sprang back up into action like nothing really happened.

“Sing attack,” Caska commanded.

Again, Blissey sang a peaceful song and Rhydon stumbled around just like Tyranitar, and he hit the ground fast asleep. David just clenched his fist, gritted his teeth, and looked like he could have murdered someone with the face he had on.

“Metronome, Blissey,” Caska said coldly to her Blissey.

Blissey danced for a moment, and then we watched in horror as Blissey coated herself with a Reflect shield, which was going to be a pain in the crotch to get past for Rhydon. Fortunately, Rhydon got up from his slumber quickly this time, but he was going to have a lot more hell to deal with…

**Neo Emolga** · 06-04-2015, 10:28 PM

Chapter 4
The Scare

As I was standing there doubtfully watching this whole retarded thing go from bad to worse, I knew Rhydon was going to have to take down Blissey, right here, right now to move onto beating the stuffing out of Caska’s next annoying Pokémon. Still, I couldn’t help but think this was going to hell real fast. This whole thing looked like it was being rigged.

“Stomp attack, Rhydon,” David declared with a sick feeling in his throat.

Normally, that attack would have and should have punished Blissey like last time, but ever after slamming on the micro-sized Blissy like a sledgehammer smashing an egg, the Reflect shield fended off most of the damage and it simply just caused the tiny Blissey to roll around gleefully like this was some sort of unholy ballet. Then, as if things couldn't get any worse...

“Softboiled, Blissey,” Caska commanded, once again flashing that damnable smug grin.

Blissey then surrounded herself with three glowing eggs that had suddenly become a pulse of white energy and healing light. Suddenly, Blissey had absorbed the energy, and began to heal the little amount of damage that David's Rhydon had inflicted on it, with David himself looking like he was ready to vomit. Caska’s ungodly Blissey had nearly become immortal.

“Focus Energy, Rhydon,” David said nervously.

That was the best move David could have decided on. Rhydon bowed his head down and growled furiously, steaming with anger and rage, ready to tear Blissey to ribbons. He had this one chance to stop Blissey, and he had to get it just right. If David didn't make this a one-hit kill, we already knew how this was going to go down.

“Metronome, Blissey,” Caska told her Blissey with a smile.

Blissey began to dance again, and suddenly, a tremendous jet of water had fired from Blissey’s mouth and slammed into Rhydon, dealing a terrible amount of damage as the massive hulking Pokémon was blown back from the fierce, aquatic force. Rhydon collapsed to the floor, completely worn out in ways that shouldn’t have been possible. When Rhydon refused to budge off the floor, we couldn’t believe it. David had just lost to a worthless little Blissey…

“Damn it…!” David snapped. “I don’t believe it!”

Caska then began clapping sarcastically for David’s miserable performance, smirking sarcastically the entire time. Right at that moment, I had no idea what Caska was about to do to David next, and I really didn’t want to know. Still, the whole time, something about the whole thing really didn't feel right.

“Ready to receive your punishment for losing, Miller?” Caska asked sweetly, looking like she was already enjoying David’s misery.

“You damn cheater!” David shouted in red-faced fury. “How the hell could you get so lucky with Metronome!? That battle had to be rigged!”

Something about the whole thing seemed extremely shady, but there was no proof. And it seemed like Caska knew you just can't prove bad luck. Or in this case, cheating.

“That’s just the way things go, Miller,” Caska smiled to David. “Now it's time for you to feel some misery and justice for what you’ve done to King Randy. And I know just how to make it hurt.”

“You better not, you stupid...!” David shouted, but never finished.

At that sick moment, Caska had looked toward the shouting David, and she snapped her fingers. She became a cloud of pink dust, and seemed to have disappeared, leaving David wondering what just happened. We were hoping by some miraculous chance that she just left us alone, but then, Alex and I looked at David, and David had swallowed hard.

Alex and I watched in freakish horror as David slowly began to change into a shiny and ridiculous-looking fairy just like Caska. His blue jeans suddenly became a sparking bright pink dress, and two fairy wings had emerged right out his back. It was a pretty sick thing to do to a guy in the seventh grade. He looked totally idiotic.

“Oh god, what the hell is this!?” David screamed as he looked at himself, softly fluttering his wings, “What did she just do to me!?”

We couldn’t help but turn away at that moment. David tried to yank off the dress and the wings, only they seemed to be super-glued to his body. Of course, only then did we hear the door unlock. Still, I didn’t care about anything else. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. As I threw the door open, Alex and David just followed, and again we were outside…

“DAMN IT, that does it!” David shouted as we walked out of that nightmare cabin. “If this really is Randy’s world, then I want to get the hell out of here! How the hell do we break out of this damn place!?”

I didn't have a clue as to how we were going to do that. Right now, if Randy could see David, he would be laughing hysterically, probably setting this whole charade up intentionally. The last thing I wanted was for the three of us to fight Randy while David ended up looking like a giant Tinkerbell. That would only make matters fifty times worse. I didn’t want to see Jeff acting all high and mighty again and Frank snorting while he had his finger way up his nose. It was enough to make me go ballistic and wish I had taken a rocket launcher before coming here.

“How the hell do we get out of stupid, moronic world for crying out loud!?” Alex demanded. "I'm sick of this place, nothing is making any sense!"

“We probably need to take down Randy and strike hard at the source, but first we need to find him,” I told Alex, knowing he had to be the dead center of all this idiocy. "Once we find him, we'll make him pay in blood for this, I swear."

"Yeah, how are you going to do that when he cheats?" David asked me, still sickened over his new fairy features.

"I'll... try to think of something..." I replied awkwardly, having no real answer to that.

Frustrated, we just continued our way down the path, and day quickly turned to night, and everything went pitch black incredibly quickly. We had nothing to sleep on except the grass. All I could hope for was that maybe this whole thing was a dream, but it seemed far too real for that to be true. Still, I wasn’t going to dwell on it. We then quickly went to sleep, hoping we would be getting out of here soon.

When morning came, we headed down the path through the valley again. Then, for some strange reason, the grass slowly turned brighter in color, but it was simply another sign that this was a totally warped reality. And just like that, ahead of us was another forest, except this one seemed to be more of a tropical one instead. This couldn’t be real. The more I saw it, the more insane I knew it all was. How the hell did we end up with this idiocy to deal with?

“We don’t have much of a choice except to continue,” David said grimly. “Hopefully this forest isn’t too big.”

Recommended Listening: Dead Silence Theme Song

We then continued our way through the dense foliage without a single path to go by, as if this couldn’t possibly get any worse. This was just making me sick. All we could do was push forward into nowhere, and then suddenly, we came to a clearing. When we emerged from the forest, we saw what seemed to be some sort of gathering. There were several shady figures moving about, dressed in hooded, violet cloaks with bizarre symbols and insignias on the sleeves, hoods, and around the bottom. I really had no idea what these bunch of creepy cultists were about, but I wasn't going to walk up to them to ask.

Then, in the distance, we saw a large, brown, sac-like object hanging from a post, something these psychos were obviously interested in. If this really was Randy's dimension, I had no clue what this was supposed to resemble. It looked like it was supposed to be some kind of dark ritual or something.

“Yeah...” Alex muttered, watching them closely. “Now where is Randy's mind going with this one?”

“You!” One of them quickly turned around and shouted, pointing at Alex. “You must be the one!”

Him? What exactly did these guys want with Alex? I tried to get a good look at their faces, but I couldn't see much. Their hoods covered most of their faces except for their chins and mouths.

“I bet you want to battle, don’t you?” Alex asked as his fingers were ready to clutch one of his Poké Balls, looking a bit like he was honestly hoping the answer was no after what had happened to David.

But they didn’t say anything. Instead, the group of them jumped us, and pinned us to the ground. I tried to fight back with my fists but holy crap, the guy on top of me was way stronger than I was. I could see a slight outline of his face from under the shade of his hood, and I could almost swear it wasn't completely human and had a bizarre, gaunt, and dull bluish hue. Still, even though I struggled, I realized it wasn’t me they wanted, it was Alex. But what the hell for?

“Let me go, you stupid maggots!” Alex shouted as he was being pulled away from us.

I struggled with the cultist that was on top of me, hoping to get up and help Alex escape, but for some reason, he seemed so much stronger than me, easily keeping me pinned down with seemingly superhuman strength.

I then saw Alex being dragged closer and closer to the hanging brown sac by three other cultists. From the looks of it, he didn't have a chance of bailing out of this one without help. I was crossing my fingers hoping that sac thing wasn’t actually some living creature ready to devour Alex, but I could only barely just get my head off the ground to see what was happening.

“Get your hands off of me you deranged psychos!” Alex shouted as he struggled to break free before reaching the sac. “I don’t have anything you freaks want!”

"Resistance is futile," One of them spoke eerily. "Accept what must be done."

They had inevitably arrived at the sac, the last thing Alex wanted to find out what it was. Seconds later, they lifted the screaming Alex upward, and dumped him right in like a piece of trash being thrown into a dumpster. Suddenly, the open sac closed up with Alex still inside, and immediately trapped him. After they started chanting, I saw the sac shifting and swaying about as Alex was likely struggling to get out, but there was no escape. And then, after some time and being left to just watch the whole damn thing for a few seconds, my fear began to escalate.

Alex had completely stopped moving…

David and I both thought that Alex could have suddenly died at that moment, devoured by whatever the hell that thing was. But then again, I thought better. I then realized that Randy didn’t necessarily want us to croak while we were here, he wanted us to suffer in humiliation. He made David suffer, and now he was going to make Alex suffer. And then to make matters worse, he was probably going to make me suffer somewhere along the line.

“What the hell are you doing to him!?” David demanded. “Let him out of there!”

“Shouldn't be long now...” One of the cloaked figures muttered.

I stopped struggling after some time, since I was getting exhausted and wasn’t getting anywhere. I was still pinned down and this guy had no intention of letting go. I only wished I had a handgun to blast open the heads of all these maniacs, but there wasn’t crap I could do about it. I continued to look at the sac, and then I suddenly realized what the hell it was. It was some sort of weird cocoon. I needed to get Alex out of there as soon as possible.

I had only one choice. I struggled to reach for one of my Poké Balls while the freak was still on top of me. Then, I managed to grab one, prime it, and toss it just enough so it would open. When it landed, I saw I had released my Ariados, a huge red and black poison spider capable of fixing this asinine mess. Now was my chance.

“Ariados, use your Poison Sting to get this bastard off of me!” I shouted.

The cultist turned around in shock just to be greeted with a barrage of sharp, poison spikes making a dartboard out of his body. He immediately let go of me, and I got up off the ground. I then looked at the cocoon and saw the group of cultists that had dragged Alex guarding it.

“Ariados, Sludge Bomb attack on those freaks!” I commanded Ariados.

Ariados then blasted the fleeing cultists with a hearty helping of thick, dark-purple sludge, sending them scattering in all directions. They ran right for the forest and quickly vanished in the dense foliage. Still, I didn't care about pursuing them as much as I wanted Alex to get out of there. I quickly ran to the cocoon and tried to open it up with my hands, but it seemed impossible. The thing seemed to be glued shut and was way too tough for my bare hands to try and pry it open. And Alex didn’t seem to be moving at all.

“See if you can use your pincers to rip that thing open, Ariados.” I quickly commanded the spider Pokémon, hoping he’d be able to tear it open before something stupid happened.

Ariados approached the sac, and tried to tear away at the cocoon, but it seemed like invincible rubber. After several minutes of trying to tear it open, it seemed hopeless. I then had only one tool left that could possibly help Alex.

I had a small Swiss Army knife that I usually kept in my pocket. I pulled it out, flipped out its sharpest blade, and tried to cut the sac open. I couldn’t believe it. It was like trying to cut through thick rubber with a wooden stick. If that knife couldn’t rip that thing open, then what could? I was beginning to grow frantic and didn't think even a chainsaw could rip this thing open.

And then, another horrifying moment arose. Suddenly, I saw the cocoon begin to crack open from the middle, but it wasn’t from anything we did. All I could do was back away and just look away. I didn’t even want to watch what was to come out of the second round of idiocy we had to deal with, and it was a good thing I didn’t. However, David had been watching in horror while I grimaced and looked away.

“Oh... oh, god no…” David moaned with utter depression.

“Don’t tell me…” I warned David. “I don’t want to hear it.”

And then, David slapped his right hand against his eyes. I bet at that moment he had regretted watching the whole thing.

“Jake, don’t look,” David warned me. “Don’t look, whatever you do.”

I knew I had to eventually. I figured might as well get the worst part over with.

“I guess you might as well tell me, David,” I told him honestly, knowing there was no point in delaying this any further. “Just tell me in words what happened. Then... maybe I'll look.”

I could tell there was some hesitation in David’s speech. And then, he let it loose.

“Those sick maniacs just turned Alex into a human butterfly…” David said softly in dismay.

**Suicune's Fire** · 06-05-2015, 11:06 AM