The Trial of Juno Saga [PG-13]

[Kentucky Fried Torchic]

Yes! Vorox and Tychal, the baddest of the bad! I've been anticipating this for a while now!

[Neo Emolga]

Yes! Vorox and Tychal, the baddest of the bad! I've been anticipating this for a while now!

Ha, ha, there's far worse than him later on, though! But yeah, most people seem to like this bout.

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 30
The Jade Sword

I felt like I was going to be sick. For a minute, I thought we were actually gaining a foothold on the situation and were actually pulling this mission off, albeit in an unorganized and unorthodox way, and then the Crimson Stars send this guy in.

The four Wind Strikers and their leader Vorox were the only force that could stop us now. And having heard from Vice that Vorox nearly killed a thousand of our troops wasn’t exactly the morale-boosting comment we needed to start fighting back.

There really was no running from this guy. He had us exposed on the rooftop, and I was sure trying to head back into the prison was just going to get everyone killed, and that was only going to give him the pleasure of adding five hundred more kills to his name.

“Vice, who the hell is this guy!?” Blitz shouted in fear, looking at his intimating state before looking frantically back to Vice.

“He’s known as the Jade Sword, a ruthless and cunning warlord, maybe one of the best elites of the Crimson Stars,” Vice told Blitz, a situation that was beginning to make even Vice anxious. “Now I think I know what happened. They must have evacuated everyone and sent Vorox to kill the attackers out of vengeance."

Yeah, I nodded, realizing that would make sense. They were not the kind that would let someone do something like this and get away with it.

"Believe it or not," Vice shook his head, "whoever kills him will be advanced five ranks in the Silver Rebellion Army and will be given the Serious Decoration of Honor. That’s how badly… we need this guy dead. It's a joke, though. This jackass is an unstoppable machine of death.”

Even still, we badly needed to get the other prisoners out of here. I began to think that it would just be better if Vice and Blitz worked on that. Maybe... just maybe I could at least hold off Vorox and his squad from killing the others.

"Blitz, go with Vice and get the prisoners out of here," I told the two of them. "Take Storm Gale and just go. I'll try... to deal with this guy."

"You're freaking out of your mind, Juno!" Vice exclaimed. "He's going to murder you in a one on one fight! Do you seriously want to just end up like all the others!?"

"I'm... not like the others..." I told him, forcing my racing heart to calm down. "Just go! We're not going to get another window of opportunity here!"

Blitz just nodded, and was the first to secure himself onto Storm Gale the best he could. He was then followed by Vice, who simply looked back at me as the last, precious seconds were counting down. After that, Storm Gale had spread her wings, and the massive Pidgeot jumped into the air, flapping her wings to ascend higher and higher into the air. There wasn’t enough time for even a goodbye or even a good luck. They headed back toward the factories, hoping there might be a leftover VAT or armored transport.

“After them!” Vorox shouted to his team. “Kill those two and do it now!”

Suddenly, the four Wind Strikers flew furiously toward Blitz, Vice and Storm Gale, and readied their rifles. I gritted my teeth, focused on the four Wind Strikers and aimed my Scab submachine gun at them. If we didn't stop them now, all three of them were going to die a screaming death and there wouldn't be anything we could do to stop it.

"Come and get it!" Blitz shouted, returning fire from behind Storm Gale's back.

While Vice guided Storm Gale's flying, Blitz quickly tried to provide as much support fire as he could, knowing this had become a do or die situation. I then pulled the trigger hard, and the submachine gun roared to life. I aimed for the one directly behind Blitz and Storm Gale, and I aimed right for the Skarmory’s abdomen. The ammunition rounds blasted loudly from my Scab and tore their way into the Skarmory, sending the first Skarmory and its Buizel rider spiraling toward the ground. I didn’t even wince when I realized both of them would be screaming all the way until the hard ground snapped every bone in their body.

I focused my concentration again, slowing time down as the situation had become direly critical. With the first rider down, I immediately shifted to the second. The second rider was a Lombre, already with his aim on Storm Gale. I concentrated on my aim and again pulled the trigger, blasting the Skarmory with an intense amount of ammunition. I heard the Skarmory scream in agony as it completely lost control of its flight. The Lombre was instantly thrown off of the Skarmory’s back only being able to fire his rifle just as his aim had been thrown into chaos from the death of his mount. There was nothing that could save the two of them now.

Almost savagely, I ripped out the expended magazine of the Scab and wrestled in another one. Blitz was returning fire, but with Storm Gale's frantic flying, his aim wasn't its best and the bullets were flying in a spray. However, it was keeping the Crimson Stars riders from getting too close.

The third and forth Wind Strikers were riding close together, having only watched their two companions get shot down. I was also running out of time, realizing they were drawing closer. Both riders, a Breloom and a Frogadier, were only thirty feet away from Storm Gale, both with their weapons drawn. If I didn’t stop them now, they were going to kill Blitz and the others for sure…

I first aimed for the Breloom, focusing my aim on his back. I then fired the Scab submachine gun, and I saw the bullets had struck him viciously, tearing in and out holes. Meanwhile, Blitz had shot the Breloom’s Skarmory, resulting in both of them tumbling to the ground lifelessly. Moments later, the Frogadier found himself alone, with no one to help him.

I watched in horror as he already had his aim on Storm Gale before I had my aim on him. He had fired three times before I had fired upon him, shooting him in the back of the head and sending his lifeless body forward, which tumbled right off the Skarmory. I then aimed for the Frogadier’s Skarmory itself, and fired ruthlessly upon him, using the last of the Scab's ammunition. When all four Wind Strikers were taken down, I had frantically looked for Storm Gale and her riders. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw all of them were okay, never hit once by the Frogadier’s attack. They were flying safely in the distance, heading right for the warehouses. I watched both of them disappear in the distance, and sighed in relief that they were going to make it. If Vorox himself tried to pursue, he would be exposing his back to us and would make an easy target.

I then turned around and looked right at Vorox. He had glared viciously at me, totally in disbelief at what we had just done. Meanwhile, the burning, red eyes of his Flygon named Tychal stared at me with a harsh gaze. Vorox already knew Macomb would be under fire with the prisoners already pulling off a successful jailbreak and were likely helping themselves to the weapons and leftover armaments. Meanwhile, the amount of damage we had done to Macomb was something the Crimson Stars wouldn’t recover from any time soon. Within less than an hour, the whole industrial city would be destroyed, just like what they had done to the many cities of the Silver Rebellion. However, there was still no certainty that this would turn the tables in our favor.

“That's impossible, those were four of my best and fastest fliers!” Vorox growled angrily. “How was a normal, everyday Pikachu like you able to kill them so quickly!?”

There was silence. I hadn’t established any kind of whistle signal or sign with Blazewing the Latias, but somehow, I could feel a connection to her that had only grown more and more as time went on. I then decided to call her by her real name, knowing if she could hear my voice, she would know it was me. I had called out to her using the name “Blazewing,” and before long, she had flown from the darkness of the skies to my side, joining me before looking up at Vorox the malevolent Scyther and his vicious Flygon mount. It was then that the avian red and white dragon had made her appearance.

“I’m no ordinary Pikachu,” I told Vorox with a short breath of confidence. “My name is Juno, and this is Blazewing.”

And for one dark moment, Vorox had been a bit surprised and seemed to recognize I was in fact Juno, the one from the legends that the Silver Rebellion felt so strongly about. With how much of a massacre he made of them, I was sure he had to have heard about it in one way or another. Regardless, he gazed upon me with the look that I had arrived earlier than he had expected. I could see in his harsh stare that he had only expected me to come when Symarix was crumbling before him, when the last city of the Silver Rebellion was doomed to fall and there wasn’t any hope in the world to save it.

“You... you're the one from that stupid fairy tale of theirs!” Vorox laughed mockingly. “Idiocy! Killing you two is going to be special! And to think some of them believe you're their last source of hope! Imagine their faces when I use your severed heads as trophies!"

"Yeah... you and all the others," I nodded, knowing this was an obvious pattern. "You're all the same."

"Who's the bug?" Blazewing asked me, wondering who Vorox the Scyther was.

"He's a Crimson Stars Wind Striker commander," I told her, remembering what Vice told me before. "Apparently, he's killed at least a thousand Silver Rebellion soldiers."

He had laughed, just as a flash of lightning had lit up the dark and twisted sky above him. He had shown me his two gigantic sickle arms and the blood red sky was reflected in them. I could tell he had used those two sickles many times before to kill one Pokémon after another.

“I'm far more of a legend than you are!" Vorox laughed. "You're both nothing but a fairy tale lies! Nonetheless, what a gorgeous day it is to kill yet another hope and dream of the pathetic Silver Rebellion!"

Recommended Listening: GRV Music - Dark Master of Shadows

"We're fighting this jackass?" Blazewing asked, taking a peek at him. "Oh, please tell me we are."

"We definitely are," I told her. "We're no lie."

Despite how much he wanted to be my nemesis, I had a feeling that there would be far worse than even him in the near future…

I had picked up the Scab submachine gun and then I jumped on Blazewing’s back, quickly strapping myself in with the leather straps that had been tied around her. Once I had secured myself on her back, Blazewing had leapt into the air, and once we had flown above the ground, we turned around to face Vorox and Tychal, our adversaries.

I was not going to let this psychotic maniac stand in our way. We came here to save these prisoners, and he was not going to add even more heads to the death toll he had already went too far with. This guy had a long overdue appointment with the devil and it was about time someone arrange the meeting.

I stared strongly into the eyes of my enemy, and at the same time, he glared into mine. A bitter rush of hate and anger had filled the trenches dug within our hearts, and now it had all come down to this gruesome conflict. He wasn't going to let us go and there was no way I could let him live, so I knew blood was going to be spilled and one of us was going to die. As a harsh and violent wind had blown past us, a flash of lightning had lit the sky. Somehow, at that moment, I felt far more like Juno than the human I used to be…

Leader or not, the very idea that Vorox had killed that many Pokémon made this a very simple need for capital punishment that was long overdue.

With that, our gruesome clash had initiated…

Tychal, the mantis-like dragon had extended his wings, and then burst toward us in full speed. I tried to concentrate on his flight pattern, but even with all my focus and concentration, Tychal was still flying at an excessive speed, faster than I had expected. I watched in anxiety as Vorox readied his sharp scythe, and prepared to slash upon us viciously. If he ended this in one fell swoop, it would probably be one of the most demoralizing things that have ever happened to the Silver Rebellion during this whole war.

I had no time to attack, and instead just wanted to evade as soon as possible. These guys were definitely not the same as their Wind Striker compatriots. I beckoned for Blazewing to ascend upward, and she had surged into the air, just as Vorox had sliced the air next to us. Moments later, Vorox and Tychal had flown past us, and now Blazewing and I were above the two of them, glaring at the two again.

I had felt a hot, burning sensation in my side, and when I had gone to look, I grimaced at the sight. Vorox had cut my side, and a small trickle of blood was running down. The sticky blood was quickly soaking my yellow fur. I was really beginning to regret ripping off that armor, but it was far too late to think about that now.

The wound wasn't wasn’t fatal, but if we had been any slower or he managed to swing in further, that cut would have been a whole lot deeper… and much more life-threatening. Thankfully, the cut was no worse than being struck with a large razor blade, but I could tell it didn’t take much for him to inflict vicious lacerations and even slice off appendages.

And as I turned around, I saw Vorox, licking the blood at end of his scythe. The sight of it was simply nauseating…

“My, I never knew the blood of the Gold Rider was so tasty!” Vorox sneered with glee. “I need more… much more…”

"What kind of deranged hellhole bug are you!?" Blazewing gawked in disbelief. "You're a sick, screwed-up mental case, you know that!? You know what, don't even bother checking the lost and found, I don't think you're going to find your soul there."

And he just laughed hysterically at that. Already, I could see how much of an effect the bloody slaughter of Silver Rebellion troops had on his grotesque, blood-drunk mind. In the end, I looked into Vorox’s eyes and he had gone from warrior, to warlord, to just plain butcher.

I then pointed my submachine gun at the Jade Sword, but I aimed for Tychal instead. I then focused and pulled the trigger, and my Scab spat fire and carnage as the metal gun shook with recoil from the blasts. Regardless, Tychal was extremely fast and was able to foresee where I would be shooting him from given the angles I had my gun facing. I tried to follow his flight pattern and lead the shots so he would run right into the bullets, but he still managed to catch on and dodge the attack. Then, he curved around and headed right toward us, and Vorox prepared to attack again. I was hoping the closer he was, the easier it would be for me to shoot him, but that wasn’t the case…

This was definitely not working out nearly the way I thought it would be...

Blazewing and I had dashed away at the last second, and Vorox had swiftly sliced the air furiously. We had flown from the two and dashed away as far as we could, at least several hundred feet away from Vorox and Tychal. When we had stopped, I could hear Blazewing gasp, and it didn’t take me long to figure out what was wrong.

Like me, she had been cut in the side, and it was bleeding as well. Her cut had been even worse than mine, and I could see the forking rivers of blood trickling down her body before dripping down upon the ground below. Twice we had attempted to hit him, and both times it only ended with us just barely avoiding having a lethal laceration inflicted on us. Any slower and we probably would be left bleeding to death.

"Damn it, we've got to find a way to kill this asshat!" Blazewing shouted, getting angry now. "I swear, his grave's gonna be a cesspool for sure!"

And then, Vorox had seen the cut in Blazewing and had only laughed. My anger was only growing worse.

"Don't blame me if you suffer for long!" Vorox laughed. "I honestly was going to make this simple and quick, but if you'd rather insist on bleeding out painfully and slowly, I can enjoy that too!"

Again, I had aimed my Scab at the two, this time I was going to shoot at Vorox, knowing it wasn’t him who was controlling Tychal’s flight pattern. Vorox and Tychal were fighting as two minds. I then realized what his weakness was, something I had overlooked this entire time.

Tychal knew nothing of how Vorox was going to attack, and I was going to use that as my weapon. Again I had opened fire, but I got only three shots out of it before the Scab had stopped firing, and all that came out of it was a click. For a moment, I was shocked when the Scab magazine ejected from the gun and I realized I was out of ammunition completely. Wincing a bit from the frustration, I had taken the metal submachine gun, and threw it aside before it tumbled to the ground below. Still, I figured I didn’t need it anymore and it certainly wasn't helping anyway.

Vorox was grinning when he realized my Scab was empty and I had tossed it away, thinking he had gained yet another advantage in a battle he was already reigning triumphant in. Tychal had flown toward us furiously, and Vorox had prepared to swing his scythe again, thinking I didn’t stand a chance and this time he would get more than just a flesh wound out of the next strike. As I saw him closing in, I concentrated and my red cheeks flared brightly with electricity. Tiny bolts of thunder had surrounded them as Vorox prepared to swipe the air. Now, Tychal could not predict my method of attack, for he could not see me clearly from his angle.

Vorox’s scythe was in feet of preparing to strike, and then I focused my charged electricity not on Vorox, but on the scythe itself. This time, I unleashed one of Juno's home-brewed special electric attacks, Stormbreaker Thunder, the same thing I used against Blitz's Groudon. I sent a thrusting surge of thunder for the joint in his arm, and when the intense voltage had hit it, the power was enough to burn and cut right through his mantis-like chassis, and effectively slice off the scythe itself.

Suddenly, the intensely sharp scythe had spiraled off his arm only inches in front of my face, but thankfully it had missed, or else it would have easily sliced through and through and would have been an instant kill. Instead, the severed arm fell toward the rooftop of the prison, landing with a sharp metallic clang as if a heavy sword had fallen upon the rooftop. Now, Vorox had one less weapon to use against me, and was crippled for life. In all his years of killing, obviously no one had managed to pull this off before.

“My ARM!!!” Vorox shouted in anger and shock, suddenly realizing his left arm was reduced to a burnt and bloody stump. “Damn you, you miserable rodent! Today, you lose your head for that!”

Suddenly, it seemed like it was no longer a butcher's fun and games anymore.

"Still think it's a lie?" I asked him.

He just snarled, and in his rage, he pushed back into the fight.

"Burn them, Tychal!" He shouted in fury. "I want to see fire consume their souls!"

And then, I got a sickening feeling as Tychal closely watched every single one of our moves. As Vorox and Tychal fought as one, I needed to make the same approach but not make the same mistake. Focusing on Blazewing, I was establish a connection, one that I had never felt before. As I concentrated hard and shut my eyes for a moment, I was able to focus and see what Blazewing was seeing, as if I was her…

Draconic Stormbreaker Attack…

Extreme. That was all I could use to describe the speed that she was moving and the fierce, relentless nature of the imagined assault I had sent to Blazewing's mind. The air was blasting past us to the point of burning, and we homed in on our enemy. The raging, bitter fire that was blasting from Tychal’s mouth had no chance of hitting us from the excessive speed we were traveling. With the claw of Blazewing sharp and ready, I prepared to bury it into Tychal, and deliver as much pain and suffering to him as I could. Faster and faster I traveled toward him, and when we were suddenly close enough, the claw of Blazewing had thrust its way into the green underside of Tychal, and tore with such fury and anger to the point of incinerating the savagely-open cut with fire and blazing embers. Within seconds it was over with, and the two of us had pulled upward, and I opened my own eyes again.

It should have been impossible. It shouldn't have happened anywhere but in dreams, but yet... we pulled something miraculous off.

"Holy... that was..." Blazewing remarked, taken back a bit.

Tychal had let loose a horrible shriek, beating the flaming cut with his wing and still attempting to keep afloat in the air. When the fire was extinguished, I could see the vicious tear in Tychal’s underside, bleeding very badly and nearly coating his green underside with a slick cover of sticky, crimson blood.

And in pure, uncontrollable rage, Vorox ordered Tychal to attack again. Tychal, using his anger, pain, and fury to fuel his vengeance with his last bit of strength flew toward us in a frenzy, desperately desiring to tear the two of us into ribbons.

Again, I had shut my eyes again, and Blazewing flew with a blazing fury toward Tychal. To do this right... we had to do it again. It was working, but we couldn't hold back now.

Dragon Shadowfury Attack...

Seconds later, we had arrived at Tychal’s under side, and with Blazewing’s sharp claws ready, she tore another macabre and gaping gash into Tychal, blasting his skin with raging fire and slicing his flesh with claws as sharp as surgical knives and as relentless as a chainsaw. The Flygon's blood was sprayed in all directions like a rake ripping into a water balloon.

It made me wonder... was Vorox ready to start believing?

We had flown right past them, and I had watched as Vorox screamed desperately as Tychal spiraled toward the metal roof top, unable to control his flight. Moments later, Tychal slammed into the roof of the prison, violently snapped his neck against the metallic roofing with a violent cracking sound that was as loud as crushed deadwood, and was forced into rolling over several times before stopping and lying on his stomach in a bloody, twisted heap. After vomiting a grizzly amount of blood, Tychal lay lifeless, with his wings folded over and his head lying motionless as a pool of warm, crimson blood had quickly begun to surround it.

I had signaled Blazewing to head toward the roof, and we flew swiftly toward it. When we had arrived, I leapt off of Blazewing, and looked at Tychal’s dead body. I had wondered if Vorox had been crushed by the force and weight of Tychal’s corpse, but then I saw something rise up, and I realized Vorox wasn’t dead…

Meanwhile, both Blazewing and I were still losing blood. It seemed that no one was walking away from this fight without some kind of wound or scar to relive the fury and anguish every time they looked upon it.

Vorox had jumped off of Tychal’s body, and landed on the metal floor of the prison, still armed with his left scythe. It was certainly more than enough to kill both of us. I've never seen a Pokémon look so angry and so drenched with bitter, relentless hate.

“You…” Vorox savagely growled in a murderous tone, "...you SWINE! You killed him! That... now you die... die... DIIIEEE!!!!!”

Then, in blinded, uncontrollable fury, Vorox rushed toward me with all the anger and hatred in the world, blasting toward me with extreme speed, holding his left scythe in the air and ready to send it swiftly ripping into my body. I had no time for an electrical attack, and he knew that. There were only seconds before he would get the chance to bury his scythe into my flesh.

I had stepped back for a moment, and I felt my foot step on something firm and hard. When I looked down to see what it was, I saw it was Vorox’s severed left scythe.

And in those critical last seconds, I bent down and picked up the scythe, and held it firmly in my hand. I then put my foot firmly on the ground, arched my hand back and vigorously threw it forward, aiming right for Vorox. The sharp scythe had violently spiraled through the sky, slicing the air as it spiraled toward its target.

Suddenly, the sharp scythe had buried itself right into Vorox’s head. It had sliced right through his nose and was now half-buried in his head with the bladed end jutting right out of the back of his skull, a complete through-and-through. Even in death, he still ran toward me with his hatred, but every step his body made had become twisted as the last signals from his mutilated brain transmitted to the rest of his body. At the last moment, his body tripped and fell to the ground, crashing violently before lying face down before us in a lifeless heap. Even in those last seconds, it seemed like his deadened scythe arm tried one last time to strike me, only to just barely miss as I quickly dodged Vorox's tumbling body.

Vorox, the leader of the Wind Strikers… was dead, now laying in a pool of his own green blood alongside his dead dragon.

He never believed we were real. He never believed we had the power of dreams within us.

I was not going to make that same mistake again.