The Trial of Juno Saga [PG-13]

[Kentucky Fried Torchic]

Hoo boy, I get distracted by life for a bit and a whole slew of chapters get posted. Well, to business then. First off, I've already waxed poetic about your music choices before, but the song for chapter 22 is amazing! It's so evocative and elicits a sense of hope as the oasis of the Silver Rebellion capital is revealed in the middle of a desert and a foreboding red sky. It gave me a sense that these were a people worth fighting for, even before truly meeting them. Another touch that I enjoyed was how the naming conventions in the Silver Rebellion tend to follow a pattern of consonant-vowel-consonant with two vowels being the norm. It was an interesting cultural thing to notice.

I have a few questions that occurred to me as I was reading though. They have a statue of Juno and Blazewing that references the Silver Rebellion. How long ago was the divine prophecy made? How long has this rebellion been going on that they had the time to craft a statue? Was the prophecy made before the rebellion, that is, was the rebellion inspired by the prophecy or vice-versa? How long has Zander been here in Kivistal? All of these thoughts flashed through my mind in a few seconds. I don't expect, or even desire, answers too much, but it's just something to keep in mind.

From the second that they start describing it, I fell in love with Macomb all over again. Macomb's description is such beauty for such horrors, both in the briefing, and when they finally arrive at the city-cum-prison-cum-weapons factory. Although the training process is given more time and development so that it seems less like Juno is miraculously being thrown into situations and living, it is still horrifying that a middle schooler is going off to wage war.

All of the details on the weapons and technology was much appreciated. I'm currently reading Ghost Fleet, which is a hypothetical description of what World War III might look like, and there are a lot of similarities to how you handle the technical aspects of warfare with how the authors of that work do. A lot less Pokemon and a lot more naval warfare in Ghost Fleet though.

The squad was very well characterized, with the Croconaw getting a bit of a short stick, but nonetheless. This band of brothers started off looking like a fun time, but the mission quickly turned horrifying as people started dying. This is Juno's first real time commanding anyone and already half of his squad is dead. Again, he is a middle schooler having to deal with causing the death not only of his enemies, but of his allies, indirect as the latter may be. On a lighter note, it was funny to me that Blazewing really didn't like it when other members of the squad tried to make jokes. That's her schtick I guess, and she's a bit territorial. To be fair, Lahanas is a really good example of why you should vet people who volunteer for a suicide mission though.

As always, it's a delight reading this and I look forward to the next chapters!

[Neo Emolga]

Hey, thanks for your review!

Glad you like the music choices! Two Steps From Hell is an excellent source of incredible, epic music, and I felt this was perfect for this part. As for the naming convention, that... was actually totally unintentional, but I see what you're talking about! Funny how things like that happen.

As far as the questions you mentioned, the order of events go like this:

1. [20 Years ago] Tensions arise among the Crimsonland empire as the mother country becomes abusive with power.
2. [16 Years ago] Divine Prophecy is written and foreseen (Hint: When Jake Kossak is born) (No hint: Not spoiling who wrote it!), foretells the coming of Juno and apocalyptic signs. Not all of the opposition to the Crimsonland tyrannical reign believe it at first, but it inspires others to begin preparations to begin a rebellion as the idea becomes more appealing. Over time, it grows more in belief in support.
3. [6 Years ago] Silver Rebellion officially rises up against the Crimsonland empire once abuse becomes far too much for them to continue tolerating and they finally have allocated the support and resources to commit to a defiant stand.
4. [3 Years ago] Zander discovers Kivistal, seeks to be regarded as a new, unseen god and as a guide of preservation to the Crimson Stars. Begins to cause cataclysms to insinuate the world is ending when really it's his doing.

There's probably enough ground to do a whole prequel here, but... I don't think it would be nearly as interesting as the rest of the story.

As for Macomb, heh, in general, Kivistal is a pretty dingy, dirty, industrial world in many places. They've got much more metal and ore to work with and fossil fuels to power most of what they have in terms of machines. Macomb itself was named after one of the missions in Fallout Tactics that has a LOT of firefights with raiders and is, in my opinion, one of the toughest early missions in the game. The name stuck so I decided to roll with it. What I didn't realize was all the names of towns in that game were based on real life locations and not fictional like I first thought, and I unintentionally named it after a real city in Illinois/. As you can easily tell, they're nothing AT ALL alike. The real Macomb actually seems like a nice, quaint little place! XD

And yes, I wanted to go more into details with the weapons, especially considering before, a lot of people didn't think Pokémon using guns made much sense. Well, now it does. As for handling warfare, a lot of that comes from a somewhat generous amount of movies, games, books, and stuff like that and trying to use my best judgment with how Pokémon would handle a kind of militarized structure and society on a dying planet.

As for the squad, I made Lahanas and Stevex touch and go as they were mainly to show Juno is not a perfect squad leader, is a bit of a newbie when it comes to commanding other soldiers and keeping them in line, and is just barely used to the whole being a Pikachu thing. It was also meant to show not every soldier of the Silver Rebellion is a model citizen and both sides have their bad apples. Rackal was no angel and Vice the Weavile certainly isn't either. As for Blazewing, heh, she can spot an egotist like a searchlight at night. She's not a fan of people that are all talk and nothing to show for it.

Again, thanks for your feedback, and I'm glad you're enjoying the story!

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 28
Eyes of the Enemy

It was left down to just the three of us. The missiles were gone and a fire in the warehouse district was now out of control and was shooting off stray ammunition to the point where it was dangerous for anyone to try and put it out.

As we took refuge in a small stone alcoves near one of the factory compounds, I couldn't believe what had happened with Rackal. After losing Lahanas, Stevex, and now him, things were looking dismal. As far as the damage that was done to Macomb, I wasn't even sure if burning down those warehouses and destroying the missiles would be enough or if this was just a financial inconvenience for things that were easily replaceable. For now, though, at least it would be a few years before they got the missile bunker working again. At least that might prevent the Silver Rebellion from getting nuked.

"Damn..." Blitz muttered, looking at the fires from the ruined missile silos and the warehouse district inferno. "Are we going to get out of this alive?"

I didn't even know anymore. I could imagine the base was on full alert, but it was hard to tell where the Crimson Stars had their priorities. Were the assets more valuable than finding the intruders? Maybe they thought all of us were killed in the missile bunker?

“Well…” Vice sighed with cynicism, still annoyed about Rackal’s death as he looked over to me, “After cheating death at least twenty times by now, at least half of us are still alive. So, squad leader, where to?”

I needed to think quickly. I was hoping the Crimson Stars thought whoever was responsible for the disaster was dead. They had no sure way of knowing given the fires would have burned away the bodies of anyone responsible, but until they put the flames out, they had no real way of knowing. In the meantime, I knew there was a reason why we came here in the first place.

“Let’s head over to the prison,” I told him, knowing any released prisoner could also mean reinforcements. “Chances are if we keep running down in this direction, we’ll find it. We could use a few escapees to help us, if they're in fighting condition.”

Vice had looked to me with a curious eye.

“What makes you so sure they're down there?” Vice asked, looking at me curiously.

“They wouldn't place a prison so close to a weapons stockpile,” I told him logically. “Believe me, they would keep them away from that kind of thing as much as possible.”

“Hmm…” Vice replied, looking down in thought. “Makes sense. After you, Pikachu.”

We then grabbed our gear and tried to keep out of sight. The heavy Leadhammer gun I was carrying was a hard thing to lug around everywhere, but it was better than nothing. Truthfully, if we came across anything, I figured relying on electricity was a much better option unless I had to shoot something.

As we tried to rely on stealth to get around and stay out of open areas, we had passed by the assembly plants, and then it had all made sense. The prison had to be nearby. No doubt they were forcing the prisoners to work at the assembly plants as slave labor to help build their machines and weapons. Otherwise they were useless to the Crimson Stars. Since it was the night hours, I could only expect the prisoners to be in their cells by now, probably sleeping.

We were now in the heart of Macomb, which contained the largest and darkest of the buildings. Large factories and containment areas surrounded us as we continuously moved through the streets, trying to be as silent and covert as possible. All of the buildings had windows with a grid made up of panes of glass. Inside, I couldn’t see anything, but we knew to stay away from any windows that had light glowing inside of them. It seemed unlikely the fires would reach this area, but there really was no way of telling for sure.

The more assembly plants we passed, the longer I knew it would take to dismantle all of them, and it would probably take uninterrupted weeks to do it. As we passed into the new district, I could see the development of machines, Talons mostly. And then, I got a view of what a VAT looked like. I had easily mistaken it for a small metal building factory until I realized it had wheels.

And lots and lots of guns sticking out of it…

It seemed like these were close to completion. Nonetheless, we continued our way around the last bunch of assembly plants before we came across a metal, linked fence with jagged razor wire wrapped around the top. In the distance, we saw an enormous building, with only little black squares as its windows. Around it was a large open space, leaving the building in the middle. All around, search lights were moving around, always looking for anyone that was trying to escape. It seemed pretty hopeless for anyone locked in there. Even if they made it past the massive exterior wall by some miraculous chance, the outside environment would kill them without a mount or method of transportation.

I had looked above and saw the same barbed wire we had been trained to remove. All around the wire were circular blades shaped like pizza cutters. I knew for a fact anyone trying to crawl thorough that would be cut to ribbons and would easily bleed to death.

“Well, I think we made it,” Blitz said, recognizing the building was the prison. “Now how do we get through the fence and make our way toward the building?”

I looked along the fence but I saw no possible opening or end to the wire. And truthfully, it would be a serious waste of time and risk to run along the fence looking for an opened, which would probably be guarded anyway.

“Must you always doubt my power, Blitz?” Vice asked Blitz, giving him an evil stare. “This is nothing. I’ve dealt with this many times before.”

“Uh...” Blitz warned him, looking into his eyes. “That’s exactly what Lahanas thought before he opened fire on those Wind Strikers…”

“Yeah, no…” Vice replied. “What he did was just plain stupid. I’m not like that at all.”

Vice the told the two of us to step aside, and when we did, he slashed away at the fence. But, he had tried over and over again, but not a single cut was made in the links. Then, after some aggravation, he finally gave up…

“Okay…” Vice hissed, just barely keeping his cool. “I guess we’ll need to find another way around.”

“Yeah,” Blitz replied, figuring they would reinforce the fence. “But these Crimson Stars aren’t going to let us through the front gate. Is there any way we can pretend we’re them…?”

Vice had turned toward Blitz, and he looked like he was about to laugh. I had looked at him too, and Blitz couldn’t understand what was going on.

“Blitz, you’re a genius,” Vice smiled, patting the little Pachirisu on the back. “We already have their guns. Now we just need some of their badges and uniforms.”

“Badges?” Blitz asked.

“Yup,” Vice told him with a dark grin. “It helps them bypass security measures and its proof that they belong to the Crimson Stars.”

There had to be some around here. I had looked left and right, and suddenly I saw two guards walking along the perimeter of the fence. I was surprised they hadn’t seen us yet.

“Hide!” I told them, “Someone’s coming!”

We had dashed behind the assembly plant ten feet away from us, and just waited patiently, taking refuge behind a small, black metallic containment shed used to hold maintenance equipment. After two minutes of hiding in the dark, I took a peek and saw they had started walking down us and I saw it was an Aipom and a Combusken, both in Crimson Stars uniforms. I had heard the purple money Aipom giggling about something, and suddenly the Combusken stopped and the fiery, feather-headed fowl Pokémon glared at the Aipom with a look of contempt.

“Just what the hell is so funny?” He asked with an annoyed stare. "Half the god-damn base is up in flames, we're out having to do overtime for a perimeter patrol, and you're laughing about it!?"

We waited silently as the Aipom just kept on laughing. Suddenly, he tried to break out of it.

“Do you know who has the worst job here, out of everyone?” The Aipom asked, struggling not to burst out laughing.

“Hands down, it’s the prisoners,” The Combusken replied. “There's no worse fate than to be a slave, slugging it out all day, every day. Not to mention the whipping.”

Still, the Aipom shook his head, indicating that he was wrong. Still, he just keep only giggling as we kept waiting silently…

“Yeah, you may think that…” The Aipom snickered, “but it’s really Ved. Now that’s the worst job ever!”

“Ved? You mean that ugly Sawk guy who takes care of the Skarmories?” The Combusken asked with surprise.

“Yep!” The Aipom laughed, “No wonder he swears all the time. He gets bitten at least six times a day and then... think of the cleaning, the feeding, and... ha, ha, the poop cleaning!”

The Aipom was laughing hysterically, but the Combusken still didn’t get it, looking at the purple, grinning monkey like he had lost his sanity.

"You're an idiot," the Combusken stared down at him

They were distracted by the rather stupid conversation, but I knew we were too close to the prison to even think about using our guns or Pokémon powers that would create noise or light. We were going to need a more silent method of killing them.

I then looked to the storage shed, thinking there were a few tools here that could be repurposed to be weapons. I wasn't sure what even half of these were used for exactly, but anything with a blunt or sharp edge was a viable weapon. I found one tool that seemed to be bladed and looked to be some kind of wire or pipe-cutting tool. There was also an obvious sledgehammer tool with a rubber-like grip, a metal bin of spare metal pipes, and other tools. When I thought about it a little more thoroughly, I realized we needed something that wouldn't draw blood either. If the uniforms were bloodstained in any way, it was going to cause suspicion.

"Silently," I whispered to Vice and Blitz. "No guns, no powers, nothing that would draw blood. Nothing that makes light or noise."

"Are you crazy...-" Vice nearly interjected with disagreement about the demanding expectation before quickly realizing why I was doing it this way.

Vice quickly hushed, grabbed a chain with triangular-shaped links from the storage shed, and just nodded. I could tell he was going to use it to try and choke at least one of them to death like a garrote, which was likely one of the best methods he could use for this situation. It would be even better if they never got the chance to scream or shout.

I quickly grabbed a metal pipe, knowing the first strike I was going to make was to hit them either in the lungs to wind them, or if possible, go for the neck so they couldn't call out and alert anyone else.

We waited for them to draw closer. The Aipom carried on, laughing about something nonsensical yet again.

"Vice, take the Aipom and choke him with the chain," I whispered to them. "Blitz, we're both going for that Combusken's neck."

The fighting fowl's neck was a much easier to strike target than the Aipom's, who barely had a trachea to begin with. I was just hoping this would work. Once they started come very close, we needed to move. They were within just steps of noticing us, so it was do or die at this point.

"Go!" I commanded them.

At that moment, we broke out of hiding, and acted quickly.

Vice was quick to leap out of the shadows and sling the triangle-linked chain around the Aipom's neck before he even had a chance to realize what was going on. Quickly, Vice had the purple monkey's windpipe squeezed shut just as Blitz and I ambushed the distracted Combusken.

I swung hard and fast, putting all the power I could into slamming the Combusken's neck as powerfully as I could. I wasn't sure what I hit, but I definitely heard something snap like deadwood. The fiery fowl tried to gasp for breath like he was choking just seconds before Blitz leapt in, striking the area between the Combusken's neck and jaw with the metallic pipe he had picked up also. Unable to get breath into his lungs, the Combusken had to drop his Leadhammer rifle before collapsing. At that moment, I was able to strike the Combusken one last time in the back of the head, landing the killing blow with a severe strike of blunt force trauma.

I turned to see Vice, choking the last moments of life out of the Aipom. The purple monkey had only enough breath to make one last whimper before he died and his eyes went blank with a vacant, lifeless stare. Once Vice was convinced he was dead, he released his grasp, kicked the dead Aipom's body to the ground, and tossed the chain aside.

"Oh, that felt good," Vice replied. "Nothing beats death in the dark."

I wasn't too crazy about it. This war had really gotten ugly, but this wasn't something words were going to fix now.

After that, I got to work on removing the strangled Aipom's Crimson Stars uniform while Vice got to work on removing the uniform off of the Combusken. After taking off the gray and white Silver Rebellion uniform, I tried to put on the Aipom's, starting with the feet. It was a pretty tight fit and I felt like I was almost too fat to wear it, but I eventually squirmed my way into it. Meanwhile, Vice seemed to have no problem at all with the Combusken’s uniform.

From what I could tell, the Crimson Stars had their own emblems also. The one the Aipom had been wearing was shaped like a shield and had three red stars on it against a silver background. I pulled it off and realized it was attached by means of some sticky adhesive strip. I then placed it back. As for weaponry, I took the Aipom's Scab submachine gun. Once we had what we needed, we dragged the dead bodies of the Combusken and the Aipom into the storage shed and shut the door to hide them.

“What about me?” Blitz asked, realizing we didn't have a third Crimson Stars uniform for him.

“Ha, we'll just pretend you're our prisoner!” Vice told him. “Easy money. We'll just pretend you're the last survivor of the firefight, you ran out of ammo, and we captured you to be tortured so you spill all the details during an interrogation! I'm sure these jackasses do it all the time!”

Blitz swallowed hard, and looked a little anxious…

“Okay…” Blitz responded. "As long as... those things don't actually happen.

We decided to wrap Blitz in the chain that Vice had used to choke the Aipom, binding his hands and then wrapping the chain around his waist. Vice's plan was a decent one, and it was really the only option we had right now.

We began walking toward the front gate, which was pretty heavily guarded. I wasn't sure how long or if they'd notice the Aipom and the Combusken were missing, but we had no choice. By the gate, there was a Bagon and a Golduck both armed with Leadhammer rifles, just glaring at Blitz. We had approached them, and we tried as much as possible to act like guards.

"Say hello to one of the asshats that was involved in the attack!" Vice proudly told them, nudging Blitz a bit roughly with his elbow, causing the sheepish electric squirrel to wince from the blow and stumble a bit. "We killed two of his friends before this little bastard ran out of ammo."

“Heh, really?” The Bagon asked in a gruff tone. “Must have been one of those maggots that set the whole base on full alert and set fire to the warehouses. Stupid rebellion sons of bitches. I swear, I'll make this little one bleed until he confesses to everything." He then turned to look Blitz dead in the eyes. "You hear that, you useless fleshbag!? I'll gut you into a god-forsaken meat-puppet and won't even let you die right away!"

"Any free detention cells?" I asked him quickly, trying to act in the same, heinous attitude the rest of them tended to have. "We need to get back on patrol, just in case there's another prick out there. And I'm sick of dealing with this little wretch. He smells like the bastard child of a gasoline can and the rotting asshole of a roadkill Raticate."

He then tossed me a single key, and I caught it with my free hand, the one that wasn’t holding the Scab submachine gun. I looked it over, seeing it had the same kind of resemblance to the metal bar-coded keys from Black Bay prison. I then looked up at the Bagon.

“Cell 385 on the third floor should make sure the little grub doesn’t get out,” The Bagon snickered. “Don’t beat him too much, I’m sure the boss will want to take care of that himself.”

“Him?” I responded to the Bagon. "I don't even want his stink on my hands."

“Now go on and get out of here,” The Bagon ordered us.

We then continued walking along the long, cobbled stone path toward the double, brown metal doors. Once I had grabbed the metal handle, it was cold to the touch. I pulled it open, shoved the door aside, and then looked in.

When we looked in, we saw the floors, the ceiling, and the walls were made up of crude, dirty metal. Rust was everywhere in patches, and it looked a lot like the prison from Black Bay, only it was much, much larger. I heard a faint clanking and wailing sound in the distance, but another than that, the rooms were dead silent and very dark.

"Juno... you..." Blitz whispered, looking a little distraught, "you didn't mean I...?"

"Of course not," I told him with a smirk. "We're just acting."

We had walked down the dark, metal hallways, and as I looked into each of the cells, I saw various Silver Rebellion soldiers lying weak and tormented on their rickety, metal beds. Each one of them appeared to be overworked and abused with injuries and malnourishment. I couldn’t help but think Alex was going to appear to be the same way. Problem was, I had no idea on what kind of Pokémon he was turned into. And going around and asking each Pokémon if they were once human seemed like insanity. I was going to have to find another way. I figured it would just make more sense if we freed them all first and sorted that issue out once we got back home. And hopefully one of these Pokémon really was Alex. I hated to think he could have been killed here before we arrived, but it was a possibility.

When we had reached the end of the hallway, we came across more hallways left and right as well as an elevator and a door leading to a flight of stairs leading upward. Everything was filthy, paint was chipped and peeling, and rust was in blotches everywhere.

“I’d feel much safer with the stairs,” I told Vice, looking at the rusty doors of the elevator.

“I’ll second that,” Vice responded, heading over to the door. "That thing looks like it could drop any second."

We then opened the creaky metal doors and headed up the flight of metal stairs, which looked even worse than the dirty floor. Plus it didn’t have any handrails, so anyone who wasn’t careful could go tumbling down to the first floor.

We climbed our way to the third floor, but I had looked up and realized there were at least three more floors above us. How were we supposed to release everyone here without anyone knowing? This could take hours.

As we opened the metal door to the third floor, we came across another hallway to our right and a solitary window to our left, with a metal grate over it. A flicking red light above us had lit the hallways with a flashing glow that was both eerie and alarming at the same time.

As we passed each cell, I saw there was a tiny metal plaque by the door handle. We had come across another intersection of hallways, and I didn’t know what direction to take. Suddenly, we had seen another guard, another angry, Simisear had been patrolling around on the third floor. The beige and red fire monkey looked especially aggressive and angry, and he looked even worse wearing Crimson Stars armor. As soon as he noticed us, his look of disgust got even worse.

“What the hell are you doing here!?” The Simisear asked, looking at the three of us with a angry stare as he clutched his Leadhammer rifle. "This floor's for high-profile convicts only, and he sure as hell doesn't look like one! Are you bumbling idiots lost!?"

I didn't have a real, logical answer because the truth, which would obviously get us killed. We really were lost and I didn't think the floors of this prison had special designations. I didn't have a way to explain it either, but I tried my best to lie and improvise.

"Sorry, man," I told him casually, trying to weasel my way out of it. "We're recent Jasandax transfers. What floor's standard detention?"

"Who's your reporting overseer!?" The irritated Bagon barked at us again. "I want to know your contingent code right now!"

"That would be-"

And before I even had the change to make up a name and a bunch of numbers, Vice had opened fire, squeezing the trigger of his Leadhammer rifle, pounding the Simisear with piercing bullets as the rifle roared to life while its flashing muzzle fire lit up the whole hallway. The fire monkey didn't even have a moment to respond before each consecutive shot sent him stumbling backwards before collapsing on his back in a bloody mess, dropping his own Leadhammer on the ground in the process. Both Blitz and I didn't expect it at all and we jumped before looking at him doubtfully.

"Are you daft!?" I impulsively shouted at Vice. "The whole damn prison probably heard that!"

"Whatever," Vice shrugged. "He was already onto us. Let's release some of these guys and get them loaded up. We're gonna need a lot of helpers."

I just nodded, and got ready for even more havoc. Hopefully what happened at Black Bay was enough experience to pull this off correctly...

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 29
Loss of Security

Unlike my previous assumptions, the prison hadn’t been very well guarded, or at least the night watches were very minimal. Still, there was more than enough to cause commotion. Already Vice had taken quite a big risk by shooting down one of the guards. Still, I could guess there weren’t that many guards running around, or at least most of them were outside. While these guys were armed, they probably didn’t expect us to get this far into the prison. In fact, they were probably thinking no one would make it this far into Macomb…

“So what’s your plan of action, Juno?” Vice asked me, looking at me curiously. “We don’t have a whole lot of time before someone finds out we’re here and locks down the whole prison…”

“We need to create a diversion that ultimately leads to a prison break,” I told Vice and Blitz.

Vice looked at me with shock. He shook his head in disbelief.

“You’re kidding, right?” Vice asked me with his eyes wide open. “These guys have been here for years. As soon as they hear this place has been taken over, they’re going to take advantage of this as soon as they can and run the hell outta here.”

“If they’ve been here for years…” I reminded him, “Then they probably have a very good idea of what its defenses are like and know they'll be shot down almost immediately unless they arm themselves.”

Blitz just looked at me curiously and Vice looked away in frustration.

“Look, once we get rid of the guards, we unlock all the cells and tell everyone to head to the upper floors,” I told them both, thinking it all out.

"Guess again, not all of these prisoners are Silver Rebellion troops," Vice told me again. "You think they're all going to listen to you!? Some of these guys really do deserve to be locked up, you know."

"They'll still fight if they want to survive and get out of Macomb with their heart still beating," I told him, knowing that much. "And knowing how they've been put into slave labor here, I doubt they'll pass up an opportunity to pay the Crimson Stars back for all those days of abuse."

Vice nodded, but he also shrugged as well, thinking it was a reckless plan, but it was at least something.

"Maybe I should go and send for help," Blitz told the both of us.

"Pft, yeah right," Vice nearly laughed. "Kamax told us we were on our own for this one, remember? Plus by the time you head over there, even if you manage to convince them to send reinforcements, by the time you all get organized and ferry your butts all the way down here, all of us will probably be long dead by then. Besides, you don't even have a Pidgeot! How do you expect to get down there, flapping your arms like a birdie to fly away!?"

"I was thinking I could... use Rackal's Pidgeot..." Blitz told him a bit sheepishly.

"Are you nuts!?" Vice exclaimed again. "She'd only obey her master, and there's not even enough left of him to bury his remains in a lunch box! My god, you two really didn't think this one out, did you!?"

I was getting tired and impatient. It was true, I didn't exactly have the seniority or veteran status of any other Silver Rebellion Pokémon here. I barely even felt like a Silver Rebellion soldier to begin with. Still, I didn’t want to spend a lifetime arguing this thing out, and we were running against time as is.

“Listen, pal,” I scolded him. “I'm still squad leader here, so at least try to cooperate. I hate this place as much as you do. So let's just take a stab at it. Blitz will try to find the switch that opens the cells. You and I will try to find the armory to get everyone a weapon. If we pull this off right, we should be able to get almost everyone out of here alive using the Crimson Stars's own vehicles."

"You've really lost it, haven't-"

"I know, I know," I told him quickly, making it clear I hadn't lost my mind. "I'm not an idiot. I don't plan on driving right into Syarmix using vehicles the Silver Rebellion is going to think are enemies. We would get out and simply head out on foot after parking them a mile outside of the city."

Vice just rolled his eyes, but decided to go along with it.

Then, I decided to get down to business. I wanted to finally get out of here. I was hating this place already.

“Blitz, you see if you can find the switch to open up the cells,” I told the electric squirrel, hoping he’d be able to handle it on his own. “Vice and I will take care of the guards and find the armory.”

"Well, we made it this far," Vice shrugged. "Let's roll the dice and see if we can cheat death again."

"I'm on it, Juno.” Blitz replied, nodding with a little smile.

“And once you’re done,” I told him, “we’ll meet on the roof.”

Blitz then picked up the fallen Simisear's Leadhammer rifle and wiped off the blood with the sleeve of his uniform. After that, he headed downstairs while Vice and I headed upward.

“Let’s go, we don’t have any time to waste,” I told Vice, knowing there was only a matter of time before reinforcements had arrived.

Vice and I had headed up the stairs, after we were convinced the third floor was empty. We had arrived on the forth and the halls were completely empty, which was highly unusual. Nonetheless, we made our way to the fifth floor and I had realized there was only one more floor above us, making six floors in total. Once we had opened the door to the fifth floor, the rusty, metal door hit the back wall and sent a harsh slamming sound throughout the halls. At first, we thought the floor was empty until a massive, hulking Tyrantrum turned around the corner and was holding two Sluggers in his massive hands. The dark red and white tyrannosaurus was massive, and fully equipped with Crimsons Stars combat armor. He looked at the two of us and just smiled.

“Well, well,” He growled with a low, amused voice, “I don’t remember the two of you shrimps ever being assigned guard duty.”

“That’s because we’re not guards!” Vice shouted with laughter. “Up yours and have a bullet breakfast!”

It was almost interesting to see that when presented with an opportunity for combat, Vice totally lost his mind, but when it came to discussing tactics and plans, he thought I was the one that was crazy...

I was honestly hoping I wouldn't have to work with him again...

The Tyrantrum readied his two Slugger machine guns and pointed them right at the two of us. With his strength, he could fire both and still have very little recoil in each hand. He then pulled both triggers, and then fire had rushed out from the end of the barrels, and he sprayed the hallway with ammunition and carnage. I took a deep breath and knew I absolutely had to focus or both of us were beyond dead.

I then focused and concentrated hard and then bullets slowed to a crawl. Vice had pulled out his Leadhammer rifle while I opened fire with my Scab submachine gun. I knew it would do nothing against the armor, so I had to concentrate and use all of my skills, training, and power for this one.

While I could now move significantly faster than the bullets from the Tyrantrum’s rifles, that didn’t mean our bullets were faster. The two of us had opened fire, and I felt the Scab submachine gun shake violently as ammunition had blasted out from the end of the barrel. The whole hallway was full of bullets, and it wasn’t very easy to dodge the ones that the Tyrantrum had fired upon us. Meanwhile, the large and relatively easy to hit Tyrantrum had been struck several times, digging holes in his armor. However, that didn't stop him from shooting.

I managed to take out his left eye before jumping up, leaping off of the rightmost wall, and then hurled myself in the air to attack his other side. All the while, I tried to glide between the bullets spiraling through the air. As soon as I reached his right side, I then aimed and blasted out his other eye, permanently rendering him blind.

He stopped firing, howled, and leaned over. He used the last of his ammunition to fire randomly before both machine guns simply clicked and ran out of ammo. I skipped off of the other wall, and quickly jumped on his back. He tried for a moment to swat me with his arms, but I took the Scab, pointed it down at his head, and just fired, breaking through his skull and taking out his brain in a furious hailstorm of bullets.

He soon collapsed into a ruined heap, blinded and almost fully lobotomized by bullets. Just before he hit the ground, I leapt off.

When I saw Vice, I had see he had been struck three times. Twice in his crest and another time in the shoulder. His shoulder was bleeding, but he simply gritted off the pain. But for a moment, it was like that wasn't what was really bothering him.

"Pft, you show off!" Vice complained, grasping his bleeding shoulder. "That big bastard was mine!"

"Are you okay!?" I shouted at him, looking at the crimson blood matting around his shoulder. "You're bleeding!"

"Oh shut up, you act like I haven't been hurt before," Vice spat. "It's nothing more than a flesh wound. Probably will scar nicely anyway. Would have been a better story if you hadn't stolen the kill!"

Stolen the kill. Seriously. That Trantrum nearly killed us and he was concerned about bragging rights.

“Come on,” Vice replied to me. “We have to keep moving. If you really want to arm all these guys, we've got to get to that armory.”

I could certainly agree with that…

We had moved our way through the cold, metal prison, shooting down two more guards. From the looks of it, this place's alarms were already going, but it seemed like with all the other havoc going on outside, obviously the guards couldn't be in two places at once.

We had already caused a commotion among the prisoners, wondering who we were really and if all this mayhem meant their days of freedom might soon be upon them. We kept silent until Blitz had found the switch to unlock all the prison doors. Only then did we tell them we were part of the Silver Rebellion, but we told them to remain in their cells while we called for backup. Regardless, Vice and I quickly ripped off our Crimson Stars uniforms so we weren't mistaken for one of them and were shot because of it. From the looks of it, most of these prisoners were stripped naked or were only wearing rugged and torn clothing.

Despite trying to keep things under control, a lot of the prisoners refused to stay in their cells, and some of them were already arming themselves with the few guns the prison guards had been carrying. I figured if there were any guards left in here, they were quickly getting overwhelmed.

We had met up with Blitz again on the first floor.

"Everyone's out of control!" The frantic electric squirrel exclaimed. "I mean, I know they're eager to leave, but-"

"Oh, let 'em go wild," Vice replied. "We need to head to the roof to I can call Storm Gale and Juno can call Blazewing. After that, we find a few of those VATS, load these prisoners up, and then get the hell out of here."

"Did you guys find the armory?" Blitz asked, seeing most of the prisoners weren't armed at all.

"No, we didn't," I shrugged, figuring with how huge this place was, we could be running around for days before we found anything. "Like Vice said, let's just find a few VATS that seem to be in at least some working condition. There's got to be at least a few around."

Never mind hoping I'd know how to drive the blasted thing. I figured if I could at least just get it to move, everything else was trivial.

We then headed upward, and we made our way up to the top floor. After that, we looked for the entrance to the roof, since the stairwell and the elevator didn’t reach all the way up. After looking everywhere for a second staircase, we found the only one, which was behind a rusty metal door with a tiny plaque labeled “Maintenance.” I grabbed the doorknob and it was locked. I wasn’t very surprised. Vice had looked it over and just shrugged.

“Oh, what the hell is the point?” Vice remarked, readying his sharp claws.

He slashed furiously at the metal door knob, sending a loud and hideous screeching sound into the air. I put my hands on my ears to neutralize the terrible sound as I winced from the pain of the noise while Blitz just cringed. When it was over, I put my hands down and looked to see a twisted metal lock on the floor, with deep cuts into it. I looked at the door and saw Vice had ripped out the lock, knob and all. Now it was just another normal metal door with a gaping hole in it.

“Locks only keep out honest people,” Vice said casually, grabbing the ruined door and throwing it open. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“Man, glad I was on the receiving end of that,” Blitz replied, looking at the knob with disbelief. “I don’t think I would have much of a head left after that…”

We headed through the doorway and came across a spiral staircase with rickety metal stairs. We made our way upward and into another small room with a metal door. The tiny metal room was especially dirty, and looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years. Regardless, we quickly made our way for the door, and opened it. We then made our way onto the metal roof, and we could see the red and black sky with its occasional lightning flares above us.

I looked around, still noticing that the warehouses were in flames, but it was starting to die down a bit. However, the damage to Macomb had been brutal and with so much of their factory and warehouse lines destroyed, it was definitely going to have a notable impact on their war effort. I figured the Crimson Stars put all their eggs in one heavily and well-defended basket and thought it was all secure.

Vice had called for his Pidgeot, letting loose a loud whistle that despite the distance, could be heard thanks to the keen level of hearing most Pidgeots had. After a few moments, Vice’s Pidgeot had arrived, landing swiftly on the roof. Once her clawed talons had come into contact with the metallic roofing, the brown and beige Pidgeot with its long yellow and pink crest had looked toward Vice, her trainer.

I was about to call in Blazewing when suddenly we were interrupted. Above in the sky, we saw four Wind Strikers and what appeared to be their leader, a green and vicious looking Scyther riding on a Flygon. That was new. Usually these guys would always ride Skarmories, so what was this guy doing.

Vice had stepped back and shook his head.

“Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT…!” Vice panicked in fear. “It can’t be him… Not now… Why the hell did he have to show up!?”

“Who the hell is that?” I asked Vice, never before seeing him in so much fear.

He just shook his head, backing away. His reaction was definitely making me unnerved now.

“That’s Vorox and Tychal,” Vice told Blitz and I. “Vorox has killed nearly a thousand Silver Rebellion troops, lead missions that torched five of our cities, and has earned all seventeen ranks of the Crimson Stars…”

Blitz had looked up at the Scyther with a fearful look in his eyes. I couldn’t believe it either, but I could tell from the Scyther’s gaze that nothing could ever bring him fear. As he drew closer, my heart was racing faster.

“You mean he’s the…?” Blitz asked in fear.

“Yeah…” Vice replied, swallowing hard, “…the leader of the Wind Strikers…”

[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.

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 31
The Passage Home

It was over, and I was finally glad at last there was one less nightmare we had to face. Despite our victory over Vorox and Tychal, he had injured us pretty badly. Still, at least we were still breathing, while the two of them were clearly dead.

That was when Vice and Blitz had arrived again, riding on Storm Gale's back. When the massive and rough-looking Pidgeot landed with her talons clanging on the metallic roof, she just looked surprised as the signs of carnage. And then, when Vice dismounted, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"No way... no way... holy...!" Vice muttered in total disbelief, "He's... you seriously just killed Vorox!?!?"

"Well, he sure ain't breathing from my angle," Blazewing remarked. "I dunno about you, but I don't think a giant scythe sticking in one's head really helps the cerebral cortex chug along."

"Oh damn..." Vice muttered again. "Oh damn... that Divine Prophecy thing... is that really true!? I thought it was crap before, but this... this right here might just make me a believer."

Blitz was just as shocked, looking at me like I somehow managed to turn myself into a Pikachu commando. I didn't boast or puff myself up about it, though. A little bit of bad luck or horrible timing would have been fatal for Blazewing or myself. Fighting this guy was no laughing matter either. He was practically still fighting even when dead.

"Holy cow, look at them..." The electric squirrel commented, side-stepping away from the pools of blood to avoid getting it on his white fur or on his giant tail. "Sure don't need to bother checking for a pulse with these two."

I still couldn't help but look at the cut Vorox had inflicted on me. It was still bleeding badly and a large patch of yellow fur had soaked up quite a bit of blood. I wasn't exactly sure if there was anything that could be used to patch it up, but I was beginning to worry if I was bleeding out. After blinking twice, I was feeling somewhat lightheaded and woozy, not sure if it was the result of seeing my own blood splattered all over the place.

"Yeah, that sure as hell ain't pretty," Vice told me, noticing the laceration I kept looking at. "Sit down, quit fussing around or else you're going to keep opening it up. We'll find someone to patch you up and get you out of here."

"Just... leave the rest to us," Blitz nodded. "We'll take care of the prisoners and transports. We already found a few that should be good."

I nodded, sighed, and decided to sit down and remain still while Vice and Blitz went back downstairs to take care of everything else. It was just Blazewing and I again, but for now, it seemed the Crimson Stars had given up on Macomb. They never were able to control the flames that ultimately destroyed almost the entire compound, and I could see in their haste and hubris, they didn't think such a fire would ever be started.

In the meantime, I felt so tired. After so much running, shooting, shouting, it was easy to just want to lay down and...

"Hey, no napping!" Blazewing told me, giving me a nudge with her clawed hand to wake me up. "Napping with a cut like that and you'll be waking up on a fluffy white cloud with a golden harp!"

That actually sounded... somewhat pleasant in a way after all I had been through, but she was right. I tried to force myself not to drift off like that again.

"Okay, I get it..." I nodded, sitting up to avoid dozing off. "But how are you holding up?"

Blazewing checked herself and it seemed like her cut wasn't slowing her down as much. But in a way, with considerations to body size, the cut I had was much worse than hers.

"Ah, it'll heal," She shrugged with a smile. "Yours will too, just hang in there."

I smiled as I looked back into her eyes.

In the meantime, there was something else that Vice said that was somewhat pecking at my mind. I wasn't sure if Blazewing was thinking the same thing, but had a chance to reflect on it, but I figured I'd ask.

"Hey, Blazewing," I told her, trying to get my mind off the pain for a while, "have you actually had a chance to read this "Divine Prophecy" thing they mentioned?"

She looked at me curiously, and I could tell she knew what I was getting at. With Vorox being dead and the Macomb mission seeming like it was almost a success against insane odds, it made me wonder... was it really coming true?

"I can't say I've actually read it," Blazewing shrugged. "But yeah, now that you mention it, it's got me wondering too."

However, before we got the chance to really talk about it, Vice had come back, accompanied by an Aromatisse. The puffy, pink and purple-colored bird-like fairy Pokémon was still in her prisoner uniform, consisting of a dirty, dark-yellow jumpsuit that had obviously seen better days. Meanwhile, she had been carrying a small, dirty-white pouch of first aid supplies she had probably fetched out of a nearby medical supply closet.

"Hey, her name's Saraxa," Vice told us, introducing us to the Aromatisse. "She seems to know-"

"No way...!" Saraxa gasped, suddenly shocked about Vorox's crumpled dead body before her. "This dead Scyther... is this...?!"

"Yeah, that's Vorox!" Vice laughed, mocking the dead Wind Striker commander. "What's left of him anyway. Juno and Blazewing actually finally managed to kill that prick and his damn Flygon."

She then looked at me and Blazewing very curiously, blinking twice.

"But..." Vice quickly added, "I can't say they were able to pull it off without a scratch. There's where you come in."

"They're... they're REAL!?" Saraxa exclaimed in surprise.

I then remembered these prisoners had yet to hear of our arrival. Saraxa still seemed very surprised, but I had to show her the gash that Vorox had inflicted. She stepped closer to get a better look at it, sizing up the wound with her black and ruby-colored eyes. She got a look at it from varying angles.

"Oh, Juno..." Saraxa told me sympathetically, quickly grabbing her medical supplies. "I... well, that's a pretty nasty gash, and I can honestly say you weren't too far off from needing a transfusion. But, even so, it's definitely not the worst kind of thing Vorox has ever inflicted on someone. Yeah, you two are done for the day. I definitely don't recommend doing anything until this heals."

I let out a tired sigh. I recognized some of the basic medical supplies like the bandages, but there were some ointments and sprays that I was unfamiliar with. After applying two series of spray ointments and healing creams, both of which stung painfully when applied, she wrapped everything in bandages, which was almost enough to cover my entire chest.

"Hey, you'll be fine," Saraxa assured me. "I just... can't believe it's really you! Juno and Blazewing, alive and real! And you killed Vorox!"

She then went ahead and helped Blazewing get patched up also. She seemed to be an expert at this, and when she was done binding the wounds with bandages, she seemed quite proud of her work.

"Thanks a million," I told her with a tired smile.

"Oh, it's an honor, General Juno!" She smiled with a firm Silver Rebellion salute.

"Hey, I'm only an Ensign at the moment," I told her with a light chuckle. "But thanks."

Shortly after, Blitz had soon arrived. I still felt the urge to want to help, but I didn't think that would do my cut any favors.

"They're ready to go," Blitz told the rest of us. "We finally managed to find enough VATs and transports to get everyone a ride. Juno, do you think... you can walk?"

"Yeah... I don't recommend he does that," Saraxa told him. "I can't suture him up until we get home and trying to get him to a transport would probably rip open his cut again. If Blazewing is okay with it, he'd be better off riding her."

"Ah yeah, I'm fine with that," Blazewing smiled with a wink. "Let's go, this place is history."

Carefully and gingerly, I climbed on Blazewing's back, strapped myself into her harness, and sighed. I wasn't sure if Jamac and Kamax would consider this improvised mess a success, but it at least didn't feel like a failure.

"Okay, see you back at base," I told the others with a smirk. "I think we've spent enough time here."

"Uh, yeah," Vice muttered, looking at the smoldering husks of what once were many factories and warehouses. "Seriously, don't bring me on a mission like this again. I usually don't get worried like that."

Blazewing soon took off, and as we left the rooftop, I looked down below to see the prisoners were being loaded onto the VATs and other armored transports that they had managed to acquire. Some of them were unequipped with weapons while others were in an unfinished state, but they could at least run. Only two of them looked like they were complete, just without the paint.

From above, I got a good view of how absolutely ruined Macomb was. It was no wonder why they had evacuated everyone out. Blazewing had to fly low because of all the smoke rising from the burnt building husks, rubble, and ruins. Only a few buildings remained standing, but everything was damaged in at least one way or another. I could tell the Crimson Stars never learned to not put all their eggs in one basket, but it seems like that's exactly what they did with this place.

"Man, what a mess," I told Blazewing, really not realizing just how much damage that fire had done to everything. "I honestly didn't think that a few inferno grenades would start something that would make it look like the whole place had been bombed."

"I dunno about you, but it looks so much better this way!" Blazewing laughed cheerfully. "Before, it was just a cesspool of ugly factories and warehouses, military bases and all that other junk. Now, it's a nice clean slate, open to infinite possibilities!"

"Somehow I don't think the Crimson Stars are going to think of it like that," I chucked along with her.

As we glided out of Macomb, the transports soon followed, rolling over and crushing whatever twisted remains of Macomb were left that got in their way. The VATs and what seemed like other armored personnel carrier prototypes were huge, metal behemoth trucks with tiny slits for windows to prevent entry of attacks but to allow at least some circulation. They also seemed pretty unstoppable, tearing through building remains like there was nothing to it. I wasn't sure if the Silver Rebellion would reverse engineer these things, but either way, they would definitely be of some use.

Once everyone was out of the city and loaded up, we began the journey back, leaving behind Macomb as nothing but a vast, ruined landscape of collapsed buildings that still had traces of fires scattered throughout the city, but by now, they were dying down having run out of fuel.

As we slowly lead the armored convoy through the wastelands, I had remembered about Alex. I was wondering if he really was part of this group, and if he was, what Pokémon he had become. I tried to see things from his perspective, but I could only imagine what he might be thinking. If he really was down there, he probably had no idea who Juno really was. Even so, he hadn't even seen Symarix yet!

I didn't know how I was going to try and go about finding Alex without looking like I was insane. Maybe... even if I didn't ever find out, it would be okay in the end.

Blazewing and I had plenty of casual conversations on the way home as the carriers traveled along the rugged, dusty, and arid wastelands. We couldn't fly nearly as fast due to the slow nature of the VATs and other armored carriers, but it did give us time to catch our breath. Here, the two of us were, completely out of ammo, my armor was gone, the both of us got cut up, but we survived, destroyed Macomb, and rescued the last of the prisoners. While there were casualties, I highly doubted anyone could ever expect an attack on this place to go without shedding a single drop of blood.

"Man, I wish these things could hurry up," Blazewing told me, noticing that once again, her hasty flying had to result in her stopping for a moment for them to catch up. "I'm not getting any younger here!"

"Tough, yes," I told her, looking at the heavy armor of these vehicles that looked like they could take tank shells and just keep on rolling. "Menacing, yes. Huge... definitely yes. But yeah, they're not much faster than a sleepy Snorlax."

After what felt like many hours and us nearly running out of things to talk about, we had arrived back at Symarix. It was a pretty welcome sight to see after what we had been through. For me, it was still hard to call the gleaming, metallic city truly "home," but for now, it was definitely the closest haven of comfort we had in Kivistal.

It wasn't long until we had arrived at the gated entrance, and the guards there instantly recognized me. They hadn't seen the transports yet as we had flown ahead to make sure they didn't start firing upon them thinking it was some kind of Crimson Stars attack.

Once we had landed, they instantly approached us. A Lucario dressed in Silver Rebellion body armor was accompanied by a Floatzel and a Pancham wearing the same gray and white armor, custom-fitted for their size.

"Juno?" The Lucario head guard asked me from besides the controls to open the gate. "You're back!? What happened? Where is everyone else?"

As I dismounted from Blazewing as she was hovering just a few inches above the dusty, arid ground, I looked up to the black and blue wolf Pokémon.

"We have a few... 'borrowed' transports coming in with prisoners from Macomb," I told the Lucario. "Give the word out not to open fire on them."

"Macomb?" he asked, looking shocked. "You went there and lived!?"

"Lived?" Blazewing asked, nearly laughing. "No, we totally got killed and decided to just come back from the dead. Yeah, the place is toast."

The Lucario nodded, a little bit bashful he asked such a question, but he understood what she was saying. He then gave the hand signal to send the message for the defense sentries to hold fire. As I looked behind me, I saw a small dust cloud kicking up from the distance, knowing they would be here soon.

Just one thing was on my mind that whole time as I saw the transports rolling in...

...I knew the Crimson Stars would seek brutal revenge for this.

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 32
Honor and Commitment

Blazewing and I had gotten swift and considerable medical treatment to address the wounds. I wasn't too crazy about what passed for a suture around Symarix, but it did its job, even though it was excessively painful and these Pokémon weren't too aware of many anesthetics. I knew it would take months to heal, but I couldn't complain considering the deadly alternative.

When asked about how I got the laceration in the first place, I simply told them it was from Vorox, easily forgetting he was one of the prime enemies of the Silver Rebellion. At first, they weren't sure if I was telling the truth when I told them we really did kill him and Tychal, but I didn't know they had actually brought back his dead body to prove it. To say the least, they were deadly serious about how much they despised the Wind Striker commander.

When news of that quickly got around, I wasn't surprised when I heard there was debate when it came to honoring the five rank advancement promise that was offered to anyone that killed the Wind Striker commander. Apparently some thought it was just a rumor, a joke, or something totally made in jest while others argued considering how much of a problem it had been to stop Vorox's insatiable killing spree, we deserved the promotion. There was only one major issue. With us being the rank of Ensign, it would make us Generals. I was beginning to see the irony of Saraxa calling me that upon meeting us.

Blazewing and I were still recovering, but at least the wounds were healing and we didn't need to wear nearly as many bandages. In the end, it was up to Kamax and Jamac as to whether they wanted to promote us or not. After a few weeks of healing and plenty of controversy, Blazewing and I had presented ourselves before Kamax and Jamac in the royal Emperor's Throne Room with a fresh set of white and gray armor, again, made to look like the statue downstairs. It had been a while since I was last in the tower throne room before Jamac, and I couldn't help but think how much had changed in so short a time.

Since the issue couldn't be decided within the military jurisdiction, they had to take the matter all the way to the top. Sever was eager to volunteer to help defend my case and encourage Jamac and Kamax to favor the promotion. I knew he probably wasn't the best debater out there, but I didn't have the heart to say no.

Meanwhile, a crowd of elite soldiers and other high officials had gathered in the throne room to discuss the situation and serve as witnesses. They came in all Pokémon shapes and sizes, from the small to the gargantuan.

Recommended Listening: Deadlight Soundtrack - Suburbs

It all started with a preliminary hearing to discuss the situation at hand. Oddly enough, it felt more like I was on the stand for being convicted of a crime, not for a promotion. It was... strange how the Silver Rebellion handled matters like this. It almost felt like I was supposed to feel guilty over something.

It had gone on for about fifteen minutes before Sever pointed back to the field report that Vice and I had been required to journalize that accounted for each action we had taken.

"How are we even discussing this?" Sever the Cubone asked before everyone. "Juno and Blazewing killed Vorox and Tychal! We have proof and witnesses who can confirm they were the ones!"

"That's not the issue," Kamax muttered, looking disinterested in the Cubone's claims. "We acknowledge Vorox is dead, but the five-level promotion was never an official instatement. Besides, it would make both of them Generals. That's simply out of the question as they lack the years of experience, leadership, and seniority."

I sighed, knowing in a way, he was right. Going from Ensign to General was just extreme, and if I only got promoted to Lieutenant from all this, I could at least be happy with that. Still, with Kamax being Head General, it really couldn't be argued with. I figured the offer had to be too good to be true the first time I heard it from Vice. The crowd of soldiers that were gathered in the throne room were murmuring and whispering amongst themselves, but I figured this wasn't going to go anywhere.

"On top of all that, Juno led a successful strike on Macomb!" One of the soldiers from the crowd called out. "Scouts confirmed the place was practically wiped off the map!"

"Again, Juno didn't follow protocol," Kamax argued. "According to his own report and his squad member, Vice, his squad took three casualties, showed signs of being disorganized, and his methods of freeing those prisoners was very anarchic. I read the report and was disgusted after reading he wore Crimson Stars armor to trick them to get into the prison. I wouldn't even trust a Lieutenant who did those kinds of shenanigans!"

Give me a break. I just looked down, shut my eyes, and tried to drown out the nonsense, knowing handling that in any other kind of fashion would have been suicide. Considering what we were up against, we were lucky to have survived that. Besides, I hardly saw those three causalities as my fault. Sure, I would have liked for Lahanas, Stevex, and Rackal to have survived, but what happened to them could have happened under even the best squad leader's command.

"But it worked!" Sever exclaimed. "The Crimson Stars weren't prepared for it, and in general, it was a successful mission. What more could you want!?"

"I'll be the judge of that," Jamac the Excadrill replied as looked into the Cubone's eyes, giving him a glare that told him he should stand down. "I've heard both sides of the story and this has frankly gone on long enough. Juno will not be granted any promotion or the Serious Declaration of Honor. These debates are over, and this decree is final."

I was just about to roll my eyes with a defeated sigh and a shrug when the soldiers in the throne room were livid about the final verdict. Many of them shouted and were up in arms, but they were forced out by the high guards, and even Sever was ordered to leave. He looked incredibly depressed and disappointed, and on his way toward the doors, he looked at me with a look of shame as if he felt he had completely failed me. I knew it wasn't his fault, though, and there were definitely no hard feelings between him and I.

When they were gone, I figured it was probably time we left this place also. I knew when I wasn't welcome.

"Hey, for the record," Blazewing spoke up, "exactly how were we supposed to handle that mission according to protocol, hmm? I must have missed the part where we were supposed to do a curtsey before politely knocking at the gates."

"Juno, tell your loutish mount to watch her tongue," The Vigoroth argued with an angry scowl. "Otherwise I'm sure Jamac's next decree will be to rip it out, and I would certainly support that notion."

"Why you!" Blazewing shouted before I stopped her.

"Let's just go," I told her, quickly patting her on the side to get her attention before I turned my back on the two of them. "We'll find another way around this."

They weren't worth it, and us losing our cool about it could make us lose everything. I could tell ugly politics had sunken in deep here also, and I figured the sooner we were out of that throne room, the better. Once we were out of here, then we could start discussing our options. I put my yellow paw on the ornate door handle, threw the door open, and Blazewing and I just stepped out and into the hallway.

We almost began our walk out of there when I suddenly heard the most unlikely person speak up, and I could hear him only faintly behind the door.

"Jamac, I trust you'll handle this matter with discretion," Sinis the Zangoose spoke up.

We stopped for a moment, and decided to eavesdrop on the conversation, staying close to the door to hear every word we could. I couldn't help but blink twice at the sudden revelation. It was strange. Sinis had been completely silent, sitting in the rear, and hadn't said anything the entire meeting long, and only now was he speaking up.

"What do you mean?" I heard Jamac's voice question him.

"It's time for you to decide if you want to keep Juno within the Silver Rebellion, or denounce the entire Divine Prophecy, order it to be destroyed, and exile the two of them," Sinis told him, making his voice very clear. "You cannot continue to have him revered as a prophesized hero among the people, but refuse any trace of a recompense for his efforts. The public will not stand for it that much longer as they have made it clear they value the prospect of Macomb's destruction, Vorox's assassination, and the liberation of the Macomb prisoners over battle and standard formality. You need to choose, and better you do it now."

He definitely sounded extremely neutral about this whole thing. But I figured that's what his purpose was for when it came to advising Jamac about his choices. Without a doubt, Sinis was definitely very hard to read. I would have liked to know what he personally felt, but I wouldn't get far asking him directly.

"I will discuss the matter with my Generals and tactical advisors," Kamax replied. "Once we arrive at a decision, we can then formulate a plan."

"Fine," Jamac agreed. "I want a response before the end of the day."

That didn't give us a whole lot of time. Still, I didn't think we were going to get anything more out of staying here. I quickly looked up to Blazewing, and figured we'd better get out of here before they realized we had been listening in.

"Let's go," I whispered to her.

She nodded, and we quickly headed for the elevator, trying to avoid getting caught. Once we made it to the elevator cab, I quickly pressed the button, and as soon as the doors opened, we headed inside. At least now it was just the two of us and no one could overhear us.

"They have got to be kidding," Blazewing muttered, looking up. "And here I was thinking we'd be getting a parade with all the confetti we could ever dream of in our faces. Instead, I get half my butt sliced open and now I got that white gorilla creep honking on that he wants to start cutting tongues out."

"We're definitely getting exiled," I told her, knowing Jamac and Kamax didn't seem like the type to change their minds. "I'm beginning to wonder if we should save them the trouble and just slip out the back before they realize we're gone."

"Huh, thought you'd never ask," Blazewing sighed. "With those clowns in power, I don't really feel like fighting anyway."

I realized that when I mentioned "considering the options," this was on her mind. To be honest, I wasn't sure what Kamax and Jamac expected of us. As the elevator sank lower and lower, I began to wonder... were Blazewing and I just tools or weapons for them to use? Or was this just a matter that they didn't believe in the Divine Prophecy? Either way, with them in power, we would be doing nothing but risk getting ourselves killed if we stayed here. Maybe I was right when my original hunches felt like this place would never feel like home.

As we headed toward the exit, it was impossible to not take a glance at the statue of Blazewing and myself. Was it really just a fairytale? I didn't know what to think about it anymore, but I figured if they didn't want us here, there was no reason for us to stay and risk our lives over and over again for Pokémon that didn't appreciate it in the slightest.

"We need to find Blitz and Alex before we go," I told Blazewing, knowing finding Blitz the Pachirisu wouldn't be too hard, but finding Alex was a whole other story.

"Alex..." Blazewing muttered as the elevator arrived at the last stop. "We're not even sure if he's here, do we?"

"Nope," I sighed as we got off the elevator. "But if he is, he's a Pokémon now, and we have no clue which one."

That was going to cost us time to find him. I had a few leads on how to find him, such as finding a Pokémon that was totally and utterly lost at his surroundings. I wasn't sure about his name, however. For some reason, Pokémon here just didn't understand traditional human-sounding names. Maybe that would lead us to him?

As we walked out of the spire building, I tried to think solutions, but my train of thought was suddenly derailed when as luck would have it, we were suddenly approached by Blitz. Well, at least finding him had been extremely easy. The white electric squirrel looked a little downcast when he saw the two of us.

"You don't need to tell me," Blitz muttered solemnly. "I already heard you didn't get the promotion."

"Oh, it gets even better than that!" Blazewing replied cynically. "We're getting handed a free, one way ticket out of Symarix. Wanna come?"

"Wait... are they... they're banishing you out of the city?" Blitz asked with shock.

"It's very likely," I nodded at that. "Blitz, we need to go before they upgrade that sentence to an execution, but there's one slight issue. I'm not sure if Alex is here as was part of the Macomb prisoners we rescued."

Blitz's expression seemed to change, and he looked a lot more hopeful.

"I'm pretty sure I found him while you were dealing with all that junk," Blitz smiled, looking like he was happy to be of help. "I checked up on the prisoners to see how they were all doing. Most of them admitted to being members of the Silver Rebellion, so that already cut down the numbers a lot. That left only a handful of others, so I tried to see which one of them was the most confused out of the bunch. Some of the other prisoners told me he had been acting really weird, and that's when I had a talk with him."

And that was when he looked up optimistically, looking especially perky for a Pachirisu.

"Long story short," Blitz smiled, "Alex is now a Zorua. He got a little shaken up during his time in Macomb, but he's fine now."

What a relief! The whole time, I wasn't sure if he was dead, still missing, or was lost somewhere else.

"Where is he?" I asked, wondering where he had been staying.

"He's been at a small refugee camp," Blitz told me. "Poor guy. He's broke, has no clue what's going on, and has no idea how he became a Pokémon. Some of the Silver Rebellion soldiers are trying to find his family or help him get his bearings back. They really have no idea what's going on."

Still, even so, we needed to get him out of here. I wasn't sure where we were going to go or run away to, but hanging around here was becoming a crisis that was getting further out of control.

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 33
Allies and Enemies

We maybe only had a few hours to get Alex and quietly get out of here. Blazewing and I weren't exactly crazy about us being the subject of so much controversy either. We had the support of some, but if we didn't have the support of the Silver Rebellion's own leaders, there wasn't much we could do besides go vigilante, and I highly doubted that would win us the war against the Crimson Stars.

With Blitz leading the way, we finally arrived at the refugee camp, which mostly consisted of worn tents, old sheds, and other temporary buildings with relief aid in the form of food, medical personnel, and sleeping areas. I looked around, but didn't quite see any Zoruas.

As we entered the camp, a few of the Pokémon there recognized me and either expressed their thanks, saluted, and some just stood there blankly, not sure what to say. With all that was going on, I couldn't blame them. Things had changed in a strange way.

Eventually, after working our way past a few crowds, tents, supply crates, and transport vehicles, we came across one medical tent, which seemed to be for those suffering from mental trauma. Inside, there was a Servine, a Hawlucha, and the Zorua. The Servine was sitting on the rickety metal cot as the grassy snake was shaking her head, looking like she was suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder as she was mumbling things to herself. The Hawlucha was sleeping on another cot, although the colorful fighting bird didn't look like it was having a pleasant dream at all and kept twitching, tossing, and turning. And then there was the Zorua, staring off into space as I imagined the dark, shadowy-colored fox was contemplating everything that had happened recently.

I approached him carefully, keeping in mind that to him, I was just another Pikachu.

"Are you..." I started asking the dark fox, "...Alex?"

I managed to get his attention, but I figured it wouldn't be too surprising if he had shared his human name with other Pokémon around here and discovered it was an unusual circumstance.

"I..." he replied, probably dizzy from all the thoughts racing in his head.

"Hey, just come with us for a minute," I told him, trying to assure him with a warm smile.

He nodded, and we made our way to a quiet area of the refugee camp away from all the other activity. It was a small area behind all the tents where they were just storing a few pieces of furniture. Alex seemed to recognize Blitz as a Pachirisu, having revealed himself as Randy from before. From what I could see, he was learning to walk on all fours alright. For a minute, I thought he would be having trouble trying to relearn how to walk.

"I... I really have no clue what's going on here," the exhausted Zorua told us. "I... you gotta believe me, I don't think I belong here."

"Dude, relax," I told him, trying to assure him things were fine. "I'm Juno, the Latias is Blazewing, and the Pachirisu is Blitz. Though you might remember us more as... Jake and Randy."

And that shocked the daylights out of him. As he jumped back in surprise with his eyes wide open, I just nodded to myself, knowing that was definitely proof this Zorua was Alex after all.

"Holy crap, guys...!" Alex exclaimed. "I swear... I seriously swear I was having a nightmare. And Jake, seriously, you're Juno!? There's a hell of a lot of Pokémon around here that talk about you."

"It's got to be our little secret," I told him, not sure what exactly would happen if they found out I was once human. "And listen, but... we need to scrap your human name."

Alex seemed to have already figured out there was something wrong with human names the hard way, but at least he could pass it off as just being drugged the same way Blitz did. Still, when it came to deciding on a name, he was drawing a blank.

"I gotcha, but..." Alex shrugged, not knowing what to go with, "I... whatever, just pick something for me, as long as it's not lame. You know more about what Pokémon name themselves here than I do."

I had a few ideas, but I just decided to go with one of the quicker ones that came to mind.

"Axzen sound okay with you?" I asked him, wondering what he thought of it. "I figured it sounded badass enough to match your style."

"Yeah, I can roll with that," he nodded, looking up with a dark smile. "Axzen the Zorua. Not bad, not bad."

I wasn't even sure if it was possible to catch him up on everything that happened. Still, as "Axzen" seemed to get his bearings, I knew we were already going to need to pull him out of here.

"Well, we got bad news," Blazewing sighed, bringing us to the next issue. "Turns out, the fat cats on top think we're a problem."

"Wait... what, you!?" Axzen exclaimed, looking shocked. "You kidding, you guys saved the lives of almost everyone here! Who the hell has a cactus so far up their ass to the point where they're making you a target!?"

I sighed, looked down, and shook my head. There was a lot behind this that I didn't understand, and I wasn't sure how to fully explain it, but I figured to try and give it my best shot possible.

"Emperor Jamac the Excadrill and his Head General Kamax the Vigoroth seem like they were expecting a totally different prophesized hero from that whole Divine Prophecy legend they have here," I told Axzen. "Despite having brought down Macomb and saved these Pokémon, they feel our methods are rowdy and unorganized. They talk like we don't know what we're really doing."

"That's bullcrap!" Axzen shouted with anger. "That's just a front to keep you under their control! It's a stupid government ploy trying to make you their killing machine or something!"

Was it? Now that he mentioned it, he did make me wonder if there was some sort of agreement between Jamac and Kamax to make sure I didn't rise too high, too quickly. Either they didn't really believe the prophecy, or they figured keeping me as a pawn to leverage for whatever they wanted was the best way to profit from it.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Blazewing agreed, rolling her eyes at the stupidity we've had to deal with. "We're thinking of blowing this popsicle stand before they get cheeky enough to start making false accusations up."

"Hey, I'm fine with that," Axzen nodded. "This place sucks anyway. Where're we heading?"

"Dunno," I shrugged. "Anywhere but here, I guess. We'll figure something out, but I'm not crazy about this war. I think both sides have problems."

We then headed back into the refugee camp, which seemed to have been quieting down as the daylight hours were fading. I figured the cover of the night might give us an easy means to quietly head out of here before anyone came looking for us. From what I could tell, Axzen had gotten adjusted to walking on all fours as a Zorua now. For the most part, it seemed like all three of us had simply gotten used to the idea of being Pokémon now. We didn't even know if we would ever be human once again, but for the time being, we could live with it.

We walked right into the main, open square that was usually used for the refugees to socialize and get a breath of fresh air. It was mainly the four of us now as everyone else had gone to sleep or went elsewhere as the red sun was almost gone and dusk had rolled in.

And then all of a sudden, we were surrounded. They had been waiting and watching the entire time, taking cover in some of the vacant tents, supply containers, and whatever else they could hide behind. I must have counted at least eight or nine Symarix guards suddenly appear from behind where they were hiding. And they were armed.

"Juno, Blazewing..." One of them, a stern and resolute Magmortar, spoke to us. "By decree of High General Kamax, you two are under arrest for impersonation and treason. Don't move, or this is only going to get worse."

"Wait... what!?" Blazewing exclaimed in disbelief. "Seriously, guys, and I thought my jokes were bad. Call me crazy, but I didn't ever picture Kamax as being the type to clown around with something like this."

"This isn't a joke," the Magmortar told her seriously. "Jamac and Kamax have come to the conclusion that you aren't the real Juno and Blazewing, and that you're impersonating them to take advantage of the Divine Prophecy. Whoever you two really are, we don't trust you and believe there is an ulterior motive you are keeping to yourselves."

THAT was the conclusion they were jumping to? I really just wanted to go to a corner and weep that there were some Pokémon out there that could make that kind of idiotic assumption. Here we were, a Pikachu and a Latias that were capable of taking down a massive military base and nearly avoid death. What more proof did they need? Did they really expect yet another Pikachu and Latias with the same names to come along and do it even better than we did? I really didn't get it.

"Uh..." Blitz muttered, tapping his chin with his white paw, "exactly how do you want them to prove it to you?"

"I swear, this city is full of idiots," Axzen spat. "Silver Rebellion... Crimsons Stars... maybe you all should just die in a fire."

I hadn't taken my Firefang submachine gun and neither did Blitz. I honestly didn't even think I'd need it. There were far too many to fight anyway, and it wouldn't be pretty at all. Besides the Magmortar, there was a fully armored Ursaring, a Nidoking, and a Garchomp. Even with all the guns we needed, it would still be a very brutal and risky fight and we would look beyond guilty if we fought like that.

I looked down, sighed, and shrugged, figuring there wasn't much choice but to give it up. I figured we might be safe when the citizens found out about this and hopefully threatened to riot. Either that, or someone would be pushed to come to their senses.

"Just follow orders and don't make a scene," The Magmortar muttered sternly. "Do that and no one gets hurt."

"No one gets hurt!?" Blazewing exclaimed, looking like she was ready for a fight.

I lightly put my yellow paw on her, urging her just to stand down.

"Let's not be the guilty ones here," I told her, hoping this was just a stupid misunderstanding that would be cleared out. "If we fight back, it'll make Kamax look right for arresting us. They can't possibly hope to keep the public under control with this."

"Well... fine," Blazewing sighed, looking bleak. "I'm looking forward to the trial. Should definitely be amusing."

With a groan, I allowed the soldiers to put shackles and chains on my wrists and ankles. I couldn't help but smirk a bit though. Blazewing was right, the trial couldn't possibly hope to win. Kamax may have shoehorned in an excuse to not give a promotion, but to arrest us? That was definitely far beyond crossing the line.

I was surprised they apprehended Blitz and Axzen, however. I really didn't know what kind of charges they were going to be throwing on the two of them.

"Uhh..." Blitz muttered, not knowing why he was being arrested, "what exactly did I do?"

"Orders were to arrest all known accomplices," the Ursaring told him with a gruff voice. "That includes you, Pachirisu."

He simply shrugged and went along with it. Axzen wasn't at all happy about it either, but it seemed like he understood what we meant about the trial being a complete shutout. Once they had all four of us bound in chains and shackles, we were led out of the refugee camp.

There weren't too many Pokémon outside, but the few that had noticed us were genuinely shocked. However, before long, once we were out of the camp, we were pushed into the back of a large, heavily armored military transport vehicle. Unfortunately, not too many Pokémon were going to see what had happened on our way to the prison, but I was confident word would spread around quickly and do its damage.

Once we were inside the cold, metallic interior, they shut the heavy metal doors behind us, and drove us off. There were no windows, so we couldn't exactly see where we were going.

"Well, ain't this swell," Axzen grumbled, shaking the chains attached to his wrists. "Who did you two piss off to go from town heroes to enemies of the state?"

"I'll take 'Things I Also Wish I Knew' for $500!" Blazewing laughed sarcastically. "No, really. One minute, everyone seems happy we toasted Macomb, then suddenly we're denied promotions by the big shots on top, and then this crap happens. I swear, we were going to scram out of here the second we picked you up."

"Kamax and Jamac think the prophecy may be false," I told him, figuring this was the real reason. "Either that, or deep inside, they're afraid of it."

"Why do this, though?" Blitz questioned. "Whether they believe the prophecy or not, can't they see you two are trying to help them?"

I just shook my head, really wondering myself. Did they think Blazewing and I would betray them when they got their guard down? What motive would that be for?

After only a few minutes of riding through town in a vehicle that felt like it was quickly turning into an oven, I kept trying to figure out what went wrong. But, before I really got a chance to really think it over, the ride was over sooner than I expected and the heavy, metal vehicle came to a stop. I wasn't sure how exactly the court system worked here, but I figured whatever they had, it was going to make Kamax and Jamac look especially corrupt.

Or at least I hoped it would...

When the heavy metal door finally opened, we were quick to want to get out of that stifling oven of a transport. Hopefully when it came to the trial, I had someone else besides Sever. His heart was in the right place, but he seemed to lack the experience and charisma to appeal to anyone higher up.

As we were marched forward, I saw they had taken us to some kind of prison. It was a somewhat intimidating black, metal building with tiny windows. I figured it was just a holding cell for now until it came time for the trial. Still, I kept looking down, honestly depressed as my long, black-tipped ears limply rested at the back of my head as I nearly had to drag my thunderbolt tail along the ground. This was just plain shameful and depressing, and I didn't even have the words for it anymore.

I had seen the Symarix prison before, but never thought I would have to step inside, and never once thought I'd be doing it as a prisoner. I couldn’t believe I would be spending time with captive Crimson Stars soldiers, but I didn’t have a choice. The gatekeeper, a suddenly very shocked and distressed Slowking, had looked us over, but I didn’t look up at him. I was too ashamed to even look at anyone but the ground before me.

“You have got to be kidding me…” He remarked in complete bewilderment, “This is Juno and Blazewing for crying out loud! Do you fools even know what you’re doing!?”

“High General Kamax has ordered us to arrest them on the grounds of treason.” the Magmortar told him. "Superior's orders."

“High General Kamax!?” The Slowking gatekeeper shouted in fright as his eyes went wide, knowing all too well what that meant. “That means they don’t even get a trial! What did they even do!?”

My heart sank like a rock and Blazewing couldn't help but just gasp as the sound of it. I went from being depressed to suddenly gripped with shock.

"That's... that can't be!" I exclaimed, actually struggling to talk. "There's... there's got to be some kind of examination about this whole thing, doesn't there?"

"Not if it's under superior orders," the Magmortar snapped at me. "The Emperor and the High General can imprison and pardon whoever they wish. Without trial."

Without trial. So there really was no system of checks and balances. It essentially meant they were above the law and were totally unstoppable. This was just unreal.

"Well, ain't that a damn, fine, steaming pile of crap," Axzen muttered. "You bastards are just as corrupt as the Crimson Stars."

The guards that escorted us looked very, very enraged at that comment, but I said nothing. He was totally right and I just turned away, not even wanting to look at the guards anymore. I just couldn't even dig for the right words to say just how disgusted I was, but any words wouldn't have helped anyway.

“There has got to be some mistake,” The Slowking gatekeeper replied. “Never in a million years did I think High General Kamax would be sending Symarix’s greatest heroes to prison!”

But there was silence. Still, I didn’t look up. I was too ashamed at the moment. My breathing was becoming harder, my heart was racing, and I was totally wrapped in an agonizing squeeze of stress and depression.

“I’m deeply sorry, Juno…” The Slowking replied with the sound of dismay in his voice. “But if this order is from Kamax, there’s nothing I can do about it…”

Moments later, we were led into the building, which wasn’t as bad as the prison in Macomb, but there was one big difference between this one and the one I had seen there...

I never thought we would be forced into a cell by our own comrades...