Zach Pierce
Outside of Rustsurf Tunnel
Affected RPers: None

Zach awoke early for the final shift that would wake the rest of the squad and prepare for the strike. He radioed in to each member, many of whom were spread out, to hit from all sides.

“It’s time everyone, Talonflame has let me know that they won’t be far off. Remember, wait to detonate until the armor passes near the explosives. Once you set them off, Michaels, I want you to start gunning down the escorts. The rest of us will burst with your choice of Pokemon and hit any armor that was untouched and the convoy supplies. You will leave the escort troops to Michaels. I will call for the retreat and we will all throw smoke out and regroup at the rendezvous point. Is this all understood?”

“Aye Commander, we’ve only been over the mission plan a million times”, came a reply from John Michaels, the designated sniper and marksman of his squad. He was one of the only people from his squad that was caught up in Zach’s escape from the Hoenn government. Michaels had more loyalty to him than the group of men that had been chasing him, and he dispatched them and aided Zach. John Michaels had entered the same academy as Zach, and Zach’s accomplishments enthralled Michaels. The thought of his idol in academy being an enemy of the state did not sit right with him and followed along.

“Stop flirting with your dream boy Michaels and get your crap together. I don’t want some chump with a gun taking me out because you were crushing on the Commander.” This voice was easily identifiable as Ted “Slaughter” Pratt. He along with everyone else in his squad were an assortment of mercenaries and in some cases bad apples of the Hoenn military. Ted was especially brutal, but effective. Some of his antics of killing and torture were so gruesome that the details had been limited. His nickname was well earned. To Zach, he was too flamboyant and drew too much attention to himself. Now he was fighting alongside him.

Restraining Pratt as well as the other men in his squad that didn’t have as much discipline as his former team always added another element to the mission. Would anyone go rogue, or let their personal desires and habits override his orders? What would his plan of action be then? Zach had always told himself he would put them down himself, but in the hectic of battle and war, how would he be able to accomplish both. Eliminating an asset endangered the mission, something he always put first. Thankfully, it had never come to that. Pratt’s comment elicited chuckles and laughter from the rest of the squad.

“Maintain your composure, and commence radio silence. I will fire a green flare to signal beginning the operation. I will issue orders throughout the operation. Let’s make this simple and clean”. Zach never had to raise his voice too high. Everyone on that squad knew his reputation and what he was capable of. They knew that when Zach was calm, he was at his most dangerous. Zach prepared his Pokeball and Burst heart. Draglage was known for using its poison to bring down ships, making it adept at eating away at armored tanks, and convoy trucks. And if any of the escort troops proved a problem, its set of dragon moves would quickly dispatch them. While normally a Pokémon that sticks to water, Bursting with it had allowed him to alternate between both swimming and traversing land.

The trucks and tanks caused the ground to rumble beneath his feet, he readied his Pokeball and Burst Heart in one hand, and the flare gun in the other. The convoy had just begun to enter the cave, meaning much of the armor was right around the explosives set in. He pointed the flare gun and pointed the trigger.

The shaking of the ground from the tanks was nothing compared to the thunderous explosions that blew up entire tanks and set men alit as a series of deadly explosions rocked the convoy. Gunshots were muted under the sound of chaos as escort troops lives were plucked away. Panic ensued, just as Zach had opened.

This was only the beginning as him and his squad charged into the convoy, clad in the power of their Burst forms.