The Trial of Juno Saga [PG-13]

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 5
Foreign Encounters

Only then did I look at Alex, and then I really wished I hadn’t been so fast in doing so. His body from head to toe had been completely black like he landed in an oil slick. On his head were two long antennae with bulbs on the ends. And to make matters even worse, on his back were two enormous butterfly wings splashed with a rainbow of colors. Damn, if I had been in Alex’s place at that moment, I swear I would have gone postal. As sad and pathetic as David’s humiliating fate had been, it wasn’t nearly as bad as this.

“THAT LITTLE FREAK RANDY FERGUSON IS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!,” Alex shouted loudly, sending his screaming echo throughout the clearing.

“You said it, man,” I supported Alex, trying to calm his rage by letting him vent and just support everything he said. “All three of us are going to slaughter those little freaks. I’ll even let you be the one who whacks Randy’s head as I pin him down.”

“Jake…” Alex said softly, trying to calm down all of a sudden.

“What?” I asked him, looking up into his eyes.

There was silence for a dark moment.

“Just shut up,” Alex told me with a bit of frustration in his eyes.

Fine. I shrugged and figured I would just let Alex have his way for now, just like David. If it had been me thrown into his current hellhole mess, I would have been infuriated to the extreme myself, so I could understand why both of them would be moody all of a sudden. He needed to rant and I could get that. Still, one way or another, Randy was going to make sure we were humiliated and depressed even before we battled his Pokémon. And since this was his freakish world, we had to expect anything. I swore, he was not going to do to me what he did to Alex and David.

Before we had the chance to do anything, we saw what seemed to be a dark figure emerge from behind us. As we turned around, he got closer, and we realized he was wearing a black fedora and trench coat, looking like a mobster pulled right out of some gangster movie. We were more than ready to retaliate after what we've been through, but when he approached us, he shook his head in disgust.

“Damn, just got here too late,” The mobster told us with frustration. "You three didn’t deserve this kind of misery. Believe me, I know."

“And who the hell are you?” I asked him, still with justified paranoia creeping all over me.

“Name’s Black,” He told us. “You may not believe me, but I’m Randy’s frustration. And heh, I owe you three a favor.”

We were surprised for a moment to think that this guy actually existed. But then again, could we really even trust this guy? I figured I’d at least hear him out.

“You three made me strong by making Randy feel weak,” Black told us with a bit of a sinister smile. “I’ll let you in on some of Randy’s darkest secrets. He can't just flush me out because I'm just as much a part of him as everything else around here, good or bad.”

“Go on,” David told Black, still on his guard.

“Believe it or not, Randy’s world really was created from that necklace,” Black told us, “I know, I know, you thought it was a lie, but it's not. It's about time you face what you're really dealing with here. He created this whole new world and dimension just because of his inability to train Pokémon and deal with his problems. Like you three. Talk about frustration. There was nothing more he wanted than to beat the three of you.”

I couldn’t understand why worthless little Randy would go through so much trouble to beat us. Couldn’t he just accept the fact he was a natural loser at Pokémon battling and there was no hope for him in the world? He'd probably be better off doing something else.

“But, if you try to battle him now, you’ll most surely lose,” Black warned us. “That necklace gives him enough power to give him any Pokémon he wants, as well as use any move or attack. Even ones that don’t even exist.”

“Are you kidding!?” David shouted in shock.

“In Randy’s world, if he can think it, it becomes real,” Black informed us, still trying to keep a low profile. “His new, super-powered Pokémon are nearly invincible. Trust me, you were right when you said the game was rigged, and it definitely is. It’s a good thing I found you three, because if I didn’t, I don't want to imagine what would have happened...”

I had a feeling this might just be one person in all of Randy’s world that we could at least somewhat trust. What he said was certainly making sense. The last time we saw Randy, he seemed ready to do anything, even something like this. We pushed him too far, that was for sure.

“How do we stop Randy and get out of here?” Alex asked Black. "Seriously, look at the two of us. We've got to get this crap off."

“You need to defeat Randy, as well as Jeff and Frank,” Black said to the three of us. “You have to make Randy feel defeated enough to the point where even in his own dream world, he still can’t beat you. Only then will that little schmuck give up this pointless act of his. And thankfully, when it's over, this place of his is out the window like a cigarette. All gone.”

Heh, that was worth chuckling for. Randy would NEVER be able to say he was better than us, because it would be a cold-blooded lie. It then became clear what we had to do.

In order to get out of this place, we had to find Randy as well as those little morons Jeff and Frank and kick their butts. I certainly didn’t want to stay here any longer, after seeing what had happened to Alex and David. I had to be extra careful to make sure I didn’t end up like them, which was exactly what Randy wanted to happen…

“There’s only one way to at least put yourself on the same level as Randy,” Black told us, “You'll need these. Put them around your neck, and it'll at least suppress some of the control Randy has over reality.”

Then, out of his coat, he pulled out three golden chain necklaces. He handed one to each of us, and we wore them around our necks.

“While those are nothing compared to the necklace Randy has, they have an opposing canceling power while you use them here,” Black said to us. “Heck, I should know. I know everything that just presses that little boy’s buttons."

And then, he reached back into his trench coat. It seemed he had one more thing to give to us.

“Here,” Black said, also handing a Poké Ball to each of us. “Take these also. These Pokémon will at least put you on the same level as Randy, since they’re also made from that little boy’s dreams. Once he throws his Poké Balls and his desired Pokémon comes out, he hasn't learned how to change it quite yet. But be careful. Make sure he’s the one to send out his Pokémon first, or he’ll always have a type advantage over you, usually in the worst kind of way.”

“Thanks, Black,” I said to him.

“It’s the least I can do for the three of you,” Black responded. “See you around, and good luck.”

And then he turned around and left. I looked over the Poké Ball that Black had handed me, just wondering what was inside. Still, now wasn’t the time to play guessing games. I was going to save this for a moment I really needed it. Last thing I wanted was for Randy to find out we acquired secret weapons against him.

"Is he serious about this thing?" Alex asked, looking at the necklace with doubt. "Also, I really don't like the idea of using a Pokémon created from Randy's dreams."

"Yeah, me neither," David replied, brushing it off. "For that reason alone, it probably sucks, whatever it is."

Probably. I shrugged but decided to keep the stuff anyway. Alex and David, however, simply cast their given Poké Balls aside, not wanting to have anything to do with Randy's dream world. As for me, I shrugged and simply just held onto mine. Maybe there was some silver lining in using a Pokémon of Randy's dreams against him, even if Alex and David didn't think so.

After that, we headed back into the tropical forest, hoping we would find Randy soon and get out of his retarded dream world as soon as possible. I didn't know where the hell he was in this place, but something had to lead up to him.

Again, we made our way through the dense foliage, this time I was in the front. I constantly had to lift my feet and swing them over the dense shrubs on the ground, and it was wet everywhere. My jeans were soaked and my t-shirt was damp from the dew and the humidity everywhere. I wasn't thinking about Randy all that much and it was really just the heat and getting somewhere that I was focusing on, but I wasn't making much headway there.

I picked up the pace, just wanting to get out of this miserable forest as soon as possible. I could put up with the heat and the sweat as long as it got me out of here faster. After some time, I turned around to see how Alex and David were doing and if they needed a moment to catch up.

And then I realized they weren’t there…

I looked back frantically, but I didn’t see them anywhere. Where the hell did they go? I shouted out several times, calling their names and hoping they were nearby, but there was no sight of them at all and no response. I was just pissed. I really didn't need this right now and felt it should have been easy for those two to keep up. And I top of that, I felt like I was starving. I hadn’t eaten in nearly a day and a half. But like hell I was going to trust eating or drinking anything while I was here.

All I could do was keep moving, but after some time, it became night again and I couldn’t even see the path ahead. I had no choice but to wait until dark. Stupid Randy and his imaginary world. Just who the hell did he think he was anyway? By now, I had no idea where Alex and David were, and this was just making everything fifty times worse. Again, I had to make a bunch of wet plants and leaves my bed for the night. That whole night, I kept thinking how much I really wanted to make Randy's face a gnarled mess with my fists.

Surprisingly, I fell asleep and when I awoke, I could see again. I got up and kept moving, hoping to leave this stupid forest, but it seemed to keep going on forever. After just a few hours, I heard a noise to my right. I thought by some miraculous chance it might have been Alex or David, so I decided to track it down. And then I came across an interesting sight. I came across a small fountain spring, and there were tiny little pixies surrounding it. They all seemed to look at me in shock for one moment, and then they calmed down, almost as if they already knew me and didn't think this was the alarming surprise they thought it was at first.

“Oh, it’s only you,” One of them said in relief, speaking with a calm and quiet voice. “For a minute I thought you were some kind of stalker.”

“Who are you?” I asked them, wondering who they were.

“Oh, we’re just Randy’s mischievous side,” A different pixie told me casually. “But, unfortunately, Randy doesn’t get into mischief very often, so we’re always put on the back burner. He's just not a naughty guy... unfortunately.”

Sure as heck wasn't. He didn't have the guts to stand up to anyone or get even. That's what his problem was. He just didn't see it. What was the point of creativity if it wasn’t put to good use? Randy was just loaded with disappointments.

“Well, I plan on taking Randy down,” I told them. “Just like I always have.”

“Heh, yeah, go figure,” One of them replied casually. “We knew you would. I don’t know how you’re able to tolerate it being in the mind of the one person you despise.”

I didn’t know either, and my patience was growing short because of that. Hell, she was right about that one. After some of them got up and flew away, only about three of them remained. After they flew to a nearby branch, I suddenly felt my hunger arise again. I couldn’t help but ask if they had anything to eat. It became the only thing I was really thinking about.

“I’m starving,” I told the three of them. “You… wouldn’t have anything around here to eat, would you?

They suddenly became surprised, and looked at me like I was crazy. One of them giggled a bit, whispered something to the others, and then they looked at me.

“You… still need to eat?” One of them asked. “That’s just stupid. Obviously you’ve never heard of Sun Water before, have you?”

“Not a chance,” I told them.

“It comes from that spring,” The pixie told me, pointing to the fountain. “If you drink a few cups of Sun Water, you’ll never need to eat again. Drink, once in a while yes, but eat, never again.”

That sounded ridiculous. But then again, after I stole Randy’s lunch money a countless number of times, maybe this was an element of him that had put up with never having lunch again. Who knows, because in Randy’s world, it seemed like anything was fair game. I wasn’t about to give a damn where that came from though. I took her word for it and didn't see much in terms of other options.

I walked over to the fountain and bent down. Honestly, the water didn’t appear to be any different than normal water, so I just shrugged it off. And since these pixies seemed to be another part of Randy’s naughty side, maybe I could trust them. Black already helped us out, so I figured they could be the same. They already looked like they trusted me. Hell, it was like we had already knew each other for crying out loud.

And as my hunger grew stronger, I wasn’t about to argue or start asking stupid questions. I found a pewter cup nearby, and I dipped it into the fountain. I then gathered some water in the cup, held it to my lips, and then decided to drink it. While it looked like water, it tasted super-sweet like sugar. It tasted great, and after I drank down the first cup, I decided to go for seconds.

My hunger melted away immediately, but the Sun Water was so tasty I couldn’t help but keep drinking it. It was addicting as hell. I must have had twelve cups of the stuff before I felt like I had enough of it. There was no soda on Earth that had a better taste than Sun Water. I swore, I would have bottled the stuff up if I could have.

And then, I heard a slight giggling in the distance. I turned around and saw it had come from one of the pixies. I looked up at one of them and she looked at me.

“Boy, you’re going to look awfully cute…” She said before flying away with the other two.

[Suicune's Fire]

Cleaning out typos from a story written years ago is a lot like pulling weeds. You feel like you get most of them, but there's always a few that seem to slip by. :P

But yeah, I don't make most of these mistakes anymore. Still, thanks for pointing out those weeds. Hopefully I got all of them. :P

Oh, exactly. I went through Through the Eyes of a Flareon when I decided to post the chapters on...DeviantART, I think? And also here. So I understand wholeheartedly. xD Personally I find it harder to pick out my own typos and grammar mistakes than I do for other people's, which is odd, but probably common.

When I saw this, I was like... whoa, have I really been doing it wrong this entire time!?

After looking it up on a whole slew of Pokémon sites, I think you're right, but darn it, why do so many sites have it the other way around!? That, and it's really confusing whether someone is referring to any type of Poké Ball, or whether they're referring to the most basic one that you find in the beginning of the game. Imagine if instead of calling an apple an apple, it was just called a "fruit" instead. "Oh, want some fruit?" The other person wouldn't know whether to expect apples or expect any kind of fruit!

Also, hate to say it, but ugh, this is going to be a very tricky habit to correct when I've been doing it this way for almost... ah... two decades. Well, I'll try my best after I Ctrl+F & Replace this whole puppy. XD

Ahaha, don't worry, I've looked it up many a time. Also gone into games to double check how they're written there. Honestly I think the other sites never checked. I used to write it as one word as well until I looked it up. xD Yeah, I understand what you mean. I think that if someone meant another kind of poké ball, they'd specify. And if they were talking about all poké balls, hopefully they'd make it clear too. It's a little annoying they don't have a "fruit" equivalent. xD

Lol I totally getcha. I'm so thankful for Ctrl + F for that reason. XD

Yep, I don't make this mistake too often anymore and I broke out of the habit. Bloody dandelions! I'll admit that most of the time, when I proofread, I'm focusing maybe 75% on the actual storyline content, depth, and details, and only 25% on the actual punctuation, grammar, and all that jazz. For example, while proofreading this again, I caught a mistake where Randy starts with the necklace, but then somehow takes it from Jeff. When it comes to missing a comma here and there, yeah, it's easy to overlook a dot that should have had a tail to it. XD

Makes total sense. x) I just thought to put the detail of "you probably know this is wrong" in there in case you thought I was trying to give you a grammar lesson you were already well aware of. xD I remember when I first learnt about doing commas at the end of speech and following with a lowercase letter (for 'said' or whatever came next), and boy...there were a lot of corrections. XD

As far as rewriting goes, kind of did, kind of didn't. I would say it's undergone a heck of a lot of revision, but some of the original stuff was kept. Rewriting totally from the ground up would be a pretty daunting task, so I figured just really making the best edits possible would be the way to go. But yeah, a bit of the old shabbiness still remains, but not intentionally. Think of it like an old house getting modern makeovers.

And it's funny, while I'm posting this on PXR, I'm also posting in on Bulbagarden, and some people there feel the summary reveals too much. Truth is, I kind of had to do that, because in a previous time I posted Trial of Juno, I think people dropped out of reading it because they didn't like Jake as a bully and didn't give it a chance to have things change! So it was a necessity to show all this is really just a precursor to something much bigger.

In any case, I'm glad you're enjoying the story, and thank you very much for your help with pointing out those weeds! XD[/QUOTE]
That's entirely what I meant. x) Keeping the original but just rewriting it by going through and adding, subtracting, and everything in between. That's what I do when I rewrite. Unless the story's really small or a complete disaster, I wouldn't expect someone to rewrite the whole thing from scratch. xD I mean, that's just illogical when most of it is absolutely fine and already there. Just needs fine tuning. x)

Honestly I thought it was a little spoilery, but I understand what you mean. xD I have that difficulty with my stories too sometimes. I haaaaaaate giving away spoilers or reading them, but sometimes it's necessary. And you've got all the juicy content in between, so it's not like every detail is spoiled. So no worrie!

Absolutely! :D I'll do it whenever I see one. xD


@Pokemon Trainer Sarah I understand where you're coming from, but I have a theory! Maybe they separated the words because, well, first off, poké balls came into the games long before a whole lot of other poké- things (aside from the dex). They probably chose to change the formal after that, but just kept poké ball how it was.



The other thing I thought of was that they began with not only regular poké balls, but great balls, ultra balls, master balls, etc. Compiling those words looks a little silly (ultraball looks stupid xD), and to keep consistency, they probably separated every first and second word, including the regular poké one. So I dunno. Maybe it's a combination. Maybe there was some other deeper meaning, but who knows. xD

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 6
Grim Reunion

No, damn... it! I couldn’t believe what I just did! Randy had me just where he wanted. I was right, damn, was I right. I couldn’t understand why the hell I had just done that. He was going to screw all three of us, and I just walked into one of his sick traps. He just turned David into a fairy and Alex into a butterfly. Now what the hell was going to happen to me?

Those blasted little pixies were gone. Right now I wanted to wring their little necks and twist their little heads off, but they already flew off and were a hell of a lot faster than I was. I even said to myself we couldn’t trust anyone while we were here. What the hell was I just doing!? All because of hunger? I could have sucked it up and kept on going.

I dropped the pewter cup and it tumbled on the grass. I then felt a weird tingling sensation in my hand, and I was hoping I was only imagining it. After I looked at the palm of my hand, it had turned a soft light green color, along with the rest of my arm. All of my skin turned a soft green color and became this weird, smooth texture. Then my fingernails vanished. I swore under my breath. To hell with Randy and his stupid dream world.

"Come on... don't do this...!" I grimaced, hopelessly trying to fight whatever the hell this was.

And then, in less than a single second, my jeans were torn to shreds as a gigantic skirt of rainbow-colored flower petals surrounded my waist and reached down to ground, all in the shape of a giant bell. And then a belt of bright and colorful lily flowers blossomed around my waist. I shook my head and must have cursed a dozen times…

“Randy Ferguson, I swear I’m going to make you cry blood…” I growled angrily.

But screw me, it didn’t end there. I felt the back of my t-shirt tear open as another giant lily suddenly emerged from my back, and when it bloomed, it became a giant, rainbow eighteen-petal lily that covered my entire back. My t-shirt was instantly reduced to ribbons, which fell to the ground like a rag. Out of feral instinct I tried to put my hands on my back, only to feel the massive lily flower itself. The thing was a freaking monster…

And then to further my misery, a headband of colorful lily flowers circled around my head. Only seconds later, it felt like someone had just opened up an umbrella over my head, only instead it was another sickening giant lily flower. I swore, I've never screamed like the way I did when that happened.

And then to finish it all off, large bracelets of lily flowers blossomed on my arms, right near my wrists. After that had happened, I fell on my knees and just stayed there for nearly five minutes just hoping it was all over with. I wanted to wake up from this traumatizing nightmare so, so badly but I knew it wasn't going to happen.

But it was hopeless. My jeans lay completely ruined on the ground, and I was wearing nothing except this stupid flower petal skirt. Like David, trying to rip any of this off resulted in utter failure, so when it failed at first, I wasn’t going to try it again.

After I finally mustered the motivation to get back up on my feet and get going again, all that I could do was take the belt with my Poké Balls on it, attach the wallet that was in my pocket to it, and put it on. Now all I had to do was find David and Alex to show and tell them what happened.

I was freaking furious in ways I never thought were possible. Now Jeff, Frank and that little freak Randy were going to have a laugh and a half just looking at us. I was certain as hell that it couldn’t possibly get even worse than this.

I only needed to walk for fifteen minutes through shrubs, bushes, and around trees before leaving that tropical forest of nightmares. Then, I saw them, as if I was meant to just happen to run into them at that moment. I didn’t expect to encounter them so soon, but I figured this had been planned from the start. They had already left the forest, and were waiting for me.

“That…” Alex turned to me with a bit of shock, “That... holy crap, that isn’t you, Jake, is it?”

“Randy Ferguson’s going to have a hard time laughing once I punch his face so hard that his brain ends up in his throat,” I told them both with my feral rage.

They knew it was me. Alex looked shocked at first, and David had even more of a grimace.

“Oh, man, Jake,” Alex remarked with dismay. “Damn it to hell, you look like an overgrown Bellossom. What the hell happened, man?”

I certainly didn’t need to hear that "overgrown Bellossom" comment. I felt like a complete idiot, and the thought I was going to have to show myself to Randy like this was an inevitable horror I was not looking forward to. I felt ready to crush Randy’s skull in with my own hands, that’s how angry I was.

“I’ve never hated Randy as much as I do now,” I told Alex and David. “Look, I don't want to talk about what happened back there, let's just nail this freak and go home. Seriously.”

“And then we never, ever talk about this crap again," Alex replied.

I nodded to that, knowing this was one horrific experience I was hoping I could forget forever.

There was still a part of me that felt like staying away from Randy and his two stupid, moronic friends as much as possible because of what happened to the three of us. However, I kept telling myself that was just idiocy. We had to fight him because if we didn't, we were only going to be stuck here longer.

And on top of it all, I didn’t know who to believe anymore. Black seemed like he was trustworthy, and he seemed to have helped us big time. And then again, I thought I could trust those blasted little pixies, and they completely screwed me over. I certainly didn’t want to walk into a trap like that again, but I didn’t want to turn down someone who was only trying to bring us one step closer to defeating Randy. In the end, I didn't know how to play this stupid game besides trial and error. I figured at this point, what difference did it make, we didn't have much more to lose than what we got swiped away from us in the first place.

As we kept walking through that valley, hoping we’d find Randy or at least someone capable of bringing us to him, I could only think of one thing. Exactly how were we going to stop Randy? And even if we really did beat him, would we wake up in the real world again? I was certainly hoping this hideous and humiliating transformation wasn’t permanent, because I was quickly getting sick of it.

The three of us didn't say much as we walked away from that tropical forest, heading more into the rolling valleys along a barely visible dirt path. I didn't really feel like talking, and I was getting sick of this wandering around and hoping to find something. Randy's stupid world sure didn't have much to look at. Even the number of wild Pokémon was very few and far between, and as I suspected, they were obviously only the kind Randy liked and had trained. It almost seemed like the only kinds of Pokémon that existed now were mostly harmless, unevolved ones that just minded their own business.

And after nearly an hour, we encountered another shady figure. When he drew closer, we saw he was wearing a gray cloak with a hood over his head, and I was beginning to think this might have been another one of the jackass cultist that threw Alex into the cocoon. He moved toward us very quickly, almost running.

"Who's this psycho!?" David exclaimed, reaching for his Poké Balls.

I had my hand on Raichu's Poké Ball, but didn't even have the chance to prime it before he reached us, then stopped, and then stood completely still. I couldn’t even see his face from the shadow of his hood, despite how bright and how close we were to him. He kind of looked and sounded like the Grim Reaper, just not as dark as usual.

"Who the hell are you!?" Alex shouted, ready for a fight.

“He… didn’t….” The figure groaned.

“I said who are you!?" Alex demanded. "Don't even think of trying anything!"

He stopped, and then slowly turned toward Alex. This guy was really freaking me out.

“Depression,” He mumbled. “That’s right, I’m King Randy’s depression. His worst nightmare. He fears me.”

“That's just great,” I told him sarcastically, still unsure about this guy considering the last episode I had. “What do you want with us!?"

Depression then started laughing hysterically, which was a heck of a complete turn-around from his previously dour composure. He quickly threw off his hood to reveal a gaunt, scarred face with frizzy, gray hair. We were instantly shocked.

“Oh, yes!” Depression smiled, still snickering. “Now I know who you three are. I didn’t recognize you at first. Obviously King Randy's traps have gotten to you first, but there’s still time. Yes... time to do lots and lots of damage to King Randy…”

“Where do we find him?” I asked again, hoping he could help us get out of this hideous mess.

He mumbled a bit, and then looked up again.

“He… likes to spend his time in Victory City Stadium,” Depression told us, happy to reveal that fact to us. “It almost seems like… he’s waiting for you…”

“Can you take us there?” David asked, hoping to speed up the process. “We want to make him lose.”

Depression stopped moving, and then he looked at David.

"Oh, you're not too far off," Depression smiled with a creepy grin. "Follow this road and then turn right at the next crossing. Victory City should only be a few hours on foot to there."

Might as well trust him. If he led us in the wrong direction, well, we sure as hell weren't heading in the right direction before anyway. And then again, it wouldn't make sense for Randy to keep himself away from us forever. I figured that little punk would try to have us be naturally led to him in time anyway.

"However," Depression warned us. "Be warned. He’s knows more about Pokémon and battling than anyone else now. No one has ever beaten him. If you really plan on battling him, you should take these, for the protection of you and your Pokémon. They'll make sure Randy's powers can't be used to weaken or misdirect the attacks your Pokémon use. It's very important you keep it on when you fight him. The odds may still be against you, but at least there will be some chance.”

He then took his shriveled hand and reached into the pocket of his cloak. Then, he handed us three ordinary-looking silver rings. We slipped them on, and then looked back to Depression.

“Remember what I told you,” He grinned. “Make him lose miserably. Make me happy…”

And like that, he laughed, and ran off again. I watched him run away, floating over the grass like a specter before he suddenly sprouted two black, Honchkrow-like wings and just take flight seconds before vanishing into thin air. It was freaky beyond hell.

"Not sure I trust that freak," David muttered, having watched him fly off as well.

"Whatever," I shrugged. "Not like we've got much to lose at this point."

We decided to follow Depression's directions, heading down the road until it seemed to grow wider and was easier to make out. Eventually, we finally came across a paved highway, which was much easier to follow than that dirt road we had been on for the last few hours.

The highway to Victory City was extremely easy to follow, and it was nice to not have to be wandering around in the damn wilderness. A few cars and trucks passed by us every now and then, and I felt even more embarrassed to be seen in public as a freaking walking flower bouquet. Meanwhile, Alex and David tried to walk further away from the road to avoid being seen.

Up ahead, this Victory City was easy to make out. It was just as big as Saffron, but it looked like it was futuristic and high tech. From the distance, I could make out many neon lights, huge skyscrapers, and it definitely seemed like a busy place.

"Do we really have to go walking in there like this!?" Alex complained as he walked along. "I swear, just give me some kind of blanket or tarp to cover this crap up."

Even then, I didn't think he'd get too far with that considering his giant pair of rainbow-colored butterfly wings. David had the same issue with his ridiculous fairy wings and there wasn't a chance in hell I'd be able to wrap a cloth over the fatass-sized flower on my back and the one on my head either.

"Just keep going," David told him. "This stupid place will be gone, so don't care what anyone here thinks of what you look like."

He had a point there. I nodded as we walked along the road, knowing it would be at least another few hours before we got to the city itself. As we got closer, I took a better look at the stadium itself, and I knew that would have cost billions to build if it was actually real. If Randy really was in there, man, he sure liked to overcompensate.

Victory City was pretty much Randy's paradise. The whole city was high-tech and neo-futuristic. Meanwhile, everything he liked to his favorite colors, sports teams, video games, and whatnot was the focus of attention all over the place. Everywhere from the hologram television screens, billboards, on massive neon signs, and anywhere else you could stuff an advertisement. Either you had to like what he liked, or you'd never find it. I swore, not even the biggest celebrities got anything even close to this kind of fame.

As we stepped further into the city, the kind of people that inhabited this place were pretty much whatever Randy could dream up. Most people were dressed in the exact same kinds of clothes Randy liked to wear, and they were the kind of people Randy would think were "cool" and "awesome." There were people with blue jeans, graphic t-shirts with all of Randy's favorite things, and black sneakers. Others seemed to wear more of the fashions Randy would probably like as well from sweatshirts, hoodies, cargo pants, and a few had leather jackets also. Meanwhile, though most of them were human, some of them were completely different races, like half dragon half human hybrids, werewolves, vampires, and other races yanked out of fantasy stories, now totally made as if they were real.

When we walked into town, I wasn't surprised about the kind of reaction we got.

"Hey!" One of the taller, more roughneck werewolves shouted at us. "Well if it isn't Loser Lily, Failure Fairy, and Bumbling Butterfly themselves!"

"Listen here, jackass!" Alex snapped, giving the werewolf a deadly stare, not even the least bit intimidated by the tough lycanthrope. "I'm not in the mood for that crap. And by the way, when Randy gets his carcass beaten to a pulp and this stupid creation of his falls apart, you're going down with it!"

"Ha, ha, ha!" A rather tough-looking human woman laughed at the sound of it, tossing her raven-black hair as she put one hand on the hip of her blue jean shorts while pointing at us with the other. "Like that's ever going to happen!"

I didn't feel like saying a word to this idiotic fan club of imaginary friends Randy decided to create for himself. As we passed through the city and pushed our way through the crowds, I just focused on the stadium, treating this place and these people like it was nothing more than a sinking ship. But all along the way, almost every senile dimwit on the street had some stupid, annoying, and harassing insult to vomit out at us while some of the others threw their garbage at us.

Behind the stadium, the sun had begun to set, and by the time we had arrived at the stadium, it was night and the stars were out. Before we had finally made it there, we had been subjected to three annoying hours of harassment from Randy's imaginary friends, and my god was it aggravating. I had plenty of trash and garbage thrown at me also, but the worst had to be the brick that some stupid harpy bastard wearing blue jeans and a ragged t-shirt hurled at me.

The silver stadium was huge and it would have easily been the most famous of stadiums ever created in reality... if it actually was created. When we entered the interior arena field, there were probably enough chairs to seat a million people. The place was empty at the moment, but it was easily ready for the biggest and most ferocious Pokémon battles that could ever be held.

In the center of it all was a gray battle area for Pokémon with the white outline of a Poké Ball as the playing field. That definitely wasn't out of the ordinary when it came to standard Pokémon stadiums. And then, we saw him. We had suddenly laid eyes on Randy, who was seated on a metal throne on a platform at the far end of the seating area, reaching at least fifteen feet high.

The three of us aggressively walked toward him, ready to slug him in the face with our bare hands if it was necessary. However, it was hard to feel like a tough guy when I knew the three of us looked so completely ridiculous. When we finally arrived before that overly high-tech and futuristic throne of Randy's, I caught sight of the stupid necklace he was wearing and wished for anything I could use to rip it off his neck and smash it into a million pieces.

Besides him were Jeff and Frank, seated on similar thrones on platforms ten feet in the air. And to even further our anger, they were all dressed in black leather and wearing black sunglasses, as if they thought they were actually cool and badass. When we approached them in the big, empty stadium, I could hear the snickering. I could feel that feral rage coming right back out again.

“Well, hello there, ladies,” Randy smiled. "Welcome to Victory City! Hope you had a nice warm welcome upon your arrival!"

“Listen up, you stupid freak!” Alex shouted to Randy. “I don’t know what your problem is, but if you don’t unplug this stupid dreamland of yours right now and get us the hell out of here, I'm going to make you pay in blood for it!”

Then, Randy took off his shades, and looked at us cynically. After that, he crossed his arms. Now he was starting to act pompous and arrogant, and I swear I was ready to pummel the stuffing out of him.

“Well, how does it feel?” Randy asked with a sick smile. “Doesn't feel great, does it? Well, guys, that's just desserts for you. You harassed me every day of the school year and then some, and you picked on poor Frank here when he did nothing to any of you. And look at where we are now!"

"This isn't anything like what we did to you!" Alex shouted at him again.

"He's got a point there, Randy," David chimed in. "This is way overboard and you sure picked a horrible way to solve your problems."

Randy didn't seem to care, and I could tell he thought this was justice for what we did to him. The problem was he seemed far too cozy to ever consider giving it up.

"I think it's a perfect way to solve problems," Randy smiled. "Hey, why don't we have a few Pokémon battles? I think you'll be interested to know I've got a whole new team and strategy. Which one of you three wants to be first to lose to it?"

“That’s what you think,” I told Randy. “You really think we didn't come ready for this?”

“Oh really?” He asked, almost laughing.

Suddenly, I heard a snap, followed by what sounded like metal links hitting the ground. When I looked down, I saw the gold necklace Black had given us, only it was in pieces scattered and twisted all over the ground. Alongside it was Depression’s ring, reduced to a twisted and misshapen lump. When I looked to my left, I saw Alex and David were without protection either. Somehow, whatever those things were supposed to do, it sure didn't look like they were going to do much now.

"Damn it, how... how the hell did he know!?" Alex growled under his breath.

“I knew it...” David muttered coldly as he looked down at the shattered necklace and the twisted ring. “I didn't trust that junk anyway…”

“You might as well get used to living here, ladies,” Randy smiled, leaning back in relaxation, “You can spend the rest of eternity in my world, and you’ll always be under my power, under my rules, and don’t forget, you’ll always be weaker than me.”

“Rest of eternity, Randy?” Alex asked, nearly laughing.“I don’t think so. No one lives forever, remember? One of these days, you'll be an ugly, old man wondering why the hell you wasted your life on a stupid parade like this.”

“Well, my little butterfly friend, everything is different here,” Randy said with another smile. “In my world, time doesn’t weaken the body, so everyone lives forever. It’s the perfect place… for me anyway.”

I didn't even want to think about being stuck as a giant flower forever.

I was getting more and more sick of this by the moment. Was this seriously the only way Randy could come out on top? Then I saw Frank, who just kept giggling constantly by looking at us. I was ready to slaughter him like the swine he was. And there was Jeff, just sitting there like he was a freaking celebrity. It was making me sick.

“Frank,” Randy said, looking to his right to face Frank. “I would like to give you first honors to battle Jake and his Pokémon. He's been pretty heartless to both of us and obviously thinks his Pokémon will win again, so let's show him how we've prepared a response. Could you do that for me?”

"Oh, with pleasure," Frank smiled smugly, making a cheeky face that was asking to be punched.

And then, Frank’s metal platform was lowered, and when it reached the bottom, he approached me. I couldn’t stand his fat face with his stupid shades on. I didn't care what he wore, you just can't fix ugly. Even as bad as it was, I'd rather be stuck as a ridiculous flower than look like Frank.

“Hell-oooo, Jake Kossak,” Frank giggled. “Ready to lose right now, or would you like to do a little curtsy first before we begin?”

“Suck it down, Frank,” I told him, pulling out one of my Poké Balls. "When I'm through with you, you'll finally learn to keep your pie-hole shut."

I couldn't help but feel this was not going to be as easy as touch and go this time. Hopefully Frank was so bad at battling that even when he cheated, he still couldn't pull it off.

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 7
Against Odds

Frank was a fat, pig freak, and there was no way I was going to let myself lose to him. I never battled Frank's Pokémon before, but considering the kind of person he was, I didn't expect much out of him. Randy could brag all he wanted to, it wasn’t going to help Frank’s situation. Losing everywhere else in life was habitual for Frank, so this should have been a walk in the park.

“I want this to be a two-on-two match,” Randy told us both. “It should be rather interesting…”

“It most certainly shall!” Frank agreed with a giggle.

I knew exactly who to send out. I already had my fingers on the Poké Balls I was going to use. There would be no chance little Franky would stand a chance against my Weavile and Jolteon. They might not have fought Frank’s Pokémon before, but they’ve annihilated Randy’s time and time again and I figured with Frank, the situation wouldn’t change a bit. I grasped both of their Poké Balls firmly, primed them for action, and tossed them into the field.

And when their Poké Balls hit the ground and opened up, I already got an extremely sickening taste of what Randy could do with his stupid necklace. He made two completely different Pokémon come out. Instead of the yellow, spiky-furred wolf I had been training for years, something stupid make a god-forsaken, flower hula-dancer Bellossom come out instead. And instead of Weavile, the gray and red-feathered weasel Pokémon I usually used to torture people in battle, the Poké Ball opened to reveal a bulb-dressed, green and white Lilligant instead. Not only was he putting me at a disadvantage, but he was mocking me in a nasty way with more flower bullcrap.

“What... the... hell!?” I shouted in disbelief. “What happened to my Jolteon and Weavile!?”

Frank began snorting in humor uncontrollably. Meanwhile, I realized what just happened. I could tell what used to be my Jolteon and Weavile were suddenly shocked and alarmed they weren't their usual selves and were not adjusting very well to it. Suddenly Jolteon didn't have four paws, he had to freaking walk upright on a green and yellow leaf skirt and Weavile now had four tiny yellow feet attached to four bulb-like legs and had freaking leaves for hands instead of claws. And he seriously wasn't thrilled his black and red feather crown was replaced by a massive red flower instead.

“Aww, what cute Pokémon you have, Jake!” Randy smiled casually and mockingly. "They look just like you!"

"That's bullcrap!" Alex shouted in rage. "Give him back his Pokémon, you pathetic cheater!"

I swore, Randy was a freaking maggot. I had never raised a grass-type Pokémon in my life, and now I was going to have to handle two of them while fighting one of my worst enemies. Frank just sat there and laughed.

“Prepare to suffer, flower boy,” Frank giggled as he threw his two Poké Balls. “Go, Moltres and Articuno!”

He had to be kidding...

After Frank proudly launched both of his Poké Balls into the arena and they both struck the ground and opened with a flash of light, there they were. I lay eyes on the legendary birds of fire and ice, just barely able to grasp I was actually seeing this. Moltres was literally a giant fiery-colored bird that was half an inferno while Articuno was a light blue colored bird that glimmered like frozen ice. Its spiked crest looked like ice shards while it had a long, ribbon-like tail following it. I never thought I would ever even see these legendary birds in my lifetime and now Frank was just totting them around like it was nobody's business!

I was ready to just shoot myself, knowing I was probably at the greatest disadvantage of all time and all this would just lead to more humiliation when Frank would just make a massacre of my Pokémon. Frank could slaughter me in no time with this kind of power. All he had to do now was decide how he was going to do it.

I had no idea how I was going to handle this. I already knew grass-type attacks were going to do nothing, so if I didn't try to improvise something decent and quick, this was just going to be a joke.

Recommended Listening: Final Fantasy Versus XIII - Somnus Remix

“Hey, nice choices, Frank!” Randy smiled. “Let the battle begin!”

I knew at the moment the only way I was going to win was to take out them out one by one. I was starting to get a slight idea of one small, yet possible way to at least get my foot in the door on this battle. Still, this was going to be incredibly hard.

“Moltres, protect yourself and Articuno with Light Screen,” Frank commanded. “Articuno, attack that stupid Lilligant with your Ice Beam!”

Just perfect. Moltres took flight, spreading embers and flicks of fire in all directions just moments before focusing his energy to cover both himself and Articuno with a glowing and ethereal bubble shield surrounding them. As if grass attacks against these two couldn't be even more useless, he had to rub in the pain even further.

Articuno soon took flight as well, circling overhead the transformed and disoriented Jolteon and Weavile. I kept eyes on Articuno flying around, but with Weavile barely able to even get used to his new feet to make some kind of evasive action, Articuno opened his beak and launched a wickedly-cold Ice Beam right at him, causing the now helpless Lilligant to fall over like he had already been pulverized with a sledgehammer. I could feel the chill from the freezing blast myself, and I was more than twenty feet away.

“Man, this is going to be a piece of cake!” Frank cheered, thinking he had it in the bag.

“This isn’t over yet, you idiot,” I shouted back at Frank.

And then, an incredibly brilliant idea came to my mind. I had to do it now, or there was no way I was going to win…

Lilligant, or what should have been Weavile, had been badly hit, but he wasn’t about to call it quits right now. And now that Moltres and Articuno were protected by Light Screen, I was going to need to work something around that. At that moment, I had come up with an idea, and I was going to need to take out Moltres first if I wanted it to work right. That, and I was going to need to take both of these blasted birds out of the air, or neither Bellossom or Lilligant would be able to hit them.

“Bellossom, use your Sleep Powder attack!” I declared. "Shoot it up into the air!"

Bellossom then immediately sprayed the air above with a cloud of pink-colored Sleep Powder so both of Frank’s flying Pokémon would get a nice whiff of it. I could at least thank the last shred of luck I had that Jolteon managed to figure out how to use a Bellossom's attacks. The cloud just barely managed to reach the circling Moltres and Articuno, but it seemed to be enough. Moments later, both of them were sent spiraling down toward the ground.

Frank’s face changed from excited to panicky the moment both Moltres and Articuno landed on the gray battlefield fast asleep, taking a bit of a blow upon hitting the ground after tumbling out of the sky. I knew it wasn’t going to last forever, so I had to act quickly and make decent use of this while they were on the floor and weren't flying.

“Lilligant, Giga Impact attack on Moltres, now!” I shouted.

And a moment later, Lilligant looked to Moltres and then furiously charged and rammed right into him with a blazing slam that definitely looked painful. Thankfully, Weavile seemed to be getting the hang of this moronic transformation. This time, Moltres’s type-alignments and Light Screen weren’t going to help him, and he was sent flying head over talons twice before falling over again, still comatose from the powder. Compared to David's battle with Caska, maybe I was making some actual progress here and had a chance to pull this off.

“Come on you fools, wake up!” Frank shouted. “We don’t have time for this!”

I needed to have Moltres taken out, and now. Articuno alone would still be a problem, but at least I'd take one bird out of the equation. I wasn’t going to wait any longer. Lilligant needed a moment to take a breath after running a Giga Impact like that, but once he was back in action, I wasn't going to show this swine any mercy.

“Bellossom, use your Hyper Beam on Moltres, Lilligant, use Sunny Day,” I commanded the both of them.

Suddenly, the night sky that was above us quickly faded, and almost a second later, it looked like it was in the middle of the afternoon. The bright sun had returned, and its light poured into the stadium brighter than ever. Meanwhile, Bellossom focused his attention on Moltres, and with a dark smile that looked even a little badass for a little flower dancer, he began to prep a devastating torrent of blazing energy. Seconds later, a massive blast beam was fired straight from Bellossom's tiny hands, and it hit Moltres like a freaking semi truck. When the massive, glowing beam had made contact, it exploded violently sending bolts and flicks of blazing energy in all directions. Moltres was sent flying out of control once again, rolling over a few times like he had been hit by a rocket.

But to my dismay, he still hadn't fainted even after all that. I couldn't believe it! After all that and a Giga Impact, that blasted bird was still in action?

“Sunny Day?” Frank laughed. “Boy, aren't you an idiot! What, do you want Moltres to roast your precious flower Pokémon even faster now!?”

True, Sunny Day was going to make Moltres’s fire attacks even more powerful, but that wasn’t going to help Frank with Moltres still snoozing. There was still a chance and there was seriously no room to make a single mistake. However, despite the fact Moltres was still sleeping, Articuno had woken up. Frank wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to screw up with this opportunity at his fingertips.

“Articuno, Aerial Ace attack on Lilligant!” Frank commanded and pointed at his target with a smile on his face. "Heh, heh, try to peck the flower off!"

And Articuno didn’t even need to blink before taking flight again at ludicrous mach speeds before blasting at Lilligant like a tank shell. I heard a very nasty slashing sound, and only a second later, Articuno had returned to the skies, preparing to strike from above again.

I winced when I saw Lilligant fall over and slam on the ground, completely out cold. Just when I thought I might pull something off here...

"Oh, oh, isn't that too bad!" Frank laughed and snorted as I reluctantly used the Poké Ball to fire the return beam to recall the Lilligant back to the Poké Ball. "Poor bouquet boy lost one of his battle flowers!"

As much as I wanted to ram a live hand grenade down his throat, I decided at least not to give him the satisfaction he was hoping for by screaming at him again. Just like David's battle with Caska, this was obviously rigged and I felt like I was just wasting time here proving absolutely nothing.

Meanwhile, my poor Jolteon was still horrified at being stuck in a Bellossom's body. He was seriously doing a good job considering the transformation he had to deal with, but at that moment, I realized he was helpless, trying to recover from the exhausting Hyper Beam attack he launched at Frank's Moltres. Meanwhile, Articuno was above, hunting him down like a freaking predator drone.

Moltres soon woke up again, and I could tell it seemed like despite however many hits Articuno and Moltres took, they just seemed to shake off the pain and damage like they were only acting that it hurt them before. Moltres got up like pain was nothing to him and only just made him more energized to retaliate.

"Ha, ha!" Frank giggled. "Totally helpless! Articuno, blast him with Hurricane, and Moltres, make a pot roast out of him with Overheat!"

Holy... crap.

It was a massacre. Articuno nearly shredded the poor Bellossom to ribbons with the ripping winds of the Hurricane attack that blasted through almost the entire stadium, and even that alone probably would have been more than enough to finish him off. Heck, even I had to stand back while the winds ripped their way through every damn flower petal on my own body. And then came the fiery, destructive force of Moltres's Overheat, made even worse because of the Sunny Day effect. Moltres surrounded himself with savage flames and turned into a living fireball, which then rocketed toward the already exhausted and disoriented Bellossom like a tank shell. When the brutal impact happened and more flames were thrown in all directions, I could feel the heat and fire from where I was standing. I couldn't even imagine how badly that must have hurt.

The very last bit of energy Bellossom had was incinerated in a heartbeat with the serious overkill of the Overheat attack. I was seriously concerned Jolteon would die as a Bellossom, which was a fate no Pokémon deserved, but thankfully, even after being cooked alive, at least he didn't croak because of it.

As I had easily suspected, there wasn't a single bit of will to fight left in him. He fell helplessly to the ground as a burnt, ravaged wreck in a body he barely had control over, and I had no choice but to return him and admit defeat to Frank, of all gloating idiots to lose to.

But then again, the game was clearly rigged. I at least had that excuse...

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 8
Turning Back

"WHA HA HA!" Frank screamed and jumped with cheer and laughter, suddenly pointing at me mockingly. "You FAILED Jake! Look who's the loser now!"

"Please," I shrugged as I brushed it off, thinking his behavior was just stupid beyond all means. "Randy totally rigged the battle for you. I don't train grass-type Pokémon, and certainly not those two. I swear, the way you freaks have to cheat at this thing to have a chance is far more pathetic than this flower bullcrap you set aside for me."

"Oh, just pile on the lame excuses, Jake!" Frank giggled. "You totally lost, and boy is it hilarious!"

What an idiot. I turned away and just decided to let the moron gloat it out to no one interested in listening. I could tell him a million times cheating like this was pointless and proved absolutely nothing, but whatever, it wasn't sinking into that big, fat skull of his.

“Moving on...” Randy spoke casually. “Right now, I want to see our best friend Alex have a shot. Jeff, you're up. Make this something fun we'll be talking about for years!”

“Man, I've been itching for this payback!” Jeff grinned with confidence. “Ampharos and Espeon, this is for you!"

“Try me, you jackass,” Alex spat back at him. "I'll make you shut that pissing mouth of yours just like I did last time!"

And then, on that gray field, the two of them stood ready for the battle that was about to unfold. I was hoping Alex was prepared to deal with Randy’s nasty and unexpected cheating, but I was honestly thinking this wasn't going to be any more successful than before.

It was on those gray battlegrounds that Alex and Jeff had exchanged stares. Alex had beaten Jeff before, and now the only thing Jeff wanted was to win and seek revenge. Alex could be a menace when he got pissed off, and Jeff would be stupid for pushing him that far. But, as easy as it was to see, he was already too late and was going to deserve every bit of rage Alex was going to throw at him.

“Ha, you think you're ready, don't you!?" Jeff laughed at Alex. "You've never seen Pokémon battling like this before!"

“That doesn’t matter to me, Jeff,” Alex growled at him. “This is between you and me, and you and me only." Alex then gave Randy a dark stare from the corner of his eye, looking vicious even for a guy that got transformed into a rainbow-winged human butterfly, "Hear that Randy? Don't go pulling crap this time!”

But Randy looked away like he didn’t hear anything. I could just smell another trick in the air, and it was making me sick.

“Get ready for your worst nightmare, Alex,” Jeff smiled, pulling out two of his Poké Balls, “Go, Ho-oh and Entei!”

My jaw nearly dropped when I Jeff declare he was using even more legendary Pokémon. This was just getting ridiculous. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Ho-oh, the gigantic rainbow bird of complete fiery destruction and Entei, the lion-like legendary Pokémon of fire. There were people that would kill to have Pokémon like that!

Both Ho-oh and Entei glared menacingly at Alex, pressuring him to respond with something. But then again, when Alex pulled out two of his Poké Balls, I could already see the hesitation. Alex’s Pokémon were going to have no defense under the power Randy’s Quista necklace and there wasn't anything he could do about it. Now, it was up to Randy to decide what Pokémon were going to come out of Alex’s Poké Balls and Alex would be forced to have to work with it. And as stupid as it sounded, I could already guess which two Randy was going to choose for him…

"He'd better not..." I heard Alex mutter angrily under his breath.

Alex threw his two Poké Balls anyway, not even declaring who he had selected, not like it would have even mattered. And then to his disgust and Jeff’s delight, once the two Poké Balls struck the ground and opened with a flash of light, the two Pokémon Alex was going to be stuck using were a purple-bodied, white-winged Butterfree and a gray Beautifly with red, yellow, and blue butterfly wings and bright, blue eyes. Big, fat surprise, I could have seen that coming from a million miles away.

I wasn't sure which two of Alex's Pokémon had been transformed, but again, neither of them were ready for the body swap that left them totally bewildered and confused in front of two slaughterhouse legendary Pokémon of hellfire. As if the situation I had just experienced couldn’t get any worse, Alex’s example clearly showed things could go from bad to worse to complete, utter hell.

“DAMN IT, what the hell is the matter with you, Randy!?” Alex shouted back to him, knowing he was the one responsible for that swap. “Can’t you keep out of this for once!?”

“Keep going, Alex!” Randy laughed. “I see nothing wrong, seems to me like a perfect fit! And by the way, watching a cute butterfly like you get angry is really, really funny!”

The three of us were furious. How could Jeff even see this as a true Pokémon battle? Randy and Frank were naive, little morons, but I could have sworn Jeff would know better than to stoop to their level. Butterfree and Beautifly were NOT Alex’s Pokémon, and I knew for sure he wouldn’t use either of them in a million years. But now he had no choice. It was either going to be a severe struggle to win fighting with the two of them, or just plain losing altogether. This truly was Pokémon battling at its worst.

Recommended Listening: Dos Brains - Lone Survivor

“Ladies and gentlemen…” Randy smiled, nearly laughing, “let the battle begin!”

“Thank you, your highness,” Jeff remarked with a smile. “This is for Ampharos and Espeon. Ho-oh, Sacred Fire attack on Butterfree. Entei, burn Beautifly to a crisp with your Flamethrower attack!”

Merciless little freak. He was going to go as far as seeing that Alex wouldn’t even get a chance before it was all over with. The massive Ho-oh flew into the air, targeted Butterfree like he was sentencing him to death, and all Butterfree could do was helplessly and hopelessly try to dodge an enormous rush of flames. Butterfree's effort to escape by fluttering frantically was totally in vain as Ho-oh's Sacred Fire nearly consumed it alive with searing flames, leaving it on the verge of death.

Entei stormed his way through the arena, gathering hellfire flames in his mouth before belching a menacing torrent of blazing fire at the disoriented, brightly-colored Beautifly. Again, Beautifuly tried to avoid it, but he was quickly enraptured by the jet of flames and had nowhere to fly away when the stream of fire struck him. Now, Alex was reduced to all or nothing attacks even on his first round.

“The two of you are cowards!” Alex shouted at them both. “You can’t even battle for real, that’s how pathetic you are!”

“Alex,” Randy shrugged, snickering again, “why do I need to keep reminding you? This IS for real. My world is real now, and you have to accept it. There is no other way around.”

There was nothing Alex could do but continue. If he really was going to lose, at least he freaking tried. To the three of us, none of this was real. This was Randy's stupid world superimposed upon reality, something that seriously shouldn't have been possible. And the only thing that needed to be done to return Randy to the worthless little punk he was before was to swipe that necklace right off his neck. Unfortunately, we couldn’t even get near it. If Randy could just effortlessly transform Pokémon, hand out legendary Pokémon as freebies, and create entire worlds now, I didn't want to see where else it could go if we tried to go after him ourselves. It had to be undone some other way than physical force.

Alex’s two butterfly Pokémon were badly roasted, but they didn’t give up yet, and neither did Alex. The last thing Alex wanted to do was give Jeff the satisfaction of winning when he clearly didn’t deserve it. However, he was going to need more than a miracle to pull this off.

“Butterfree, use your Stun Spore attack,” Alex said firmly. “Beautifly, use Sleep Powder. Come on, let's try to make the best out of this crap!”

Alex left no holes in the system. Both of them were going to be inflicted with at least something to slow them down and I could tell getting Ho-oh back on the ground was crucial. Once both of Alex's butterfly Pokémon sprayed all sorts of powder and spores around, Ho-oh barely got a chance to land before he had fallen asleep and Entei was paralyzed, stricken and trying to fight off the numbing pain as he roared in anger and frustration. Now was Alex’s chance. Entei had gotten sluggish and Ho-oh was left snoozing.

Alex ordered both of his Pokémon to use Morning Sun to recover the burn damage that had been done. Up above, both butterfly Pokémon called upon the glaring sun and somehow, like magic, the savage and nearly life-threatening burns were healed as the rays of white light reversed the damage to their bodies and allowed them to fight on with less pain holding them down.

Ho-oh was still asleep, but Entei was going to get another chance to try and strike.

“Flamethrower on Butterfree!” Jeff shouted loudly. "Burn, baby, burn!"

Yet again, Entei let loose a savage, lion-like roar before launching yet another violent rush of flames from his mouth to smothered Butterfree with agonizing fire. The paralyzing effects of the Stun Spore were still struck him with pain and agony, but he ferociously fought it off with his adrenaline. The fire damage on Butterfree had gotten worse than before, but Butterfree was dead-set on at least trying to see this one through. I would have hated to say it, but Alex was going to have to go kamikaze if he wanted a chance to win. He was just going to have to forget about the damage that had been done and fight back or face a losing proposition.

“Butterfree, Psychic attack on Entei!” Alex shouted.

Butterfree flew swiftly toward the lion-Pokémon, flapping his white wings furiously and frantically as the aura around him turned a swirling mix of dark blue and violet-colored psychic energy. Entei was hit dead-on as a blue and white flash had covered his body. The psychic strike had attempted to crush and warp Entei's body from all directions, causing the legendary fire lion to roar in anger. However, it certainly wasn’t enough to slow him down very much. Butterfree wasn’t even a psychic Pokémon, so that could only go so far.

And then, Ho-oh had woken up sooner than expected, and Jeff couldn’t have been happier.

“Ho-oh, Sacred Fire on Butterfree,” Jeff ordered casually. “Entei, use Fire Blast on Beautifly. Let's get this nonsense over with.”

And then, the unimaginable happened. As if the battle wasn't badly one-sized enough, Ho-oh took flight and stormed furiously toward Butterfree, unleashing another ferocious, swirling cyclone of Sacred Fire flames, sucking Butterfree helplessly into the tornado of fire.

I just couldn’t watch. He had been further burned to oblivion, and it couldn’t handle anymore, dropping helplessly to the ground nearly half-dead and totally fried.

Meanwhile, Entei roared and unleashed his nastiest Fire Blast attack at Beautifly. The asterisk-like gush of flames flew at Beautifly like a death rocket, and upon the menacing impact, embers and tongues of fire were thrown in all directions. When the fire and shrouding smoke had cleared, both of Alex’s Pokémon had been eliminated, falling to the ground, laying limply with the stuffing beaten out of them.

He didn’t have a chance…

As bad as it was, I wasn’t surprised. Alex had an even worse disadvantage than I did. Butterfree and Beautifly just didn’t compare to the power of Ho-oh and Entei, however Jeff got a hold of those two ridiculous legendaries. I don’t think he could have possibly won that disgusting and shameful match no matter how many times he could have tried.

“Well, that certainly was fun,” Jeff smiled. “Nice try, guys. Good game all the way. You both need to improve on your training for next time!”

“There’s no way anyone could have won that!” Alex shouted at Jeff. “That wasn’t a real match! Those weren't my Pokémon and I'm sure as hell you didn't actually legitimately catch a freaking Ho-oh and Entei either!”

But, then a wave of silence had kept them both quiet. Randy had stood up and looked at the three of us. I was really getting tired of these antics.

“How many silly times to I have to remind you three ladies that certainly was a real match?” Randy told Alex, acting like he knew everything on the planet. “And well, you lost. If you're still not used to this by now, I just don't know what to say. Maybe in a few years you'll understand how things work around here.”

“Randy, I’m tired as hell of this stupid world of yours!” Alex shouted angrily. “I’m tired of you and your pathetic cheating. Is this the only possible way you can win a Pokémon match!? How incredibly pitiful is that!?”

Randy found that rather insulting. He looked at Alex, and couldn’t even feel pity for him.

“Jeff, thank you for your time,” Randy told him. “But now I’d like you to move aside. It's my turn!”

“Wait a minute,” Jeff looked to Randy. “Don't the rules say if they don’t win against Frank and I, they have to leave? This is Victory City Stadium, and if you don't get victory, you don't belong here.”

“I just want to battle the three of them myself,” Randy told Jeff. “I made the rules up, so I can change them for this special occasion. Besides, I’ve been waiting to beat them for a long time…”

I was getting sick of this crap and knew exactly where this was going. How could Randy feel like he was a hero when the only thing that was keeping us bound here and keeping Randy in power was a single, stupid necklace? Plus on top of everything else, I hated being tossed around like a piece of dirt when it was really us who were more powerful than Randy. My Pokémon and I were nobody's punching bag.

“Let's do a three on three!” Randy said with a smile. “One from each of you against three of mine! You guys are in for one epic fight you don't stand a chance against!"

Despite the fact that all it would have taken to end this whole stupid parade was to beat Randy, it was still millions of miles away. We could argue all night long these weren't real battles, but these three morons never saw it that way and they were in total control. Nope, in order to win, they had to go all out and freaking warp reality because heck, doing it the way everyone else had to just wouldn't work. Seriously pathetic.

I shrugged, decided to face the music when it came to this new and stupid fabricated reality Randy created, but if I was going to do that, I was going to make sure it left a burn.

“You know what Randy?” I called back to him. “You’re probably right. We don’t stand a chance against your necklace.”

“It’s me who you’re going to lose against, my flower dancer friend!” Randy flashed a smile.

“No, idiot,” I told Randy firmly. “It’s your damn necklace. If we fail to beat your Pokémon, then we lose to your necklace, but not to you. After all, it's that necklace that created all this.”

He didn't like that, but it left exactly the kind of message I was hoping to walk out of here with. Randy was getting furious and the truth was getting to him. I didn’t want him to start a battle thinking it was through his own hard work, effort, and commitment that was going to get him the win.

“You're wasting time!” Randy shouted. "Battle me already!"

“No, Randy, I don’t feel like losing to Quista's little trinket,” I told him, really getting under his skin. “Can’t you see you’re just a hopeless case without your stupid necklace!? Take it off and you're worthless and this place is gone. Now that's reality for you!”

He looked at me with a dark stare and suddenly Jeff and Frank's parade of cheer got rained on as well. He knew the truth, he just didn’t want to accept it. But one thing was for sure, he wasn’t going to take it off. That was the last thing he was going to do.

“If you’re not going to battle me, then I want you out of here,” Randy told us, quickly growing angry he was going to miss the opportunity he had been waiting for this entire time and the whole reason he created this nuthouse in the first place. "Come back when you're ready to show a little bravery!"

Bravery... please. There was a big difference between being brave and being a suicidal idiot.

Even though we had come here with a strong urge to defeat Randy and get out of here, I was getting a feeling that unless we found some way to block Randy’s power, or swipe his necklace while he wasn't looking, there was no way we were going to win. He already screwed up my Weavile and my Jolteon among a whole truckload of other miserable things. I didn’t feel like making the damage any worse.

“Fine, Randy,” I said to him, turned away. “Then we’re leaving.”

Immediately, Alex and David looked at me like I had lost it. They didn’t see that we didn’t stand a chance against Randy at the moment.

“Jake, are you nuts!?” Alex asked me in shock. “We just have to find a way through his crap antics and we can get out of here! There's got to be something that moron is overlooking!”

“Remember what Black and Depression told us?” I whispered to him. “There’s no way we can beat the power of that stupid necklace with nothing to work with. And it’s better if we turn down his offer than lose to him. If we lose to him, then he’ll want to stay here forever.”

“Damn it, what the hell are we supposed to do?” David growled with disgust.

Alex was annoyed, thinking we would only need to stay here for a few more minutes. In truth, I was really aggravated by this whole thing, also, but I didn’t want to risk losing to Randy, and that risk was way too high to gamble on. Giving him any kind of satisfaction out of this was a bad idea. We had to dig deeper and find someone or something that would give us what we really needed to step up to Randy. But doing it like this was just dumb suicide. Besides, Jolteon and Weavile had already been through enough hell and I didn't even know how to undo that kind of transformation. I didn't want to throw in yet another Pokémon to get train-wrecked like that.

And as much as it pained us, we then turned around and began to walk out of that giant stadium to at least discuss it away from those three idiots. Randy was truly furious, but we couldn’t afford for him to be in absolute glee with a phony victory he would think was the best thing that ever happened to him. We would lose everything and I didn’t want to blow the only chance we had.

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 9
The Separation

It was a long walk to get out of that giant stadium. Longer than it should have been and the thought of going backwards was making me sick. I had no idea how long we were going to have to wait now until we could fight him on his level, but it already began to feel like ages. We were all losing our patience. Some of us more than others…

We were back on the streets of Victory City, where everyone in town hated our guts more than alarm clocks from hell on a Monday morning. I swore, if one of these imaginary bastards called me "Lily Loser" one more time, I was going to make them eat their own arms and legs with an ice pick. We were just about to use a vacant alleyway for shelter from the idiocy before some punk hit me in the side of the head with a glass bottle, which stung like hell for a while.

“Well, that went swell,” David snapped sarcastically, looking at me with annoyance. “Just what do you expect to do now, Jake? I swear, he's bound to make a stupid mistake like always that we can take advantage of. It's a much better shot than wandering around this cesspool for longer than we need to!”

I was silent. I really didn’t know. I wanted a fast solution as much as David did, but there wasn’t one to be found. Still, David was looking at me like I made the worst choice possible.

“Look, maybe we’ll come across a solution,” I told him. “Randy can’t be invincible, not even in his own world. What Black and Depression gave us didn’t work, but there has to be something out there that can.”

“Well, hotshot,” David snapped at me, looking at me with a cold stare, “why didn’t we battle him? At least we could have given a try, you know. He's on a power trip, he might let his guard down at some point or another.”

“David,” I said honestly to him, “if we lose to Randy, we might just be suffering a blow we may never recover from, understand? This is exactly what he wants us to do! It could mean being stuck here forever. You saw what he did to our Pokémon! How the hell are we supposed to deal with that!? I don't even think those legendaries that Jeff and Frank were using took any real damage!”

David still looked at me like I was crazy, but I was guessing his rage was just clouding his judgment and ability to grasp what we were dealing with here. He was letting his hunger to get out of here blind him, and I knew for sure that was going to ruin us.

“Maybe not,” David said in a hopeful tone. “Look, it’s not for certain Randy would want to stay here even if we do lose to him. Sooner or later he’s going to get sick of his own world. It'll get just as dumb and boring as kicking rocks around.”

“Yeah, David,” Alex said to him, “not soon enough for me. Randy won’t ever want to leave this place. If he gets bored with it, all he has to do is change anything and everything to fit his desires and we're stuck having to live with it! Who the hell wants to live in a place where he's in control all the time!?”

David still didn’t care. Obviously he wasn’t heeding the warnings that Black and Depression had given to him. Still, he felt there was some hope. I wanted to believe there was something I could do about it myself, but the odds kept telling me otherwise. He just couldn’t see the reality of the situation…

“I’m not going to sit here hoping we just happen to bump into a solution,” David said with annoyance. “We've been walking out there for days and the only things we got out of it were useless trinkets that did nothing to help! I’ll battle Randy right now, and I don’t care if it’s all or nothing. And if I win, then you two owe me big time.”

“Go ahead then, David,” I told him, giving up on trying to convince him otherwise. “We’ll see you around.”

And not even a second later, David turned right back around and headed back into the stadium. I knew there was no way he could win. If he couldn’t beat Caska, he sure wasn’t going to beat Randy. I didn’t want to stick around to find out how he lost.

“Come on,” I told Alex. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Where?” Alex asked me, getting annoyed himself. “Back into the middle of nowhere again!? Come on, man, we've been out there! There's nothing!"

“One more shot,” I told Alex seriously. "This town hates our guts, and maybe Black and Depression didn't have exactly what we needed. There might be someone else.”

Alex really didn’t seem to agree. He just looked away and turned back at the stadium.

“Damn, I hate this place,” Alex told me, “I know you could be right, but damn, I really, really don't want to go back out there. Come on, Jake, look at what they did to us out there! Maybe we can find something here instead. We can just…”

“Look, Randy would be rolling over in laughter if he saw us arguing like this,” I told him. “If you really don't want to go back out there, I'll head out by myself to see what I can find on the outside, and if you want to see what's around this place, go for it. This city seems big enough and maybe it has a dark side to it also.”

"Heh, sure hope it does," Alex flashed a dark smile. "Good luck, man, just don't get lost out there."

And that was where we split up. I didn’t feel right by leaving Alex and David behind, but I didn’t want to stay in this blasted city either. After I said goodbye to Alex, I left them all behind and headed back outside into the wilderness.

I had hoped to find a way out of this forsaken world, even while I was walking away from the very source that could bring me back home. But even then, maybe Alex and David were right. How was I supposed to find the key to our escape by aimless walking? Where would I be going after all?

I felt like I was slowing going insane. After heading out of Victory City and walking down the highway, I was left alone with my thoughts as I tried to think all of options and alternatives over. I would be shocked and surprised if there was a single person in all of Victory City that was willing to help us. The chances of them being in there was next to none.

I started on the highway for the first few hours and just got bored of it, so I decided to just say screw it and not care if I got lost. I really didn't have much to lose at this point anyway. Day one was being alone again and traveling through valleys, swamps, rivers, and forests, day two was all about me nearly losing my mind in anger. I almost felt like I was beginning to just accept all this and admit I was just going to have to suck it up and deal with being a god-forsaken flower in Randy's world like I had no power over anything anymore.

When I reminded myself this would be for forever if I gave up, I got off my butt and decided to shut up and still keep up the effort. I had been walking for nearly three days, which seemed so much longer when I was constantly burdened by these same, endless thoughts and having to deal with Randy's bizarre and unpredictable landscapes and biomes. Not only that, but the only thing I could consume was water. What a nightmare. I wasn’t even human anymore and even my Pokémon had been warped because of all this.

I was really getting sick of the strange landscapes that weren't even making sense anymore. Snow on palm trees? A lake that was hot springs on the outside and frozen in the middle? It was easy to lose sanity here.. By now I was too far away to turn back and take my next to hopeless chances, and even if I could, what was the point? Could I possibly hope to accomplish the impossible? Nothing would have changed from before, only my morale would be diminished. At the moment, it seemed like nothing could be done about it, and this is how it was all supposed to end…

But on the evening of the third day, everything had changed.

During my searches that night, I had come across a strange, white, twenty-story office building with large, mirror-like rectangular windows that looked like it belonged in the middle of a big city, not in the middle of a valley with blue grass and trees. Despite the strange landscape, the building seemed pretty normal. I decided why the hell not, I'd take sitting in a cubicle farm for a few minutes to rejuvinate my sanity over the loony landscapes Randy's mind vomited out.

Honestly, I didn’t care if death itself was inside, I was ready to cope with anything right now. I approached the opposing double glass doors, grabbed the handle, and walked into what seemed like a totally normal office building lobby. At this point, I had nothing to lose, so I figured even if there was nothing in here, well, at least I freaking tried.

Recommended Listening: Resident Evil 2 Soundtrack - The Basement of the Police Station

Inside, it seemed empty, except for one large, side office that had an open door. I started looking around, and while it was quiet and motionless among the chairs, desks, and other office furniture, I felt compelled to go toward the one side office that had the only open door. I decided to walk on in to see why this one was different from all the others.

Inside, it was furbished pretty much the same way any senior manager would arrange it with a large desk with a cherry wood finish, shelves with books and a carpeted floor, and seemingly ordinary pictures of landscapes on the wall. Seated at the desk was a busy, middle-aged man with a bald head, a black goatee, and wearing a black business suit sitting in the leather, wheeled chair behind the desk. It looked like he had been busy writing notes in a black, leather journal before he looked up at me and crossed his arms. He had a serious look on his face and seemed to size me up. It made me feel like it was a job interview with an executive from one of the biggest corporations in the world. And here I was standing before this badass guy as a damn "overgrown Bellossom," as Alex put it.

“I have been expecting you, Jake Kossak,” He told me, looking at me like this was an FBI interrogation.

“How do you know me?” I asked him, wondering who this guy really was.

He furrowed his brow and his serious, soul-piercing eyes just looked right into mine. I could definitely tell what he was about to tell me next was something he definitely didn't want me to forget.

“I am Randy’s hatred, Jake,” He had told me. “The name is Coldblood. Look at this place and look at me. Stern. Serious. Formal. This is the future adult life that will inevitably come for him when he will have to earn a living working eight to seven on spreadsheets, forms, metrics, and analytical data after spending half the day in meetings and on the phone. It is everything Randy's childish and imaginative demeanor will loathe."

Wow, that was deep. I really didn't even know what to say to that.

"Think of it as you will, but I am one of the strongest forces of Randy’s mind," Coldblood continued, folding his hands together on his desk. "Because of me, his anger, sorrow, and depression exist in their fullest form, and they blind him and force him into making crucial mistakes. And you, Jake Kossak, are my most valuable ally right now.”

I was silent. I sure didn’t feel like it at the time while looking like this. I felt more like a loser that was a waste of space.

“Do not feel that way,” He told me, reading my expression. “I know how you feel. For the last few days, you have been feeling nothing but misery. I can easily take that away.”

“Yeah, how?” I asked him, seeing that had to be impossible.

But, he never answered my question, and I never figured it out on my own. He waved his hand in a strange way, and then I felt amazing relief spread all over me like comforting water. When I looked down, the flowers were gone and were rapidly vaporized within seconds. Everything was gone, and I was back in my normal clothing again as a human, something I suddenly appreciated more than I had ever before. But before I could even thank him, he spoke again.

“Jake, someone needs to take Randy out of business, and that someone is you,” Coldblood stated to me firmly. "This nonsense needed to be ended days ago."

“Not while he still has his stupid necklace,” I told him, hoping I didn’t sound like a whiner.

“I understand, but we can work around it,” He said to me. "Trust me. I may be all you have left."

Black and Depression had attempted to help us before, and it still didn’t work. What could Coldblood do that they couldn’t?

“Coldblood, Randy destroyed our protection, and he changed my Jolteon and my Weavile into a freaking Bellossom and a Lilligant,” I informed him. “What the hell am I supposed to do against power like that!?”

Coldblood was silent. It almost seemed like… he had been waiting for me to bring this up.

“Give me your Pokémon,” He told me, not giving me a clue as to what he was going to do with them.

What could I have done? I had nothing to lose anymore, and if he just blew them up for fun, I'd just shrug and ask him to do the same to me. I had no choice now but to trust him, even if it was dealing with a very dark side of Randy.

He laid out my Poké Balls on the desk, one by one. He placed his hand on one of them, and the whole Poké Ball began to glow white. When the white glow died down, he moved it aside and went onto the next. He had done it to all of them, one after another, and I just stood there just wondering what pray tell he was doing to my Pokémon. All of them, even the mysterious, unknown Pokémon that Black have given to me, had been blessed with something…

“What did you just do to them?” I asked Coldblood when he was finished.

“There,” he told me. “Now they are just as strong as Randy's. Your Jolteon and Weavile are completely back to normal as well.”

Well, that certainly made things a bit easier if he was telling the truth about all this. I had remembered Black telling me Randy’s Quista necklace would allow him to use any attack Randy’s whacked imagination could come up with. And I remembered the necklace Black gave us was supposed to protect against Randy's crap, and what a big waste of time that was.

"How are you even able to do this?" I asked Coldblood, wondering where and how he got these kinds of powers.

"Just like hatred can manipulate someone's mind," Coldbood told me, "I can manipulate some components of Randy's created world with the reality he dislikes. However, I cannot confront him myself and must keep my work secret, because to know one's enemy is dangerous knowledge to expose to him. I need you to be my emissary."

Man, this guy was really something else. Definitely not the kind of guy I'd ever think of double-crossing. He made Black and Depression look like a joke.

"I can do that," I told him, letting him know I was up for the job.

“Good,” Coldblood told me quickly. "However, this is not going to be your traditional approach. In order to stop Randy, you have to take your artifice to a whole new level."

I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that, but I figured digging in deeper would help me do the job we both wanted done.

“What did you have in mind?” I asked him.

“Randy cannot destroy something he cannot see,” He said to me. “Necklaces, rings, any perceivable and materialistic object like that is subject to whatever Randy wants to do with them. You need to have an innate power that Randy cannot touch. I am just the person who can give you that. It will allow you to attack Randy’s Pokémon with whatever you can think of and this time, it will hurt them the way it is supposed to. Only then will you be put on the same level as him and even the odds.”

I was sure hoping this wasn’t anything like intensive surgery. But even if it was, I had no other choice. What Coldblood said seemed to be making a lot of sense.

“It only takes about a day,” Coldblood told me in a firm voice. “You go to sleep, and a day later, you will have the power you need to fight Randy. But be warned, it is not half as powerful as Randy’s necklace, which can do much more than make Randy’s imagined attacks a reality. There are some powers that the necklace has that Randy doesn’t even know of yet.”

And so, after standing up, he took me to a conference room where there was a modern conference table surrounded by sturdy black chairs and a black leather couch in the other corner. He told me to lie down on the leather couch, simply go to sleep, and everything would be done as soon as I woke up.

I didn't know what to expect, but after sleeping out there in the middle of nowhere in dreamland, it was quick and easy to doze off on something normal and believable for once.

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 10
The New Dawn

Contrary to my first belief, I woke up feeling absolutely no different from before. At that moment, I had already begun to believe that perhaps Coldblood had decided not to go through with this. It was possible. Or maybe he had decided he liked his new physical form and if I ended Randy's world, he would disappear along with everything else.

“How do you feel?” He asked me as he was the only one seated at the conference table. "I trust it was painless."

“I don’t even feel anything,” I told him.

“That is good,” Coldblood told me. “If you did, then something would have been wrong.”

Outstanding. Now all he needed to do was tell me how I needed to get it to work. At first, I could visualize just thinking up an attack, ordering which Pokémon to attack with, and that would be it. But, it wasn’t as easy as I thought. I still felt like Randy would still have some advantage over me.

“First off,” Coldblood told me, “Randy makes it look easy. He comes up with an attack in his head, sends it to one of his Pokémon in a psychic decoded message from his imagination, and because he wants to, the Pokémon he sends it to understands it, and immediately attacks with Randy’s desired move in its full form.”

“It can’t be that easy…” I remarked in disbelief.

“But it is,” Coldblood said firmly with a confident smile. “Or to him it is, at least. You will definitely need to focus more on what your Pokémon are thinking. You need to make them realize that in Randy’s world, your imagination is probably the most powerful weapon you can wield, and as long as they can listen to you, you and them can make it possible. You need to believe you can break the rules, Jake.”

This was crazy. I couldn’t believe Randy had even come up with such a thing. Making up your own Pokémon attacks seemed like a pretty difficult task, and I didn’t even know where to get started. It seemed like the biggest cheating tool of all time in the history of Pokémon battling, as if what he was doing wasn’t bad enough already. And yet, despite all this, everyone acted like it was perfectly okay. Another reason why I hated this place.

And I was already certain that Randy had done this numerous times. Right now, his simple imagination had become a god-like power. No wonder he was so eager to want to battle us. He would wipe the floor with us in no time and get giddy in ways that would just make me sick. It was probably what he was itching to do all this time. All he had to do was see my face, and he would let out his absolute worst. He must have slaughtered David's team if he really battled him…

Obviously, he was expecting me to show up again for a battle. He would probably be enraged that I was no longer the flower princess precious that he expected me to be, but that was just tough for him. I was thinking it would probably be a far better idea to go in some kind of disguise than show my face to his. He wanted to crush the three of us more than anything, but I had to try and fight him looking like someone else…

“You're absolutely right,” Coldblood told me, reading my mind again. “Randy cannot be allowed to recognize you as you are. And I already have something in mind.”

Coldblood had already helped me out immensely and I felt like I was deep in his debt. Right now, I was all ears for another good idea of his. Unlike the others, this guy was trustworthy. He could have screwed me over if he really wanted to, but he didn't. Not like I had much more to lose anyway.

“I have seen what Randy has done to you,” Coldblood said. “He wants you to feel demoralized and pathetic the moment you step up to battle him. And he would easily do it again given another opportunity.”

"Yeah, no kidding," I replied, looking away and thinking about how much I hated Randy for that.

It all definitely sounded familiar. I felt embarrassed as hell when I was in that stadium, and I’m sure that wouldn’t have changed one bit if I were to do it again. I really was hoping Coldblood knew exactly how to fix this stupid mess.

“I know of a way you can make Randy feel demoralized, effectively disguise yourself, and encode your commands to your Pokémon, leaving Randy without any idea of what you just said to them,” Coldblood smiled with a hint of sadistic delight in his tone.

PERFECT!!! I loved that idea! As if Randy didn’t have enough to worry about now, he was just about to see something that was going to make him piss his pants even more. If Randy couldn’t understand the commands I was giving to my Pokémon, and they were going to be made-up attacks just like his, he was going to be in deep trouble. Now this was a much better chance and was exactly what I was hoping for, although I could tell it was going to be quite a lot of insanity. Two battlers that could make up their own attacks? What the hell was Pokémon battling coming to?

“So what is it already!?” I shouted, eagerly waiting for Coldblood to reveal his outstanding plan.

“I want you to assimilate yourself as the one Pokémon Randy has hungrily desired for all the years of his life, but has been unable to capture and train," Coldblood smiled with a nefarious grin. "Seeing this Pokémon will surely bring back some rather bitter memories that Randy will not want to be reminded of. On top of that, Randy will not know it is really you, Jake. Not even with his powers will he be able to deduce your true identity once this assimilation is complete. And third, your Pokémon will understand your commands as you talk to them in their own language, but Randy will have no clue as to what you have told them.”

Well, that certainly fit the criteria, but it wasn’t what I expected. I had never once remembered Randy so desperately wanting a single Pokémon that he couldn’t get. I tried to imagine what Pokémon it would be, but I had no clue. My guess was he kept it a pretty hard secret. Good thing for him too, because I'm sure Alex, David and I would have taunted him to death over it.

And then, I knew that Coldblood had figured out what I was thinking. He was just about to tell me everything…

It was then that Coldblood had told me about Randy’s childhood, and how even as a little kid there was nothing more he wanted than this one Pokémon. Coldblood told me he asked for it every single damn birthday and Christmas of his entire life but was left disappointed every time. He also told me how he had failed to capture it on three separate occasions, as if luck itself just hated his guts. At that point, I think I would have been pretty frustrated myself.

“For the longest time, Randy had desperately desired a Pikachu above all other Pokémon," Coldblood had finally revealed. "Even at this time, deep inside, Randy still wants a Pikachu, but after focusing only on being the best rather than following his heart, his mind is possessed by power and his own idea of what his personal image should be. Therefore, he only has the best Pokémon possible rather than having the one Pokémon he used to long for.”

Fantastic. Now Coldblood wanted me to square off against Randy as a Pikachu? Things were really starting to get loony now. I had only been normal for a few hours. Couldn’t I at least have a few moments to spend as myself? Why was Randy so enticed by an electric mouse anyway? I had one for a short while before I turned him into a Raichu and I had no regrets. Was it because he thought they were cute or because one just happened to smile at him the right way?

“Randy always loved giving his Pokémon nicknames before this whole incident,” Coldblood recalled. “He called his Growlithe ‘Striker,’ his Nidoran ‘Spike,’ his Pidove ‘Storm Wind’ and his Sewaddle ‘Enigma’. He never called his Pokémon by their nicknames while you three were around because he was afraid you would make fun of them.”

Yeah, we probably would, even though for once I personally didn’t feel they were that bad, though his Pokémon were terrible and sure didn't live up to those kinds of names.

“If he had caught a Pikachu, he would have named him ‘Juno,’ and he would have been overjoyed,” Coldblood told me, informing me of this mysterious Pikachu. “Of course in Randy’s world, there is such a Pikachu already in existence, but he lives too far underground and too far away in the caverns of what is forgotten and neglected to make any use of. Instead, you will inherit Juno’s place and confront Randy. You will become the one Pokémon in this world that Randy craved so desperately, born from Randy’s most passionate imagination and fondest dreams before being the winner and the ultimate champion was all that ever mattered to him. I do not need to tell you how much power that can hold in this place.”

It was a bold and sneaky move to fight Randy as something he truly once wanted and desired but abandoned after he made this zoo. Randy would surely hold back some of his power, but I certainly wouldn’t. It would certainly make my day if Randy lost to me just because he didn’t want to hurt the feelings of a Pikachu he once really wanted. I loved Coldblood’s whole plan. It was cleverly delicious and sinister, just the way I liked things. It was totally worth the cost of becoming a cute, yellow, electric mouse. You'd never suspect something like that of being up to dirty deeds, and it made it that much more satisfying.

Recommended Listening: Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack - Groot Cocoon

“Alright, Coldblood, I'm ready for this,” I told him, really wondering what it was going to be like living as a Pikachu for a while. “If it makes Randy sweat, I can work with it.”

“It is not that easy,” Coldblood warned me. “Once you become Juno, the real Juno will become a part of you, and you will be remain as him until you find a way to break Randy's dream world dimension. You will have to take his role from here on in, and that means Jake Kossak the bully will have to be gone. You will be Juno the Pikachu, and you will have to remember that you are Randy's most coveted Pokémon and must act that way and not make him believe otherwise. Defeat him as if you want to remind him of what he has forgotten, not because you just want to end his world.”

Good point, but it really didn't seem that hard. The plan was way too good to let go, and I had to act upon it. It was definitely worth the risk, even if it meant staying as a Pikachu for the rest of my life. I wanted to be free of Randy’s mind, and I wanted that chance at any cost.

“Let’s go already,” I told Coldblood firmly. “I’ve made up my mind.”

“Very well,” Coldblood said to me as he focused his concentration and energy.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. I waited, wondering just how this was even going to work. But then a few seconds later, I felt something was being drawn to me from dark within the forgotten centers of Randy's world. It tingled me deep inside, feeling like nothing I had ever felt before.

When I shut my eyes to get a better sense of what this force was, I caught a glimpse of this Pikachu named Juno, and I swore I had never seen anything like him. He was still a Pikachu, but he seemed so much more... angelic, charismatic, and genuine. I could tell this Pikachu was created from some serious, very fond imagination and even though a Pikachu like this would never, ever be possible in reality, it was interesting to see how it would have been if it could be...

Slowly, I was enveloped with a white and golden glow, and I suddenly began to change. Gradually, I felt like my human body was dematerialized into pure light, and then I felt like I was shrinking little by little. I felt myself coated with the yellow fur of a Pikachu, followed by having two, long, black-tipped ears emerge from my head before a Pikachu's signature thunderbolt-shaped tail materialized on my rear. My hands were shrunken down to paws while cherry-red patches formed on my cheeks as the place where every Pikachu held their electric power. I almost trembled from the sensation, and before I opened my new, shiny black Pikachu eyes, it was like I could hear a faint whisper...

...Starchaser...

And that was when it hit me in full force.

Suddenly a massive, roaring pulsation of brilliant, white light was unleashed from all directions as I realized my soul had been connected with a Pikachu made from dreams, and now that dream had what no other did. Everything in the room was hit with force and wind, and even Coldblood himself had to steel himself against the celestial wind as the whole building trembled from what was something more profound and intense then I could have ever imagined.

Everything in the room became huge, as if I was lying on the floor. Meanwhile, the energy around me was affecting me in ways that I never thought it would. I looked down with my new eyes and looked at my paws, almost seemingly glowing white for a few seconds before it settled. It actually took me a moment to start breathing again.

There was something far more powerful behind this than becoming a simple Pikachu. Juno… without a doubt… was definitely born from dreams, and there was something about him that was even affecting me deep inside. I didn't know what it was, but suddenly, by becoming him, I felt strangely purified, empowered, and ended up stepping into something so much deeper than I thought I could ever imagine...

Even after I had totally become this Pikachu named Juno that Coldblood had described, I clenched my chest with my now tiny, yellow paws, feeling some kind of light and warmth that was so strong that connected with my soul. I even began to tremble as the connection was completed, and then suddenly, what was a simple unity at first was turned into a full assimilation, made just as a bright, blinding white light came over me. When it finally settled down, I was left with a feeling of being overwhelmed for a moment… suddenly as if I became more of Juno than I was expecting to...

When the dust began to settle and Coldblood regained his bearings, even he seemed surprised.

"I wasn't expecting that kind of reaction, but..." Coldblood muttered, taken back at what he had just seen, "...it seems to have worked."

And yet, to me, it was okay. I suddenly felt like I could actually enjoy this.

"How do you feel?" Coldblood asked.

"Now this is... incredible," I told him, a bit surprised at my new slightly lighter-pitched Pikachu voice. "Juno..."

I made it pretty clear that even though something definitely unanticipated happened, I felt alright with it. In fact, I could easily see why Randy used to like this Pikachu. Heck, if he didn't want him, I'd take him!

"We need to continue with the plan," Coldblood reminded me.

For a minute, I had almost forgotten about what the plan was. While I knew ending Randy's world was the goal, the idea of reminding him about Juno, this awesome Pikachu he had imagined, just seemed like something that needed to be done.

Coldblood handed me the belt with my Poké Balls, only now they felt huge due to my smaller size. It was like tying basketballs around my waist. And I couldn’t help but think that when I pressed the button the prep the Poké Ball for use, it would grow to the size of a giant beach ball. I quickly realized why there weren't any Pokémon trainers that were Pokémon themselves…

“You must be careful,” Coldblood warned me. “Anyone that loses to Randy immediately becomes his servant. That is exactly why happened to Alex and David. David had lost badly against Randy, and after Alex heard the news, he immediately challenged Randy only to fail. If you lose as well, there will be nothing to help bring the three of you back to the real world. Most likely, if you lose to Randy, you’ll be stuck as his favorite Pokémon to train and care for. I’m sure that’s not what you want.”

It was true, I wasn't all too crazy about that idea. It was hard to think that now, David and Alex were Randy’s slaves, the one thing in the world they didn’t want. Heck, it made me shudder thinking what else Randy probably did to them. As if turning them into a fairy princess and giant butterfly wasn't humiliating enough...

“Normally, you cannot fight Randy whenever you want to,” Coldblood told me. “There will be a tournament held in only a few days, and the winner of the final round will challenge Randy for the ultimate prize. To anyone who beats Randy in a Pokémon battle, they will be allowed one wish. Anything they can think of, and Randy has the power to grant it to them."

Well, that kind of prize would definitely reap in quite a bracket of trainers to work with.

"If you were still were Jake Kossak," Coldblood continued, "you could challenge Randy whenever you wanted to because there’s nothing he wants more than to beat you, but now is different. You don’t want to give Randy any hint that you’re Jake in disguise. Therefore, you must enter into the tournament and rise through the rounds to face him.”

As if this didn't even need to get more challenging. I figured if I got wiped out of the tournament, that was a really good sign I wasn't ready yet and needed to work on something else.

“Obviously, no one has ever won this tournament other than Randy,” Coldblood told me the obvious. “Anyone that loses to him becomes his slave, and already several challengers have fallen victim to it. You have to be the one to fight Randy in the final round, and you have to be the one who wins. I can only wish you the best of luck from here on in.”

As I walked out that door and bid him farewell, I had no idea what I would have done without him. But in the meantime, I was still feeling that strange and pure feeling from being Juno deep inside…

[Kentucky Fried Torchic]

Neo, I'm so happy that you're posting a director's cut, if you will. It may have been around seven years since I first read it, but your prose still has a way of putting a fire in my belly. Not to mention the story you've crafted. For the most part, I loved the changes made. It was wonderful to get to see a deeper look at Jake's life outside of bullying Randy and you gave Alex and David more defined personalities, and, my favorite, you expanded the legend of Juno to even this genesis point with an exciting description of Jake's bonding with the soul of the imaginary Pikachu. At the same time, you kept the important elements the same, especially those two's Pokemon teams (and especially especially Alex's Mightyena and Houndoom!), while also expanding the fact that these Pokemon are being transformed by Randy and what that process looks like. Ah. The music rings true to the scenes as well, adding those auras of emotion and mystery to your already excellent wordsmithing.
My only complaints are small, selfish ones really. First, the updating of Pokemon species to incorporate newer ones like Pidove and Lilligant makes me a little wary, since I'd like to relive the bygone days of my youth without Pokemon who weren't in existence then. I guess I consider the story a product of its period more than a living document, but, seeing as how updating species has been going on for a while and that you're editing and expanding it with this reposting that theories gone the way of Yoda being a puppet, though I still hold that a Pidove and a Sewaddle would be fairly out of place in Viridian City. The other is that I remember the battle between Jake and Frank ending differently, with Jake managing to pull off an amazing win despite the blatant cheating of Frank. It makes more sense for the story if Frank's created Pokemon, like Randy's, prove immune to harm by ordinary Pokemon so that Coldblood can power up Jake's own Pokemon, but there was something satisfying about seeing two Grass-types (my personal favorites) triumph over legendaries.
In case you haven't guessed, I'm kind of a bastard and root for Jake, Alex, and David every time I read about their antics. I swear I'm not a bully in real-life, but there's an element of fun to them, especially with the extended description of their laxative prank that was in earlier editions, that isn't as much a component to Randy and his crew's petty revenges. I sympathize with them too much I guess, but to be fair, they did get most of the cool Pokemon.
Anyways, looking forward to keep on rereading this saga and seeing what other new and exciting changes are around the corner!

[Neo Emolga]

Neo, I'm so happy that you're posting a director's cut, if you will. It may have been around seven years since I first read it, but your prose still has a way of putting a fire in my belly. Not to mention the story you've crafted. For the most part, I loved the changes made. It was wonderful to get to see a deeper look at Jake's life outside of bullying Randy and you gave Alex and David more defined personalities. At the same time, you kept the important elements the same, especially those two's Pokemon teams (and especially especially Alex's Mightyena and Houndoom!), while also expanding the fact that these Pokemon are being transformed by Randy and what that process looks like. Ah. The music rings true to the scenes as well, adding those auras of emotion and mystery to your already excellent wordsmithing.

Hey there!

It's funny, people in the PXR community like the music insertions, while people on PokéCommunity dislike them and I actually found myself taking them out for the later. Go figure. :P

But yeah, everything has gotten a massive overhaul and cleanup, especially Chapters 1 and 2. People on other sites have been coming up with some pretty awesome suggestions, so I've been trying them out and I definitely like the outcomes.

My only complaints are small, selfish ones really. First, the updating of Pokemon species to incorporate newer ones like Pidove and Lilligant makes me a little wary, since I'd like to relive the bygone days of my youth without Pokemon who weren't in existence then. I guess I consider the story a product of its period more than a living document, but, seeing as how updating species has been going on for a while and that you're editing and expanding it with this reposting that theories gone the way of Yoda being a puppet.

Yeah, I can see what you mean, but the original was written even before Gen IV was around, which means a lot of missing Pokémon. And true, Lilligant did end up replacing the Roselia that Jake was stuck using before. Same with Pidove replacing Randy's Pidgey. I felt they were just minor changes that won't have a major impact on the story, but does give it a more up-to-date sense of feeling.

The other is that I remember the battle between Jake and Frank ending differently, with Jake managing to pull off an amazing win despite the blatant cheating of Frank. It makes more sense for the story if Frank's created Pokemon, like Randy's, prove immune to harm by ordinary Pokemon so that Coldblood can power up Jake's own Pokemon, but there was something satisfying about seeing two Grass-types (my personal favorites) triumph over legendaries.

Ah, yep, you caught one of the minor plot changes. I was wondering if people would pick up on that.

The MAJOR reason why I did this, after sitting down and thinking it over, is that it wouldn't make sense for Randy not to have Frank's back and share some of his power with his new friend. In fact, in the very original version, Randy even exiles Frank after he loses! After giving it another look, I felt that didn't make too much sense and made Randy look like a total villain. With this new version, Randy's mainly over his head with beating his bullies and got too carried away with his own dreamland, but he's not a wicked person.

That, and if Jake really did win that battle, he would seem Mary Sue-ish. I figured in order to make him a more realistic and believable character, he's got to take a loss every now and then. Considering that losing to Frank wouldn't change all too much, I decided to let that one go.

In case you haven't guessed, I'm kind of a bastard and root for Jake, Alex, and David every time I read about their antics. I swear I'm not a bully in real-life, but there's an element of fun to them, especially with the extended description of their laxative prank that was in earlier editions, that isn't as much a component to Randy and his crew's petty revenges. I sympathize with them too much I guess, but to be fair, they did get most of the cool Pokemon.
Anyways, looking forward to keep on rereading this saga and seeing what other new and exciting changes are around the corner!

Ha, ha, nah, it's fine, everyone has different opinions about the three of them and it's interesting to see the varying feedback I get from it. With all of the other modifications I made, I decided to condense the pranks down a bit to give some room for other stuff like development toward Jake's life at home, the divorce his parents have, and the confrontations he has with his sister Vicky.

One of the other big changes I'm putting in is changing the personality of Blazewing the Latias. Before, she was mainly emotional, a bit on the somber side, and just seemed a little too anxious about everything. Now... complete 180º spin. I decided she'd be way better off more cheerful, plucky, comical, and be a nice source of comedy relief for an otherwise dark and macabre story. That, and Juno travels with her in places where before she was locked up in a Poké Ball, which actually does have major impacts on the story.

But hey, thanks for the feedback and I hope you enjoy the new and improved Trial of Juno!

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 11
The Alter Ego

It was a long march back to Victory City, but things were looking better than when I had left. The three day trek wasn't so bad this time, even though the distance felt greater now that I was much smaller. I felt like I could march even in the middle of the night, but I didn’t want to exhaust myself. Surprisingly, when I had arrived back in Victory City, the place was extremely active, totally unlike before. Excitement for the tournament was fever pitch, and everyone was talking about what they would wish for if they won.

The strange feelings that had hit me when I became Juno were starting to feel natural now. It made me begin to wonder how much thought Randy put into this one Pikachu that I had become. On the outside, sure, Juno was still a Pikachu, but there was so much more about him that just seemed much more... special.

To everyone else, I was simply a stray Pikachu and not someone they knew about. Oddly enough, inside, I was feeling sensations that I'm sure regular Pikachu never feel. I just didn't know how to explain it other than having the sense Juno was dreamed to have powers and abilities a typical Pikachu could only dream of.

It wasn’t hard to find the stadium again, since it loomed over the rest of the city and easily became a permanent part of the city’s skyline. All I could do was just keep walking toward the giant stadium. As the streets were filled with cars and people, it was nice not being called flower-related names not having things thrown at me.

Once I had arrived at the stadium, all I had to do was register at a small desk, but it was quite a shock. Only a tiny handful of names had been on the list, which made me immediately hesitate. My guess was while everyone was excited for the tournament, they were far more interested in just watching it than having the guts to actually enter and risk freedom for a wish.

Nonetheless, I registered my name as “Juno” on the list. The young blond-haired, blue-eyed lady there just looked at me in wonder, blinked twice, and just shrugged. I figured this must have been the first time a Pikachu signed up for this thing.

“It begins tomorrow at 6,” She told me. “You’ll be against Sigon in the Quarter-finals. Remember, you have to be here at 6 or you’re disqualified. Got it?”

She was acting like I was already going to get cold feet and not show up. Was this a usual thing around here? My guess was while these were still Randy's imaginary, made-up people, even they were extremely cautious about challenging him. In any case, I still wanted to go for it. True, part of it was to wash away this dreamland Randy made up. The other part was to remind Randy of Juno. With the way I felt and now sensed things about myself, Juno was special. That and... somehow this sincere and blameless Pikachu was really... really bringing out a much better side of me...

I simply walked away and spent the rest of my day preparing and thinking about how to handle this with the Pokémon I had. I had my Raichu, Weavile, Jolteon, Ariados, and then I came across the fifth Poké Ball I had. The one Black had given me, containing yet another Pokémon born from some aspect of Randy's dreams and imagination. This one, I knew, I had to be careful with. If I used it too early, it might cause unwanted attention in the tournament. I knew... I had to save it for just the right moment.

Other than everything else that was going on, the only trouble I had was finding a place to sleep. I managed to make a decent shelter out of a nearby second-story balcony. The place didn't seem like it had residents, so it would work for now.

Still, I couldn’t believe I would already be in the quarter-finals. On the other hand, Randy had defeated so many people that very few people were brave enough to join. I figured it would only be a matter of time before Randy created his own doomed contestants in this world for the sole purpose of being destined to lose against him. Nonetheless, I told myself not to use any imaginary attacks or the special Pokémon Black gave me until I got to Randy. I didn’t want to cause suspicion, blow my cover, and reveal my secret weapons.

That next day at 6, I got a quick taste of what the beginning rounds were like. Most of them were hosted underground in large, metallic vault-like rooms made to withstand heavy fighting and intense Pokémon battling.

Sigon, the first of the opponents I faced, was a disheveled, dirty, and likely destitute trainer who probably had high hopes, just couldn’t deal with me. The battles were all two Pokémon each, and he just couldn't hang in there. He seemed pretty surprised to be battling with a Pikachu named Juno, but it wasn’t the surprise that made him lose, my Pokémon were still trained better than his, and he still couldn't understand the commands I was giving them. I made short work of his Meowstic, which seemed like it hadn't battled and trained for a long time, and his Swanna, which just seemed to be really unlucky. Jolteon and Ariados, despite being very surprised they now had me as a Pikachu for a trainer, seemed to understand this definitely wasn't reality anymore and it seemed like they were getting used to the wierdness.

But when it came to Sigon, it made me wonder... did Randy dream of this guy to be like this?

“I don’t know who you are, but you’ve made me angry!” Was the last thing Sigon had said to me.

In truth, from what I saw, these other contestants were in no way prepared to deal with Randy. It seemed like this whole tournament was just for Randy's own imagined people to battle among each other only to become Randy's servant in the final round. Truthfully, it did seem like after living a life where he couldn't defeat anyone, he turned the tables around so much so that the total opposite was true now. I sighed, knowing this was no way to become a better trainer.

When Sigon was beaten, that was that. The referee just told me to come back at 7 and that’s when I would be fighting some person by the name of Storm. I just shrugged and walked away, knowing these definitely weren't ordinary humans. It just seemed like no one really cared about these battles and there was no audience besides the strange referees that moderated the whole thing. The only thing the big crowds were here for was to see Randy dominate the tournament winner at the end.

The next battle was no different. Storm ended up being a tough, punk female trainer with a pink Mohawk haircut who had actually bothered to raise her Pokémon diligently, but not enough. She ended up sending out a Greninja that looked like it had been in a bad bar fight and a Skuntank from the inner city slums. I was glad that was over when it was, because the smell from that Skuntank was ungodly. Still, I said nothing and she walked away.

“Your final match will take place at 9 in the evening tomorrow,” The stern referee told me. “There you will be fighting against the one they call ‘Ironclyde.’”

I could easily tell no one was actually using their real name, or at least a name that was anywhere close to reality. Already, I had faced people who I knew deep inside wouldn't have lasted against Randy, and I was already thinking this next guy truly didn't know what he was in for either. It was likely Randy saved the better contestants for when they fought him.

And when the next day had arrived, there were a whole lot of surprises I wasn't expecting...

Ironclyde wasn't the human with a unique call-sign as I was expected. Instead, I had been confronted by an eight-foot humanoid high-tech robot that clearly looked like it was from the future with black armor plating, outlines and lights with cyan-colored neon glows, and glowing blue eyes that made me blink twice and ask if this machine really trained Pokémon. Never in a million years did I see a machine doing that, but then again, in Randy's world, logic didn't have a home here.

Again, if Randy could easily beat an intimidating machine like this, it made him look that much more powerful. I could see where he was going with the whole idea.

And yet here I was, just a lone Pikachu born from imagination like everything else around here, standing before a machine warrior that was all high-tech intimidation. I wasn't sure what was going through its brain, or... CPU, but I figured it very likely didn't think I was a threat. Despite that, the battle was started, and I was really curious to see exactly how a machine would battle Pokémon.

Recommended Listening: Dredd Soundtrack - Lockdown

"Let it begin!" The seemingly normal human referee commanded, shockingly showing no second thought a Pikachu was taking on a mechanical colossus in a Pokémon battle of all things.

"Deploying Absol," Ironclyde stated in a cold, robotic voice.

I then got to witness Ironclyde grab a gray and white Poké Ball in a hidden chamber on its metallic hip, which it prepped for release and then hurled into the metallic arena.

And out of the white and gray Poké Ball came a vicious Absol with the most aggressive attitude ever rubbed off on a Pokémon. I was just hoping he didn’t think I was his opponent. He looked pretty well-trained unlike all the others I had faced in this tournament, with a sharper horn and fierce, white fur. I didn't like looking into his red eyes, either.

I didn’t have any fighting-type Pokémon, so I grabbed the next best thing I had for the situation. I looked over to my left side, slid Raichu’s giant Poké Ball out of the belt, prepped it so it became huge and nearly too big to handle, and hurled it into the arena.

“Go Raichu!” I shouted, using both paws to launch his Poké Ball into the arena like I was shooting for a 3-pointer in basketball.

But of course, Ironclyde didn’t understand a word I said, and he really didn’t know what Pokémon I was bringing out. It almost made me laugh knowing all this intimidating robot could hear was “Pi-Pikachu.” I tried to hold in the laughter. It was quite comical, and I had to admit if anyone was watching this, it would be pretty funny seeing a Pikachu battle a massive robot that had to have been inspired from a sci-fi movie or game Randy knew about.

When Raichu came out of his Poké Ball, he felt something strange and he looked behind to see me. When he saw I was the one who sent him out, it caused him to look at me with a very peculiar look in his eyes.

“What the heck happened?” Raichu asked me. “Where’s Jake?”

I then realized Raichu must have been the only Pokémon I hadn't used in the tournament yet, and was the last one to discover I was no longer human.

“It’s me in disguise!” I told him. “But don’t go telling anyone.”

“How the…?” Raichu asked, still wondering how it was even possible. "Just what is... going... on?"

I figured Raichu hadn't been out of his Poké Ball enough to see the weirdness of Randy's world. Still, after looking around at the strange vault-like fighting arena, seeing the nefarious Absol, and then the hulking metal robot that was the Absol's trainer, he was really beginning to question what was going on.

"This is..." Raichu stated, his jaw nearly dropping, "...what the... heck am I... looking at!?"

"I'll explain later!" I told him, knowing we had a battle we badly needed to win. "We need that Absol taken out! It's still a Pokémon battle!"

Raichu nodded, but I could sense he was baffled none of this was normal in the slightest. In the meantime, it was funny how here I was actually speaking to one of my Pokémon, and he had absolutely no idea what was going on. Despite that, I had a battle to win.

“Use a Brick-Break attack on that Absol!” I told Raichu. “It’s one of his top weaknesses.”

“Come on, Jake, you know I know that!” Raichu replied, playing it out despite how odd this must have looked to him.

“Call me Juno,” I told him with a smug smile. “Gotta keep this a secret.”

And then, Raichu turned around and had advanced on Absol, and Ironclyde had no idea what attack I had just declared nor did he know how to respond to his Absol to work against it. He watched Raichu carefully trying to make the determination, and by the time he realized what was happening, it was too late. Absol was hit with a blazing, bone-cracking punch from Raichu's glowing fist. Despite that attack, Absol got back on its feet and prepared to strike. I knew Pokémon trained like that sure don't go down easy.

"Night Slash," Ironclyde declared.

“Dodge it!” I shouted to Raichu.

And this is where things really got funny. Ironclyde thought I had declared another attack using the language of Pokémon. Absol rushed toward Raichu, and Raichu barely jumped out of the way from Absol’s viciously sharp, black horn. Absol was so into the swing that he stumbled and needed a second to recover.

“Use your Thunderbolt!” I shouted to Raichu.

“Heh, you got it!” Raichu agreed, jumping into the action.

The tip of Raichu’s whip-like tail had struck the ground, he clenched his brown fists, and he had charged up an intense Thunderbolt, lighting up the orange electric mouse like a light bulb. Just when Absol turned around, he saw a massive jet of electricity rip and tear its way to him. Absol was struck painfully as the sharp electricity coursed through his body, and he cried loudly from the agony. Absol stumbled and fell to the ground, moaning from the exhaustion.

“I... can’t… take it anymore…” Absol moaned in pain.

It was so weird understanding everything they were saying. I would never look at Pokémon battling the same way again. Despite that, Ironclyde was just totally indifferent to the way the battle was going, just giving a cold and emotionless stare. It only had one more Pokémon to use, and I really wasn't sure what kind of Pokémon it would be using next. Nonetheless, I was ready for anything.

Ironclyde had already realized it didn’t know what attack it's Pokémon were going to get struck by until it was already too late. I could already imagine the same thing would happen with Randy. For once, things were seemingly hopeful...

Despite that, Ironclyde prepared its next Pokémon to enter the battle. It launched it next night-black Poké Ball into the arena. Now it was looking toward me with a cold, soulless stare that seemed a bit disturbing.

"Deploying Haxorus," Ironclyde confirmed in its cold, hollow voice.

The black Poké Ball struck the ground fiercely, and moments later and after a flash of light, Ironclyde’s Haxorus had emerged ready for combat. I hadn't seen a Haxorus before, and it wasn't pretty. Nearly six feet high, clad in jade and black scales with crimson claws and scythe blades on both sides of his face, this was definitely not a kid-friendly Pokémon. And he sure didn't have a nice attitude either. He looked at the two of us and gave us a dark stare.

“This is all!?” He growled in a low tone, bearing rows and rows of shark-like teeth. "You runts will never be enough to sate by blood thirst!"

Raichu looked to me, and he really didn’t look too happy.

“Maybe YOU should try fighting this guy for once, Juno,” Raichu told me, pushing me a bit into the fighting arena. “See this as a great opportunity to get a firsthand experience seeing what Pokémon battling is like as a Pokémon yourself! Wouldn't be such a bad learning opportunity, you know!”

“Hey, man,” I told him honestly, really not sure about this. “I never once said this was easy, okay? Just give it your best shot.”

That wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear. “Just give it your best shot” meant he had the odds against him and he was going to feel pain because of it. Of course, I never really thought he would complain to me about it.

“Go on!” Raichu urged me with an obviously acted-out smile. “How about you give it a try? Who knows, you might like it!”

And then, Raichu moved far aside leaving me and this burly Haxorus alone on the field. The ultra-violent Haxorus just looked at me with a dark snicker, and then made his advancement. As much as I hated to say it, I was going to have to finish this myself.

"Initiate Earthquake," Ironclyde declared.

This was certainly a rare instance where the trainer himself had become the Pokémon he would fight with. As Haxorus lifted up his clawed foot to rip apart the floor, I just had to embrace the hard reality that it was me who was going to fight this guy and deal with an attack that was, quite frankly... a Pikachu's worst nightmare.

Haxorus’s foot came thrashing down, and the metallic floor began to crack open. All I could think of at the moment was to jump, and jump high. I sprung off the ground, and for a strange moment, I felt like I was effortlessly floating, and everything suddenly went into slow motion. The arena was slashed apart into pieces, and I remained above the chaos untouched. Strangely enough, I had just done something I’ve never, ever seen a Pikachu pull off.

I then focused my energy and burst into flames. I then flew toward Haxorus at mach speed, but it was actually much faster since it felt like we were fighting underwater. I slammed into Haxorus, and energized embers of fury were thrown everywhere, and I landed back on the ground. I didn't think Juno would know such a powerful rendition of Volt Tackle like it was a walk in the park.

I saw for an instant Haxorus was slowly stumbling, trying to get back on its feet. I then began to move much faster, while Haxorus was moving slow like molasses. I must have appeared to be a blur to the others, unable to be seen. I jumped off the ground, jumped off the wall, advanced toward Haxorus, jumped off the wall again right above him, and targeted his head with a vicious Thunder attack, letting it charge forward from my flaring cheeks right into his face. He was still letting loose a loud howl from the last attack, which honestly felt like it was half a minute ago to me but only a split second in actual real time.

I must have been breaking every law of physics and reality I could think of with what Coldblood provided me. But there was something else about this... was this what Juno was really capable of? It was even escalated with the ability to manipulate and redirect the forces of Randy's world and reality to however I wanted to facilitate them. Even so, I never thought it would be to this extreme degree. Things that I thought would be impossible to manipulate were at my fingertips. I could dance around Haxorus at this speed and he wouldn’t even know I was there. But then I began to wonder… was this really Coldblood’s power…

…or really Juno’s own innate potential…?

I stood there suspended in the air just watching Haxorus get his butt whipped by me. I put my foot forward, and I flew down toward his head, and slammed down with a thunderous force. Haxorus took a vicious blow to the head, and felt a shock now being thrown in two completely different directions in split seconds. Once I landed on the broken ground, Haxorus was falling, but before I even let him crash to the ground, I then gathered all the electrical power I could, and I could feel an intense energy gather. A storm of electricity flared from my cheeks, and I looked up and directed the intense electrical carnage at the hopeless Haxorus that was seemingly floating in the air in the form of some higher-powered Thunderbolt attack.

The blazing thunder struck him violently in ways I had never seen before. At first it didn’t do anything much because of a dragon's resistance to electric attacks, but only half a second later the power was too intense for that to even matter. Haxorus was roasted thoroughly, and as he slowly came and fell back toward the ground, landing on his back as I simply back flipped out of the way. Haxorus had crashed down, never expecting to get so wasted in so little time. Only then did everything come back to normal speed. Ironclyde looked like he was ready to lose it.

“How the... heck did you do that!?” Raichu shouted in complete shock, looking at me strangely.

“You'll never guess how…” I told him, looking at the defeated Haxorus.