Written by Farla and Charles RocketBoy

Tired, so very tired…

"What a mess!"
Who’s there?

"Yep, they sure went nuts with the napalm. Hey, I think I found a survi- Wait, no. Ick."

Help me…

"Eon’s gonna be well pissed when she finds out what happened here- HEY! There’s a live one! And… bloody hell, it’s the twerp’s Pikachu!"
"Yer kidding me!"
Pikachu felt herself by lifted off the ground and examined.

"Much as I hate to say this, we can’t live it here," said Jessie. "Let’s go!"

*************************************************************************************************************

The scientist is the last bearer of the knowledge. He carries with him all the files and data needed to clone Legendary Pokemon. He has to reach Saffron and deliver this to Silph Co., before that… THING… catches up with him. But here’s nearly at the border defences, he’ll be safe there…

Fenris leaps out in front of him, all drooling teeth and snarl.

Shrrrrrip.

****************************************************************************************************************

"Fenris has completed the mission," said Ice quietly. "Now the Articuno is the only clone."
~Good,~ said Eon. ~Where did you put it, anyway?~
"In the nursery."
The nursery was a large cavern in Mt. Moon, where infant Pokemon were kept and cared for by their parents and the nurses, a group of Khangiskhan that had been freed from Pokeballs.

~Good. Now we don’t have to worry about Moltres mass-production by the humans. Now; Mewtwo, status report.~
~Big problems.~ Mewtwo wasn’t in the room, but was communicating telepathically from his lab. ~I’ve managed to develop those prosthetics for our crippled warriors, and the synthetic meat products is perfected; predatory Pokemon now have a choice of five flavours, it just needs to be mass-produced.~
~We have factory equipment from Viridian heading your way.~
~Good. The chips… I’m still having problems with this. I may have a cure ready in 2, 3 weeks. If they DO switch to defective ones, I could whip up a cure for ‘em in three days. But that won’t cure the thousands of Pokemon with the old chips in them.~

~Keep trying. Tell us if there’s anything else you need.~ She turned to Jessie. ~And what of the Pikachu colony?~
"Like you thought, it’s been blown to hell. We found a survivor though; y’know that twerp Ash Ketchum? The one who was part of those "Strike Trainer" dorks? Well, his Pikachu was found there!" She grinned. "Musta found out about the chips and ditched him. Smart girl."
~Hmmm… Now that IS interesting… Very interesting indeed. I’ll talk to her, later. Right now, we have our next attack to plan. Team Rocket is producing those chips, so we’ll have to do more damage to them. They have a subterranean base under Mandarin Island; Ice, that’s yours.~ She turned to Mixeon. ~I want you to raid Johto, get us some Milktanks.~
"<On it!>"

"So, no big all-out attacks this time round?"
~No, Jessie. We have Viridian and Cinnabar secured, so there is no need for that yet.~

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Brock stared at his Vulpix, searching for something in her eyes. He found nothing.

"Something’s wrong with her," he whispered.

"Maybe she’s just tired," said Ash.
"Hmm. Maybe. Anyway, you heard about the refugees?"
"Yeah," said Ash in disgust. "Cowards, running away when they should be helping us fight back!"
"How would they help? Very few people are actually fleeing the Pokemon regions," said Misty. "Most think it’s too cowardly to run."

"I don’t," said Brock. "That’s why I’ve paid for my siblings to leave the country, head for America." He sighed as Ash started to speak. "I’m not gonna be drawn into a debate with you on this. I don’t want them to stay in a city which could be attacked at any moment. I want them far from Eon’s reach. End of discussion."
Ash shrugged and leant against the wall. "Yeah, well… I’m staying to help fight Eon. The Strike Trainers are gonna be reorganised and sent back into combat any day now. And have you heard about what’s planned for Cinnabar?"

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It was something to see.

Thirty battleships, backed up by seven aircraft carriers containing bomber planes. Heading for Cinnabar, with the plan to NOT regain the island but to level it completely. The humans didn’t need it but they’d be damned if they’d let the Pokemon keep it.

 Scar saw them coming and said: "We’re dead."
"Not if we can plan a sufficient defence," said Lash. "We have the firepower to sink those ships; I think we can handle this. There are, what, a thousand Pokemon in this island?"
"We’d better get ready then."

Fire Pokemon were stationed around the island perimeter, Water Pokemon sent out to stop the ships from reaching the island. A team of four hundred remained in the island centre, to handle any human soldiers/aircraft that got past the defences. Scar and Lash were at the perimeter themselves, commanding the defences.

The ships came into view; they’d split up so they were surrounding the island. No escape then…

"OK," said Lash. "Attack… NOW!"
The Water Pokemon headed out but a minute before they reached the ships, the battleships opened fire. Shells struck the Cinnabar coast, churning up sand and rock and Pokemon.

"SHIT!" snarled Lash. "Fire back now! We’ll get pounded if we don’t!"
Flamethrower, Fire Blast and Hyper Beam were fired off towards the ships. Half the attacks missed, due to the distance, but others hit their target, sinking four of the ships. As a response, the bombers took off and headed for the island. The first wave were all shot down, but the second wave made it across and began unleashing their armaments upon the forests and ruined cities. Pokemon ran screaming as the ground exploded beneath their feet. Scar growled and took to the air, ready to fight the planes on equal terms-

A stray blast from the battleships hit him. The shells could crack open mountains and turn buildings to dust; Charizard hide was no match for them.

Blood rained down on the horrified Lash.

"…no…"

The Water Pokemon reached their destination and struck without mercy. The gigantic Tentacruel, Gorgo, destroyer of the tropical city Acapulco three years prior, wrapped its tentacles around one ship and squeezed. The hull groaned its protests before snapping in two. A group of Wartortle and Blastoise used a combined Surf attack to sink two more of the ships. But the other ships were blasting away at the Water Pokemon, and turning the sea red. Gorgo lashed out with an Acid attack and was struck back with shells. It screamed out and plunged down into the water, its ruby cracked open and leaking black fluid.

In short, the Water Pokemon lost. A hundred died bringing down just five ships. They retreated, and the battleships returned to shelling the island.

The perimeter defences were retreating. They couldn’t stand against the relentless shelling, not and survive. Already they could see the bombers running rampant across the island, turning forests to ash.

"What do we do?!" screamed a Ninetails. "We can’t just retreat to the centre, they’ll attack there as well!"

"I KNOW," shrieked Lash, barely holding onto his sanity, images of Scar's death playing through his mind. "But we have no choice. We have to- Wait. Why are the bombers heading towards the volcano?"

Four of the bombers dropped their bombs down on the central volcano and then headed back towards the ships. All the remaining battleships fired off their payload of cruise missiles. Luckily, these Johto ones were an improvement over the American missiles; they actually HIT the intended targets. There was an explosion, and then the attack halted.

And then the volcano began to rumble.

*************************************************************************************************************

~Do you know who I am?~

Pikachu nodded. "Yeah. Anyone not brainwashed knows who you are."

Eon nodded. ~You’ve run from your trainer, Ash Ketchum, after he tried to get you chipped, yes? And, as it turns out, he is rising in the military ranks; a member of the ludicrous Strike Trainers, a protégé of Lt. Surge, and so privy to a lot of information direct from Goldenrod, the HQ of the Kanto/Orange/Johto military alliance.~ She stared hard at Pikachu and said: ~Do you want to fight for our cause, and return your brainwashed friends to normal?~

Pikachu thought of Vulpix. "Yes."

~Then here is the plan. You will return to Ash, under the pretence of having been chipped and "cured of the evil influences of Eon". And you will report to us all of the information he receives. In short, you’ll be a spy for us. Can you do this?~

It was a perfect situation. She could help the rebels and have her friends returned to normal. And she’d know when attacks were planned, and make sure Ash lived through them; she could even manage to turn him around, hopefully..

"Yes, Eon. But how will you convince him I’ve been chipped?"

~The Ditto’s. They can morph into humans, a little know fact; they’ll disguise themselves as government officials, who will say they captured you and chipped you, and found out from you that you belong to Ketchum. Sorted. They’ll meet up with you shortly.~

Pikachu nodded and left the room. As she went, Eon turned to her map. On it were all the captured areas, all the areas planned for capturing, all the important human areas. There was also a large question mark over Lavender Town. That was neutral territory; the population there were respectful to Pokemon and it was a nexus for Ghost Pokemon and supernatural forces. Many, Pokemon and human alike, viewed it as a sacred ground. And while it remained haunted, Eon would not dare attack it. She had no idea what might come out of it, looking for revenge.

"Eon."

~Ice. KNOCK next time, instead of popping out of the shadows. How went the attack?~

"The Rocket base has been destroyed, along with an entire Mandarin street. A success."

~Good. Now, we-~

~EON!~

It was Mewtwo, communicating telepathically again. Eon sighed.

~I’m busy at the moment-~

~THIS IS IMPORTANT! I’ve just received a message from Cinnabar; the humans attacked-~

~So? We can fight them off-~

~We can't! Reports are coming in of hundreds of casualties- Scar himself is dead! And... I can't believe I'm saying this... The humans have caused the volcano to erupt.~

*************************************************************************************************************

Lash stared in horror, the fiery lights reflected in his eyes. He whimpered.

The heavy barrage from the humans had set off the tectonic plate the island laid on; not a large tremour, but the volcano was delicate. The slight seismic disturbance had been enough to cause it to erupt. 

It was horrifying. Smoke and ash had been thrown up into the air, blotting out the very sun. Molten lava poured forth, moving with deceptive speed across the land, causing infernos in the forests and fields that were moving across the island like the plague. Pokemon were being caught up in it, their screams heard even over the horrible rumbling of the volcano. Pokemon were literally combusting in the heat. They couldn't stop this, it was an apocalypse pure and simple. 

Lash became aware that people were yelling at him. He struggled to listen.

"WHAT DO WE DO?!"

Lash stared at the volcano and shook his head. "Evacuate the island," he said quietly. "I know there are still some human ships out there, but we can destroy them. We can’t stand against… this…"

The order swept through the island and the Pokemon fled for their lives. Water Pokemon reached the ocean first and allowed Fire Pokemon (and other elements) to scramble aboard, so they could be ferried through the water. Lash had a small group of Slugma attached to his head.

As he crashed into the sea, he looked back at the volcano and shuddered.

He’d failed.

CHAPTER TWENTY: COMPLEXITY

~ How bad is it? ~ said Eon softly.

"We lost a lot. A few survived, mostly Magmar and a few Muk. They did manage to evacuate the island, but…we don't know the exact numbers, but it looks like we lost hundreds."

"I have a suggestion" said Star. "The problem is that it takes a group of Pokemon to take down one ship. With several, they can all attack at once while the Pokemon try to focus on one ship."

"But we have to get the Orange Islands, they have relatively few humans and many Pokemon." commented Memory.

"Plenty of Water Pokemon can't function on land anyway, so we don't need them here. Why not have the Orange Island Water Pokemon make quick guerrilla strikes on individual boats? Singly they are reasonably easy to take out. We could probably put a few of the stronger fliers on it too."

~ Good idea. We'll need to organize them into attack groups. Is Lash up to helping yet? ~

"No," said Shine. "I don't think he'll be doing anything for the next few days, or weeks, or months. Or years, he seems pretty upset."

 **********************************************************************************************************

Ice was in the nursery.

If Wildfire had been there, she would have asked what Ice was doing. Of course, she wouldn't get an answer. It wasn't Ice's nature to explain, and she had no reason to anyway. Ice could tell Eon was already slightly annoyed, although she was handling it much better then Giovanni had. That wouldn't last, of course. Soon, Eon would probably be more of a problem then Giovanni. He had been too afraid to bother her about her personal business much.

Eon wasn't sure if Ice was sane or not, but Ice didn't care. Very few knew the answer to that question. If she wanted them to think she was sane, she would have acted like it. If she wanted them to think she was insane, she would have acted like that instead. As it was, she didn't mind what they thought, so she did what she wanted.

The Articuno glared at her. Ice glared back and the fledgling, with an annoyed hiss, broke eye contact and went back to scratching the ground, pretending she wasn't afraid.

Ice didn't lie. The bird wasn't sentient, which mattered less then Eon thought. By some standards, Ice's own sentient status was questionable. The ice-element was aware of her surroundings and was thinking, just not in a way the rest of the Pokemon or humans did.

Rather odd it was female. All the others were male. Ice's eyes glazed momentarily, and the clone's head snapped up, sensing weakness, but Ice glared at her again and she shuffled on. No, gender didn't matter. Just an oddity that did not matter one way or the other in the pattern. Ice knew the Articuno would kill her if the bird thought she could. But it didn't matter. Ice was considering killing the young Legendary herself. The creature reminded her of Maelstrom. That girl had hated and feared her too. Maelstrom was dead now. 

The Articuno raised her head and hissed at Ice again before swiftly lowering it and resuming her more submissive posture. The fledgling was just waiting for the right moment, when Ice would be weak enough to kill. That would be never. She had a small army at her beck and call. Ice was no weakling, and if she was trapped and unable to win -something that had yet to happen- she could summon some of the pack.

It was because of the pack that she was here, not to show her power and authority over this weak and currently unimportant flier. But not showing it, of course, would lead to inconveniences. She wanted the Articuno to accurately judge her power. Ice could have pretended weakness to trick the Pokemon into attack, but she felt that the Articuno had a part to play. If Ice killed the Pokemon now, things would change. She preferred to wait until she understood how they would be different.

One of the Khangiskhan worked up the courage to come over. They had been watching her and wanted her gone before she became violent and hurt someone, probably the Articuno she was glaring daggers at.

"Is there any particular reason you are here?" asked the Khangiskhan.

Ice shrugged carelessly. "Of course there is. I understand the Pokemon decided to store Evolution stones here, because you have experience judging power levels and so will only give out stones to those who are at the correct stage?"

"Yes," said the Khangiskhan, clearly worried where this was headed.

"I need two. A Fire Stone and a Water Stone."

The Khangiskhan gave her a sceptical look. "I wasn't under the impression you evolved."

"As we both know, I don't need them for myself."

"If you intend to evolve a Pokemon, it must be checked out personally."

"No," said Ice simply.

"Why do you want the stones then?" demanded the Khangiskhan, starting to get annoyed.

"My reasons are my own. You can give them to me or I can take them. I need them, I will get them, and there really isn't anything you can do about it."

"And if I tell you no?"

"As I just said, I have no problems with taking them. I know where they are, I know how to get them, and we both know you and the rest of your group can't stop me."

The Khangiskhan debated refusing, but Ice didn't appear to be bluffing. Besides, they had plenty of stones, and Ice didn't seem to be very stable. Better to give her what she wanted so she would leave before she did any damage.

Quickly, the Khangiskhan found and delivered the stones to Ice, who took them. She looked down at the Articuno, whose head was still lowered. "Goodbye Winterhart," she said, a small, cold smile on her face, then vanished.

The clone raised her head again and hissed at the place Ice had been standing as the Khangiskhan walked off, causing a shadow to flicker on the wall. The newly named Winterhart bent her head back toward the ground. Perhaps it hadn't been the Khangiskhan that caused the darkness to move.

*************************************************************************************************************

"Lash," said Wildfire softly. The huge water snake was currently curled completely into a ball. He gave no sign he heard her.

Wildfire sighed. She didn't have experience with Water Pokemon.  But the other Pokemon seemed certain that he'd come out of it soon. She herself wasn't so sure. Lash had completed the evacuation, delivered the Pokemon to Eon, then slunk over here and rolled himself into this ball. His skin looked dry and he hadn't eaten since the attack.

"Lash, what's going on?"

Still nothing.

"Look, why don't you come with me, go down to a nice pond, have a swim and something to eat?"

Nothing. Not even the faintest movement or change in his breathing. Still, she pressed on.

"Lash, it isn't good for Water Pokemon to stay out of water, especially with nothing to eat or drink. Unless you're trying to die, you really need to uncurl."

Lash curled up tighter. Great. What had she-

Oh crap, thought Wildfire as it dawned on her. She was dealing with a suicidal Gyarados. A large, powerful one. One who could probably kill or severely injure her. How was she supposed to get him to unknot himself and start eating and drinking?

Wildfire sighed again. Time to switch tactics. She walked closer, hoping that his tail was buried deep in there so he wouldn't just swat her away.

"Lash, I'm going to give you a choice. You can uncurl and talk, or I can knock you unconscious and move you to the nearest pond."

The huge blue mass rumbled, and Wildfire heard Lash say: "You couldn't. You're not strong enough to do either."

"Between your current condition and my ability to use electric moves, I don't think I'd have any trouble knocking you out. I admit I might have some trouble moving you, but with Star helping, it should be fine. Are you going to come out now, or do I need to prove it?"

With a low, rumbling growl Gyarados Pokemon unwound itself. Lash glared down at her.

"Much better. Now why don't we talk about all this rationally," suggested Wildfire.

Lash swung his tail at her, and Wildfire leapt into the air quickly to avoid getting hit.

"Calm down! What's wrong?"

"Scar is dead, that's what's wrong!" he roared, lunging at her furiously. Wildfire quickly thanked whatever had chosen wings as her physical Pokemon attribute, and flew higher. She was starting to guess why everyone had been so keen to just let Lash get over it himself.

Why couldn't I be dealing with another Fire type? thought Wildfire mournfully. Or Grass or any element that didn't have a type advantage? Still, she needed to try her best.

"Lash, I know Scar is dead, and I know you were friends, but I don’t see why you're going off the deep end like this. You must have seen this sort of thing before."

The Gyarados suddenly slumped to the ground. "You don't understand. Scar survived it. Our trainer, and his brutal regime... Scar was the only one who survived it. All the others died. He never told me how many, but I know it was well over a hundred. All the others died. All. If I hadn't been unable to battle, if my trainer had sent me out against the Pokemon who attacked him, my trainer would still be alive and I'd be dead now. Scar was the only one of us who had been with him from the beginning, had seen all of them come and go. He was the only one who kept fighting. If it wasn't for him, I'd be dead."

Wildfire flew lower cautiously. "But you aren't," she said softly. "You are alive. Why do you want to change that?"

Lash roared again and sent a hydro pump at her. She quickly flew back upward. "Because he should have lived! After everything, he should be here! He survived all of that! I never did. I should be the dead one. After everything he went through, to die just after he got freedom." The Gyarados lay back down, suddenly calm again, and curled into a ball once more. 

**************************************************************************************************************

~ Ice ~ said Eon calmly. ~ I've been told you requested two evolution stones. ~

"And?"

~ May I ask what you needed them for? ~

Ice shrugged. "You can ask. Doesn't mean I'll answer."

Eon suppressed a growl of annoyance. ~ Ice, tell me why you needed them now. ~

"No. It does not effect you or the revolution."

~ Does this have anything to do with your absence earlier? ~

"Yes."

~ Where were you? ~

"Somewhere that also does not effect you or the revolution."

Eon suppressed the urge to blast Ice with a flamethrower. ~ What were you doing there? ~

Ice yawned. "Do I really need to repeat myself?"

~ Ice, I order you to explain yourself! ~

Ice smiled slightly. "Eon, I am not going to do something because you tell me to. I said I would help. I did not say I would follow your orders."

~ Ice, why did you need the evolution stones? ~

"Because certain Pokemon require them to evolve."

~ Why are you so stubborn? Just tell me! ~

Ice sighed. "If I told you, you would be angrier then you are now," she said with a faint smile, then vanished.

 **************************************************************************************************************

"Now listen Pikachu," said one nondescript white-clad man. "Act the same as you see the other Pokemon acting. Do not hesitate to obey any order your trainer tells you, and do not do that order in any inventive way. If your trainer tells you to dodge an attack, you can dodge it, but otherwise let it hit. Do not speak to you trainer unless spoken to."

"<So basically, don't do anything but what I'm told?>"

"Exactly," said the equally nondescript white-clad woman. " Don't talk to other Pokemon unless you have to. And no matter what you do, don't say Eon, revolution, chip or anything like that to other Pokemon if you aren't sure if they're chipped. We've been informed that rocket scientists are starting on a version of chip that will react to any Pokemon talking to another in an unformatted manner, but we're sabotaging it as much as we can."

"<Got it>" she replied, then was silent as they walked into Cerulean.

**************************************************************************************************************

Mewtwo studied the lines of programming. Unfortunately in some ways, this wasn't the best Team Rocket had to offer, which meant it had already been finished and tested for bugs at least a decade ago. If this had been rushed, he'd have better luck, but so far, almost nothing. The program had been checked and rechecked for flaws, and had been in use for years.

No, he couldn't find anything major in the chips. How to shut them down still eluded him. The four Houndoom had mastered a trick of lighting remote objects on fire, but he had been unable to figure out how that happened, let alone emulate it. To make it worse, the Houndoom did not wish to cooperate with him and Ice had refused to try and convince them, saying that some things are not and never will be understood, and only fools would dare to study them.

To make it worse, the list of keywords was huge, containing almost any word that had anything to do with the revolution. Everything from 'bomb' to 'kill' to 'slave'. Even just the word 'wild' would set it off. Plenty of untrained Pokemon would be attacked for this.

The psychic cat scrolled down, memorizing some of the more innocent words so wild Pokemon could be warned not to say them. Then he paused, and hit a few keys.

Mewtwo smiled slightly. It might not get rid of the chips, but this was still a major flaw. The keywords must have been an addition to the program, since an error like this couldn't have gone unnoticed for long.

~ Plural forms, of course! ~ he whispered triumphantly.

****************************************************************************************************************

Pikachu twitched her tail slightly, and the two instantly turned in that direction. There was Ash, Misty and Brock. The two Ditto quickly moved up to them.

"Are you Ash Ketchum?" said one.

"Yeah," said Ash, staring at Pikachu. "Is that-"

"We've recovered your Pikachu from a colony of wild ones. They were brought to an anti-terrorism station and treated. When we learned it belonged to you, we came here to return it." said the other.

Ash touched his Pokeball hesitantly. "I was told Pokemon should be kept in Pokeballs as much as possible now. Is that necessary?"

Pikachu stiffened, but the Ditto didn't falter. "No. If your Pokemon has experience being out, you can keep it outside. As a Strike Trainer, that should be useful because it will be able to warn you if other Pokemon are traitors."

"Okay," said Ash, sounding slightly relieved. Pikachu relaxed. Everything was going fine.

*****************************************************************************************************************

"Alright Ice, what’s going on?" said Wildfire. "You were in the nursery glaring at the Articuno, who you called Winterhart. You then asked for two fire stones, threatened to take them when questioned, and have refused to tell Eon anything other then that if she knew why you took them, she'd be even madder."

"And?"

"And I want to know what's going on! What are you doing? And where is Twilight and Prince, while we're at it? I haven't seen them for a while."

"Wildfire, do you really think I'm going to tell you anything without reason?" said Ice.

"No, but you have to tell me! Something is going on here and I know it. You aren't using your Twilight or Prince to help us, you're suggested that what you used the stones for was something bad, and you're royally pissed Eon off!"

Ice narrowed her eyes slightly and looked straight at Wildfire. "Twilight is a child, and so is Prince. I will not have them fight. I needed those stones for my own reasons and I don't need to explain my actions to Eon."

"Then why didn't you just bring them to the nursery, like the Articuno? And why won't you tell what you did with the fire stones?"

Ice glared at the younger Elemental. "I take care of my own," she said, a hint of threat in her voice. "I will not have any of them part of this unless there is no other choice. That is why I will not tell Eon."

"Then tell me! I won't tell Eon-" Wildfire was cut off by Ice, who slammed her into the ground.

"Don't lie. You would tell her."

"Only if I needed to, if she needs to know about whatever you're hiding!"

"I know. And you would tell." Ice vanished, leaving Wildfire to mull over the odd conversation.

 ***************************************************************************************************************

Mixeon blasted away happily at the stupid human defenders. Most of the Johto natives were disregarding the Pokemon attacks, honouring their long tradition of completely ignoring Kanto. The two sides were separated by a strip of hard to cross land and mutual agreement. So only the border towns, like Violet, were really defended. The government officials knew better but also knew that telling people there really was something dangerous happening could cause riots and other chaos.

This Milktank farm was huge, with hundreds of them. Mixeon had asked if they wanted to help in the attack, and they'd all agreed. It seemed that their owners had been about to bring the first group of them to the anti-terrorism stations. Thankfully no one thought it would matter, or the whole place would have already been chipped.

The few humans were quickly felled, and Dawn and Dusk teleported everyone out, along with thousands of gallons of Moomoo milk in storage.

 ****************************************************************************************************************

In Goldenrod, Whitney looked ideally up at the television in the restaurant she was eating at. There had been a Pokemon attack- at a Milktank farm. She froze as the newscaster mentioned the dead owner's name.

"No," she whispered. This couldn't be happening!

 ***************************************************************************************************************

~ Pikachu ~ called Mewtwo.

From her perch on Ash's shoulder, Pikachu jerked in surprise. What was going on?

~ Pikachu, I've found a way around the keywords. If you want to find out which side a Pokemon is on, talk to it using plural forms. 'Eons', 'revolutions' and so forth. But whatever you do, don't let any humans catch on, or they'll fix the problem. ~ sent Mewtwo.

Pikachu smiled secretively. This would help her a lot. She would be able to talk to any normal Pokemon even with chipped ones listening. Her task just got much easier.

***************************************************************************************************************

"Eon!" called Apocalypse. "We've gotten word the Strike Trainers are about to attack Mt Moon again. Their force is much larger and they're armed to the teeth."

~ Then we shall withdraw from the area. Tell all the Pokemon to make as many traps as they can, and then exit. Only Diglett, Sandshrew, Zubat and other Pokemon who can escape easily may stay behind to convince the humans we are putting up a fight. All the others are to hide by the Pewter City entrance and kill any human who gets through. ~

"Understood," said Apocalypse, turning to go.

~ And where is Ice? ~

The Houndoom looked at Eon, her expression unreadable. <She's busy. Something came up.>

~ And I'll bet you won't tell me what that something is either, right? ~

"None of us would." replied the dark Pokemon as she left.

****************************************************************************************************************

"Okay everyone, we're going in and this time we won't come back out until we've captured or killed every damn traitor in the place!" said Lt. Surge. He was in his element here. Sure, the troops were a bit greener and less disciplined then he'd want, but those who ignored orders had a tendency to die during a fight, so pretty soon only those who followed his commands would be here.

Some of the trainers shifted uneasily. If they didn't beat the Pokemon, the Pokemon would kill them, so either way they wouldn't come back out. But Ash felt certain this time would be different. Pikachu would be helping now.

"Now let's move!" bellowed the Gym Leader, and the trainers marched into the cave.

It was pitch black inside. More people began to feel uneasy. A Pokemon could be standing right in front of them and they wouldn't know it.

A Zubat hung silently in front, waiting. When the trainers filled the tunnel, it took flight and pulled a string. A large group of trainers fell into a pit. Ash rushed to the side to help people out, then gagged. This wasn't just a pit trap like Team Rocket used to make. Over ten trainers were impaled on spikes.

Silently, Pikachu closed her eyes. It was horrible, and yet- yet at least they had been attacking. The trainers had come to kill and brainwash the other Pokemon. In her mind's eye, she could see the Pikachu colony. They hadn't done anything, hadn't hurt anyone. And they were dead too.

"Alright, have your Pokemon use Flash and then get the Pokeballs!" called Lt. Surge. "Be careful, the sides might be-" One trainer, leaning over the edge, lost his balance and fell in. "Slippery" he finished. "Try using Pokemon with Vine Whip or Telekinesis."

The Zubat squeaked, and dozens of others quickly descended, each grabbing a ball. Before the trainers could do more then fire off a few rounds the Pokemon had vanished into the darkness.

Growling softly in rage, Ash sent out Chikorita. "Use your Vine Whip to reach the other side!" he ordered, and the Pokemon swiftly obeyed. Other trainers did the same, interlacing the vines to make a sturdy bridge. One trainer, Harry, started across it.

A Golbat dived down, knocking him off and into the pit, then vanished back into the shadow. Six other Zubat swiftly flew in and retrieved the Pokeballs.

"Everyone with Electric Pokemon, send 'em out and tell them to attack the moment they see any Zubat or Golbat, got it?"

One trainer started walking to the other side. More climbed on, wanting to get across as soon as possible. The first one reached the end and a Golbat bit him and withdrew out of sight, dodging the answering electric shocks as a few Crobat knocked the others off. Pikachu got ready to attack then realized none of the others had. Reviewing the command, she realized the mistake. They hadn't been told to attack Crobat.

One last Crobat flew over the pit and whacked several more into the spikes.

"Pikachu, attack the Crobat," ordered Ash, not sure why she wasn't responding. Obediently, she let out a cry and sent a bolt of electricity toward the Crobat, but she didn't aim carefully and it was already retreating.

"Attack any Flying Pokemon you see!" ordered Lt. Surge, sending out his Raichu now that the other Pokemon had proved to be so incompetent.

For a third time the trainers tried to cross the bridge, and again they were attacked. Two Golbat shoved them down and another group of Zubat grabbed the Pokeballs. Lt. Surge's Raichu, however, without the time delay of chipped Pokemon, managed to knock one Golbat out and into the pit itself.

They had now lost about twenty trainers. Pikachu tried to think of the way to win this. Ah, if the Pokemon were sent first, they wouldn't be knocked in and could attack while the humans crossed. She hoped Lt. Surge or Ash didn't realize this.

"Anyone with Flying Pokemon, send them out!" called Surge. "Tell them to attack any Flying Pokemon they see!"

About fifteen flying and part-flying Pokemon were sent out. Hearing the message, they promptly attacked each other.

"Tell them to only attack Zubat, Golbat and Crobat," amended Surge.

Ash was watching all this, quite confused. If he hadn't known they were treated so they wouldn't help  Eon, he would have though this was deliberate sabotage. He made a mental note to ask Lt. Surge about it later.

The Flying Pokemon spread out, waiting. The trainers crossed unmolested, and moved on cautiously. Surge knew there would be more pit traps. What mattered was who was worth more, a Pokemon or a human. He couldn't think of any Pokemon weak enough to throw away now that they would follow any trainer without question, but he could think of several people.

"Okay, Sara, you're in front!" he called, and the girl scurried up. They marched on and before long came to another pit, as Surge had expected. This time they only lost her and her Pokemon, but no others. The Grass Pokemon made the bridge and the flying Pokemon defended it.

"Henry, give me your Pokemon and move to the front!"

Henry gulped, no doubt suspecting what was planned but obeyed.

They walked for a while without any more pit traps. Then a bunch of Diglett popped their heads out and used Earthquake on the group, causing a cave-in and killing those in the middle. The chipped Pokemon quickly cleared it and allowed those in the back to continue, but not before a few were picked off by Zubat. Lt. Surge ordered them on, privately wondering about the nature of the attacks. It was clear the Pokemon in charge was quite intelligent. Normal Pokemon would never have thought of such a thing, let alone been able to pull it off so well. If that one could be killed, it would cripple the whole group.

In that manner they moved along, only losing a few more. Soon, however, a new problem appeared. When they tried to cross pits Sandshrew began attacking the Grass Pokemon and causing the bridge to shake, knocking them into the pit. Surge ordered all Water Pokemon to attack Sandshrew and Diglett, prompting a few swift attacks by Dugtrio and Sandslash before the order was expanded to cover evolved forms.

Finally, daylight could be seen. He'd lost over fifty trainers, but they'd gotten through the cave. The ones in front ran as quickly as they could to the opening only to fall into yet another pit. They would need to go single file along the bridge to get out.

The first trainer crossed and was then killed by an unseen attacker. Then next batch of trainers Surge sent met the same fate.

"Send out a group of Pokemon with orders to attack any Pokemon they see out there, and not to return until all the Pokemon they can see are fainted," ordered Surge.

Ash looked at Pikachu. "Pikachu, do what he said, okay?"

Pikachu nodded and set off across the bridge, followed by a Lickitung, Paras, Nidorino and Raticate.

Reaching the exit Pikachu was momentarily blinded, but she heard something coming toward her. She dodged left then squinted up at the attacking Beedrill.

"<It's okay! I'm not->" Pikachu glanced over at the following Pokemon. "<-Chippeds.>"

The Beedrill cocked his head. "<What?>"

The Ekans behind him said: "<Putting s at the end or otherwise altering the words confuses the chips so they don't recognize the keywords. But why are you with them?>"

Pikachu fired off a random Thundershock. She was still visible from the cave mouth. "<My trainers is Ash, a major part of the Strike Trainers. Eons asked me to spys.>"

<"Very well,>" said a Wigglytuff, Double Slapping a Nidorino. "<How many are in there?>"

"<Not sure exactly,>" replied Pikachu, sending out another Thundershock. "<Under a hundred. But they won't go through until their Pokemon return, which won't happen until they don't see any more conscious Pokemon.>"

"<Oh, that's easy,>" said an Oddish. The Pokemon quickly hid in the high grass, and the chipped ones started walking back in.

Once the Pokemon returned, Lt. Surge and the others walked out, one by one.

"Where are the bodies?" said Ash suddenly. "There were Pokemon out here, where are they?"

An Onix exploded out of the ground, crushing several trainers. The people screamed and raced back to the cave, only to fall into the pit or be attacked by Zubat's. The other Pokemon attacked, and the chipped ones were sent out to counter it, but they were hopelessly outnumbered.

"Fall back," called Surge, sending out a chipped Abra and teleporting the trainers out. They had lost, again.

 ***************************************************************************************************************

The other gym leaders glowered at Surge. "What is the problem with Mt Moon? You got almost a hundred trainers killed in there!"

"The place is a natural fortress. Traps are easily concealed in the darkness, it's tunnels so cave-ins are easy, and the Pokemon defenders can see fine. The place is virtually impenetrable," replied Surge.

"In other words, you can't get through?" snapped Giovanni.

"Nope. I got through, but there were Pokemon waiting just outside and a pit trap to stop us from moving quickly. The Zubat are too well hidden to be taken out quickly. If we want to secure the place, we'd have to gas it or something, because the Pokemon are too well-hidden."

"That's an idea," said Agatha. "Is it possible?"

"Probably," replied Falkner. "It'd be hard to pull off something of that magnitude, but not impossible."

*************************************************************************************************************

<There's been a new development, Eon> said Shine. <The humans are going to try to kill the Pokemon in Mt. Moon by filling the place with chemical fumes.>

~ Then we must take Cerulean ~ replied Eon.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: BUFFER STATES

~This is going to be a major operation,~ said Eon. ~We have to gain control of Cerulean, for use as a buffer zone against any attacks directed towards Mt. Moon. This will prevent the city from being used as the base for an attack on us; it will mean to reach us they'd have to destroy their own city and people, which they would be reluctant to do; and if they did launch an attack, we'd have sufficient time thanks to the buffer to plan a counter-offensive. At the same time we grab Cerulean, we have to gain control of several of the Orange Islands. The loss of Cinnabar has confined us to Kanto. This has to change.~

“I don’t like this,” said Memory. “We lost Cinnabar just two days ago; are we really ready for a major assault NOW?”

~Honestly? No. But the alternative is to stay here and wait for the humans to gas us. If that happens, we will be crippled, we will lose half our army and we will lose our base and any chance of curing the chipped Pokemon. We have to take the risk of attacking, Memory. We have to go on the offensive and not rest. I will not have another Cinnabar, that I promise you.~

~I have outlined four Orange Islands that we need to capture,~ said Mewtwo. ~They will provide us with land; they are near the territory of wild Water Pokemon, so it is easy for them to reach; and they have emotional significance to the enemy as Gym Islands. Taking these will also divert enemy attention towards the Orange Islands and away from Kanto.~

“And while that happens,” said Cinceon, “I’ll lead a group that will take Cerulean.”

~Good. And…~ She hesitated for a second. ~What’s the status on Cinnabar casualties?~

“We have about two hundred wounded, and we’re having to crank out prosthetics & bandages as fast as we can to patch up these guys, and we’re still treating those wounded from the Viridian Forest attack! Luckily, the Milktanks are helping out.”

~Hmmm. When we attack Cerulean and the islands, steal some Potions and Hyper Potions. We need them. Meeting adjourned.~

**************************************************************************************************************

“I’m seriously worried here, Ash,” said Brock. “There’s something wrong with my Pokemon. I-I can’t figure it out. But something’s… missing. Does that make sense?”

“Not really. My Pokemon have seemed a bit uneven lately, but it’s probably to do with being liberated from mind control or something.”

“Is it, Ash? Truly?" His voice was low and hard. "Did we even ask what was in those chips when we had them seared in our Pokemon’s minds?”

“Brock, you’re getting hysterical,” he said flatly. “The League wouldn’t do something like this if it was harmful to Pokemon!”

Brock said nothing.

**************************************************************************************************************

Wildfire bit her lip and knocked on Eon’s door. She was bid enter. She did so, running through in her mind how to phrase it all properly.

~Wildfire. What’s Ice done this time?~

“Er, nothing.”

~Oh.~ Eon looked surprised. ~Then what is it?~

“It’s Lash, Eon. He’s got Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Or something like that, I don’t know the correct terms… But he’s trying to kill himself. He just can’t take Scar’s death, it’s hurt him too much…” She slumped against the wall and muttered, “He told me a little about what he went through, back when he belonged to a Tamer. He was tortured and he nearly died several times. Some of his friends DID die. Scar survived, barely, for years, and helped Lash through it. And then, just a few weeks after being freed, Scar dies. I don’t think Lash ever expected Scar to die…”

Eon frowned. ~First of all, I’ll have to find a replacement for Lash’s position as commander; he’s unfit to remain one.~ She saw Wildfire about to yell something and snapped; ~I know that sounds like I don’t care, but I have to do it! This is war, Wildfire, and I need to make sure we win! There’s a Feraligatr that looks promising, I’ll ask him later… Now, what do you suggest we do with Lash?~

“Get him to water, for one. He’s trying to dehydrate himself. You know Gyarados can’t spend too long out of water, their skin becomes brittle, they have trouble breathing and this messes with their circulatory system. After a while, their system just gives up.”

~Assign a Squirtle Squad to it. They have to keep him moist; have them spray him with light Water attacks, whether he likes it or not. Now, a longer lasting situation?~

She thought for a while before replying; “Do we have anyone who can give him psychiatric help?”

~Hmmm… Look into that. I am NOT going to let him die.~

*************************************************************************************************************

“I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!” yelled the trainer.

Cissy, the Gym leader, smirked and sent out Seadra (chipped, of course). “Ah, a young hopeful, eh? Bring it on!”

“OK,” said the trainer and pulled out a gun and shot her. Seadra watched blankly, unable to attack humans in any way, whatever they did. The human grinned, dropped the gun, morphed back into his Ditto form and then into a Kadabra.

~I’ve done it; Mikan Island has been taken. Add that to Navel and Luanna’s island.~

~Got it,~ replied Eon, far away. ~We didn’t bother with covert assassinations on Trovita Island; we can took the more… direct approach with Rudy.~

~Straight out attack?~

~Would you believe he surrendered? Hasn’t chipped his Pokemon or anything, and let us take his island as territory as long as we let his sister live there in peace. First smart Gym Leader in… well, forever.~

Ditto chuckled and transformed back to his native state. He crawled to the island’s coast and told all the waiting Water Pokemon that they could move in now.

*********************************************************************************************************

James frowned and flexed his new prosthetic. “It moves like an arm and quacks like an arm… But is it an arm?”

“<No,>” said Victreebel flatly. “<It’s plastic.>”

“Thank you for taking all the fun out of my melodramatics. Wanker.”

“<Ah, yer mother was a bitch…>”

“Yes, I know.”

Victreebel finally shut up.

“Took them long enough to make you that arm,” grumbled Jessie. “Still, at least you can fight now. That is, if you feel up to it-“

“Of course! I’m always ready to fight for freedom! And blow things up.”

~This is the Pokemon Psychic Broadcast System. Gary Oak to Eon’s office, please.~

Gary blinked in surprise. “We have a broadcast system?”

“<Oh yeah,>” said Arbok. “<Psychic Pokemon broadcasting messages across all three regions. How do you think we stay in contact with the Johto and Orange Isle guys? Oh, and: DEAD MAN WALKING!>”

“Fuck you, shut up…”

***************************************************************************************************************

Eon quickly explained the problem with Lash. Gary listened and thought hard.

“I can see that this is a problem, but what do you think I can do?”

~You can get on well with Pokemon, and you can relate to his experiences.~

“Uh, how can I-“

~I looked around for help for Lash; Nidoking was one of those I approached. He told me about how you lost a loved one-~

“I lost… That bastard!” he snarled, kicking the wall. “I trusted him, and behind my back he-“

~Calm down. This is a serious problem Gary, and I’m sorry if you’ve been caused distress, but we need someone like you or a Pokemon is going to kill himself. Nidoking did what he had to do to help Lash.~

There was a long silence. Gary tried to avoid Eon’s eyes before finally muttering: “Yeah, alright, I get the point. Sorry. I’ll talk to Lash.”

***********************************************************************************************************

“Vulpix? Vulpix, what’s my name?”

Vulpix looked up at him with a look of good-natured stupidity and said “<Master.>” Brock struggled to keep control of himself.

“Who was your last trainer, Vulpix?”

The fox looked rather confused.

“Suzy. Remember her? Scissor Street? ANYTHING?!” Tears began to creep from his eyes and his voice became strained. “Vulpix, PLEASE! Think something! PLEASE!”

And he is answered with nothing but mindless silence. The fruits of Pokemon training.

*************************************************************************************************************

Lash remains curled up, growling at the Squirtle Squad as they spray him with water, trying to get rid of them so he can die. Gary walks in, and fear pounds at his chest; it is one thing to agree to council a depressed Gyarados and quite another to stand and face one. To his credit, he refuses to let his voice falter.

“Lash? Can I talk to you for a second?”

“<Go away. You can’t help. You have no idea what I’m going through.>”

“I have EVERY idea what you’re going through. I’ve gone through it myself.” Gary sighed and sat next to the Gyarados. “Her name was May, and she was my older sister. We both lived with granddad, but she had no interest in Pokemon. She hated my old cheerleader squad, hated ‘em a lot, told me they were only after me for shallow reasons and that they wouldn’t stick with me if I didn’t do well. I didn’t listen, then. Got rid of ‘em after she…” He sat back, blinking furiously. “We argued a fair bit, but we did love each other. When I was younger, she was the nearest I had to a human friend- all the other kids never gave a damn about me. I would have killed or died for her. And then, in my second year of training, when I was re- touring Kanto, she died of leukaemia. I had never even knew that she had it, or that she was dying, and I didn’t know until I went into a Pokemon Centre, rang up granddad, found out…" His voice became chocked. "I got there as fast as I could, but she was dead before I reached here. And for weeks afterwards I kept thinking I should have died instead, that she had more going for me…” He glanced at Lash and said, “The same things you’re thinking as well.”

Lash whispered: “<He should have lived. He didn’t survive all those years just to die like that…>”

“Yeah, well… Life's a bitch. Yeah, it's good and right to mourn when people you live die, but if you never get over it... What would they think of that? Sure, I thought about suicide a lot but I really doubt she’d be happy to see me again if I did that. Lash, you can’t give up over this. Scar would have hated you for it, and it won’t bring him back.”

“<I-I can’t battle again. Not after->”

“Then you can find something else. Help in the nursery, or train the younger fighters, or just retire. A whole range of possibilities are open to you, Lash. And nobody will think less of you if you give up fighting.”

Lash was silent for a long while, and the only sound was his breathing. And then he drew his lips over his fangs, uncurled and crawled towards the lake.

************************************************************************************************************

~The plan is simple,~ said Eon. ~We can’t do another all-out assault yet. So we don’t. We resort to guerrilla tactics; popping up, blasting the soldiers, then retreating; repeat the whole process again and again. A group of human rebels called the Vietcong did that and won a war. And we are much stronger than them. This way we can occupy Cerulean.~

“Brilliant strategy,” said Jeanette. “We have a lot of troops suited for guerrilla tactics, but how will we occupy the city so easily?”

“<Oh, that’s easy,>” said Shine. “<There are hundreds of Water Pokemon in the lakes, rivers and ponds of Cerulean, and many Rattata, Raticate, Koffing and Weezing in the sewers. Many of them are wild and therefore unchipped. They’ll help us, since we can protect them from being captured by trainers.>”

“I though the Koffing were against us?”

“<Just the greedy ones. Unlike Muks, they don’t need toxic waste. They can do well on just, to be frank, our shit.  Only greedy ones would want to keep humans and their pollution around. Generally they’re an open and cheerful species.>”

“Hmm. You live and learn.”

~Yes, but this exposition is pointless. Begin preparing the attack; I want to launch it in two day’s time.~

************************************************************************************************************

The soldiers had the entire city surrounded from the front and sides, and had enough firepower to bring down Lugia. Tanks, missile launchers, helicopters, armed men. They were prepared for a frontal assault and a pitched battle. But not for Shine teleporting into the area flanked by Dark and Psychic Pokemon.

“<PSYCHIC! NIGHT SHADE!>”

The attacks hit and tore a hole through the defences, killing fourteen. As the humans realised what was happening, the group vanished. The troops wee confused, but rearmed and waited for a repeat attack. Five minutes later, the undergrowth spat out a group of Grass Pokemon, led by Bellsprout, which unleashed Razor Leaves that sheared off limbs and poisonous spores that felled many a man. Ten dead and twenty infected. The Pokemon retreated just a few seconds afterwards, and the military opened fire on the undergrowth for a full twenty seconds. A quick inspection revealed no dead or wounded Pokemon.

“What the hell’s going on? Where are they coming from?”

Deep below them was a crude tunnel, set up by the Diglett. Small Pokemon were crammed down there, ready to dig up and attack and retreat again at a moment’s notice. And they did, several times, lashing out with Poison and Grass attacks, and at one point the Diglett unleashed a small Earthquake.

Then the ground above was rocked by fire and soldiers were sent to search the undergrowth for any Pokemon. Bellsprout listened for the cries as the men wandered into the booby traps set up the night before.

“<Get word back to Mt. Moon. Time for the Flying Squad!>”

They waited an hour, so the soldiers would become paranoid and sloppy, so they would be jumping at every shadow and unable to aim for their shaking hands. And then Abandon and Blade led a group of their Pokemon out into the air. On the back of each was a Fire or Electric Pokemon, or a Koffing or Geodude clutched in their talons.

“<OK, once we get there, maximum speed and accuracy! I don’t want any missed shots and NO casualties!>”

The Pokemon on their backs unleashed a barrage of Ember, Thunderbolt, Swift and Flamethrower. Soldiers were struck and killed. Other fliers flew over the troops and dropped the Koffing and Geodude on them; the dropped Pokemon would then use Explosion or Self Destruct, blowing up the ranks and sending machine parts and bone everywhere. The fliers would then swoop down, fetch the now unconscious “bombs” and fly off. And they retreated, leaving the defences badly damaged. Half their machinery was destroyed or damaged, and a third of their remaining men dead.

They were scared now. They had no idea when the enemy were going to strike. They were getting thrashed and couldn’t even hit ONE Pokemon.

After the wait of two more hours, the attack was almost welcome. Team Rocket showed up, blasting away and backed up by Fire Pokemon. This time the attacks were wider; huge Fire Blasts and Fire Spins wiped out large groups of men. A few shots were fired, merely causing wounds to the mighty Arcanine and Typhlosion.

This group left as well. The defences were now badly damaged. Eon knew this, and sent out the signal. 

And from every lake, every sewer, every part of river, every back alleyway came the Pokemon. They stormed out, with grim purpose, blasting cars out of their way and heading for the soldiers. The troops were worried about attacks from without; a rear assault was unexpected and they were crushed; groups of Water Pokemon attacked with Surf and Hydro Pump, packs of Rattata mobbed men and tore them apart with Hyper Fang. The soldiers were defeated.

The Pokemon now had free reign in Cerulean. And so they occupied the roads leading in and out of the city, making sure people couldn’t flee. And then, nothing. No destruction or killing.

They’d won.

**************************************************************************************************************

~It is done,~ said Eon. ~The city is occupied. Now the enemy can’t get through it to Mt. Moon.~ She smiled to herself. It had been a risky gamble, switching tactics so suddenly. But it had worked, they now had a buffer zone in Kanto. Add this to their new Orange Island territory… ~Now there is just one goal clear to me. We need to move onto Johto... and prepare for the final battle in Kanto. Prepare to take Saffron.~ She grinned. ~And with our secret ally, this should prove easy.~

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: AGENDAS

"The traitors have taken Cerulean," announced Ash to his friends. He looked furious, and his voice was hard.

"What?" gasped Misty. "Are my sisters-"

"They should be fine. There are no reported deaths."

"Ash, what do you mean?" asked Brock.

"The Pokemon have taken Cerulean. We can't attack or innocent people will get hurt. They might even start killing people themselves if we do."

"Then how can we beat them?"

"We have to get everyone out. Lt. Surge and the other gym leaders are working on how exactly we'll do that."

************************************************************************************************************

"That coward!" snarled Lt. Surge. "He just surrendered?"

"It wasn't as if Rudy had much of a choice," replied Lance. "The islands are vulnerable because of the Water Pokemon surrounding them. If he hadn't surrendered, he'd be dead like the other three Orange League members."

"Anyway, we can't really do much about it right now," said Sabrina. "We need to focus on getting back Kanto land. Then we can worry about other areas. Any ideas on how to get Cerulean?"

Giovanni spoke up. "We don't really know how good of a defensive they're got. We could try to retake it using chipped Pokemon. We might not be able to bomb it, but the chipped Pokemon won't attack humans."

"But it'll be almost impossible to fight there!" replied Agatha "All the buildings and alleys are potential ambushes. The chipped Pokemon won't attack unless they hear a keyword or are ordered by their trainer. It's a problem, one we didn't notice in the chips before. If the Pokemon stay in hiding and go for the trainers, the chipped Pokemon will just be standing around, useless."

Sabrina looked thoughtful. "Really? I didn't know that. So if the Pokemon figure out to ignore the chipped Pokemon and just go for the trainer, we're in trouble. Still, they haven't figured it out yet, and probably aren't bright enough to think of it for quite a while."

"Right. We have to strike now, before the Pokemon have a chance to organize," said Giovanni authoritatively. "The longer we wait, the better the chance of one of them figuring it out and telling the rest. They may be stupid but hundreds are fighting. One of them is bound to stumble upon it sooner or later. Besides, they can't have had the chance to fortify the area yet, or disarm the Jennies. Call the officers, tell them to get ready to attack at noon tomorrow and we'll move in."

****************************************************************************************************************

~ Really? ~ asked Eon. ~ Right at noon? ~ she paused, listening. ~ That's great. I'll tell everyone. Taking out the trainer is so obvious in retrospect, but I guess we were thinking about how they acted before being chipped. They would have kept fighting. Oh well, thanks for the info.~

****************************************************************************************************************

~ So, Ice, ~ said Mewtwo. ~ I hear Eon's slightly annoyed about your recent behaviour. ~

Ice looked over at him from the rock she was sitting on. "And?"

~ Wildfire also tells me you said you were too busy to deal with Lash. Care to tell what exactly is going on? ~

"Not really."

~ Wildfire said she guessed it had something to do with that land you bought a while back, the one with the forest and all the Dark types. How many would you say are there now? ~

Ice shrugged. "Dozens who are able to fight, several hundred in total, plus a varying number of Murkrow. I brought a large area. "

~ Why exactly was this kept secret? ~

She looked at him with a flicker of contempt. "If it was kept secret, I would have put more effort into keeping it that way."

~ Why didn't you tell Eon? ~

"Because she, like you, would think they should join in this battle," said Ice calmly.

~ I may not know where it is, but you don't really think they won't be discovered? All human settlements will be attacked. The forest may be a fringe area, but everything close to cities and towns is a potential battleground. ~

"Believe me, I understand that," Ice said darkly.

~ Then you must have realized that, sooner or later, Eon's going to run across it. Or the wild Pokemon of that area- ~

"There are few wild Pokemon beyond the forest. A few Pidgey and Rattata, all completely loyal to humans. Pets, really."

~ Well, that doesn't change the fact that Eon or someone in the army is ultimately going to end up finding them. And now that I know about it, I can check. A forest at the edge of an isolated settlement, filled with dark types. It might not be easy to find, but I've got a good chance of finding it in the end. All I have to do is teleport to any area that fits the description and check. A bit time-consuming, but it should only take a few days. ~

"Mewtwo," said Ice peacefully. "If you try to involve them, you will be severely injured or killed. Dark Pokemon have a great advantage over psychic."

~ Are you saying you'll attack me? ~

"I won't need to. They will."

~ I don't rely totally on psychic attacks, ~ replied Mewtwo, feeling slightly insulted. He was one of the most powerful Pokemon in existence. ~ I'm able to use many different moves, including fighting. ~

"Twilight was made to defeat you. She's still young, but it would be a hard battle. Between her and the others, you would lose easily in a real fight. But that doesn't matter. Any of them could take you down. The instant they sensed you teleporting in, one would attack. When psychic Pokemon teleport they may gain temporary immunity to any normal attack, but they're wide- open for dark moves. You would lose," stated Ice with cold certainty.

~ That remains to be seen. Besides, I could simply teleport in a reasonable distance away from the place before checking. ~

"There's still a good chance they would get you before you found them."

~ But only a chance. I'd rather not risk my life, of course, and I'm sure you would rather not risk their discovery. ~

"Your point?"

~ I won't look if you tell your Houndoom to let me research their ability to short out machinery and tell me what you needed the stones for. ~

"Mewtwo, if you tried to research any of the Dark Pokemon's abilities, you would wish they had killed you instead. Some things are not meant to be understood."

Mewtwo looked annoyed. He still didn't believe in this repeated warning about Dark types. What harm could it really do to do a few harmless tests? It wasn't like he was asking to dissect a few thousand Murkrow or something. But, right or wrong, Ice would not change her mind. That much was clear. ~ Very well then. Can you give me a more thorough explanation then 'it's a bad idea and I will suffer'? ~

Ice sighed. "Mewtwo, humans have wondered at Pokemon abilities since the dawn of time. Once they were simply dismissed as magical, spiritual forces. As science developed humans became more curious. Over time they found out the mechanics of each type. Humans understand how a Charmander can use Flamethrower, how a Lapras can use Ice Beam, and how an Oddish can use absorb. One by one, each element was discovered, researched, tested and understood. Psychic took the longest to be fathomed, but in time that too was discovered. But no one has ever found, let alone understood the secret of the Dark element. There are guesses, ranging from the ability to store up energy from moonlight to a bargain with Satan, but absolutely no one knows.

"Some things aren't meant to be understood, to be found and brought our into the light of day. Look at what happened when humans learned the secret of Psychic power, Mewtwo. Do you have any idea what would happen if the same thing happened to shadow?"

~ I would not use it for evil. Knowledge is not good or bad, only its user decides that. ~ replied Mewtwo firmly.

"It doesn't matter. I am not talking about good or evil, right or wrong. The Dark type simply cannot and shall never be understood. It is not the nature of darkness to show, but to hide."

~ And how do you know that? ~

"Some things I know. Besides, you aren't the first to try. Rocket scientists tried to find it, again and again. Their tests had the odd side- effect of destroying the surrounding area, with them in it."

~ Very well, ~ said Mewtwo, the tone of his voice making it clear he still didn't really believe her warning but that he would accept her answer for the time being. ~ And what did you need the Stones for? ~

In the small shadow of the rock's overhang, a tiny, smaller then Eevee Vaporeon and Jolteon appeared for a moment before vanishing again. They must have evolved as kits, an incredibly dangerous, irresponsible thing. Eon would have raged for weeks about it, Stone Evolution being one of the things she felt most strongly about.

"A boy had a gun," said Ice simply. "And they were too badly wounded for me to heal without adversely effecting them with my power. The others had intended to be Espeon and Umbreon, but they did not." With that, she vanished.

**************************************************************************************************************

"Ash, I think something is very wrong with my Pokemon. I don't care what you say about the League not harming Pokemon, Vulpix has never called me master in her life! What's going on?" said Brock.

"I asked Lt. Surge about that when I started working with the Strike Trainers. He said that's just a code, a way of making sure all of the Pokemon are kept free. If a human, for some reason, doesn't treat their Pokemon, the Pokemon won't have been told to call them master and so will be discovered."

Brock stared at Ash in shock. "You actually believe that? Why on earth would they tell Vulpix to call me master, or any Pokemon?"

"Probably to stop traitors from pretending to be normal. I bet they'd rather be discovered then call a human by master," said Ash calmly.

"Ash, do you realize what it sounds like? Eon's saying we're slavemasters, and now look what's going on. And Vulpix doesn't respond to anything beyond a direct command. I'm starting to wonder if she'd even eat her food if I didn't tell her!"

Ash glared at the older boy. "The League would never do something like that. And if you don't stop talking I'll report you."

"What?"

"Speaking out against the League is illegal. Any sympathizers or opponents of the League's methods will be jailed," said Ash matter-of-factly.

****************************************************************************************************************

Eon curled up in her chamber. The attack tomorrow could be bad, even with the new information. If the humans managed to get to the city and rally the others to help, there would be massive casualties.

And, win or lose (win, she knew, unless humans had some new weapons that hadn't been mentioned) what would become of Cerulean? The humans would revolt sooner or later, Eon had no doubts about that. Steps had been taken to disarm the people, but Pokeballs were easy to hide and they didn't have enough psychics for an inch by inch search. So how could it be dealt with?

Sighing, Eon went to sleep.



Again, Eon stands in a small meadow. It is beautiful, filled with hundreds of flowers. The sun's rays fall softly on the plants. It seems almost like it is impossible for anything bad to happen there.

In front of her stands a very young Eevee.

<Eevee> says Eon.

The Eevee looks at her in confusion.

~ Eevee ~ she tries again.

"Yes?" asks the Eevee. She is young, too young to have learned to be suspicious of strange Pokemon, but still, there is something that makes her nervous.

~ Eevee, your trainer is coming. You have to leave now, before he gets here. ~ says Eon. Time is ticking away. She can feel it. She doesn't have much longer.

"Why? I'm supposed to wait here for him," says the Eevee, now suspicious.

~ Your trainer is going to hurt you. You have to come with me, get away now. ~

"No! He told me to wait for him and not to leave here. How would you know what will happen?"

Eon pauses, wondering if she could tell. She tries to, but nothing happens. Oh well. It probably wouldn't have mattered anyway. ~ You wouldn't believe it. I know what's going to happen, but you wouldn't understand why. ~

"How do you know?" demands the Eevee.

~ Because I wouldn't. ~ replies Eon sadly. ~ But- ~

A young boy runs onto the field. "Hey Eevee, who's your friend?"

Eon lunges forward, not sure what she is going to do, just trying to do something before she is trapped by the paralysis. But the flowers of the meadow are no longer many colours and are instead all jet black with tiny lines of gold and covered in thorns. They tie her up; their spines tearing up her skin. Her Flareon skin, she realizes. She is pure Flareon now. Why?

"It's not my friend!" says the Eevee indignantly. "And I don't know what it is."

The boy sends out a Golduck and it sprays her with water. She collapses. He didn't have a Golduck.

Eon tries to move, but she is stuck fast to the ground. Time races by and the boy and the Eevee grow older. Then it regains normal speed. She tries to scream but she can't. She can't do anything, just watch.

"Guess what Eevee? Today is my tenth birthday! Do you know what that means?" asks the boy.

<I'm going to evolve!> yells the Eevee happily. <I'm going to be the strongest ever!>

And suddenly Eon is back at the lab.

**************************************************************************************************************

~ Now remember, the idea is to get rid of them with minimum damage to the area. We don't need to deal with fixing buildings and bothering with their wounded, ~ cautioned Eon. ~ The Jennies will be a significant threat if they manage to attack. We can't try to defend the area and deal with being attacked from behind at the same time. ~

"I'll stop them," volunteered Wildfire. "Star and I can destroy them right before noon, so the Strike Trainers won't have time to find out."

~ Very well. Now, they should know that the main defenders of Cerulean are Water-types, so the trainers will probably be armed with Electric and Grass. We need Ground and Fire Pokemon to try to defend it, as well as a Water type to lead the main force and a Grass type for the other Grass Pokemon of the area. Nightflame, you and the other Houndoom have been working on destroying the chips. How much progress have you made? ~

"Firebringer is able to do it quickly and for many. Apocalypse is pretty good, but Fenris is having control problems. He doesn't have the dexterity yet, so unless we want to explode their heads he's out. I'm able to take out a group, but I have to focus and can't go fast."

~ Too bad. Mewtwo's still working on the device, so you're the only ones who can disable the chips. Incidentally, why won’t you let him study your ability? ~

Nightflame fidgeted, pawing at the ground nervously. "We'd rather not, and I don't think the power can be emulated by other Pokemon anyway. Ice said so."

~ Yes, and it's not like she would lie about something like this, ~ said Eon sarcastically.

"Really, I don't think it's a good idea." repeated Nightflame seriously. "Whether you believe her or not, Ice said that bad things would happen to those who tried to find the secret. And, and I just feel it isn’t a good idea." 

~ Where is Ice, anyway? ~

"I couldn't find her, and I think she's been tuning out the psychic broadcast systems," said Wildfire tiredly.

~ How is anyone supposed to contact her? ~ demanded Eon.

"She probably already knows what's going on and doesn't think she needs to deal with it. Your best bet would be to relay a message through a dark- type. Eclipse, her Umbreon, is around right now, I think."

~ No, we don't really need her help right now. Still, if something comes up and we need to contact her, there has to be a reliable system."

Wildfire sighed. "Your best bet is Ice herself. If something comes up that she needs to deal with, she'll come. Unless she's doing something that she considers more important, which is likely."

~ Wonderful. Can anyone think of good leaders for the types in Cerulean? ~

"Fang and Alli, the Feraligatr, could lead the water types. Firebringer and her mate Solflame could deal with fire types," said Star.

"Rose could be in command of the Grass Pokemon," added Memory. "She's a much better fighter then most Bellossoms."

~ Do you think they will be able to deal with this? ~

"They have to," said Shine bluntly. "We don't have much time. It'll be hard, with Scar gone and Lash no longer fighting, but we can't let them get to Mt. Moon."

**************************************************************************************************************

Wildfire and Star hovered over the Cerulean police station. The two Charizard were waiting. When they saw the approaching trainers they were to attack. That way there would be no time to call off the attack.

"Almost noon," said Star, staring unflinchingly up at the sun.

Wildfire stared in the direction of Saffron. The woods would give the trainers cover, and the wild Pokemon of the area were too weak to do more then take out a few of them.

"Star, I think I see something," she said.

Star turned her gaze to the woods. "Yes, I agree. It looks like the front group is just getting here. Time to fight."

Wildfire looked down. "Shouldn't they have come out by now? I though they were supposed to attack first."

Star stared down. "Yes, that doesn't make sense. They should have-"

A Jenny walked calmly out of the building. She was not accompanied by the standard Growlithe, the regular Pokemon crime fighter. She stared up at the two Charizard for a moment, her eyes hard. In the instant she locked eyes with Wildfire, the Elemental realized her mistake.

"It's a trick!" she roared, diving at the Jenny. Not soon enough, for the blue woman quickly tossed out dozens of Growlithe.

"Fire Blast!" ordered the Jenny over and over, and the legion of Growlithe, after the second's delay of all chipped Pokemon, obeyed.

Star quickly pulled up, remaining at a large enough distance that she could dodge attacks easily, and frantically circled, trying to get to the other side of the building as quickly as she could. But Wildfire knew trying to fly back up will be fatal now, since at this range even the temporary slowing will be enough for the fire dogs to roast her.

Still aiming for the Jenny, she wove desperately around the attacks. One hit her on the left wing and she faltered in the air, but managed to regain control. The Growlithe's aim was off, with their reactions delayed that tiny but crucial bit by the chip, and it was only because of that she was able to avoid death.

Far off, Star spat out a flamethrower, burning a section of Growlithe. Taking advantage of the momentary lull in attacks Wildfire ripped into the jenny.

The Growlithe froze for a moment, then sat down, awaiting further orders. This battle is won.

**************************************************************************************************************

Pikachu stared out at the too-quickly approaching buildings of Cerulean. If Ash ordered her to kill…but no, that wouldn't happen. Ash wouldn't do that, so all she had to do was knock them out. As long as true, her deception could continue. She felt oddly guilty about that fact.

Walking silently beside Ash, Misty walked toward her home. She had thought what the Strike Trainers were doing was wrong, that their methods were too draconian, that they were fighting against Eon by doing the same things. But they had taken Cerulean, and if drastic measures were needed to stop this, so be it.

"Alright everyone," bellowed Surge. "Remember, do not, under any circumstances, damage the city. The people inside are innocent. If possible, try to enlist their help. The traitors can't have had enough time to find all trained Pokemon."

***************************************************************************************************************

"Alright everyone," said Alli softly and clearly. You never knew who might be listening. "Remember, try to keep a building behind you, so they'll hesitate to attack and only use weaker attacks. If any of the citizens of Cerulean try to help, kill them immediately and, if possible, destroy the area. The last thing we need is for the people we're keeping as hostages to fight back, and since we haven't been able to get most of the chipped Pokemon, they could cause trouble."

*************************************************************************************************************

From the shadows, the eyes of hundreds of Pokemon shined. The moment the trainers got into range for accurate moves, they would attack.

Rose watched nervously. She had never been in such an important position, and she was worried about making a mistake. But with their new knowledge, and the fact that they outnumbered the attacking trainers, this didn't look like a hard battle.

The Strike Trainers moved closer, and closer, and-

"Attack!" she cried, her voice echoing Fang, Alli, Firebringer and Solflame's. The Pokemon surged forward, attacking the first line of trainers before any chipped Pokemon could be released. They didn't have time to grab the Pokeballs before a wave of gunfire sent them scrambling back to the dubious shelter of the buildings. Rose wished that this was forest, since that had much better cover then the simple walls of a city, but wishes couldn't do anything. You just had to take what life offered and make the best with it.

The humans began to close in, releasing dozens of chipped Pokemon. Thankfully, they stepped over the bodies of their fallen comrades. Old habits died hard, and it would be a while before the trainers remembered, even in the heat of battle, to use the weapons of the dead. Unchipped Pokemon might not have obeyed the new person, and the trainers had other things on their mind.

Perhaps, Rose mused as she used a combination of Petal Dance and Razor Leaf to shield the Pokemon from view and protect them from attacks, the victory would be determined by who was able to adapt to the new world quickest, more then just power. The humans were lead by older gym leaders, who followed traditional thinking to the point of declaring all those who followed Eon traitors. But those in Eon's Army, why, they were lead by the very embodiment of adaptation, an Eevee evolution who could switch forms.

Then again, she reflected as a bullet passed over her head and she retaliated by sending up a Sunny Day attack, humans had guns, which certainly evened things out. Besides, humans had millennia of changing, developing new technology and strategies, while Pokemon, due to their inability to form large groups and remain in one area, had remained largely the same.

On her left, Solflame hit the attacking Grass Pokemon with an explosion of flames, his already fearsome power boosted by the bright sun. She blew a hole in the line of chipped Pokemon with a solar beam. The Water Pokemon wouldn't have the advantage of Rain Dance, but they were fighting against Pokemon who were resistant anyway. The Grass and Fire Pokemon, however, did have super-effective attacks.

Firebringer leapt in front, her body glowing with dark flames. The chipped Pokemon stopped, looking around them in surprise. Simultaneously, the nearest trainers cursed as their guns jammed. But chipped Pokemon from the edges and new ones fresh from Pokeballs are ordered at her. Firebringer's eyes closed halfway and her legs buckled. She was clearly unable to deal with a new threat.

Solflame barked, and a Houndour ran over to nose her. They both vanished.

"Trained Pokemon," called the Bellossom. "Your masters have betrayed you! Turn and fight or run over here to cover. If you stand there you'll be shot!"

The Pokemon, understandably disoriented, just stood there, looking around. Some turned toward the humans in confusion. Pokemon may understand human speech, but humans do not understand Pokemon, nor do many of them even think the Pokemon language is more then a few nouns and verbs to covey crude concepts. They had no idea what was going on, and most thought Rose had just said something like 'attack humans' and the Pokemon turning had decided to obey. So they did the absolutely worst thing.

Left to their own devices, most of the Pokemon would have fled or been recalled once their trainers remembered. They had no idea what was going on. They had just suddenly appeared in the middle of a battlefield, humans shouting orders at them from behind and other Pokemon in front. There were still many Pokemon who didn't know much or even anything about Eon, because they spent a great deal of their time in Pokeballs.

But the trainers, thinking their Pokemon were attacking, started shooting. Only a few of them did so, but it caused the Pokemon to instinctively run away. Away from the humans was toward the other Pokemon, where the trained Pokemon were no longer able to be recalled. The attacking Pokemon quickly brought the trained ones up to speed, and most were furious and ready to attack.

Over half of the chipped Pokemon were now either free, fainted or dead. The living wall of protection the trainers had was gone. Fang tore through the quickly failing line and shredded a human. His Pokemon continued to attack, unfortunately, but they just used random attacks that they heard other trainers yell.

Darksun, another Houndour, was the second to get behind the line of chipped Pokemon. The trainer tried to order his Pokemon to protect him, but was dead before they could respond.

Fearfully, the other trainers began to call their Pokemon back. Several trainers ordered theirs at Fang, and Alli shoved her way in to lend a claw. With their leaders on the other side, the rest of the Water Pokemon poured though the hole in the line like a dam breaking. Before long, there were too many Pokemon on the other side for the chipped Pokemon to continue attacking Cerulean. They were ordered back to protect their trainers, and then recalled as the remaining humans realized how futile the effort was. They had lost.

Rose stared after the retreating trainers. They had won! They had actually won. She hadn't screwed up or been too weak.

So what if her trainer had wanted a Vileplume? So what if she said that Bellossom were worthless for fighting? She'd won. She had lead a group of others, she had been stronger and better then the others, and she. Had. WON!

Laughing happily in relief and triumph, she turned back to the virtually uninjured city.

*************************************************************************************************************

Ash stood silently, his face stone. Misty was sitting, and seemed on the verge of tears again. Brock stared at them. "How bad was it?" he asked quietly.

The official news, after the initial few days when honest facts were reported, had said things that were clearly nothing but propaganda. Today the story was that the Strike Trainers fought valiantly but due to cheating tactics had kept the trainers back for a time. When the brave trainers had finally broken through the group of weak and cowardly traitors, the worthless Pokemon had taken hostages and threatened to destroy buildings, killing the people inside. The noble Lt. Surge had no choice but to withdraw.

What made the yarn even less plausible was the fact the reporter had apparently 'forgot' to mention the casualties on both sides. If more Pokemon them people had been killed, they would have said so, declaring it a victory.

It didn't matter though, Brock realized bitterly. Pretty soon they'd just lie about the casualties too.

Ash looked at him, his eyes displaying no recognition nor did they even seem to focus on him. "That's classified," he said coldly.

Misty looked up, twin wet lines and red eyes clear on her face. She opened her mouth, then closed it and looked away.

"That bad, huh? It's classified, just like everything else," replied Brock. If they had won it would be shouted from the rooftops. If they had lost the media would have pretended they won. For something like this, they must have done horrible. "It's classified, just like what happened at Mt. Moon," he said, his voice rising. "Just like whatever the hell those chips are, just like where the loyalties of most Pokemon lie, just like the fact that Eon is kicking our sorry asses!"

"Shut up!" yelled Ash. "Be quiet or I'll report you!"

Brock glared back. "Maybe you can't tell me, but let me ask something, Ash. Tell me, how can a chip stop mind control? Or how about how Eon can control all these thousands of Pokemon? Or maybe why the Pokemon in Eon's army act like individuals, while ours, OURS, act like zombies? Or how about this little tidbit- recaptured Pokemon, miles away from Eon, act no differently them before, no matter how long they're been kept, even though psychically controlling even one Pokemon from a distance is next to impossible? Tell me, Ash. Or is it all 'classified' because the answer is, the Pokemon are joining of their own free will and there is nothing at all we can do about it but stop them from doing anything? Is that it, Ash?"

"You don't know what you're talking about," said Ash furiously. "Pidgeot would never do this. Pikachu would never do this. Our friends would never do this!"

"Then why are we killing them? Why are they called traitors? Well? Why do we blame them, if they didn't make a decision? No, don't even bother answering that, Ash. It's classified, isn't it? Because the truth is, what they're telling us is nothing but garbage!" shouted Brock, storming out.

****************************************************************************************************************

Giovanni sat in his dark fortress, brooding. The Pokemon were much too powerful, as were the trainers. He had to weaken both sides, while keeping the Pokemon as much of a threat as possible. But they were doing too well! The chipped Pokemon were at a minor disadvantage for some reason, and the revolting Pokemon were gathering too much power.

The time had come to send out the next batch of chips. If he couldn't get a stranglehold on the wild Pokemon, he could at least get one on the League. In fact, if he seized control of the League's Pokemon, making it look like eon had done it, the major populous would welcome Team Rocket's protection, at any cost. Then he could use the chipped Pokemon to destroy the revolutionists.

Yes, that would be perfect. He could wait until the Pokemon were clearly losing, since at the rate the League was going the Pokemon would be a major threat for so long people wouldn't dare believe it even when they started to take back cities. Then, when the creatures were no longer a threat, then he could take over the thousands of chipped Pokemon and let them take the blame. Using them, the rockets would beat eon, and no one would dare oppose their takeover.

In fact, he though, smiling cruelly, this would be the perfect way to capture Mewtwo, Eon, and the rest of the stronger Pokemon. He'd get agents in to find out who the strongest were, and then have his scientists work on creating the best attackers. And they had taken Crimson, not to mention somehow found the hidden legendary cloning lab, yet the body of the Articuno hadn't been recovered. He might be able to use that to his advantage.

***************************************************************************************************************

"She knew!" said Wildfire. "I don't know how, but the Jenny knew! She waited inside and got all the Growlithe, then came out and instantly ordered them to attack us!"

"Who would tell?" asked Memory.

"I don't know, but that jenny found out somehow!"

"Not necessarily. I think you're overreacting," said Shine rationally. "You did attack the station in Celadon, and she might have recognized you. Besides, two random Charizard, flying around? I'd be suspicious too, especially since most trainers have Water types and chipped Pokemon don't do stuff like that. She would know you were part of the army."

"We were up too high, and right over the building," said Wildfire firmly. "Between that and the glare, she would have needed to know we were there for even a chance to find us, let alone recognize us. Besides, suspicions are one thing, but she came out with every single Growlithe in the place and ordered them to attack before either of us had made any move. We might have been just random Pokemon looking over the area."

"If she was going to be attacking, why not attack you before you could warn anyone?" argued Shine.

"That Jenny came out with every single Growlithe! She knew there was something going on! And the look on her face- she knew, I'd bet my life on it," said Star.

"I think Shine's right," said Memory. "She was already going to attack, she saw you two circling and decided on some nice target practice. She would have let all her Growlithe out anyway, to keep Pokemon from just taking her out quick."

***************************************************************************************************************

Without a sound, the man jumped off the branch. Popping out a Pokeball, a darkish Ditto appeared. The man bent down, as if to whisper instructions to the creature, but the sharpest ear would not have picked up a sound. Still, the Ditto moved to depart. Before it could, a twig snapped. The man straightened up, the moonlight vanishing into his black uniform save where it reflected a huge red R.

But whatever it is, it didn't find them, and the man motions for the ditto to begin.



Kanga sighed, walking out of the nursery. Ice, the odd, threatening not- human hadn't returned, but the poor little Articuno still seemed nervous, flinching at every twitch of the shadows on the walls.

It was just her luck to get night shift. They were understaffed since caring for the injured was more important then taking care of children. The first group of Chancey eggs had hatched, and they should be ready to help out in under a month, which would definitely help, but that was in a month, not now.

Something moved out in the forest. It might be a sentry, or a nocturnal Pokemon stretching its legs. Kanga went over to see who it was.

An odd Ditto-thing tackled her, its body wrapping around her chest and squeezing. Breathing out suddenly, she tried to take another breath but it was on her face, covering her mouth and nose. Screaming (or trying to) she clawed at it, but the creature's body simply melted away in her grasp. Unable to breathe, the Khangiskhan slowly slid to the ground. The ditto remained in position, until it felt the heart slow and then stop. Only then did it slide off and form into a perfect copy of the dead Kanga.

Picking up the body, it walked into the woods, where the man was waiting. Wordlessly, he pressed a black Pokeball to Kanga's body, causing it to vanish into the Pokeball. The body would not be found. Nodding to the ditto, he walked off.

The Ditto transformed into a Khangiskhan walked back to the nursery. All of the young Pokemon were asleep, save the Articuno. It walked over to her.

"<Hello. Winterhart, is it? I have a message for you.>"

The Articuno trilled and hissed.

"<Of course, of course,>" it said. "<You're very important to us.>"

Winterhart chirped.

"<Correct. I trust we can rely on your help, then?>"

The bird chirped again, then whistled.

"<Good>"

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: MURDER AND TREASON

Brock’s feet pound frantically on the hard pavement as he leaves the city of Saffron behind. He has ten minutes, maybe less, before the police go after him. He yelled too loud in the Pokemon Centre, and people will have heard him. He saw their looks. He saw Ash's look. Maybe it'll be Ash who'll report him to the police, maybe not, but it doesn't matter (except it does matter that his friend could be so blind). He’ll be reported, imprisoned after a show trial. It’s against the law, but they’ll do it. And then where will his Pokemon be?

He has but one chance. Reach Eon’s territory and hand in his Pokemon before he’s caught.

He has to keep running.

************************************************************************************************************

The people of Cianwood were the salt of the earth- hard, square and bad for your teeth. This was not a very nice city, and it churned out Fighting trainers to the near exclusion of everything else. Many blamed the city's poverty, or its segregation, or something in the water- either way, it was a shithole. And at night time, the streets are alive with crime, street-fights, drinking and loud music, all mixing together to become a solid force of aggression. 

So Eon realised that she didn't need to send in large numbers of troops after all. All she had to do was spark off the people of the city into a riot. She'd had Jessie, James and Jeanette talking in the right bars to stir up trouble for a week now, preying on the city's natural intolerance and getting people to believe that other racial groups were planning something violent. A little casual violence, some graffiti, use of Psychics to mentally effect people.

And finally, they blew up the power station, plunging the whole city into darkness.

Then the three of them, with back-up from Pokemon, rushed around certain areas, smashing windows and throwing bricks & garbage cans, setting off car alarms, yelling racial slurs to make it sound like they're a group, setting the odd thing of fire. It didn't take much, but then people from all over the city rushed out to beat up the other people they assumed was causing all this. First there was just street fighting. Then gangs got together smashing cars. The first petrol bomb was thrown. Then the police went in. Then the local Gym Leader and his trainees saw there was a riot going on, and decided they wanted in on it.

In just twenty minutes there was a riot spanning across the city which had caused thousands of pounds of damage, fires all over the city, chipped Fighting & heavy-duty Rock Pokemon being used in street fights and injured/dead people sprawled on the pavement.. The ex-Rockets watched this with glee, taking it in turns to spray graffiti reading "Ash izza wonker" on walls.

"Good strategy," said Jeanette. "And you say you gave Eon the idea?"

"Yeah," said Jessie. "We knew a lot about this naked city.  We’ve been here many times before, on… dubious business."

"Jackin’ stuff," translated Meowth.

 "How long will the riot last?"

"Ages," said Meowth. "And when da police conduct inquiries afterwards, it’ll turn out EVERYONE was at home or visitin’ distant relatives at da time."

"Tell me, why are Arbok and Victreebel joining in?"

"Who can tell? By da way, where’s Bellsprout."

"He’s the one over there," she said happily. "The one lifting the Porsche and hitting people with it."

**************************************************************************************************************

"The Cerulean inhabitants have been disarmed," said Rose. "A few are missing; probably gone underground, to rebel. They don’t have much support though; everyone else is too scared of us."

~Keep it that way,~ said Eon. ~And make sure our troops there just guard and don’t start problems. If we act too tyrannical towards them, they'll overcome their fear and rebel against us en masse. Success in keeping the buffer city depends on them being too scared to act out and realise we'll kill them all anyway once the country is ours.~

"Lash has other news to report." The Gyarados had decided to quit as a general and head Eon’s operations in Cerulean instead. "He thinks the government will cut off all supply routes to the city, causing widespread famine and poverty; this will force them to fight against us and give them a lovely bit of propaganda."

~Oh yes. "Look at the evil Pokemon, starving our people". If this happens, I want you to lead raiding parties to forcibly take supplies from the government.~

Rose paled. "Me?"

~You’re a general now, Rose, and a good one. I have every confidence in your abilities. Dismissed.~

Rose left, smiling at the praise she’d been given. Eon turned to the TV they’d pinched from the Viridian ruins, and switched it on to the news channel.

"… a widespread riot last night hit Cianwood, causing millions of pounds worth of property damage and thirty hospital cases. This was started soon after a terrorist attack on the power station, which caused a total power outage, which will continue for the next week. Graffiti was left on the walls of the local Gym and Pokemon Centre, reading Pokemon terrorism slogans, showing that this was incited by Eon; a serious blow to the Johto mindset that the attacks weren't going to happen to them... "

Eon smiled and turned the TV off. She was doing well. They’d managed to compensate for the loss of Cinnabar- no, nothing would over compensate for Cinnabar. Still, the future was bright. Now, what else was on the agenda?

Rudy wants protection from any military attacks on his island; the Orange Islands navy continues to attack the wilder islands, so we’ll have to continue constructing tunnel shelters for the Pokemon there; I need to check Mewtwo’s progress on-

~YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!~

Hmmm. It sounds like he’s doing well.

 **************************************************************************************************************

Mewtwo was doing more than well. He was bounding about on his kangaroo legs, punching the air and when he collided with Ice, he unthinkingly kissed her on the lips and left again. Wildfire and Fenris looked over at her, and tried to muffle their sniggers.

He ran in on Eon and cried out: ~Good news! First off, I’ve finally perfected the synthetic meat for our troops; it now tastes like normal meat, and I’ve started mass-production. But… even better… I’ve finally worked out how to disable the chips!~

~WHAT?!~

~ Yes; I kept trying to break the hypnotic frequency; wrong focus! You see, I forgot an important part of transplants; the body will often reject them, which is why organ transplants is so uncertain. And I finally realised that the chips should have been rejected by the body as well; so, obviously, there was something to stop that happening.~ He waved his hands dismissively. ~I won’t bore you with the details- either way, my serum shorts out the chip's ability to make the body accept them, and so they are destroyed by anti-bodies.  I should be able to produce it in gas form; we release it into the air around here and all chipped Pokemon will be freed! We release it in battles- instant reinforcements!~

~Can we release it into the atmosphere? Cure Pokemon world-wide?~

~Wouldn’t work. It wouldn’t be concentrated enough.~ He grinned. ~This is the big breakthrough, Eon. We mass-produce the serum in gas form, and the world is free.~

"Ahem."

They turned to see Kanga in the doorway. "Eon, I would like some protection at the nursery. Something to keep Ice out, and away from Winterhart."

~Hmmm? I’ll have some Steelix put on it.~

Kanga nodded, and left.

And smiled.

So, they have a cure. This needs to be dealt with.

***************************************************************************************************************

Domino, one of greatest of the Class A Rockets, stood before Giovanni and coughed. "Sir, we have a problem! A lot of the Rockets are getting scared; they want to get out of League areas and relocate to our foreign branches-"

"No. We have too much invested in Kanto, Johto and the Orange Islands."

"Yeah, but we’ve lost hundreds of agents, and four bases! Just because the attacks on cities gets more press doesn’t mean-"

"I know we are being attacked. But the League is attacked MORE. A few more weeks, and we can sweep in & take over with no objections." He smirked. "Our chips are in most of their Pokemon already."

"Yeah…" Domino bit her lip and shifted her weight from one leg to the other, ready to flee. "But, er, well, the lab boys are pretty pissed as well. They’re saying that you asked for the chips too early, and they hadn’t perfected them; that’s why the chipped Pokemon are so stupid. The chip was meant to be safe against ANYTHING, but Dark Pokemon can short them out; it was meant to leave the Pokemon’s mind intact, just with loyalty to US; instead they’re total retards! They don’t even go to the toilet unless ordered to!" She looked down. "The plan was that Pokemon would remain intelligent, just with their minds focused on our aims and goals- that way they'd be able to adapt to battlefield situations and be used for specialised operations without needing trainer assistance. But we’ve gone into production too soon, and now we can’t upgrade and meet the demand. Giovanni, you could be looking at a mutiny."

"Another one?" He sighed. "Thank you for the report, Domino, but I am not changing anything just because of a few disgruntled Dan’in."

"Got it."

And she pulled out a hand gun and fired.

Persian fled screaming, blood matting his fur. The wall dripped.

The gun fell to the floor.

"I didn’t want to do that," she whispered, "but you left me no choice. Team Rocket has to survive."

Later that day, Team Rocket’s non-subterranean bases were emptied and there was a mass exodus to the foreign bases. All Pokemon, save the Dark Evolutions and Grimer’s and others that willingly wanted to be in Team Rocket, were released on nearby islands in the Orange Islands chain. Giovanni’s body was found in a Saffron dumpster.

Eon heard of this later, and was pleased. Less for her to worry about.

And she’d just been given a LOT to worry about.

****************************************************************************************************************

The fake Kanga slowly left the nursery, Winterhart concealed in its pouch. It quickly found Mewtwo’s lab, and took the chick out.

"You know what to do. For your creators."

It trilled and hopped onto a desk. On it were a few disks, and vials containing Mewtwo’s miracle serum. This would save thousands from their horrible mind control.

Winterhart fired an Ice Beam. The serum froze, cracked to pieces. He used Drill Peck on the disks, destroying the data. And another Ice Beam, this time directed at Mewtwo’s computer, destroyed it and all the information it contained. He surveyed the damage and looked up proudly at its master.

"Well done," said the Ditto. "Well done."

***************************************************************************************************************

Brock awoke, groaning and brushing leaves off him. He’d spent last night in a ditch near Cerulean; his clothes clung to his body like glue now, and he smelt foul. No matter. He had to keep moving. He got up and looked around; all clear. He sighed and continued working.

He was ten minutes away from Cerulean when he heard the sirens.

He started running.

The police had cars. They were catching up. And he hadn’t eaten in hours, he was stiff and he JUST WASN’T FAST ENOUGH-

And then he heard the sharp snarl of a gun mere moments before fire blazed his legs. He fell. But he wasn’t to be beaten.

"POKEBALLS GO!" His Pokemon came out and looked at him blankly. "Go to Cerulean City- RUN. Tell them to cure you of the chips."

The Pokemon chorused "<Yes master,>" and left. They were out of sight when the police got to Brock.

"You’re going down, traitor."

**********************************************************************************************************

Mewtwo and Eon stared in horror at the lab. Mewtwo clenched his fist, all colour draining from it, and his breathing came out in ragged hisses.

~When I find who did this… I shall turn the matter over to Ice. Because I want them to SUFFER. I want them to feel utmost pain and fear before they finally die, and then for their corpses to be thrown outside for the Spearow.~

~It shall be done,~ said Eon quietly. ~And there it goes. All our hopes of victory-~

~No.~ Mewtwo chuckled. ~You see, I have back-up files of everything. Several back-ups, in fact, hidden around Kanto.~ His eyes glowed and a disk appeared in his hands. ~I have other computers here, I can remake another serum. But I’ll need security around here, so the lab isn’t broken into again.~

~It shall be done. Whoever did this is NOT halting our revolution. We will stand triumphant and THEY will die for this crime.~

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: COMPLICATIONS AND LIES

At first glance, the battle seems to be perfect. The Pokemon move flawlessly, almost like an extension of their trainers. An attack is called, and one Pokemon responds, blasting at the other. "Dodge," calls the opponent, and the other dodges. The Pokemon are completely focused, not even letting out a sound or flinching when an attack lands. There is no fumbling, no mistakes, no errors, no embarrassing refusals to battle.

But after a moment, the flaw appears. The Pokemon, unless ordered, do not dodge, nor do they attempt to. Indeed, they do not even seem to notice the attack. To a trained eye, the Pokemon do not even seem to be focusing on their opponent.

In fact, it looks rather like two machines are fighting, rather then two living creatures.

**************************************************************************************************************

A Persian – the Persian – is cowering in the shadows. His master is gone. He knows that if Master is gone, he might be in danger. People never hurt him when he belonged to Master, but now that Master is gone, so is his protection.

He held still for a while, scarcely daring to breathe, but his fur felt uncomfortable so he started to lick it.

"There you are," says a cruel voice. "A worthless creature like you is a disgrace to the entire Persian species." Domino aimed her gun and fired, but the Persian was already running.

*************************************************************************************************************

Kanga moved about the nursery, pausing for a moment to stare with satisfaction at the doorway, guarded by two Steelix. Then she turned back to her duties.

Ice was standing in front of her, looking agitated, or at least as much as she ever would. "You honestly thought that would stop me?" she asked.

"What are you doing here?" gasped the creature. "How did you get here?"

"I don't need to walk in the door. I'm here because Mewtwo's computer, serum and research was mysteriously destroyed, 'Kanga'."

"Really? That's awful!"

"Don't even try. Mental barriers don't work on Dark types."

"I don't know what you're talking-"

"Cut the act or die a painful death. Your choice."

"What do you want? Eon wouldn't believe you."

"I kill you, you become a Ditto. I kill your friend, you die and become a ditto. Actions speak louder then words. But who said I was going to tell anyone?"

"I don't understand."

"Domino was Giovanni's second-in-command. She's in charge now."

The Khangiskhan-thing processed this without surprise or caring. "Meaning?"

"Giovanni was a weak, paranoid fool who worried about things that would never happen and ignored danger when it was staring him in the face. His successor is not like that. Team Rocket was strong, and now it is stronger."

"Sorry you switched sides?" asked the Ditto harshly. "Too late for that, isn't it?"

"I do not regret my actions, for this or for anything. It is not my nature. But of course, you can't see the danger, can you?"

"Of Team Rocket growing stronger? I can see the danger for you fools."

"No, the danger for all. Giovanni had the ability to create new Pokemon, but he was too afraid of another creature like Mewtwo. Domino has no such fears. How long do you think any of you will be safe? And as for your partner, the chip is can be modified to work for humans, too."

"Then why not tell?" 

"Because the next one sent would have stronger loyalties to Domino and Team Rocket," said Ice calmly. "But I would suggest you not damage Mewtwo's research again or harm anyone here, or I will kill you slowly. Beyond that, do as you will, for the moment."

************************************************************************************************************

A Geodude, Onix, Golbat, and Vulpix have run into Cerulean. While the Golbat and Onix seemed fine, the Geodude's body was cracked and the Vulpix covered in sweat, trembling, and her hind leg twisted. Even though she seemed about to collapse from exhaustion, her breathing remained normal.

The moment they entered the city, they stopped. Without a pause to catch their breath, they immediately began to say "To cure you of the chips", as the chip was unable to decided who 'they' was. Lash slithered out, staring with slight amusement at them.

Rose was a bit more upset. "What are they doing?" she asked nervously. Pokemon didn't have much experience with mental illness. Insanity was a major disadvantage. Those with such major disadvantages died very young in the wild. It had been thoroughly bred out of every Pokemon species, meaning it took extraordinarily bad circumstances to cause it. As such, more myths existed about it. Pokemon tended to shun those insane, out of fear they might 'catch' it.

"I'd say they're chipped," replied Lash. "Otherwise they wouldn't all be saying the same thing."

"But what do they mean?"

Lash shrugged, an odd movement on a limbless creature. "I think their owner told them to tell us to free them of the chips. They're repeating what they were told to say."

"I wonder who that was?" asked Rose. "I thought anyone asking questions or complaining about the chips was imprisoned."

Lash looked at them sadly as a though appeared. "Why do you think he sent them, rather then just come here himself? They've probably got him already. Call some Chancey, they're in bad shape. I hope Mewtwo finishes his serum soon."

*************************************************************************************************************

For once, Brock wasn't in a heart-eyed daze even with Officer Jenny standing in front of him. Either he was growing up or the pain in his legs was more effective then Misty's ear pull.

"You GAVE them your Pokemon, and you expect us to believe you aren't a traitor?" she asked incredulously.

"I don't know what happened to them, but they were zombies once they were chipped!" he yelled. "You did something to them. I'm not buying your whole 'mind control' crap. If they were being controlled, they'd be the ones acting like zombies, not the trained Pokemon. If they were being controlled, Eon would be strong enough to just blast every city off the face of the Earth! If they were being controlled, people would be turning around and shooting each other!"

The jenny glared at him. "You are a disgrace to your species," she snarled. "I hope they kill you."

Brock stared after her as she stomped out, slamming the door behind her. Two guards came to drag him back to his cell. Kill? They were killing people now?

****************************************************************************************************************

"Do you even care?" demanded Misty. "Do you, Ash?"

He was staring at the floor, his expression unreadable. "He should have known better then to yell all that stuff at the top of his lungs."

"Why does it matter if someone starts running around saying stuff like that? Why?"

Ash shrugged. "Lt. Surge told me that was to prevent panic. People are scared. They'll believe anything, and panic. If the League loses power, Eon will be able to take over."

"Isn't that what it's already doing?" asked Misty bitterly. "God, my sisters are in there. I tried, Ash, I really did. But we couldn't even get into the city. And as for lies, did you even hear what they were saying? They said- they said we beat them, that we got into the city, but that the Pokemon took hostages and so we had to retreat. I guess no one told them our new orders about 'friendly fire', huh? We're losing, Ash. Eon's coming for us, the Pokemon are coming, and they're going to keep coming. It's like a flood, and we're trying to make a dam out of ourselves to try to stop it, but the waves are just smashing us to pieces and the water's advancing."

"We'll win," said Ash quietly but with complete confidence.

"How do you know Ash? How? We're losing. We took back Valencia and Cinnabar, both islands that we just surrounded with ships. And no matter what the news says, we only got Valencia because they let us. A few Pokemon appeared, destroyed a few ships without getting shot, and retreated, but the island was already evacuated. And Cinnabar? They don't have it, but neither do we. We only beat them by destroying the whole place. And how many places have volcanoes we can use, Ash? Even if we tried to just destroy everything, we'd still lose, and it wouldn't matter anyway."

Ash stood up, and took a step toward her. "Because, Misty, what we are fighting for is RIGHT. Pokemon would never turn on us of their own free will. Never. Pidgeot, Pikachu, none of them would ever have done this. Eon can't do this forever. Sooner or later, its control is going to slip and we'll be able to beat it."

"I hope so, Ash," Misty whispered. "But I wish I could be so sure."

****************************************************************************************************************

Due to new regulations, no jury or lawyer was necessary. Just a judge. Brock wondered idly exactly how that had been justified. Not that it mattered much.

"Brock, you are charged with spreading false rumours and aiding the traitors by giving your own Pokemon to them. There is no question of your guilt in the matter. How do you justify these acts?"

"I wasn't spreading false rumours! What I said was true. Chipped Pokemon act like they're brain-dead, and Eon's Pokemon act like they're normal. And how could it be controlling so many anyway, at such distances?"

The judge gave a martyred sigh and rolled his eyes. "Would you like to try to explain why you gave your Pokemon over to the traitors?"

"Because the chip did something to them! They didn't know who I was. Vulpix didn't know who her last trainer was, and none of them did ANYTHING without being told."

"Do you want to just plead insanity?" asked the judge.

"No! I'm not nuts, and what you're doing is wrong!"

"Alright then, you are guilty of betraying the League and the human race, and will be imprisoned indefinitely. Your exact sentence will be decided after this is all over."

***************************************************************************************************************

Dawn leapt aside as Fenris ran past to tackle Apocalypse. The other Houndoom crunched into his shoulder in retaliation.

~ Do they really need to do that? ~ asked Dawn, a bit disturbed.

By her side, Dusk shrugged. ~ I don't think so. ~

The two canines were standing on their hind legs, trying to rip into each other with their forepaws and bite without being bitten.

~ They're really going for blood this time. ~ commented Dusk.

Snarling in fury, Fenris chomped into Apocalypse's shoulder. In return, she sank her teeth into his neck.

~ Do you think we should stop them? ~ said Dawn.

Fenris pulled free and spat out a fire blast, knocking Apocalypse back about ten feet to slam into a tree.

~ Do you think we could? ~ replied Dusk. ~ Maybe we should call Eon. ~

Apocalypse roared and slammed into him, tossing him a good distance before he hit a rock.

~ Then again, ~ said Dawn, as Fenris smashed Apocalypse into the ground, causing a small earthquake. ~ Maybe we should just walk away and pretend we didn't see anything.

~ Agreed. ~

**************************************************************************************************************

"Did you hear? Jeremy had his Growlithe running laps. He left for five minutes, came back, and it had had a heart attack. He was wiggled out so he took it to a doctor, got an autopsy. The guy said that the Growlithe was fine, perfectly healthy, and seemed to have sort of suffocated, like it wasn't getting enough air, and that made its heart beat too fast until it burst."

"You know Andy? He sent out his Pokemon and he was acting real tough, and he told his Sandslash, you know that one he nicknamed Killer even though it was the sweetest thing ever, he told Killer to just tear the other Pokemon apart. It was a little Magby, and Killer, well, it did just what Andy said."

"Mike told me that his Sneasel Iceclaw went nuts yesterday. He told it to attack and it just ripped into the other Pokemon, and nearly killed it before the other trainer recalled it. Mike said Iceclaw was never, never like that, that it was a real calm Pokemon. He said it had only started acting vicious ever since he brought it to those anti-terrorism stations. He tried asking about it but they just said that it was that Eon thing's mental control. So he asked how a Dark type could get hypnotized by a Psychic one, and why it happened right after Iceclaw got chipped, and they told him to stop talking or they'd report him."

"I heard a guy got put in prison because he said stuff about the fact that Eon couldn't control so many Pokemon, and that it was our Pokemon, not the rebels, who were acting like brainwashed zombies. His friends were part of the Strike Trainers. They say he's gonna get life imprisonment."

For obvious reasons, the League wanted this stopped. But the glaringly obvious facts remained. The Pokemon would obey any command to the letter, regardless of whether it was meant literally or not. And anyone who knew much of anything about Psychic Pokemon knew one single Pokemon couldn't control that many at that range at all, let alone without a single slip. Add that to the fact certain Pokemon, mainly Dark and some Psychics, Electric and Fire with a few other random ones were going insane for some undiscovered reason and there was a problem.

Plus, the rumours weren't being told by some random crackpot who always said things like this. They were being told among friends, who had no reason to turn each other in for it.

So a solution was needed, preferably one that put eon and the people telling rumours in the worst light possible.

All over the land of Kanto, the newscasters were given their new story.

"Many people have begun to spread false rumours about the anti-terrorism stations located in most Kanto cities. These are due partially to misinformation and partially because of terrorist sympathizers.

"The most persistent question seems to be about the Pokemon behaviour. The League released their official statement today. The anti-terrorism stations do not hurt Pokemon in any way. They merely prevent the Pokemon from being influenced by Eon. The reason they act oddly is because Eon and possibly a few other renegade Psychics are still trying to take over the Pokemon, being unable to understand why the treated Pokemon do not respond and are exerting extra effort to control them. The reason that the rebel Pokemon do not act like this is simple, and it is the same reason Eon is able to control so many.

"You see, Eon is not taking over the Pokemon. It is simply broadcasting a continuing psychic message that only Pokemon are able to pick up. The Pokemon feel increased anger and fear, and become intensely paranoid. The feeling are then steered toward humans, their trainer in particular. The chip counteracts this effect, so that the Pokemon do not have these aggressive feelings. As a result, Eon tries to focus the message more strongly on them, suppressing their natural behaviour.

"The League does not blame anyone for confusion. However, people who continue to spread rumours that they know are false are usually terrorists or sympathizers. If you know someone who repeatedly spreads such rumours even after this has been explained to them, please report them to the authorities."

*****************************************************************************************************************

~ ICE!!!!!!!!! ~ roared Eon. ~ Where the hell are you?! ~

"Right here. Why?"

Eon turned and glared at the Dark type, who was standing quite calmly behind her. She hadn't been there a moment ago, but there were no shadows close by. How she had just appeared was a mystery. Eon was currently in too foul of a mood to contemplate it, though.

~ Are you aware Apocalypse and Fenris are apparently trying to kill each other? ~ asked Eon rhetorically. Ice obviously didn't know, or she would have done something.

"Yes. So?"

~ Would you care to explain why exactly that's going on? ~ said Eon, gritting her teeth.

"Not really."

~ Ice, why are the two Houndoom you train trying to kill each other? ~

"There aren't that many good opponents who would fight without restraint. They both need practice."

~ They are ripping each other apart! ~

"A little blood, no more. Why do you care?"

~ Because the rest of us are not trying to kill each other. ~

"Don't be so dramatic. They won't kill each other. They haven't even broken any bones yet."

~ Ice, explain what is going on now. ~

"Simple. They are getting stronger. Whichever path is chosen, we will survive. It is their birthright."

~ Thank you for that clear answer, ~ said Eon sarcastically. ~ And what do you mean about paths? ~

"You know of the Psychic type's ability to tell the future through premonitions. But you shun your dark portion. You would not understand what we see."

~ What are you talking ab- ~ Eon broke off. Ice had disappeared.

*************************************************************************************************************

Well, here goes, thought Mewtwo, holding a small hollow plastic ball. He crushed it between two digits near a captured Bulbasaur, releasing the gas inside. He'd only managed to test the serum on a normal type Raticate before everything was destroyed, and wasn't completely sure if it would work perfectly on other types. Grass/Poison Pokemon's bodies, for example, might be partially immune to it like they were Poison moves. If the chip was only damaged, the results could be even worse then before.

The Pokemon shuddered, twitched a few times, then looked up at Mewtwo.

"What the hell are you?" it demanded.

Victory! though Mewtwo.

************************************************************************************************************

Apocalypse had knocked Fenris onto his side and pinned him beneath her claws. She was going for the neck. Fenris was snarling, embers growing in his mouth for a flamethrower. The gathered Pokemon flinched and closed their eyes.

Suddenly the two Pokemon stopped. Apocalypse stepped back to allow Fenris up, who had quelled his flame. Ice looked at them wordlessly, and they all vanished.

****************************************************************************************************************

Domino walked calmly past lines of vats. The strange shapes that could be seen in the dim light of the lab floating in reddish liquor did not catch her eye.

"Well?" she asked haughtily. "Do you have Pokemon able to take out the rebel leaders?"

The lead scientist stepped forward. "According to Silence's report, the Pokemon in charge are a shining Espeon, two Houndoom, a Bellossom, two Feraligatr and a Dragonite as well as five new Eevee creatures. There is also a Gyarados, but they say it's not a threat." The man paused, as if considering the wisdom of passing on the rest of the information. "Agents Ice and Wildfire are also there."

"Hmmm, so that's where they went. I thought they were hiding. Well, what Pokemon do you have that can fight them?"

The man walked to the hulking computer at the centre of the laboratory and pressed a few buttons.

"All the prototypes we have are Persian based, due to the former boss' interest. While they won't be useful for army VS army conflict, they make very good assassins. This one," he said, summoning an image of a black Persian with slightly longer fur then normal and odd golden eyes, "Is a creature we're calling Nightress. It's normal/dark, a combination of Persian and Umbreon DNA. It is able to travel anywhere, even areas specially designed to block teleporting Pokemon, as long as there is shadow. It is immune to Psychic and Ghost attacks."

"But it would also have a double weakness against Fighting," said Domino.

"Few Fighting Pokemon are with the rebels. Also, Nightress won't stick around for them to attack. It appears, kills on the first attack, then vanishes. We're also working on a second Persian crossbreed, Zorsian. It's a Persian and Misdreavus, or Normal/Ghost." He hit a few more buttons, summoning a sickly Persian with a black collar.

Domino blinked. "How is that possible?"

"With a great deal of trouble," said the man darkly. "The clones are only partially solid, meaning physical moves are unable to hit them, and their normal type gives them immunity to ghost moves. They can also move independent of gravity and through obstructions."

"Interesting. Do they have the power to take down the Pokemon?"

"Yes, they retain the deadly attacks of a Persian."

Domino smiled. "Get to work. I want a healthy version as soon as possible."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: WITHOUT WARNING

"…this is Trish Tilby, broadcasting live from Cherrygrove City in Johto, where the military is fighting off a raiding party of Pokemon terrorists, lead by rouge trainer Jeanette Fisher. The military has deployed their own Pokemon, and seem to be winning- Hang on, the attackers have unleashed some sort of gas weapon on the military Pokemon. They now seem disoriented and confused. I’m not sure what’s going on, but they now seem angry… Oh God, they’re turning on the military! This is, this is… They’ve blasted a gaping hole in Cherrygrove’s defences, they’ve torn open nearby buildings, OH SHIT THEY'RE COMING THIS WA-"

 We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please stand by.

**************************************************************************************************************

The Pokemon were throwing a party. Raids on individual trainers and military areas had resulted in over 140 Pokemon freed from the chips. More would follow. Many more.

But Eon did not go to the party. She had work to do, planning, strategising, making sure they weren’t cut off guard planning planning planning planning planning planning.

Nightress oozes from the shadows without a sound. A simple Night Shade sends the unsuspecting Eon flying into the wall.

Eon whipped her head round and unleashed Flamethrower; Nightress dodged it and used Slash before melting away again. Eon stood dead still. The assassin could be anywhere, emerge from any patch of darkness…

Strike without warning-

The Night Shade erupted from her own shadow, striking her in the back of the head; as a reflex, she fired back with Thunder, striking the Nightress and causing its movement to become spastic as 5, 000 volts hit her head-on.

They both went down.

A few seconds later, Ditto, in his Khangiskhan disguise, showed up, attracted by the sounds of combat. Quickly he dragged Nightress out of the cavern before Mewtwo and the others showed up.

~Eon, what- SHIT!~

"What happened here?!" yelled Wildfire. "Is she-"

"No," said Rose, checking for a pulse. "She’s only unconscious, thank Lugia. I think this was a botched assassination attempt!"

~Obviously a Dark Pokemon; any other would have been ineffectual. We’ll never find it, it would have melted away through the shadows… Get a Chansey in here. NOW.~

**************************************************************************************************************

The generals were holding an emergency meeting. They had to decide what to do now, and how should be in charge with Eon out of action.

"We should keep to the same attacks we were doing before," said Rose. "We can keep those, and our success rate, up until Eon recovers."

~IF she recovers. She’s in a coma, we have to be prepared if she doesn’t wake up.~

"We can’t stick to the same old attacks," argued Nightflame. "The humans will catch on and we’ll start losing. It’s the element of surprise that got us this far. We become predictable and we’ll start losing ground. We have the forest near Violet and Cherrygrove in Johto- we can easily be driven out! Same with the Orange Islands. We should strengthen our hold on Johto- I say we attack Goldenrod Island. It’s got a large military presence, the political leaders of Kanto, Orange AND Johto have relocated there… We take it, we win this war."

~It’s too well fortified,~ said Mewtwo. ~They have a VERY large military presence and have wiped out every Pokemon on the island and for ten kilometres around it. We try to go in, we’ll suffer heavy losses, and I’d rather that didn't happen. And let us not forget that island contains nuclear missiles. They can’t use them, because we’re too near their cities; I’d rather not provoke them into doing it ANYWAY.~

"We have to strike! Just because Eon is-"

"Quiet." Ice had been sitting silently in the corner, watching and listening, her face not betraying a single emotion. Now she spoke, in crisp tones. "We shouldn’t take Goldenrod yet. We should take Saffron."

Mewtwo frowned. ~The capital of Kanto, large industrial presence… A good target. Kanto would be ours if we could take it. But it is heavily defended-~

"Not as heavily as Goldenrod, I believe. We take it, there will be mass-evacuation of the humans from Kanto and we'll have the entire nation under our control. It would enable us to take the others as well." She smiled. "And I know for a fact that Eon has been planning this herself. In her chamber are plans and strategies for the attack. Do not waste time asking me how I know this."

"I’m with Ice," said Rose.

"Me too," said Memory.

"I don’t like the idea," said Shine, giving Ice a suspicious look. "We can’t trust her, and think of the death toll. We aren’t ready yet!"

~On the contrary-~

Mewtwo was cut off by the arrival of a frantic Blade. The Spearow swept into the room, out of breath. "EMERGENCY! Aerial patrols have spotted a massive human build-up outside of Pewter!"

~WHAT?!~

***************************************************************************************************************

Tanks snarled across the fields outside the ruined city, turning grass to churned mud. Helicopters screeched overhead, loaded with machine-guns and Sidewinders. Missile launchers and jeeps followed behind, along with military-standard mecha and hundreds of soldiers. No chipped Pokemon this time- they were learning. It was a large force, and it had back-up- the government had bought a large amount of mechas and weapons from Team Rocket. The terrorist group itself was technically out of the war, but they still wanted a human victory, and were selling weaponry, both biological and technological, in addition to covert assassins like Nightress.

Commander Daigo faced towards the ruins, where Rock Pokemon had turned towering buildings into mountains and rock piles, a Ground/Rock paradise. He spat.

"Fire missiles."

Three missile launchers discharged their cargo. They whined across the sky, striking the Pewter perimeter, throwing dust and flame into the sky. A few seconds passed, and then a group of Rock Pokemon came charging out, roaring for blood. One tank trundled forwards, jet black with the Team Rocket symbol emblazoned on its side. It took aim and a jet of water blasted forth from it, striking the lead Pokemon. He went down.

Daigo waited until the initial defenders were all down, and then signalled his forces to move in. They were taking Pewter back.

***************************************************************************************************************

"They have HOW MANY MEN?!" screamed Rose.

"Hundreds," replied Blade. "Pewter needs reinforcements desperately!"

~Hold,~ said Mewtwo. His voice was low, and deadly. ~How did we just notice this now? A large military force is hardly easy to hide.~

Blade’s jaw dropped and he made an odd croaking noise. "I… don’t know…"

~It seems to me that someone was somehow shielding the enemy, so our patrols couldn’t notice them until it was too late, possibly psychically. We have a traitor in our ranks.~

Rose turned and ran, yelling: "I’m going to the medic room! If we do have a traitor, they might try to finish off Eon!"

~Memory, Wildfire, Nightflame- get together as many as you can and head for Pewter. I’ll come along myself. We’re NOT going to have another Cinnabar on my watch!~

**************************************************************************************************************

The army had moved fast, occupying the entire Pewter perimeter and everything inside for 300 metres. They didn’t seem interested in actual conquest; this was a slaughter mission. Explosions rocked the area, smoke and dust blocked the senses, dead Pokemon littered the ground. The ex-Rockets were gunning down quite a few invaders, but doing so whilst on the retreat. They’d been caught off guard, and had to meet up with the Pokemon before they could form an effective defence. As it was, they were being pulverised

Half a kilometre away, a Rhyhorn slams into a tank, destroying it instantly. He leads a small group of his kind, forcing the humans to retreat. Then the mecha arrive, spraying armour-piercing bullets which tear through the Rhyhorn’s hides and force them to move back.

A group of Diglett use their combined Earthquake attack to shatter an entire group of human soldiers and vehicles, but they soon find themselves to be the only Pokemon in that area actually fighting, and they are soon overwhelmed by a seemingly endless tide of enemies.

Blade and Abandon swoop in, bringing in a cavalry of aerial Pokemon and medical supplies. They unleash Razor Wind and Gust, scattering random groups of invaders and allowing the Pokemon to reach each other and work out their strategies. 

"About fuckin' time ya got here!" snarled Meowth.

"Right, you’ve got a large ground force reaching here in ten minutes," said Blade. "It should be enough to win this battle."

"Right," said Nidoking, "but until then, we need to defend ourselves. How?"

"A group could attack from the front, while others surround the army," said Jessie. "Classic move."

"Wouldn’t work," said Abandon. "I saw the army from the air; you’d be cut down. However… I also saw the terrain around here, the human advance, and I’ve got a plan. We let the humans advance-"

"WHAT?!"

"Here me out, all of you! We let the humans advance another kilometre, sometimes making attacks to make it seem like we’re still fighting. Meanwhile, most of us will be UNDERGROUND. They reach that area where the museum used to be, then we unleash Earthquake. That place has large ‘mountains’ and stuff around there, they’ll be pulverised and then buried. That’ll handle a large chunk of ’em, and then the oncoming force attacks and finishes the human scum off."

The Pokemon nodded; it was a good plan. A few Cubone stepped forward to continue harassing the invaders, as did the former Rockets, and a Bulbasaur who’d hitched a ride with his old friend Abandon.

James swallowed and re-loaded his gun. "Let’s go then. Us chosen few."

"We banded buggered, more like," said Meowth. He turned to the Bulbasaur: "Didn’t youse use ta pal around with Ash?"

"Yeah. Then I got chipped. Screw him. I’ve been cured and I am NOT going through the same crap again."

"You finally learnt dat twerp is an arsehole? I coulda told ya that YEARS ago!"

"Shut it."

Meowth sniggered. He had to laugh and banter with the others. Anything to avoid thinking about what he was going up against now…

The Ground Pokemon began to Dig, and the fliers took off again, some to provide aerial support and the majority to join with the oncoming reinforcements. Meowth cocked his gun- it was all up to them now.

 *************************************************************************************************************

Daigo scanned the horizon for Pokemon, and was worried when he saw none.

"Sir, we’ve captured everything for half a kilometre inwards, and have killed about 60 Pokemon; we have many wounded, but only about 23 casualties so far. I’ve just received a call, the other guys have moved in on their area."

"Good," said Daigo. "Now… Where are the Pokemon?"

"Running scared," sneered the soldier.

"No. Doesn’t fit their past actions. They’re up to something… Have missiles fired 20 metres into the city; should disrupt them."

BOOM

BOOOOOM

The group ran as fire rained down on them, churning up stone and dirt. A nearby hit knocked them to their knees and killed a Cubone outright. Bulbasaur growled.

"C’mon! They’ve stopped firing- let’s go!"

"WHAT?!" shrieked Jessie. "We’re lucky to still be alive! Yes, we have to move, but let’s be careful, OK? I like having my spleen intact."

The group crept forward, using the rock structures as cover, and were able to launch projectile attacks on the approaching invaders, contributing to the illusion of a massed attack. Bulbasaur’s Vine Whip was particularly effective, breaking bones and knocking light-armour tanks over. Eventually Daigo had lead his forces to the sight of the old museum. He noted with satisfaction that they were mostly alive.

"OK, this is far enough. Squad A will remain here to maintain our captured territory, the rest of you will return to base. We’ve served our purpose and-"

Then the world shook, and everything went black.

****************************************************************************************************************

The reinforcements arrived in Pewter to find the Pokemon standing over the mangled remains of about 40% of the invading army. Mewtwo nodded in approval.

~Good work. Now, where’s the rest of the army?~

"They retreated," said Bulbasaur. "Didn’t even try to fight, they just left."

~What? But they certainly had the firepower to continue fighting- by all rights we should be fighting right now. Pewter is a gateway to Mt Moon, I doubt they’d leave it so readily-~ He suddenly paled. ~Shit; this was a diversion! Has anybody been watching Cerulean while we’ve been here?!~

No one had. And when they got there, they found the human military had occupied half the city. And they couldn’t drive the humans out without destroying their own buffer city.

They’d lost.

"We’ve lost," said Rose thickly. "Half the city is under human control again. Now what are we gonna do?"

~I’ll tell you.~ Mewtwo clenched his fist. ~We’re going to work on destroying Saffron City, and we’re going to do that NOW.~

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: SAFFRON AND DARK PROBLEMS

Pikachu sat on Ash's shoulder, her posture deceptively relaxed. Ash had been in a good mood after the recent report. Pewter had been fully retaken and half of Cerulean with only fifteen human casualties. The humans were winning easily.

It's pretty easy to get good news like that when the government controls the media.

For a moment, Pikachu almost wished she could tell Ash that no, Pewter hadn't been retaken and there had been more then just fifteen humans killed. But telling him that might well end up with her dead. She also wished she could try to explain what was going on to Ash. But he only understood her when he tried to understand her, and the moment she tried to talk about Eon he'd tune her out, bring her to a chipping station, and then they'd find out that she wasn't chipped.

A ten year old girl was walking calmly though the crowd. At her heels trotted a Growlithe. It looked about calmly, surveying the area. A second later, alarm bells went off in Pikachu's head. Chipped Pokemon didn't look around.

The girl noticed Ash. "Hey!" she called. "You're Ash Ketchum!" Ash looked up as the girl ran over. "I heard you're one of the best Strike Trainers!"

Ash smiled. "Yeah. What's your name?"

"Oh, my name's Clara. I was travelling when this whole thing started and I only just got back. I can't believe what's happened! I was thinking about joining the Strike Trainers. I mean, Pokemon can't just go around attacking people for no reason."

Seeing Ash completely distracted by the girl, Pikachu looked down at the Growlithe. "<Have you gone to an anti-terrorism station?>" she asked quietly. She couldn't say chipped in case this Growlithe really was chipped, but using the odd plural form might attract Ash's attention.

The Growlithe shook its head. "<No, we just got back. We're headed there right now.>"

Pikachu hopped off of Ash's shoulder and landed on the ground. "<Do you know anything about the stations?>" she asked carefully.

The Growlithe looked uncertain. "<I…I did hear some things, but just rumours. Nothing really. Stuff about not being able to think and maybe going insane. Only from wild Pokemon, to get me to leave my trainer.>"

Pikachu shook her head. "<I'm afraid those weren't just rumours,>" she said softly.

The Growlithe stared at her in shock. "<Clara would never do something like that!>" it said, its voice getting louder.

"<Clara doesn't know. None of them know. They're told it prevents Eon from hypnotizing us. Run while you still can. Go to Cerulean. There are Pokemon there, but be careful, humans are there too.>"

"<Clara would never->"

"<Clara would hand you over to be killed as a traitor if she even suspected you wanted freedom or equal rights,>" snapped Pikachu. "<You heard her. She thinks the Pokemon don't have any reason to kill people. They're made their reasons clear. They want freedom. To her, that's 'no reason'.>"

The Growlithe could only look at her in shock.

"<Look, you don't have to kill her. You don't have to kill anyone. Just run and hide. They have bigger things to do then catch one runaway Growlithe. Just run away and hide until it's all over, one way or another. If you're chipped, you'll be sent against Eon, and you'll get killed. She's joining the Strike Trainers. That's practically a death sentence for chipped Pokemon.>"

"<You're still alive.>"

"<I'm not chipped,>" said Pikachu flatly. "<Chipped Pokemon don't dodge, chipped Pokemon don't give up when their leg's ripped off or they're gutted. Chipped Pokemon just keep fighting until they die. If you're chipped, you'll die. So run. I'll try to distract them.>"

The Growlithe nodded, still looking stunned, and then raced off. Pikachu sent badly aimed Thundershocks after it, which kept hitting people who were near or in front of the fire dog.

"Pikachu, what are you doing?" demanded Ash.

Pikachu turned to him and said emotionlessly. <Growlithe is a traitor, Master.>

************************************************************************************************************ 

"Shouldn't we wait a little while?" asked Shine. "We just got attacked! We need to pause, catch our breath before jumping into another battle."

"That's exactly why we're attacking now. If we wait and try to recover, so will the humans. They won't expect another attack so soon." replied Memory. "We won't have as many Pokemon in good condition, but the attack will have the element of surprise."

"Actually, that really doesn't matter. Taking Saffron should be easy," said Ice.

Wildfire looked at her sceptically. "Are we talking about the same Saffron? The overpopulated, two-gym Saffron?"

"Yes. It should be easy," Ice repeated.

 *************************************************************************************************************

"Report," said Domino tightly. On the other side of the screen, a Rocket and a Ditto stood. The Ditto morphed into exact replica of the man. It began to speak in a calm, almost monotone voice.

"Nightress attacked but failed. It was knocked out during the attempt. Eon is also unconscious, but how long that will last is unknown. We retrieved it but the others already suspect it was a Dark type."

"Is Nightress still unconscious?"

"No. We used a Revive taken from the hospital. Do you want it to try again?"

Domino paused, considering. "No. If it failed once, it will fail again. Eon is apparently too powerful to be taken out in one shot at its current level. Send it to kill the traitors first. We want the others to belong to us."

"Are you sure that's wise? It won't have the same advantage against-"

"Do it!"

 *************************************************************************************************************

"What do you want?" demanded Sabrina, sending out a thought to discover the intruder. She found nothing.

"The attack should come soon. I'd suggest you make sure everything's ready. Eon didn't tell anyone about her plan, and they're all ready for a fight."

"Why won't Eon explain it now?"

"Eon was attacked earlier. She's temporarily out of commission."

"I bet you're heartbroken it wasn't permanent," said the Psychic venomously.

"My, you certainly aren't a good judge of people without your Psychic powers to help," said the other, her voice mocking.

"You aren't a human. You don't count."

"I never said humans. I said people. But it doesn't matter. They'll be coming soon, and you'd better disable the alarms."

"Why don't you just warn them?"

"Because I'm not supposed to know there are alarms. Besides, I have things to deal with."

 **************************************************************************************************************

"The main problem with Saffron is that we'll need Pokemon to take on both Psychic and Fighting. Flying Pokemon will be good against Fighting, but they don't have any defence against Psychic. Poison Pokemon will be resistant to fighting moves but they'll be weak against Psychic. Psychic Pokemon have the advantage against fighting, but with a major Gym devoted to that type they'll probably know how to deal with ours. Bug Pokemon can attack Psychics but will also get slaughtered by Psychic attacks. Their attacks are weak against Fighting, but Fighting moves aren't good against them either. Dark Pokemon are great against Psychic, but horrible against Fighting. Steel Pokemon are resistant to Psychic moves but weak against Fighting." Wildfire sighed. "It's a strategic nightmare. Who the hell has the advantage?"

"I'd suggest Flying and Bugs, with a few Psychics and Darks," said Memory.

"No, Dark Pokemon will be important," said Shine. "The Psychics are the main force. The Fighting Gym there isn't even official."

"Only because Sabrina kept beating them up," replied Nightflame. "I'm not sure exactly how strong they are. They're definitely weaker then the Psychic Gym, but because of the type advantage who knows exactly how weak."

"Focus on the Fighting Pokemon," said Ice unexpectedly. "The Psychics won't be much trouble."

Wildfire, Shine, Star, Nightflame, Memory, Rose and Alli all stared at Ice for a moment. Shine was the first to speak.

"You may have more to fear from Fighting then Psychic," she said, her voice contemptuous, "But the Psychic type is definitely the most dangerous. Sabrina and her trainers are mainly Psychics themselves."

"Exactly," said Ice coolly. "Focus on the Fighting Pokemon."

"Ice, what on Earth are you talking about?" asked Memory.

"Think about it for a moment. Most of the Gym's Pokemon are unchipped. The station keeps having problems whenever they're scheduled to chip Sabrina and her trainer's Pokemon. We have been receiving intelligence reports from inside the League for a while now. Do I need to spell it out more for you?"

**************************************************************************************************************

There are certain creatures in this world that have an aura of menace and barely contained violence. They are rare but one knows them on sight, whether or not another like them has ever been seen. Their presence causes all other creatures to either cower or run. It isn’t anything in particular that they say or do, it is simply their entire bearing.

Fenris was one of those creatures. He paced back and forth, glaring daggers at the few Pokemon who had, for some reason, not run for the hills yet. He was ill at ease, and everything around him could sense he might decide to take his mind off things with a short, brutal fight.

Fenris growled inarticulately at Star, who had been called by one of the braver Pokemon. Everyone knew something was the matter, but no one was stupid enough to try to find out what. So Star, being the nearest Pokemon who was not an easy kill, had been chosen.

"What's the matter?" she asked warily. She might have wings but she'd seen Fenris move. He'd get in at least one good hit before he went down, and between his rocket training and Ice's ownership of him, that one good hit might be fatal. Star didn't think Ice wanted her dead, but Ice didn't seem to be registering the fact the dark evolution Houndoom was a ticking time bomb, ready to explode into some incredibly destructive violent act any day now. Fenris, the wolf who would destroy the world at the end of days. He was well named.

"<Doooom hound doom!>" Fenris growl-snarled at her.

Then again, thought Star with a growing sense of forbidding, Ice might just not care if her insane pet decided to go on a killing spree. Fenris wasn't a threat to her and Ice had probably ordered it not to attack certain Pokemon, or somehow prevented him from being able to kill them.

"Could you be more specific?" she tried.

"<Doom doom dooom. Hound.>"

"Okayyy…uh, is something worrying you?"

"<Doom. Hound doom. Doom hound kill doom.>"

Star jerked. "Did you just say something about killing?"

"<Doom. Hound.>"

Well, that's clear, she thought sarcastically. She looked around at the other small, cowering Pokemon. "Look guys, I'm out of my league here. I don't even have a clue what he's saying. Go track down Ice or one of her Pokemon for a translation, okay?"

 *************************************************************************************************************

Memory sighed. "The general impression I'm getting is that we'll be facing mutiny if we try to make more then a few Darks come. Ice's Pokemon won't discus their reasons, but many of Firebringer's pack have made it clear that they don't want to go into a battle that'll mainly be against Fighting types."

"Does anyone know what's going on?" asked Star. "I can't tell if they're all just scared of the Fighting types or what. Fenris was acting weird earlier, seemed really upset. I couldn't understand most of it but he said 'kill'."

"Maybe Ice and the rest of them are scared but don't want to admit to being such cowards?" asked Shine.

"I've never known Ice to back down from a fight or be scared of anything. Well, she never shows fear, but she never really shows any emotion, so I guess that doesn't matter. But it wouldn't make sense for them all to be scared, especially of something so trivial."

"Maybe she knows something we don't," said Alli. "She passed it on to Firebringer as a fellow dark, but didn't tell any of us."

"Yeah," agreed Rose. "Maybe that's why she keeps telling us it'll be easy and we don't need them. Hell, maybe she wants us all dead!"

"No, she wouldn't do that! If it wasn't for her, I'd be dead. And she doesn't lie."

"How do we know?" said Shine. "It was a Dark type who attacked Eon. Maybe Ice or one of her Pokemon did it! She's keeping secrets, her Pokemon are acting funny and she's been disappearing constantly."

"Ice wouldn't do that!" rumbled Star, taking a step toward Shine.

"How do you know?" asked Alli. "Shine's right. She might be getting ready to finish Eon off! Maybe that's why she doesn't want to be with us, so she can kill Eon while we're gone!"

"That's stupid!" snapped Star.

"Really? Prove it!" said Rose.

"  Whatever attacked Eon got attacked back, and Ice wouldn’t have stuck around. Hell, she wouldn't have attacked if she wasn't totally sure she'd win. And if Ice attacked Eon, why didn’t she finish the job? Eon was knocked out when we found her, which means the attacker was scared off. Ice wouldn't have run. Eon would be dead. And even if she had attacked and screwed it up this badly, why would she make this big fuss about Saffron? Any of Firebringer's pack could take Eon out now, or Ice's Twilight. It would look a lot less suspicious if most of the Darks were gone when Eon was killed."

"Maybe," agreed Memory. "But there's something going on. Ice definitely knows something. Maybe she told Firebringer and the rest, or maybe it's just something Dark Pokemon know, but she definitely knows something."

 ***********************************************************************************************************

"Look, Eclipse, do you have any idea where Ice is?" asked Wildfire

"Of course I do," replied the Umbreon coolly. All of Ice's Pokemon had an odd aloofness, and often seemed completely removed from others, both people and Pokemon.

"Well, we really need to find her because we're going to attack Saffron and we'd like her help." For once, Wildfire added silently.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked the Umbreon, in the patronizing tone of voice that adults use with small children.

"Well, attacking Saffron may be risky, but-"

"No. Are you sure it's a good idea for Ice to be a part of the attack?"

"Yeah. What's wrong with it?"

The Umbreon gave a long-suffering sigh, and said in a voice that suggested her patience was being tried simply by having to answer such a painfully obvious question: "All of us are trying to minimize our involvement, Ice especially. It is very important she stays out of the first phase as much as possible."

Trying to keep annoyance out of her voice (and failing, of course) Wildfire said: "Could you give me a clear, specific reason why Ice should be kept out of whatever the hell the 'first phase' is? I didn't think Ice and the rest of you were such cowards as to try to avoid going into a fight."

Eclipse did not rise to the bait. Instead she continued in the same tone as before. "It's in the nature of how we see that pattern. We can't see the whole thing if we're part of it. In order to see how our own actions effect it, we predict using everything we already know, which means any new, unforeseen events will not be guarded against. We're too close already. We need to keep as much distance as possible to avoid total blindness." The Umbreon looked at Wildfire coldly though amber eyes. "Not that I expect you to understand. You aren't Dark. You couldn't possibly understand any of this."

Wildfire bit back several less-then diplomatic retorts. After about a minute, she said, "So I guess what you're saying is, for some reason I can't understand, Ice is going to try to stay out of the fights until 'phase one' is complete?"

"Yes."

"Will you try to at least explain what phase one is?"

"When the patterns reaches a point where we are able to see the general flow. Right now everything is too unstable. Any outside interference could push it one way or another. Once the pattern stabilizes, we will help. Until then, we must not be a major part or we won't be able to keep things on the correct track."

"When will that end?"

Eclipse shrugged. "That's one of the many things we don't know. We'll know when it ends, and it should be soon. That's all I can say." She paused. "Besides, you don't need Darks in Saffron. It should be easy."

 *************************************************************************************************************

Fenris pawed impatiently at the ground in front of Saffron. Shine had suggested teleporting directly in, but Wildfire had vetoed the idea immediately, saying that if anything went wrong, they needed to be able to retreat. Being cornered could be fatal. Psychics could block teleportation if they were strong enough. It was hard and required too much individual discretion for chipped Pokemon to pull off, but the Psychic Pokemon of Saffron weren't chipped.

Beside him, the Houndour Darksun and his half-brother, the Umbreon Blackmoon stood. Aside from Gary's own Umbreon and Nightflame, they were the only Dark Pokemon. Firebringer had promised to send more if anything happened, but she'd made it clear she was only saying that because she didn't think it would matter. Abandon and Blade perched awkwardly on the ground as well, ready to leap into the sky the moment the signal was given. Memory stood near the two. A legion of other flying Pokemon surrounded them. None of them were flying since that might be noticed. Jessie and James, also there, were even more nervous then most. They had heard all of the rumours about Ice and Firebringer, and their last encounter with Sabrina had been, well, less then enjoyable. Rose had a small collection of Paras, Exeggutor, Weepinbell, and Gloom, mainly for variety. Star and Wildfire were present, as were Fang and Alli. A smattering of Fire and Water Pokemon accompanied them.

Most of the Pokemon hadn't wanted to deal with Saffron. The Dark Pokemon's continued confidence that the attack would be easy had scared them. Most thought that the attack probably would be easy, so there was no reason to go, and if the Dark Pokemon knew something bad was going to happen and that was why none of them wanted to be part of it, well, it might be prudent to stay away, just in case. If the Dark Pokemon were telling the truth, they said, they wouldn't be needed, and if the Dark Pokemon were lying, well, they probably wouldn't make a difference.

Wildfire still didn't understand Eclipse's haphazard explanation. Her own pet theory was that a significant amount of the reason had something to do with Ice's own amusement with chaos and strife. Ice probably knew that by refusing to come, not just saying they weren't needed but actually refusing to come, all the other Pokemon would be suspicious, something Ice might find funny. Or she might be doing it for some other reason, but as long as Wildfire had known her, she had seemed amused by things like this, and there had never been any reason for Ice to be acting that way other then that she honestly enjoyed it.

"Alright," said Abandon softly. "ATTACK!"

The flock of Flying types jumped into the sky, soaring over the buildings at the edge and showering the area below with any long-distance attacks they knew, from Gust to Bubblebeam to Thunder.

Fang, Alli and the water Pokemon blasted though the buildings at the edge of Saffron, the ones that had been blocking them from sight. True to human nature, people ran toward the source of the noise, not away. It hadn't quite sunk in that they were under attack. Yeah, other places had been attacked, but the people couldn't truly realize that it would happen to them. Just like car accidents and murders, it was the kind of thing that happened to other people, that everyone thought couldn't touch them until they experienced it firsthand. The first wave of people was torn apart by the two Feraligatr, then the Pokemon surged through the opening and swarmed into the city. The people saw the Pokemon and realized what was happening. They began to call for help.

But Saffron was a big city, and noise only travels so far. Because of this, alarms had been set up around the perimeter in case something happened. Anything that tried to cross would be detected. Alarms that hadn't gone off.

So, rather then running away to warn people, everyone with any Pokemon stayed. Even some of the more foolish non-trainers remained. The Pokemon were released, prompting several of them to turn and attack, courtesy of the many problems the Saffron Anti-Terrorism station. Not all the Pokemon were chipped.

A few moments later, such things didn't matter as large quantities of an odd, slightly bluish gas blanketed the area. The people never stood a chance.

"Come on! We have a whole city to destroy!" screeched Abandon, flying swiftly on. Memory Hyperbeamed a few random buildings before following.

"Onward!" howled the Pokemon, tearing through the living wall of people as they clambered to escape. The humans were being slaughtered, but there were many, many of them and soon the roads were choked with the dead as well as the living. The Pokemon were slowed.

 ************************************************************************************************************

"Sabrina! The traitors are attacking!" yelled a man, stumbling though the Gym to the arena. Sabrina looked up.

"The traitors," he gasped. "They- they broke a hole in some of the buildings. They're swarming though the streets. The alarms didn’t go off. We're sending all the trainers we can contact, but it isn't enough and they are getting there one by one. You've got to get all your trainers together-"

He broke off and sank to the ground. Sabrina's eyes dimmed back to normal.

 ***************************************************************************************************************

Fighters may rely more on brute force then any sort of subtlety, and they may routinely take a few more direct hits to the head then is healthy, but they aren't total idiots. As the Pokemon pushed forward and more and more people learned what was going on, someone ultimately figured out while running for their life that it might be a good idea to try to get to the trainers of the Fighting gym. Once that happened, the fighters would join in. Few people were stupid enough to ignore danger when it was just explained to them.

Unfortunately, the Fighting gym was levelled in the most literal sense of the word. The place had been actually flattened into a pancake. Needless to say, everyone was dead.

Other brave souls tried to find Sabrina, but only a few of the weakest Psychic trainers, ones without even rudimentary abilities of their own, remained. They had already joined the fight, and were being slaughtered like the rest. Fighting Pokemon were the ones best able to fight while chipped, with little to no side effects. Psychic Pokemon were perhaps the most severely disadvantaged. The Pokemon reacted slowly and used weak attacks, not even aiming properly.

"I guess Ice was right," said Star, flaming a large group of humans.

"Yeah," agreed Wildfire, digging her claws into the wall and tearing it off with no more effort then the lid of a can, revealing a bunch of cowering trainers. "Maybe next time we should just smile and nod. Let other people try to get to the bottom of it."

Several people ran toward the two Charizard. They opened fire.

"SHIT! Since when are Strike Trainers in Saffron? I thought they had all gathered in Fuchsia after the last water Pokemon guerrilla attack!" yelped Wildfire leaping into the air and flying on top of a nearby building.

"I guess people have finally figured out they can't rely on Pokemon for everything. These guys are probably just good citizens trying to do their duty. Can't have that."

Wildfire nodded before flying up high to avoid being shot and using Thunder. The trigger-happy nuisances below fried. Laughing, the two flew on.

 *************************************************************************************************************

"I don't care who I have to kill to do it, you will fix this!" snarled Domino. The man before her cowered.

"We don't even have an actual sample of the gas," said the scientist, almost succeeding in keeping his voice from trembling. "By the time we got there, only some of the residue was left. We'll need an exact sample to figure out what it does."

"One week. Sell your soul for all I care. But find out what the hell is going wrong. Once those chips stop functioning, I can't take control of the Pokemon. I want you to find out what's wrong, and fix it. Do you understand?"

"Yes," managed the man.

 ************************************************************************************************************

After the initial rush, the number of humans thinned and the Pokemon moved unhampered though the roads once more. Once that happened, they raced though the streets, ripping though any obstacles placed in their way, living or not. Without the help of either Gym and the chipped Pokemon turning on their masters, Saffron never stood a chance.

Within an hour, the place was burning. Unlike the smaller cities, the place was not mostly destroyed before the flames raged out of control. The Pokemon withdrew, surrounding the city and letting the people choose which death they wanted. After about another hour, a Psychic Pokemon verified there was no human still alive in the city. They'd won.

 ************************************************************************************************************

Off in a little corner of the hospital where other Pokemon wouldn't go, Eon twitched in her sleep. Like last time, the majority of the Pokemon had no idea anything had happened. The other generals aimed to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Eon stands in a small meadow. It is beautiful, filled with hundreds of flowers. The sun's rays fall softly on the plants. It seems almost like it is impossible for anything bad to happen there.

In front of her stands a very young Eevee.

"<Eevee,>" says Eon.

The Eevee looks at her in confusion.

~ Eevee ~ she tries again.

"Yes?" asks the Eevee. She is young, too young to have learned to be suspicious of strange Pokemon, but still, there is something that makes her nervous.

Eon is certain that there is a way. She just has to find it. She can't explain why, that much is clear. And it doesn't matter, because she can't prove it and so the Eevee won't believe her. But if she doesn't make the Eevee leave with her now, she won't be able to do anything.

~ Eevee ~ says Eon. ~ You have to come with me. ~

"Why?" asks the Eevee, now suspicious.

~ Your trainer is coming soon. You have to leave. ~

"No! He told me to wait for him and not to leave here."

~ Eevee, if you don't come with me he'll- ~

A young boy runs onto the field. "Hey Eevee, who's your friend?"

"<It's not my friend!>" says the Eevee indignantly. "<And I don't know what it is.>"

Eon jumps forward to try to talk to the boy but the black gold-veined flowers block her and she tumbles to the ground. The vines writhe over her Espeon body. She tries to get back on her feet.

The boy sends out a Parasect. It uses leach life and Eon is defeated. He didn't have a Parasect.

Eon tries to move, but she is stuck fast to the ground. Time races by and the boy and the Eevee grow older. Then it regains normal speed. She tries to scream but she can't. She can't do anything, just watch.

"Guess what Eevee? Today is my tenth birthday! Do you know what that means?" asks the boy.

"<I'm going to evolve!>" yells the Eevee happily. "<I'm going to be the strongest ever!>"

And suddenly Eon is back at the lab.

Jerking awake, Eon took a quick look around. She was somewhere in the hospital. There was no sign of the black Persian who had attacked. The Eeveelution, after verifying that nothing was about to attack, teleported away.

 *************************************************************************************************************

An Onix, Geodude, Golbat and Vulpix stood before Mewtwo.

"Where is he?" asked the Geodude. "Tell me!"

~ I don't know, ~ repeated Mewtwo for what felt like the billionth time. The rock Pokemon were taking a long time for the effects of the chips to fully wear off. Mewtwo had feared brain damage but so far the Pokemon seemed to be steadily improving.

Ignoring the Geodude, the Golbat said: "How do we know you're telling the truth? I didn't hear anything about this. How do we know you didn't just steal us from our trainer?"

~ Your memory loss should be proof enough. ~

"Bullshit! You're psychic, you could have done something to us! How do we know this isn't just Eon's way of getting recruits?"

~ And the condition Geodude and Vulpix were in? ~

"You could've done that too! Maybe you're the one who fried Onix and Geodude's brains!"

~ Your argument is foolish. ~

"Yeah? Prove me wrong!"

~ That's the point. I can't. Chipped Pokemon do not have any memory of the time they were chipped. However, if I was lying, wouldn't you think I'd make it look far more convincing than this? ~

"Do you know where our trainer is?" asked the Vulpix.

~ I'm afraid I don't. Lash tells me you were sent to Cerulean, a city we control. We assume your trainer was going there when he realized what the chips did, and was intercepted. But your trainer may be in any city. It's a good bet he was sent to Fuchsia, though. They have the best prisons. ~

"Where is he? Where is Brock?" asked the Onix. Mewtwo sighed. At least the rock snake had managed to use its trainer's name this time. Maybe it would wear off soon.

*************************************************************************************************************

Ice was…somewhere, or perhaps nowhere. It was dark, of course. She was not hindered by light or weakened by the absence of shadow, but she simply preferred darkness. As she could go anywhere, there was no reason not to be in a place that fit her preference.

There was not a warning. Nightress had been trained extensively for one purpose. Assassination. She was to attack without any warning, and kill on the first strike. The black catlike creature had her eyes closed to prevent the slightest gleam that could betray her. And she did not ooze from the shadows slowly to get her bearing, but jumped out from the shadows to where she sensed the other to be. Nightress flew through the air silently.

Ice vanished the instant before the dark Persian would have dug her claws into the Elemental's back. As soon as the creature passed through where she was, she reappeared. Nightress landed gracefully on the ground, turning smoothly and jumping again. Her first instinct had been to vanish back into shadow without even touching the ground but with the intuition of a creature that lived life dancing at the edge of death, Nightress knew Ice would simply follow if provoked.

But again, Ice vanished, still not displaying any worry or surprise. Nightress did not even consider following the former rocket into shadow. The third time Nightress leapt, Ice raised her hand calmly and effortlessly formed the shadows into a thousand vines, grabbing the dark Pokemon in mid-leap.

"An assassination attempt?" asked Ice, her voice slightly mocking. She did not look around at the other shadows, as Nightress had seen people do before, trying to see if there were any more. "I'm flattered. I've been trying not to get involved as much as possible, yet Domino still feels the need to kill me?" She looked at the Pokemon critically. "Still, sending you? This is a level of incompetence I wouldn't have thought even Domino could ever achieve. She should know better then to pit a virtually untrained, inexperienced, low-level Pokemon against me. And right after you failed to kill Eon, too." Ice sighed, seemingly disappointed by Team Rocket's utter ineptness. "Don't they know that an assassin is hard to assassinate?"

"<Master ordered me to kill you,>" snarled Nightress in answer, the words barely understandable. The Pokemon struggled to break away from the shadows that held her. The shadows which were, ironically, the only things that could really hold a dark Pokemon.

"Yes. And you've failed miserably. Again, I might add. Eon doesn't have the constitution to survive a serious attack, although she has plenty of power. Much like dark evolutions. One well-aimed attack should have been able to take her out, especially considering Eon is nearly defenceless against dark-types. It isn't like she's hard to kill, yet you land two blows and don't even manage to seriously injure her. She's already awake, for that matter. Pathetic. I could have taken Eon out even before the Change and escaped unharmed and unnoticed, while you get hurt even worse then Eon and cause a huge scene. Domino doesn't tolerate losing Pokemon, you know. What will your master think when she finds out you're failed twice?"

"<I will kill you,>" said Nightress with confidence.

Ice locked eyes with the new Pokemon. "No, you won't," she said with even more surety. "I am far stronger, more experienced and you don't have the advantage of surprise like you would normally."

"<You may stop me from killing you,>" said Nightress haltingly, the words even less decipherable then before, sounding harsh and guttural. It was odd that she was able to speak at all. Pokemon born and raised without much interaction with others had a tendency to lose most or all of their speaking ability, like Fenris. "<But you are not the only one Master desires dead.>"

"I don't want Wildfire dead," said Ice matter-of-factly. "For that matter, I don't want to you attacking anyone here. If you try, I can and will stop you."

"<You couldn't before,>" she hissed.

"Like I said, you don’t have the advantage of surprise. I looked for you after Eon was found, and it was pathetically easy to pinpoint your location. You can't disappear from me. I'm not psychic and you aren't hidden to me. In or out of shadow, I am stronger, faster and more experienced. The slim chance that, with the entire camp to watch over, you might get lucky vanishes if I have Apocalypse, Slice, Eclipse and Omen paying attention to this. I have no qualms about killing you if you cause any more trouble, and believe me, it would be very, very easy."

The shadows holding Nightress dissolved and she fell to the floor. Snarling, she lunged for Ice. Unsurprised, Ice effortlessly conjured a shadow wall in front of the feline, who smacked painfully into it. With a last yowl, Nightress vanished, acknowledging angrily that she could not do anything against the strange not-human. 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: NOWHERE NEAR THE END

This is the decaying wreck of Silph Co. The top two storeys and right side of the building have simply ceased to exist. Broken glass litters the ground below and the smell of death skulks in the air. Corpses, both human and Pokemon, are strewn about the place. Some of the humans have been viciously torn to pieces, blood and entrails decorating the walls.

All around it, Saffron lies in ruins. The towers have fallen and the fires have been left to burn the remains. This is now the grave of two million people, and a thousand Pokemon. It depends on who you talk to which figure is the more tragic.

Sabrina looks at it and nods in approval. “So you’ve won Kanto then, Eon?”

Eon nods, still shaky from her recent injury. “Yes. Already we have word of the surviving cities being evacuated. We just have to wait two more days, and we have this entire island to ourselves.”

“The enemy has left its prisons full, I notice. Obviously they don’t want to waste needed transport on them. Even the military has left. A large victory.”

“Yes. And it doesn’t stop here. And what of you?”

“I’m staying in Kanto. I’m going to Lavender, to continue my practises.”

“Ah, Lavender…” Eon mused. “The one place the humans remain in.”

“Does this bother you?”

“Yes, frankly, but that area is sacred ground. The natives of the town are no threat to Pokemon and never have been, but the refugees in it are another story. We’ll leave it though, whatever some of my generals say.”

“Problems in the ranks?”

“Nothing I can’t handle. Off to Lavender, then."

"Yes. Good day."

*************************************************************************************************************

“YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!”

“We are VERY serious,” said Shrub, President of Johto. “Kanto has fallen, we’ve obviously lost it, so after everyone has evacuated, we nuke it. Wipe the enemy out.”

Blarr, Prime Minister of Kanto, tried to make a counterargument, but ultimately agreed with him.

“Where can we get a nuclear weapon though?” asked the President of North Orange. “Our region has never been a nuclear power.”

“Ah, but we know nations which are. The rest of the world is focused on these Pokemon terrorists, and they don’t want the violence spreading. America has lent us several nuclear missiles to use; we wouldn’t be able to get a bomber in there, but we do have the ability to shoot missiles. They'd fire them themselves, but they don't want a retaliatory strike by Eon.”

“And what about the revolutionaries in Johto and Orange?”

“We still have a military. We are buying weapons from Team Rocket. We can handle the remainders. We’ll launch the missiles as soon as the last refugees leave.”

“And what if they’re detected?”

“They won’t be. We have an agent in their ranks and they don’t know it.”



***************************************************************************************************************

“Ash, what are you DOING?!”

He ignored Misty and continued loading his gun.

“Ash, talk to me! The last plane leaves soon, we have to-“

“I’m not running,” he whispered.

“Wha-?”

“I. Am. Not. Running. I’m going to find that fucking traitor Gary, and I will blow his fucking head open. And then, I’m going to Eon…” His voice shook and nearly broke into a sob.

“Y-You can’t be serious, you’ll be ki-“

“I’m going, all right?! Leave, just leave. Get yourself to somewhere safe. I don’t want you dead.”

“Ash, please don’t do this…”

He walked out the door.

*************************************************************************************************************

The cities were deserted now. They were a museum of humanity, its follies and achievements. And then they were levelled, to become home to the rightful inheritors of Kanto.

“So the war’s over, right?” said Gary. “No more fighting?”

"Nope," said Bellsprout. "We still got Orange and Johto to free. We ain’t never gonna stop fighting until we’ve done that.”

Jeanette nodded. “Still, we’ve pretty much ensured our victory. We’ve won. Nothing left to do but rest…”

*************************************************************************************************************

“Let me make this perfectly clear. We are Team Rocket. We do NOT let entire countries fall into our enemies hands.”

“B-But ma’am,” said the flustered scientist, “we have no choice! The chips have been destroyed by their serum, we can’t get into Kanto without being killed, all we can do is sell arms and pray for-“

“I don’t pray. I ACT. Now, Nightress failed-“

“And we subsequently exterminated it. We’ll do better next time.”

“Good. And give me all the files we have on Ice. She’s a threat, and I want to be prepared for her.”

************************************************************************************************************

They’d been searching the deserted Fuchsia for days. He HAD to be here somewhere, if Mewtwo was to be believed. No, the humans hadn’t had him executed before they left or something, had they?

And then they found him.

“<BROCK!>”

The four Pokemon crowded round him, and all was right.

TO BE CONTINUED

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