A New World - A New Game

by V-Oblivion

Past Move 3

Part 3/3 of a prologue of Evo's work.

The morning was surprisingly cold on the tropical island while a red sun raised on the horizon. Yet no one had time to pay any attention to it, as their blood pumped relentlessly inside their hearts.

So far, the infiltration went without a single problem. Every time the soldiers found a PLA member making guard along the way was a time they witnessed the recruit’s team taking care of it in the blink of an eye.

The more impressing thing being they never saw said team.

A few minutes before.

“Are you crazy!?” Shouted Sarge as silently as possible, just outside the complex, “you want us to go through there?”

The route proposed was the emergency exits, an assortment of tight hallways and staircases with barely enough room to move, not to mention of very easy access from the inside, if they got caught in there, they would be outnumbered fast.

The soldiers weren’t too excited with the idea either.

“It is the best way of action,” calmly replied the recruit with his cold tone.

“For you maybe!” Shouted again Sarge as low as possible, “but we won’t be able to move properly in there, let alone defend ourselves!”

“I told you this was a bad idea sir!” Added another soldier, “he wants to use us as a meat shield.”

The rest of the troops nodded in agreement.

The recruit, in return, let out a tired sigh.

“The moment they spot us will be the moment they will move the VIP out, leaving me no time to act, let alone finding him again,” he explained. “We can’t risk to be found, but don’t worry, the PLA will be dealt with.”

“And how will we be able to take care of them exactly?” Asked Sarge, just as irritated as his men.

“We won’t.” The recruit calmly replied while adjusting the rifle on his shoulder.

At first, the platoon didn’t like the idea, but as soon as the third guard fall, they thought the plan could work. Every time a PLA was found, a projectile meet its head with no more noise than glass being pierced.

The soldiers then proceeded to hide the body as swift as possible and then continue with their way.

This was the faster route around the facility without getting inside where the PLA had most of their numbers.

This would take them directly to the intended floor, however they would still have to make it through Arceus knows how many guards once inside.

Some of the soldiers had expressed this very doubt as they reached their floor.

“How are we supposed to get through all those hostiles sir?” Asked Ramirez who was almost completely healed thanks to Audino’s care.

They were waiting for the final post to be taken out, an Aggron and a Ambipom.

Meanwhile, the troopers stood by and waited, discussing what to do next.

“For now, let’s deal with this,” replied the sergeant, “Then we worry about him.”

Truth be told, he wasn’t too sure about this either, but the kid had brought them so far, they have no other choice but to trust him. But he wasn’t going to blindly trust him just yet.

“Reporting,” come a voice over the recruit’s radio, “he can’t make the shot in time, that he needs to aim carefully to take down the other Steel-type, but needs the Normal-type distracted. Over.”

The recruit cursed on the low and Sarge turned to his men and women, “any suggestions?”

The team came up with a few, mainly charge in guns blazing and make their way in. However that didn’t seem to be appropriate for the situation. If they aimed at the Aggron, the Ambipom would most likely flee, sounding the alarm and getting them all caught.

If they aimed at the Long Tail Pokemon instead, the Aggron would swiftly take care of them.

Time continued to run as they were discussing, a solution needed to be found and fast.

“Wait, what about Doc’?” Said Ramirez, pointing at the Hearing Pokemon holding him.

The mentioned didn’t like the idea, neither the part where everyone seemed to be looking at her.

After a few seconds of arguing, she was pushed toward the hallway. Being a Pokemon, the guards didn’t attack on sight, but neither were they fooled. The quick Normal-type approached her right away while the Steel-type keep his guard beside the emergency exit.

“Come on…” said the sergeant on the low, rifle at hand and ready to burst in to help their medic if the sniper was unable to take the shot.

As the Ambipom seemed to be interrogating the Audino in a rather ‘intimate’ way, the Aggron diverted his sight with a hint of disgust and then noticed something in the window, a slick figure at the hill behind the building. As he tried to discern what it was, squirting his eyes in an attempt to focus better, a small green shine came from said figure, with the sound of glass being pierced and a sudden jerk of the head, the Agron moved no more.

The slight noise was enough to cause the other guard to look back at his comrade, to him it looked like he was staring at the window. Driven by curiosity the Ambipom looked out as well where he found a slick figure on the distance and a green flash.

Yet the Long Tail Pokemon jumped just in time for his face to avoid the projectile, although it still made impact in one of his legs. The PLA member screeched in pain as he tumbled into the ground.

Quickly, a couple of soldiers had the Pokemon restrained as they struggled to keep his mouth shut.

The humans were discussing what to do with the Pokemon meanwhile the Audino moved closer and treat the injury. Enemy or not, she had sworn to heal those in need. She started by giving the Ambipom a warm smile.

This seemed to relax the Pokemon. For a moment, there was calm between both factions.

Then the sound of a silenced gunshot finished it.

The Audino’s eyes were in shock as a few warms drops of blood dripped from her face.

“I don't know what else to expect from you,” said Sarge with a disregarding tone while the recruit walked over the Aggron and released three other shots into his bleeding eye.

“We can’t have the luxury of any of them giving the alarm,” calmly replied the recruit, “let alone take a hostage.”

As soon as he had said that, a pink body tackled the human to the ground and then proceeded to Double Slap him again and again.

Being a medic, the Audino’s limit to blood was large. Yet that didn’t meant she had to endure such senseless bloodshed.

She screamed things no one could comprehend yet at the same time everyone in the platoon could understand what she was saying. A single look on her sad and angry eyes was enough to know it.

However, it wasn’t as the recruit was simply going to be on the receiving end for long.

He grabbed one of her chubby arms and with a quick maneuver pined the Hearing Pokemon into the ground as he reached for his knife. A rifle nozzle near his head stop him.

“Let. Her. Go.” Slowly but firmly said Sarge.

With a sound the soldiers could only determinate as a growl, the recruit reluctantly obliged.

“Another one of those stunts of yours and you will have a new breathing hole, understood?” Commanded the sergeant while still aiming at the young man’s head, “understood!?”

“Understood…” drily replied the recruit.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence until the sergeant talked again.

“Take care of the bodies,” he commanded while making sure that Audino hadn’t been harmed.

“There is no need,” the recruit cut in after have waved some motion to the hill, “we need to focus on getting in and look for the VIP A.S.A.P.” He then connected a small computer into the building’s mainframe, quickly disabling its alarms.

“What about not been found out?” Inquired other soldier.

“There are too many soldiers inside to continue with stealth.”

“And how are we supposed to get by those ‘too many’ without cover?” Asked yet another soldier.

Ther recruit simply took out a smile device from his clothes and explained, ”with a diversion,” then pressed the trigger.

Voira was holding her most radiant smile, a sight which would make anymon fall for her on the spot if it wasn’t for the part that most PLA members knew that if she smiles and you are not the commander, you are about to go through a world of pain.

She was at the verge of bliss as she knew how close her work was to fruition, all she needed where a few ‘pushes’ here and there for the mind of Rayquaza to be ‘free.’ The thought alone of properly serving her commander was enough to make her give the warmest of smiles while playing with the great dragon’s mind.

She had gone one step forward this time, having removed the blast doors and confronting the Sky High Pokemon directly, just as her commander had the day before. She, however, kept a slightly safer distance from herself, her son and his still free claw.

Rayquaza haven’t tried to snatch her so far though. Not that she wasn’t giving him any reason, but because the little voice continued to stop him.

‘She only wants to help you’ it said.

The legendary roared in response to both intromissions in his head.

“Why do you keep this useless lie to roth your mind?” Questioned the Gardevoir with her soothing yet cold voice, “don’t you see I am doing this for the good of all Pokemon-kind?”

“I can hardly call brainwashing something needed for the ‘greater’ good,” Rayquaza roared back, “but rather for the good of your sick commander!” And then let out a shout out of pain.

‘Is it really brainwash?’ The insistent voice inside the Legendary retorted, ‘or re-education.’

"Don’t you dare to disgrace him!” Voira ordered, “you have no idea of what he has been through, what all of us have been through because of those humans.”

‘You know that is truth.’

“You think…” slowly but strongly replied Rayquaza while ignoring the voice the best he could, “you think you are the only ones who have suffered? I have seen far more of what they are capable of, but that is no excuse to have a life full of hatred!”

“Then if you were truly honest with yourself, you would have acknowledged how dangerous humans are long ago. How many more of our comrades’ lives need to end for you to notice it?”

‘You have seen humanity repeat their terrible actions again and again,’ added the voice, ‘why do you continue to play blind and let them continue their terrible actions?’

“Are you so sure?” Inquired the Sky High Pokemon with sarcasm to both voices, “because right now I am been tortured by none other than a ‘comrade’ in the name of a madmon’s twisted crusade.”

Voira remained silent while her son, Gard, looked at the legendary with challenging eyes.

“I see you have been influenced far too much…” the Gardevoir slowly said with her gentle voice, “I have no option but to be less subtle with you.” As she said these words, she raised her arms, both aimed towards the Legendary’s head.

The latter showing a considerable amount of nervousness as he knew the Psychic-type had been restraining herself up until now. There was no way he could stand her on full force, especially since she had carefully undermined his resistances.

‘You know this is for the best,’ said the voice.

The moment she walked into his head, it was over. He would become nothing more than a puppet.

“Please rejoice,” Voira said with her soft, merciless voice, “as you soon will be free of the lies of this world had imposed on you and rejoin the noble quest of your brother!”

Then she expanded her mental powers to her limit, mercilessly removing any mental barrier the great Dragon could have left. Not that they were able to give much of a fight in Rayquaza’s current state. The Legendary could feel the grip of her mind taking over his own, determinately moving toward the part that made him who he was.

At every moment of this event, the Sky High Pokemon screamed in agony and despair as his mind was brutally torn apart.

Gard looked at the event without fear, in fact, the young Kirlia seemed to enjoy the whole ordeal, as if he were presenting a great composer performing its Magnum Opus. In any moment, the climax will arrive and he was eagerly awaiting for it.

And then a deafening scream came.

However, it wasn’t for Rayquaza, who looked limp all of the sudden, but from Voira herself.

As her mind expanded in order to carry on her job, the Embrace Pokemon had suddenly felt the pain, the confusion and the desperation of countless members of the PLA.

“Those wretched abominations…!” She painfully said with a tone filled with hatred. “Gard, go with the Commander,” she ordered, “he will keep you safe.”

“B-but mother?” Inquired her son with understanding confusion, “what about your work here? What is going on?”

“Some filthy creatures think they can outsmart us dear,” she coldly yet elegantly said, “but worry not, mama will show them how wrong they are.”

And so they left in such hurry that they forgot to close the blast door.

Commander Viper considered himself a resolute Pokemon, the chosen one by Arceus couldn’t be any other way. His path was covered in blood, but what was the point of worrying about the blood of creatures not worthy to be called equals, to take one down was like cutting some grass.

Humans were nothing but a plague, a plague only he was able to eradicate, anyone daring to oppose him would feel the edge of his tail, human or not.

Before his balcony was the sum of all of his hard work. A whole island under his control, a land his rightful fighters could call their own, and soon would become much more larger.

The world would know freedom under his command.

He looked at how properly they had taken care of humans and their creations, humans were a plague, but even he had to admit their ingenuity was interesting once in a while. Weapons where a coward invention of them, but they sure showed promise, specially the goldifier prototype they had used to invite their honorable guest.

Not to mention that humans themselves worked perfectly as meat shields too.

“I may keep a few smart ones for proper use,” the Seviper thought out loud, “ a pet or two would be nice.”

He chuckled at his own joke while continuing to look down at his domain.

The whole island was completely under their control and hosted a healthy number of warriors at his disposal, most of them already using the facility and waiting for the human’s invasion.

He knew they would eventually come for his brother, and he was eagerly waiting for them.

The main building they were currently occupying had rooms after rooms filled with labs and machinery, technology still in development. Yet it lacked the space for troops to rest.

Luckily for them, the building right next to them was destined to shelter over thousands of humans.

It was the perfect place to garrison their forces, not to mention it was a perfect place to set an ambush for those soon to come plagues.

It was an inspiring image for the commander, the sight of his land, his servants, his spoils, his domain, His.

He was so immersed on this thoughts, than it took him a moment to realize the sudden cloud of dirt coming out of the building right before his tower, the barracks. In a matter of seconds, the building imploded, replacing the structure with rubble and dust.

With a single set of explosive charges, the building collapsed on its foundation, crushing all who was inside.

Without a moment of doubt, the commander dashed out of his own room, barking orders to everyone he crossed paths with.

“To the courtyard!” He demanded, “those filthy creatures had attacked our comrades!” He said to himself as he dashed outside, quickly beginning the rescuing of his troops.

The sight was dantesque, ruble covered everything and what wasn’t covered showed body after body mauled by the debris. Eventually, though, the more resilient members of the PLA began to surface by their own, Rock-types and Steel-types being the more abundant. Still, the number of losses was large.

About thirty minutes into the rescue operations, Viper made a mental comment.

‘Voira, how many minds can you still feel?’ He asked, yet there was no response, “Voira?”

He then noticed it, she wasn’t around. Neither physically nor mentally.

Her most loyal member wasn’t answering his call.

At that moment, the commander’s tail rattled with anger as he realized what had transpired.

“Sir…” a random soldier said, “you wouldn’t think she is a trai-gh!”

The insolent Rhyperior was beheaded in the spot.

There was no way Voira will betray him like that, she must had a good reason to be away, and they just happen to have a good 450 pounds of a reason inside their base.

With a roar, the large Fang Snake Pokemon dashed back in, hopping he wasn’t too late.

Chaos reigned over the PLA ranks, suddenly everymon was running around in confusion and no one knew what to do, should they attack, should they retreat, should they look for their commander? But the commander was already out, so what should they do?

Gard found all of this frightening, not that he was scared of the humans, he knew his mother will take care of them, but because the PLA was in such disarray.

“And to make things worse, I can’t find the commander,” the young Kirlia added as he moved around the chaos with his friend beside.

“He should have taken things more properly,” said friend retorted with a dismissive tone, “made sure his soldiers followed instead of bark orders and wait for the best!”

“You know that getting attacked in the morning is not exactly how everyone starts their day, right?” Gard said back.

“That is why he is such a failure of a commander!” The Seviper, Sev, replied with a shout, “One must expect the unexpected. If I was in charge, things would have gone different!”

“And how exactly would that have been?” Gard asked with a bemused tone.

Despite the hardships his father had make him go through, Sev was quite optimistic and determined, things Gard openly respected in his friend, despite his short amount of logic.

“I would have reunited everyone so they could bask in my glory and then deliver orders so perfect and precise that every kind of problem could be avoided!”

“As in?” Gard asked again.

“.. don’t bother with the details! My words alone would have been enough to bring them into order.” Sev ‘calmly’ replied, and in a desperate attempt of changing the topic, asked, “Can I know why are we running from the conflict?”

“Mother told me to go be with the commander, that he would keep us safe,” he explained, for the hundredth time, he did fill him in on everything so far. From the sudden attack to the barracks to the humans invading. It was just Sev been Sev at this point.

A strong hissing could be heard from the young Poison-type.

“Nonsense!” He shouted, again, “if there is combat to make then there is no one better to partake in it than me. There is no need for me to be protected by no one. NO ONE!”

“Specially not your father?” Gard teased.

“Specially.” Sev confirmed while changing his course.

“Wait, Sev! Where are you going? The exit is the other way!” The Psychic-type exclaimed as he followed his friend.

“To glory!” Sev replied.

The soldiers could felt the whole tower tremble as the building next to them collapsed.

“What did you just do?” Asked the sergeant as he followed the recruit around the hallways.

“Created a distraction,” he calmly replied.

“But, how- when?” Added with confusion Ramirez on the rear, now feeling good as new thanks to their medic.

“It’s classified,” replied the young one, “it’s good to have people inside.”

The soldiers remembered the silhouettes from back on the hills and understood.

But then Sarge connected a couple of dots.

“Wait, wasn’t the inside team…?” He couldn’t finished his question though, as a few remaining PLA appeared before them.

Both sides were confused at this sudden standoff, all but one human who jumped over one of the Pokemon and stabbed him with his bayonet and the weight of his body.

The recruit then pulled the handgun out and opened fire on the next guard. The PLA finally acknowledged what was happening once he missed the third one and were about to counter back when a spray of bullets fall on them.

The rest of the platoon had finally reacted as well.

“Let’s go!” The recruit proclaimed, having left subtlety out of the equation, “we are almost there.”

The soldiers proceeded to run around the complex, finally reaching an observation room filled with large, wall-like, windows.

From it they could noticed that the heart of the building was like an actual heart, separated from the rest of it.

Said heart was a giant gray box held by a collection of pillars and cables of all kinds. As if the box was some sort of experiment Silph.co was studing before the invation, the walls made out of glass could probably have been to give a proper sight of whatever the box was meant for.

The only thing connecting the heart with the rest of the building was a single, long hallway, also made of the same transparent material.

“So they have him there?” Asked Sarge as he keep his rifle close.

“Yes,” replied the recruit as he picked up his scoped rifle and aimed at the end of the hallway, quickly noticing two guards looking after a large emerald creature being held inside of the box, “the door is open,” he said while swiftly dispatching the guards.

“Do you think is a trap?” questioned a soldier.

The probability was high, even the recruit seemed uncertain.

But then, they had something else to worry about, they were slowly but surely moving their guns towards their heads without their consent.

‘You despicable creatures!’ A cold voice said inside everyone’s heads, ‘did you really believed you could just walk here and take our beloved guest away?’

Beside the understandably amount of despair of the soldiers aiming at their own skulls, the voice echoing inside their heads was enough for some of them to wet themselves by fear.

It was a cold voice, yes, but it was also alluring.

The voice of a seasoned killer, a killer who liked her job and an angry one at that.

With a flash of light, the owner of the voice, as well the one threatening the soldiers with their own guns, appeared before them. They couldn’t believe such a beautiful looking creature was the owner of the voice on their heads, let alone been the one threatening their lives.

Voira give the soldiers a warm smile, which alone gave everyone the creeps. Suddenly, she made a quick motion and a Protect wall appeared right before a Shadow Ball could hit her.

‘You silly pet,’ she said while picking the Audino up and then throwing her toward a wall, hard.

The soldiers had a moment to regain control over their bodies, but they were too slow to put their guns to use. In less than three seconds, they were aiming at themselves once more.

‘Your treachery ends here!’ Voira commanded, looking at the soldiers with disgust, ‘but I presume I must reward you for slithering your way through here…’

As she said this, everyone’s arms began to twist in very uncomfortable ways.

Sarge could feel clearly how his unla was about to dislocate inside his arm, and then…

“Funny you call our infiltration slithering,” said the recruit with a voice in pain, “considering you follow a bigger slither than us!”

The arms were released from their twisting, however they continued to aim at their owners.

‘What did you just said…?’ The Gardevoir asked with her melodic, assassin voice, ‘did you disrespected our great commander?’

The still restrained human didn’t seemed to mind the murderous gaze he was receiving.

“I never said that,” he continued his mocking, “I only said it was funny, you were the one who called us slithering creatures while knowing well what your leader does to move around.”

‘Don’t you dare to twist my words against the commander!’ Voira roared inside everyone’s heads while slamming the recruit against one of the window-like walls.

Definitely not a pleasant sensation for anyone.

Despite all of this though, the recruit keep his mocking smile.

“Kid, for the love of Arceus, shut up!” The sergeant commanded, but said boy didn’t listen.

“What, did I hit a nerve?” He continued, “I thought you were very loyal to this Viper guy.”

Voira was a mon with a very sad, cruel and dark past, a past which had taught her to compose herself in all situations. To keep herself above any kind of provocations or bravado anyone may throw on her way, after all she only existed to serve the one and only warrior chosen by Arceus.

She trained herself to know when was the moment to inflict pain and keep those foolish enough to cross paths with her silent.

Yet right now, wasn’t one of those moments.

‘You insolent!’ Slam, ‘disrespectful!’ Slam, ‘filthy!’ Slam.

With each word, the recruit was mentally thrown into the same wall, each time with more force. By the third hit, the wall was full of cracks.

‘Despicable! Atrocious! Wicked! Heretic! MONSTER!’

Voira could take any insult, she wasn’t meant for greatness. But she will be a human if she ever let anyone insult her beloved leader, the one she has given her everything for.

‘You think your cheap words can make me even consider any sort of disregard for my glorious commander?’ Voira asked while keeping the pressure of her psychic hold on the human grew against the wall. ‘You should feel honored to even be compared with him! You feeble creatures that can do nothing without your savage guns and grotesque machines, tell me weakling: what are you before us but brutes?’

The recruit looked disorientated, anyone would be after so many slams, yet he gave the crazy Gardevoir a cocky smile and replied.

“I am sorry, but I don’t care about your religion, thank you very much.”

If something as abstract as self restrain could be heard when broken, then the whole platoon could have heard Voira’s crashing like two Rampardos slamming their heads together.

She, however, just gave the human an emotionless look and then said.

‘Very well then.’

Thereupon throwing the recruit through the glass, which give no resistance against her psychic force.

With a relieved sigh and a satisfied expression, Voria turned back to the rest of her play things, she needed to leave one alive for interrogation. That may take some time though, but it was alright, the actions of their foolish comrade had most likely leave them petrified with fear.

Perfect for her to handle.

‘Now that is been dealt with,’ she calmly said, ‘how about you filthy beings share some information? Who knows, if you act nice I may end your lives gently.’

Her gentle, soothing voice only made the soldiers shiver more.

She prepared her psychic powers to break their minds when someone else talked, much to her annoyance.

“And you call us brutes?” Asked Ramirez with a sour tone.

With less than a thought, Voira had the human’s body twisting in a painful way, yet she did not used enough strength to kill him. She had been mocked by a human already, she wouldn’t let another one do the same scot-free.

‘You are quite a feisty bunch,’ she said rather despicably, ‘do you want to say anything interesting? Or do you only plan to make me lose even more of my time?’

Between grunts and moans of pain, Ramirez replied the best he could, “you said we are brute creatures, yet here we are been tortured, left defenseless by you alone.”

Voira replied with little care, ‘If I were to give any of you creatures a single moment of freedom, all of you would unleash those nasty killing machines on me.’

“You say it as if we were some sort of evil,” said the tortured between waves of pain, “but right now the one looking forward for our suffering is none of us.”

‘Save your pitiful words for yourself fiend,’ Voira replied drilly, ‘I once lost my everything to your filth: my happiness, my mate and even my sanity to a single human. Why would I ever show any kind of care for the likes of you?’

“So you are saying that the actions of one individual mark the whole species?” the soldier retorted within grunts, “That is like saying that we have the right to go and erase your kind by what you are doing right now!”

‘The commander will deal with all of you before you can even dare to!’ Voira shouted back while increasing the pressure on the young adult.

“So you have missed the point of fighting then…” continued Ramirez despite his pain, much for his troops, and even Voira’s perplexion. “you are only spilling blood for your own spite, and have forgotten an important thing about violence…”

‘And what could that possibly be, human?’ Voira asked with venomous words.

“People, and Pokemon, may be violent in nature… but we fight not for glory, nor honor and definitely not for vengeance…” the pain the human was going through made talk a very hard task, but he had to. His own pride wouldn’t allow him to go out without, at least, express his thoughts. “violence is a way for us to protect others… you are only killing for the pleasure of it….”

Then, the pain on his body subdued, ‘I see...’ Voira said again with her calm tone while Ramirez’s body returned to a more comfortable pose, ‘I see now,’ yet she didn’t release him, ‘ it is pointless to speak with you filth.”

And so she prepared to dismember each of their minds in the look for answers. She was looking forward to it, the look of their eyes while she did that was something no other kind of joy could replace, save of course her private times with Viper.

But it was in that moment that she noticed something on said terrified eyes.

They wasn’t looking at her.

In all of her time dealing with the plague known as humans, Voira had always made sure to be the only thing they can possible focus on, yet right now their eyes weren’t aimed at her, but rather behind her.

Voira was a seasoned warrior, and was able to feel the killer instinct coming right after her.

With a twirl, she evaded the blade going her way, yet she wasn’t able to fully avoid the bullet which come right after, grasping her right under her eye.

‘... you!’ She said while slowly checking her face to look at her injury.

“Sorry, I have bad aim.” Calmly said the recruit.

Some minutes back.

The young human was cursing in every language he knew inside his head.

Of all the PLA members they could run into Voira was the least one he wanted to see, besides Viper himself. She was very well known for her power but even more for her viciousness, they will be nothing but vegetables once she was done with them, if they were lucky.

He then saw the Gardevoir blocking the super effective attack with ease, so much for a chance to counter her. But it was then that he noticed that his body was free. This only lasted a few seconds, but that was all he needed to plan ahead.

If she could only focus on one thing at once, then they may have a chance.

It was here that he began to antagonise their antagonist. He had to thank his team for delivering him such a good light armor, it clearly did its job of keeping him alive despite the amount of abuse it was going through.

And to do things better, it looked like everyone had their bodies free as she focused on him, yet they were all so petrified by Voira’s madness that none had notice it. They could easily shot her on the back without her noticing and yet they were all frozen in their spot.

This plan wasn’t going to work, he had to improvise more.

With another blow against her blind believes, the young human was throw off the window.

He could see her turning around as he was falling, giving him a frame to pull out the grappling gun, aim to the hallway, which looked more like a bridge from that angle, and pull the trigger.

The hook reach said bridge, he then grabbed the wire with all his might. Once the momentum of the fall was violently stopped, and his arm almost dislodged, the recruit began to climb back up.

He hoped that Voira hadn’t gone and killed everyone else on the spot, he still needed them for protection if he was going to face her.

Once up, he noticed how she was done facing someone else.

Without a moment of hesitation, he jumped toward her, gun in hand, and aimed at her back.

She avoided it easily.

Alone he would lose, he needed back up.

Thus he quickly pointed at the man right behind her, Ramirez, and aimed at his arm. A grasp will be enough for him to realize he was free, he then opened fire, grasping Voira and yet missing his mark.

Ramirez shouted in pain as his clothes were stained with blood. The bullet had stopped on his bone.

It was here the recruit said, “sorry, I have bad aim,” and then rolled to the side to avoid a Psychic blast.

‘You filthy son of a…!’ The madmon halted herself as she moved out the way of a barrage of bullets from Ramirez, who had now full control of his body, save his arm which was resting on the side.

The scene was all everyone needed to react.

Their bodies were free, and now they could fight back.

They quickly took their guns and aimed at Voira, who in return was about to regain control over them if it wasn’t for the recruit holding her from behind while shouting.

“She can only focus on one action for a time.” He was then thrown away, Voira’s title as a PLA general wasn’t for show. The recruit continued, “don’t give her time to concentrate!”

The hallway became a chaotic ‘dance floor’ as everyone moved in a very dissincroniced fashion. The soldiers aimed at Voira yet constantly held their fire as they ended aiming at a comrade.

Voira on her end was constantly twirling around and intentionally using the humans for shielding, making her dress-skin flow at each move.

Finally, the recruit was the only one fighting after her directly with guns, knifes or body combat, the kid reserved nothing against her. He didn’t seemed to mind hitting some soldiers
while on it, albeit he ‘aimed’ at the vests.

“This isn’t going anywhere!” Shouted one of the soldiers as she re-loaded her rifle and a bullet grasped her hand.

“Keep it up,” shouted Sarge back, “she can’t dance for ever.”

Voira will never admit it, never, but the human was right. She wasn’t a physical fighter, and even when she was good at it, she lacked the stamina needed for it. In a minute or two, her movements will no longer be as fluid.

Then, one of the soldiers screamed in pain, only to get stunned right after. Something had rendered him useless.

Shortly after another soldier did the same, and another, and another.

The soldiers noticed this trend and aimed at their feet where they found a young Seviper slithering around them with a poisonous smile.

With his cover blown, the young Pokemon jumped to the center of the ‘stage’ and proclaimed.

‘It was I who shot you down from the shadows you feeble humans!’ He also stroke an heroic pose, a formidable feat considering he had no limbs. ‘Now tremble in fea-ugh!’

However, his act had not lasted long as a certain recruit kicked him from the back with little regard.

“Reinforcements?” He wondered while continuing to keep Voira distracted.

‘You!’ The Seviper exclaimed while standing up as properly as his young and tangled body could, ‘you dare to interrupt my triumphant entrance? How dare-hey watch it!’ He was once again cut short, literally, by a blade thrown his way. ‘What the hell is wrong with you!?’

The soldiers reacted too and continued with their dance while a couple of them aimed at the newcomer, only for a Psychic blast to throw them away.

‘They can’t hear you Sev,’ explained Gard as he too take part into the fight, ‘mother is too distracted to perform her translation.’

‘But how can I induce fear on them if I can not be heard?’ Sev, exclaimed, ‘that is outrageous!’

‘No!’ Voira exclaimed, ‘this is war, our holy war. The war you will lead one day! Gard, why are you here? You are supposed to be with the commander, not risking your lives here.’

‘Nonsense!’ Sev shouted back as he also lunged after another soldier, his small and thin body making it easy for him to slither around as he injected various doses of venom. ‘I am the great soon to be commander Sev! I don’t run from fights,’ he jumped towards another foe, ‘I run towards them!’

‘Don’t worry mother,’ Gard added while blasting soldiers left and right, ‘we will give you time to take control back,’ yet he wasn’t strong enough to take them down with one hit.

Voira was a cold and merciless Pokemon, no one on the PLA doubted that, but even she had her motherly side and right now it was filled with pride for her own son, albeit she was also worried sick for his safety.

She now have an extra reason to fight, which made her all so more dangerous. The recruit was still distracting her, but every now and then, she lunged smaller versions of her attacks, which were capable of breaking a few bones and even a neck.

Everyone in the world knows that there is nothing more dangerous than a mother protecting her child.

As the fight continued, Voira noticed how a couple of humans had rejoined the fight, the same humans Sev had supposedly taken care of.

‘Sev! What did you poison the humans with?’ She asked with a tired tone.

‘I Paralyze them!’ The glorious fighter gloriously replied.

‘You fool!’ Voira replied, ‘they have a healer Pokemon with them, she must be healing this filth as we speak!’

And just as she said those wounded were taken out and delivered to the Audino, who quickly fix them the best she could so they could return to the fray.

‘You have to poison them to take them out for good!’ Voira ordered to the young Seviper.

‘Ah, but that is what I am doing!’ Sev pointed out. ‘My poison is the strongest and thus they will shake in fear and run, lest they feel it best them once again.’

Voira had to give her all to avoid cursing out loud the one Pokemon who arrived first to help her.

‘Not with a Paralyzing poison, you have to poison them for real,’ she then looked directly at the young one and emphasized, ‘you have to kill them!’

‘But how can they tell others of my greatness if they are all dead?’ Sev tilted his head in confusion. ‘They should be driven away like the cowards they are. Let our enemies see the fear in their eyes and they will stay in their holes.’

‘You imbecile!’ Voira finally snapped, ‘if you aren’t going to fight like your father’ with a mental wave took over the young Poison-type’s mind, ‘I will make you!’

She then ordered him to lunge over one of the soldiers and dug his fangs deep in his neck, piercing the carotid in the process.

Sev’s mind was realized as Voira had to avoid another attack from the recruit, leaving the young Seviper to witness first hand what ‘he’ had done.

Ramirez was drowning on his own blood while the rest of his body convulsed repeatedly, his foggy eyes showing nothing but pain and terror while his life was slowly been drained and eroded at the same time.

Sev just stared at the soldier for a bit. A part of him couldn’t believe what had just happened. It wasn’t his own actions. He didn’t want to bite his throat. He shook his head. ‘No, no. That didn’t happen. You’re not dying. Stop dying and get up, human. Stop it. You’re not dying. I order it as future commander.’

Gard sighed. He looked to the soldier and his friend. He loved his mother, but this was his friend. His only friend in this accursed place. He balled his hands into fists as his anger grew. His friend was his own person. His friend was hurt. He could sense it. No, he wouldn’t let him hurt. He was stupid. He was insane, but Sev was his friend. ‘He isn’t dying. You couldn’t kill someone if you tried.’

‘I so could,’ Sev responded. ‘The dead just can’t see how great of a commander I will be….’ He babbled out, not sure of what he was saying anymore, Sev then grabbed a piece of cloth. Gard grabbed it from him and put it to the wound. ‘I could do it, he’ll survive somehow.’

The talk was cut down as one of the soldiers grabbed Ramirez and drag him all the way towards their medic, whose mere eyes described how dark the situation was.

Meanwhile, the fight had continued. The rest of the humans focused their fire on the Gardevoir as before, but now they no longer had the backup of being heal.

Voira was looking for that.

Now, their medic was torned between healing any other human or leaving the soldier to die. But knowing the love the pink pets felt for humans, it was obvious she will give her all to save it.

‘Sev, there is no need to pity these creatures,’ she said while blasting a soldier’s leg into an unnatural shape. ‘They are just pests, you know what to do now, make your father proud!’

If the takeover of his mind wasn’t bad enough, the added insult to injury with the naming of his father was the last thing Sev needed to hear.

‘How dare you?’ He exclaimed back, ‘I am the one who will rule the world! How dare you to order ME what to do? How dare you?’

Voira simply gave the Seviper a calm gaze as she replied.

‘Because you are not going to rule anything,’ and again her eyes shone blue, ‘that is the great commander’s destiny.’

Despite knowing well it was in vain, Sev struggled as his mind was again taken over by Voira’s mental waves.

‘You are not worthy of taking your father’s place,’ Voira continued while avoiding the recruit kicking her legs, only to blast him on the chest. ‘So at least feel honored to fight in his name!’

And so, she threw the young Sev against the still disoriented recruit. She knew that without him, the fight was over.

The young human raised an arm to defend himself, but that wasn’t enough, Sev dug his fangs deep into his arm, barely avoiding the protection from the sword breakers covering it.

Voira laughed at the scene, ‘you see now? Inferior creatures, all of your fighting for what?’

The recruit struggled to remove the Seviper from him with no gain, his jaw was surprisingly strong for a Pokemon so young.

‘What can you possibly hope to gain, when a single child is enough to end your best warrior with ease,’ she slowly raised a hand, as if she were raising an execution axe, ‘now Sev, kill him!’

However, the recruit had not died, he was still struggling with Sev, who in turn was struggling with Voira’s command.

‘I told you to kill him!’ She shouted again while increasing her mental dominance.

‘And I told you...’ Sev replied, ‘that no one orders me, but me!’

Not knowing what the Pokemon were saying, and not waiting to, the recruit changed his tactic, he stopped pushing Sev away.

‘You will do as I say!’ Voira continued to order Sev, who was losing quickly, ‘as you are nothing but a spare part!’

She finally take over Sev once more and make the young Pokemon release the worst toxin his body was able to produce.

He was too late.

The recruit had pushed him further in, with a roar of pain and determination, the human made the Seviper’s fangs pierce his arm entirely, just as they began to drip an amber liquid.

Not waiting for anything else, the recruit then give the Seviper a mighty punch in the side of the head, braking both fangs and knocking Sev unconscious.

Her mother taking over his friend was a thing which only made Gard angry at best, a mere human punching said friend unconscious was on the other hand something worth of his rage.

‘Why you monster!’ The other young Pokemon shouted while Teleporting right in front of the recruit, delivering a Psychic blast as soon as he landed.

‘You’ Teleport, ‘let,’ Teleport, ‘Sev’ Teleport, ‘alone!’

At each word, the Kirlia teleported to a new position and blasted the human.

It was during this that Voira noticed the human’s gaze, he was looking around vigorously, however, that wasn’t the look of someone looking for a way out, for rather a way ‘in.’

‘Look out!’ She shouted, but it was too late.

Gard changed position one more time, only for the human to have throw a kick right into his face. He was left unconscious on the spot.

The rest of the soldiers felt at ease for a mere second, they had the advantage once more, but it was a very ephemeral second. The next thing they felt was the killer instinct emanating from Voira who was, understandably, mad at the human who just dared to hurt her greatest treasure.

‘You filthy…!?’ Yet she stopped as well as she noticed the human wasn’t over.

He had grabbed Gard and while looking directly at her eyes, threw him over the same hole she had thrown him a moment ago.

She dashed to the broken window and sent her mental arms to catch her son, slowly delivering him to the ground with no more damage than the pain he would feel on the cheek the next morning.

She would have to make sure to treat that properly.

Then, she felt some pain on her side, she didn’t care much, her attention was somewhere else.

‘Don’t worry dear, I will be done here in a moment,’ she calmly and lovingly said. ‘To use a child as bait to stab me in the back, you are nothing but a monster aren’t you?’ She calmly asked while turning around.

What she faced was a very tired and sweaty recruit. No matter how fast he pulled that trick of his with Sev, some poison had managed to enter his system, not to mention the blood pouring from his arm, it was a matter of time for him to fall.

She smiled at her soon to be victory, ‘did you truly believed a simple knife would be enough to take me… down?’ She, however, had to admit she was at the verge of collapse as well, her sight and strength was wavering.

“I don’t know,” replied the human while holding his still bleeding arm, only to ask, “how strong is his poison?”

It was here than Voira noticed three things, one: he was pointing at Sev, two: the human was missing one of his fangs, and three: her tiredness had suddenly became dizziness.

‘You… filthy...’ Lacking strength in her legs, Voira seek support on one of the walls and take out the ‘blade’ she was stabbed with, only to find a fang dripping with the poison she had forced Sev to produce.

Her mind was blurry, even thinking was a very painful task, but she had to think, she forced herself to think, she couldn’t end like this, her son needed her, she still had work to do, she couldn’t leave her commander like this.

She could cleanse her body with Heal Bell, however her current strength was too faint for it. She needed to distract the human while she gathered enough energy, then she will teleport Gard and herself out of harm's way.

The commander will understand if Sev became a casualty, he was weak after all.

‘Do you...’ Voira began with such a wavering voice it frightened her for a moment, ‘do you really think this… is all? You can take me down, but then a thousand more will come for you,’ she could felt half the energy needed, just a little more, ‘the commander will definitely cleanse the world of your pathetic fil-!’

~Pht~

Then she felt weird, her energy was no longer gathering, in fact, she was feeling weaker and weaker by the second.

Voira looked down and find a small hole on her chest, pouring blood like a small waterfall, her legs finally giving out and she slide down the wall.

“I … told you already…” Said the human with a silenced gun aimed at her, “not interested...” He then squeezed the trigger another three times, for good measure.

The recruit turned away and reunited with the rest of the platoon, leaving Voira to stain the floor.

The recruit fall to his knees, the poison hindering his movements, as well as his tiredness and small blood loss.

He struggled to take the other fang out and then proceeded to stab himself on the heart with a scaringly long syringe. He stood still for a moment.

The soldiers wonder if he had killed himself with the syringe, until he removed said thing from his chest and then treated his arm with some foam.

“I would be praising your guts, kid…” said the sergeant with a tired tone as he, and his troops take a moment to breath, “but I can’t believe I am saying this… she was right.”

The recruit didn’t seemed to mind, he at least had the modesty to look at the one talking to him.

“You just used a kid as bait,” Sarge finished, “how much cold can you be?”

“We are still alive,” replied the young man as if where nothing.

“Most of us…” sourly pointed Sarge out while looking at the few casualties they had.

“She was a monster sir,” replied the recruit as he finished stopping the bleeding and began to feel better now that the toxins on his body were neutralized. “The only thing I could do to defeat her was to be a bigger one.”

Another minute went by without anyone saying a thing.

Then.

“We need to hurry,” commanded the sergeant, “we have a legend to save.”

Everyone stood up without a word, but they were stopped.

“We need to secure a LZ in the rooftop” said the recruit as he hold the long range radio. “Or we won’t make it out at all.”

“What now?” Asked Ramirez with a hint of a voice from the portable stretcher he was been transported with.

“The army can’t wait any more.” the kid explained, “they are sending an all out assault.”

“But isn’t that a good thing?” Asked one of the soldiers.

“They think we failed,” continued the recruit, “they aren’t a rescuing party, they are coming to destroy everything.”

“What!?” Asked Sarge with confusion, “Why? Can’t you tell them we are about to finish the mission?”

“That is why we need to separate,” further explained the recruit, “to have control over the roof is the signal to call the mission a success.”

The troops seemed confused, but they were given no time to thought much.

“Everyone head to the roof,” commanded their Sergeant, “the kid and I will release the VIP.”

The recruit’s farawell was giving his sniper rifle to the troop’s scout.

“Sir?” Asked a soldier in confusion as their superior began to walk away with the recruit on tow.

“There may be other PLA on the way there, you need the fight power to get up there, we on the other hand only need to press a button or two, now move, that is an order!”

The troops then give Sarge what they feared was a final salute and proceeded with his order.

“Hey Doc!” Sarge shouted to their medic, “Keep them safe, ok?”

The Audino looked back, and even when she looked exhausted as well, she give him a reassuring gaze in return.

“Let’s go,” proclaimed Sarge as he and the recruit run down the hallway.

Viper had been close to flight on his way back, but even at such speed, it took him far too long to reach the room where his dear brother was being held.

‘It is all right, we are the strongest beings in the world, there is no way some pathetic humans can take us down that easily.’

Viper’s mental monologue was quickly countered by the bodies scattered across the way.

The sight only make him increase his pace.

‘Weaklings!’ He cursed, ‘to be surprised by those inferior creatures, but it's all okay, Voira predicted them, she must had deal with them by now.’

He reached the last turn.

‘That’s right, I will come over this corner and I find her playing with those infernal… creatures...’

For the first time since Viper started his holy crusade against humankind, the glorious warrior of Arceus felt the icy sensation of cold sweat dripping down his serpentine back.

Before him was the remnants of battle, walls filled with holes, a couple of human left on the floor, his son unconscious, nothing to care about, what make him froze was the one beside his son.

“Voira!” He exclaimed as he dashed towards her.

By the trail left by her blood, she had drag herself to be besides Sev.

“M-my commander… i-is that you…?” she weakly replied, not being able to see anymore.

“It is okay, I am here,” Viper reassured her while desperately trying to stop the bleeding on her chest in vain. “Don’t worry, I will take you to a healer right now!”

He was about to coil himself around her and take out, but was stopped by Voira’s hand, who looked for his face, she missed.

He had to put himself on her hand’s way for her to find him.

“It is… is fu-futile…” she replied with a warm smile, “I have… little strength le-left… I should be gone b-by now…” despite knowing well about her upcoming demise, Voira was genuinely happy at the moment.

Not only was she able to be beside her beloved Viper at the end, but she was able to serve him one last time, albeit not as they originally plan it.

“That… which will gi-give you immortality… can still…b-e done…” she explained, her voice lowering in tone at each word she give.

“But then you…!” Viper exclaimed once he understood.

“I… allready a-am…” she weakly replied.

Her body then emitted a faint glow, her last job was fulfilled.

“It is...do...do-ne…” She whispered.

“Where are the responsable of this?” He asked with a cold tone.

She wasn’t able to answer, she was no longer able to hear him.

“Viper…?” She asked, “have I… have I served you well?”

The great commander restrained his emotions, he couldn’t give his most trusted member an improper farewell.

“You have been my most trusted, most loyal and most loved friend,” he took a deep breath and added, “you have served me well until the very end Voira.”

Despite no longer been able to hear or see, she could feel his answer, she knew what Viper had said, and that was all she needed to know.

“... I… a-m… gla…”

And so, Voira’s body fell limp, no more blood pour from her wounds.

The mad Gardevoir left the world with a smile filled with joy in a face which expressed no remorse at all.

With utmost care, Viper closed his subordinate’s eyes and let her hands rest on her chest.

He keep a respectful moment of silence for his fallen comrade and a few words to her honor.

Yet he never shed a tear. That would have been the last thing Voira would have wanted, even when it pained him enormously.

“My lord!” Said a voice behind him.

Viper didn’t needed to turn around to know Zard was there.

The general was all beaten up, both physically and mentally.

“How did this…?” He asked in shock.

As much as he disliked Voira, he never wished her ill.

“Take a good look Zard!” Viper commanded, “this is what humans are good for,” with a quick move, he threw Sev to the Charizard, “how much blood do they need to be happy?”

Zard caught the young one with fright at first, he thought he was gone too, and sighed in relief once he could hear him breath.

“He is still alive!” He proclaimed with joy.

Viper didn’t seemed to care.

“I… I will take him to a healer now...!” And so he left in hurry once he had felt the dark aura his commander was emanating. He couldn’t stop to wonder if this war was worth of so much blood.

“First Helen,” Viper then said to himself, “now Voira,” he looked towards the end of the hallway, “how many more of my beloved ones do you need to be satisfied!?”

Suddenly, all the windows around him were blasted by the Dark Pulse his rage delivered.

“Answer me!” He shouted as he leap forward, “HUMANS!”

Sarge and the recruit didn’t take long to reach the end of the hallway, there they found the open blast doors and the precious host they held.

“Rayquaza…” the sergeant said in awe as he looked at the majestic Pokemon, despite his tired look. “Don’t worry sir,” he said to the great Dragon with a reassuring tone. “We will take you out in no time.”

Rayquaza looked confused but at the same time, he looked relieved.

“Now, how are we supposed to let him go?” Sarge asked to no one, yet he received an answer by Rayquaza himself as he pointed at a control panel beside the wall.

“Alright,” Sarge exclaimed.

He began to look at the consol desperately, they didn’t have much time, but then.

~ka-cha~

He felt a muzzle pointed at his skull.

“I am sorry sir,” said the recruit, “I can’t let you do that.”

There was a moment of silence, not even Rayquaza dared to make a noise.

“Kid… what are you doing?” the sergeant asked while slowly raising his hands.

“My job sir,” replied the recruit while taking a step back with his gun aimed at his superior.

“I thought rescuing the VIP was our job?” Inquired Sarge as he slowly turn around.

“No sir,” the young man explained, “my job is to secure him.”

As he said this, the recruit took something out of his clothes, a Pokeball. Yet this one was different, it was white and blue with two purple ovals atop of it with a capital M in the middle. It was the only known Pokeball capable of one shot capturing any kind of Pokemon.

“A Master Ball,” acknowledged Sarge with sour words, “you really came prepared for everything.”

The mercenary didn’t said anything back, he merely looked at the hostage and took aim.

“The other team,” Sarge insisted, “there was no such thing right? You said they were captured and killed, where they just an alibi?”

The recruit didn’t looked back.

“There was an infiltration team sent by your forces,” yet he replied, “we set them up to be found. That way the PLA wouldn’t suspect of my team, who was already inside.”

“So you are working for someone else then,” concluded Sarge, “how much will you be paid for a legend?”

“The same as the other team,” calmly replied the kid, “they were supposed to capture him as well.”

“What?”

“The moment the PLA captured Rayquaza was something everyone with some power in the world couldn’t let pass. It was the perfect moment for anyone to secure him for themselves.”

“You mean that…”

“I mean that no one planned this as a rescue mission, not even your country.” The mercenary turned a moment to look at the sergeant, “this was a capture mission all along.”

And so he turned back to his prey, only to get out of the way of an incoming emerald claw.

Rayquaza let out a deafening roar.

The lord of the ozone sphere could hear the noise of battle at the distance, apparently something had gone off in Voira’s plans.

He, however, didn’t have much time to think over it as a certain voice continued to resound on his head.

‘You should be helping her,’ the voice said.

“Why will I ever dare to help the one mon who has done nothing but torture me day and night?” Rayquaza retorted.

‘They are your kind,’ the voice insisted, ‘you should be fighting alongside them.’

“They are not my kind!” The dragon lord replied with anger, “they are murderers and tyrants, don’t you dare to compare me with them!”

Suddenly the gunfight went silent.

‘You could have saved them some time,’ continued the voice.

Rayquaza didn’t reply, he was still looking at the end of the hallway, he could see little, but still could make out a bunch of figures standing.

“Humans,” he said.

‘You won’t think…?’

“She is,” Rayquaza smiled at the idea, “she is finally gone.”

‘Why are you feeling happy?’

“A creature filled with such hate is no good for the world.”

‘Was she that wrong?’

“You know she was.”

‘Weren’t humans the ones who created her and everyone here to begin with?’

“And yet are humans who are coming for us…” he couldn’t stop to look upon his own words with fright, “us?”

‘Will they truly?’ The voice said with a hint of a similar voice.

Rayquaza thought about the voice, how up until now he had not acknowledged its existence and thought about how the voice had grown over his head so much, that he ignored the moment the humans had finally reached him. There were two of them, one old and one young.

He looked up to the newcomers, slightly confused at first, but soon find out what was going on. One of the humans seemed very worried about him, that made him smile.

Said human also seemed confused about how to release him.

With his free claw, Rayquaza pointed at the console everyone used when dealing with him.

The old human seemed to understand and quickly moved towards it.

But he was then stopped by the younger one, who aimed a gun at him.

‘What… what is going on?’ Rayquaza thought, ‘why are they turning against each other?’

‘Can’t you see it?’ The voice pointed out, ‘they aren’t here to free you.’

At this point the human with the gun took out one of the most accursed inventions mankind had ever come with, a Master Ball.

‘See?’ The voice continued while the doubt, fear and rage on the legendary grew, ‘humans can’t be trusted.’

The dragon was at a loss of thoughts, after all this time humans were never interested in helping him but rather to have him as another of their weapons. Or at the very least as an exotic trophy.

As his mind got lost at the harsh reality before him, the voice began to speak, both on his mind and his mouth.

‘Humans...’

“Humans…”

‘Are...’

“Are…”

‘The enemy!’

Rayquaza raised his free claw and without a doubt threw it at the humans while shouting.

“THE ENEMY!”

The mercenary tried to throw the Master Ball as soon as Rayquaza had missed him, the great dragon looked too tired to fight repeatedly, yet as he took aim, the sergeant tackled him. He lost the capturing device on the fall, yet he hadn't lost his gun.

Sarge had to roll over to avoid the bullets shot his way and distance himself from his now aggressor, hopping his bad aim will give him some advantage. He promptly raised back up, taking his rifle from his shoulder and take aim, only to be hit in the face by the silenced gun the recruit was carrying.

He had bad aim with guns, yet he had no problem throwing them.

The mercenary quickly leaped over the older man and grabbed the rifle from the nuzzle, pulled it and then hit its owner with its back. Next, he swung around and was about to club Sarge with his weapon, when another attack from Rayquaza fell before them.

The force of the blast alone sent both humans flying.

The mercenary stood up as quickly as he was thrown, meanwhile Sarge had a more regular and troublesome time getting back to his feet, once he did so he spotted the kid rushing toward the Master Ball.

He readied himself to throw it but was once again stopped by the sergeant, who opted for take a hold of his arm this time around.

“Why are you doing this?” The kid asked, “this is what your superiors wanted as well!”

“You don’t work for my superiors,” Sarge replied while continuing his struggle, “and even so, I don’t care, neither you, nor me, nor even my greedy superiors have the right to capture Rayquaza like this!”

As they discussed, the mentioned lord of the ozone sphere readied another strike.

“Why do you even care?” Asked again the mercenary, none of them having noticed the incoming attack, “you didn’t knew about him been alive to begin with!”

“I know now,” retorted Sarge, “and that is all I need to know, every life is important!”

And so the claw come down.

Yet no one was harmed.

Both humans were confused about why had Rayquaza suddenly miss them, but the kid wasn’t going to wonder for too long as he prepared to throw the ball, only for the sergeant to remove it from his hand.

“Will you please just cut this crap out?” He asked while snatching the device, it was surprisingly light.

The young human was about to continue with the fight as a roar stop them, Rayquaza seemed as angry as a moment ago, however he was no longer attacking them.

“Will you at least get him before he squashes us?” Proclaimed the mercenary.

The sergeant on his end, looked at the legendary more carefully, he was as majestic as before if only very weak as well. However what Sarge also noticed this time was Rayquaza’s eyes.

They were angry, no doubt there, but he was also showing how he was confused, tired, nervous and above all, scared. The mighty lord of all dragon Pokemon was scared.

“No,” calmly said the soldier as he approached the legendary, much to the perplexity of the kid. “We didn’t come here to hurt you,” he explained to Rayquaza, “okay, at least I didn’t come with those intentions.”

The mercenary only give him a tired look in return.

“I can’t exactly know what kind of torture you have been through,” Sarge continued, both talking and walking, “but I know it's been quite a rough one.” He reached a point where he was right before Rayquaza’s maw, a good chomp and he was gone. And still, he slowly raised one of his hands toward him while slowly but clearly putting the Master Ball away. “But you don’t have to worry, I am not here to take you from one hell to another,” softly, the human’s hand landed on the dragon’s face and said, “I am here to help you.”

After a moment of silence, which was only broken by the roars caught within Rayquaza’s throat, the great legendary relaxed his body and leaned over the human’s hand.

His anger had subdued.

This was a new chance the kid wasn’t going to let slip.

He slowly walked towards the sergeant, knife on the ready, when the great lord roared again.

The mercenary drew the knife up by instinct, but then noticed that he wasn’t been the target of aggression this time, at least not from Rayquaza’s.

Following his gaze, the kid turned around to see a Pokemon whose’ size shouldn’t be as large as he was, his muscles tensing beneath his black and green skin, his cold gaze looking at him with a mixture of hatred and disgust.

The worst possible scenario the kid had wished so hard to avoid had ended up happening.

‘Two humans...’ Viper said on his own language, much for said humans confusion and fright, ‘two mere humans were all it took to take out my stronger general?’

The humans, in return didn’t know what to do. They were both tired and didn’t have much ammunition left. Not to mention the fright they were in at the sight of the one Pokemon who not only to lead a whole Pokemon army, but also instigated a massacre with little effort.

Rayquaza on his end was conflicted, the voice was again arguing with him despite the akin moment he shared with one of the humans.

‘They are here to capture you!’ The voice insisted, ‘why should you care for them?’

‘One of them wants to save me,’ he restored, ‘one of them wants to help!’

“So… what now?” Asked Sarge with his hand atop his handgun, the rifle being too far for him to use it, thanks to a certain moron.

Said moron didn’t replied, all he could do was wait for the large Seviper to do the first move. To start the on the offencive was suicide in their current state, he thought fighting Viper at all was suicidal enough, but if they concentrate on countering him, they may have a chance.

With a deep hissing and a quick sweep coming from the commander, the fight started.

At first, Viper sweeped all across the floor the humans were in with just a portion of his body, the kid was able to jump high enough to avoid the strike while Sarge was slammed against the wall. The mercenary looked for something on his back, but he wasn’t able to use it as Viper’s next move was an aerial sweep, with nowhere to go, the young man was slammed against the other wall.

The kid opened his eyes just in time to see the bladed tail coming his way and rolled to avoid it, he did this for four times until he gained enough speed to stand back up, only for Viper to throw his fangs at him in an attempt to Crunch his head off.

The kid grabbed Viper by the fangs while he used one of his legs to keep his lower row of fangs at bay as he screamed in pain. As good as his gadgets were in comparison to the regular soldiers, his arm was still pierced in two points and his body was long over the exhaustion point, he wasn’t going to keep Viper’s mouth open without a good amount of pain.

Suddenly, the sound of an automatic rifle been loaded make both combatants turn to the side, Sarge aimed at Viper’s eyes. The commander replied by simply turning his head, using the mercenary in his mouth as a shield.

“Of all meatshields you could have used!” Shout the sergeant with a hint of glee as he squeezed the trigger.

The mercenary wasn’t much surprised, he would have done the same.

The bullets, however, didn’t hit him nor Viper, they hit the wall behind them, leaving the crystal filled with holes and cracks while a few bullets bounced off Viper’s scales.

Now the kid was surprised, despite having all the right to shoot him in the back, the sergeant had missed on purpose, he however, was far from thanking such act of kindness as that only gave Viper the chance to cut the rifle in two with his bladed tail.

He was aiming for the owner next when a sudden explosion hit his throat, forcing him to release his prey as he scoffed off the gas.

“I wish that was an actual granade,” said Sarge as he picked the kid up.

“I lost the phosphor one,” replied the young man with annoyance.

‘You -cough- insolent creature, do you -cough- really thought this will harm me on some way?’ with a massive Spit, the large Seviper threw out all of the substance lingering in his throat.

The commander then Coiled himself and lunged towards the humans, but was then stopped by the same claw he was grabbed with just the day before.

‘Brother!’ Viper inquired with confusion, ‘what is the meaning of this?’

Rayquaza was doing his best to crush the Seviper under his grip, yet the voice installed on his mind continued to hinder his effort.

‘He is your brother!’ It rushed to say, ‘you should be aiming at the humans! One shouldn’t hurt his family, what would Lord Arceus think of this?’

‘Shut up!’ The legendary demanded, ‘you are nothing but a whimper in my head!’

However, he was still unable to kill him.

‘Stop!’ The voice commanded back, ‘he is right and you know it! This is all human’s fault!’

The lord of the ozone sphere looked down at the humans, they were promptly aiming at the Seviper.

‘You are right...’ Rayquaza acknowledged as he lowered Viper, yet he didn’t let go of him. ‘So it’s up to them to clean their mess.’

And so he offered the commander to the soldiers to finish him off.

‘I won’t let you get him hurt!’ Commanded Voira’s voice inside Rayquaza’s head as she delivered a psychic punch to his psyche.

Even in death, she was still watching over her beloved.

The Sky High Pokemon roared in pain, unintentionally loosening his grip over Viper in the process.

Not wasting a moment, the commander bit Rayquaza on the wrist and twisted it until he let go of him. Once free, Viper slithered around Rayquaza’s arm and without hesitation delivered a Coiled powered Dragon Tail right into his ‘sibling’s’ face, sending him back into his refrigerated prison without conscious.

‘I will take care of you later, brother,’ he said while turning back at the humans.

As he did so he found the younger one of them having used his own coils to reach his face, a knife on the ready. Viper moved just in time to save his eye, as well to catch the insolent creature within his Bite.

The mercenary screamed in pain as the rest of Viper’s fangs dug inside his arm, luckily for him none of them were poisonous but they were still large enough to be considered large needles.

“Kid!” Sarge open fire with his handgun at the large Seviper, yet he missed once again.

Viper chuckled over his failure.

‘You insolent creature,’ he thought, ‘you lack the guts to make sacrifices when necessary!’

And so raised his tail, decided to cut the meddling human in just one swift strike.

In the last moment though, he felt the human in his jaws had embraced his neck with his legs.

‘Please,’ Viper joked, ‘don’t tell me you are trying to suffocate me with your puny strength?’

He found the whole ordeal quite ridiculous, yet fitting of such pathetic creatures.

It was these thoughts what make him miss the hand reaching for the second weapon at the mercenary’s disposal, let alone the moment he jammed the bayonet inside his eye.

The gun was empty though, so the kid was unable to finish the fight on the spot.

With a scream of pain and outrage, Viper let go of the human while trying to tend to his injured eye to no gain.

‘Damn you!’ Viper hissed as he looked at the humans with his remaining eye. ‘You dare to steal the light of one of my eyes, you inferior life form!’

Despite their sudden blow, the kid was no longer able to give a proper fight. All he had left was two more healing items, an antivenom and a health pack, and the pointer grenade.

‘I've had enough of your filth!’ Viper proclaimed, ‘perish, now!’

And so he began to rely all of his Frustration against mankind in one single, devastating, attack.

The sergeant looked over his gear as well, desperate to find something, anything, able to help them, then his hand hit a small and light object he hadn't remembered to have packed.

Viper was about to make his move when he felt something small hit him on the side, he was unable to see what was exactly because of his sudden blindness, but whatever it was, it wasn’t strong enough to even be considered as an attack.

‘A pebble?’ He once again joked, ‘you are more stupid than I thought, to even dare to think a single pebble is enough to stop the warrior chosen by Arceus himself!’

As he said this, Viper’s body began to shine brightly, but this wasn’t the light of his incoming attack, and definitely wasn’t the light of a holy warrior.

No.

It was something far more simple.

‘What… what is this…?’ Viper inquired as he finally noticed the light show he was giving as well.

The light of a Pokeball capturing a Pokemon.

‘No, NO!’ Viper shouted as he resisted the force sucking him, ‘I am a superior life form, a superior being, I AM SUPERIOR! There is no way I can be put into slavery by the likes of you…!’ However and despite the fight the commander was giving, the process didn’t stop, his body shone more and more, until the point it turned into pure light. ‘You bastards…!’

And so the commander was stuck inside the Master Ball.

The humans didn’t say a thing, they couldn't fully believe it.

It was finally over.

They lay on the ground for a moment, completely out of breath.

“I guess, that’s it for the PLA,” joked Sarge.

It was a given that, without the commander, the PLA will no longer have the moral support of ‘Arceus’ holy warrior,’ and thus the war will be meant to end.

The young man, however, didn’t seem to care.

“Good for peace,” he said almost annoyed, “good waste of a Master Ball though.”

“You still going to try that?” Inquired Sarge with a very tired tone, “I doubt you can carry him around now, let alone give him a proper fight. Let’s just release him and then… you hear that?”

The mercenary didn’t say anything, but his expression showed he heard it as well.

A small noise near them, it was a hint of it at first, but it was gradually becoming louder.

It was similar of a Rattata nibbling its way inside a wall as well as the sound of pressure been slowly released.

They looked around, expecting some sort of attack coming from the walls, yet nothing came.

“We are in the middle of a suspended hallway, they can’t be coming from the wall!” Sarge reasoned.

They a new sound came.

~Crack~

It wasn’t as low as the original sound, this one was loud.

Loud enough for them to look at where it came from.

The Master Ball.

The small capturing device was giving in.

The platoon had discovered that, besides a couple of PLA members here and there, there was mostly no opposition on their way back, but it still took them too long to reach the roof of the tall tower.

“Finally!” One of the soldiers shouted once the sun’s light hitting his face.

“Okay, everyone form a perimeter!” Ordered another soldier, it was her job to take over when their superior wasn’t around and so far, she had been okay.

The soldiers proceeded to barricade themselves on the roof, securing the heliport and blocking any other acces than the one they had used, they still had to wait for their comrades to arrive.

“What now ma’am?” Asked Ramirez with his now murmur of a voice, rifle firmly pointed at one door despite his current state.

“Now, we wait…” replied their provisional officer.

They had no other choice.

Then, an explosion. It was far from their position, but not far from the complex.

“Is that…?” One of the soldiers inquired while other took out the borrowed rifle to scout the distance.

“It’s the main force,” the scout replied.

The remaining troopers cheered at the news, they all thought they would be saved.

A group of armored vehicles appeared at the distance, all of they took aim and unleashed their ogives.

All of which made impact in the very building they were in.

“They are holding nothing back !” Shouted a soldier.

“No,” another pointed out, “those weren’t lose shots, they are aiming here!”

“What!?” Most of them inquired, “but we are still here!”

“We have to contact them!” Other soldier suggested.

Immediately, all pointer grenades were thrown at their feets, clouding the rooftop with orange smoke.

Another round make impact.

“Why aren’t they stopping!?” A soldier shouted.

“Because we failed…” the new leader said while remembering, “the kid said they have deemed our mission a failure, they aren’t going to let them keep Rayquaza…”

After a moment of silence, one of the soldiers understood what she meant, “they are going to level the building.”

A third round hit the building, the soldiers were left to choose to either flee and be found by the PLA or wait and plumble to the ground with the building once it give up to the army’s assault.

No matter the path, they had no chance of walking out of that building.

Sarge and the kid were unable to hear the blasts making the whole building treamble, they couldn’t care less about them, as right now, they were looking at the strongest Pokeball of all time being slowly destroyed from the inside.

In a crazy attempt to stop the inevitable, the sergeant grabbed the small device and fought to keep it closed with all of his strength, which wasn’t much at that point anyway.

“What are you doing?” Inquired the mercenary in disbelief, “that thing isn’t going to last long!”

There was no response.

The young man desperately looked around for a way to give them time to flee.

“The windows!” He shouted, “throw it through them, it will give us enough time to get out!”

“Don’t dream kid,” the sergeant replied with a chuckle, “we will be running through a single line from a madmon which greatly out power us, he will take not much more than a sprint to catch us.”

“Is better than having us served to him in a silver platter!” The kid replied back.

“That is why you should be the one running, I will distract him…” sarge said as the cracking on the Master Ball increased, a couple of actual fissures cracking on its surface.

The mercenary didn’t say a thing.

“Listen kid, your life is definitely something the world can live without,” Sarge explained, “but I will be damned to hell if I let anyone die without me doing something.”

The mercenary was still silent.

“Don’t think much over it, you will never understand it. You and I are too different.” He explained, then the Master Ball open, it was thanks to Sarge’s struggle that it went closed once more, yet its deterioration didn’t stop. “Now go!”

The military man looked around him, he was already alone in the hallway.

He chuckled.

Leaving the world as a martyr never crossed his mind, but somehow, he felt right.

The Master Ball was all cracks at this point, no longer being able to be functional.

With an explosion of light, the small device broke into millions of pieces, throwing the sergeant to the ground while the light within it morphed around and took shape.

A few instants later the light subdued and commander Viper was free.

‘Now, where were we?’

The inside of a Pokeball was something most Pokemon found relaxing, it was planned that way.

However, while everymon found different levels of fondness within the device, the great commander of the PLA found it anything but comfortable.

“How dare those creatures imprison me in this punny little cell!” He shouted. “Me, the chosen one by Arceus… to meet such a simple end?”

His anger began to banish.

There was no way he could break free.

His quest for justice and peace ended there in such ironically pathetic way.

“Justice…?” He inquired himself, “peace?”

His anger stopped its decrease.

“When did I ever wanted those things?” He continued to ask while his rage began to boil back.

“Justice and peace are things reserved for those worthy, for those willing to follow, humans on the other hand, what have they ever done but to defile this world our holy father gave us all and claiming all of its riches to themselves!”

He then remembered, he remembered all the things humans had done, how they had harmed his kind, how they experimented with him to the point of madness, how they removed his one love from his life and how they recently removed the closest thing he ever had to her once again, he thought all of this without noticing that the space surrounding him began to distort, something within was malfunctioning, braking.

“Humans do nothing but corrupt and kill and pollute and lie and crush and manipulate and abuse and disrespect and steal and deceive and maul and decimate and destroy and trick and infect and envy and feast and gloat and boast and discriminate and prey and multiply and spread and exist!”

The Pokeball was unable to hold the strength fueled by the immeasurable amount of negative emotions Viper hold against humanity.

“Humans exist, that is their worst sin!” He proclaimed to the nothingness. “And as Arceus’ chosen warrior I proclaim this!”

Cracks of light began to appear everywhere, yet Viper didn’t notice them.

“As long as I exist, all of you shall die! None of you deserve justice nor peace, humans…”

All which existed within the Pokeball was crumbling.

“Damn you all to hell!”

And so, all of Viper’s Frustration against mankind was unleashed in one single yet devastating wave of energy which pulverised the walls containing him.

He became light once more and roamed free of his prison.

A moment later, he opened his remaining eye and saw a familiar face.

He smiled.

‘Now, where were we?’

Viper felt quite calm at the moment, the amount of Frustration needed to brake the Master Ball was so large he no longer felt angry, that didn’t make him forget what had happened though.

‘Oh right,’ he calmly remembered, ‘I was about to cut down some grass,’ Viper looked at the sergeant with calm eye as he raised his bladed tail, ‘some filthy and annoying grass.’

Sarge jumped back as the blade descended to meet his torso, however, Viper had somehow managed to foresee his move and had simply aimed behind him.

He was still able to avoid a lethal wound yet the blade cut through his armored vest with ease and even lacerate the sternum and a couple of ribs, not to mention the good amount of poison he was administrated as well.

“Agh!” Sarge groaned in pain, unable to stand back up.

Viper appreciated his pain with glee.

‘You wouldn't have thought I would miss some grass would you?’ Viper calmly said while slowly moving closer to the human who in return tried to crawl away, ‘neither should you think that leaving this world would be easy.’

He then raised his tail once more.

‘Not after what you have done, I guess a limb at a time will be enough,’ he then took aim to properly dismember the soldier, ‘first a leg.’

And so, his tail swung down.

“Now go!”

Rayquaza could hear the screams in the hallway, yet he was too cold to go out and see for himself, neither was he able to silence the voice still pestering his head.

‘Why do you have to fight him?’ Voira’s remnant asked, ‘you, who are his brother!’

‘I thought you were a part of my subconscious all along...’ Rayquaza thought back and chuckled, ‘to think there was a way to actually brainwash a mind such as mine...’

The legendary was too tired to give a proper reply.

Voira’s voice on its side was still urging him to join their cause.

‘I guess that was my pride getting the best of me, thinking I could come and stop this massacre on my own...’

He could hear something snapping around him yet he was too tired to see what it was.

‘Lord Arceus, what are we supposed to be doing with this world?’ he inquired as the sound of sort of explosion come from the hallway, ‘what am I supposed to do, humans can do so much wrong, is it worth to keep them safe?’

Then he could feel, faintly, something crawling over his body.

Barely opening an eye, he noticed it was a human dressed in black, looking for something.

‘You see?’ Voira’s voice insisted, ‘this filthy creature still looks to imprison you!’

‘What should I be doing?’ Rayquaza asked himself.

Then he felt something pinching him on the side of the neck, as well as all of his energy returning.

“There,” the human said, “how about you return me the favor?”

Rayquaza looked down at the human, an empty syringe of Full Heal on his hand.

‘This is just a ruse!’ Voira’s voice insisted, ‘ he is only helping you for his own gain!’

Rayquaza rose up, his strength fully returned.

He quickly snatched the human and raised him, looking at him directly into the eyes.

As if understanding what the lord of the ozone sphere was trying to say, the human replied.

“I am not sorry for what I did,” he said coldly, “but right now, there is someone worth saving, squash me if you want, but save him on your way out.”

‘He isn’t worthy of you!’ Voira proclaimed.

‘You are right, he isn’t,’ Rayquaza said while floating out of his cold confinement, ‘your commander is.’

As they went out, Viper stood before the sergeant in the floor, ready to take one of his limbs off.

‘He is worthy,’ Rayquaza then threw the young human to the ground while roaring, ‘of my Outrage!’

And then Voira’s voice went silent.

The orange smoke had served the troopers nothing but troubles.

The army, their army, was still shooting at their location relentlessly yet numerous members of the PLA had their attention caught, they swarmed the rooftop in an effort to kill the invaders.

“Reloading!” Shouted a soldier as he used his last clip.

The ammunition was moments of been depleted.

Then, a shadow suddenly covered the sunlight above them.

A considerable number of flying Pokemon was charging towards them.

The number was too large for them to take down.

The building began to shake, a part of its side beginning to fall. The constant assault from the bombshells had started to weaken the building, which was still shaking violently.

For the soldiers, it was all lost.

They had no way out.

A Fearow was about to pierce one of them when suddenly a volley of bullets rain upon him and every member of the PLA on the air. The source of the bulletstorm was unseen by the soldiers, but it made quick work of the smaller Flying-types.

Then a couple of rockets appeared out of thin air and finished off the remaining bigger ones.

The soldiers were left in awe and shock, let alone confusion, at their sudden rescue, yet they were still been unable to locate the aircraft responsable of the sudden extension on their lives.

“Everyone,” a voice said from some unseen speaker, “leave your gear and hop on!”

The voice instructed, and before the soldiers could even ask ‘what’ a cargo door appeared in the middle of the air, a small Pawniard standing right in the middle and said.

“I said: come with me if you want to live.”

Viper was caught by Rayquaza just before he cut Sarge’s leg off, the large dragon lord then threw him through the wall and out of the hallway.

Despite his current state, the sergeant was able to have a reasonable amount of confusion regarding what had just happened.

Then, the mercenary arrived to his side and quickly examined his condition.

“Kid… what the hell are you still doing here?” He greeted him.

“Shut up!” He greeted back, “I don’t want to own you anything,” he took out a large syringe, “besides, I am not as heartless as you think!” And stabbed him in the chest.

The antivenom quickly spread over his body with a burning sensation.

Sarge grunted in pain from both the stabbing and the chemical flooding through him.

The kid then removed the syringe and proceeded to look at the wound on his chest, it was deep enough to have carved the bone, yet it had missed any important artery or vessel.

The mercenary then took out the foam he used on his arm before and sprayed it over his flesh, the sensation was similar of having a hot iron pressed against his skin.

“AGH!”

“This will stop the bleeding,” explained the kid, not caring for the obvious pain the other was going through. “Now we can go.”

“Wait, what about…?” He pointed at the battle happening beneath them.

Rayquaza was delivering any kind of hits imaginable with his dragonian body, yet Viper was able to avoid most of them and even deliver a few swings back.

“He can make it out,” the mercenary lied, he had no way to know how the battle would end, “but we won’t if we get distracted, the building will not stand the fight those two will have, and neither will we if we stay for long.”

He helped Sarge stand up, serving as a crutch as they slowly walked away from the mannheim.

“How are we going to make it out?” the sergeant asked.

Without replying, the kid take out his long range radio.

“We are done here!” He said to the radio.

A voice came back, “what about the soldiers on the top?”

The kid was about to say to forget them, but a tug on his side make him change his words.

“Load them, then come for us, we are at the middle floor.”

“Copy that,” we will see you at the west side, over.”

“I am guessing that wasn’t a commercial flight huh?”

The kid chuckled, “that is classified sir.”

And so they left both Pokemon fight at their leisure.

Viper could barely recognize his aggressor as he was launched away of his prey.

He was able to regain his balance and land properly though, thus he was also able to greet his ‘brother’ with another Dragon Tail.

Rayquaza received the hit head on, yet he wasn’t thrown away this time, he grabbed Viper’s tail and using the impulse he just acquired, throw Viper to the ground behind him.

“I must admit, brother,” Viper said, “I never expected you to be so resilient to my ideas.”

Rayquaza didn’t replied, his Outrage make him unable to, and simply launched himself towards the commander, aiming his claws at his head.

VIper dodged the claw effortlessly, he then coiled around the other one and coiled himself around the body of Rayquaza, rendering both arms and his head trapped between his coils.

“But don’t worry,” Viper proclaimed calmly while looking down at the legendary, “I will make sure to teach you the right path.”

He was grabbed by the neck by Rayquaza’s own tail, “I prefer to die than follow the path of a megalomaniac!” He replied, his Outrage having subdued and once more been able to think clearly.

He opened his mouth agape and a sea of flames flow out of his throat.

Viper had to release him or be roasted with the Flamethrower.

“You fail to grasp the true goal of my path brother,” Viper said as he landed at a safer distance, “you know history is written by the victors.”

“I do not care about your path or your goals!” Rayquaza shouted back as he threw more flames at him. “All I know is that I can’t let you exist in this world!”

“Then if you are not willing to be with me,” Viper said while slithering around the fire and shortening his distance with the great dragon, “you are against me.”

Viper Coiled right before Rayquaza and launched his Poison Fangs at him.

“And nothing stands in my way!”

He knew he was no match for Rayquaza head on, yet there was no rule saying he had to fight in such way. He was looking for a moment to Poison him, weakening him enough for him to take things back under his control.

His new lack of perception, however, made him miss Rayquaza’s neck, which in return tried to chop his head off with a Dragon Claw, yet he missed too as his Outrage left him disoriented.

Viper took the chance to Wrap around his ‘brother’ once again, careful to stay clear of his mouth and claws at all time.

“Why do you resist me brother?” Viper inquired from behind the legendary, “you know this war will not end here today, not even with my death.”

‘His legacy will live on!’ Voira’s ghost claimed, no longer silenced by the Outrage.

Rayquaza shook his head in an attempt to silence the voice in his head as well as looking for an answer to the madmon, he had to find an answer or else he would be not different to them imposing their will.

Yet, he knew it all along.

Viper, Voira, everyone in the PLA relied under such massacre because humans had driven to the breaking point.

But he couldn’t say yes to their drenched ideals.

“You are nothing but a phase,” Rayquaza said while slamming himself and Viper against the ground. “You are not the first lunatic looking to rule the world because of how sad your life was!”

“True,” replied Viper, still coiled at the dragon’s back, “I am just the most recent model in a long line of failures,” he acknowledged with confidence, “but is because those like me had appeared again and again in the past that I am right!”

Finally, Rayquaza was able to grab Viper by the tail and pull him off his back.

“How can that prove anything?” He exclaimed while throwing Viper away of him.

“That the world has not changed!” Viper proclaimed while landing with ease, “humankind have done nothing but repeat their mistakes,making war after war. The world has been threatened on multiple occasions because of them, because they have been left to roam the land as they please!”

Viper’s body began to secret an enormous amount of toxins which was sent flying towards the legendary.

“I will stop them on their tracks,” Viper continued to proclaim while Rayquaza dodged his Venoshock, “I will change history!”

‘He will be the one who brings all Pokemon to a land of love and peace, why can’t you understand that?’ Voira’s voice inquired.

“And what difference will you bring?” Asked Rayquaza back while hitting the floor like a Bulldozer in an attempt to ignore the voice in his head, “all I have seen you bring is massacre!”

“Blood is needed to nourish the world I will create!” Replied Viper matter-of-factly as he simply jumped to avoid the attack, “can’t you see it? I will bring an end to all violence!”

As he was descending, Viper’s tail was covered in darkness, with a quick slash, the commander striked his ‘brother’ with a Night Slash right across the chest.

Rayquaza was unable to avoid it, neither could he attack back as his current Confusion make him fall to the ground. Viper didn’t lose the chance to Wrap himself around him once more.

“I will give the world peace,” he said to Rayquaza to the face while strongly closing his mouth with his coils as well as shortening his supply of oxygen, “I will bring harmony to the land, just as our Great Father wanted!”

The legendary could feel his body going numb, his consciousness slowly leaving him.

It was in this moment that Rayquaza heard yet another voice in his head, it wasn’t Voira’s remnant, but something more ancient, more powerful; a memory.

‘My children, I know that if you wanted to, you could rule this world with ease. Your power makes you all unmatched. But that is precisely why I am asking you not to rule, but to guide; not to punish, but to scold; not to ignore, but to be patient.’

‘I know I ask you much, but this world is still an infant, an infant we all have to protect, and with care and love it will become a land of peace and love. For each and everyone of the creatures living on its surface.’

Rayquaza’s body Bulked Up, inspired by the task once left to him and his family long ago. He grabbed a side of Viper’s body and squeezed it, strongly, until the commander let go of him.

“You are wrong…” Rayquaza said once free, “that isn’t what he wanted, that is not what he wanted at all!”

He then threw Viper away, the Seviper was able to land unharmed once more.

“How can you be so sure?” Viper asked.

“Because we were given that chore from birth!” Rayquaza roared, “and we have diligently done so for millennia, not daring to disregard the great Lord’s wishes, not even when he was betrayed by humans.”

“...what?” Asked Viper in disbelief.

The imprisonment of Arceus by the hand of humankind was nothing but myth by now.

“We have protected this world from all kind of foes, natural disasters or power hungry humans.” Rayquaza continued.

“And I am offering you an end to that!” Viper replied, “why can’t you understand I am doing this for the good of all Pokemon, for the good of all living beings in this world!?”

‘He is the saviour of us all!’ The voice added.

“Because you, Viper, are no saviour.” Rayquaza calmly replied.

The Sky High Pokemon felt different, as if a blindfold had been lifted from his eyes. The petty excuses of those madmons no longer matter to him.

He no longer had doubt.

“You are just a being with a mad thirst for power, just like the humans who preceded you,” he then chuckled and added, “in fact, you are the most human Pokemon I have ever seen.”

Rayquaza could feel the voice on his head lose strength and become a murmur. Viper on his end had a face no one could have ever thought he could make, a face of disgust to himself.

“Me… a… a human!” He asked with revulsion, “what could possibly make you believe that… why will I… I am am nothing like a human!?”

“You sure?” Inquired Rayquaza, “not only have you used human ideas and media to spread your words, but you have even get to the point of taking their creations for your own gain.”

“No!” Viper shouted back, “I am only looking for ways to make myself stronger… that doesn’t make me a filthy… a filthy…” He looked down at himself, disgust filling his body.

Taking the chance, Rayquaza opened his mouth and charged all the energy he was able to muster in a single point.

“Farawell, human conqueror wannabe,” he said as he unleashed his Hyper Beam.

Viper had a moment to realize the attack and place a Protective barrier around him, yet the blast was so strong that it slammed him against the wall.

Viper wasn’t hurt by the attack, but the his sudden collision against the concrete did hurt.

“No… no…” he said as he slowly stand back up, “no,no,no,nononononononononononono. NO!”

He snapped.

“I am Arceus’ holy warrior! And is my duty to cleanse this world of everything I don’t see worthy to live in it, either be humans, Pokemon or you!”

“So that is your true self,” calmly said Rayquaza, “then there is no point to hold back anymore.”

Both large Pokemon stared at one another, both preparing their next final move.

Then a piece of the roof fall between them.

“What…?” Rayquaza asked as he looked up.

The place was coming down on them.

Viper was going to use the distraction to sneak beneath him when a small voice make him turn.

“Mo...ther…”

Besides him lied a small Kirlia unconscious, a Kirlia he knew all too well.

“Gard!”

In a swift motion, the commander coiled the child with outmost care.

He wasn’t waking up.

Viper hissed in rage, he wanted to take down the heretic who had dared to compare him with the creatures he detested the most, but if he did that he would lose the only remnant of the second one closest to his heart.

He made his decision.

With swift yet careful moves, Viper left the fight.

Rayquaza noticed this just as Viper made his way through a hole in the wall. Having decided to end things there, the great legendary gave him chase as the building fell over their heads.

The floor beneath Sarge and the mercenary was constantly shaking, either by the fight they left behind or the constant siege the army had, making their march all the more slower.

“Why did you come back kid?” Asked the sergeant, “you could have patched me up and call your debt solved.”

“I told you already,” the kid replied with annoyance, “I am not that much of a bastard, besides, I don’t mind having someone to call for a favor.”

“... why do I even bother?” asked Sarge as the finally reached the emergency exit.

“Now what?” Asked the old soldier, only for a sudden burst of air to hit them.

The air before them began to shift as a sort of plane was hovering right before them.

It was some sort of advanced plane ment for reconnaissance, black paint covered all of it once the cloaking device was off.

The hatch door opened and a small Pokemon greeted them.

“Just in time!” She said, “this building is about to go down on its own at any moment.”

Not giving Sarge a moment to be surprised about the talking mon, the mercenary threw him into the plane, followed shortly after by himself.

“How is everyone?” Asked Sarge as he boarded, everyone was there, albeit exhausted.

“Report,” was the kid’s greet to the talking Pokemon.

“The mission was a success,” she replied.

The mercenary seemed please, “the rest?”

The Pawniard tapped some Pokeballs strapped on a holster around her waist, a rather abstract sight for the humans aboard.

“Everyone is accounted for, I had to make room for our guests though.”

As this happened, the plane become invisible once more and afterburn its way out of there.

At one point, the sergeant was able to look out one of the windows, the tower was in shambles, then a small explosion came from within, from the dust came a large emerald dragon, who flew away as soon as he found himself free. The tower collapsed soon after.

“So this is it then…?” He asked to no one in particular as he layed down on the ground, his eyes no longer able to stay open without the help of some adrenaline.

The long day had finally ended.

Or so he thought.

“You want us to paddle back to base!?” Asked Sarge as the plane hovered over the waves, a large raft waiting for him and his men to aboard.

“It’s not far,” said the recruit calmly, “just a three hour paddle to the coast.”

“Why can’t you fly us back?” Ramirez asked with a whining tone, not that he wanted.

“I presume you can understand that we don’t want to get any attention.”

Reluctantly, the soldiers hopped into the raft, it was large enough for everyone and had couple of provisions, even a short range radio, so they wouldn’t be in much trouble.

“About our agreement?” the kid asked Sarge before he left the airship.

“I get it, I may be a ideologist kid, but I am not stupid,” he then offered his hand, “you on the other hand may be the biggest son of a Muk I have ever meet. Still we own you our lives, thank you.”

The kid seemed confused for moment, but then took the hand he was been offered.

“Take care, sir.”

With a smile, the sergeant left the plane, the only one left was the team’s medic.

“There is something else I want to offer you,” he asked the Audino, “will you join my team?”

The commander of the human forces read the report a fifth time. A hairy hand resting on his template while the other hold the paper, only leaving its place to remove the cigar on his mouth.

“So, let me get this straight capitan,” he finally said to the soldier standing before him, “your platoon was able to reach the island, then the enemy compound, there you were able to create a distraction and confusion on the enemy forces by blowing out one of their barracks.”

The captain nodded.

“From there, you managed to break the chain of command by ‘disabling’ their main Psychic.”

The captain nodded again.

“And then you made your way to the coast, since you were unable to communicate with the armored battalion, and fled the island in a raft, that is what happened, nothing unusual or strange?’”

“No sir, that is how things went.”

The old military man took a long look of the captain, he then extinguished his cigar with one hand while he pull a sort of recorder from a drawer with the other and turned it off as well.

“Listen kid, I know how things went.” The commander began to said with a less official voice, “a curtain of orange smoke is pretty impossible to miss. Not to mention a six stories large lizard leaving the building.”

“The armored battalion managed to miss our smoke sir, I don’t see how we managed to miss Rayquaza.”

The upper lip of the commander twitched.

“Why do you cover this son?” He asked in a less demanding manner, “we know things weren’t exactly fair for you, but that gives you no right to keep us in the dark.”

“I would hardly call sending three platoons to their deaths to cover a special ops team slightly unfair, sir.” The captain replied with the same monotone he had been using so far.

“There are no reports of said teams of our part,” the commander retorted.

“I am sure there aren't, sir.”

The old man let out a tired sigh.

“Son, you know what impact that Pokemon could have meant for our country?” He inquired, “the other regions will think it twice before meddling with us.”

“Perhaps, sir.” The captain replied, “but is that power worthy to send so many good men and woman to die in the dark?”

“War has casualties, son.”

“I am aware, sir,” reluctantly replied the captain.

“If you are unable to help us then you will give us no choice, you are aware of that right?”

“I am fully aware, sir,” replied the captain with a calm tone.

“Then have it your way, but know that if any of this ever reaches the public domain we will have to be forced to ‘deal’ with anyone suspected to divulge this, am I clear?”

“Transparent, sir.”

“Good, now you can-”

“It would be terrible for the public to know you sent so many soldiers to die so you can catch a single Pokemon, one who wasn’t even involved with the PLA may I add.”

There was a tense silence for a moment.

“You don’t have to worry, sir,” the captain continued, “as long as every one of my men are safe and sound, there is no need for such information to ever reach the news, it would be terrible for your reputation after all.”

The commander stared at his subordinate, harsh.

“Yes, it would be…” he finally admitted, “fear not, we take care of ours. You are dismissed Captain Sarge.”

“Sir!” The captain said with a proper salute and left the office, only to add one more thing, “sir, I am afraid you have my name wrong.”

“What do you mean?” Asked the old commander, giving a look to the papers and noticing that, in fact, there was another name.

“Sarge was my nickname, sir.” The captain explained, “it standed for sergeant.”

With a final salute, Capi left the office.

“To think you would return empty handed,” a man said while comfortably leaning on his chair, “don't take me wrong, coming back alive is quite the feat on its own, but how can we do business when there is nothing to fill the deal?”

The mercenary looked at his contractor under a pair of shades, even though the room was pretty dark.

“There were bumps on the way, nothing can be fail proof,” the mercenary coldly replied.

“I am sure of that, but that doesn’t solves our problem here,” said the man on his chair while stroking the Meowth on his lap while the henchmen guarding the door give a rather hostile vibe.

“We did something else though,” the mercenary added and the contractor seemed interested. “The prototype used to capture the legendary,” explain the mercenary while taking a flashdrive out of his clothes, “a weapon able to solidify any Pokemon with a single shot as well all the data Sylph.co was working on before the assault. I am sure a man with your influences can make use of this information properly. ”

The man smiled like a Sharpeedo, “I heard that weapon was rather big to be useful.”

“It was, so large we were unable to secure it, however we still have the plans for its construction, as well as the schematics meant to make it more practical.”

The man leaned on his chair more, giving the offer some thought.

Finally, he give another smile, a less aggressive one.

“I think that is enough to call this even,” he offered his hand, and added, “but we won’t be able to pay you as expected. The original target was lost after all.”

The mercenary took the hand immediately, handing over the flash drive at the same time.

“That’s understandable.”

With a wave of his hand, the contractor made his henchmen open the door to his office, the kid before him was no longer needed.

The mercenary was leaving when he added.

“For your information, I am also in possession of something else you may also want to buy.”

“Which is?” The man said without looking at the mercenary, his attention was on the monitor before him.

“The program needed to decrypt the information.”

The screen the contractor was looking at showed nothing but gibberish, useless gibberish.

With a snap of his fingers, both henchmen tried subdue the mercenary, yet with a snap of their bones they were laying on the ground in pain.

The contractor looked at the mercenary with serious, almost angry eyes.

“Your price?” He asked.

“I will tell you once I am out, the account to make the deposit will be added as well.”

“And why should I pay you for that when I can have it decrypted myself?”

“Then some unwanted guests may arrive before you have the time, Sylph.co has put an interesting bounty for that info.”

The contractor kept his cold and harsh gaze for a moment, he didn’t change it even when he called for more men to his office, they however, only come to take out their injured comrades.

“I can’t think properly with that noise,” he explained.

The mercenary remained silent.

“How about a this, kid?” The contractor said with the same gaze, “half of what your price is, plus a high place in my organisation.”

“I refuse,” replied the mercenary right away, “I like to keep things free.”

The older man let out a sigh.

“I hopped for you to be less greedy. But I guess that will make us good partners in the future.”

“Then if you’ll excuse me,” the kid turned around and leave.

“One last question,” the man in a black suit stopped him, “does your team have a name? It would be good for me to know who am I contacting.”

“We don’t have a name,” the mercenary said calmly as he left, “I may give it a thought.”

Capi awaited at the train station rather calm.

A monitor placed for those waiting for their train, like him, showed the more recent news like politics, economics, entertainment, weather, etc. Only a few mentions about the war on the lower part of the screen as mere captions idly passing by, or rather reports about the inhabitants returning to their homes.

It had been a couple of months, almost a year after the PLA invasion of Tsushima had ended. After losing most of their forces so suddenly, the PLA was no longer able to maintain the conflict for long.

It was thanks to a fluked mission that the war met such an abrupt end, and the world didn’t know about it.

Most of the PLA leaders were caught, yet not all of them were brought to justice.

In the end, the world was forgetting about the whole event and was beginning to treat it as another moment of the past.

Capi, for once, was happy with that.

Once his troops returned, they were all applauded as heroes in private and given new ranks in the utmost secrecy, then they were all taken to different bases around the region, some even were sent to a whole new part of the planet. The higher ups didn’t wanted them to be together, apparently afraid of whatever plan they could come with to blackmail them further.

Capi knew no one would ever do that.

The kid had told him of that, how they would try to silence them one way or another, but he also told them to be calm, that he would take care of things under the table.

“Having a whole army by the balls is good publicity,” Capi said to himself, remembering the exact words the young mercenary had used. “Even in such situation, cold as a stone huh?”

He never knew exactly how he did it, but he did it.

Of the nineteen survivors of the Tsushima incident, none were brought back to the battlefield.

Most of them didn’t mind the rather luxury lives they were given as a result.

Capi himself had been moved to a calm post in the countryside in charge of the whole personal. There was little to do and even less to watch over. For him, that was the most boring job in the world.

Once the war ended, however, he was given the choice of continuing or resigning.

He had enough of his share in the army.

A life in the country wasn’t that bad though, he got used to the peace and quiet of the crops.

But for now, he had a little errand to do.

‘... will arrive at station 6, all passengers please board from the blue line...’

The announcement brought Capi out of his line of thoughts.

“That sounds like ours,” he said as he stood back up, glad to be in civilian’s clothes. “Let’s go, I am sure your family is worried sick for you.”

And so he, and Doc, boarded the train leaving the past conflict behind them.

A black coated individual looked at the duo boarding the train, a ghost of a smile crossing his lips for a second as he turned around and left. He had his own game to attend to, the same old game.