Chapter 25
“Uh…Sasha, you said the mountain was dormant, yes?”
“Yeah, but this is not an eruption. It looks like it was blown apart with a force not unlike our own.”
“I’ve got some news as well,” Andy said. He was concentrated on the aura. “That second aura trail is back, but this time it seems…much stronger than the last time.”
Everyone wanted to explain why there was a hole in the mountain, or why there was a second aura trail, but they began to hear some voices down there.
“Uh-oh.” West seemed to be stressed. “Someone’s in there.”
Claire spoke up. “Who do you think it could be?”
“Duh!” Josh shouted. “Let’s take the time and think for just a little bit. Who else in this flippin’ world is out for the Time Gears, or even know it exists?”
“Time Gears?” Sasha seemed a little confused. “What are those?”
“Nothin’. C’mon, we gotta go get Pokextinction before they can do something bad.”
They entered into the cave, and Claire lit her torch. Beyond were lots of tunnels that spread all over the place, like a giant ant farm.
“Which way do we go, Andy?”
“I can’t tell. The aura trail is everywhere. Guess we’ll have to do this the old fashioned way.”
They chose to go right, and continued their trail. Andy made sure to drag his feet across the dirt so they would have an idea of the way they went so as to not repeat any previously visited paths. They met dead ends, false corners, and even tunnels that went around themselves.
“…stupid, stupid, stupid!!! This is getting us absolutely nowhere!!” They heard a voice go down the tunnel. As they saw a light source approaching, Andy and co. ducked behind the corner, peeking their heads around the corner to see who it was. Sure enough, it was a Pokextinction army, lead by a gray Lucario that had green tattoos.
One of the Pokextinction members cleared his throat. “Well, Vincent, we can’t just break through without causing-”
“That’s General Vincent! G-E-N-E-R-A-L!! You’d do well to know your place, insect!”
The man stepped down, most likely out of embarrassment than anything. They stood in silence for a while until Vincent cleared his throat.
“There’s DIRT, on my PAWS!” Two Pokextinction members jumped, and they quickly cleaned Vincent’s paws as he stuck them out. After they were done, they did a salute, and Vincent just laughed. “Besides, who cares if this pile o’ rock went kablooey? When we’re done, I’ll make sure this place goes up in flames!”
“But that goes against General Sam’s orders, sir!”
Vincent scowled and punched a random Pokextinction member across the face. “Who gives a darn about Sam! I’d like to set him in flames, too!”
After they were done with their heated discussion, Vincent simply turned and studied the aura.
“I still can’t find anything!! We should’ve brought the drill. Oh, look! We have a few uninvited guests around the corner!”
Shoot.
Andy and co. immediately jumped from their spots and ran the other way.
“No!!! Son of a Sandile! Double time, we gotta go, move, move, move, move!!!”
Andy sent a mild aura blast down the tunnel so Vincent would not track their location. He heard footsteps echo all throughout the tunnels. Andy realized that the Pokextinction troop was not going after them; it had become a race to find the Time Gear.
They were going through the tunnels until Sasha stopped them.
“Look!” She said as she pointed to the right. “That looks like it’s a room. Could that be where we’re going?”
Andy looked down the hall, and found that it opened up into a large room. They walked inside, and found a Time Gear. A little vibration occurred, and rocks came down to block both entrances. A large shadow filled their view.
“Finally. This is your third Time Gear, huh? Well, it's mine now. You want it?" The cave suddenly lit up to reveal a Heatran. "Then, come and-” It didn’t even finish speaking when Andy smacked it upside the head with an Aura Sphere.
“Wait! I admit defeat-”
“Yeah, yeah, we know!” Josh called. “You were manipulated by an evil influence, blah, blah, blah, look, a group of people lead by a Lucario like this one are going to come in and do some serious hurt to you, and maybe even kill you! You have to give us the Time Gear before that happens!”
The Heatran took a moment to think.
“Well…in that case, I will not give it to you.”
“What?!"
“If they’re coming here, they won’t leave until they know the Time Gear has. So, I’ll give it to you if you can prove to me your strength.”
Josh looked disappointed, but Claire was eager to show off how her training has gone.
“Sure! We’ll do it!”
“Okay. This cavern is made of looping tunnels, so the bad guys have most likely split up. I need you to defend me and the Time Gear while they are moving towards us. If you can defeat their leader, I’m sure the others will leave, too.”
Everyone began to think about how they could do this challenge. Andy thought up of an idea.
What if the two of us stayed at the entrances to make sure they don’t get that far, while everyone else goes to find Vincent?
He relayed his idea to everyone, and they all seemed to agree. After the planning was done, it was decided that Josh and West would stay at the entrances, while Andy, Claire, and Sasha went for Vincent.
***
Meanwhile, at the other end of the cavern, Vincent rounded up his troops.
“We need to get to that Time Gear! If you see a blue Lucario, a Dewott, a Braixen, a Weavile, or an Absol, destroy them!”
“But sir, we can’t! General Sam told us to-”
“Sam, sham, he’s not here! Gorge their eyes out, tear their limbs apart, I don’t care, just make sure they are ‘blown away’ before lunch!”
***
“Everyone ready? Alright, let’s go!”
Andy, Claire, and Sasha exited the cave, while West and Josh stood guard at the newly opened entrances. They traversed through the cave, making sure to look out for any enemies that they may come across. For some reason, all of the guards’ lasers were set to red, meaning that if anything comes in contact with it, they would die.
Odd, I didn’t think we were that much of a threat to them…or someone’s going against someone else’s orders.
Andy heard a startled cry come from West, before he heard something getting fired. Andy’s heat skipped a beat, but was relieved when he realized that West was okay, just startled at a Pokextinction member that leaped from the shadows.
“Better stay on your toes!” Josh shouted.
Andy proceeded towards the end of the cavern, when they were confronted by a Magmortar. Andy could see that its eyes were glossed over with a gray tint.
“Ah-ha! So that’s what a mind controlled person looks like. Freaky!”
Andy didn’t have more time to take in the sight when the large Pokémon raised its arm canon, and a huge wave of fire erupted from it. Andy barely dodged out of the way, cursing himself for not paying attention, and started the fight.
Andy dealt an Aura Sphere to its body, which sent it back a few inches, but otherwise seemed unharmed. Claire mainly resorted to using Psybeam on it, while Sasha was pounding it away with Psyco Cuts.
Andy noticed a light growing about the Magmortar’s mouth. He tried to remember what move that was until he felt a push from the side as the light launched from its mouth in a beam and hit the wall.
Andy heard Sasha moan as she collapsed onto the floor, and he finally remembered the move that Magmortar used.
That was Hyper Beam.
Sasha was breathing heavily. Claire threw a bottle of MooMoo Milk in her direction and directed her attention towards the assassin. Andy knew just the kind of thing to make quick work of this guy.
“Claire! Get your Psybeam ready!” She nodded, and proceeded to build up energy.
Now that the Magmortar was stunned, Andy chucked an Aura Sphere at it, then leaped behind to launch a Dragon Pulse at the incoming Psybeam. The moves collided, and a bright tornado of flashing colors was created.
After what would’ve most likely been an epilepsy-inducing light show, the Magmortar seemed to regain its normal eye color as it collapsed on the floor.
“Yes! We did it!”
Andy turned to check on Sasha, who was sipping on the milk, just enjoying the show, when a bright red laser struck her right between the eyebrows. Her eyes rolled back as she fell to the earth for the last time, with the MooMoo Milk rolling away into the darkness.
No! What the-?! No, no, no!!!
“Pew, pew, pew! Ha-ha! Zappo! Ooh, what fun, I live for that thrill!” Vincent lowered the laser gun he apparently had with him. “And what’s this?” He bent over to pick up the MooMoo Milk that rolled over to him. “Aw, my favorite! You really shouldn’t have!” He waterfalled the milk that was originally intended to serve an injured comrade, until it disappeared down his throat.
“Andy! Claire! We took down all of the Pokextinction members!” Andy skipped down the tunnel to join his friends. Josh also followed behind him. “Wait, what’s-”.
He looked down towards Sasha, and after taking a brief look to confirm she was dead, fell to his knees.
“No way…”
Vincent laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s enjoying her sweet release of death! Same s I’m going to do-” The gun was smacked with an Aura Sphere, which shattered it into pieces. “Aww! No fair! That was my monologue you’ve ruined!” He whined. “No matter, I can easily take you on!”
Vincent concentrated his aura and fired it in a sphere. It was ridiculously small, and it wasn’t even keeping a stable path. It lazily moved over to Andy, who smacked it out of the air and into the wall.
“…Er…never mind that! I’ve got more tricks up my sleeve!” Vincent charged forward with a Metal Claw attack, which Josh avoided and countered with his own. He went for Claire with a bullet punch, but walked right into an open fire that Claire had. He served a Force Palm to West, who caught his hand and jabbed his fingers to his stomach.
“Dude,” Josh shook his head, “You’re pathetic. And here we were, actually scared of you!”
Andy leaped in the air and hit Vincent with a Blaze Kick, which sent him running at a speed ideal for a Rapidash.
“This isn’t the last you’ve seen of me!! I’m gonna get so powerful, you’ll all be shaking in your boots! You’ll see!”
When he was gone, they all turned their attention to their fallen friend. Josh seemed really upset.
“We gotta go get him back! He need to make him pay!”
West shook his head. “No, Josh.”
“Why not?! Don’t you care?”
“I do, but-”
“No, listen, Vincent can’t get away with what he did! He needs-”
With quick movements, West grabbed Josh by the arms and pinned him against the wall.
“Everyone has dead people, but that doesn’t mean you should get us killed!!”
Josh seemed to calm down s West let him go. Andy was surprised at West’s hidden strength, but was otherwise unmoved. They grabbed the Time Gear, took Sasha’s body and put it in their car, while Josh took the keys to Sasha’s car and drove it. Andy, even though he never really had a real drive before, drove back to the base.
When they entered the base, they went towards the Hariama brothers, and laid her body down.
“She was killed by Pokextinction.” Andy said. “Sorry.”
The Hariama brothers nodded. “It’s okay. This kind of thing comes with being a Pokeuman. When it seems like the world is out to get you, it’s pointless to mourn when so many are killed everyday.” Andy was about to shout at them for being insensitive, but then they remembered the fact that they were talking to people who truly understand the risks of being who they are.
“Thank you for bringing her body. She died a noble death. We will host a funeral, and then cremate her body. Would you like to join us?”
“No, thanks, we’ve got places to be.”
“We understand. Please, you are welcome to visit anytime you need.”
***
Andy, Claire, West, and Josh sat in the car outside of the base. They needed a moment of silence, and because everyone had racing thoughts. After about an hour and a half, Josh reluctantly started the engine, and then drove off.
“Alright Andy…where do we go next.”
“Well…I would say London, but the other aura trail is still bugging me.”
“And you said it was twice as concentrated as before, yes?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Okay, take us to it.”
They followed the path, until they came up to familiar road. Andy had a suspicion, but he hoped that was not true. They came closer to the beach, and that was when Andy’s fear had been realized for the second time that day.
The trail led them right to the Pokextinction boat that attacked them with Captain Cruthers.
Chapter 26: Next
“Uh…Sasha, you said the mountain was dormant, yes?”
“Yeah, but this is not an eruption. It looks like it was blown apart with a force not unlike our own.”
“I’ve got some news as well,” Andy said. He was concentrated on the aura. “That second aura trail is back, but this time it seems…much stronger than the last time.”
Everyone wanted to explain why there was a hole in the mountain, or why there was a second aura trail, but they began to hear some voices down there.
“Uh-oh.” West seemed to be stressed. “Someone’s in there.”
Claire spoke up. “Who do you think it could be?”
“Duh!” Josh shouted. “Let’s take the time and think for just a little bit. Who else in this flippin’ world is out for the Time Gears, or even know it exists?”
“Time Gears?” Sasha seemed a little confused. “What are those?”
“Nothin’. C’mon, we gotta go get Pokextinction before they can do something bad.”
They entered into the cave, and Claire lit her torch. Beyond were lots of tunnels that spread all over the place, like a giant ant farm.
“Which way do we go, Andy?”
“I can’t tell. The aura trail is everywhere. Guess we’ll have to do this the old fashioned way.”
They chose to go right, and continued their trail. Andy made sure to drag his feet across the dirt so they would have an idea of the way they went so as to not repeat any previously visited paths. They met dead ends, false corners, and even tunnels that went around themselves.
“…stupid, stupid, stupid!!! This is getting us absolutely nowhere!!” They heard a voice go down the tunnel. As they saw a light source approaching, Andy and co. ducked behind the corner, peeking their heads around the corner to see who it was. Sure enough, it was a Pokextinction army, lead by a gray Lucario that had green tattoos.
One of the Pokextinction members cleared his throat. “Well, Vincent, we can’t just break through without causing-”
“That’s General Vincent! G-E-N-E-R-A-L!! You’d do well to know your place, insect!”
The man stepped down, most likely out of embarrassment than anything. They stood in silence for a while until Vincent cleared his throat.
“There’s DIRT, on my PAWS!” Two Pokextinction members jumped, and they quickly cleaned Vincent’s paws as he stuck them out. After they were done, they did a salute, and Vincent just laughed. “Besides, who cares if this pile o’ rock went kablooey? When we’re done, I’ll make sure this place goes up in flames!”
“But that goes against General Sam’s orders, sir!”
Vincent scowled and punched a random Pokextinction member across the face. “Who gives a darn about Sam! I’d like to set him in flames, too!”
After they were done with their heated discussion, Vincent simply turned and studied the aura.
“I still can’t find anything!! We should’ve brought the drill. Oh, look! We have a few uninvited guests around the corner!”
Shoot.
Andy and co. immediately jumped from their spots and ran the other way.
“No!!! Son of a Sandile! Double time, we gotta go, move, move, move, move!!!”
Andy sent a mild aura blast down the tunnel so Vincent would not track their location. He heard footsteps echo all throughout the tunnels. Andy realized that the Pokextinction troop was not going after them; it had become a race to find the Time Gear.
They were going through the tunnels until Sasha stopped them.
“Look!” She said as she pointed to the right. “That looks like it’s a room. Could that be where we’re going?”
Andy looked down the hall, and found that it opened up into a large room. They walked inside, and found a Time Gear. A little vibration occurred, and rocks came down to block both entrances. A large shadow filled their view.
“Finally. This is your third Time Gear, huh? Well, it's mine now. You want it?" The cave suddenly lit up to reveal a Heatran. "Then, come and-” It didn’t even finish speaking when Andy smacked it upside the head with an Aura Sphere.
“Wait! I admit defeat-”
“Yeah, yeah, we know!” Josh called. “You were manipulated by an evil influence, blah, blah, blah, look, a group of people lead by a Lucario like this one are going to come in and do some serious hurt to you, and maybe even kill you! You have to give us the Time Gear before that happens!”
The Heatran took a moment to think.
“Well…in that case, I will not give it to you.”
“What?!"
“If they’re coming here, they won’t leave until they know the Time Gear has. So, I’ll give it to you if you can prove to me your strength.”
Josh looked disappointed, but Claire was eager to show off how her training has gone.
“Sure! We’ll do it!”
“Okay. This cavern is made of looping tunnels, so the bad guys have most likely split up. I need you to defend me and the Time Gear while they are moving towards us. If you can defeat their leader, I’m sure the others will leave, too.”
Everyone began to think about how they could do this challenge. Andy thought up of an idea.
What if the two of us stayed at the entrances to make sure they don’t get that far, while everyone else goes to find Vincent?
He relayed his idea to everyone, and they all seemed to agree. After the planning was done, it was decided that Josh and West would stay at the entrances, while Andy, Claire, and Sasha went for Vincent.
***
Meanwhile, at the other end of the cavern, Vincent rounded up his troops.
“We need to get to that Time Gear! If you see a blue Lucario, a Dewott, a Braixen, a Weavile, or an Absol, destroy them!”
“But sir, we can’t! General Sam told us to-”
“Sam, sham, he’s not here! Gorge their eyes out, tear their limbs apart, I don’t care, just make sure they are ‘blown away’ before lunch!”
***
“Everyone ready? Alright, let’s go!”
Andy, Claire, and Sasha exited the cave, while West and Josh stood guard at the newly opened entrances. They traversed through the cave, making sure to look out for any enemies that they may come across. For some reason, all of the guards’ lasers were set to red, meaning that if anything comes in contact with it, they would die.
Odd, I didn’t think we were that much of a threat to them…or someone’s going against someone else’s orders.
Andy heard a startled cry come from West, before he heard something getting fired. Andy’s heat skipped a beat, but was relieved when he realized that West was okay, just startled at a Pokextinction member that leaped from the shadows.
“Better stay on your toes!” Josh shouted.
Andy proceeded towards the end of the cavern, when they were confronted by a Magmortar. Andy could see that its eyes were glossed over with a gray tint.
“Ah-ha! So that’s what a mind controlled person looks like. Freaky!”
Andy didn’t have more time to take in the sight when the large Pokémon raised its arm canon, and a huge wave of fire erupted from it. Andy barely dodged out of the way, cursing himself for not paying attention, and started the fight.
Andy dealt an Aura Sphere to its body, which sent it back a few inches, but otherwise seemed unharmed. Claire mainly resorted to using Psybeam on it, while Sasha was pounding it away with Psyco Cuts.
Andy noticed a light growing about the Magmortar’s mouth. He tried to remember what move that was until he felt a push from the side as the light launched from its mouth in a beam and hit the wall.
Andy heard Sasha moan as she collapsed onto the floor, and he finally remembered the move that Magmortar used.
That was Hyper Beam.
Sasha was breathing heavily. Claire threw a bottle of MooMoo Milk in her direction and directed her attention towards the assassin. Andy knew just the kind of thing to make quick work of this guy.
“Claire! Get your Psybeam ready!” She nodded, and proceeded to build up energy.
Now that the Magmortar was stunned, Andy chucked an Aura Sphere at it, then leaped behind to launch a Dragon Pulse at the incoming Psybeam. The moves collided, and a bright tornado of flashing colors was created.
After what would’ve most likely been an epilepsy-inducing light show, the Magmortar seemed to regain its normal eye color as it collapsed on the floor.
“Yes! We did it!”
Andy turned to check on Sasha, who was sipping on the milk, just enjoying the show, when a bright red laser struck her right between the eyebrows. Her eyes rolled back as she fell to the earth for the last time, with the MooMoo Milk rolling away into the darkness.
No! What the-?! No, no, no!!!
“Pew, pew, pew! Ha-ha! Zappo! Ooh, what fun, I live for that thrill!” Vincent lowered the laser gun he apparently had with him. “And what’s this?” He bent over to pick up the MooMoo Milk that rolled over to him. “Aw, my favorite! You really shouldn’t have!” He waterfalled the milk that was originally intended to serve an injured comrade, until it disappeared down his throat.
“Andy! Claire! We took down all of the Pokextinction members!” Andy skipped down the tunnel to join his friends. Josh also followed behind him. “Wait, what’s-”.
He looked down towards Sasha, and after taking a brief look to confirm she was dead, fell to his knees.
“No way…”
Vincent laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s enjoying her sweet release of death! Same s I’m going to do-” The gun was smacked with an Aura Sphere, which shattered it into pieces. “Aww! No fair! That was my monologue you’ve ruined!” He whined. “No matter, I can easily take you on!”
Vincent concentrated his aura and fired it in a sphere. It was ridiculously small, and it wasn’t even keeping a stable path. It lazily moved over to Andy, who smacked it out of the air and into the wall.
“…Er…never mind that! I’ve got more tricks up my sleeve!” Vincent charged forward with a Metal Claw attack, which Josh avoided and countered with his own. He went for Claire with a bullet punch, but walked right into an open fire that Claire had. He served a Force Palm to West, who caught his hand and jabbed his fingers to his stomach.
“Dude,” Josh shook his head, “You’re pathetic. And here we were, actually scared of you!”
Andy leaped in the air and hit Vincent with a Blaze Kick, which sent him running at a speed ideal for a Rapidash.
“This isn’t the last you’ve seen of me!! I’m gonna get so powerful, you’ll all be shaking in your boots! You’ll see!”
When he was gone, they all turned their attention to their fallen friend. Josh seemed really upset.
“We gotta go get him back! He need to make him pay!”
West shook his head. “No, Josh.”
“Why not?! Don’t you care?”
“I do, but-”
“No, listen, Vincent can’t get away with what he did! He needs-”
With quick movements, West grabbed Josh by the arms and pinned him against the wall.
“Everyone has dead people, but that doesn’t mean you should get us killed!!”
Josh seemed to calm down s West let him go. Andy was surprised at West’s hidden strength, but was otherwise unmoved. They grabbed the Time Gear, took Sasha’s body and put it in their car, while Josh took the keys to Sasha’s car and drove it. Andy, even though he never really had a real drive before, drove back to the base.
When they entered the base, they went towards the Hariama brothers, and laid her body down.
“She was killed by Pokextinction.” Andy said. “Sorry.”
The Hariama brothers nodded. “It’s okay. This kind of thing comes with being a Pokeuman. When it seems like the world is out to get you, it’s pointless to mourn when so many are killed everyday.” Andy was about to shout at them for being insensitive, but then they remembered the fact that they were talking to people who truly understand the risks of being who they are.
“Thank you for bringing her body. She died a noble death. We will host a funeral, and then cremate her body. Would you like to join us?”
“No, thanks, we’ve got places to be.”
“We understand. Please, you are welcome to visit anytime you need.”
***
Andy, Claire, West, and Josh sat in the car outside of the base. They needed a moment of silence, and because everyone had racing thoughts. After about an hour and a half, Josh reluctantly started the engine, and then drove off.
“Alright Andy…where do we go next.”
“Well…I would say London, but the other aura trail is still bugging me.”
“And you said it was twice as concentrated as before, yes?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Okay, take us to it.”
They followed the path, until they came up to familiar road. Andy had a suspicion, but he hoped that was not true. They came closer to the beach, and that was when Andy’s fear had been realized for the second time that day.
The trail led them right to the Pokextinction boat that attacked them with Captain Cruthers.
Chapter 26: Next
