“Alright Mina, get out of those ropes.” Before I could finish the sentence, Mina had already freed herself with a skillful and concentrated shadow claw. They fell to the ground useless and ripped to shreds. She then went to work slashing apart my binds and Caleb’s. We were free once again.

The room full of people fell silent as they probably couldn’t grasp what was happening. Mina and I went about untying the people as Caleb just slumped to the floor. “Hey.” I called to the trainer. He didn’t even look up from the ground, only responding with a ‘hmm.’ He must have been taking it hard. After all, he had to give up his pokémon for us to get this far without injury. Mina continued to free the people one by one as I approached Caleb and squatted by his side.

“We’ll get them back.” I said to him, but he didn’t respond to me. I gingerly put my hand on his shoulder and he gave a slight shake. “That’s not the point… I gave them up. You were right, I am a terrible trainer.” His voice began to shake and by the sound of it, I could guess he was close to tears.

“No Caleb, this has nothing to do with what I said earlier. You can be a good trainer, and you can start by getting them back.” I tried to console him, if Caleb wasn’t able to be the trainer we needed, there was no hope for us to win. “We need you. I need you… Mina needs you.” The kid looked up from the floor for the first time since we got captured.

“You, need me?” his voice sounded like he had stopped sniveling as he started to chuckle to himself. At first I thought he had gone mad, but after a moment he continued, “Luke Irving, contest extraordinaire. Mina, the all powerful Zoroark in human skin needs me, a trainer they don’t even like. Wow, that’s ridiculous!” I started to join him in laughter. I guess it did sound a little ridiculous when you put us on a pedestal like that. “More importantly though Luke, I need you.”

Now we’re talking! Caleb stood up with a start and turned to face the others in the room. Just as I thought, his eyes were a little red, but now there was a new flame within his brown irises. He looked out at the crowd and pointed to a group of what we could easily identify as trainers. Just glancing them over, I could count out about twenty of them and they were all together in a neat little group. “You guys! Are you trainers?” Caleb shouted towards them. The question seemed to go over their heads as they didn’t seem to want to respond right away.

“WELL? Are you trainers or not!?” he repeated himself. The group all stood up in unison as Mina came by and freed them of their bonds, and in one big voice they shouted, “YEA!”

“Good! Listen up. These team plasma rejects think that they can steal our pokémon, and trash a route six landmark!” Truthfully I was quite surprised that the trainer had it in him to be a great sounding leader. It’s almost as if he had a military background or something. “Now I say, they won’t get away with it!” I ran up to the door we were thrown into and looked out of the distorted glass. Everything was blurry, but I could make out two black blobs, one on each side of the door. Assuming they were guards, I started to come up with a few more ideas as Caleb continued his rally speech.

“We need to get our pokémon back! And when we do, oh are they in for a world of hurt, because we are trainers! We will fight! And we… will… WIN!” I was surprised the guards didn’t hear what was going on in here. With all the commotion I expected someone to come in and find we were all free from the ropes, but no one came in to check on us. I ran back to the group and untied one of the scientists.

“How thick are these walls?” I asked. The one in front of me just shrugged, but my answer came from behind me. It was the same woman who apologized to us for getting mixed up in this. She was all decked out in lab gear, everything from her glasses and shoulder length brown hair to her white lab coat just screamed science! “Every wall within this facility is 15 centimeters thick. They are made of brick, and contain iron support bars within their frames. The outside walls are 28 centimeters thick. This provides adequate protection from seve-”

“Okay okay, I got what I need thanks.” I didn’t mean to be rude to her, but we were really crunched for time here. I looked to Mina and took her hand as she stepped through a tight gap of scientists. “I have a plan.”

“Well, at least someone has a plan, I thought we would just burst through the door and beat up all the people.” Her statement made me laugh. The way Caleb was eating it up, rallying the trainers, it definitely sounded like standard uprising material. “That’s about the gist of it, but we need to get all the pokémon back to their trainers first.” I saw her poof out her lips in a general ‘huffy pouty’ action. “See that wall over there?” I pointed to the wall on the right side of the room. It had shelves stacked with papers and files, probably from past experiments.

Mina glanced over and looked back to me completely understanding what my intentions were. “You mean I get to?” I slowly nodded my head. “In front of all these people?” my nodding increased in speed. She started to squeal in excitement at the thought of blowing down a wall. No doubt doing it in front of everyone in human form would make her feel awfully cool and only add to her hubris.

“Not shadow ball.” I said. Upon hearing that, if she had her ears, they would have drooped. “We have to do it quietly, or the guards outside will hear us.”

“Okay Lukey.” She responded, slightly depressed, but still happy she gets to slash at stuff.

I looked to Caleb to find that he was finished with his rally call, and that the trainers were all ready to go. Mina stood facing the wall I pointed out. There were a bunch of scientists in her way for only a moment before she shooshed them away to sit across the room. I took the time to clear the walls of their boxes of papers and any shelves I could rip off. “Alright everyone! Stand back.” Mina prepared herself to strike at the wall. She got a lot of questioning glances from just about everyone in the room. I laughed to myself as they had no idea what was about to happen as I took a spot to stand next to Caleb.

After a few seconds Mina had charged up a shadow claw in both hands. Each of her fingers lit up and over flowed with the deep purple energy. Witnessing this, the crowd of people let out a gasp and several exchanged whispers. She stood there for a few more moments concentrating her power, condensing the attack. “What the hell is going on here?” I heard one of the scientists ask from the opposite end of the room. Ignoring him, I focused my attention on Mina.

In a flurry of dark energy, my girl unleashed her power onto the wall with eight deep claw marks put into the clean white bricks. I then ran up to the wall and inspected the damage and was surprised to find that her attack had gone clean through. “Oh, you're amazing!” I exclaimed my enthusiasm and hugged Mina tight. She gave me a big smile and a giggled hugging me back. The spectacle left the people in the room speechless. Looking around, I could see mouths agape, and wide eyes from everyone, except for Caleb that is.

After hugging it out for a few seconds, I approached the wall again. Yep, clean through! I could see lights on the other side. ‘Now all it needs is a good kick!’ I thought to myself. I had to be cool guy, and be the one to kick down the wall. I gave my all my strength into the effort. “Haa!!” I let out a battle cry and slammed my foot against the wall with all my might. If the wall had been knocked completely through, I would have looked cool. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen that way. I planted my foot against the wall and the force pushed me backwards instead of knocking out the pieces.

I fell to the ground like a pathetic fool; the wall didn’t even so much as budge. Mina stood over me and laughed as my face turned cherri berry red. “Through that wall, our pokémon are waiting!” Maybe Caleb’s speech was too effective? I was then trampled over by a horde of trainers trying to get to the wall. As soon as they reached it, their hands began pulling out chunks of wall piece by piece, throwing the rubble behind them out of the way for the next chunk.

I sat up on an elbow and it wasn’t five seconds before a scientist came over to us. It was the same knowledgeable woman who knew about the wall’s thickness. She didn’t want to talk to me however, only coming straight up to Mina and held out her hand. Of course, she was familiar to the human custom of greeting and held out her hand as well. The scientists grabbed Mina’s hand and they shook momentarily. “Hello, my name is Doctor Brennen. I’m the chief advisor here at this facility.”

“Uh, my name is Mina, and I travel with Luke.” She gestured to me.

“Nice to meet you, I would really like to talk to you about what just happened with the ropes and the wall. How did you do that? What is your secret?”

Mina drew a blank and looked to me for advice which, taking the hint, I interjected, “Ehh heh. Excuse me Dr. Brennen, but don’t you think that this situation is more important than how my girlfriend does her magic tricks?”

“Yea, as if I’ll buy that, Magic tricks cannot leave holes in walls. There is something more, and if you would just tell us how to do i-”

“You can’t!” Mina quickly cut her off mid sentence, “Look. It would be great if you could, but I’m… special.”

Under normal circumstances, I know Mina would never want to compromise her ruse. She is a tricky Zoroark after all, illusions are her muse. This was a special case however, and compromise was the only option. Dr. Brennen looked Mina up and down through her clear lenses. I could tell she was thinking hard about something given the stern look in her eyes. “… Okay, we’ll sort this out later after we take back the lab. But right after, you three have some explaining to do!”

The Doctor then turned and hurried to untie more scientists. “Whew” I got back on my feet and looked to the wall where the trainers were scrambling. “Looks like we dodged a bullet there.”

“For now.” She mumbled. “We’re safe for now, but I doubt they will let us leave without some sort of explanation.”

Caleb joined us from his post in front of the door, “Hey guys, I’m surprised the guards haven’t checked on us yet. With all the noise in here, I expected we would be re-restrained by now.” I had to admit, the guards seemed kind of lazy. “Lets just not look a gift Stantler in the mouth.” Caleb nodded to my comment and ran to the wall helping the other trainers.

With all the people helping, the wall came down in no time. The first few trainers made it through the hole and began passing the pokéballs. Unfortunately, not everyone had customized balls, most in fact were just normal red and white ones and we had no way of organizing who’s went to who. Most of the balls were handed through the group and ended with me. One by one, I opened each ball to release the pokémon inside and handed the ball to them. “Find your trainer.” I would say. They would each give out their respective yips and grunts and waltz off.

After a short time I would hear trainers giving out greetings to their pokémon. And there we were, all together. Almost every trainer in that room had a full team. Archangel may have a hundred grunts each with a pokémon, but we had twenty trainers, each with a full team, and then another five including Caleb who had five or less. All in all, I would have to say that our odds were pretty good now. The only thing to do now was to blow down the door and swarm them, and do it quickly too because it was getting cramped in this room.

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(Outside)
Two guards stand in front of the door where they were keeping the hostages. They are dressed in the standard Archangel uniform: all black loose clothing with their faces half covered with a grey mouth mask. Each of them were given one pokémon to use in the takeover of the weather institute.

“And if you walk this way, we can get a look at the extremely rare pokémon we at the Weather Institute hold very dear to us.” The two grunts held perfectly still, blocked from sight in their indented doorway so as not to spook the latest hostages. The captain came through the lab door into hallway 3A with four trainers following him. His instructions were to give tours ending with the eventual capture of curious passing trainers. The pokémon would be sent back to HQ for conditioning and the trainers?

Archangel has plans for them. Their memory was to be wiped via hypnosis by one of the many pokémon they possessed. Perhaps a Hypno or maybe a Haunter; it didn’t really matter. The only thing that mattered was the fact that they would not be able to trace information back to the organization.

The four trainers were led to the end of the room just as planned. Three more Archangel troops stepped into the hallway from the door they had just entered holding restraints. The commander stopped in front of the door where the pokémon were held. “Are you guys ready?” asking the trainers only to psyche them up for what they thought was the exciting part of the tour; little did they know, there were grunts directly behind them ready to restrain them.

“Yea! I wanna see Castform!” a girl yelled in excitement raising her arms up with joy. Just then one of the grunts grabbed her arms and had them tied behind her back before she even knew what was happening. The others turned just in time to see their friend get thrown to the ground. “HEY! WHATS GOING ON!” another trainer spoke up in protest but didn’t get an answer as he was also tied up and thrown to the tile floor.

“Oh, Arceus! Please, what do you want!?” The two remaining people were tied without much of a fight. “You two!” the commander beckoned at the guards who no longer had to hide. They saluted them before the four trainers were forced onto them, stripped of their pokéball belts. The three grunts who tied them up had managed to stealthily steal them from their victims and held them up to allow the trainers one last glimpse of their pokémon before throwing the belts in the second room with the others.

“What is the status on the hostages?” One of the grunts gave their answer, “The hostages are all tied up sir! I haven’t heard a peep out of them. It’s a good thing it’s a big room heheh.” The commander unlocked and opened up the door after receiving the four belts. “All in all, another 20 or so pokémon.” The suited man looked to the victims he had just captured with pitty in his eyes as the door opened up. “Sorry kids.”

He then looked into the room and started to throw the belts in with the others, but then stopped. The three grunts all wore shocked looks on their masked faces as the new hostages stood confused. They couldn’t move, weather it was fear, or shock, or just the realization that their plans had fell through, no matter how much their minds screamed for them to move, they were stuck.

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(Luke)
The pokémon were free. The scientists were free. The trainers were free. Our next step was to blow down the door. It was decided that it would be best to crash through both doors at once to confuse our captors. The trainers and their pokémon were split half and half between the two rooms. “Okay everybody,” I stated, getting everyone’s attention. “Weather Institute staff, stay here. We will take back this place. Dr. Brennen…” The woman looked to me from her corner and uncrossed her arms. “I want you to come with me.”

Mina looked to me with a scolding gaze, “Why do you want her to come with us?”

“This woman has proved before that she knows this place like the back of her hand. You and I are going to find that pokémon and make sure Archangel doesn’t get it.” Brennen came up to stand next to us apparently hearing our conversation.

“You must be talking about Castform. That’s the only pokémon we allow to be free on premises as we have to study it.” I didn’t like how she put that. To think that a pokémon was being held here just as we were to be nothing more than a science experiment.

Suddenly, I heard something in the next room. A door? Mina and I ran to the hole and looked through it. Sure enough, the door was wide open. I had expected the trainers to blow it down, but never for someone on the other side to actually open it up. There were four people standing in the doorway all with horror written on their faces. Three grunts, and ‘Doug’ standing right in the middle. In his hands were four more pokéball belts.

It seemed like a standoff as both sides were shocked at the other. It seemed asinine that no one had made a move by now. “WELL? ATTACK!!” I shouted in hysteria trying to get someone to move. It worked, our massive group of pokémon and trainers alike jumped into action with their respective cries and violent shouts. The grunts and ‘Doug’ were powerless to stop the oncoming storm of hooves, paws, claws, wings, and whatever else trampled over them as the pokémon flooded out of the room.

One by one, the trainers hurried out of the door to follow their partners in battle. Not a moment too soon, the door to our room opened up as well with the two guards trying, in vain, to subdue our half. I tried to find Caleb in the chaos but it was for naught, in the mass confusion, the young man was undetectable within the writhing mass of people. At least Mina was close to me. I made sure to hold on to her as best I could throughout the attack. Brennen was also waiting for me to act which I was going to… as soon as it got a bit calmer in here.

Most of the trainers had left the two rooms, and the hallway had gotten considerably quieter with the movement of battle cries and screams throughout the facility. As they were told, the scientists stayed in the storeroom as Mina, Dr. Brennen, and I snuck out the door stepping over the knocked out guards and pokémon.

Once we were in the hallway, I noticed four more kids tied up. They were scrunched up against the wall trying to avoid being tackled to the ground as the guards were. Without saying a word, Mina and I got to work at untying them. “Thanks!”

They then ran to where ‘Doug’ was knocked out on the floor and picked up their belts. After releasing their pokémon, they each looked to the unconscious doorman. “So sorry, Doug…” One of the girl trainers mocked in a sing-songy attitude before giving a sweet giggle and violently delivering a kick into the man’s stomach. Even though he was the enemy in this instance, I can’t say I didn’t feel bad for the poor guy. Oh well, we have things to do; things that don’t involve feeling sorry for our kidnappers.

The group of trainers gave us a nod of thanks and ran off down the hallway; releasing their pokémon with bright flashes of light and fighting off the grunts trying to restrain them. Mina and I looked to the doctor, “Alright then,” I started. “Can you take us to that pokémon?”

Brennen nodded and waived her arm for us to follow. I didn’t expect her to be very fast in her extended heel shoes, but the woman really could run. Mina of course had no problem keeping up, but I lagged behind for a few moments until catching up and running alongside Mina. “The pokémon, Castform is only viewable on the tour through two feet of solid glass…”

Two feet of solid glass!? I gave the professor a look of confusion; why in the world would they need something like that? However, given the current situation, I could take a guess as to why. She must have sensed the look I gave her, as she started to answer a question I didn’t have to ask. “It was for security reasons. Castform was originally in Hoenn, but with the invasion of the Weather Institute there, the higher ups decided it would be a better idea to transfer it here.”

“Luke! The Hoenn Weather Institute! Remember we watched the news report. It was attacked by team Magma, but when team Aqua decided to attack it as well, the two groups ended up fighting each other!” Mina’s memory was sharper than mine was, and she had reminded me of what had happened. Because of the two groups fighting, a single twelve year old boy was all it took to drive both groups out… too bad that strategy wouldn’t work in this situation.

“Anyway, in order to keep it safe, the entrance to the bio chamber is on level five security.” Dr. Brennen yelled back to us as we entered the lab. I didn’t know what she meant by ‘level five security’, but it sounded pretty secure. “So, can we even get in the room if we need to?” Brennen nodded at my question before continuing, “You guys are lucky. I am the only person in the whole facility with access to that room.” She winked at us through her glasses as she held up a card with her picture and a barcode along the side of it.

The three of us ran through the computer room with Dr. Brennen. The amount of knocked out Archangel grunts, along with what I would assume to be fainted loaned out pokémon next to them, were increasing the closer we got to the lobby area. I had never seen so many injured people in one place.

The three of us rounded the corner to once again enter the lobby, but we came to a screeching halt at the threshold as we took in the spectacle before us. The whole place was in a blaze of chaos! From wall to wall, trainers and pokémon, Archangel and pokémon, everyone was at each other’s throats. Some trainers could take on three or four grunts at one time. The pokémon were not the only ones fighting though as trainers joined together and fought the humans along with their partners. If it wasn’t so chaotic and violent, I would have said it was a beautiful sight; trainers and pokémon working and fighting alongside each other to achieve a common goal.

Mina didn’t think it was so great though and Dr. Brennen could only put a hand to her mouth in horror. Besides the cooperation aspect, it was rather terrible and we couldn’t pass through without any damage. Mina rubbed against my side and whispered to me over the noise emanating from the enormous war in front of us. “I can get us through this, but… what about her?” Yea, I knew Mina could get us through this mass of fighting, and it looked as though we had no choice. My only hope was that I could come up with some sort of explanation for the doctor as to how she could do any of the things she could.

“Alright Mina,” I loudly whispered back, “go ahead and do it, don’t worry about Brennen.” Speaking of Brennen, she was too busy freaking out over the battles in the, once clean and sterile, lobby to hear what we were saying. A rather powerful looking Darmanitan unleashed a fire punch directly into the jaws of an Infernape, but being a fire type itself, it was back in control and quickly engaged in close combat with the brute. Dr. Brennen looked to me with wide eyes through her glasses, “We need to get to the other side of this!”

Mina stepped in front of us and held her hands out, forming a triangle with her palms. “What are you doing young lady!?” Brennen attempted to put a hand on my love’s shoulder to pull her back, but I blocked it and shook my head. In front of her, a black mass began swirling within Mina’s palms. The doctor’s jaw dropped as the scribbly mass increased its size. Mina gritted her teeth and let out a growl as the ball came to what I could assume was as big as she could make it. If I could have taken a guess, I would say the mass would have been four feet in diameter.

Suddenly, Mina threw her arms out to the side as black flames flowed through the air. I couldn’t tell whether she was using an attack, or if it was an illusion, but the effects were exactly what we wanted. The flames stretched themselves along the walls and floor of the lobby until the clean white and blue paint was stained in black. The fire spread to the floor coating the, now battle worn, marble with etching dark scribbles; encircling everyone in the room with their essence.

The disguised Zoroark waived her arms downward and then brought them lunging back into the air straight over her head. As if following her movements, which probably was the case, the dark fire jetted upwards, consuming everyone in the room like thick black pillars. “Hey! I can’t see!!” Trainers and grunts alike began yelling out to each other in anguish. “Where am I!?” The pokémon were also affected by Mina’s power, letting out their cries and grunts. The black screaming, moaning masses tried to squirm their way free, but it was no use. It was amazing! All attacks had been stopped, making it possible for us to slip by unharmed.

Brennen was rendered speechless, but she tried to speak anyway, “Ho- how can. What? We… oh my.” I just chuckled at her stuttering. However, while I was laughing, unbeknownst to me, the love of my life was suffering. “Ughh” Mina gave out a pained grunt earning my undivided attention. I quickly looked to her, and my blood ran cold. Her image was blurry as parts of her body transformed into her fluffy Zoroark form but then quickly shifted back into human. Her eyes were wide with pain as jets of black energy emitted from the orbs leaving her jet black hair disheveled and mangled. “I- I can’t k- keep this up… for, long! We, need, to… go now!”

Seeing her like this was tearing me apart inside. I immediately jumped into action pushing Brennen into the room where the darkness on the floor split to move around her instead of consuming her as well. I felt adrenaline pump through my system as I turned to Mina and swept her off her feet. In her current condition, I knew she wouldn’t have the strength to move, so it was up to me to carry her across the room. With her in my arms, I took my first step into the blackness to find that it avoided my feet as well.

Dr. Brennen was taking cautious steps towards the door across the room. Assuming that’s where she was headed, I caught up with the doctor and began hurriedly pushing her to the destination. “We’re almost there Mina, just a little bit longer!” She responded with a heavy breath that let out more dark energy, “P- please… Hurry!” We passed by so many trainers and pokémon alike, all screaming out in the blackness, trying to struggle free.

Brennen was the first to cross over the threshold to the next hallway and I nearly knocked her over with Mina cradled in my arms. “Mina! Let it go! PLEASE! Stop now!!” I cried out to her in desperation. I crouched on one knee and wrapped my arms around her phasing form. The flames diminished from her eyes as she let out another strained yelp. Upon her final sound, the black flames in the room swirled and exploded away from its victims before dissipating in thin air.

Mina had her eyes shut tight. A bead of sweat ran down her cheek but didn’t get very far before I wiped it up with my thumb. She slowly opened her emerald irises and gave me a weak smile. “Heh, heh… Did I do good Lukey?” her voice was hoarse as she gave out heavy, tired pants. She wanted to know how she did? That was the worst thing I had ever seen her do! I was stuck in her eyes, trapped with no response, but somehow I found a few words. “Mina,” I took a short pause as the yelling and battles once again resumed in the lobby. “I- I’m sorry. I didn’t, I didn’t know it would hurt you like that. You scared the shit out of me!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I’m just… tired is all.” I brought her closer to me and wrapped her into a hug. Dr Brennen stood nearby also panting and shaking in her heeled shoes. “Um, what. Wha… That was. I- I don’t.” You know, for a scientist, she certainly wasn’t very fast on the uptake. That flaw might come in handy later for when I knew we would be interrogated for every piece of information we had. Truthfully though, I was getting sick of her constant stammering, “BRENNEN! CASTFORM! ARCHANGEL!” I shouted in broken statements to attempt to return her into coherency.

As I wanted, she snapped out of her conflicting thoughts and focused on the problem at hand. “AH! The Bio-chamber is this way! Follow me!” Mina was still too weak to walk, so I again took the liberty of carrying her to trail behind the doctor. “Hey, no. Put me down, I- I can walk.” I heard my passenger let out her weak claim, but I wouldn’t have any of it, “No! You can carry me, I can carry you! Just rest honey, I got you.”

Mina was not that much heavier than my bag, and as heavy as it was, for some reason, my dear felt as light as a feather. Dr. Brennen had gotten quite a head start down the hallway, but I managed to catch up with her rather quickly even with Mina in my arms.

After running for a few minutes, turning corners and seeing door after door pass us by; the sounds of the war in the lobby began to diminish as we came upon a large metallic door. Even I was surprised to find that it was wide open. This door was massive! I mean, it was like the size of a building, but it looked like a bank vault door! To the side, there was a console with a slot right through the middle, which was what I assumed was where Brennen would swipe her card… if she needed to that is.

“But how!?” The professor was taking the open door a lot better than she was the lobby incident. She didn’t even stutter, “I’m the only one with access to this door!” I put Mina back on her feet and she gave a wobble, but was fully able to stand on her own now. Dr. Brennen was too busy freaking out over the door to hear the commotion coming from inside of it. I looked to Mina as I held her to my side. She could hear it as well; it wasn’t very loud, but it sounded like there was a battle ahead. Within the door there were three more doors, but these were standard unlike the big vault one. I took a few steps within the room with Mina by my side.

The doctor followed us through just a few steps behind, “The chamber is just straight ahead… hey, what’s that noise?” Dr. Brennen finally heard the sounds emanating from the door ahead of us. I cautiously put a hand on the knob and twisted it. The mechanisms were smooth and allowed the object to be pushed open with no effort at all. As it swung to the side, I could see more and more of the room’s contents. It was really something; the Bio-chamber was quite a bit larger than the lobby was, and I didn’t even notice a glass dome while we were outside earlier today. A small part of the chamber had metallic flooring with a raised pedestal stretching into the air as tall as I was with round stairs leading up on each side. At the top was a bunch of hanging wires from the ceiling connected to three computer display monitors. The rest of the room was comprised of grass and trees and water… it looked just like it did outside, and it was raining. I hadn’t been able to hear any wind or rain drops because of the battles, but sure enough, it was pouring outside as the water cascaded down the sides of the glass dome.

What we saw next confirmed the noises we could hear from outside. Caleb was fighting all out with three Archangel grunts. Terkin, Glade and Gyro were fighting and winning against two Houndooms and a Grovile, while Juko, and Kimi along with Caleb himself, were fighting hand to hand with the three grunts. Seeing the young trainer fight like this, I was quite impressed; it seemed as though he and his pokémon were in perfect sync. He threw a punch and clocked a grunt in the face. As the first enemy stumbled backwards, Kimi the Emolga scrambled up Caleb’s back and jumped from his shoulder delivering the next grunt a lightning bolt attack.

My attention was pulled away from their fight when I heard Dr. Brennen gasp. “YOU! Let Cast form go!” On top of the raised floor was another scientist dressed in a sterile white lab coat. He had his back turned to us, but I could see that he held Castform within a class capsule. Next to him, there was a large Tyranitar and I could see something red and blinking on the back of its head. Upon hearing Brennen speak, the scientist turned around to face us. He had blonde hair and a weird springy thing spiraling around his head… is it, hair? A hat?? I couldn’t tell from where we were. What I did see, was the eerie shine reflecting off the man’s glasses originating from the monitors.

He brought his arms out to his sides with a book in one hand and the capsule in the other. “Ah, doctor Brennen. Vaht a surprise. It is soo unexpecting to see you here. I sot had told zeh troops to lock everyone awey…” This man’s accent was a bit off putting, but he seemed to have a very calm, or cocky, demeanor. “How did you get in here and what do you want with that pokémon, Colress!?” The scientist raised an eyebrow and started to laugh to himself.

He put his arms down at his sides and I could hear Castform call out for healp from within its prison. “You think I, the greatest mind of zis century cannot get through your lousy door? And vaht evah do you mean? You of all people shood know why I need zis pokémon… After all, it is zeh reason why I vahs discharged from zis very laboratory.”

“Don’t tell me you're still chasing after your crazy delusions!”

“HA! Delusions? You really have no idea how close I have come to achieving zem. My time vith team Plasma may have been short and intolerable, but I vahs able to run a few successful experiments… of course you know of zeh shadow triad, you should know, zose vher mine.”

The Tyranitar turned around to face us and took a few steps forward to stand in front of Colress. “I apologize for cutting our conversation short, but I am afraid I must take my leave.” The man put the book in his pocket, ran a hand through his blonde hair and began to walk down the stairs. “You can’t be serious!” I laughed at his calmness of the situation, “You can’t honestly believe that we’re going to just let you walk out of here!”

“And who iz going to stop me? You?” Colress came to the bottom of the stairs, Castform in hand. His tone was mocking as he raised a hand to adjust his glasses. “I disagree.” He snapped his fingers and almost immediately, the massive Tyranitar jumped from the top of the catwalk and with a loud thud and a crack in the floor, it landed right in front of Mina and me.

“Zaht trainer over zehr is your only hope, and it looks like he iz a little tied up at zeh moment.” I took another look over at Caleb who indeed did have his hands full. One of the grunt’s pokémon were down but two of his own were fainted, leaving Caleb with only Juko to back him up with the two humans he was taking on; the third being knocked out.

“Vhell then, as zhey say, gooten-tahg.” Colress then smiled and waved at us and started to head for the door right behind us. “NO!!” Dr. Brennen charged at the blonde man, but she didn’t make it very far before being whipped by the Tyranitar’s tail. Brennen was hurled backwards and slammed against the wall where she gave out a weak whine and lost consciousness.

“Oops. So sorry doctor, but you vher in my vhey, and you two are also blocking my path…” Before I could even blink, that huge Tyranitar was right in our faces with its claws raised, readying a metal claw. I didn’t have much time to react, Mina was holding onto my shoulder for support, still exhausted from the previous use of her powers; quite frankly, I surprised she hadn’t turned back into a Zoroark by now. The giant swung at us as its claws ripped through the air leaving behind shimmering sparkles of light. I did the only thing I could.

At the last second I pushed Mina as far away from me as I could. She was hurtled to Dr. Brennen’s unconscious body as she slid along the shiny metallic floor coming to a stop to sit on her rump. She was safe for the most part. I however, was not so lucky. I felt the claws dig into my shoulder accompanied by the icy sting of cold steel. The attack didn’t stop there, it continued to slice me across my chest, ripping my black shirt to shreds; letting the soulstone peek out through the tattered shreds and splaying open my raw flesh exposing it to the air. “AAAggghhhhu!!” I screamed in pain as the claws left my body, not that they felt any better being in me, but the brunt of the pain had finally hit me after it was over. “LUKE!” I heard Mina scream my name, but I couldn’t look up from the ground, my hand on my chest trying to cover the damage.

Thankfully, the wound wasn’t very deep; I would have to say it was only about a half inch into me. Never the less, the scratch went all the way from my left shoulder to the bottom of my right ribs. I kneeled as the pain wracked my body; it was like he had slashed me everywhere at once. Blood immediately began flowing from the gouge left behind. As if insult to injury, I heard that sick bastard chuckle as he slowly walked by me. I reached a hand out and held on to Colress’s boot as he passed. I at least earned his attention as he stopped. “You’re… n- not going, anywhere!” I tried to sound tough, but it was no use, my voice cracked as I winced through the burning in my chest and I ended up sounding like a typical weakling.

“Oh, Tyranitar…” The scientist let out with a sing-songy tone. The beast looked to him for orders. “I sink zat zis one needs anozah… zis time, please try to not hold back.” I looked up to the pokémon to see it glaring down on me. “Y- You don’t have to do this…” I attempted to talk the pokémon down, but he wasn’t having any of it. I saw sparks fly from the Tyranitar’s body as it lifted its tail. I had no choice but to let the man go and roll over to dodge a second strike. The tail slammed on the floor where my body was just a second ago. The beast gave a loud roar and I heard another weak yelp from Mina. In a few short moments a small shadowball came flying from the left and pelted the green dragon in its face.

The attack was small and weak; like hitting a battleship with a snowball. I looked over at Mina to see that she had dropped her illusion and returned to her Zoroark form. The clothes she wore hung loosely on her smaller form and the shoes, kicked off to make way for her clawed feet. I heard the Tyranitar give out an unintelligible roar as it started to struggle, scraping its face. It seems the shadowball wasn’t meant to do much damage, but it was laced with nightdaze.

The black scribbles coated the beast’s eyes blinding it, allowing me to make my move. While it was struggling to free itself, I slowly and painfully got up on my feet. “L-Luke, get away from that thing!” I heard Mina call from the sidelines, but I couldn’t just run away! Everyone was fighting and if I didn’t fight too, then I wouldn’t be able to live this down.

In the Tyranitar’s struggle, it turned around and I could once again see the red blinking object attached to its neck. Throughout this whole time, it hasn’t said a single intelligent thing and maybe that thing had something to do with it. I began to make my way to the dragon’s backside. I felt the pain in my chest slightly subside as another spurt of adrenaline made its way through my veins. Mustering up all my strength, I managed to avoid a second tail swing and vault onto the roaring monster’s back. I held on tightly to the rigid plates and spines protruding outward and climbed to sit on the top spine.

The Tryanitar immediately tried to throw me off, but I held on, ignoring the aching through my entire body, I came upon the blinking object attached to the beast’s neck. It looked like the round object was welded into the pokémon’s armored plates. Pulling it off was not an option, I had to destroy this thing, just looking at it was painful. With each passing second it released red sparks followed by the Tyranitar crying out in pain, or confusion… it’s hard to tell when they can’t voice their opinion.

With the blinking disc in my sights, I balled up my fists and begun to strike at the device. After four or five hard hits, I pulled away to see that my attacks had done nothing. “LUKE! What in Arceus’s name are you doing!?” I glanced over my shoulder to see that Caleb had emerged victorious from his fights. All three grunts and their pokémon were rendered unconscious. The bad thing was that only he and Glade were left standing, and neither one of them looked any better than I did at the moment.

Just then, I saw something on the ground at Caleb’s feet. I was in luck; it was a rock… a rather large one at that. “Caleb! Throw me that rock!” My voice shook as I yelled at him. The Tyranitar, blind, in pain, probably angry, and stuck with a human on its back; let out a couple loud growls and roars as two more tiny shadowballs pelted it in the face. Mina was wobbling on her legs with her paws out in front of her, panting hard. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the rock I had noticed on the ground flying towards me. With both hands, I was able to catch it just in time. It was perfect; almost looking like an anvil.

The Tyranitar was thrashing about and my grip was slipping because of the blood from my wound. I held the rock above my head and as hard and fast as I could, brought it down onto the blinking disk. I thought it would just fizz out, becoming inactive and releasing the pokémon from its control, but that’s not entirely all that it did. When the device was smashed open, there was a moment of silence, the machine fell apart spilling its contents out of the broken display. Then there was a high pitched ring that started low, but got higher and higher. I crossed my arms for what I was absolutely sure what was about to happen.

The device exploded. It wasn’t a very big explosion, but it was enough to knock me from the pokémon’s back. The explosion was enough to blow me back to the door next to Mina who collapsed at my side. “Luke! Luke! O-oh Arceus Luke, you're really hurt!” The large dragon gave out a final growl as it fell to the ground motionless. My left arm hurt so bad, I had a hard time seeing straight. I looked down at my arms to find burn marks from the flames and the rock I held was charred black.

We weren’t finished here. Caleb and Glade came running to my side. “Holy shit Luke!” The trainer voiced his concerns, but I paid them no heed. Beginning to try to stand, I got nothing but complaints and protests to all three people standing around me. “No! You can’t get up; we need to get you some help!” Glade spoke to me for the first time since we were in the river, but of course I couldn’t respond because Caleb was right there.

“Guys! Colress… j-just walked out of here with… with Castform! We have to…” I groaned out in pain as I got back up on my feet. My left arm limply hung to the side useless. I could tell it had been dislocated at the shoulder, and it hurt even worse than the scratch, worse than the burns from the explosion, but I had to move or archangel will get away with that pokémon! “grrrahh! We have to get it back!”

“You're right…” I looked up to Caleb from my spread crouched stance. Both Mina and Glade looked at him wide eyed and gave out questionable growls. “I get it. We can’t let that guy get away with that pokémon.” Caleb held out an arm to support me which I gladly too him up on. Glade helped Mina to stand straight as well and with that, we started to stagger as fast as we could down the hallway.

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(Lobby)
The battle between trainers and Archangel has subsided. The grunts were defeated, but not all of the trainers were left standing, even some of the pokémon had outlasted their partners. The doors that led to the dark stormy clouds outside opened and immediately soldiers burst in with their weapons. “This is the Unova Department of Safety! Everybody on the ground NOW!”

The trainers weakly laid down on the ground as the UDS ran around the room inspecting the scene. A K-9 unit followed in as well. Four Arcanine began to sweep the rooms searching for any kind of bombs or contraband. “A unit, how is your situation copy?” A gruff voice sounded across multiple walkies attached to several troops now spread throughout the facility. “Sir, the situation is under control already. Looks like the hostages fought back… and, won.”

“Don’t let any of them leave, we can question them later.”

“Sir!”

In the silence, the light clicking of boots could be heard in the hallway. All of the UDS troops quickly turned to the hallway and raised their guns. A man in a lab coat with blonde hair emerged from the hallway into the lobby. He quickly stopped as he saw he was surrounded by armed men. In his left hand was a glass capsule containing a grayish pokémon. It was trying to break free but to no avail, its squishy body just couldn’t do it.

“You! Drop the pokémon!”

“Oh my…” Colress gave out a sigh as he threw out a pokéball, releasing an Abra. “Looks like I cannot avoid zis after all. I really don’t like teleportation zhat much.”

Just then two more trainers appeared in the hallway and one of them looked absolutely mangled. He was being supported by another injured trainer as they both limped toward the lobby. “Hold your fire! We got civilians!” one of the soldiers called out the command and everyone lowered their weapons. Colress put on a surprised look as he looked over his shoulder to see the two kids and their remaining pokémon trailing behind. For some reason that Zoroark was wearing a pink shirt and shorts.

“So, you sink you can stop me? Heh… Not likely. Abra, Use teleport. Take us back to base.” The pokémon nodded its head. “AAAbraaaa!”

“NOOO!!” The most injured trainer separated himself from the one supporting him and began staggering faster towards the scientist. His left arm swung loosely at his side as he raised a rock with his right. Psychic energy began to swirl around the blonde man and the Abra.

The trainer threw the charred rock at the scientist and fell forward onto his knees. The other trainer and the two pokémon caught up with him and kneeled by his side. The earthen object flew through the air straight on course for its target. Colress and the Abra began to disappear. In the nick of time, the rock smashed against the glass capsule containing Castform, smashing it open and letting the pokémon free from its prison.

Castform flew out of the teleportation radius just as the two disappeared from sight, leaving nothing behind. The pokémon flew into the hallway and hovered over the young man who had thrown the rock. “Form! Cast- Castform!!” Luke looked up to the pokémon with a weak smile and half open eyes. “I’m… just glad, you're okay…” These were his final words before passing out into the arms of the oddly clothed Zoroark. It started gasping and tearing up at the loss of its trainer.

The other trainer put his hand on the pokémon’s shoulder and attempted to console the crying creature. “Sir! I found the employees they are all uninjured!” a soldier said as he exited the computer room. Another soldier responded, “Good. Looks like we have some cleaning up to do, but other than that, this situation is contained.”

“But sir, the mad doctor got away…”

“It’s pointless to worry about that now. The important thing is that he didn’t get away with Castform.” The UDS troops began restraining the Archangel grunts with zip ties and carrying them outside. The pokémon were returned to their balls and sent through a scanner that would determine their true owners. Once the trainers were determined to not be a threat they were told to stand and be filed into rooms where they would give any information they had that would help with the investigation.

The scientists started to tend to the wounded in the Weather Institute infirmary. The older trainer with the claw marks and severe burns was taken and given immediate care. The younger trainer was led into a room with a couple guards to be questioned along with the Zoroark and Galade.

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Somewhere miles away from the Weather Institute, a blond man and his pokémon appear out of thin air. Being teleported instantly across a massive expanse of space, time had temporarily stopped for him. He held a glass capsule in his hand; it used to carry a very rare, and a much needed pokémon. Now, it is broken, the shards floating through the air in slow motion as time unpauses itself. The sound of glass shattering can be heard throughout the dimly lit laboratory the two appeared in.

“SHIT! Arceus damn zaht boy!” The blonde man exclaimed, throwing the shattered, empty capsule to the side. The Abra standing next to him looked up and gave out a ‘braaa?’ The scientist put a gloved hand on the pokémon’s head and began to stroke it through its fur. “Not to worry my furry friend. I have just enough data to continue my work. Castform’s loss will only delay my efforts…”