Ariston ran down the hallway of the hospital. Nurses and doctors were getting calls of friends and families in Jubilife City. The air was filled with panic as news spread like fire through out the hospital. Some cried, others made frantic phone calls to loved ones to make sure they were safe. Everyone's mind was filled with thoughts of the worst, it was an indescribable scene of chaos.

Ariston turned though the halls from which he'd calmly walked down just moments prior, before news of the City's attack had reached him. In the hospital rooms he passed, he managed to glance at some TVs, every station broadcasting the same thing...the city, being attacked. He forced himself to look away, if he saw in detail the events that were happening, he might lose his nerve to go.

Back in the lobby of the hospital, the several trainers and patients waiting were stuffed around the front desk, hungry for information about the events unfolding. He quickened his pace to a now desperate run. Ariston darted out of the lobby, pushing the folding doors to the mining city outside.

He stopped for a moment.

The sun was setting. A warm flow of orange light cascaded on Oreburgh City, giving off a false sense of tranquility to the atmosphere. Ariston looked around. He needed to find Rorak and tell him about the events happening. Such a powerful trainer would be needed against Team Galactic.

He could only hope Rorak was still in his Gym after their fight, the Oreburgh Gym Leader would be the best hope Jubilife City had. Granted, Ariston didn't know Rorak personally that well, but as he learned in the Academy, the Gym Leaders were essentially the protectors of the towns and cities they lived in, it was their duty to keep people safe. Since Jubilife City didn't have a Gym Leader, Rorak would have to look over both. 

Ariston set foot on the street, and began planning a route to Rorak's Gym, he could probably get there pretty fast, but he'd be wasting time he didn't have. 

it was at this point Ariston saw a car, speeding towards him from the direction of Rorak's Gym. From where Ariston was, he could see the faint outline of a man driving, with any luck, it would be Rorak, and he would already know about what was happening in the City.

Ariston squinted -- As his eyes set upon the figure in the car, he sighed in relief. It was Rorak.

He stepped out into the street, perhaps not the best idea with a speeding car coming towards you, but hopefully Rorak would recognize him and stop. Ariston needed to get to the city somehow, and it looked like Rorak would be his best bet.

As the car made a sharp turn onto the street Ariston stood in, Rorak turned his head to the boy standing aside his car, running towards him.

He immediately recognized Ariston as the challenger he had just fought, and judging by the look on his face, he already knew what was happening in the city.

Rorak rolled down his passenger side window, and stopped his car momentarily, if only to see what the kid needed.

"Rorak," Ariston panted out, slightly out of breath from sprinting through the hospital, "The City, it--

"I know, I'm going," Rorak returned, not wanting to waste time, "stay here with your Pokemon until I get back,"

Rorak began to lift his foot off the brakes, but before he could, Ariston was quick to make another plea.

"Hold on!" he yelled, "You have to take me too!"

Rorak was a Gym Leader, it was his job to keep people safe, bringing this kid to a terrorist attack zone would be the most endangering thing he could do.

"Not a chance, kid, it's way too dangerous," Rorak returned, "stay he--"

"I don't care how dangerous!" Ariston frantically yelled, moving closer to Rorak's window, "I have friends in the city, and one way or another I'm getting there -- with or without you."

That didn't sit well with Rorak, while he didn't have time to stay and convince Ariston to remain in the hospital with his Pokemon, he knew that if Ariston did go, as he planned to, he'd be much safer under the protection of a Gym Leader.

Rorak sighed, considering what to do.

Ariston didn't have time to wait, he turned away from Rorak's car and began to move forward.

Before he could take a single step, Rorak called to him, "Hold on!"

Ariston shifted his weight back and held his position aside Rorak's car.

"Fine," Rorak said with a sigh, "get in."

"Thanks," Ariston said in a serious tone.

Rorak rolled up his window and revved his engine, a clear sign to Ariston to not waste any more time. Ariston ran to the passenger side door, and immediately whipped it open. He climbed inside and felt his already nervous body fall onto the cold leather of the soft interior seats. The sensation of cold leather against his perspiring skin sent goose-bumps though his body. The moment Ariston shut his door, Rorak shifted gears, and accelerated down the road.

"Listen to me," Rorak said, as they made their way down the street, "you're in no way going to fight, I'm taking you to find your friends, got it?"

Ariston nodded.

The impact of nervousness about the situation of the city finally hit Ariston as he began to think of the horrors he had seen on the television screen. Ariston's breaths were short and frightful, it felt like someone's icy hands were choking him. His face had traces of perspiration on it, his spine seemed to be electric with anxiety.

Rorak remained stone-faced. His eyes narrowly focused on the road, as he disregarded any speed-limits or stoplights and sped towards the city.

"What are you going to do?" Ariston started as Rorak continued to accelerate and change lanes to pass slower vehicles, "I mean...didn't all your Pokemon get pretty beaten up during the fight?"

Rorak gave a dry exhale of a chuckle.

"Kid, I've been doing this a long time," he replied, "the Pokemon you fought were at the league standard level of fighting. Regulation prevents me from making them any stronger, and if they get too tough fighting trainers, I'm required to replace them."

Rorak pointed to the numerous Pokeballs occupying the back seat.

"My personal Pokemon," he continued, "They're a different story, and they're a hell of a lot stronger."

"But what if --"

"If something happens to me, I have some for you to use too."

Ariston closed his mouth. Rorak seemed as calm as he did when they started their Gym fight. He showed no traces of panic or fear whatsoever. It was a mystery how anyone could be calm right now to Ariston, people were dying just a short drive away. People in the City were being murdered, and right now they were helpless to prevent any of it. Rorak seemed amazingly unfazed.

"I got a call from the Chief of Police in Jubilife City." Rorak said, breaking the moment of silence, "He explained the situation, and that every experienced and powerful trainer would need to help fight."

Fight...this sounded like war to Ariston. There would be no Officials to stop the match this time --- the Pokemon would fight with the unrestrained the intention to kill. He swallowed his nervousness and breathed a sigh.

"Some of the advanced trainers at my Gym are already on their way...those who were willing to fight anyway," Rorak continued, "As soon as we get there, I want you to find your friends, then get out whatever way you can, understand?"

"O-Okay," Ariston said, calming his voice as much as he could. Still, he spoke with a slight quiver in his tone, "I understand."

"Good," Rorak answered. "I released all my personal Pokemon and informed them about the terrorists, and who they'll be fighting."

Rorak's voice lowered.

"They're ready to kill."

A frigid shiver ran though Ariston's body.

Kill?

The word frightened Ariston. He was far from a soldier --- how could he know if he had what it took to kill anyone? The city was a war zone, riddled with Pokemon killing and being killed, terrorists, guns, and fires lighting up the streets...It was hell.

For the first time in his life, the possibility of dying was before him. Ariston hands were shaking.

"Let the Pokemon out, they'll do their job. Just organize them and help them out where you can, don't let them get distracted or caught off guard," Rorak commanded, "Play it smart, and you'll be fine."

Ariston wasn't that naive, he knew Rorak was just trying to calm him. The city was insanely dangerous, going in now was stupid, and would probably get the both of them killed. Still, they sped towards the city.

Both remained silent for a few moments, each thinking about the coming battles, and the danger of the Team Galactic members.

Team Galactic...The name wasn't inordinately frightening...the name sounded almost misleading to their true murderous nature. Ariston took a moment to recall what he had learned about them, both in The Pokemon Academy and what he had seen on The News. Most people were aware of the fact that The Police and Sinnoh Government didn't have much information about them, really. It was known that they are a terrorist group who kill, steal, and usually, use any means necessary to finish the job assigned by either an employer, or another outside factor, whatever they may be. They've been responsible for other attacks on cities, too, this was far from their first job. Four years back they were responsible for a bombing of Veilstone City Bank, twelve died, and a combined 100 Million dollars were stolen in both electronic funds, and cash. They were fast, they were deadly, and they were heartless.

Prior to the events in Veilstone City, Team Galactic had killed countless others in numerous robberies and attacks. Sometimes, nothing was even taken, the attacks would just be a bombing of a research facility, or a Pokemon Center...They would even go as far as to attack Schools. It seemed that they just wanted people to die, or simply had no conscience or value for life. Occasionally, when they wanted to attack a highly secure building, they used their most drastic tactic...They would deploy a suicide bomber who would wear an explosive vest stuffed with shrapnel, glass, metal, and other sharp objects used to harm and kill bystanders. In Ariston's opinion...these people were bat-shit insane.

However, Ariston knew that the bombing of the Veilstone City Bank was the most recent attack they've made...for whatever reason, they had decided to be dormant for four years, and it seemed they've decided to make another attack, or robbery, whatever this was on Jubilife City. 

Ariston looked over to Rorak, who still remained in a calm composure, despite the fact he was nearing ninety miles an hour on the freeway to Jubilife City. 

"H-How can you be so calm right now?" Ariston asked

Rorak raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not Ariston, I'm not in the slightest bit calm," Rorak answered, ironically in a cool, collected tone.

"Then how come you're acting so casual right now?" Ariston asked again, slightly upset by Rorak's unconcerned behavior. 

"Because right now, it's out of my control."

Rorak looked over to Ariston and sighed, judging by the distorted look on his face, Ariston obviously didn't quite understand.

"There's nothing I can do right now that'll help those people in Jubilife City, and that includes worrying. The best way to get through this is to keep a level head, kid. Anger, fear, anxiety...they're all wasted emotion right now." He continued.

"I guess that makes sense..." Ariston answered, but his words were hollow...he didn't seem to handle the situation the same way Rorak did.

Sure, there was logic in what Rorak told him, but it seemed almost inhuman to be so nonchalant. Ariston didn't care that worrying and anger were "wasted emotion", he still felt them, and couldn't understand how anyone couldn't right now.

"Psychic types are gonna be important," Rorak started, "they'll be able to shield you if any Team Galactic jackass decides to take a shot at you with a gun instead of a Pokemon."

Ariston tried to calm himself again...Each mention of death, killing, or guns made his body go numb. They were getting closer to the city, it was visible now from the freeway the sped down. Some smoke from the fires formed an eerie cloud of dark smog above Jubilife, and it was all they could see at this point. Before, when Ariston was in the city, the streets were alive, people were almost walking shoulder to shoulder in most major streets, neon lights from advertisement signs constantly cascaded down though the city, and made even the darkest hours of night as bright as day. At some times, the noise of citizens and subway cars was almost deafening, but now...the life was gone. All the people had vanished almost in a flash, windows were closed, signs were out, and the silence roared... Besides some small explosions from Pokemon attacks, and fires emitting light, The City was dead.

"So, uh," Ariston began, "you sure seem to know a lot about stuff like this. Have you fought Team Galactic before?" Ariston didn't ask the question out of curiosity, but rather to keep his mind off of something but fear.

Rorak remained silent for a moment. Ariston just sat nervously in the car's leather seat staring at the city before them. The lanes going into Jubilife City were nearly empty - The lanes leaving were crammed full of cars, end to end. Everyone who was able was trying frantically to leave before things got worse.

The streetlights gave a dim hum, then flickered on. The sky was growing darker.

"A few years back," he finally answered, "Galactic members were trying to rob a research facility in Hearthrome City. I was vacationing there at the time."

Ariston brought his eyes from the city back to Rorak as he began his story.

"Whatever they wanted, they were willing to kill for it..."

The words left Rorak's mouth with a sense of sorrow.

"I had some personal Pokemon with me, so I was able to help out. They attack in huge groups, even for small jobs, so any resistance is unprepared. The leaders of Team Galactic don't value their member's lives...Why should we?"

Rorak sharply swerved the car into the exit lane into Jubilife City.

"Thank god I was able to kill three of those fuckers before they escaped," he shot bitterly

Ariston didn't know what to say. Rorak had killed these people before, killed people, and he was grateful for it. 

Could he do it? Could Ariston kill someone if he had to? He asked himself in silence.

Yes. 

The answer was yes. If those bastards were killing people just for their own pointless reasons, then they deserved to die. As far as Ariston was concerned, he was doing the world a favor.

"Do you understand, Ariston?" Rorak asked, "Galactic members are less than people. They are soulless, Ariston. Don't show any mercy to them, because they sure as hell wont to you."

Ariston made up his mind.

"I understand. I'll do whatever I have to."

Rorak entered the city. The sped down the empty streets towards the center, where the attack was happening.

It was time. Live or let die.

------------------------------------------------------------

Blaziken groaned in boredom as she tossed a small rock outside the cave and watched it sink into the snow. Man, she was bored. Iota had been gone forever, and she hated walking outside in this weather. All she could do was wait.

'I hope he's coming back...' she let her mind wonder, '...he -better- come back...or I'll be pissed.'

"What to do, what to do..." she said out loud

She breathed a small flame as she let out a large sigh. She was basically curled in a ball, he knees were at her chest, and her chin rested on her knees, an expression of boredom still on her face.

Blaziken scrunched her face as her boredom grew, after all, a cold dark cave wasn't very exciting...

She stood up and paced around the cave a bit. A few things crossed her mind, the severity of the storm, the wild Snover and Abombasnow, and finally, Iota.

He pacing around the rocky cave slowed to a halt as thoughts of the strange traveler filled her head. With another breathy sigh, she sat against the wall of the cave where she previously sat once again.

There was no use denying it. Even though he'd tried to strangle her, ignored her, and left her in this cave, she still liked him...Blaziken shook her head in realization...Being around him that is...Right, right, being around him.

It was nice having someone to travel with, really. Sure she'd met other wild Pokemon before, but they're either looking for food or a mate...not very interesting for conversation. Hell, she'd been alone most of her life. She had faint memories of her parents, her mother mostly, but never really spent any time with them. 

With the way things are in nature, almost all young Pokemon lose one or both parents to trainers or predators. Her childhood home consisted of a shabby shelter underneath a large tree's roots. The soil was dug out from under the tree, allowing them to sleep beneath it at night and during times of danger, it wasn't much, but it was safe. It was a big tree, in a bigger forest, and it was her home.

Blaziken, who was only a Torchic at the time, and her parents would usually only go beneath the tree at night or when they needed to avoid danger. She preferred the outdoors though, when she could, she loved being outside in the fresh air of the large forest they lived in with her family. She remembered playing with her father the most, running around, wrestling with each other, the usual father and daughter stuff. Sometimes he'd pretend to be a Blastoise, and she'd scamper around the forest running from him. Her mother, on the other hand, wasn't around as much. She did most of the hunting, and usually came back later in the day with food for her and her father. At night, before she'd go to sleep beneath the heavy roots, if she were lucky, her mother would tell her stories of their ancestors.

She'd hear about the fierce stories of the Blaziken ancestors in their family. Some were battles, some stories of desperation, there were countless, and each one enthralled her to every word. Some even involved her father, she enjoyed those the most. They always had a happy ending, too. She liked that. It was a happy family she had.

Then came the day. She was playing with her father out in front of their shelter-tree for most of the day. When the sun set, her mother usually returned with food, and they would settle down to eat. Not this time though.

Her mother never returned. The young Torchic waited with her large Blaziken father, for the return of her mother.

They waited until it became dark, and more dangerous wild Pokemon started to come out. Now worried, the father led his daughter into their shelter to avoid any unnecessary danger. The young Torchic didn't quite understand what was happening, the absence of her mother just seemed strange, rather than tragic. She would frequently ask for her mother throughout the day, and she knew now that it must have broke her father's heart. Her father, fearing the worst, told his daughter to stay inside their shelter while he went and searched for his mate. Torchic, of course, obeyed.

Her father ran off as nightfall crept over the forest. He promised he'd be back with her mother in the morning. 

That was the last time she ever saw him.

As morning came, and she awoke peacefully beneath the familiar tree alone. She perked up and wandered outside, expecting to see her mother and father waiting for her, like they were every morning. This time, though, no one was there.

At that moment, Blaziken stopped the recollection of her childhood. She didn't care for bad memories, and didn't want to depress herself any further by dwelling on them.

As much time that had passed between that moment and now, she still feels a sense of abandonment from her parents. Of course she didn't blame them for leaving her...but honestly, in the back of her mind she was somewhat angry at her parents for vanishing like they did, though she would never admit it to herself.

They could be alive somewhere, sure; it was a huge possibility that they were captured by some random trainer wandering through the forest. That was what Blaziken liked to think, that her parents were still together somewhere fighting in the Pokemon League with some professional trainer, taking on and defeating all kinds of unusual, powerful Pokemon.

Of course, that was what she -liked- to think. She knew the odds of her parents being alive were pretty slim, actually. Trainers rarely came into the forest, and even if they did, they were usually lost and in no shape to be capturing Pokemon, not to mention -two- fierce Blaziken. They were most likely killed by something stronger than them. It was nature, the strongest would survive, and it seemed something stronger than both her mother and her father had killed them.

Blaziken used to cry for her parents, back when the shock of being on her own really hit her. At that time, her young mind couldn't understand why they hadn't come back...Perhaps it was something she did? She wondered why they would leave her so suddenly, and what she could have done to make them angry...She couldn't understand.

With time, she came to realize why they really didn't come back...It was just the way things were in the wild. Now a smarter, tougher, evolved Blaziken, she'd accepted he parents fate to whatever or whomever had taken them, and moved on. Besides, it was more enjoyable for her to think about the happy times she remembers with her mother and father, rather than only focusing on their disappearances. Thinking about the stories she remembered was much more fun to her than depressing herself with bad memories.

Letting out a groan, she stood up once again and began pacing. Sitting on the cold ground was making her butt numb.

Walking around the cave once more, her train of thought drifted from her parents to another topic.

Iota, he was a different story.

'He -was- pretty rude,' she thought to herself, 'not to mention a little on the crazy side...what with the strangling me and all.'

"Uurrrghhh, I wish he would get back here already," she said out loud, "I'm bored out of my SKULL!"

Hell, she had known this guy for less than a day, and was already eager for his return.

"Pffs," she started to think, "I dunno why I'm so nice to him, he's not very talkative...Then again, maybe I'm just overly talkative...which means..."

She placed her hands on her head and said audibly, "Urrrgghh! He probably thinks I'm annoying and weird an--"

Before she could speak another word, a figure passed in front of the cave. She saw it with the corner of her eye, and quickly turned to see who it was.

A wild Pokemon? Another person seeking shelter perhaps?

The familiar strong rugged face of Iota walked in from the storm, carrying nothing but some dry pieces of wood.

"H-Hey!" she said in shock as Iota knelt down and began to lay the wood upon the cave's floor, 

"How, uh, how long have you been standing there?" she asked tentatively

Iota didn't seem to even notice her standing beside him. He continued arranging the wood upon the floor into a small pile from which they could be all burned easily.

"Just as talkative as usual..." she muttered to herself

He finished, and stood up.

"There's nothing out there for miles," he began to tell her, "I got some wood from a dead tree, but that's about all there was."

Blaziken calmed her nervousness. For some reason, every time this guy talked, she got chills.

"Yeah, well, we -are- in the middle of nowhere," she answered, "what do ya' think we should do?"

"I can't stay here any longer, I'm wasting time," Iota told her, "whatever was slowing me down before, and I've already recovered."

That was a lie. For the most part, he still felt as drained as he did when he collapsed on the snowy road, his body still ached heavily. Still, he knew Blaziken would use it as an excuse to make him stay, and he needed to find some way out of this winter wasteland. He didn't need any objections as to why he should stay; he itched to get out of the frigid cave.

"Wow, that was fast..." she began, "Alright, I'm sick of this place anyway. Where should we go?"

Iota began to grow annoyed. It seemed Blaziken couldn't understand that he was saying, 'I' while she was saying, 'we'. He intended to leave alone.

He didn't need someone to travel with him, and honestly, he didn't -want- someone to travel with him. His brain told him that Blaziken would be nothing but an obstruction, and that he should go alone. That was obviously the best option, and the easiest option. He didn't need to be bothered by someone else.

"I don't know where you're going, but I'm going south," he said,

"Huh?"

"By myself."

She shifted her weight from one leg to the other as his words sunk in. An expression of both confusion and sadness on her face.

"But..." Was all she managed to say

Iota didn't want to delay any more than he had...He hated being in the same place for too long. Staying in this cold, tiny cave reminded him of a prison. He didn't even notice how depressed the Blaziken standing next to him looked. She idly started at the floor, not a clue as what to say.

She'd dragged him out of the snow, and defiantly saved him from freezing to death...Now he's just leaving with out saying anything. The whole thing felt so cold to her. Did she do something wrong?

Iota took of the thin robe he wore, and dropped it on the ground at his feet. It was so covered in snow at this point, it was chilling his body more. It'd be easier to travel without it.

With that, Iota turned around and began to walk out to the entrance of the cave. Before he took more than a step, an angry voice yelled at him.

"Are you kidding?! I saved you and now you just LEAVE like that?!" Blaziken yelled, she was suddenly enraged by his nerve, her sadness transmuted into anger almost instantaneously, how dare Iota just walk out on her? She almost felt -betrayed- by this.

Iota turned his head around to see the Pokemon yelling at him, his facial expression not changing. There was a moment of silence. The snowfall outside of the cave slowed to an almost halt.

"Not even saying anything now huh?! FINE, GO! See if -I- care," she continued.

Iota hadn't had much experience interacting with others, and so interpreted her words as just an invitation to leave, rather than sarcasm. Upon hearing that, he turned his head around to face the snow, and walked outside, saying nothing.

"FINE! You jerk!" Blaziken yelled, now even angrier that he still wouldn't respond, "Next time you fall face down in the snow DON'T expect me to pick you up again!"

Her words filled the tiny cave and sounded breathy, filled with spite. She was in a huff as she watched him venture into the snow. Her arms crossed, she let out an 'Hmmph'.

Iota didn't qute realize how much he'd hurt Blaziken, and so didn't feel remorse for leaving. She'd helped him, but now she couldn't any more, it was simple in his mind. It was better for him to go alone.

Blaziken was quick to walk out of the cave shortly after Iota did, just in the opposite direction. She didn't want to stay there either, it was time to move on. 

Still angry, she started walking to the North, wanting to get as far away from Iota as she could. 

'...Can't believe I -liked- him' she thought as she walked, 'Pssh, I don't need him either. Hmmph, I'll just go on my own.'

She told herself that she was angry at him, and never wanted to see him again, but deep down, it was more sadness than anger that made up her emotions. It was a complicated feeling, and she hated it.

Iota continued walking South, heading for the path he was traveling on pre-collapse. He wouldn't let that happen this time, he was weak before, now that he'd had a chance to rest, he could travel faster.

Still, his body ached, but he ignored it. He hadn't the slightest clue as to where to begin looking for the doctors, but he knew he had to, somehow. Maybe they could give him some answers...before he killed them.

Blaziken walking North and Iota walking south, the two previous 'friends' were now heading in opposite directions. One feeling angry and saddened, the other feeling nothing. 

After walking for a few minutes, Iota recognized the pathway where he'd previously been traveling. Now that he had his bearings, he continued down the road, walking to where ever it lead him.

------------------------------------------------------------

The jet black BMW raced though the city streets, Rorak firmly gripping the wheel, aside him, Ariston felt an odd sensation in his stomach, it felt similar to the feeling of free-falling, and it made him want to puke. The low hum of the engine climbed in pitch as the car continued to accelerate, Ariston began to notice familiar buildings around him, they were finally in the city.

It was a dead-zone, the black smog from fires rose high in the sky, creating an eerie twilight upon the city. The residents of the city packed the sidewalks, all running in the opposite direction Rorak and Ariston were driving, whatever bravery Ariston thought he had before now felt like stupidity. 

The noise of panic infested the air around them, people were screaming loved ones names, frantically trying to locate a lost friend, relative, or child, but to no use. The car muffled the screams into a incomprehensible mesh of chaos, but Ariston could still hear the panic, he suspected Rorak could too.

There must have been hundreds of them, everyone who valued their lives and had not the intention to fight did whatever they could to flee at this point. People ran at full sprints, some knocked others over trying to escape, it was brutal, it was amazing to Ariston how far humans digress when they fear for their lives.

The cars on the street seemed mostly abandoned, from what Ariston had seen before on the bridge, there'd be no way for anyone to leave the city in a car, which meant that he and Rorak probably wouldn't be leaving the city any time soon.

Some families with smaller children or older grandparents moved as fast as they could in the crowd, but with the others practically running though them, they got practically nowhere, and with the growing panic, many of them were knocked over and quickly trampled by the uncaring mob.

The elderly and young that Ariston saw knocked to the ground seldom resurfaced.

Rorak slammed on the breaks, Ariston's body flew forward, the inertia lifting him off the seat, and was quickly jerked back down by his locking seat-belt.

Ariston winced in shock, and looked up to see the cause of this. Seemed the mob had taken to the streets, and were uncaring about any cars that occupied the street.

"Damnit," Rorak said under his breath, now stopped in the street as his car was quickly swallowed by the ocean of people running in the opposite direction, "It's like trying to swim upstream,"

Rorak sighed, if they got out now and tried to go further on foot, it'd be even harder for them to get anywhere, and Rorak was certainly not going to be able to drive anywhere.

Rorak slammed his hand down on the horn, and began to inch forward. The sound of his car's horn was practically silent to the chaos outside, and wasn't even noticed by the people in front of him.

"What should we do?" Ariston asked,

Rorak didn't answer, he twisted his body to face the back seat, and turned back around with a Pokeball. 

"This,"

Rorak cracked the Pokeball open and released one of his personal Pokemon into the back seat of the car. The familiar white light shot from the Pokeball as the silhouette began to fade into sight. A large, mature Alakazam faded into existence on the back seat.

"Alakazam," Rorak began, pointing out the front windshield, "we need to get though,"

The Alakazam gave a nod, followed by a tough sounding grunt of concentration.

The familiar purple glow of a Psychic Pokemon concentrating began to envelop around Alakazam, who then fell silent.

Ariston waited nervously for something drastic to happen, he knew what a formidable Psychic Pokemon Alakazams were, especially one concentrating like this. Before long, the fruit of Alakazams Psychic endurance began to reveal itself. Ariston looked outside the front windshield, the car was still deep inside a sea of frantic pedestrians, but now, the same eerie psychic purple glow began to appear on the outside of their windshield.

The tiny ball of purple light started out small, no bigger than a tennis ball at most. Almost as soon as the small dot appeared, it began to grow, and stretch further and further along the car. Alakazam, still deep in concentration, remained motionless still. The psychic current along the cars front grew larger still, now covering most of the windshield, and the beginning parts of the side windows.

The transparent psychic light stretched out and out, growing exponentially faster, flowing over the car like skin. The energy stopped when it enveloped then entire front half of the BMW, everything Ariston could see though the windshield seemed to have a purple hue to it. 

Ariston opened his mouth to ask what exactly Rorak was doing, but then quickly shut it and decided to remain silent, he thought it'd be better to just trust Rorak knew what he was doing, after all, he didn't want to sound like a confused hindrance. 

"That'll do just fine, Alakazam, nice work," Rorak complimented his Pokemon, who was still concentrating, "as usual."

Rorak then pressed down confidentially on the accelerator of his car, causing the wheels to instantly whirl back to life and push forward. Ariston felt a strange fear for a moment, the thought that Rorak had just decided to run these people over crossed his mind, but he knew a Gym Leader wouldn't be that crazy.

As the car crept forward, no faster than fifteen miles and hour , what Rorak and Alakazam had planned was now obvious to Ariston. As the people made contact with the semi-transparent wave on the car, the were harmlessly slid off to safety, it was almost a human snow plow. The pedestrians were guides along the groves of the car until they were pushed out of the way, they moved like drops of water sliding down on wax paper, effortlessly gliding along the cars surface.

The people seemed to get the idea after awhile, and some began to move out of the way, other were slid out of the way by the barrier Alakazam had put up. They inched though the crowd, at a crippling slow pace, although the shield would protect the citizens from harm, Rorak still didn't want to plow though the mob and send people flying off of his car.

Rorak and Ariston continued down the street, sliding though the few people who decided they didn't want to move out of the way of the car, and eventually were able to move with more leeway the further they went. The further they continued on, the more and more the crowd thinned, although they were on the main road that left the city, most people interested in evacuation had left already. Those who felt like they didn't want to risk it would probably stay inside their homes or their apartment buildings then simply hope for the best.

Rorak and Ariston drove further still, the frantic ocean of people was nearly empty now, anyone able to leave had fled.

"That'll do, Alakazam, conserve your strength," Rorak told his Pokemon, who immediately complied to his master's command. Alakazam exhaled and relaxed his tensed body, the psychic shield immediately began to fade away, the purple hue around the car dimmed until it faded into the nothingness from whence it came.

"Can you do one more thing for me, Alakazam?" Rorak asked, Alakazam would be the most important Pokemon tonight, due to his psychic nature, he could provide the best defense for everyone, not to mention that Rorak's Alakazam was probably tougher than most others in the city.

'Ka-zam," the Psychic Pokemon said affirmably, nodding his head, 

"I need you to tell me where Team Galactic is, we're close to the center of the city now, they should be close," Rorak continued,

Alakazam closed his eyes once again, slipping into his meditative trance of concentration.

"Can he really find them?" Ariston asked in a quiet voice, the last thing he wanted would be to disturb Alakazam's concentration. Ariston was quite impressed by Alakazam already, he had never seen a psychic Pokemon like this before, or any for that matter, and never really knew the range of their powers, and how they could be used outside of battle.

"If they aren't too far from here, yes," Rorak answered in the same whispering tone, "Alakazam can mentally scan areas, as long as he has been though them physically before, and knows them well enough. Right now, he's separated his mind from has body, and traveling though the streets as if he were on them. When he finds something he'll let us know."

"That's incredible," Ariston said, dumbfounded, "Psychic Pokemon are --"

"Amazing," Rorak said, finishing Ariston's sentence.

Rorak and Ariston silently waited for the Pokemon in the back seat to finish.

Minutes passed by, Alakazam still remained motionless.

------------------------------------------------------------

Alakazam's mental projection of himself drifted through the city streets, not walking, per se, but more like floating downstream by a strong current. Alakazam could see everything as if he were physically there, he was experienced enough to the point where he could see mostly everything clearly, before, when he was a Kadabra, things appeared as nothing but outlines and fuzz.

Everything Alakazam saw had the familiar purple glow to it, but that was to be expected from a mental projection, it was a heavy use of his psychic powers. 

As Alakazam drifted on, he saw dark patches down alleyways and roads, they were noting but darkness to him right now, he hadn't been down those areas before, and so couldn't venture there in his mind yet.

As he traveled down what streets he could, he noticed humans, quite a few humans, actually, on the ground.

Alakazam stopped for a moment to inspect one of the men lying on the curb of the street.

The man was a common white male with dark hair, wearing what once was a clean white dress shirt, which was now drenched in blood. Alakazam saw many large pieces of shrapnel and metal stuck in the mans body, blood still running from the entry and exit wounds. The man's eyes were still open, and his mouth gaped wide -- he must have been gasping for air, the metal probably punctured his lungs.

Alakazam panned his vision to the surrounding areas, and noticed the buildings -- or lack of buildings rather. What had once been there, was now blown down, and severely damaged, rubble and concrete littered the streets, not to mention the few unfortunate folk laying dead under some of the large pieces of stone.

It was obvious some sort of explosion had taken place here, the sheer force of it had sent debris and shrapnel flying though the air at blinding speeds. Seemed that this unfortunate man before him had met his fate from one of the explosions, along with the countless others laying dead and dying along the sidewalks and streets.

Alakazam was a mature, seasoned Pokemon, he had seen death before, both when he was in the wild, and when he had fought with Rorak. He had mentally prepared himself for the worst when Rorak told him that Team Galactic had attacked again, he'd fought against them with Rorak before, and knew how far they would go -- But this, was far worse then Alakazam had thought. As if the bombings didn't bring enough death, Alakazam could still feel lives ending around him ... and close.

Alakazam took a moment to gather himself, he had to remain in control of his emotions. Though he had seen death before, the scene before him, the -massacre- before made him disgusted. His vision began to grow blurry, he was becoming too independent from his body, the more emotions Alakazam felt, the weaker his powers would be, the projection of his mind was based off of control, and for psychic Pokemon, being emotional was the exact opposite of control.

He needed regain focus on his mission, he needed to find where these men were. If he lost control, he would either automatically return to his body, and all this time would be wasted, or worse -- He may become so detached that he wouldn't be able to return at all. If his mind became so independent, or he ventured too far away from his physical body, he'd become so detached that he would be unable to return, ever.

Alakazam concentrated for a moment, and took in the scene before him. He tried to digest all the death both before and behind, as to remain in control. He took a deep breath, and continued on.

His vision began to clear up again, as long as Alakazam kept his focus on the path before him, and not the death on the streets below him, he figured that he should be able to keep in control.

Alakazam kept moving down the roads he was able to travel, he continued to move in the direction where he felt death, that's where Team Galactic would mostly likely be, after all.

Alakazam's vision grew fuzzy again, only momentarily, then returned to normal -- it was his physical body's mind telling him he was going quite far.

"Rorak, it's been ten minutes, we're wasting time waiting like this!" he heard echoing around him, it was the boy that he had seen in the car before, a young trainer if he wasn't mistaken. The boy seemed quite impatient for him to return, Alakazam didn't like that... he needed to take his time, projecting his mind this far was anything but easy. 

"Quiet!" Rorak's voice hissed back in Alakazam's head, "We can't afford to break Alakazam's concentration, Team Galactic is probably using psychic Pokemon to mask their location as well as they can from other trainers, and if we don't know where they are, then we'll be just as useless." 

The voice of Rorak and the boy finished echoing in his head, the two were lucky that he was so experienced at projecting his mind, even the smallest outside factor could break his concentration at this far away.

Alakazam knew Rorak was right, they -were- using psychic Pokemon to mask their location, but, alas, Team Galactic had forgotten one thing.

The Aura of Death reeked from them, even the weakest psychic type Pokemon could pick up on it now. When one ends a life, it changes the persons Psychic Aura, as well as their Spiritual Aura. While Alakazam couldn't read Spiritual Aura, as Lucario and Riolu could, he could still feel the stench of a deathly Psychic Aura radiating ... somewhere close.

As a human murders, and a life is ended at their hands, their Psychic Aura becomes black, and bitter, it makes any Pokemon, even the non psychic types, near them become more violent, and aggressive towards them. The black stain on their Psychic Aura remains there forever, even after they themselves die, any Pokemon under the control of someone with a darkened Psychic Aura would be undoubtedly driven mad. 

His trainer, Rorak had fought against Team Galactic before, and caused death himself, yet didn't have a black aura about him. Alakazam could read something similar to the mark of a killer off of Rorak's Psychic Aura, but it was something much different. Though Alakazam didn't know what other Psychic Pokemon had named it, he'd come to call it The Mark of a Warrior. It showed that the person had ended lives before, but through the ways of defending others, and righteous intent, not though selfishness or malice. Rorak had been defending others in harms way from men with blackened hearts, and so had ended undeserving lives to protect innocent ones. The Mark of the Warrior didn't invoke violence from other Pokemon like the Mark of a Killer as far as Alakazam knew, in fact, in battles with Rorak before when he had been pushed to his limits, picking up on The Mark of the Warrior from his master's Psychic Aura felt ... refreshing, and actually pushed him to fight harder. 

Alakazam didn't know much about the uniqueness of his master's aura, but he was sure on one thing -- every person he'd ever seen in Team Galactic had a blackened aura.

Alakazam, still occupied in the thoughts of both the Aura's of Team Galactic, and that of his master's, turned a final corner.

Alazakam's physical body winced, as did his mind.

His vision became haze, he had gone too far, but the feeling before him couldn't have been clearer. 

He felt them, both police and the black aura's before him. Though his vision was nearly gone, he could hear gunfire, the attacks of Pokemon, and the shouts of men giving orders to their Pokemon in battle.

He'd found them, not with his eyes, but with his mind.

Alakazam closed his eyes, and inhaled.

------------------------------------------------------------

When he opened them, and exhaled, he was back in the car, two concerned trainers staring at him.

The expression on Rorak's face asked the question before his words could.

Alakazam nodded.

"Good," Rorak returned, happy with the result of Alakazam's concentration, he'd obviously found something.

[Rorrrak,] A hypnotic, ghostly voice said in Rorak's mind, the tone was sketchy and low, with a distinctive roll every time an 'r' was pronounced, [I see, a grrreat amount of police officerrs, along with a larrrge numberrr of men I do not rrrrecognize, one mile down this rrroad.]

The voice almost sounded Transilvanian in its accent. Though Rorak would trust Alakazam with his life, on every rare occasion that Alakazam would speak to Rorak, he would get a cold, nervous chill in his spine -- his very bones felt cold from the sound of Alakazam's voice.

"Thank you Alakazam, we couldn't have found them with out you," Rorak said, praising his Pokemon,

Alakazam gave a humble nod, [Of courrrrrse, Masterrrr]

"Lets go then, you know where they are, right?" Ariston said, she sheer condition of the city made the worry for his friends grow larger, ever second that passed by made him feel like he was useless.

"Yes, I do, we'd better get there as quickly as we can. Alakazam, are the roads clear up ahead?"

Alakazam closed his eyes, and shook his head, his mind replaying the scene of rubble and chaos that he had drifted though mentally, there was no way they'd get though in a car.

"Alright then, I'll let you rest for awhile, my friend," Rorak said, withdrawing Alakazam into his Pokeball, and opening his door, "Ariston, lets go."

Ariston and Rorak made their exit from the car, and stepped out onto the city streets, even from where they were, they could smell the stench of burning bodies.

Rorak started down the street perpendicular to their car, "This way, we stop for nothing,"

Ariston nodded, and stood beside Rorak. As soon as Rorak finished strapping the six Pokeballs onto his belt, the two began running down the street.

------------------------------------------------------------

"S-Sir, Dr. Michals sir?" a nervous man behind a computer screen spat out, as he spoke he read, and re-read in information, hoping it was inaccurate, or that he had misread.. No, it was correct, his eyes widened by the reality of the situation.

Dr. Michals sat at a white lab table, his eye was pressed against a microscope, and firmly focused on whatever he was working currently on, he was obviously not eager to be disturbed by the low-level employees monitoring data.

Dr. Michals wore his familiar white lab coat, and black rimmed glasses, the room he was in had a single lab table in the center, and a depressed section of floor, where the motoring station was, below ground level. The room, like everything else in the complex, was white.

"Yes? What it is it?" Dr. Michals said in a sigh, standing up from his table and walking over to the lower section of the room. He made his way down the small set of steps to the monitoring station, where as many as ten people would be at once, all glued to a computer screen watching for changes. 

"Sir, the time-lock on Subject 14 is about to expire, sir," the techie mumbled, the first and last words out of your mouth were 'sir' when you spoke directly to Dr. Michals. He had too much authority under him to risk disrespecting him.

"Oh my," the Doctor said, leaning over, looking at the data set on the screen, "have the satellites picked his location up yet?"

"Sir, no sir... H-he's still in an area off the grid of the satellites ... s-sir." the nervous man returned,

Dr. Michals took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, the problems they'd had with Subject 14 so far had been quite enough, now they're would be more problems.

"Well then. We may have a visitor soon if we don't do something about this, " Dr. Michals said calmly, "And I think you know what a visit from Subject 14 means, or have you forgotten?"

A cold sweat gripped the computer technicians body, his eyes flashed back to the day when Subject 14 was still here, when he... 'escaped'.

"Fix it."

"S-sir, yes sir," he stammered, Dr. Michals stern works awakening him from his flashback.

"Sir, suggest we send Flax, sir," the techie humbly asked, he knew if Flax was sent out, Subject 14 would end up dead, and that seemed like the safest thing to have happen right now.

"Are you suggesting that we kill Subject 14 mister ...." Dr. Michals asked with annoyance, looking down to the nameplate next to the computer for the employee's name, "... Mr. Brooks?"

(yes)

"Sir, no sir, " Brooks said, despite his hopes,

"Are you aware that Subject 14 was a rare success?" 

"Sir, yes sir,"

"And are you aware of Flax's record with engagements?

"Sir, yes sir," Brooks said again, beginning to speak with a quiver in his voice,

"And ARE you aware that if he ends up dead, all MY hard work is for nothing?" 

"Ss-sir, yes sir,"

Dr. Michals removed his glasses, and coldly stared at Brooks with his bright, pale blue eyes. Although Brooks wasn't facing Dr. Michals, he could feel his gaze piercing his body.

"And you wouldn't want that, would you Mr. Brooks?" the Doctor finished, a displeased hiss in his voice,

"Sir, no sir, perhaps Flax should be deployed with the intention of retrieving Subject 14, and only to harm him to render him unable to fight...sir."

"Hmmm," Dr. Michals said, considering his suggestion, he idly chewed on the tip of his glasses mulling over the possible outcomes, "that's not a bad idea, Mr. Brooks,"

"Sir, thank you sir," Brooks said, his nerves beginning to relax

"Subject 14's body was heavily damaged during his escape from our facility, and assuming he physically recovers, too much stress damage will have already been done to his mind to make him fully activated. He won't be much trouble... Alright, " Dr. Michals said, clapping his hands, "make it so."

"Sir, yes sir," 

Brooks sighed with relief, Flax would never take orders from him or anyone, plus, once Flax began fighting, no matter the mission, Flax would get so worked up and carried away, the enemy always ended up dead.

Before Brooks could relax, Dr. Michals spoke again,

"Also, Mr. Brooks, I am no fool. I am quite aware of the large distain for Subject 14 among the staff here, and if he winds up dead from Flax, I assure you... You -will- have the same fate," he said, his back to Mr. Brooks, "do I make my self quite clear?"

"Sir...crystal, sir.." Brooks said... his body numb with worry. Brooks knew, he'd just dug his own grave.

"Good."

------------------------------------------------------------

It made Ariston sick.

They had ran though streets littered with dead bodies, people crushed under pieces of shattered buildings... mothers, fathers, brothers, daughters, sons, and friends, it didn't matter to Team Galactic, everyone was dead.

Bullet holes were riddled in the windshields of cars, people lifeless inside, even children lay bloody in the streets, it felt like war.

The first body Ariston had saw, Ariston felt his body grow weak with disgust. Rorak told him not to look down, and to keep his eyes focused ahead...but he couldn't help it, he kept averting to looking around him, and seeing everything.

Rorak and Ariston had ran though the streets, Rorak finding the way though the battle-zone from Alakazam's directions, with out Alakazam telling him the way prior to leaving, they'd be lost with out a hope, the city was unrecognizable with all the damage.

They'd passed the numerous dead bodies, climbed over debris, and ran as fast as their legs could carry them, they'd spent enough time getting to the city, now they needed to help.

But now, they had arrived.

Rorak stood before the scene, Ariston behind him.

It was the courtyard to the Center for Modern Technology Research and Design, or CMTRD, which happened to be the largest complex in the entire city.

This confirmed Rorak's suspicions, this was a robbery, and anything coming from the CMTRD would probably be both expensive and dangerous.

The bottom floor served as a museum and popular tourist attraction, the top few floors was where all the real science took place. All major military and medical advances in the last 20 years came from the CMTRD. Rorak was almost sure that they were constantly commissioned by the government to create new weapons, besides, there was no way the military would spend so much money on the CMTRD if they weren't making things for them.

Rorak saw the huge complex before him, a barrier of six police cars divided the courtyard, on one side, the CMTRD, on the other, anyone willing to fight.

The huge complex of the CMTRD was that like a museum, a massive, marble staircase fanned out from the entrance, leading to a walkway, surrounded on either side by freshly kept grass, flowers, and trees, or what was left of them. 

Everything leading up the the CMTRD was symmetrical, the large courtyard served as the cities Central Park, and was always populated, any time of day. Now, the courtyard was heavily damaged and cratered from the destruction of the battles between Team Galactic and the trainers helping the police. The trees were broken down, the grass was depressed in, scorched and torn up from Pokemon fighting, the walkway was nothing but rubble now... fires burned from buildings surrounding the park.

Dragon Pokemon flew overhead, ground and rock types below, and finally, they Psychic types providing support from behind.

Ariston stood behind Rorak, watching the brilliant tragedy before him, despite its nature, it was amazing to watch. 

In the sky, an extraordinary display of flying Pokemon fighting amongst one another created a display of incomprehensible chaos. 

There were a large amounts of both Pidgeot, and Staraptor, along with the pre-evolved forms, along with the less common Vespiquen, and Yanmega. The Pokemon moved so fast, Ariston wasn't able to see what some of their types were, others he'd never seen before.

One stood out from the rest;

A Charizard, flying high above the buildings spread it's large red wings in the sky, and let out an explosion of flame into the night. The flame cut through the air, and met with it's target, an unfortunate Staraptor, who fell lifelessly to the ground moments after. Following the Charizard blast of fire, it let out another, the fire cutting though the air unlike any other Pokemon's attack in the sky, whatever Pokemon it struck, would let out a shrill cry of death, then fall to the graveyard of battle below. 

The Charizard, still in the heat of the battle within the sky. preformed a free-fall dive, heading straight down to the earth, his target, a preoccupied Electivire fighting a pack of savage, brutal Houndoom, cautiously circling the Electivire.

One of the Houndoom already made it's attack on the Electivire, and clamped it's jaw down upon the Electivire's forearm. The Electivire made an attempt to shake the Pokemon off of his body, but was almost instantly attack by another, digging it's horns into the Pokemon's legs. The pack was on the offensive now, a third Houndoom ripped its teeth into the Electivire's torso. The Electivire staggered, blood dripping from where the Houndoom latched onto him, and falling down to the already gore-soaked rubble beneath him. 

In a fierce display of power, the Electivire stomped it's foot onto the ground, and let out a distinctive yell, it sounded both in pain and anger. The Houndoom, still trying to take the Electivire down, remained attached to his body with both their horns and teeth. Following the Electivire's roar, a large current of static thunder cascaded from the Electivire's body. 

In a flash, Electivire unleashed a titanic Thunder attack, erupting from his body as ferociously as his yell had. The Houndoom were ensnared in this brutal discharge, and went limp after moments. The Houndoom fell off of the panting Electivire, who took a moment to recover, and wasn't able to see what was coming from above.

The Charizard slammed into the Electivire, its teeth ripping though the soft flesh on the Electivire's neck, blood squirting from the entry.

The force at which Charizard few down knocked the large Electivire to the ground instantly, both Charizard's teeth and claws ripping though any flesh they made contact with. Electivire hit the ground, Charizard standing triumphantly on top of it. As soon as the Electivire's back hit the ground, Charizard released its grip on the electric Pokemon's neck, then raised its head. Charizard waisted no time, and released an unimaginable explosion of fire, point blank into the Electivire's face. 

Charizard kicked off of the limp body of the bloody remains of the Electivire, and took to the sky once again, shredding anything in its wake. 

What remained of the Electivire was nothing more than a blackened, bloody corpse.

The scene had death in every second, the sheer amount of Pokemon made it impossible to fully guard yourselves. As brutal as it was, Ariston prayed the Charizard was on their side.

All this action Ariston saw took place just in the few moments Ariston and Rorak took to take shelter behind the police cars.

There were trainers constantly withdrawing and sending their Pokemon out, who were making the ultimate sacrifice to just have a fighting change against Team Galactic.

"Rorak!" An older male voice yelled, running to them, "Thank god,"

Ariston would have usually turned to see what Rorak was doing with this new person, but he couldn't bear to take his eyes off of the spellbinding performance before him. He would never see anything like this in his life again.

"Who's the kid?" the man asked, looking over at Ariston,

"He's got friends staying in the city, and wants to find them before all hell breaks loose here," Rorak returned.

"Good luck to you then, kid," the older voice spoke to Ariston,

Ariston heard the words, but they rang hollow in his head, he was still fixed on the chaos before him.

"We're in trouble, my friend," the man said, turning his attention back to Rorak, "there aren't many powerful trainers here, and the ones that we did have already had their Pokemon either defeated ... or killed, "

"I know, Gordon, I'm here to help," Rorak answered to the frantic man, "tell me what happened."

Ariston wanted to know more than anything what had happened to the city, but still, he remained motionless and silent... mesmerized by the orchestra of battle before him.

He watched an Onyx savagely bring its tail down upon the weakened body of a Sandslash, crushing it to death instantly.

He saw a Scyther rip though an entire swarm of Zubat and Golbat, leaving a bloody wake in its path as the shreds of dead Pokemon fell to the gore infested ground. Moments after, the Scyther was attacked from behind.. a titanic Nidoking. Before the Scyther could even turn around to face the new enemy, the Nidoking jaggedly snapped its neck. The Scyther's body fell to the ground to join the other fallen Pokemon.

Ariston closed his eyes.

It was an unending change of death. His mind went numb from the killing. He felt something on his face, running down the side of his cheek.. he wiped it off and looked at his hand.

Water?

It was a tear -- all he felt at this moment was a sicking combination of fear, and disgust, yet a single tear came from his eye. 

Ariston knew his mind was telling him to stop -- to stop watching the death before him of Pokemon fighting for nothing... before it drove him insane.

Ariston collected himself, Rorak was right in the car before.. he couldn't afford to be emotional, all he could do was help.

He saw the man Rorak was talking to now, it was an older man with scraggly grey hear, and an the unkempt stubble of a beard. He wore the familiar dark blue of a police officer on his pants, but a white long sleeved shirt on his body, with a Kevlar Bulletproof Jacket on top.

'Police Chief Gordon Cerio' the jacket read.

"Four sets of explosions," Gordan started explaining to Rorak, "each made up of any number of small explosive devices, we're not sure how or where they placed them, but the fact is they caused enough damage to four of the five major streets leading to here. We can't get any more support from Police around the city, there are Galactic Members driving around in Black SUVs making attack on citizens, we think its just a distraction for the majority of the force, the safety of the citizens is our priority, " he continued, his voice yelling over the sounds of explosions and gunshots.

"What about S.P.E.A.R. ?" Rorak asked,

Ariston recognized the name; Special Pokemon Engagement And Re-enforcement, or S.P.E.A.R.. They dealt with dangerous trainers or Team Galactic situation, they were all the elite Pokemon Trainers of the Police force. Ariston had seen them on TV, but never in a situation like this...

"They're on their way, but they can't get though the destroyed streets, we only got here because we managed to get into the park in time to evacuate the citizens before the second bomb went off -- the only open road is over there," Gordon continued, pointing to a dark, empty road that entered directly into the Pokemon battleground, "they've not been able to get though that road, Team Galactic has some sort of Psychic Pokemon preventing them from getting though -- they're taking alternate routes on foot now."

"That'll take take, Gordon, and it doesn't look like you ha--" Rorak started, his voice drowned out by the noise of an explosion from some large Pokemon's attack, "...doesn't look like you have much, " he finished.

"I know, you need to get your Pokemon out there," Gordon returned, an undertone of sadness in his voice, "we just lost one of our toughest, that Electivire out there was one of mine..."

The expression on Gordon's face seemed to scream sadness, no doubt he'd just lost no only a Pokemon, but a friend -- however, Gordon was in command, and couldn't afford to appear emotional, the strong will in his voice seemed ready and willing to fight.

"Wait," Ariston said, finally breaking himself from his thoughts, "the explosions, what streets did they go off on?"

"Uhh, " Gordon said, remembering, "the first one was on Central, then on 16th and 22nd, then another on... 

(Please, don't say 33rd and Columbus)

...on 18th and 28th...

(Please, don't say 33rd and Columbus)

...33rd and Columbus"

Ariston's face turned ghost white, Shane and Conti were staying on 33rd and Columbus for the night, if they hadn't gotten out before hand, no doubt they would have died in the explosion... from what Ariston had seen before, the bombs they used leveled most of the city block.

Rorak could tell by the expression on Ariston's face... his friends were there. Rorak immediately grabbed a Pokeball off his belt and released the familiar Alakazam beside Ariston.

"Alakazam, can you tell me if his friends are okay?" Rorak asked his Pokemon, knowing he could read the life of a Psychic Aura almost instantly.

Alakazam nodded.

Alakazam placed a majestic hand on Ariston's head, and the other in front of him, then closed his eyes.

He could see the two Ariston worried about in the boy's mind, he felt their life signs though the memories of Ariston, and looked for the same Psychic Aura somewhere alive in the city.

A moment passed, the only noise was that of the battle around them.

Alakazam took his hand from Ariston's head, and opened his eyes.

Ariston looked up at Alakazam, the suspense of the news making his heart beat out of his chest...

The Psychic Pokemon gave a slow nod up and down, Ariston immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"Where?" Ariston asked, 

Alakazam pointed down one of the destroyed streets, showing Ariston the way.

Ariston stood up, and looked down the road, it looked mangled and death-ridden, like the one they had previously traveled down.

"I'm going," he told Rorak, "I have to,"

"Wait a minute kid, you can't just go an--" Gordon started, only to be cut off by Rorak,

"It's gonna be a hell of a lot safer down an empty street than it is here, Gordon," Rorak said, "Go do what you have to," 

Ariston nodded, but before he could go anywhere, he saw Rorak reach for his belt again,

"Take these two," Rorak said, tossing Ariston two Pokeballs, "they'll keep you safe."

"Thanks, Rorak," Ariston returned, placing the two unknown Pokemon onto his belt,

"Listen to me," Rorak warned, "Fight -only- if you have to, you see a Team Galactic member, you run. If someone attacks you, you run. If you're cornered, and your or someone else's life is in danger, use both Pokemon at once, and try to end the battle quickly, got it?"

Ariston nodded in affirmation -- not wanting to waste any more time, he left the shelter behind the police cars, and ran toward the empty street.

[Alakazam, keep him moving in the right direction, okay?] Rorak asked mentally to his Pokemon.

Rorak was met with a nod from his Alakazam, he'd maintain a mental connection with Ariston, and make sure he found his friends.

Ariston now gone, Rorak looked up at the scene of chaos again, he watched the same Charizard from before tear a Seviper in half between its teeth.

"Tell me that -thing- is on our side," Rorak hoped, 

Gordon sighed, "I'm afraid not,"

"Didn't think so," Rorak returned.

"Here's the problem," Gordon explained, "take a good look at the top of the stairs,"

Rorak poked his head up from behind the cars, and squinted the the entrance to the CMTRD. At the top of the stairs, great white pillars formed an overhang for shade, making it difficult to see, but Rorak got the picture.

"Oh...Oh shit..." Rorak said, realizing why the police were being completely dominated by Team Galactic's Pokemon, "That IS a problem..."

There were seven...

Six Bronzong, three on each side of a Lunatone, the seventh -- each in deep, deep concentration.

Rorak turned his attention back to the battlefield, and focused on the Charizard again. Every Pokemon attack that was directed at the Charizard, and managed to strike it, dispersed harmlessly on impact.

For only a moment after any attack, Rorak was able to see a thin layer of purple Psychic Energy around the Charizard -- not only that, it was around every one of the enemies Pokmeon. They were all essentially ... invincible.

"We can't stop them because we can't touch them, Rorak," Gordon explained further, as he watched Rorak realize the problem, "with that many Psychic Pokemon concentrating like that, we'd need a damn miracle to overpower shields like that. In order to get though the shields they put up, we need something strong enough to over power not just the SIX Bronzong, but the Lunatone too,"

"Maybe not..." Rorak returned...thinking,

"What, you have an idea or something?" Gordon asked, almost sarcastically, "'Cause I'm all ears you know,"

Rorak said nothing, and reached down to his belt, removing the three remaining Pokeballs and holding them between his fingers on his right hand.

Rorak took an offensive stance, and took a few moments to mentally tell his Alakazam the plan.

"Got it?" he asked,

His Alakazam rarely spoke -- he simply nodded to Rorak.

"Let's go,"

Rorak threw out all three Pokeballs -- his bravest and his best -- to make a final stand against Team Galactic.

------------------------------------------------------------

Ariston bolted down the undamaged streets he could find, the amount of broken buildings and debris in the streets made moving though them feel like an obstacle course. 

The street he traveled down was far more damaged than the previous streets he'd seen damaged, the ground was so mangled with cracks and pieces of buildings, there was virtually no flat land to walk on. Ariston climbed though the mess, with faith that Alakazam had pointed him in the right direction.

Thankfully, Alakazam had also told him that Shane and Conti were still alive -- it relieved some of the stress of finding them, but not by much. The Munchlax and Cryogunk that Shane and Conti had would die in a second against any of the Pokemon he'd seen fighting in the CMTRD courtyard, as would all of his Pokemon. 

The only chance any of them had if he ran into a Team Galactic member would be the two Pokemon Rorak gave him, whatever they were.

Ariston climbed over another large slab of concrete laying atop a car, and carefully maneuvered to the ground, or what was left of it. The asphalt he stood on was once a part of the road, but now was virtually shattered, thankfully, Ariston had already gotten though the most severely damaged parts of the road. As he looked up, he could recognize an intersection -- good, he was but one street away from Shane and Conti. 

Although Ariston felt like he was just following his gut, he could still feel a familiar sense in his mind. It was similar to the feeling of when Alakazam had placed his hand on Ariston's forehead prior to him leaving. It felt like Alakazam was still somewhat in his mind -- gently pushing him in the right direction.

Ariston looked at the intersection before him, four ways to go. The way that lead straight was severely damaged, an entire building was collapsed though it, making passing impossible.

A small residential building lay tumbled and cracked lengthwise past the intersection, and created a massive pile of rubble and stone. No one would be getting though there for months.

The next route, to Ariston's left in the intersection, was a bright, dangerous display of flames and smoke. Parked cars engulfed in fire populated the street, the sidewalk's trees were almost all toppled over in the street, spewing black smoke into the sky from the burning leaves and bark. From what Ariston could see, if he traveled down that way, he'd either get trapped in the flames, or suffocate from the clouds of black smoke the fires were giving off.

That left him two options:

Back the way he came, and to his left.

He couldn't turn back around, not with out finding Shane and Conti -- but the moment he did, they would get the hell out of the city, of that he was sure.

The street on his left was much less damaged than the others, it had broken concrete, smashed cars, and debris on the ground, of course, but compared to the others, it looked like his best bet. Ariston felt a familiar feeling in his mind, it just somehow felt like the right way to go, perhaps Alakazam was still giving him guidance towards his friends. Regardless, he knew he was close, he could feel that for sure.

He began down his chosen path, really, the only path at this point, every other way wasn't accessible.

Seeing the city in this condition felt like a different universe to Ariston, just the day before he'd walked these streets, full of people, Pokemon, cars, and life -- now, there was nothing to see but debris and death. It was terrifying to see the kind of measures Team Galactic was taking, and for what?

Ariston cut though the intersection and down the new street, as soon as he set foot on the asphalt again, he could feel himself closing in on Shane and Conti.

Ariston elevated his pace to a steady run, he didn't want to move too fast and fall on something dangerous, he still had to be careful, but he still wanted to find them fast, then get the hell out.

The street had cracks in both the concrete of the sidewalk and on the asphalt of the street, if anything it looked like damage from the bomb's reverberations though the ground. Hell, if Ariston hadn't known that explosion caused the damaged to the city, he might confuse it with an earthquake.

Further and further he ran down the empty road, dodging the larger piles of debris in an attempt to remain on flat land, the street was completely devoid of any life, and thankfully, no dead bodies -- here at least. Ariston kept on running down the black road, the streetlights were mostly cracked, or out, and provided little light to see -- the fires burning from various buildings and cars lit up the street more than they did.

The moon was an awful shade of blackened grey, Ariston couldn't see much of the moonlight from all the smoke rising above the city, but the moon was nearing full. Ariston only noticed due to the lack of moonlight, and the eerie glow of pale light it brought.

He finally cut though another busted patch of land, and began to turn a final corner, he knew he was close now. His friends were somewhere on this street, of that he was sure. As Ariston brought his head up to look down the street, he froze mid-step.

His body went numb as his eyes met upon a cold, black SUV. The men inside immediately noticed Ariston, and opened their doors.

------------------------------------------------------------



------------------------------------------------------------

Later...Miles away...

Iota walked the snowy path by himself, no Blaziken, no enemies, no friends -- he was alone again. It was a curious thing to Iota, he felt different. Being with Blaziken before was unusual, sure, but not unbearable. She might have been somewhat annoying and talkative, but still, not having her around now was...different.

He didn't know how to describe it, but he knew it was for the best. Judging by the kind of soft-hearted person she was, she would undoubtedly hold him back in a dangerous situation, she was obviously not the kind to stand by and watch the kind of brutality Iota had in planned for the doctors that had done this to him. He didn't know what else to do in his life, really, but find the doctors that had worked on him. Once he found them, even one, he was going to do whatever it took to return the kind of hell they put him though.

He did feel different though, physically more than anything else. They aches in his body were almost totally gone. Before when he would walk, he would stumble and fall over frequently, his body felt like it was on fire before. Now, he felt...good.

His walk was smooth and painless, his breathing was full and refreshing, perhaps all his body needed was a quick rest to revitalize itself.

Iota let what he could manage of a smile on his face momentarily as he picked up his walking speed. This was the first time in his short life that he could remember where he felt no aches, no pain, it was incredible. It was still early in the morning, he hadn't been walking for too long, but from this point on, he didn't expect for his body to have any problems. Perhaps now, he could understand the unusual events that had happened to him -- by that he meant the metal, or whatever it was, creeping out of his skin in dangerous situations.

Back when he was injured, what bothered him the most was the fact that his mind was more than willing to ignore the pain and go on, but his body seemed ready to quit at any moment -- it seemed weak, and useless. Now, now it felt powerful.

Perhaps this meant he would be able to control the metal inside him willingly. The thought was entertaining to Iota, if he was able to gain any control, any at all, he'd be unstoppable.

As he walked, he raised a bandaged hand before his face. He made a gentle fist, then released -- just tightening and relaxing his muscles -- he didn't feel the same ways he did when he involuntarily drew out the alloy.

He focused, trying to replicate the feeling he had prior, he tried to feel the emotions he had in the ally way the first time it happened... What was it? He felt pain, for sure, that's when his body was at its weakest, but there's no way just the feeling of pain would draw out his strength. 

'what else...?' he thought,

He was angry, he was aggravated, his heart was racing -- too many things to name.

Iota let out a groan,

"This is stupid," he said audibly to himself, annoyed at his failure,

Iota lowered his hand, and focused back on the road before him. This time when he looked, he saw something other than a white wasteland in the distance there was ... something.

He squinted to try and see what exactly it was, but all he saw was a black blur down the road. The blur, however, was moving towards him, and fast.

As the black blur grew, Iota heard the low hum of an engine accelerating. The object he was in the distance must have been some sort of automobile. The car sped down the road in the direction of Iota. As it grew closer, he was able to see clearly enough that it was a Black SUV with heavily tinted windows.

Though Iota knew nothing about people, emotions, or life for that matter, he did know the basic structure of the world and was able to recognize most things that humans used. It was useless to wonder why, for he would probably never know, but he felt like he could understand most things he saw. He knew what a car was, he knew airplanes, guns, Pokemon, humans, and numerous other aspects of life. Of course, he didn't know much on each individual thing, but he knew what they were.

It felt unusual to Iota to see someone out on this road, so far, he had only seen Blaziken out here, and didn't expect to see anyone else until he reached some sort of civilization.

Regardless, Iota calmly moved to the side of the road, to avoid the passing SUV. Quickly enough, the SUV sped past him as quickly as it had came.

The passenger side window was open as the car sped by, enabling Iota to glance inside for the split second he was able.

A man with a long scar on his face sat next to the driver, meeting eyes with Iota as they passed. The second they locked gazes seemed to freeze time for Iota. The man in the car had an unusual look in his eye -- not desperation like the man who'd tried to rob him, and not kindness like Blaziken, something different, something Iota didn't like.

As the car sped off, Iota began to feel dizzy, not from his body or the cold, but something in his brain seemed to be changing. Iota felt like his head was splitting open, he let out an involuntary wince in pain, and ran his fingers though his hair, gripping the front of his skull. It was like a headache, deep, deep inside his mind.

Iota felt his brain start to feed him another memory creation. It was different this time, it felt unusual, it felt, foreign, but most of all, it felt dangerous. He finally lost the ability to think as his mind played his new memory.

------------------------------------------------------------

TIME_LOCK: Status_Expired . . .

WELCOME_SUBJECT_14

:// STAGE_SEVEN

...LOADING...

:// UPLOADING_IMPUT_MEMORY_DATA

CMD_UPLOAD_ALL_FILES

[Y/N]?

Y

LOADING_FILES...

The words scrolled across a black screen with green text.

There was nothing in the room but the familiar figure of the female doctor that had worked on him before, and a computer monitor in the room. Gentle, soft music played from somewhere, though Iota couldn't tell from which direction. The walls were white, and there was a white tinted glass door. It was too opaque to see though, but the words were visible. From the inside, the words appeared backwards, but Iota saw they read: LAB 28

Iota lay in an inclined chair, his body untouched by any sort of equipment but the attachments of a heart monitor, and the device on his head. It was a large metal ring that was attached to the hundreds of needles that stuck into every angle of Iota's head. Iota felt absolutely no pain from this, if anything, the combination of the gentle music, and the soft chair made him feel relaxed.

Iota couldn't think, he just felt the warm sense of relaxation. This stage was by far the easiest, so far at least. He could hear the text on the computer screen in his brain. It was a gentle robotic female voice...it almost sounded romantic to him.

:// FILES_LOADED

PROCEED?

[Y/N]

Y

IMPUT_TWELVE_DIGIT_NUMERICAL_PASSWORD

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

ENTER•

IMPUT_MASTER_OVERRIDE_PASSWORD

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

ENTER•

WORKING. . .

://MEMORY_ACCESSED

NAME: SUBJECT_14

PROGRESS: STAGE_SEVEN

AGE: UNKNOWN

SUCCESS_EXPECTANCY: 78%

:// MEMORY_SUPPRESSION_BEGINNING

WORKING . . .

As these words were said in his head, Iota felt the horrible memory of the previous six stages, and all the pain, agony, and hate that he experienced begin to fade away. Iota's eyes were half shut, his body was relaxed, and he felt nothing but relief as the memories began to forget themselves. It felt like a gentle wave of amnesia traveling though his mind as the memories faded. As the wave continued though his head, the memories of his creation dampened and became nothing but a fuzzy recollection.

:// MEMORY_SUPPRESSION: STATUS_COMPLETE

:// TIME_LOCK_ENGAGED

:// MEMORY_FINALIZATION_AND_UPLOAD

PROCEED?

[Y/N]

Iota remembered the events, but no details. He was thankful, and nearly felt glad for his situation in the whitewashed facility.

The gentle voice of the female doctor spoke to Iota,

"Almost done, you've been great, you know," she said, "After all, we ARE just doing our jobs." she let out a pleading sigh, "Please don't hate us as much as you do, Subject 14. Perhaps if you knew how you got involved with this project, you'd understand."

Iota remained silent. The doctor had really just asked him to hate the doctors less, it was almost, almost an apology. Even though Iota's memories were suppressed, that was still too much to ask. He would never forgive the doctors, no matter what they did to try and make it up to him.

"Do you know what I'm doing, Subject 14?"

Iota didn't respond.

"I'm uploading all the information and skill you'll ever need to know. Try and relax, your brain is about to be put under a lot of strain."

Despite the numerous needles inside of Iota's skull, he did feel relaxed.

"You're heavily sedated, too, which is why you're not restrained,"

Iota tried to move his arm, his brain sent the signal, but his body didn't respond. He could see clearly enough, he really wasn't restrained -- it was the first time the doctors had ever done so. If Iota had been able to get up, he would have probably ripped the machine off of his head, and gotten out any way he could manage. Yet, he had neither the desire nor the ability to do that now.

"I'm going to being uploading now. After this, you'll be familiar with most forms of classified military combat, as well as a large number of fighting styles to fit your...unique abilities, as soon as this upload kicks in, you'll be able to access your body's physical changes. Lucky you," the doctor explained, "You'll also have any everyday skills you'll need in order to be perfect at your, uh, 'job'. You'll find out what that is soon enough,"

"Here we go."

Y

:// STATUS_WORKING. . .

It seemed to Iota that they weren't going to waste any time finishing their jobs. They were really going to intentionally overload his brain with data, and there was nothing he could do.

The gentle hum of the device attached to Iota's head began. He sighed as an extra dose of sedation kicked in, and made his senses dull. 

"You'll have to be unconscious for this to work, [*******] -- Uhh, I mean, Subject 14," the doctor continued

"Damn, I'll have to delete that from your memory..."

Iota had just heard his name -- his -real- name from the doctor beside him. She worked fast, though, she'd removed it from his memory almost instantly. He strained himself to remember what she had said, what she had called him, but he couldn't, there was just a blank patch where she spoke. He wanted to know his name more than anything, he desperately wanted to be something different than "Subject 14". His memory was blank, he couldn't remember that one word she had said.

It was too late, the memory was gone.

:// BEGINNING_SHUTDOWN

Iota's vision went faded to white as the upload began.

------------------------------------------------------------

Blaziken walked alone on the road, still in a huff from the argument she'd had with Iota. She knew she was the only one who had actually argued, but still, she felt bad.

"Guess I'm back on my own again..." she sighed sarcastically, "Woo hoo!"

She hadn't walked far since her and Iota took separate directions, she'd only walked a tiny ways down the road. Currently, she had found herself next to a large, dead tree. In the back of her mind, she was waiting for Iota to come back and travel with her, even as unlikely as it seemed.

She tried to tell herself that she wasn't upset, though deep down, she really was. Blaziken couldn't lie to herself. She felt an odd sense of incompletion without Iota.

She didn't know why, she'd known him for only moments really, and he'd been cold and distant the few times they did actually talk. He was unusual though, and there was something about him that Blaziken couldn't get over -- she couldn't put her finger on what it was, but she liked it, she admired it.

As she looked upon the road in front of her, she lazily lost focus on what was happening around her. She was quickly reminded of her surroundings by a large car that had come to a halt on the dirt road before her.

She tilted her head inquisitively at this, not sure what to make of the situation.

It was a black SUV, the passenger side door opened immediately, and a man's boot pressed down with a dull crunch as he pressed it into the snowy road.

"We really don't have time for this," the driver advised, stepping outside of the vehicle. 

"Shut up," the man returned, "Do you realize how useful a Blaziken would be me? And do you know how fucking rare they are to find way out here?"

The driver sighed, "Fine, whatever, just make it quick," he said, getting back in the car,

"I'll take this thing down in five minutes, watch," the man said confidently. 

"Oh...Shit." Blaziken said to herself, these people were anything but friendly, the man on the passenger side seemed wanting to capture her, and more than confident in his ability to do so.

Blaziken took an instinctive step backwards. The man in front of her wore a uniform of some sort, he had a large bandage on his chest, with a bit of blood soaking through it. He also had a long, defined, scar on his face.

She'd been though this before, eager and excited trainers trying to capture her, and she'd always been able to escape. She wasn't just some weak and starving wild Pokemon, she was a Blaziken. She knew how rare her type were, and throughout her entire life, mercilessly trained herself to be stronger than most trainer's Pokemon. Hopefully, she'd be able to get away safely once again.

The man pull out two Pokeballs and in a flash, released a Nidoking and Magmar onto the snowy road.

"Two?" she thought, "Trainers aren't allowed to use two! This isn't good, this is not good."

The Nidoking stood triumphantly upon its hind legs, rolling its neck from left to right in preparation for the fight. The titan seemed cocky, almost, as it casually shook its shoulders, like a prize fighter before a title fight. The Nidoking were tough, Blaziken knew that, they were 300 pound powerhouses who'd easily pummel Blaziken if she weren't careful.

The Magmar though, was an odd choice for the trainer, sure they'd deliver flame based attacks that'd usually send any other Pokemon running for cover, but against a fellow fire Pokemon, the Magmar wouldn't have much effect.

"Make that Blaziken ready for capture, and hurry up!" the man told his Pokemon in an aggressive voice.

The Magmar, not missing a beat, immediately fired an intense burst of flame at Blaziken, the Nidoking was quick to follow, snapping to attention and charging at Blaziken.

Blaziken knew the Magmar's flames wouldn't do much damage to her, but still, enough exposure to a Magmar's fire could still weaken her.

She gracefully avoided the flame by rolling on her heel, and spinning to her immediate right, an easy dodge for her. The flames hissed though the air beside her, instantly melting the snow below where it traveled. The flames finally found a target, and struck the tree behind her, the intense heat combined with the lifeless dead bark ignited instantly.

Blaziken remained on her feet, and brought her head up to react to the Nidoking running at her. She did what made the most sense to her, and erupted with a boiling hot explosion of fire directed at the Nidoking. The column of fire sizzled towards the Nidoking, yet the advancing Pokemon refused to even flinch. The flames struck Nidoking squarely in the chest, and wrapped around the large Pokemon. The red hot intensity of the fire caused the Pokemon's skin to boil and blister. The charring of the Pokemon's skin didn't even slow the Nidoking down, it continued to run at her. 

This felt differently than a regular Pokemon battle, this Nidoking had a crazy, heartless look in its eye. The fire attack Blaziken had hit it with would have stopped or at least slowed down most Pokemon of that size, and a normal trainer would have stopped the battle to treat the burns immediately. This Pokemon was badly damaged already, but not slowing down. The trainer must have been unimaginably tough to build a pain tolerance of that high. 

Seeing how this Nidoking behaved, she made up her mind. She couldn't let this asshole catch her and turn her into a mindless battle monster, she'd rather die.

Before Blaziken had time to prepare herself, the Nidoking ran though and remaining flames she dispensed, and was directly before her. Still in motion, it whipped around its powerful fist, and made contact with the right side of Blaziken's head. The impact rattled her vision, and sent a shiver of pain down her spine. The knock-back sent her tumbling to the ground many feet away, she had taken a hard hit from the large Pokemon, a very hard hit. Blood came from the site of the impact on her face, she could feel a fracture in her delicate cheek bone, but running solely off the rush of battle, she quickly was on her feet again. As she jumped to a standing position, she let out a gasp of both shock and pain, flames from the Magmar wrapped around her body, and sent her back down to the ground. The two Pokemon were beginning to strike in succession, the situation looked grim to Blaziken.

------------------------------------------------------------

Iota snapped back into attention.

His brain was on, memories of fighting, skills, and abilities engulfed his head. His mind felt like a sponge, absorbing everything he could imagine, the moment he could think of something unfamiliar, his mind told him all about it. This impulse of information was met with a massive electrical discharge within the neurons of Iota's brain, the equivalent to a titanic migraine. Iota put a hand on his forehead, and groaned in reaction to this.

His mind wasn't all that changed within him, his body felt different, it felt like something totally new. Iota stood motionless with his hand clutching his head instinctively. Iota gasped, and breathed heavily and slow, it felt like he was spinning uncontrollably. He slammed his emerald eyes shut, and waited for the feeling to pass, though even without seeing, he still felt like his body was being tossed mercilessly around. Information was still coming to him, it was still too much to process, he wasn't able to think, his brain seemed overloaded by the stress of this.

The pain in his head began to fade back into his mind from whence it came, slowly yes, but eventually he began to lose the spinning feeling he had prior. He slowly and cautiosly opened his eyes, blinking a few times to erase the blurriness, and began to see clearly again.

It was still coming slow to Iota, but he was beginning to remember somethings, he was beginning to remember how to fight. It seemed that the amount of data his brain stored on fighting outweighed anything else he might have learned, seemed whoever made him what he was wanted to make sure he could defend himself.

It was all still fuzzy, but he was sure of one thing -- he gained some sort of control. 

The impact of this made his heart rate unusually quick, something major had just changed inside of him, and he had no idea how. He didn't feel physically different, only mentally, it felt strange, but he felt like he could even -think- faster.

He must be nearing completion, whatever Stage Seven was, it must have been near the end of the procedure. Though segments of his memories were missing, he felt a sense of wholeness, he felt stronger, smarter, faster...

...He felt invincible.

He exhaled, and turned his attention to the surrounding world. He looked down the familiar road, and saw, still, nothing but a bleak white tundra. He turned behind him, towards the path that the black SUV took, he saw something unusual, something in the distance. 

There was a thick black veil of smoke being spewed into the air coming from a burning dead tree. This struck a nerve with Iota, a burning tree wasn't exactly common in a snow-filled area, something was indubitable amiss.

In the immediate area around the tree, Iota could faintly see the explosions of flames traveling though the air. Though the black smoke made it difficult to see, Iota could see what looked like two fire type Pokemon fighting each other.

Fire types.. they would be unusual out here, not to mention fighting.

(Blaziken)

Iota realized the severity of the situation. It must have been Blaziken fighting another fire type, probably sent by a trainer. Iota did not panic, nor fear the situation, he still didn't experience or understand that kind of emotion, but he did feel something else. Iota felt obligated to protect her now, after all, she'd saved him, and ignoring a situation to repay her didn't feel right to him. Besides, after that massive influx of changes he'd just experienced in his mind, it'd be interesting to see what he could do. Perhaps the stress on his mind and body would be dangerous, yes, but he was more curious than cautious at this point.

As random breezes swept though the battle field, Iota managed to see a faint glimpse of what was happening. Though the smoke, he could still see the frequent fire attacks, and ... something else. There was a third Pokemon, something besides Blaziken and the other fire type. He could see its outline sprinting though the smoke, swinging wildly. 

As the cover of the smoke lifted momentarily from a powerful gust of wind from the empty tundra surrounding them, he managed to make out the figure of a Nidoking wildly swinging at its target. He stared deeper into the smog towards the jets of flames. He saw Blaziken, and the enemy fire type combating one another, it was a Magmar.

In the seconds he had to see the fight, his eyes frantically studied the area. He wanted to asses exactly what he was going to be up against. He watched Blaziken being knocked around by the bone crushing blows of the Nidoking, she usually recovered quickly enough, but the moment she tried counterattack on the Nidoking, the Magmar dashed in the way, and her attack harmlessly dissipated on impact. She was looking tired, and at this rate, if he didn't intervene soon, she'd either be killed or captured. He wasn't wiling to let either of those happen. There was a black SUV parked on the road next to the battle, identical to the one that had passed Iota just moments ago. 

Could he stop both a Nidoking and a Magmar? He considered this for a moment, and quickly realized -- the thought of finding out the hard way excited him. 

Iota had an odd feeling about this, not fear, not nervousness, just something felt wrong. Regardless, it was time to help. 

He closed his eyes for a moment, and concentrated. The hiss of a weak breeze passing by his face broke the silence.

In an instant, Iota shot off the ground, kicking back a large amount of the dirt and snow where he perviously stood, and shot down the road. 

His acceleration shocked him, something like this unnatural speed would be impossible to him before. He half ran, half leapt down the path, moving as fast as he was able. His nearly gliding feet barely even touched the ground in between strides, and when they did, they depressed the ground slightly from impact. 

Iota felt this amazing serge of strength inside of him. Just running felt amazing to him, he couldn't wait to fight, it was the only thing he was sure he could do.

Iota wasted no time, and continued sprinting down the pathway, his eyes locked upon the battlefield covered in the cloak of smog. He didn't know much about his body yet, or what he was going to do when he got there, but he knew he could help, now, he wasn't a helpless traveler collapsing in the snow anymore, he was a warrior.

------------------------------------------------------------

Blaziken was struck again. The wind was knocked out of her lungs as the Nidoking impacted her stomach, as she doubled over from the hit, the Nidoking swung at her head as she brought it down. She was knocked down once again, she'd taken too many hits, she didn't know how much longer she could fight, or even survive. 

Before she could get on her feet again, the Nidoking was already upon her. She wasn't even able to catch her breath from the previous hit before the Nidoking raised its large foot and let it come crashing down to where Blaziken lay. She managed to toss herself out of the way before being crushed under the weight of the Nidoking's stomp.

She scrambled to her feet once again and began fearfully backing up, and as she did, the Nidoking relentlessly charged her again. She couldn't bear to take any more hits from that mad titan, or she probably wouldn't be getting back up any time soon. Blaziken unleashed another punishing jet of fire headed dead on for the Nidoking. Yet, like almost every time she had attacked before, the Magmar stepped in the way to let the attack harmlessly impact its body.

The Magmar made all her fire attacks almost totally useless, and she wouldn't last long if she faced the Nidoking in close combat. As much as she hated to admit it, her future was looking quite grim.

The strange, scarred trainer watched the battle confidently, looking forward to owing a new Blaziken.

The winds changed, the column of smoke bellowing off of the burning tree blew down onto the battle field. A thick cloud of black haze covered the area in an opaque sheet of darkness. Blaziken coughed as she inhaled a small amount of smoke, to top her situation off now, she wasn't able to see her enemies through the smoke, though, on the other hand, they weren't able to see her either. Perhaps this was her chance. If she ran into the open, they'd spot her almost instantly, in the bright white snow, she'd stick out like a sore thumb, and there wasn't much of anywhere she could hide out here. It seemed her only option was to attack.

Blaziken was weakened heavily by the assault of the enemy Pokemon in the battle, but she still was able to retain enough strength for one final assault. She could just hope she would be able to hit one of her enemies thought the smoke, and not waste her final amount of energy on a miss.

She concentrated, and strained herself to work though her pain. She was bleeding in a number of places, she had impact cuts all over her body, many on her face and head. Internally, she felt like she had any number of broken ribs, a thin line of blood trailed from her mouth and down her chin. Blaziken was exhausted.

Blaziken focused as hard as she could, whatever strength she had left, it was going into this attack. Finally she attacked, the air around her exploded into fire as she exhaled a catastrophic Fire Blast.

The five pronged star of flames cut though the ocean of smoke effortlessly, clearing a visible path as it did so. The snow on the ground instantly melted, then evaporated as the fire superheated the air.

The Fire Blast bypassed the Magmar. Good.

The Fire Blast sailed past the Nidoking. Good.

Neither of the Pokemon were her targets, she needed to take out the person who started all of this. As the Fire Blast passed the two enemy Pokemon, the turned around to see where it was headed.

The scarred trainer's expression went from that of confidence to fear as he saw the attack was intended for him.

"Shit!" he yelled, as he began to back up, nearly paralyzed with fear, "Magmar!". If he was hit with that Fire Blast, he'd be done for. Humans couldn't withstand almost any Pokemon attack, especially a Fire Blast -- not many Pokemon could even take a direct hit from that.

Blaziken had to take him out, Blaziken could feel that he was a bad person. Double teaming a Pokemon, beating her nearly death, and training his Pokemon to madness...he wasn't a trainer, he was a poacher. Blaziken was not fighting to resist being captured anymore, she was fighting for her life. She had every right to attack that bastard.

Blaziken watched the flames travel straight for him, then impact. The flames wrapped around the target and exploded the air around them, a thick fiery explosion cut though the smoke. A column of burning flesh and charred bone spiraled upwards in a loud explosion of raw power. Blaziken heard a scream rise out from the attack...but not from a human.

As the flames died down, Blaziken saw what she had hit...

The scarred man had called out for his Magmar, seconds before the fire hit to be a scapegoat for him. The Magmar stood in front of its trainer, its arms outstretched, dying. The entire front of its body was burned away, its skin was blackened and torn apart by the attack, pieces of burnt skin fell to the ground and idly landed in a puddle of the creatures blood.

Magmar had taken almost every one of Blaziken's attacks, and was beginning to be weakened by them. The sheer force of the Fire Blast careened Magmar over the edge, and tore it apart.

The man sighed in relief at his own safety, and shifted back into confidence. He felt no concern for his Magmar in the slightest, he'd trained it to mindlessly follow his commands, and never consider its own safety or well being.

A blood-filled cough exited the Magmar's mouth, and landed down on the ground. Magmar's body was quick to follow. The creature collapsed onto the ground, and landed face-down and motionless.

She saw the dying creature on the ground, parts of its body still burned with a small flame, the puddle of blood beneath it grew larger and larger by the second. She may have taken out one of the enemy Pokemon, but she felt no joy.

The Magmar let out weak moans of approaching death, Blaziken's heart sank as she saw the suffering she had brought to the Magmar. She knew that mercy was something she'd never receive from her enemies, but it was also what separated her from them. Still, she felt just terrible at what she had done.

The scarred man looked down at his damaged Magmar with disgust, waiting for it to pick itself up and return to battle. The Magmar attempted once to push itself off the ground, but hadn't the strength, and fell back down. This just upset the man even more at his defeated Pokemon.

"I swear to god you're fucking useless," he said to his Magmar, kicking the creature in its side with his booted foot. Another groan of pain came out of the dying Magmar. Not wanting to see the shame of his defeated Pokemon any longer, he withdrew Magmar back into its Pokeball, and tossed it inside of the SUV behind him. He then looked back up towards his Nidoking, and turned his attention back to Blaziken.

She had seen enough. Her body may have been totally exhausted, but she clenched her bandaged fingers into a furious fist and sprinted at the scarred man before her. She didn't care what happened to her anymore, she just wanted to hit the bastard until he cried as weakly as the Magmar he had let take the hit for him. She knew that the man was all that was responsible for the madness and ferocity of the Pokemon she fought. Blaziken couldn't imagine the kind of person who would do something like that.

She ran at him, her body screaming at her though pain to stop, and swung at him. The man took a step back, and Blaziken's fist fell harmlessly short of the man's head. The damage to her body had made her move slowly and predictably, and if she couldn't land a hit on the trainer, she had no hope of fighting the Nidoking. She stumbled forward and quickly spun around to attack again, but froze.

The man stood before her, a handgun at arms length, pointed directly at her head.

"You're more trouble than you're worth, you know," the man said in a cold, bone dry tone.

Blaziken knew exactly what guns were, and she despised the. They were horrible inventions crafted by humans designed for one thing and one thing only -- to kill faster. Now, it seemed one was going to be used on her.

The winds changed again. Smoke blew past her face and behind her into the outstretching snow, the man had a clear shot.

"Nidoking, hold her down," he told his Pokemon, who quickly obeyed. Nidoking approached Blaziken, and reached a large hand towards her.

Blaziken sighed, she could struggle, but she knew she'd never overpower a Nidoking. She'd been beaten. 

She could hear the Nidoking behind her, its warm breath caressing the back of her neck. The Pokemon outstretched its hands and held Blaziken's arms to her body, she had neither the strength nor energy to fight back. The Nidoking's breath became heavier and it stood behind her, almost like it was panting like a mad dog -- a horrifying and disgusting thought then crossed Blaziken's mind.

"I think he likes you," the man said in a taunting voice, "maybe if you train hard enough I'll let you two get..." he said clearing his throat with an 'ahem', "...better acquainted."

An expression of disgust took over her face, the thought was utterly repulsive to her, she couldn't even imagine doing such a thing with the mindless cretin behind her. The Nidoking had quite the opposite reaction to his masters words, he began to breathe quicker and heavier in excitement.

Blaziken let out an audible groan of disgust as the beast holding her in place inched its mouth closer and closer to her neck.

"Ha ha ha! That's the spirit Nidoking!" The man yelled, amused by the now helpless Blaziken subject to both him and his Nidoking.

The Nidoking moved his head in to Blaziken's neck, inches away from her, and inhaled deeply, taking in her scent, exciting him further. Blaziken began to struggle and pull away, an act like that was both disgusting and barbaric to her, it repulsed her to no end, this creature was nothing more than a heartless monster, just like its trainer. 

"Get... off of me!" she yelled frantically to the Nidoking, as she struggled more and more violently, but to no avail, the creature was simply too strong. Though she couldn't move her body, she managed to throw her head back, and hammer it into the Nidoking's nose, causing him to stagger in both shock and pain.

The small impact did nothing but aggravate the Nidoking, who tightened his grip to a now painful pressure on Blaziken. It growled in a deep bass filled tone at her gesture of rejection towards his advances.

"Don't worry Nidoking," the man said, still with a sick smile on his face, "she just needs to learn her place!"

Upon saying the last word, the man whipped his weapon hand around, and slammed it into the right side of Blaziken's head, impacting her right in the temple. The cold hard metal of the gun cut though her skin, and instantly caused blood to flow from the wound. She let out a small cry of pain as she was struck, the hit made her vision rattle, and she began to become dizzy. The man had struck her dangerously hard.

She closed her eyes in pain, all she could feel was the warm blood flowing down her face. The sight of Blaziken being helpless and weak only aroused the Nidoking further, it didn't seem like he wanted to wait any longer.

He threw Blaziken onto the snowy ground violently, and stood before her. She landed flat on her back, and continued to clench her eyes shut. She hadn't the energy to escape or fight back, and she didn't want to see any of what was about to happen to her.

"Looks like he doesn't want to wait," the man said in amusement, "can't say I blame him,".

She didn't move, she just remained on the ground with her eyes shut, the thought alone of this Nidoking coupling with her was unbearably disgusting already.

"You got five minutes Nidoking," the man commanded his grinning Pokemon.

The Nidoking took a step forward towards Blaziken, her eyes still hammered shut, she couldn't bear to think of what the Nidoking was going to do. She wished she was back in her home with her mother and father, she wished she'd never had to fight this horrible man and his monstrous Pokemon, she wished...Iota were here. 

That final thought confused her, she didn't know why she wanted Iota here, but she just did, he wouldn't let this happen, he could save her.

The Nidoking took another step closer, then another, savoring every moment that it would soon have with the beautiful Pokemon before him. Blaziken could her him getting closer and closer, she couldn't bear to open her eyes.

The sound of an impact filled the air. She the sounds of the Nidoking groaning in pain, and landing on the ground behind her.

She opened her eyes. She instantly looked up to see the Nidoking diagonal of her, laying face down the the snow, a small amount of blood coming from the back of its head.

The winds changed a third time. Smoke filled the air in front of her.

Blaziken's heart flew both in fear and of course, relief from the Nidoking being stuck, if whatever had attacked it waited only seconds later ... she didn't even want to think of what would have taken place.

She looked back before her to see whom, or what had come to rescue her, but the smoke had taken over once again, and whatever was there vanished into the smog.

The scarred man watched in shock as his Nidoking slowly picked itself up off the ground. The man looked back at Blaziken, who hadn't moved. There was no way that the Blaziken had done this to his Nidoking, she couldn't hit that hard. He continued to look around, cautiously aiming his weapon at any movement he saw though the haze. The Nidoking shook its head to try and recover from the hit, and stood back upon its feet. Nidoking was furious that something had interrupted his chance with Blaziken.

The smoke, though thinning, still made it difficult to see, his searching eyes finally locked onto a figure aside Blaziken in the shape of a man. He fired his weapon twice in a sheer panic. He saw the figure turn and and slide deeper into the smoke. He'd hit nothing but air, the figure had moved gracefully around his weapons fire. His heart rate picked up...he began to feel a sense of fear.

"N-Nidoking, go get...what ever the hell that was!" he barked, Nidoking nodded in confidence. Whatever had interrupted him before was going to pay with its life. The man saw the figure dash though the smoke once again, close to Nidoking.

"NOW!" the man screamed, pointing at where he saw the outline whatever was in the smoke. Nidoking turned and instantly saw his target, he was close enough to see though the fog, and he was more than eager to kill this new threat.

The Nidoking ran a few steps towards the man, and took a large, heavy, swing into the black smog at the figure. Nidoking struck nothing but smoke and air.

Iota could see everything. From the moment he'd entered the battle, and delivered the first blow to the back of the Nidoking's head, it seemed like everything was moving slower. Iota pulled his upper body away from the Nidoking, bending slightly backwards, and under the Nidoking's fist. To Iota, it felt like he was fighting an enemy who was underwater. Iota watched the Nidoking's arm sail inches above his face in amazement, everything had felt for the most part normal until he began fighting, now everything was moving slower and slower.

The instant Nidoking's fist passed over Iota, things resumed a normal flow of speed. The Nidoking moved normally again, and began another attack. The Nidoking swung its left arm now at Iota, as he brought himself upright from his first evasive move. As soon as Iota began to move around the Nidoking's second attack, things instantly slowed down again, like the the Nidoking was underwater again. Iota bended his torso forward and his head down, again, letting the fist of the Nidoking pass harmlessly above him.

To the Nidoking, it felt like his enemy was moving unthinkably fast. He'd never seen anything avoid his attacks with ease such as this man did.

As the Nidoking finished the second attack, and was unable to make contact, he began to grow more upset. The Nidoking threw a straight-barrel punch headed directly at Iota's head.

Iota found himself actually -waiting- for the Nidoking's attack. Iota had seen enough, it was time to fight back. Before the Nidoking could impact Iota, Iota grabbed the creatures arm, and stepped backwards, pulling the Nidoking's entire body towards Iota. 

As the Nidoking's body grew closer, Iota pulled as hard as he was able, and drew back his arm. Iota continued pulling Nidoking's body closer, and slammed a devastating punch into the Pokemon's cheek. The Pokemon's direction of movement changed the moment Iota made contact, his body was knock off its feet by the impact. Iota could see it happening in a slow, slow pace, and saw the skin and bone of the Nidoking's face crack and tear in detail, he could hear the sick twisting and snapping of bones. Blood soaked the bandages on Iota's fist.

Iota followed though with his entire body weight as time resumed its normal dilation. The Nidoking slammed into the ground, its neck tilting at an unnatural angle. 

The scarred man watched the thick cloud of smoke with clenched fists. He expected his toughened Nidoking to dispose of whatever this thing was quickly, Nidoking had a angry fire in its eyes the moment he was interrupted with Blaziken.

The man heard a groan, then the dull sound of a punch making contact. He grinned in relief, seemed his Nidoking had taken down this thing quicker than he had thought. He stood expecting his Nidoking to be out of the smoke shortly, with the limp body of the enemy.

The man's smile vanished as quickly as it came. Nidoking's limp body was thrown out the smoke, and onto the rough ground.

"Get up!" the man yelled to his Nidoking, who lay on the ground again, "You useless piece of shit! Get up!"

Nidoking was relentless in his effort to make this man into nothing but a bloody carcass. Nidoking had been hit hard, but wasn't down for the count, not yet. He stood back up, and let out a roar in frustration, then running back at Iota. Nidoking was frantic to make contact, punch after punch was delivered into the smoke, Nidoking mindlessly and blindly attacking.

Iota moved gracefully around the attacks, he moved like one would in a choreographed fight, it seemed to Nidoking that Iota could read his attacks before he made them.

Iota could tell by the simple body movements that Nidoking was making where he was going to attack next, Iota floated around the Nidokings fists, one after another. The Nidoking's fury was growing, if Iota attempted a counterattack now, he'd probably get hit one way or another, the longer he let Nidoking stay conscious the more dangerous things seemed to get for him. He didn't know what kind of damage his body could take yet, and would rather not find out his limits when there was someone to protect.

Nidoking threw a mindless angry right handed punch past Iota -- now was his chance. Iota grabbed the creature by wrist, and both rotated its arm, and brought it upwards. At the same time, Iota stepped in, and hammered his elbow downwards towards the forearm of the Nidoking's body. Before Iota made contact, he felt the odd sensation he felt back when he was in the city, he felt the metal inside him beginning to diffuse out.

The rough, metal alloy instantly covered his elbow as he brought it down upon the Nidoking's forearm. The force of Iota's impact combined with the added strength of the metal covering his elbow snapped the Nidoking's bones like twigs.

The Nidoking threw its head back and let out an intense roar in pain, his arm was bent upwards towards him, his dull white bones protruding from his skin.

Though gravely injured, the Nidoking struck again, a left handed strike this time, Iota moved beneath it and drew his arm back to impact the Nidoking once again. The metal on his elbow spread further, and covered his arm downward, enveloping his entire arm and shoulder in the rock hard alloy. Iota's metal covered knuckles slammed into the Nidoking's face, hitting him squarely in the nose. Bones broke inward, cutting though is body internally, and finally, shattering the frontal bone of the Nidoking's skull and impacting the Pokemon's brain, killing in instantly.

The Pokemon flew backwards onto the snow, arm distorted, body and mind dead. Nidoking's eyes were open, but his body was motionless, blood flow from his mouth.

The man looked back up to the smoke, still, he saw nothing.

The wind began to blow away the last traces of smoke, the fire covering the tree had burned itself out long ago, and a clear view of the battle field was beginning to be revealed.

Blaziken lay on the ground frozen, she hadn't the faintest clue as to what was happening around her, but assumed it would be better to remain still, though, she hadn't the energy to move even if she wanted to. As the smoke cleared out, she saw the broken and beaten body of the Nidoking laying dead on the snowy ground, its face covered in nothing but blood and bits of bone, she was half afraid, and half relieved at this sight, whatever was protecting her was something powerful. 

Things were finally beginning to change for her, though she was still far from being saved, the scarred man still pointed a nervous weapon at the smoke. A voice in the back of her head asked her if this man could be Iota -- no, judging by how weakly he moved before, he'd never be able to take out a Nidoking like that, and beat it so severely, this must be some sort of Pokemon protecting her.

The smoke finally finished clearing out, and Blaziken cautiously lifted her weak head to to see the figurer who had helped her.

Though her vision was blurry from her battle, her eyes widened as they fixed upon the figure who'd just taken out the Nidoking. It was Iota. 

He stood motionlessly as the last fumes of smoke whipped past him, his right arm totally encased in a hard, silver metal that seemed to diffused into his skin at the shoulder. That must have been what gave him his strength, that was what gave him the brute force to kill a Nidoking like that. After a few seconds, the metal began to diffuse back into Iota's skin, and his arm returned to normal.

Iota lowered his arm, and looked down at the severely injured Blaziken on the ground, they met gazes for a moment. His eyes were...different. They felt confident and proud, strong and triumphant, she'd never seen someone look at her the way Iota did now -- a combination of both concern and guardianship for her, and at the same time malice and judgement for the trainer who had done this to her.

Blaziken was unable to speak, though she was barely able to stay conscious, she wanted to say a million things -- She wanted to tell Iota how much it meant to her that he was protecting her like this, she wanted to tell him how scared she was before he came, and how helpless she felt, she wanted to have him take her away from this bloodstained battleground, somewhere where they could escape this horrible scarred man, and his Pokemon. 

But most importantly, she wanted to hear Iota tell her everything was going to be okay.

Tears began to fill her eyes, but not out of pain, nor happiness and relief. Small lines of tears began to flow down her face, though she didn't know why she was crying.

She couldn't find any words. Blaziken's tear filled eyes stared into Iota's, and his into hers, for what seemed like forever. Finally, her focus was broken -- the sounds of the scarred man fumbling with his pistol caught her attention, he was frantically reloading.

The man dropped the empty clip in his weapon, and slammed another in, cocking the gun and aiming it straight for Iota.

She forced weak words out of her mouth and called out to her savior, 

"Iota!" 

Iota looked up to see the man before him. The man fired his weapon at Iota relentlessly. The sounds and lights of gunfire flashed before Blaziken, her heart nearly beat out of her chest watching the scene.

Iota instantly strafed forward as the man shot. The speeding hot slug sailed past him and into the blank winter wasteland behind him. 

The man fired again, though Iota could see the bullet traveling slower than someone normally would, it was still not something he could avoid with any sort of ease. Iota dashed diagonally again, closing the distance between him and the man, Iota had to take him out before he could fire any more, if he was shot out here, he'd most likely bleed to death before he found civilization, and Blaziken would probably freeze to death in the snow. 

The bullet missed again, the man was frantic now, he couldn't seem to hit his target. Perspiration ran down both his and Iota's face.

The man unloaded a large succession of shots at Iota, firing in succession one after another, after another. Iota stayed his course, and continued at the man, he wasn't going to stop for anything.

Iota was now with in a few feet of him, and before the man could, he sprang forward, closing the distance even further -- he had to strike now.

The man raised his weapon again, and placed the barrel of the gun a mere foot in front of Iota's chest, he'd never be able to dodge from that close a distance.

Before his finger was able to squeeze the trigger, Iota instantly reacted. In one motion, he clenched his fist, his flesh again covering itself with metal, and jaggedly struck the scarred mans weapon hand as he finished his stride running forward. The man immediately and involuntarily released his grip from the impact of Iota's hit. The man screamed in agony as nearly every bone in his hand was broken.

Iota stepped in, and swung his hand again into the scarred man's stomach. The blow forced all the air out of the mans lungs, rendering him unable to scream. His eyes widened, and he began to double over. The sound impact made a dull thud...then the sound of slicing flesh.

A long, slender blade suck out of the scarred man's back, blood and bits of bone dripping off the tip. Iota looked at the blade that stuck out of the man's back, he never expected something like -that- to happen.

"Y-You're...Yo-You're...." the scarred man struggled to speak, but before any more words could escape his lips, death enclosed upon his body, and he fell limp upon Iota.

Iota withdrew his hand, the blade following. The sounds of flesh being sliced again filled the air as Iota withdrew his fist, and subsequently the blade. Iota felt no remorse in ending this mans life, a monster like that didn't deserve to live. 

The injured, or dead, Magmar's Pokeball was inside the SUV, the Nidoking was motionless on the ground, and their trainer had just been killed. The two men inside the car were now devoid of any sort of protection. Iota looked up, blood dripping off his hand, at the vehicle, and as he did, its tires rotated, and it sped off into the distance.

The danger of the situation now seemed to be over, and Iota looked down to examine his arm. The new developments in his body were strange so far, but he'd never seen anything like this before.

A metal blade, made of the same material that coated his arms, had formed and began from the wrist of his right forearm. He felt no pain from the blade sticking out of his skin, and he did not bleed...at least he didn't think he saw any of his blood, the scarred man's blood coated his arm quite heavily.

As Iota calmed down from the excitement of battle, the blade withdrew itself back into his body. Its bloody edges retreated back into his arm. As quickly as it came, it had vanished, the one thing Iota knew nothing about controlling in his body was the metal, and now with this new development, it seemed he was even further from understanding it.

Iota turned his focus back to Blaziken, who still lay on the ground, she was heavily damaged, and seemed to be on the fringe of unconsciousness. Though she looked worse for wear, nothing but relief and happiness filled her emotions. Iota payed no attention to the dead body of the scarred man beside him, and ran over to Blaziken, kneeling beside her.

He gently picked her up into his arms, and began to sit her upright. Her eyes began to flutter again and she struggled to open them.

"I--Iota, you came back," she said in a weak whisper, it was all she could manage at this point.

Her body was beaten and damaged, yet strangely, she never felt better in her life.

He opened his mouth to say something in return, but before he could, she finally subjected to her bodies injuries, and fell into unconsciousness. Iota closed his mouth, and remained silent. Iota cringed as an influx of pain caught him off guard. He clutched his side, and was instantly met by the warm temperature of blood flowing form him. He'd been hit by the man's weapon at some point, a bullet struck him in the left side of his torso, and passed though him. Blood soaked though his clothes, though Iota was more than willing to endure the pain mentally, his body might subject to the blood loss eventually.

Iota ripped a section of bandages from his arms, and tore a long piece off. He removed his old, battered shirt, and folded it into a small rectangle. He gathered a small amount of snow from the ground, and placed it on one side of his shirt, the cold would some of the bleeding. Iota placed the snow towards his wound, and the shirt on top of it, then he secured it to himself tightly by tying the long section of bandage around his torso. He cringed as he tied it tightly, he had to make sure he could survive long enough to make it to civilization somewhere -- for both him and Blaziken. 

He gently picked her up, and carried her limp body in his arms. He cringed as he stood, blood began to flow though his shirt and bandage already. He stood facing the road, and began to walk. Though the Arctic weather on his bare skin caused him chills, the warm, natural body heat Blaziken gave off even when unconscious consoled him.

Iota put one foot in front of the other, and began to walk, Blaziken in his arms. Safety and survival lay somewhere before him, a wake of blood and death remained behind him.