Room 181 Ch. 18

I stared confusedly at the empty space before me. ‘Wha… What… What just happened?’

The shadows had receded around us, but the feeling in my gut grew heavier. All this time… all this time and I never thought that it was… how could it… I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know what to think anymore.

A rough, humourless laugh came from somewhere in the room. I looked round to the one remaining Deino left.

‘Heh heh… Got you, didn’t she? Joke’s on you, right?’ Luke laughed bitterly. ‘Joke’s on all of us…’

‘What just happened?’ I repeated, but this time directed at Luke. ‘Was that… Lizzy? Who is she? Who is she really?’

Luke looked up at me. ‘Want me to tell you?’ he asked sarcastically. ‘Sure you can handle it?’

‘Just tell me already!’ I shouted at him, my best attempts to restrain my frustration in vain. ‘Who knows what’s going to happen next, we may not have time!’

‘Doesn’t matter, there’s nothing we can do. But for what it’s worth… she’s the evil twin,’ Luke said bluntly. ‘Oh, it’s not a real thing. There isn’t some intrinsic magic in the universe that makes one twin good and the other turn out bad. But it’s a good way of putting it, don’t you think?’

‘But it can’t be her!’ Jess blurted out as she hurried over to were the two of us were. I saw my friends, Kieran, Jess, Danny and Jack, start to move back in again together around Luke to hear what he had to say. ‘I know Lizzy,’ Jess continued to protest, ‘she’s a sweet little girl!’

‘Hah!’ There was another bitter laugh. ‘No, she’s just a damn good actor. Want to know what the real Lizzy’s like?’

I swallowed. ‘What?’

Luke turned back to stare at me sightlessly. ‘She’s ruthless. She will tread anyone underfoot to fulfill her own wicked ambitions. She’s the one that hired Emily to try and get you out of her way. She’s not delusional about grandeur or oppressing the righteous, she likes power simply for power’s sake. In many ways that’s worse. She’s fiendishly clever, much more than you’d expect at our age. She’s been building this scheme for months and months, at least that I know of. She doesn’t care for others – not in the slightest.’ Luke lowered his head at this. ‘And that includes me,’ he added in a small voice.

‘Y-You?’ Danny asked nervously.

If I didn’t know better, I’d have said that Luke’s face was wet. ‘She… she hates me. She says I’m weak and worthless. And I am. I’ve let her walk all over me for years. She’s the one who’s done the deeds, and I’ve been made to take her blame. She’s keeping herself clear and maintaining the unquestionable ‘adorable little girl’ image, see?’

‘Then why don’t you stand up to her?’ I heard Jack ask.

‘What, to her? No way. She’s strong – dangerously strong. Terrifyingly strong. If she really wanted, she could take the Elite Four challenge any time she liked. She could probably take Asula head-to-head, and give her a serious fight. She’s certainly stronger than Emily.’

I stared. What have we gotten ourselves into now?!

‘So you’ve had no choice but to shoulder the image that she deserves?’ Kieran asked with concern. Even I found myself extending my sympathies to the little guy. To have been forced by his own sister… to take all her blame for her villainy… at the age of eleven.

‘Don’t wear it out, there’s plenty of mileage in that line yet. Yeah, she made me her scapegoat.’

‘So really you were just made to look like an annoying brat the whole time when you weren’t?’

‘What? No. I’m naturally an annoying brat. And don’t try to cover it over and you’re sure I’m not really, I know it’s true,’ he continued as all my extended sympathies did an about-turn and scurried back to me again. ‘But I did try and do something about it, as little as I could.’

My ears perked up. ‘Really?’

‘Yeah. I knew that the main-name heroes like Brandon Chan had bigger things on their mind, like saving the world and all Pokeumans everywhere and all that, so I figured you’d do for a start since you know us. I tried to stand up for you at court, but Lizzy stood me down and silenced me. And when she tricked you into the Elite Four challenge, I tried to give you a warning, although I had to make it subtle.’

I thought back to… yesterday evening? That soon? What was it that Luke had said to me…

You could get hurt down here.

I put a hand behind my head and looked away awkwardly. ‘Um, yeah, it’s kind of easy for that to be misinterpreted.’

‘Whatever.’ Yep, looks like the Luke we recognise was at least partially the real deal. ‘I also sent you a message in the mail system. I had to do it anonymously, but I made it as specific as I could within my limits. In fact, I’m surprised you didn’t act on that sooner.’

‘What message? When?’

‘Yesterday. Y’know, Friday? The day Brandon came back from New York? Sinking in yet?’

‘Um…’ Again, I retraced my thoughts desperately. Yesterday morning… We talked to the others about the Dream Dimension fiasco, then I met Louie- no, between those two. We went back to the room and…

My mouth was dry. ‘Ah,’ I said. Yesterday was the day Cameron Taylor didn’t deliver our mail because he was tired of all my wacky traps. No wonder we didn’t get Luke’s message. I really haven’t helped myself, have I?

‘So,’ I continued to cover my embarrassment, ‘what do we do now?’

Luke sighed. ‘Why are you asking? You already know what you’re going to do. You’re going to go after her, aren’t you? And I’m telling you now, count me out. I’d better stay here and...’ His confidence faltered. ‘… And keep an eye on things… I don’t have as much experience as you do really, and…’ He looked away nervously and I saw what he was saying between the lines. And I’m too scared. I can’t stand up to Lizzy.

I looked around all my friends. ‘…Well then?’ I asked openly. ‘Should we pursue her or not? What do you all think?’

People looked at each other and muttered. The consensus was plain: it would be an incredibly stupid idea to pursue Lizzy. She was much more powerful than us and could be anywhere in the world now. And there was Emily, who would have no problems now with finishing us off for good. The sensible thing to do would be to find some PRT officials, explain to them as best we could and let the professionals handle the dirty work.

On the other hand…

Time could well be running out. We might not be able to convince the PRT. We might be the only people. They wouldn’t have any better idea of where she was than us, and we at least vaguely knew what we were getting ourselves into. But hanging above all that, clear once again between the lines of what everyone was saying, was that none of us could resist the call of The Right Thing To Do. Especially me.

Besides, incredibly stupid ideas were our specialty.

‘But where could she be?’ Kieran asked aloud. ‘We don’t know where to even start. Shadow-walking is much more powerful than teleportation or warping.’

‘It’ll be somewhere hard on us,’ Jess said thoughtfully. ‘If she really is the cruel, callous villainess that Luke says, then she’ll want to make us dance first. As… as hard as it is for me to get my head round it, it sounds like the kind of thing she’d do.’ She looked at me. ‘Where could she have gone?’

I throat was dry. I knew the answer. ‘Pokextinction. She’s gone there. Who’d spot another nutcase in an organization full of them?’

‘But-But-She’s an Extinctionist, too?!’ Danny said, somewhat shocked. I could sympathise with him on this one. Someone only his age had turned out to be a scheming genius with evil plans for the whole base. The realisation must be terrible for him of what innocent people could really be like, especially at his age. Reality doses, at this point in time, seemed to come like any other dosage of medicine: Take two, and keep away from children.

‘Nope.’ We suddenly all remembered Luke was there. The idea of him being quiet was a strange and new one, so we responded by just forgetting he was present. Now he was speaking again. ‘I know for a fact that she regard Pokextinction as fools. But that sounds like her kind of hideout after this. They wouldn’t even know she’s hidden in the base. You might want to make it quick, because I don’t know how long it will be until she puts her plan into action.’

‘What sort of plan?’

‘I dunno, but it’s a big one. She’s been working on this for months.’

‘Alright then, which base is she in?’

‘What, you think she’s told me that? It’s probably going to be a base sufficiently close for her to organise some kind of attack on Long Island, that’s my guess. First of all, of course, you’ll have to get out of this base.’

I bit my lip. He had a good point. They weren’t just going let us walk out of Long Island and give us a lunch hamper for the journey. ‘I’m guessing stealth isn’t an option?’ I attempted.

‘The front door? In the middle of the day?’ Jack replied with a raised eyebrow. ‘With all the other people around? Getting past security, monitoring equipment and any external defenses as well?’

I sighed. ‘The word ‘no’ would have worked just as well, y’know.’

‘I can’t Dig us out of here,’ Danny said apologetically. ‘Not without it being incredibly obvious.’ Jess immediately bent down to him and patted him on the head in response to this, making reassuring noises that it wasn’t his fault.

‘But we can teleport.’

I turned my head to Kieran, who was looking back at me. ‘Don’t say you weren’t thinking of it as well,’ he continued offhandedly.

I frowned. ‘What, all five of us? Can you do that?’ Jack joined me on this. ‘I know it takes a lot of energy for this kind of thing,’ he added, ‘are you really sure you’re up to it?’

‘Well, I won’t be able to get out for very long distances,’ the Kadabra said calmly, ‘but sufficiently far that it’ll get us out of the base and past any security features. When we’re outside and in the open, it may actually be quicker and safer than walking, if you give me time between teleports to recuperate.’ He shrugged. ‘Look, I know it’ll be hard for me, but we need to get out of here and find Lizzy, so it’s worth it. I’ll do what I have to, if you’re willing.’

I melted with gratitude. Kieran smiled, so it obviously showed in my expression.

‘Wow,’ Luke said dryly from behind me. ‘You really do get up to some silly things, don’t you?’

Despite myself, I smiled. ‘All the time. It’s what we do. Jess, Danny, we have a plan.’ I explained to them. They looked unsure. ‘But Cameron…’ Danny said nervously.

‘Yes?’

‘If we break out… that would be breaking the base’s biggest rules.’

I smiled. This was, as I was discovering, the bit I really liked. ‘Danny, sometimes we just have to say ‘screw the rules’ in the name of what’s best. Don’t take this to heart for normal life, but this time it’s for the greater good. I say that I don’t care what Asula tells us, let’s go kick villainous butt.’

The two looked at each other, then Jess said ‘Well, if you’re confident, then I’ll trust you. But we end up in the base’s jail then I’m blaming you in my court statement.’

Danny nodded. ‘Ok then. Let’s go!’

There was no further pomp and ceremony. Kieran just held out his arms and everyone else took hold. We had a mission. Just before I did, I looked back at Luke and sought for words to say. ‘…Don’t worry,’ I settled for in the end. ‘We’ll find a way to stop her.’

‘Yeah, well.’ Luke looked away. ‘Good luck, or something. Go out there and don’t screw up.’

‘Nice to know you have faith in us.’ I stepped up and took hold of Kieran. ‘Alright, fire it up.’

I heard Kieran sigh. ‘Honestly, Cameron, I’m a Psychic not a motorbi-‘

Blue light filled my vision.

In the suddenly much more empty room, Luke looked at the place where the five Pokeumans had been just before. After what seemed like a thoughtful pause, he sighed. Faith in them or not, they’d better make this work.


---


The first thing that struck me was the heat. It wasn’t roasting, like a desert, but it was the sudden jolt of moving out of a cool room into the bright sunshine that disorientated the surroundings.

Which, of course, was exactly what it was.

I blinked my eyes open and squinted, and there overhead was the Sun. The real Sun. Not some overhead lighting providing a cheap version of the same effect. The actual Sun.

It had been so long underground that I had almost forgotten what the natural heat on my skin felt like. Although, of course, the last time I was up here I didn’t have fur.

I tore my gaze away (it’s bad for you, after all) and looked around, taking it all in. The sky. The blue, open sky, free as far as the eye could see. Green fields bordering each other, with a few trees at the edge to form the natural perimeters where the fences didn’t do that job already. Good grief, I never though I’d actually miss seeing a field, but after all that time in what was effectively a crystal-lined cave – a very accommodating and luxurious cave, yes, but when you get down to it it was still a cave -, seeing the natural beauty of the outside world took my breath away. I know that sounds pretentious and overly poetic, but you try living in a hole in the ground for months on end and then going outside and you’ll find clouds beautiful too. I think the word to describe the peace and sudden stillness would be ‘serene’, and I never use words like that. It was like some sort of old childhood memory coming back to the surface.

No-one said anything for a long time. We were just drinking in the atmosphere, feeling the wind – real wind – run through our fur or various other coverings and listening to quiet sounds of nature. I’ve heard about Pokeumans crying out to be let outside and see the outside world again, but I’d dismissed them as over-emotional hang-ups (and also Amy the Jigglypuff, but she’s a ten-year-old badass).  Now I was here, though, I could see why. If it wasn’t for the war, or the fact that humans could come and cart us off for study and research, then I’d want to stay out here forever too…

But. There’s no point wasting time with ‘what ifs’. Reality is hard enough without bringing our own impossible fantasies into this kind of mix too. It’s hard to say and harder still to do, but sometimes you just have to move on.

We must have been there for ten minutes, even after we quietly broke away from each other and took some time each to look around the area and reacquaint ourselves with things we hadn’t seen in months, like trees. Kieran stayed put so he could recuperate and Jess and Danny went off together while Jack and I wandered away separately. If we were going to be there for a while as Kieran recharged his batteries, we may as well appreciate it. And if we stayed longer than necessary so we could enjoy the scenery… Oh well. What a hardship that would be.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all roses. We didn’t spot it until late into the ten minutes we spent there, hidden among the natural surroundings, but what we spotted wasn’t pretty. I was called over by Jess and we all stared in confusion and growing anxiety at what she and Danny had found.

‘It’s an army. Of Pokemon.’

The figures were just a rabble of shapes and colours on the mid-horizon, surrounded by an almost cartoonish cloud of dust, but they were unmistakable. That is, they definitely weren’t human, and you don’t get giraffes, elephants and heffalumps on Long Island.

‘But… they can’t be from the base…’ Danny said slowly. ‘They must be… they must be…’

‘The base is under attack,’ Jack said fearfully. The flames on his back were flaring randomly, a trait of his I’d noticed when he was anxious and lost for what to do. ‘And if it isn’t, then it’s going to be soon. That’s an army from Pokextiction, and it doesn’t take a genius to work out where they’re headed.’

‘But- but- we’ve got to help!’ Jess exclaimed. ‘We can’t just stand by and let them attack! We’ve got to do something! We-‘

‘-Are not simply standing by,’ I said grimly. As much as I hated it, I already knew what we would have to do. ‘We are going to go and stop Lizzy. That is hardly standing by.’

Jess rounded on me, but she wasn’t angry as she normally was in these situations. She looked distraught. ‘But they’re attacking Long Island! That’s our home! There are hundreds of innocent people there, and they need us to help! We have to!’

I looked her in eyes. ‘Under normal circumstances, I’d absolutely agree with you, Jess. They do need help. But these aren’t normal circumstances and I don’t think we don’t get the luxury of choice. The entire base knows or is going to know about this raid soon, but only we know about Lizzy and her plans. We’re the only ones who can fix this.’ I shook my head. ‘Besides, if the entire base can work together then they might be able to fight off this attack, but if Lizzy then sends another one they’ll be completely helpless. We… we have to do this, I’m afraid.’ This was the heroism stuff I’d been complaining about, it seems.  Looks like it sucks even more in practice than it does in the theory.

Jess looked up at me. I could see that she wanted to protest, but she didn’t. She couldn’t. She could tell I was right, but that didn’t make it any easier. Her expression changed from one of fear to one of tired resignation.

I felt like more was needed. ‘Besides, there might well be some left for us when we return. We might get to join the party after all.’

There was a silence, then Jack sarcastically muttered ‘Party time. Woo,’ and with that I knew we were fine. When we’re making wisecracks, you know we’re ok. It’s when we get very serious that there’s a problem going on.

‘Alright guys,’ Kieran was saying as we came back round to him again, ‘if we’re going to do this, we may as well start planning. Ignore the army on the horizon, they’re not our problem. They’re the PRT’s problem, and they have a damn sight more training than we do. I know you’re enjoying this scenery as well – I sure am – but we’ve got to go ahead. Luckily we should be able to go very quickly and I may not need to recharge so much now we’ve gone through all that solid stone. The only problem, though, is direction. Does anyone know where we’re going?’

There was much um-ing and scratching of heads. This appeared to be the big flaw in our genius plan. None of us had the foggiest clue where the Pokextinction base would be. Kieran held his spoon up and proclaimed the direction it was facing to be north, prompting us all to crowd around behind him to look in that direction as if it was some sort of map. ‘Any idea of distance?’ I heard Jack ask.

‘Well,’ I thought aloud, unintentionally cutting Kieran off, ‘if Pokextinction have any sense it’ll be several kilometres away from Long Island. Far enough to be safe but, like Luke said, close enough to mount an attack. As for direction, we may as well head in the opposite direction to Long Island and hope for the-‘

Suddenly, a rough hand landed on my shoulder from behind, and an adult’s voice said ‘Shouldn’t you kids be in school?’


-Roughly ten minutes earlier-


Sat behind her desk, Asula continued reading the series of reports from the technological team that had been working incredibly hard to build the portal. Occasionally she’d pick up a pen and highlight something. A lot of the technical details she would admit that she didn’t understand, but she read them regardless because she should know as much as she could. It wasn’t long before they had to try and stabilise the portal and send the party through it, after all. As long as she had a vague idea of the principles behind it, that would be sufficient. More important were the paragraphs of ‘practical details’ – stability of the portal, equipment needed and whether they’d be able to close it and then open it again or would have to keep it open constantly while the party were in the PokeDimension. All these things were as important a factor in the overall plan as any other.

The most important part, of course, was making sure that she could at least appear to be absolutely in control of the situation, in case anyone became understandably nervous about jumping through a portal into an unexplored world to fight Legendary monsters. In that case, a firm hand on the tiller paid off.

She of course had no idea that the machine was never going to be used.

There was a gentle knock on the door that she’d come to recognise well. ‘Come in, Eve,’ she said.

She put the report down and smiled with relief as her Skiploom secretary floated in. ‘Ah, time has come for the send-off, has it?’ she said as she moved herself out from her position behind the desk. ‘Thank you for the reminder, I’ll make my way down to the labs now.’

‘No, miss,’ Eve replied. ‘That’s not for a while yet.’

Asula paused mid-action. ‘Isn’t it?’

‘No, miss. Don’t worry about that.’

‘…Oh. Thank you.’ The Milotic eased herself back down and gave a sigh. ‘Ahh… I think I need a break. First I had to examine the party roster for the dimensional exploration and consider their best-suiting potential roles, then I had to read and double-check all the plans of action once they get to the PokeDimension and make sure they’ll be able to handle it,’ there was a sigh, ‘assuming that they can at all, and now the tech staff have run up this schematic for me so I can think about the nature of the portal and the equipment we’re using. It’s just been hard work after hard work. Thank you for being a safe port in a storm like this. It means the world to me, I assure you.’

Eve blushed slightly. ‘Oh, thank you. I’m just doing my job, after all.’

‘Extremely well, I must say. So,’ Asula looked over the desk at her secretary, ‘I know that you’re not prone to unnecessary social calls while on the job.’ She smiled wearily. ‘What’s the latest commotion, then? Don’t tell me – someone’s trying to escape from the base.’

‘Er, yes, that’s the one miss,’ Eve said awkwardly and laughed without humour.

Asula waited patiently for a followup to this, but Eve just floated awkwardly in front of her desk, looking worried. ‘Well?’

‘Er… you said…’

Asula felt a sinking feeling as she replayed the previous exchange in her head.

‘Someone is actually trying to escape from the base?!’

Eve, not having anything to say that could make the situation better, settled for making it more clear. ‘Er, technically no. They aren’t trying to escape, they’ve managed it.’

Asula buried her head in her robotic hands. ‘_{This day cannot get any worse,}’ she moaned quietly to herself. Eventually she took a deep breath and looked up at the concerned Eve. ‘How did we find out about the breakout?’ she said slowly.

‘Teleport energy signature leaving the base,’ Eve replied loyally. ‘Two of them close to each other. The first one they dismissed as a glitch, but when there was a second only minutes later the security staff sent me up to tell you.’ She tried to recall the hurried information the person she’d been talking to had given her. ‘The first one was just a load of small bits flying out. Not important enough to investigate, and even if we did it’d be long gone by now. The other one was a small group of living bodies.’

Asula could feel it slotting into place already. ‘Small group?’

‘Five of them. The security are running a check with registers and monitoring footage to figure out who it was.’

‘They can if they like, but I think I already know.’ There was another, more sustained sigh. ‘I’d happily bet money that one of them was a Mr. Cameron Stevens, and from there guessing the other four shouldn’t be too hard.’

‘Indeed, miss.’ Eve had learned long ago not to question whether Asula was sure of this sort of thing. ‘If they got their friend Kieran to get warp out then they can’t have gone far. The Abra family is renowned for teleportation abilities, but they won’t have got any distance that would make them irretrievable. Should we send a PRT team to fetch them?’

‘Yes, we-‘ Asula stopped, and appeared to think. Then after a while she slowly said ‘Yes. Specifically, send the PaRTy guys.’

Eve frowned. ‘Er… The PaRTy guys? Are you sure that would be a wise choice, given their relationship to the person in question-‘

‘Yes, Eve, that is exactly what makes me sure. Besides, they could probably catch up to them in a matter of minutes.’

‘But… they may be prone to let them go, or even go with them at the promise of adventure…’

‘Indeed, and under normal circumstances they’d be reprimanded for doing so. But these aren’t normal circumstances. We are reaching a peak of activity. Any time now we’re about to send a swarm of teenagers to protect an alien dimension, and I think the adventurous spirit is overflowing. Frankly, there’s only one way I can think of to stop Cameron Stevens haring off on his own, and I’m not allowed to chain students to the wall as a preventative. If he’s going to go and try and do some sort of heroics anyway, I may as well give him all the practical support I can.’

'I... still feel this is not the wisest...'

'...And you'd be right. Sadly. But we are about to embark on a mission to save the entire world - the entirety of Pokeumanity as we know it. I... I have to set priorities at some point. The least I can do is make things not worse and leave it be.'

‘I’ll send the PaRTy Guys on their way.’ Eve said simply and hurried out of the room. Asula smiled wearily, confident that she had chosen… maybe not the best, but the most appropriate course of action. It was out of her hands, there was nothing more she could do. The team should catch up to Cameron’s position in ten minutes.

Nine minutes later, a panicked looking Beedrill flew into her office. ‘Ms Asula!’

‘What is it this time?’

‘A horde of Pokextinctionists is approaching the base!’


-Cameron-


‘Shouldn’t you kids be in school?’

I suddenly went very, very still. So, indeed, had the other four. Every nerve in my body was standing on end. The grip on my shoulder wasn’t tight, but definitely firm. Slowly, I turned my head to look at the man. He was young, probably early twenties or something like that, a good foot taller than I was with a messy brown haircut and looking like he’d just popped in off the high street in his casual jeans, rather than come out of the middle of a field. Unfortunately my brain wasn’t picking up on these somewhat significant anomalies, because behind a frozen expression my mind was running round and round in circles screaming its head off in panic. He’s seen us! He’s a human! A human’s seen us! What do we do?!

I heard something behind me and the sound of some of the other guys turning to look, but I didn’t. I was too afraid of what might possibly come from in front.

The man smiled as if he’d done something clever. ‘You know, I reckon your headmistress would be very disappointed to see you bunking off like this,’ he continued smugly, ‘even if you are living Pokemon.’

‘…P-please,’ I stuttered my natural resolve shot to bits by distress, ‘don’t take us away, we’re not what you think we are…’

‘Oh, sorry, no can do. We’re going to have to take you with us, my little pocket monsters.’

Something about that made the rational part of my mind slap the panicking part and tell it to get a grip on itself. He’s being… surprisingly calm… It’s not right…

This was the part where I picked up on the anomalies I mentioned before. There’s more than meets the eye here.

I tried to speak, but my throat was too dry. I swallowed and managed to find my voice this time. ‘Head… Headmistress? You said headmistress. How… would you know Asula’s female? That wouldn’t make sense… Unless…’

Something was going on behind me, but I didn’t pay any attention. The man stood in front of me just raised an eyebrow as if impressed. But no other reaction. That wouldn’t be normal.

Slowly, my eyes followed the path from his face, down his arm, to the hand that was on my shoulder, then down to the fingers and the large gold ring on one of them. I didn’t have to be able to read the embossed letters to know what they were.

My sheer relief that we hadn’t been found by a human was drowned out only by my fresh dread that we had been found by the PRT.

‘We got here pretty darn fast,’ the man said casually. His voice sounded familiar. ‘Commander Cuczoff would be pleased with us if he wasn’t so busy.’

I sighed. There was only one thing for it.

‘I’m really, really sorry,’ I said meaningfully, then closed my eyes and without warning blasted 42V of electricity into the man’s arm. This is a dangerous level of electricity, especially when taken by surprised. Normally I’d never use such a powerful current even to fight someone like Alex. It might be dangerous for him, it might even get him taken off duty for some time, but letting Lizzy get away with her plan would be worse. It was something I had to do, and given that there were going to be inevitable causalities of some sort it may as well be this guy. After several seconds I stopped the flow, and opened my eyes to see the damage I’d done.

The man hadn’t so much as flinched. His hair wasn’t even stood on end.

He took his hand off my shoulder and raised an eyebrow again. ‘Ooh. I almost felt that.’

I wanted to kick myself. So obvious. They’d naturally send a Ground-type PRT member to capture an Electric-type escapee, wouldn’t they?

In my peripheral vision I saw that the electricity show I’d put on had made my friends turn, surprised. They’d presumably been doing… something behind me, but I’d been too preoccupied to notice.

I’d tried violence, now I was willing to try pleading. Even as I opened my mouth I realised that Plans A and B should normally have been the other way round, but what the heck.

It was obvious to me who it was now. A Ground-type PRT member, who jokes around like this and has a familiar standing voice. ‘Listen, Max,’ I said desperately, ‘we’re friends. Please, I need you to listen to me. There’s something going on that you have no idea about, and we have to-‘

‘Woah, wait a second.’ The PRT member who’d I’d presumed to be a Garchomp raised his hand defensively. ‘I’m not Max.’

‘What? Yes, you are, aren’t you?’

‘No, I’m Max.’

I turned my head to see the other human who was behind our group, who the other four must have been talking to before that I had ignored, take off his humanising ring and become the Garchomp that I recognised well before our eyes. Max waved a hand slowly. ‘That guy is my new teammate that I told you about a while ago,’ he said slowly. ‘Didn’t you realise I was here?’

Kieran and Jack were looking at me with matching expressions of helpless confusion. Jess and Danny looked more concerned at the sight of the PRT members. I could see the distress evident in my friend’s faces and the clever smugness in those of the PRT. Well, I was having none of it. Buoyed up on my frustration with our helpless position and this guy’s irritating smugness, I rounded properly on the guy who’d had his hand on my shoulder and, in virtually one movement, pulled the gold humanising ring off his finger before he could react.

I stared. Kieran stared. Jess stared. Everyone stared except Max, who smiled like the two of them had just pulled a very good party trick.

‘Well if that’s the way you’re going to be about it,’ Stuart Gordon the Excadrill said emphatically, ‘then maybe we won’t offer you any held after all.’

There was a stunned silence, broken eventually by Stuart’s cheerful laughter.

‘A ha ha ha ha ha! Oh, if only you could see the looks on your faces! What’s the matter, surprised?’

‘That’s because you just popped up out of nowhere!’ Jack, who had the best reaction times of us all, shouted at the Excadrill.

‘And you’re hardly the first person we want to see!’ Danny joined in. ‘Why are you even here anyway?!’

‘Stuart, why are-‘

‘No, don’t encourage him!’ Jess cut me off angrily. ‘He’s not staying!’

‘Please, children,’ Jess’ big brother said in that completely self-assured voice of his that drives me up the wall. ‘I understand that my arrival has left you frankly ecstatic with excitement but I really do have a job to do as well.’ With a dramatic flourish - I may be prone to these occasionally, but this guy does them all the damn time -, a small paper was produced. ‘Check it out, Jess! I am an official member of the Long Island PRT!’

A collective moaning went up from us all. Every time we’ve encountered this guy since he first arrived all he’s done is annoy us as a group. I’m hardly surprised Jess isn’t up for getting to know him better like he wants her to. When we first met him we’d assumed he’d just been passing through, but now he was here to stay for good?! I can’t take that!

‘Yes, that’s right! We’ll have plenty of time to re-establish the bonds that have been lost between us, my dear sister,’ Stuart steamed on, bubbling with self-pride. ‘I must say, I’m looking forward to it immensely!’

‘I think I’m looking forward to fighting Emily again more,’ Jess scowled through gritted teeth.

‘You didn’t tell me that you know Stuart, Cameron!’ Max laughed suddenly from behind me. I turned to see him smiling happily. ‘I must say, I like him! He’s got that cheery laid-back vibe that suits me well.’

‘Yeah, I’m sure you’re like two peas in a flipping pod,’ I said back perhaps a little sharper than Max had warranted. Stuart, on the other hand, did my head in with his over-dramaticness and his ego the size of a small planet and warranted any level of sharpness.

‘Indeed! And now we’re colleagues in arms and I wouldn’t have it any other way!’ Stuart marched up to where Max was and stood next to him, facing us. ‘I’m sure we’ll go far, as will all you delightful kids!’

‘They call us ‘the PaRTy Guys’,’ Max added with a wide grin.

I frowned. ‘Party Guys?’

‘Not ‘Party’, ‘PaRTy’. With a capital ‘PRT’.’

‘Still not making any sense.’

‘No? Well, it looks better written down. …Y’know, on the forms and stuff.’

I looked at the ring I'd taken from Stuart's finger, which gleamed in the Sun as I turned it over. 'It's the real deal,' I said to everyone, sounding both surprised and strangely apologetic. 'Proper gold, proper embossing, everything. He actually means it.'

'Indeed, and now we’re doing missions for the good of the base!’ Stuart chipped back in again. ‘Isn’t that just excellent?! I told you I had a valuable purpose in this organization now! You should be honoured!’

‘Will you just shut up?’ Even Kieran was getting aggravated, and he’s normally the soft-spoken one among us.

‘Ah, patience, patience, dear boy. As my old teacher used to say, a man’s true strength is found in his companions of trust.’ Stuart and Max turned their heads to look each other in the eye, then grinned and fist-bumped.

We looked on. ‘And what does that mean, exactly?’ I hazarded.

‘Hm. I’m not entirely sure.’

‘Then why did you say it?!’

‘Ugh, this is killing me,’ Jess groaned, her head in her hands. ‘Stuart, please, just… go away. We’ve got to get on with our mission, and I really can’t cope with you right now.’

‘Oh? A mission?’ Max looked intrigued. ‘And what kind of mission would you ragtag bunch be sent on, hm? Stopping an Pokextinction van? You little tykes grow up so fast.’

‘No, we-‘ Jess stopped herself, and looked at the rest of us. A few awkward looks were exchanged, but we all came to unspoken consensus. Tell them. We’re not going to get away with our plan in our current position, so it’s better than nothing at all.

So we told them. Everything. All the details, especially the stuff about Lizzy and her right-hand-psycho. And what we were planning (to use the term loosely) to do about it. We even told them about the impending raid on Long Island, and attempted to justify our reasons to not help.

At the end of it all the two PRT members were at first stunned, and then confused. ‘Alright, alright, let me get this straight,’ Max said incredulously. ‘There’s an eleven-year-old girl who’s been tricking everyone into thinking that she’s the innocent one and that her brother’s the villain, and now this little girlie has some diabolical plan to take over the base and you want to go and challenge her, some psychopath called Emily and an entire Pokextinction base.’

‘Pretty much.’

‘You taken your meds this morning?’

‘Max,’ I groaned, ‘this is serious. You know me. I know I get into plenty of weird situations, but think of it this way: this one’s too weird for me to even make up.’

Max and Stuart looked at each other. ‘Y’know, he has a good point there actually,’ Max said thoughtfully. ‘One second, you lot, we need to have a staff meeting. If you run away, we can and will catch you up.’

The two Ground types hurried over out of our earshot and huddled their heads together. There appeared to be some considerable discussion going on.

I looked at my friends, unsure. Their expressions must have mirrored my own. Whatever these two decided determined the fate of our mission, like it or not.

‘Jess,’ I said quietly, ‘what are you thinking?’

‘About the fact that Stuart is now a PRT member,’ Jess muttered darkly. ‘And wondering how long it’s going to take his head to shrink back down to normal size again.’

‘I didn’t think you’d be pleased, but at least it keeps him out of the base and away from us.’

‘Oh joy, the silver linings.’ There was a sigh from the Togetic. ‘Well, as long as he stays away from us. I don’t really care what he does so long as I don’t have to hear about it.’

We lapsed into silence again, not sure what to say when the fate of our mission and possibly the whole of Long Island hung in the balance of two PRT members. After a while more of discussion, Max and Stuart eventually lifted their hands, nodded in agreement with each other and then walked back over to us. They appeared to have reached a decision.

‘Alright then kids,’ Max said in his ‘official’ voice, ‘this is your lucky day. We’re going to let you go on this mission of yours, given how essential it is-‘

My heart lightened. I felt like cheering.

‘-on one condition.’

Or perhaps not.

‘What’s that condition?’ I said warily.

Max smiled. ‘We’re coming with you.’

‘NO!!’ Jess was, unsurprisingly, the first to react. ‘No, I’m not having it! Not if you’re going to bring Stuart with you!’

‘Oh, you,’ Stuart said with what sounded like a slight sigh. ‘You just don’t seem to appreciate something good when you see it, I’m sure. If I come with you, you’ll have all the more help on your side! As if you’d all be able to attack a highly-protected facility all by yourself! Besides, they say that the best bonds are formed by facing common adversity, so I can only imagine with delight what our relationship will be like after attacking a Pokextinction base together!’

Jess did not look overjoyed at this prospect, it had to be said. Before she could respond cuttingly I put a gentle hand on her shoulder. ‘Stuart’s right, we need all the assistance we can get. Besides, a Ground type – or two – might help us get past their security measures, and they might know where we’re actually going.’ Jess shot me a glare but, mercifully, said nothing.

‘What amount the Commander?’ Kieran said suspiciously. ‘I highly doubt your orders were to come out here and join us in our escape attempt.’

‘Eh, stuff the Commander. It looks like it was only going to be a temporary breakout, and besides, you’re on a serious mission to protect the base. We can explain it to them, we’re good at wrangling like that. Normally we’d take you back in these circumstances and get you brief us on the problem, but Long Island and its PRT services may be… unavailable at the moment.’ He looked suddenly quite serious. ‘It’s lucky we got out on this mission when we did... I almost have to thank you, in a way.’

‘So you’re going to help us? Help us break in and attack a Pokextinction base single-handedly?’

‘Pretty much, yeah.’

I grinned. ‘I knew I liked you for a reason, Max.’

‘Alright then!’ Max smiled and rubbed his hands together. ‘So, it’s the seven of us vs a small army force. No pressure. The good news is, we have a very high chance of surviving this mission. The bad news is, we are far more likely to end this mission as brainwashed zombies than sentient people. I’d warn you about this, but I’m guessing it would be completely pointless to do so since you bounce off that kind of danger for laughs. At least we’ll be there keeping an eye on you.’

‘Oh, that’s what you came along for?’

‘Well, we wouldn’t want to miss all the fun either, now you mention it.’ I couldn’t help smiling. Of course Max came for that. ‘Good news for you, though – we know where the local Pokextinction hideouts are.’

‘Wait, you know where they are? ’ Jack asked with a raised eyebrow. ‘So why haven’t you attacked them yet?’

Max looked at him. ‘You can’t just launch an attack, you know. It requires co-ordination, planning and, most of all, considerable manpower. If we made any move bigger than small insertions then they’d be onto us before you can say ‘Oh bugger’ and then we’d have a colossal storm of enemies attacking us. If we had an enormous army to storm their bases with then we’d be right onto it, but I’m afraid it’s not as easy as you make it sound.’

‘And yet here we are, the seven of us.’

Max paused and looked like he was trying to formulate an answer, then said ‘Ok, point taken. Anyway, as I was saying…’ He stopped to look around at this point and see if there were more objections. ‘…Given the respective sizes and distances of the nearby Pokextinction bases and what shadow-walking is like in nature, we’ve made an appraisal of which base we need to go to. In fact, it’s the only one that it practically could be, and since we’ve had our eye on this one for a while now in the PRT, the third member of the PaRTy Guys who I am obliged to call ‘The Triffid’ for matters of security is already in there already on reconnaissance. It’s called the Epsilon Base.’

I smiled. Something going our way for once. This is more like it. Whoever this ‘Triffid’ guy was, he could be seriously helpful if we already had some recon on the area. And at least we finally knew where we were going, wherever this Epsilon Base is.

‘We can get you at least close to the perimeter,’ Max continued briskly, ‘but not right up to it.’ I was suddenly surprised when I realised how serious he’d become about this mission. Maybe he just had one of those ‘one-the-job’ personas and just let his hair down when off missions. It was actually quite weird. ‘They have security features that can catch us easily if we just try and fly straight through. Still, we’ll get within half a kilometre, which is better than nothing. So,’ he turned around and gestured behind him, ‘hop on.’

‘Woah, wait,’ Kieran objected. ‘We’re going to fly there on a Garchomp? Just like that?’

‘Not exactly,’ Stuart said, suddenly behind him. ‘Most of us will be tunneling our way there! With me!’

‘What I meant was ‘Cameron and Jack, hop on’,’ Max added with a slight air of ‘Honestly, now who looks silly, hm?’. ‘They struggle with all the earth and soil. The rest of you should be fine.’

‘But we-‘

‘No buts about it, Jess!’ Stuart interrupted cheerily, oblivious to the despair on his sister’s face. ‘It’ll be safer, and fast! I can go like a machine when these things get going!’ He clinked his giant metal fingers together to underline his point.

‘Jess, don’t start an argument,’ I said quickly as I saw her mouth open. ‘It’s the fastest and most secure way of getting there. It’s either that, or slowly teleporting across the countryside.’

‘I wasn’t going to argue,’ Jess replied with a surprising softness. ‘I was just worried that we could get separated and sidetracked from each other. I wanted to make sure you’d get there alright. That’s all. I was just looking out for you guys.’

I suddenly felt bad about jumping to my conclusions.

‘Don’t worry about that,’ Max reassured her, ‘we’ve done this plenty of times before. I know how fast to fly to not outpace him too far and we co-ordinate this without even thinking about it. I have to say, we make a good team. Whatever you think of your big brother, Jess, he’s PRT-trained and knows what he’s doing.’

Jess declined to comment on her big brother, who was still beaming at the brilliance of our completely ad hoc plan.

‘So, as I said… hop on.’

I haven’t been sat astride Max’s back since the day I transformed. This time, now that I wasn’t terrified out of my skull (at least, not in the same way) and pumped full of the same adrenaline, I could actually notice things like the roughness of the scales on his back, his streamlining, and how overall incredibly uncomfortable it was to be riding a flying shark-dragon (who’d have known?). None the less, I ignored that so I could focus on the main thing – bracing myself for how absolutely fricking terrifying it was the last time I did this.

‘Ok, Stuart. See you over there in 1.5 minutes.’

‘Roger that.’

Turns out I hadn’t done a very good job of bracing myself.

Imagine going on a rollercoaster, perfectly horizontal with the wind blasting in your face and nothing stopping you from pitching right off helplessly. And with no idea how long it's going to be until you can get off this crazy thing. And no official sign saying that it's perfectly safe, just intentionally scary. Nothing but physics pushing you down.

Got that?

Great. Now imagine that this rollercoaster can travel at Mach One.

I clung onto Max helplessly until I feared I was going to choke him. I can only wonder about how Jack, who had never ridden this crazy train before, was feeling. Probably something like how I did the first time.

Time seemed to last for ever until I suddenly realised that we were slowing down. Well, no. I didn't realise until we'd stopped. Before that I was too busy fearing for my life and trying not to turn into a very long, very thin yellow streak on the ground.

I heard a voice which I assumed later to be Max's say something, but I couldn't hear what. The air was still rushing around my eardrums. You know those massive ear cones that Ampharos have? Turns out they're more sensitive than you'd think.

I finally heard Max say 'Ok, I warned you,' and just about had time to wonder what he'd warned us of what he suddenly sat upright and the two of us pitched off onto the ground. After a few seconds of slowly getting my head together and my thoughts straight, I opened my eyes just in time to see my dear friend Jack being violently sick in the bushes.

'It's hard on everyone at first,' Max said casually as he scanned the landscape. 'Hope you had a good lunch.'

My stomach grumbled at the mention of this. We'd completely missed lunch. And breakfast, in my case. I’d been too concerned with all the various proceedings to notice. Still, I ignored my own woes for now and hurried over to my friend, who still looked queasy. 'You ok?'

'Cameron...'

'Yeah?'

'Remind me... If anyone ever complains of travel sickness again... remind me to give them a smack. They don't know what they're talking about.'

'Absolutely,' I said, and patted him on the back. 'Take a minute to catch your breath, and we-'

I was cut off by my own stomach protesting again. It was one of those things that you never noticed before, but once it was noticed it became the focus of your attention. On top of that, I was still feeling rough from the battles before - no fit state to try and invade a base.

'Max,' I said, turning back to him, 'do we have a-' and at that point the ground exploded.

I was bowled back off my feet and tumbled onto my side. When I finally sat up and rubbed my eyes, the dust was finally settling. Stuart was standing next to Max, and Kieran, Jess and Danny were on the ground in various stages of a coughing fit.

Max gave his signature grin. 'Told you we had it co-ordinated.'

Jack and I hurried over to our friends. 'You ok?' I asked worriedly, as Kieran took a deep breath and began to pat his fur down.

'Ugh...' he grunted in reply at first, then looked at me blearily. 'I'm… frankly amazed by the way we didn't suffocate. It didn't stop me feeling like we were, though.'

'Well, it's either that or going so fast it feels like your face is peeling off. Take your pick.'

'What a delight, I'm sure.'

'Don't worry, you'll feel better soon-' The phrase reminded me of what I'd been going to do before Stuart interrupted me. I looked back over to the PRT members, who seemed to be discussing something. 'Hey, Max!'

'Hm? Yeah, need anything?'

'Do you guys have any PRT supplies or rations or anything? We haven't eaten in a while and we're pretty sore from the battles we did earlier.'

The Garchomp bit his lip and looked at his partner. 'Well,' he said uncertainly, 'we have some healing supplies, but we weren't planning on needing them yet... Hm...' He appeared to think, then shrugged. 'Eh, whatever. We weren't planning on coming with you on this little mission either, and you need it more than we do.' From some mysterious place on his battle-armoured person he produced several packets of something rectangular. 'There's enough to go around.'

I thanked him profusely and tore open the packets, passing a few around for everyone. The blocks inside were dark and oddly treacly, but I could feel it doing me good. After several bites I was back to my full strength, and let me tell you, it felt good. Not to mention, it definitely filled a hole.

After everyone had had their fill (and for what we had received, we were indeed truly thankful), The PaRTy Guys called our attention. 'Ok then!' Stuart spoke. 'While you were having your quick lunch, we did a little scout of the area. For some strange reason, even at this distance there should be several security measures that we would be careful to avoid as we approach yonder building.' He gestured and I noticed for the first time the large, grey mostly concrete building in the middle distance. It was so drab and unassuming that it had gone completely unnoticed on my radar, which was doubtlessly the intention. Pokextinction. To be this close to the enemy sent shivers down my spine.

'However,' Stuart continued, 'there aren't any such measures. Or rather there are some, but not active. Observe.' He lifted up a bush less than a metre away from where we had just eaten. Underneath was the nozzle of a gas canister. Having been sat this close to something that could have got us captured all this time... I was starting to get an idea of what it was really like to be on a mission of this kind, and I didn't like it.

'For some reason, all the traps have been disabled,' Max continued. 'We're safe here. We're just about outside their observation range.'

'They should probably build their super-evil lair with some windows,' Stuart said jokingly and the two of them laughed at their cleverness. None of us joined in.

'Ahem. But yes, none their protective measures are running. I can't understand why - normally we'd have to be on our toes, even at this range. What's even stranger is that their perimeter security, from what I can tell, is still fully functioning.'

I growled. 'I can take a guess. Lizzy wants to play with us. Make us work to get into the base, but make it possible so that the fun doesn't stop too soon. Besides, I think she's promised Emily a rematch with us, and Emily wouldn't miss that for the world.'

The PRT members looked at me as if trying to suss my claim out. 'Wow,' Max said eventually. 'We appear to up against a proper little nutcase here, and no mistake.'

'You don't know the half of it. Ask Luke the Deino for the other half.'

'That'll have to be later. Right now, we need a way to get to the base. There aren't patrolling guards on the perimeter, because it would be too conspicuous to pass off as a human institution that way, but there are tough, high walls with wire, security cameras and fixtures under the ground so we can't burrow in. However, if we can find a way to get against the wall without being seen, we're good to go. Apparently their security doesn’t pick up something at that kind of proximity.'

'How do you know that?' I heard Danny ask.

'I told you before, we have a recon guy in there.'

'Alright then, how did he get in?'

'Oh, heh, there's a funny story... But no. We don't have a van, a packing case and several sheets of coloured plastic with us. What we'd need then, is someone who can cover mid-length bursts of distance in an almost undetectable way...'

Slowly, the two turned to face Kieran the Kadabra. I suddenly realised that I had in fact done the same automatically.

Kieran, to his credit, didn't even sigh. 'Looks like I'm the guy who facilitates our crackpot schemes and makes them really happen, eh? Well, at least I know where I stand in the proceedings that way.'

'C-could you?' I asked cautiously. 'Would you actually be able to take us all up against the wall of that base, even with the seven of us?'

Kieran looked at me. 'You really do ask some stupid questions sometimes, Cameron.'

'Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking-'

'Of course I can.'

Once again relief bubbled up inside of me. 'What would I do without you, Kieran?' I asked rhetorically as we began to link arms.

Kieran shrugged. 'All kinds of silly things. Now hold tight.'

Blue light flashed once again across my vision.

I opened my eyes once more to see a rather distressing scene. The green fields had been replaced by stark grey concrete and army-standard beige. A high perimeter fence topped with rolls of barbed wire cut us off from the outside vista, making me feel more helpless and opressed than ever. No. Calm down, Stevens. Don't think about the scenery, it won't help anything. I forced myself to stop noticing it. It would just make me nervous, and there was nothing to see anyway. Just flat concrete and grey everywhere.

Although I will say, with begrudging respect, the wall cutting us off was not to be trifled with. It looked like it could take a charging Rhyhorn and win. If we'd tried going in that way, the security cameras would have spotted us for sure. Speaking of which, I could see a couple of cameras from where we stood, but they were facing outwards to survey the surrounding field rather than inwards to the building. After all, if you create an impenetrable defense, why waste good security examining it further?

'Ok,' I heard Max whisper as we huddled together, 'we'll make a quick check of the outside area of the building. Specifically, we're looking for a secret entrance. Every supervillain worth his doomsday machine has one.'

Our combined search, however, proved that not only were we not under surveillance, but that Mr. X was apparently not worth his doomsday machine.

'Well that's just great,' Jess whispered sharply as we regrouped by the building again. 'Now what? We can't walk in through the front door.'

Stuart just gave a cocky smile. 'Well, you know what they say. If a path doesn't open up to you, you make your own. You might want to stand back.'

We all took a step away cautiously. Stuart rubbed his steel hands together as if in anticipation, then took one and forced it into the mortar of the building. I winced as the wall made a grating crumbling sound, but Stuart just shrugged it off and began to force it downwards. His metal hands simply cut through the wall like a knife through butter. Before long he had carved a vertical line from head-height to floor.

I glanced at Kieran, but he was watching Stuart do his thing. The others seemed amazed, with every right to be. I looked around in case but incredibly there was no security response. Stuart was in fact working with surprising quietness.

The Excadrill effortlessly slid his hand back in again, and carved out another vertical line in the side of the base a meter or so away from the other one. Then he joined the two at the top and there was the sound of relieved tension as the impromptu door stood loose in its chiseled frame for a second. Then, as Stuart pulled his hand out, it fell towards us, and only Max catching it in time stopped it waking all the countryside with an almighty thud.

'I think that's one of my better ones,' Stuart said casually.

None of us knew what to say. We just looked at each other in awkward silence.

Eventually Jess said 'Ok... I'll give you that one. Even though you've wound me up enormously so far... That was pretty impressive.'

'Why thank you, I'm sure. Now then, kids...' Stuart gestured a hand into the now-open corridor. The interior was a dark and forbidding, and the chill breeze blowing out made my fur stand up and made me wonder if this was really a good idea. 'Welcome to Pokextinction.'