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I have to take this second post for Ruby, because the first post back on page 142 has gotten so big that it takes forever for my computer to edit it. This post will be the home for all future Ruby updates, and I will link it to my signature as well.

Chapters 1-15 are here.

Chapter Fifteen of Ruby is up!!

This is the cameo episode. Much of the content at the beginning of the chapter (including Tetrinity's character's appearance, which was used with permission btw), was intended to be in chapter fourteen, but I had to cut it out to make the update, you know, actually finish.

Updates should come more frequently after this, because these two updates were plagued with minor events that are uninteresting and boring to write but also have to be included...it's rough to write.

All cameos except that of Tetrinity's White Scramblocke character were used without permission, and are not meant to be offensive.

Chapter Sixteen: Post-Mortem

Chapter Seventeen: The Trial (read this shit)

Chapter Eighteen: Let go

Chapter Nineteen: All Atwitter

Chapter Twenty: In the Beginning

The Murasaki-Wigglytuff Edition (carbon age: 1,000,000y)
Genesis 1:1

In the beginning Arceus created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And Arceus said,”Let there be light!” and there was light. And Arceus saw the light, that it was good; and Arceus divided the light from the darkness. And Arceus called the light Day, and the darkness Night, and it was evening and it was morning, the first day.

And Arceus said,”Let land rise up, and separate the empty from the waters.” It was so, and he called the space above the land and the sea Heaven. And it was evening, and it was morning;the second day.

And Arceus said,”Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.” He named the waters Kyogre, and the earth Groudon, and Arceus saw that it was good.

And Arceus said,”Let Groudon bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its own kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its own kind, whose seed was in itself, upon the earth. And Arceus saw that it was good.

But the good could not last. For Arceus knew that with all the vastness of His creation, he could not ensure the harmony of all of its elements. So it came to pass that the seas, Kyogre, developed first jealousy for the life of the land, Groudon, then enmity, then hatred. And it was evening, and it was morning; the third day.

For all of the third day, Kyogre and Groudon battled. The waters scoured the surface of the land, as the heat of the land did away with the water. Finally, on the evening of the third day, Arceus took away the powers of Groudon and Kyogre, for they had proven their misplaced intentions. These produced two orbs, the red containing those of the blue, and the blue containing those of the red. And these He cast away to the space where earth and heaven met. This airy space he named Rayquaza.

And Arceus said,”Let Rayquaza quell the conflict of Groudon and Kyogre, and let Rayquaza guard their powers safely away from them until they have learned humility.” And Rayquaza quelled the conflict of Groudon and Kyogre, and has guarded their powers from them for all of time...

Present
Hoenn Weather Institute, 5th Floor, East Wing
Skarm

“Wait...it’s not clear yet.” A Magma soldier walked by, cradling an assault rifle. He turned the corner, and Winona silently opened the door, gesturing for me to follow. We crouched against the corner, the man just on the other side, standing facing away from us. She signaled for me to wait, then jabbed the guard in the leg with a needle. He spun around, raising his gun, and then collapsed to the ground, fast asleep.

“Damn, that stuff was good! You mind giving me a little bit?”

“I only had 3 vials. That was one of them. Hurry up, throw that guy in the janitor’s closet so his buddies don’t find him.”

I slammed the closet shut and stuffed the key in my pocket. “Here, we can use this to listen in on their coms.”

“Good thinking.” Out of nowhere, the radio crackled, and I quickly held it up.

“Volcarona, this is Moltres. We’ve spotted a group of tangos approaching sector Mike Delta, how should we proceed?”.

Maxie’s voice filled the radio. “Smoke out Mike Delta and go thermal. If any of the tangoes enter, drop Voltorbs on them from the upper levels. Sniffers need 10 more minutes to complete the scan, so you need to keep them away from the circuit breakers in Mike Victor and central command in Charlie Romeo. Volcarona out.”

“Over and out.” The radio fell silent, but I turned mine on. “Archie, they’re going to smoke out the main entrance and drop bombs. You should probably go in a different way.” Static was my only answer. “He’s not answering.”

“Well, let’s hope he got the message. We have to move.”

“Winona, we need to make sure he’s not walking into a trap!”

“Skarm. Listen to me.” Winona grabbed my shoulders and looked deeply into my eyes. “You told me yourself he’s a murderer, that he killed two people right in front of your eyes. These Aqua guys are just as bad. If we let them kill each other off, then we’ll have an easier time later.”

“I still don’t like it. I thought we were on the same team.”

“WE are. But he isn’t our responsibility. He can take care of himself.”

“Fine. I hope it weighs on your conscience if he gets killed.”

“It probably won’t. But it’s good of you to worry.”

I glanced at the map on the wall. “So you’re really just going to leave him?”

“Yeah. Are you gonna go on about this all day? Or are we going to plant the bug and get out of here?”

“I just don’t think we should hang him out to dry, but I guess it’s your call. Anyways, I was trying to get a fix on where their headquarters is. If they’re using military alphabet, Charlie Romeo would be short for CR...Ahh, there it is! Climate Research! That’s on the third floor, east wing of the building.” I started down the stairs, Winona close behind me. Both sides of the hallway were clear, and I turned the corner, racing towards the east wing. The signs marked our path, where thankfully we didn’t run into any Magma grunts.

Until we found the voices around the corner.

“When are you going to let us go? We have research to conduct, tests to complete! This is madness!”

Another voice rang out, and I stopped short. “When Maxie has the data we need, we will leave. Our downloads are almost complete.”

“But what data are you searching for? What in the world are you trying to find looking for heat in the middle of the ocean?” Winona slammed into me from behind, throwing me into a panic. The voices were growing closer; they had almost reached us.

“I don’t expect you to understand, Mr. Finch. But rest assured that this is a goal we have been pursuing ever since the Splitting, and we intend to pursue it to its conclusion.” I quickly grabbed one of the syringes from Winona’s shoulder belt, just as the Magma soldier turned the corner.

“What the HELL?!” he yelled, backing away from me and reaching for the bulge in his jacket. I tackled him, slamming us both to the ground. I jabbed his calf with the needle and he went limp, but not before two rounds whizzed over my head and embedded themselves in the marble walls. The sharp reports echoed down the halls-they were sure to bring attention soon.

“Who are you?”

“Doesn’t matter. What does is where Maxie’s keeping the rest of the hostages, and what he’s looking for.”

“He’s looking for something involving our global warming data. Specifically, he’s pulled several satellites out of orbit to scan an anomaly he found in his initial scans. An entire 10 square kilometers of the ocean with an ambient temperature 10 degrees hotter than the surrounding waters.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“We told him it was normal, just the hotspot that created the White Volcano. But that only made him more excited. He pulled the satellites, and they’re giving him a much more detailed scan then we had before.”

I decided to drop the subject. “And all the other hostages?”

“They’re in the command center running the scans.”

“Thanks. Now get out of here and find somewhere to hide. We have about 5 minutes until this guy wakes up and raises the alarm.”

The man ran off down the hall. “Winona, what do you think they’re looking for?”

“There are a few things. They could be looking for some rare Pokemon species that likes the heat. That’s the least ridiculous thing I can think of.”

“Why would they go to all this effort for that?”

“They could be looking for another volcano to trigger.”

“No. First one was too much risk for practically no gain at all.”

“Or...they could be trying to find Groudon.”

I laughed. “Trying to lighten the mood, huh?”

“No, I’m serious.” My chuckles petered out. “Ever read the Murasaki?”

“Oh, come on, that’s just Mew tales from Johto. They’re not real.”

“The scientific evidence is pretty good to indicate that Groudon and Kyogre are real, even if the world was spawned in a Big Bang and not just created by Arceus.”

“But since we’ve never actually FOUND them, they’re not real. And believe me, people have tried.”

“Maxie is trying too. If he wants to expand the landmass, awaking Groudon would be perfect. Especially since thanks to the marvels of modern science, he could theoretically lock Groudon away in a pokeball.”

“No pokeball could hold Groudon. He’d be much too powerful.” The man on the floor started stirring, and I gave him a quick kick in the head. He slumped again. “Let’s just stop them so we don’t have to worry about the logistics of the whole thing.”

We turned the corner, where the map showed that we were one hallway away from the door. Another quick sprint later and we were there, standing on opposite sides of the open door.

“What’s the plan?” I whispered.

“I don’t know. One syringe isn’t going to be enough for the whole lot of them.”

“Well, we can’t just stand here! Eventually they’re going to find us, or the guy in the hallway is going to wake up and get on his radio. We need to either go in in the next thirty seconds, or we need to back out.”

“I didn’t come all this way to back out. We could have our pokemon create a diversion...”

“Won’t work. Magma will just shoot them and we’ll be back at square one.” Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. “Winona, do you have something you can cover your ears with?”

“Yeah, I can use my earmuffs.”

“You carry EARMUFFS around with you?!”

“Get to the point, get to the point! They’re for flying up high, and it gets chilly.”

“You send out your Altaria, I send out Swablu. We have them both sing, and if your Altaria’s voice does the same thing that Swablu’s does...”

“Then it’ll put them all out...I’m in. Make it fast.” We both sent out our pokemon. “Can you two sing all of the people in that room to sleep?”

The two of them broke out in song and I immediately stuffed my fingers in my ears. Soon enough, we heard snores from inside the room, and we silenced the two birds and tiptoed in. Winona silently pulled the bug from her pocket and slid it under Maxie’s jacket collar. But it turned out we had a problem.

“Winona, where are the scientists?” I whispered.

“They’re not in here?”

“Nowhere to be found. But, while we’re here...” I slid a Magma grunt’s gun out of its holster. “Why are we even bothering with the bug? Why don’t we just shoot the bastard right now and be done with it?” I held the gun out to her, handle first, but she hesitated.

“If we shoot him in cold blood, we’re no better then he is. Plus, if we shoot him...it’ll wake up the rest of the Magma grunts. We’ll have to shoot them all too. Do you want the blood of those 10 on our hands as well?” Winona took the gun from me.

“He’s trying to set off a volcano, or unleash some massive mythical creature. Do you know how many lives we could save if we shot him now? It would be much greater then the 10 or so we’d be taking in here.”

“Skarm, there’s nothing I want to do more then to shoot him right now.” Winona tossed the gun on the floor, far away from us. “I’m just so confused, Skarm. He killed my father, killed countless other people, set off a volcano. I SHOULD shoot him, I’d be RIGHT to shoot him. But I can’t do it...not even knowing that this is the only chance I’ll get...I can’t murder someone, not even to save hundreds of innocent lives. I still believe in the police and the courts, as useless and corrupt as they seem.”

“Then give me the gun, I’ll do it. He’s too dangerous, Winona. A month from now, there’ll be another disaster, hundreds or thousands dead, and it’ll be our fault. Because we had the chance to end it, right here, right now, and we didn’t take it. So, with that in mind, you’re just going to walk away? Don’t take the chance. Do you think he’d hesitate for a second to shoot you or me if it was reversed?”

“I know I wouldn’t. Now you’re about to find out.” Maxie spun around in his chair, a machine pistol held in his lap. He used his free hand to yank out a pair of earplugs and pocket them. “I always bring them whenever I think they’ll be gunfire. And there’s going to be quite a bit in a second.” Winona started towards the door, but halted when a spray of bullets sent sparks flying from a computer console. “Before I shoot you, there’s a few things I need to know. So stay where you are, answer my questions, and I’ll make your trips to meet Giratina short and painless.”

“Fuck off.” we both said. The Magma grunts around us were starting to awake around us. Then, Archie came in from the other door, Aqua grunts following him.

“Archie, you’re just in time!”

“Yes, yes, he is. Did you really think you two and him were allies? Going to work together to take me down?” Maxie paused. “We made our own deal. We take the atmospheric data, give both of us the scans we want, then eliminate the witnesses and go our seperate ways.”

“From the looks of it, our two little lovebirds are the last people who know what’s going on.”

“Excellent.” Maxie turned to the collected Magma and Aqua grunts. “Ready your weapons. As soon as we figure out how much the League and the police know, we shoot them and leave. I want them unrecognizable.”

“Yes, sir!” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Winona reaching for a device on her belt, and briefly wondered what it was. She pressed a few buttons and glanced at me.

I nodded back. What else was I going to do? As much hope as she had, I really didn’t think there was a way out of this one.

The computer beeped, and Maxie glanced over. “SCANS JAMMED? What?”

“You want to know how much the police know? They just jammed your satellites. They’ve got the building surrounded. You can try to shoot your way out if you want, but then you’ll graduate from some random war vet with a bunch of followers to a serious threat. Especially now that they’ve heard this entire conversation.”

“Aqua grunts, go check the entrances. We’re calling her bluff. Magma grunts, keep your weapons trained on them.” Archie ordered. Soon we were alone in the room with 10 Magma grunts, Archie, and Maxie.

“You know, Winona, you’ve really got a lot of spunk. There’s no quit in you, unlike a few of my grunts. If you weren’t such a white knight of righteousness, you could’ve joined me.” Winona didn’t respond, clearly defeated.

“You know, Maxie, you’re really setting a new standard for being a complete douchebag. Maybe you should rob banks instead and set up a yearly prize. It’s much better then being hung up on the sandcastles you built as a kid that got flooded when the tide came in.” Cracking jokes was my only defense. What did I have to lose? We were 30 seconds away from getting shot anyways.

“You should be a standup comedian, Skarm. Pity your jokes won’t ever be heard by anyone except me and these guys.”

I had one last idea. Obviously Swablu and Altaria knew to hide themselves when the grunts went through, or we would have heard shots. But would they understand what I wanted them to do? “I don’t know about that. I’ve made plenty of people laugh. That’s not my real talent, though.”

“Hopefully it’s not surviving gunshots, or this is going to be a really painful 5 minutes for you.”

“No, I’ve really got some great musical talent. In fact, if there’s anything I want to do before you kill me, it’s to SING, just ONE MORE TIME. Even if my audience is you and your retard patrol.” I heard Swablu’s voice coming from somewhere behind me, and my hands started reaching for my ears. But I was confused when two more voices chimed in. Weren’t there only two? Or maybe I’m just tired...

Tired? I snapped my hands to my ears, and I snapped back awake. Everyone else in the room had fallen back asleep, even Maxie. Guess the earplugs weren’t working for him this time.

“Where did the third voice come from?” I asked as I sprinted out with Winona, withdrawing Swablu as I ran.

“It was me.” I almost stopped dead in the hallway. “Don’t look so surprised, I’ve been practicing that for a while. Remember when I did a few chirps in Granite Cave that other time?”

“Well, that was just a few chirps. But after a few months, I could do entire bird songs. It’s just another way for me to build a better bond with my pokemon” We ran past an intersection, and then gunshots echoed as bullets splintered the wall behind us.

“Run! Get to the window!” Altaria smashed through the floor to ceiling window. We jumped out behind it before I had time to realize that I was three stories up. Altaria swooped back around, we grabbed its talons, almost yanking my shoulders out of their sockets, and flew off into the raging storm.

Chapter Twenty-One: Desperate Times

The Murasaki-Wigglytuff Edition (carbon age-1,000,000y)

So it came to pass that the roof of the world was painted with stars, just as the earth was coated with the plants and animals of the land, the oceans were filled with the vibrant life of the sea, and the sky was completed by the creatures of the air. And Arceus saw that it was good. Yet the world still felt uncomplete and unfinished. The Pokemon of the world, however, were shiftless and lazy, and budged only at Arceus’ command.

So Arceus said,”Let there be a dawn of spirit in this pure new world. Let free will, thought, and emotion come to the creatures of the earth, the seas, and the sky!” Three beings came forth to represent Arceus’ hope, and he named them Azelf, Uxie, and Mespirit. The pokemon came alive as never before, and Arceus saw that it was good.

After a time, Arceus grew weary of enforcing the rules he wanted his world to have himself. So Arceus said, “Let there be three laws that shall ensure that my will will come to pass for all time in this world that I have created.” And it was so.

The first law drove all living things on forward, never allowing them to halt their progress, but allowing them to look back at their lives. Arceus named this one Dialga.

The second law kept living things apart, but brought them together at the same time, so that they could better praise Arceus. Arceus named this one Palkia.

The third law set an end for each and every mortal being, such that they would be removed from the earth, the sea, and the skies in their time and join Arceus in the land of the gods. Arceus named this one Giratina.

Then Arceus spoke. “Let the three laws live and breathe as every other being for all of time, such that my influence will remain in this world long after I retire.” And it was so. The three gained draconic bodies inset with diamonds, pearls, and opals.

But soon Dialga grew tired of watching over all time. He asked Arceus,”The others only have to watch what is going on now. I must stand over all of time in the earth, the seas, and the skies, and ensure its progress. Would it be so unreasonable to grant me a partner that could assist me in keeping the world ticking?”

Arceus agreed. So he said,”May another being be created to aid Dialga in his task.” Arceus named this being Celebi, and she aided him in the care of time. Arceus saw that it was good. Yet he remembered the battles of Groudon and Kyogre, and thus warned Dialga,”If she shall encourage you in any action not becoming of your heavenly role, I shall hold you both responsible.”

Years later, the pokemon of the world had grown to large numbers, and were playing with, mating with, and hunting each other, as pokemon will. And Giratina came to Arceus, and he said,”I cannot distinguish the sleeping and the departed from each other. Would you grant me an assistant, such that I may deliver to you only those who have finished their time in the earth, the seas, and the skies?”

Arceus agreed. So he said,”May another being be created to sort the sleeping from the dead.”
He named the being Darkrai, and he aided Giratina in the separation of the living and the dead. But, remembering the battles of the earth and the sea, he warned Giratina,”If he shall encourage you in any action not becoming of your heavenly role, I shall hold you both responsible.”

Years later, when those who craved power had gained it, shoving aside the weak, Palkia came to Arceus. He said,”Each day I look down upon the space you have put under my control, as you bade me do. But today I looked away, for I could not watch the suffering of the innocents and yet have no power to intervene. It sickens me, Lord.”

“One cannot be both a law and an arbiter of the law. To allow you to rule space and at the same time interfere with the doings of the living beings of the world would be an abomination.”

And Palkia said,”You have given the others assistants to aide them in your holy work. However, space is simple, and I need no help to keep all beings together and apart as you have decreed. May I then have a being to remind the weak and the mourning in the earth, the seas, and the sky below that there is still hope, such that they may continue with their worldly lives, and enter your care in their time with peace and contentment and without fear?”

Arceus said,”That is too big a task for even myself. I cannot cure unhappyness.”

And Palkia responded,”For a single being, you are correct, my lord. So create a hundred! Or a thousand! And let them go out and spread the joy and happiness that you can bring, in hopes that they may inspire hope and belief in you!” Before Arceus could respond, these beings appeared on a mountain, the sacred meeting place of the earth and the sky. Astonished, Arceus named the beings Shaymin, and adorned them with heavenly flowers that granted them wings.

Arceus said,”Palkia, your hope and your faith has made your dreams real. May it happen to many others as my world grows.” Then he turned to the Shaymin collected before him. “Go forth, and spread my joy to the desperate, the mourners, and the weak! Give hope to the meek, the sickly, and the weak of heart!” Most of the Shaymin took flight on their wings and spread around the earth, the seas, and the sky, but a few remained. These Arceus tasked to maintain a safe home for their tired brethren to return to.

And Arceus saw that it was good.

Present (June 21st, 235 CRE)
3:35 PM
Hoenn Route 119
Skarm

Altaria struggled to bear both of our weight through the driving winds and torrential rains. Its wings thrashed against the air, desperately trying to make it to safer ground

“Altaria, we need to get across the river before they start shooting! You can do it!” Winona urged her bird on, but it wasn’t enough.

“We aren’t going to make it!” Just below us, the river loomed large. Swollen tides began to rise up onto the banks, and the falls downriver would put an end to us if we didn’t drown. Altaria’s breathing was growing ragged, and she let out a shrill cry as her wings gave out.

We crashed down in the river, and the current yanked at my clothes, trying to drag me away. The shore was close, so I swam for it and dragged myself up the bank, Winona gasping for air behind me.

“Let’s go! They’re not far behind!” I grabbed Winona’s wrist and turned for the woods, but she wouldn’t move. “Come ON! We have to go!”

“No! Altaria can’t swim! I’m not going to let her drown!”

“Just withdraw her!”

“I can’t! When we crashed, her pokeball got smashed on a rock! It’s broken!”

“If we don’t get out of here, we’re----” Altaria’s cry filled the air, and Winona’s hand left mine. “Wait! WAIT!” Winona splashed back into the water behind me. On the opposite bank, I could just make out Magma men dashing out of the Weather Institute, their assault rifles cocked. “DAMN IT!”

Winona

I dove headfirst into the raging river, towards where I last saw Altaria’s head break the surface. Across the river, I could hear the Magma men mobilizing-wouldn’t be long until they crossed the river at the bridge upstream to hunt us.

Altaria cried out, and I saw her break the surface again startlingly far downstream. Turning downstream with the current sped me up a bit, but I didn’t know if it would be enough. My arms flailed against the floodtides, and Altaria popped up again, just out of my reach. With a final spurt of energy, I wrapped my arms around her blue neck and dragged her head above the surface, where she gasped for air.

I started kicking for shore, but I wasn’t making much progress. Altaria was around 50 pounds on land, but she was much heavier in the water with her cottony wings saturated. And her wings dragged against the current, pulling us closer to the waterfall with every moment. Altaria’s skin glowed red, maybe from stress, maybe from the fire that pulsed in her heart, maybe something else, I didn’t know.

The shore was so close now. My feet brushed against the sand and I kicked forward with new strength. “Come on, Altaria, come on, we’re almost out.” I dragged her out onto the muddy river bank and then collapsed on my back alongside her, exhausted.

Skarm

On the river shoreline, I tried to keep up with Winona and Altaria. The current seemed to pick up pace the further it flowed, and I was tiring. Behind me, red glowing flares soared up above the river where we had landed, revealing nothing.

Finally, I saw Winona dragging Altaria out of the water in a somewhat clear stretch of the shore.

“Winona! I ran over to her and yanked her to her feet. “We have to go! Now!” The Magma soldiers fired more flares over the river, and one of them settled and began drifting downwards in the rain over our heads, bathing everything in an eerie red glow.

“Okay...okay...Skarm, grab Altaria’s other wing, right at the joint. Let’s get her into the woods.”

“We don’t have time for this!” I helped her carry Altaria anyways, expecting a bullet in the back any second. Gunshots rang out from the other side of the river, and the bullets buried themselves in the mud around us. “Go! GO!”

Together, we bore Altaria’s deadweight on our shoulders and sprinted for the treeline. A few steps away, Winona stumbled, and Altaria went down with her. “Skarm! I’m hit!”

“We’re almost there!” I tossed Altaria the last few steps and dove into the forest. A few seconds later, Winona crawled in behind me.

“Where? Where are you hit?” Under the trees with the clouds overhead, it was pitch black. Winona and Altaria were silouettes in the darkness, but each lighting strike let me see them better for a split second.

“Twice.” she groaned. “Left arm, right calf.” I saw a rip in her sleeve, and peeled it back to try to see the wound. A volley of lightning strikes gave me enough time to see a red line cut into Winona’s arm that was slowly spreading to her jacket. But from the angle they were shooting from, there was no way they could have penetrated through the outside of her arm.

“Your arm’s fine, just grazed you. We should still try to bandage it though. Let’s see the leg.” I rolled up her sleeve as the thunder answered the lightning. The radio buzzed. “Can’t believe this thing is still working.”

“Magma, listen up. Our two loose ends are in the woods on the opposite side of the river from Whiskey Irene. Sweep the forest and eliminate them. Also, it might be good for some of you to know that your jobs are on the line here. And if you’re not one of us, but you’ve seen what we’ve done...you become a loose end. Get it done. Reshiram out.”

“Well, that’s nice and cheery.” Winona quipped while I waited for a lighting strike. One finally came, and it wasn’t pretty. The bullet hole was slowly oozing blood, and I could see cracked bone when I looked into the hole.

“Your leg is hurt pretty bad. Looks like the bullet embedded itself in the bone.”

“Well, we’re pretty fucked then, aren’t we? We’re 10 miles from Fortree, in the middle of a FUCKING THUNDERSTORM, the Magma men are after us, and I can’t walk. What the fuck are we gonna do?”

“First, I’m gonna bandage you up-mind if I take a bit of your jacket? Then, we’re gonna get the hell out of here. We’ll walk to a road and flag someone down.”

“I don’t think I can walk, but I’ll try...AGHHHHH!”

“Okay...okay...I got you...I got you...” I slid my arm under Winona’s, taking the weight off her right leg. “We gotta get out of here.”

“If we wait until the storm ends, Altaria and my Skarmory can fly us out. But it’s not safe for them to carry anything as big as us while it’s pouring like this.” We hobbled off into the woods together, followed by Altaria hopping a few steps at a time. Minutes passed as we struggled to make progress in the pitch black forest.

A few minutes later

The radio chirped again. “Reshiram, we’ve reached the site where we last saw the loose ends. Echo Team found blood stains on some leaves.”

“Excellent progress. All teams, form a perimeter around the nearest roads. Echo team, proceed with disposal of the loose ends. Reshiram out.”

“Well, that’s not good.” I tried to pick up the pace, but I ended up dragging Winona more then helping her walk. “Let’s take a quick break before we keep going.” We sat down in the mud behind a fallen tree, where a little light filtered down through the tree tops and the rainclouds.

“How’s your leg doing?” I pulled out my miraculously intact water bottle and offered Winona a sip, which she gratefully accepted.

“Could be better. You have any idea when this storm is gonna end?”

“From the radar last night, it looked like it was gonna rain like this all day.”

“Great. Just great.”

“Well, cheer up. At least we have each other, and we’re not dead yet.” I leaned in towards her, and we kissed. It probably would have been better if one of us wasn’t slowly bleeding out into the mud.

“Reshiram, this is Entei. We’ve spotted two teenagers kissing, blood trail seems to lead right to them. Permission to engage?”

I pushed away from Winona’s lips. “Damn!” I whispered.

“Permission granted. Echo team, load up and approach with caution.”

“You know, Skarm, just once before they kill us both, I want to kiss you without getting interrupted.”

“Doesn’t look like we’re gonna get much of a chance to do that.” Altaria had started to get agitated, and it appeared to be looking behind us. “Get down!” I threw myself on top of Winona just before bullets slapped into the fallen tree.

“They’re on to us!”

“Roger that, Entei. They’re unarmed except for their pokemon. Just make sure they go down. Reshiram out.”

“Skarm, get off me, get on the ground!”

“We need to get moving!”

“Just do it now! Altaria, Flamethrower them!” I dropped to the ground, and searing air battered my back as Altaria delivered a stream of blue fire to the Magma grunts. I heard screams from the distance, and I knew she had found her mark.

“I think you overdid it a little!” I yelled as Altaria closed its mouth. The blue flames vanished, replaced by red and orange ones where she had aimed. “You started a damn wildfire!” I sprinted into the burning area, and bent down towards one of the soldiers.

“Skarm, what are you doing!”

“Getting some intel.” I picked up the phone, flicked the slider, and it sprung open. Then I returned to Winona, coughing thanks to the smoke.

“We’re out of here, let’s go. And couldn’t you have not started a fire?”

“I thought the wood was soaked enough that it wouldn’t burn!”

“Well, now all the other guys have a nice beacon telling them where we are!”

“Echo team, report! Come in, Entei! Alright, all teams, converge on the fire in the woods. Shoot anyone who’s not in a Magma uniform.”

“Run!” Winona shouted. I helped her to her feet and started off away from the fire.

“Wait, wait...what did you pick up?”

“A phone.”

“Why don’t you use it? We could get some help!”

“I don’t know who could help us. We’re miles out of town, and the police don’t give a shit anyways. I could try the fire department, thanks to your Altaria.”

“Okay. Dial 222 for the fire dispatchers.”

“Fortree Fire Department, what is your emergency?”

“I’m calling from the woods near the Weather Institute. There’s a wildfire.”

“Fires in that area are natural this time of year. They help to clear out old growth and make way for new trees.”

“You should come at least drop some water. There are people in the area, and the fire is uncontrolled. It could spread.”

“The rain should handle it better then we can.” The woman hung up.

“DAMN IT!”

“Nothing?”

“Zilch. I can already hear Magma closing in.”

“Anyone else? I mean ANYONE, no matter how ridiculous the idea is.”

“There is one.” It was probably was the last person on earth I’d want to call while hanging out with Winona, but if we had to get out of here...

I dialed. The phone rang twice.

“Hi, this is May. Who’s calling?”

Chapter Twenty-Two: Highway to Hell

Chapter Twenty-Three: A Matter of Perspective

Chapter Twenty-Four: Ghosts of the Past

Obituary