So... you clicked on the next button. Thank you!
This is where the story really starts. And I kinda don't have much else to say so just feel free to read on.
Chapter one – Was a fragile thing
Underneath a large metal plate there were a lot of people doing whatever they needed to do. They went to work, tried to earn some money. Most people struggled down there. Some people would never see what was above the plate in their lifetimes. It was the slums, the poorest part of the city.
Hidden away in an alleyway a girl was knelt down, staring at a small flux of green and blue energy. It danced around, reflected in her dark red eyes. A small Pokémon with a mainly white body and a green mane of fur dotted with flowers nudged at the girl's feet. It whispered something quietly. The girl nodded, understanding. She stood up, her spiky brown pigtails bouncing as she moved. She waved a hand over the energy, carefully moving it so it would remain out of sight. The Pokémon clambered into a basket full of flowers, hiding itself. The girl picked up the basket and began to walk.
She walked out of the alley into the street, where the noise of people and cars was overwhelming.
Lumiose City. Capitol of the world. Largest city in Kalos and most certainly the largest city in the world. In the centre of the city was the Prism Tower. A long time ago the tower was host to the Lumiose Gym. But that was before Flare ruled the world. Now it was used as their headquarters. The main lab was situated in the middle floors, most of the top floors were used as a manor for the Rouge family and the lower floors for WARRIOR. Any leftover floors were used as offices and the base of the building had been expanded so that there were added facilities for the rest of the military and living quarters for workers. There was also a lift down to a facility in the centre of the city below the plate. This facility was used as a prison.
The city was the first of the plate cities, cities where Flare had built a large metal plate to separate the rich from the poor. Almost every region had one. There was a train line that ran through each city, carrying people between the surface and the slums. Another common feature in the plate cities were eight Infi reactors placed at equal intervals in the circumference of the city. The reactors were ready to absorb energy from the Lifestream at any given time, feeding it to the main power plant.
A supply train was currently running on the track below the plate. It was taking parts to Reactor 1. Nothing was broken, not at all. To keep it that way, Flare serviced each reactor at least once every six months. Reactor 1 was due for a service and for some older parts of the machinery to be replaced before they got rusty and damaged. Just routine.
The timing of the service was perfect. There was somebody who wanted to get on that train and to the reactor, when they weren't on the authorized access list. Several people in fact. The workers on the train were blissfully unaware of this. As they passed under a bridge in District 2, those people made their move.
A young man dressed in dark colours somersaulted off the bridge and onto the train. He wore a long sleeve navy jacket with arm guards, black trousers and black military boots. His hair was black and his eyes glowed with green and blue, but with a layer of grey underneath. In his hand was a large sword, built for Burst combat in gijinka form. He ran forwards and slammed the sword into the communications antenna of the train.
"Comms been taken out," he said into an earpiece.
"Got it. We're boarding. Get ready to Burst," a voice replied.
Several people jumped onto the train all at once. They grabbed onto the railings and pulled the doors open, attacking the guards within. Taken by surprise and with no way to call for help, they fell quickly. The people who had jumped on made sure no more guards were coming before releasing their Burst forms. A couple let their Pokémon stay out but others returned them to their Burst Hearts so they could heal up and rest for the next time they used gijinka forms. The young man on the roof jumped down into the first carriage.
"Currently passing through District 2. We'll arrive at Reactor 1 in a few minutes," one of the women said, checking a small portable screen.
"Good. Everybody keep your Bursts ready. Only small Pokémon out until I say so," a large muscled man ordered.
There were seven of them in total but they all had several Pokémon on them, most of which were being kept inside their Pokéballs/Burst Hearts. Most of them had Burst Hearts but they currently kept their partners inside the crystals, so they could heal up and be ready for their next Burst.
The muscled man stood over the woman with the screen. He seemed to be in charge. Unlike the others who were mainly dressed in black, he was in a camo sleeveless jacket with khaki military-style trousers and heavy brown boots. He was easily the tallest. There was something unusual about him when compared to the others. His skin was very tanned and his hair dark red. His weapon of choice seemed to be a pair of heavy gauntlets attached to his fists.
"We don't know how many people Flare's got guarding this place, so be careful, all right?" he yelled.
"Yes sir!" everyone else except the man who'd taken out the comm antenna. He stood there, looking on at the others in disdain.
"Hey you!" the leader yelled at him. "You may be an ex-First Class, but I'm leader here so you do as I say and you show me some respect!"
"Does it matter? I got out of WARRIOR to avoid Flare and people giving me orders. I'll help you strike at them, but don't think for a second I'll listen to every single order you give. Earn my respect," the man replied, hand creeping toward the sword sheathed on his back.
The leader's face contorted into an expression of rage. He yelled and rushed forwards, holding his fists up. The young man pulled out his sword, ready to defend himself from the enraged man.
"Barlow! Calem! Stop!" a woman called out.
The two men stopped before their weapons could collide. From the shadows of the carriage a young woman stepped out. Her eyes were a pale grey and she was dressed in a black turtleneck with olive leggings. Like everyone else, her boots were military style, only brown instead of black. A long honey-coloured ponytail reached down to her waist. Her forearms were protected by leather greaves. A large leather belt held a double barrelled hand-gun which her hand was currently straying towards. It also held two pouches: one carried ammo and another held her Burst Heart. The hand moved away from her gun as she held it up, trying to call for peace.
"Please," she said. "Barlow, we need Calem if we're going to take on Flare. He's an ex-WARRIOR. He used to be a First Class. His skills will be a huge asset to VICTINI. But Calem, you have to be more respectful to Barlow. We hate Flare too. We're on the same side."
"Serena…" Calem said with a sigh.
"I don't care what class he was," Barlow muttered gruffly. "If he doesn't show some respect his ass is out and left to Flare. 'Till then he's helping."
"Thanks Barlow," Serena smiled.
"Approaching Reactor 1," the other woman holding the screen announced. She pushed her glasses up her nose. "We have one minute to go."
"Thanks Bianca," Barlow nodded. "Lucas, Barry? Good to go with the explosions?"
"All ready to go," Lucas answered.
"C4's ready and detonator charged. Our Electrodes are ready for some explosions as well," Barry said with a grin.
"All clear on the plan? Lucas, Barry, you blow up the base once we've given the signal. Stop guards from getting up. Grant, you're with them. Bianca, you're with me. Up the reactor. Disable any computers, help us take out the guards we meet. Serena, Calem-" Barlow spat the name out like something bitter. "-you two are with me and Bianca. Smash up anything that looks important."
The train began to slow down. Everybody grabbed a hold of their weapons and Burst Hearts. Barlow stepped forwards. He grabbed his Burst Heart and activated it. For a split second he was enveloped in light. When it cleared, Barlow stood there in gijinka form. He was even taller and a lot more muscly. He wore a large blue pair of hakama, a pale flesh coloured short-sleeved gi with a yellow sash around his waist. He still had his gauntlets on but he was now bare footed. There were blue markings around his eyes and his hair had paled slightly. The train stopped.
"Here we go. VICTINI! Move out!" Barlow, now a Hariyama gijinka, yelled.
He smashed forwards, easily destroying the side of the train. The guards were taken by surprise. Barlow smashed most of them into the wall with an unidentifiable Fighting-Type move. The other VICTINI members leapt out of the carriage. Barry Bursted into a Heracross gijinka while Lucas and Grant Bursted into Infernape and Aurorus gijinkas respectively. Barry grabbed the bag containing the explosives and ran off to surround the base of the reactor with them. Lucas and Grant followed after him.
"Serena, Calem! Burst!" Barlow ordered as more guards surrounded them. "Bianca, get that Servine of yours attacking!"
As Bianca ordered her Servine to attack the incoming guards, Serena and Calem Bursted. Serena's Burst transformed her into a Delphox gijinka. She wore a burgundy miniskirt and what looked like a burgundy cape attached to her waist that just about touched the floor. On her top half there was a sleeveless white undershirt. Above that was a short-sleeved, pale yellow top that split off at her navel. Instead of armguards there were now long, detached burgundy sleeves on her arms and a pair of black gloves, the same colour as the boots on her feet. Her gun and ammo pouch were now connected to a long yellow sash which looked like a tail at the back; it also a second weapon, a large forked stick. An orange bow tied up her ponytail. She grabbed her gun and fired a couple of shots at the guards. Instead of bullets, large fireballs came out instead.
Calem's Burst was that of an Absol. He wore a white tail coat held together with black gemstone buttons, black slacks and white boots. His hair had turned white except for a single black streak. There were black arm guards on his forearms. His eyes reddened and there was a black gem on his forehead. His sword was sheathed in a black leather sheath on his back. The sword was an interesting design. It was quite thick near the handle but suddenly thinned down halfway along the exceptionally long blade. If you looked closely enough, you would see a second sword hidden within the main one.
"We're climbing the reactor till we get above the plate," Barlow told them after they'd taken out any guards remaining on the platform. "Bianca will disable all the important machines. We guard her and destroy anything that looks important. As soon as we've shut off the main computer, we get down and give the signal for the others to blow this place. Let's get moving!"
The four rebels ran up to the main stair case that climbed the Infi reactor. The structure of the reactor was fairly simple. Most of the machinery was situated underneath the plate. Above was the main control room and the main part of the reactor. This part was what drew in Infinity Energy from the Lifestream before storing it. A large cable that hung above the city carried energy to the reserve at the base of Prism Tower. Some of it would then be carried over to the old Kalos Power Plant for storage before being distributed amongst the region.
Flare were clever enough to build the reactors using a system similar to a parallel circuit. That meant if one reactor was taken out the system, none of the others had to be. It made it easier if one of the reactors had to be taken offline for maintenance or repairs. For the members of VICTINI however, it made their task a lot harder. They needed to take out each reactor separately.
"Calem! The wires to your left! Think you can take them out?" Serena called over to him as they ran.
Calem looked over his shoulder to the set of wires Serena had pointed out. He nodded before jumping impossibly high and raising his sword. Charging up Dark energy, he sliced through them using Night Slash. The second he did, the lighting in the immediate area went out. Serena grabbed the stick attached to her sash, setting the forked end on fire and using that as a light source.
"There's a computer up ahead," Bianca yelled as a few more incoming guards shot at them. "I'll hack it and mess up as much as I can. Hopefully I'll be able to mess it up enough so that I'll only have to hack one more, the main one. Then you can trash up the others to your hearts' content."
"Do what you have to do," Barlow replied, punching into an electrical panel. His fist survived. The panel didn't.
Serena and Calem ran forwards to take out the guards. Their eyes didn't glow, meaning they weren't WARRIORS, just ordinary soldiers. Serena suddenly stopped running and began firing at the soldiers. She solely used fireballs, meaning there was no need to reload her gun.
"Serena! Use Telekinesis! Throw them into the machinery. Take them and some of the machines out in one go," the voice of the Delphox she was merged with said from within her mind.
"Got it. Thanks for the suggestion," Serena replied.
Hooking the gun into her sash, Serena lifted up the stick. The flame turned purple, as did Serena's eyes. Seven of the ten soldiers were lifted telekinetically before they had a chance to draw out their Pokémon. Grinning slightly, Serena waved the stick around, moving the seven guys around at her will. She slammed them into nearby wires and electrical panels. As the electricity fried them, Serena couldn't help but feel a little sick.
As Serena dispatched of the soldiers with telekinesis (perks of your Burst partner being part Psychic Type), Calem faced the remaining three head on. One of them called out a Bisharp. Calem grinned inwardly. Ordinary soldiers often weren't trusted with Burst Hearts, or at least not the low ranking ones that had been assigned to guard duty. It was higher up in the ranks when they started handing them out. If you got into WARRIOR, you would most certainly have a Burst Heart.
"Weaken them all with Dark Pulse Calem, then dispose of them," his Absol advised.
Sending a mental nod to Absol, Calem swung his sword in a large vertical arc, releasing an aura of dark energy and launching it at the soldiers and Bisharp. The Bisharp flinched but didn't take too much damage. The humans however did. Calem released the hidden sword and grabbed hold of the small handle with his left hand. He ducked down as the soldiers switched to melee weapons and swung at him with their own swords. In a flash, he jabbed up, knocking them off balance. Using the second sword to parry their blows, Calem made several quick jabs at one of the soldiers, disarming him and then… disposing of him. Shocked by the sudden loss of their comrade, the other two soldiers let their guard down. Calem swung up with both swords, knocking theirs put of their hands. He made their end as swift as possible. They'd both died a warrior's death.
"BISHAAAAAAARRRRRRRRPPP!" the Pokémon screamed, enraged by the sudden loss of his trainer.
It charged forwards, arms glowing with energy. Calem lifted up his swords to block the incoming attack. As the Bisharp started to jump forwards, it was engulfed in red hot flames. When they cleared, it fainted. The Absol gijinka looked up to see Serena standing there, her arm outstretched and holding the burning stick.
"Thank you," Calem nodded, as he placed the smaller sword back into the larger one.
Serena merely nodded. She felt slightly sick from watching the electricity fry those men and then seeing Calem calmly kill the remaining soldiers. Bianca also looked a little sick. Barlow merely shrugged and motioned for them to keep on climbing the stairs.
"If you want VICTINI to win this thing," Calem whispered to Serena as they ran. "You have to get used to people dying and us being the cause. They sided with Flare. It's on their heads."
Even though she nodded, even though she understood, Serena still felt slightly unnerved. She was the member with the least amount of live combat experience (not counting Bianca the techie). Calem had been in the WARRIOR program. Barlow had rebelled before. They knew what they were doing, what the cost would be. She just had to get used to it.
But watching Calem kill them so emotionlessly, it made her wonder what had happened to her childhood friend.
"Bianca, how long until you're done?" Barlow asked, smashing the head of another guard.
"Give me one more minute," she replied, typing away at the computer. "They're good. They won't let me destroy all the files completely."
"We'll blow this place into the sky in a few minutes," Calem shrugged. "Doesn't matter, it'll be destroyed anyway."
"Sure, but it would be handy to have as many of their files as possible," Bianca shot back.
They were at their destination. The highest platform along the side of Reactor 1. You could see the stars and Prism Tower, shining bright. You could also see the plate separating the slums from the attractive part of the city. Barlow spat in the direction of the tower.
"Damn you Flare," he growled. "You claim you want what's best for humanity, but you go around killing everybody in your way. And the more you take from the planet's life, the worse this place will get!"
"Yelling won't stop them. Actions will," Calem said, rolling his eyes.
Barlow looked as if he was about to attack Calem again. The ex-First Class picked up on this and automatically moved his hand to the handle of his sword. Serena moved in between the two men before conflict could break out. She shot a warning look at both of them.
"All done," Bianca announced. "Got everything I can. Flare realised somebody was hacking them and kicked me out but I should have enough."
"Good. Serena, Calem. Destroy any machinery you can see up here. Computers, wires, whatever they use to draw Infi from the Lifestream. We're taking Reactor 1 out of commission," Barlow ordered, a dark grin on his face.
"Finally," Calem muttered.
He and Serena turned their weapons on anything that looked valuable or important. The platform ran around the circumference of the reactor. Dotted along it were various machines essential to the running of the reactor. It was a long distance to run but Calem and Serena had the advantage of being in gijinka form. Absol and Delphox gave them both better speed and endurance. Serena ran anticlockwise, using her psychic abilities to sense for guards and lingering thoughts attached to various objects. Anything she sensed to be important she destroyed. Calem just destroyed anything that looked like a machine or a cluster of wires. Once finished, they ran back to Barlow and Bianca. The latter had finally used her Burst, becoming a Musharna gijinka. She shifted around uncomfortably as she levitated.
"Still hate using Burst," she muttered.
"Save it for later Bianca," Barlow said. "Just teleport away if you have to. No need for you to fight if you're not used to your gijinka form."
The four VICTINI members ran as fast as they could down the flight of stairs (or levitated in Bianca's case). The alarm that had been going on for a while now seemed louder and more urgent. A loud rumble shook the entire facility. Serena grabbed on to Calem's arm for support. Barlow looked around, trying to find the source.
"Bianca, get out of here," Calem said, shaking Serena off him.
"It could have been nothing," Barlow scoffed. "She'll be fine."
"Do you know what that rumble is?" Calem snapped at him. He got no response. "They're sending up something big, either a weapon or a Pokémon. If that fails to stop us, they'll send in WARRIORs. Without Bianca we can't destroy the other reactors computers and grab their files. At least the three of us have a decent chance of getting away. Get Bianca down to the others. Tell them if we're not down there in ten minutes, they blow this place."
"Got it," Bianca nodded. Focussing as hard as she could, she and the Musharna she'd merged with summoned enough psychic power to get down to the base of the tower.
"Listen here brat," Barlow hissed, turning towards Calem. "I give the orders. I'm the one in charge of VICTINI. Just because you think you're so big because you're a First turned renegade doesn't mean you can-"
Barlow was cut off by a loud roar ripping through the air. A large 'THUD' sounded from behind the three rebels. They turned to see the mother of all Garchomps standing behind them. The Pokémon towered over them, unnaturally tall. It was like this thing was on steroids. The muscles in a Garchomp aren't as prominent as they are in other Pokémon. You could see the bulges in this one. Its eyes were bloodshot and it looked absolutely enraged.
"Garchomps aren't that tall," Serena gulped.
"Damn you Flare," Barlow whispered. "You shouldn't have used it."
"They've used it," Calem confirmed. "The HU-1K serum."
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