Chapter 3
The Tranquility Police Station wasn't usually a place someone wanted to be unless they really needed help or as the case sometimes was you had a family member that worked there and you were bringing them food or visiting. It wasn't that the cops were mean or hateful though a few could be very annoying at times. It was simply that most of the towns residents tended to avoid the Station unless they ready couldn't.
Unfortunately for Sam he was quickly learning this lesson. Sam was ready to bang his head against the desk in front of him. The police station around him wasn't very busy it being so late at night and apparently two of the other officers had decided that it was their job to grill him about that's nights events. They didn't even have anything to do with why he was there. In fact the only reason he was there was so he could fill out the proper paperwork for his missing car and so Jenny could get his story down.
And yet the two idiots in front of him seemed set on giving him Hell for no reason other than boredom. Sam knew it was boredom too because he could feel it rolling off the pair like sweat. If they hadn't been cops Sam was sure that he'd have set Mojo on them. He was still really tempted to even if it meant that he'd get in a lot of trouble. He was sure that Jenny would agree with whatever reason he was able to think up.
"So your car stood up?" Apparently they'd been listening in too. Sam scrubbed a hand across his face. He was tired and he wanted to go home and go to sleep.
" Merciful Mew," Sam mumbled under his breath, "Yes, it stood up or at least it looked like it stood up. I think it might have bee-."
"Wow. Just think a car that can stand up. I gotta get me one of those. It'd be so useful when working. We'd be able to check out second story window's and parking would be a breeze."
Sam felt his eye twitch. He was fairly certain that the man sitting in front of him was either mocking him or acting up for the camera that was hidden somewhere in the room. It was probably a mixture of both. The problem was though that the guy wasn't listening and he was sure that if he told the jerk to leave him alone he'd get hit with some made up fine about disrespecting an officer of the law or something.
All he wanted to do was get the report for his car filled out and go home and sleep until he had to get up and work. Saturdays were always fairly busy days. He had fifteen more eggs arriving sometime that morning and the owner of one of the pokémon he was taking care of was going to stop by and check on it and if his luck was as bad as it could be then both of them would show up at the same time.
The last time that had happened the woman visiting her pokémon had screamed at him for him not giving her the attention that she though she disserved. It didn't help that she thought he wasn't being attentive enough when caring for her Persian. Mojo had growled at her the entire time she'd been at the preserve. Needless to say she'd been down right pissed when she'd left.
The sound of a drawer opening pulled Sam out of his annoyed thoughts. The cop in front of him pulled a wide mouthed plastic cup from the drawer. Sam knew what it was too because he had a small box full of them in a clean room back at his house though he used them for something other than what the cops used them for.
"Fill her up." he said as he pushed the cup towards Sam while his friend snickered behind him. "Lets see what you've been roll'n."
Groaning Sam shook his head and ignored the cup. He wasn't taking a drug test at least not one administered by the nutcase in front of him. Turning his head in another direction Sam's eye caught sight of the gun holster on the man's belt. Apparently the wanna be bad cop noticed for he straightened up almost immediately.
"You eye balling my piece Fifty Cent? You wanna reach for it? Go ahead and try because I will bust you up?" he challenged.
Sam drug a hand over his face. What had he done to disserve this? Surely, he hadn't done anything to bad. Sure, there were a few times he'd slacked off on homework and little things that needed to be done around the preserve but that was only every once in awhile.
"Anderson, you idiot you and Peters leave him the hell alone! He's here to file a missing car report and the last thing he needs is you idiots bothering him." Jenny snapped at her coworkers as she walked back into the room a stack of papers in her hand. Anderson shot the woman that had taken a place next to Sam one of her hands on his shoulder a dirty look.
"Fine. Lets go Peters we have better things to do." Anderson said as he stood and walked away only stopping to give Sam a flat look. Peters followed close behind him.
"Sorry about those two. They were transferred in from somewhere or another and they don't seem to realize that things here aren't like things were wherever they came from." Jenny said as she sat down in the chair that had previously held Anderson. Sam sighed and shook his head.
"It's okay. They were bored and I just happened to be here for them to amuse themselves with."
"Well I have all the papers that you need to sign here. We'll get you all set and official and with some luck by the time we find your rouge car the Haunter will have gotten bored and left." Sam laughed and rubbed a hand across his eyes.
"I can only hope so." He was ready for the whole ordeal to be done and over with completely.
"Now tell me everything." Jenny said as she rested her chin on steepled fingers. Sam sighed slightly as he told her about that's nights events the words rolling off of his tongue with tired ease. By the time he was finished even Jenny seemed slightly worried.
"So you think it was an illusion. That the Haunter for whatever reason were just messing with you for the fun of it." Sam shrugged.
"Well it's either that or my car really did stand up. I mean I know Mojo saw it too but that just means that if it was an illusion that he was seeing what I was seeing. It doesn't tell me if what the two of us saw was real or not." Sam said as his shoulders slumped and he leaned back in his chair. Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He'd seen ghost pokémon cause illusions before but he'd never seen one as big or as clear as he'd seen that night. Usually if the illusion that was being seen was really big, like his car changing had been, they'd flicker slightly but what he'd seen hadn't.
"Sam, we'll figure this out. The cops on patrol will let me know if they see your car. They've been warned about the Haunter and know to proceed with caution should the Haunter attack. Let me take you back to the preserve so that you can get some sleep. You look exhausted." Jenny said as she watched the boy sitting across from her.
He looked dead tired and stressed and if she knew him as well as she thought she did then he had a nice long list of things that needed to be done the next day. Opening up his eyes so that he was looking at Jenny, Sam offered her a smile.
"Thank you." They were the only words that he could really offer her for the offer she'd just made him. It was late and he didn't want Mojo running down roads when he didn't have to. Jenny merely smiled at him and he knew that she appreciated the thanks for what it was.
"Lets go then. The sooner we leave the sooner that you can get to bed." Jenny stood from her seat and grabbed the keys from her desk. Sam stood and followed without a word.
ooo
A line of telephone poles lead the way to Mahfouz's village and only then there was just a single wire running along the poles. Military men and child walked beneath the baking hot sun as they followed that single line of poles. Unknown to then however they were being followed. Even the flying types that circled in the air above them were unaware of the form that was hiding beneath the desert sands at that very moment.
Unaware of the danger that was so near to them the group walked on each man ready to fire the weapons that they carried should the need arise. None of them noticed the slightly shifting sands behind them. One of the poles shook almost as if something heavy had brushed against it. Not long after an old sign toppled over sending a wave of sand and dust into the air as it hit the ground. Guns rose immediately at the noise as the soldiers turned towards the fallen sign.
As far as Lennox was aware there was nothing there but then why had the sign fallen. Nothing above ground had caused it. It was possible that it had been a pokémon. Probably one of the many ground types that live both above and below the desert sands.
A Hippowdon perhaps or maybe an Onix. Either one seemed possible but the nagging feeling Lennox had that wouldn't go away told him different. He had the perfect pokémon to check and give them a little bit of a warning if there was something down there.
"Lennox?" Epps asked as he watched the Captain. Lennox turned his eyes on Epps for a moment before shaking his head.
"It's nothing Epps just wondering what knocked the sign over is all." Epps nodded in understanding. All of them were tense and waiting for whatever was going to happen to actually happen.
They didn't have to wait long as the sand beneath Donnely began to vibrate. Screeches filled the air just as something metallic and shiny slithered out from beneath the man. With reflexes born of training Donnely turned and was firing a barrage of bullets at the ground. The ting disappeared in the hail of bullets.
Eye's scanned the ground looking for whatever it was the Donnely had been firing at. It couldn't be gone could it? It wasn't. Skorponok burst from the sand seconds later his tail whipping forwards and wrapping around Donnely like an Arbok's coils.
They were both gone before Donnely even had a chance to scream. Lennox however had plenty of time to scream.
"Lets move!" The Captain shouted as he pulled one of his pokéballs from his belt. It was time to fight metal with steel. He wasn't sure how effective his next pokémon was going to be but it was worth a try. Throwing the ball into the air Lennox didn't even wait for the pokémon to appear before he was shouting out an order.
"Titan use dig and follow whatever it is that's after us!" There was a flash of a long silver body in the sun before the long snakelike form disappeared underneath the desert sands. Lennox know that titan would wait for his command before attacking the creature that was after them. Feet pounding against the ground beneath them as they ran Lennox and his men made their way towards the village that sat not so far away.
Skorponok burst from the ground a second time apparently unaware that it was no longer the only thing using the sand as a hiding place. The sound of the soldiers shouts had apparently drawn the attention of many of the villagers for as they neared the town several armed men came running. As they entered the village their ears were assaulted by the panicked sounds of animals as they bolted and pokémon as they growled and hissed at the threat that had just entered their home. Lennox watched as a tall man exited a nearby home and starting running in their direction. The man was running towards Mahfouz.
Lennox watched father and son reunite before turning and peeking out from behind the mud wall that he and his soldiers were hidden behind. Skorponok had retreated back into the sands again. A loud eagle like shriek caused Lennox to turn his eyes from the ground to the sky. The flying types that had been deployed as lookouts were coming in for a landing. And Lennox was the only one who'd noticed their arrival the rest of his men had as well.
"Call them back!" Lennox shouted as he watched the pokémon land. Valiant landed not six feet behind him. Turning Lennox offered the bird a smile before pulling its ball from his belt.
"You did good Valiant but I don't think you could do much damage against that thing." It was with an unhappy squawk that Valiant was returned to its pokéball. Lennox was only half aware of the others following his orders. His attention had returned to Mahfouz and his father. They needed a way to contact help and there was a slight possibility that Mahfouz's father could provide it. Running up to the pair Lennox took a hold of the man's shoulders as soon as he was within reach.
"Sir, do you have a phone?" he asked. At that moment Skorponok erupted from the ground again. Almost automatically the soldiers began firing at the mechanoid with what ever they had. Skorponok retaliated with bursts of plasma that vaporized whatever they hit. Lennox saw none of this however as he followed father and son to a white washed building that served as the pairs house. Not long after they entered a cell phone was plucked off of a table and handed to Lennox.
"Thank you." Lennox said his voice hurried as he dialed a number. The voice of an operator sounded not long after.
"A T and T how my I direct you call?"
"International to the United States. This is an A class call to the Pentagon." The voice on the other end sounded as uncaring as its owner probably was.
"You service doesn't cover long distance calls. Do you have a major credit card?" Lennox growled.
"No, I don't have a credit card. Listen to me this is an emergency. I need you to put me through now."
"I would be most happy to connect you so long as you have a major credit card." The uncaring and bored tone was starting to get on Lennox's nerves. Did the man on the other end not hear the panic in his voice or the increasingly loud explosions coming from behind him? Cursing under his breath Lennox cast one glance at father and son before turning and running outside.
The sound of gunfire was heavy in the air but for all the bullets that had actually been fired it seemed as if nothing had done any good. Spotting Fig Lennox ran towards him.
"I hit it. I know I did but it didn't do anything." The man was muttering to himself as Lennox reached him and spun him around.
"Do you have a credit card?" Fig gave him a slightly confused look as one desperate gaze met another.
"My wife cut 'em all up." Lennox turned away from Fig as the officer started reloading his gun. Eyes scanning the area for another soldier. His gaze fell upon Epps who was still firing his weapon even though it didn't appear to be doing any good.
"Bring it. I'll tear your metal ass up!" Epps yelled as he fired at Skorponok.
"Epps where's you wallet!" Lennox shouted as he reached Epps. Epps didn't even turn to look at him as he yelled:
"Back pocket!" Digging through the various pockets that adorned his friends uniform Lennox pulled a battered leather wallet from on of the pockets.
"Bring it motherfucker!" Ignoring the shouting that was coming from behind him Lennox spoke to the man that was still on the other end of the phone.
"It's Visa and don't tell me you don't take it! " Lennox yelled before he started rattling off the numbers on the card.
"We take Visa," the operator said, "Would you be interested in our Premium Plus World Package." Lennox rolled his eyes and rolled as a ball of plasma hit the ground a few feet away from him.
"Just put the damn call through!" Lennox yelled before turning back to Epps and tossing the man the phone.
"Pentagon." Epps nodded and tossed Lennox his gun. The Captain was about to fire but a glint of silver in the sun aught his attention. In all of the excitement he'd completely forgotten about Titan. It was time to see if they could do any damage in a different way.
"Titan, use Iron Tail." With a roar Titan burst from the sand near Skorponok swinging a glowing silver tail as he went. The attack struck Skorponok on the back causing the mechanoid to falter for a moment. Titan disappeared underneath the desert sand a moment before a volley of plasma balls came its way. Lennox watched as Skorponok stumbled slightly.
It didn't look like Titan's attack had done much damage but he couldn't tell from where he was standing. A steel type move might not have done much but he was fairly certain that an electric type move might do a lot. It was worth the risk at least he hoped that what he was about to do was worth the risk. Because if he got one of his pokémon killed he'd never forgive himself.
"Dixon lets go." A lion's roar filled the air as Dixon burst from its ball. Golden eyes took in the scene around it before it looked at its trainer. Human and Luxray regarded each other for the briefest of moments. This wasn't the first time that Dixon had been called upon to fight.
"Dixon use Thunder." Lennox yelled as he fired his gun. Dixon roared as a thousands of volts worth of electricity burst from its body and hit Skorponok. The metallic shriek that the metal arachnid let out was more than satisfying and it proved his earlier theories about electric attacks working on the robots.
Sadly it seemed as if his new discovery had gone unnoticed by the others around him as none of them stopped long enough to unleash any pokémon that may have known an electric type move. Or maybe they were all just smarter than he was. As earth erupted around him Epps tried his best to cover the mouth piece of the phone he was currently holding it wouldn't do if the man sitting across the globe couldn't hear him speaking.
Though there was less of a need to do so with every passing second as his fellow soldiers continued to fall to Skorponok's weapons.
"Troops in contact mission, unknown freakin' aggressor! Need gun ships ASAP, everything you can send this way." As Epps waited for a reply his eyes strayed to where his thinning number of comrades was fighting against an impossible enemy just in time to see a bolt of electricity lash out at their attacker.
The metal scorpion squealed and seemed to loose its balance for a moment. Wide eyes tracked backwards from where the bolt had come from. What he saw both did and didn't surprise him. Dixon stood by Lennox's side fur standing on end as it prepared to fire off another attack. The Luxray was keeping it's distance never straying more than a few feet from Lennox and that was only to dodge the attacks that were sent its way.
Safer at a distance but highly useful. Epps's eyes swept across the battlefield. No one else was helping Dixon and Lennox. No one else was willing to risk their pokémon and they were putting both Lennox and Dixon in even more danger by doing it. Did the other's not get that their pokémon could not only help fight but help distract.
Epps snorted. Unlike the rest of the cowards he wasn't going to let someone else stay in danger. In a hurried move Epps pulled a ball from his belt and tossed it.
"Watts use Shock Wave!" he yelled as his Electivire landed on the ground with a soft thud.
"Vire Elec!" The red tips of Watts's tails glowed yellow for the briefest of moments before the electricity surged forward. The attack hit home and Skorponok turned towards them only to get hit by another attack from Dixon. The sound of a Predator caused Epps to look up. Ignoring the plane for now Epps turned back towards the fight.
The mud wall that both he and Lennox hade been hiding behind, in separate places, was practically gone from repeat hits causing both of them to make a hasty retreat Watts and Dixon close behind. Epps ran with the phone still up against one ear.
"Can you still hear me? Hello! Hello!" Epps shouted into the mouth piece as he ran. "Shit, are you there?"
"I got you." The words crackled as the man on the other end spoke but they could be heard and that was all that mattered. A ball of plasma struck the ground near him but he didn't dare move for fear of loosing his signal.
"Dixon Discharge! Watts Thunder!" Epps grinned slightly as Lennox took command of Watts. He wasn't at surprised at all when the ordered attack whizzed through the air.
Watts knew when Epps needed to do his job and was more than willing to listen to Lennox. Dixon was the same. If it came down to it the Luxray would follow his orders as if he were its actual trainer. The fired electric attacks also gave Skorponok something else to fire at instead of him.
"Seven man team north of orange smoke." Epps barked into the phone. "Attacks direction west, your clear and hot." Epps winced as another ball of plasma struck the ground not to far from where he was standing.
"This will be danger close but we got no choice." The reply from the man that Epps was talking to mad him smile. Eyes roaming the battlefield Epps caught sight of Lennox. The captain was looking in his direction. Epps gave him a thumbs up and raised his voice to shout at him.
"Got a beam-rider incoming! Laze target!" Lennox nodded and began passing the word along. Spreading out the fighting soldiers began pointing the laser designators at Skorponok. The more options they gave the approaching aircraft the better their chances of not getting hit were.
ooo
All of the firing and killing that was being required in order to obtain a single recording device was taking much longer than expected. While Skorponok cared not for the humans he killed or for their weapons the amount of time that was being wasted was the only down side. Then there were the two creatures that had been hitting him with controlled bursts of electricity. Unlike the humans those creatures did posses a threat.
At least they did if they hit him enough. While the bursts of electricity hurt the odds of them bringing him down were small if there were more of those things the chance of them overloading his systems was great but seeing as there were only two there wasn't much for him to worry about. Reaching out with sensors that were beyond human Skorponok was able to locate which of the humans was carrying the recording device that he sought.
Taking careful aim Skorponok fired a single ball of plasma at the human. The ball struck and the human tumbled to the ground the desired interment falling from his pack. Skorponok moved towards the fallen human and the item it sought. There were more important things to be done.
ooo
Lennox was the first to notice the incoming air support. He had just enough time to yell, "The heats coming!" as he and the two pokémon at his side ran for cover. A low embankment fronting a shallow gully was the nearest place he could reach.
Jumping down into the gully Lennox was only half aware that both he, Dixon, and Watts were all trying to burry themselves as deep in the sand as they could. The ground behind him exploded as missiles struck their targets. Sand and soil rained down upon those hiding in the gully and it was only when they'd stopped that Lennox dared to look.
An impressive sized whole had been blown into the center of the town. It didn't take long however for the scorpion like form that they had been fighting to reappear.
"The hell." Lennox muttered as his eyes took in his surroundings. His eyes found Epps where the man was crouched against a wall. "It's still not down!" he yelled. Epps nodded his eyes wide before he began shouting into the phone again.
"Spooky, thirty-two: use one-oh-five shells. Bring the rain!"
"Shit." Lennox said. Not that he was unhappy about what was about to come. On the contrary it was in fact a very good thing. It was also a good thing he wasn't going to stick around and see. Pulling himself from his hiding place Lennox began running like a bat out of hell. Dixon was several feet in front of him and Watts had joined his trainer.
None of them wanted to be anywhere near their attacker. And the further away they were the better. The only warning they had before the area behind them went to hell was a low whine. The sound of live fire heralded the rain of sabot rounds that rained down on Skorponok destroying sand and rock alike. An artificial sandstorm engulfed the solders fleeing the area.
A lack of wind meant that the solders and the pilots had to wait for the dust to settle before they could see anything. When the air cleared enough to see Epps and Watts peered around the building that they had hidden behind. Skorponok was still standing. Well to be more precise he was wobbling as if he couldn't regain his balance.
The tip of his deadly tail was swinging back and forth almost completely sheered off by the rounds that had struck him. As the metal tip of his tail finally fell off Skorponok dipped his head and disappeared beneath the sand.
"Damn that thing was freaky." Epps said to himself getting an agreeing noise from Watts. Dark eyes flicked back to check on his partner. The Electivire wasn't in bad shape from what he could see. Though dirty and scrapped up quite a bit nothing to terrible appeared to have happened. The sound of am A-10 passing over his head caused Epps to look up for just a moment.
"Tivire." Turning Epps looked in the direction that Watts was staring. Lennox and Dixon emerged from the smoke. The men offered each other a smile. Lennox sank to his knee's winded. Dixon sat down next to his and pushed his head under one of the mans arms. Huffing lightly Lennox scratched the Luxray behind his ears causing it to purr.
Villagers began to emerge from their hiding places. Mahfouz and his father were among them. Lennox's sense of reprove lasted only a minute as he realized that they were still missing someone. Lennox turn towards Epps.
"Where's Fig?" he asked. A moment passed between them neither one of them knowing the answer to Lennox's question. It wasn't until Dixon stopped purring that both men turned to look elsewhere. Fig was stumbling towards them. His uniform was stained red, the dark stain growing with every passing seconds.
Lennox and Epps as well as their pokémon were moving just moments later. Fig saw them and offered them a smile and half a thumbs up before he collapsed. Lennox and Epps hit the sand beside their friend. Looking over at Epps's shocked face Lennox shouted:
"Get a med-evac down here now!"
ooo
Eggs delivered and trainer satisfied with his pokémon's progress Sam was able to mark those two things off of his mental to do list. That only left half a dozen other things that he needed to do. His report for school being one of those things and the sooner he got things around the preserve done the sooner he could do his report and the sooner he could go to bed.
The events of the previous night were still fresh in his mind though dulled a bit by sleep deprivation. Sam yawned and rubbed his eyes as he made his way towards the large metal building that sat at the very back of the yard. Though he supposed that there wasn't really a name for the building he'd called it The Rehab House since he was little and even at the age of sixteen the name was still used.
And really it was a good a name as any for that's what the building was for. Large and made of metal that was guaranteed to survive almost constant abuse The Rehab House was far grander on the inside that it was on the outside. The door leading into the building squeaked slightly on its hinges as he opened it. Bright light coming from windows that covered the ceiling made him blink his eyes rapidly.
The space Sam stepped into was large and open. Six large cages lined the wall across from him and two large tanks sat against each end of the room. Two more tanks, a storage room, and a bathroom sat against the wall nearest to him. A loud whinny drew Sam's attention to the Rapidash standing in one of the cages nearest to him. Smiling Sam walked over to the cage and opened the door.
"Good morning to you to, Rain." Sam said as he ran a hand down her muzzle. Rain snickered in response to the attention. Gently nudging Sam in return.
"Are you hungry?" Sam asked as he grabbed a bridle that hung from a peg outside of the cage door. Rain stood still as Sam fitted the bridle over her head and attached a lead rope. "I think that your ready for the corral outside of the barn and some fresh grass." Sam said as he lead the Rapidash out of the building and towards a faded red barn that sat closer to the main house than the Rehab House did.
Rain had arrived about four months before for physical rehab having suffered a broken leg. Though the leg had healed she wasn't quite willing to put much weight on it. Her owner had told him that Rain was one of his best racers and had high hopes that she would be ready to race again by the time the tracks were open for the nest season. Glancing back Sam made a mental note of the slight limp that Rain still seemed to have.
While she was far from racing condition she would be ride able soon so long as the rides were slow and easy and didn't push too hard. It'd take an expert to tell if she'd ever be able to race again and while Sam was good he wasn't good enough to tell by himself. He could only offer his own opinion when it came to physical injuries.
Emotional injuries however were another story. When it came to a pokémon's emotional welfare very few knew better than he did and those that did were often older and more experienced empaths. More often than not any pokémon that came to him in need of emotional therapy often came in with healing physical injuries as well.
Sam was fairly certain that he'd seen more abused, abandoned, and homeless pokémon in his sixteen years than most of his school mates had seen in their entire lives put together. He'd seen hundreds of pokémon that had needed his families help for trauma caused by people. Most of the pokémon that hung around the house were pokémon that had been helped by his grandfather and mother before they had died.
They were all wonderful company of course and many of them were more than willing to help protect the preserve when the occasional idiot tried to hunt the pokémon that lived there or ,as one man had tried, to break into his house. Three of the pokémon that were currently residing in the Rehab House had trainers while the other two were wild pokémon from the preserve that had been injured in battles.
The two wild pokémon would be leaving in about a week or so. The three pokémon with trainers in a couple of months or weeks depending on their injury. Mojo's loud bark alerted Sam to the Arcanine's presence before the large dog could actually try and knock him over.
"Hey Jo." Sam called as he glanced at Mojo and then laughed. Mojo was chasing around one of the homeless pokémon that lived on the preserve with them. Seeing him the Pachirisu that was being chased headed in his direction.
Chattering as it climbed up Sam's pants leg and then his shirt it sought refuge on Sam's shoulder. If Sam recalled correctly then the Pachirisu's trainer had died of some illness that he didn't know about and the trainers family hadn't wanted it. It was a painful reminder of a lost child. So rather than letting it be abandoned somewhere where it might starve or get hurt Sam's grandfather had agreed to take it in. The little apricorn fiend had lived with them ever since.
"Get tired already?" Sam asked as he scratched one of Pachirisu's ears. He received no reply other than the Pachirisu pressing its head into his palm. Mojo however gave an annoyed growl as it followed behind Sam and Rain.
"Go chase Sparkplug around Mojo. He's more willing to play chase with you and it'll keep him out of the berries." Mojo tilted his head and turned towards the rows of trees that sat in front of the Rehab House. With a single bark Mojo took of sniffing the ground as he went. Sam huffed as watched Mojo run off. His days were never boring and he was almost always busy as there was almost always something to do.
It went a long way in keeping him from thinking about his missing car and the fact that he had yet to hear any news from Jenny or any other cop. He was still worried about what he'd seen the night before and there were a lot of unanswered questions that he wasn't really willing to ask. But he had a feeling that whatever had happened the night before would be explained in time. He still wasn't too sure about if he was ready for answers or not because answers changed things and change for him was almost always a bad thing when it decided to come around.
He tended to loose the things and people he cared about when it happened and the thought of loosing one of his pokémon or of him dieing and the preserve being left to the government made him shudder with fear. He could only hope that whatever happened would be good for once. Shaking his head to rid himself of worrisome thoughts Sam focused on the task at hand as he opened the gate to the corral, lead Rain in before taking off the bridle and laying it and the lead rope on the fence before exiting and closing the gate behind him.
He needed to go into town and get the mail from the Post Office that and he had three or four other errands that he needed to run as well. A bright yellow blur with brown stripes and a lightning bolt shaped tail ran past him at full speed followed closely by Mojo's much bigger form. Laughing out loud Sam shook his head.
He knew that Mojo would never hurt any of the pokémon that he chased around for fun but more often than not the smaller pokémon were scared by the big dog. The only one that didn't seem to mind was Sparkplug and that was probably because he was more than able to stop Mojo in his tracks if he wanted too. Electric attacks tended to do that sometimes.
"Mojo," he shouted, "Stop chasing Sparkplug and get over here we need to go to town!"
ooo
The pounding on the door was relentless and Glen almost tripped over Pug, his Snubbull, in his hasty attempt to answer. He had no idea who was there and the last person he'd expected to see was a very hurried looking Maggie.
"Maggie what are you doing here?" Maggie didn't answer she merely pushed past him and stepped into the house. "This is my private area. What are you doing here?" Glen asked again as he chased Maggie towards the room that he'd exited only due to the constant banging at the front door. A voice boomed from another part of the house.
"Glen, who is it?" Glen winced slightly at the loud noise before offering his own answer.
"It's nothing grandma!" he shouted before once again turning to Maggie. "What're you doing here?"
Maggie finally turned and looked at him. "I need you help with something." Glen took a step back.
"No way. I not getting fired for you."
"Glen! Glenny!" Glen winced again and turned so that he was looking towards the houses kitchen.
"Ok you seriously need to leave before you give the poor old woman a heart attack." Maggie scoffed and rolled her eyes. Barley seconds later Glen's grandma walked into the hallway where the pair were standing. The robe clad, face masked woman gave Maggie a single up and down before turning on Glen.
"Who's this?" she asked.
"No one, Grandma," he replied, "She's just a friend."
The old woman sniffed, snapped "Use a condom," and turned to leave. Glen hid his face behind a hand and shook his head.
"Can't you just leave?" he asked. His grandma sniffed and nodded at Maggie's feet before heading back into the kitchen. Defeated Glen turned towards Maggie. "Take off your shoes and stay on the runners. Grandma's weird about feet touching carpet." Maggie nodded as she reached down to take off her shoes.
"Mud?" she asked. Glen shrugged. "Mud. Microbes, bugs, anthrax spores. She listens to too much news." Maggie glanced down at Pug.
"How'd you convince her to let your pokémon in the house then."
"They get a good scrub down right after I let them out of their balls. All of them but Fatso which doesn't really matter because he stays outside anyways. That and Pug cuddles with her so he's an exception."
Maggie nodded in understanding as she sat down on the couch. "Glen we have to talk. No one's better at signal analysis than you and you're the only one genius enough to understand what I'm talking about." Glen eyebrows drew together.
"No. Get out. I mean it Maggie, out." Reaching over Maggie dug around in her purse for a moment before pulling out a neon colored flash drive. Holding it between two of her fingers she waved it in front of Glen's face.
"Don't you want to see something classified?" Glen's eyes followed the brightly colored flash drive as Maggie waved it back and forth. The chubby man was obviously having some sort of internal battle.
"Like how classified?" he asked. Maggie smirked.
"Like I could go to jail forever if I showed you classified." With a careless shrug Maggie put the drive back into her purse. "If you don't want to help me that's cool. I'll just go find someone else to help me." Glen's eyes widened in horror.
"No. I take a quick peak."
"Good." Smiling Maggie made her way towards Glen's computer where she slid the drive into an available slot. Rushing over before she could sit in his chair glen pushed Maggie aside and plopped down.
ooo
Despite being younger than the Secretary of Defense Keller's aid and his Cinccino had to jog at times in order to keep up with the man and his Alakazam. The pair were currently traveling down one of the many corridors of the Pentagon and both were set on their current destination.
"One of the special op'rs got a shot of whatever it was that attacked the base, however the imager was damaged during the fight. We're trying to recover the image now."
Keller nodded. "As soon as your able I want to see it." His aid nodded his head rapidly and for a second Keller was convinced that it might fall off.
"Of course sir." Before either one of them was able to speak again the pair was interrupted by a breathless secretary agent. "Sir, we have a serous internal security issue. One of the logs indicate that one of the analysis's made a copy of the network intrusion signal."
Keller looked at the man before him for a moment before speaking.
"Let me guess, Maggie Madison?" The agent gave him a surprised look.
"How'd you know?" Keller gave the man a wan smile.
"I'm psychic. It a secretary of defense thing." Two pairs of eyes glanced at the Alakazam standing behind it's trainer. "I'm assuming that you've initiated an appropriate follow up?" The man nodded his head.
"Yes, sir. Standard procedure. As is letting you know."
"Keep me noted and please try not to shoot anybody until I've had a chance to talk to them."
ooo
Had it been any other day of his life Maggie's close proximity to him would have given him a nervous breakdown. This wasn't the case however as the pair studied the screen of Glen's computer and the information displayed there. As things were Glen hardly noticed the blonde that was leaning over his shoulder.
"I've never seen anything like this before. Not in my entire life. The signals strength is through the roof." Glen glanced over at his companion.
"Where'd you say you got it?" Her reply wasn't quite what he'd wanted.
"This hacked the Military Air national Guard frequency in less than sixty seconds." Glen was understandably amazed.
"No way."
"Way. This things driving everybody nuts. No one's ever encountered anything like this before and no one knows where it came from?"
"Artoo Detoo?" Glen suggested with a shrug of his shoulders. Maggie gave him a look that didn't promise nice things in his future.
"Be serous Glen." Glen gave her a slightly hopeless look.
"I have no idea where this came from but it reeks of some kind of assembly code. There's an elegance to it that no programmer could compile. It's like poetry."
Maggie pursed her lips and thought about it for a moment. There was no sarcasm in her voice when she next spoke.
"Just so one of us says it out loud, because one of use needs to say it, are we seriously talking about some sort of alien machine communication?" Glen didn't miss a beat.
"Who says that life on other planets has to evolve like we did? Why not silicon or a mixture of it and carbon? Or, you know, something else that we can't imagine because it's alien."
Turning to look once more at the continually cycling recording Glen blinked. It almost looked like there was something-
"Hold on. I think there's something imbedded in the signal." Maggie leaned in for a closer look.
"It looks like a file of some kind. Maybe it's something they hacked. Can you open it?" she asked. Glen was already typing his fingers working furiously at the keys on the keyboard like a pianist playing Mozart.
His attention was no longer split between Maggie and the computer. Now he was only focusing on the later for all he knew Maggie could have left.
"How'd you get into computers?" Glen asked as he worked. While he might have been working like Maggie wasn't there apparently he hadn't forgotten about her.
"I had a stutter when I was little and I didn't like talking out loud. Not even to my pokémon. The keyboard didn't make fun of me, it didn't point fingers. It did the talking for me." One of Maggie's cheeks had started twitching. "I don't wanna talk about it."
"To late. You shared." Glen said as he continued to type.
"Well I take it back."
"You can't that's why it's called sharing." he said trying not to sound triumphant in his small victory.
"Hey…" Glen nodded towards the screen where a file name had appeared.
PROJECT ICE MAN- TOP SECRET SCI- SECTOR SEVEN ACESS ONLY.
Both stared at the file name. It was simple and straight forward and didn't make a lick of sense to either one of them.
"Project- Ice Man?" Maggie mumbled to herself. It sounded like the name for some sort of cartoon or something. It surly didn't sound like anything important enough to draw the attention of national security and homicidal aliens.
"What's Sector Seven?" Glen asked. Glen's hand moved to the mouse and a few simple movements of said mouse had more information scrolling down the screen. From what they could see scrolling across the screen it looked like the file contained the history of Artic exploration. This included foreign sources as well as sources in American English. Many names that both of them knew appeared as well as a name that neither one of them had ever seen.
"Who's Captain Archibald Witwicky?" Maggie asked as she scrunched her nose at the picture of an addled looking older man. Before the subject of the unknown explorer could be discussed further the door to the house burst open and what seemed to be no less than an entire squad of FBI agents entered the house.
Before they could even properly react both Maggie and Glen found themselves thrown to the floor. One man cuffed Maggie's hands behind her back with soft handcuffs while his partner stood over her.
"Maggie Madison, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." Maggie shifted slightly and her gaze fell upon Glen who was being treated far more harshly than she was.
"He's not a part of this!" she shouted, "It's me, all me!"
"What's going on? Do you have a warrant?" Glen asked as he tried to make sense of what was happening to him. A voice of higher power however stopped his questions. Coming from the vicinity of the kitchen his grandmother was shouting.
"Tell them to stay on the plastic!"
ooo
The streets were busy and the sidewalks were crowded and Sam was ready to beat his head against a wall because despite Clover's help in blocking out the people around him he still had a headache that was on the verge of becoming a full fledged migraine if he didn't manage to get his errands done soon. He was close though one more stop and they could get out of town and back to the preserve. Sam eyed the street in front of him warily.
There were more cars on the road than their usually was on Saturday and Sam couldn't quite remember the reason why. Not that it really mattered all that much. If there was something going on in or around town that increased traffic flow then he tended to avoid it. Unless of course Miles drug him somewhere against his will. Sam knew that Miles meant well but the blondes attempts to get him out and about and into crowded areas never tended to end well. The blonde had forced him to go to the fair with him and his mother over a month ago. He'd lasted almost two hours before he'd gotten physically ill from the emotional overload and they'd had to leave.
Needless to say he avoided everything that drew a crowd like the plague no matter what it was. Needless to say he missed out on a lot because of it.
"I think we're walking to the bookstore Clover." Sam said as he looked down. He wasn't risking Mojo's safety just to get down three blocks faster even if the Arcanine was willing to run through heavy traffic. Besides the walk wouldn't kill him and there were less crowded paths to take in order to get too where they were going.
Clover gazed back at him her dark purple eyes more than understanding. The pair started walking down the sidewalk avoiding both people and pokémon as they went. The walk was peaceful and no one bothered them as they went. The people around him had better things to do than pay him anymore attention than a passing glace at most. That was how Sam preferred it. The less attention he got the better off he was.
"Eeeon." Sam looked down at Clover's cry. She was ahead of him slightly and Sam was quite sure that she was actually choosing the route that they'd be taking to the bookstore. Not that he minded. Clover would be able to find the route with the least amount of people on it and that meant that it'd give his headache a chance to die a little before he was forced to reenter the Saturday shopping crowd.
He'd leaned long ago that trips to town were unavoidable no matter how much he wished they were and that it was better to let Clover pick the route when she was out even if it took a little longer to reach their desired destination because of it. As they passed the local Burger King Sam noticed that Mikaela and a group of her friends were there.
If she saw him she didn't pay him any mind. Not that he had expected her to. It didn't much matter however because as soon as they turned the next corner Mikaela fell out of view and the rest of the busy street began to die away. Sam knew where they were going by the fact that they'd passed by Burger King. They had in fact been there many times before. It was one of their most used routes when Clover was leading or when Sam was riding Mojo.
Both pokémon liked it for one reason and one reason only. It was more or less disserted and for good reason. The highway overpass that they were currently walking under didn't look like the most welcoming place in the world. But for Sam, who avoided people whenever possible, it was almost a very small slice of heaven when compared to overpopulated streets. Or at least it was usually unpopulated. Halfway through the underpass the whoop whoop of police sirens caused Sam to stop and turn around.
Sam blinked in slight shock at the sight of the car for as long as he'd traveled under the underpass he'd never once seen a cop car anywhere near the area at least not during the day. From what Jenny had told him however they patrolled there regularly at night. Sam was prepared to turn back around and continue walking, he hadn't done anything after all and any news about his car would be learned about from a call, however a sharp bolt of what felt like fear tore through his head with such force that he took a sharp breath.
Sam's head jerked as he looked down at Clover. Fur raised on end, ears flat against her skull, and tail tucked Clover looked like she was about to either flee the area or attack the police car with everything she was worth. Sam's body automatically tensed in response to Clover's emotions. He didn't know what it was but something about the car had Clover scared and worried. Sam took a step back as the car rolled forward. Clover growled and took a step back.
"Come on, Clover." Sam said in a low voice as he backed up another step. Sam didn't care if he got in trouble because he ran from a cop. He had no desire to be in the same area as the vehicle in front of him and neither did Clover. Thinking that perhaps the driver was one of the jerks from the night before Sam's eyes flicked up towards the windshield.
The driver sat still as stone his gaze fixed on Sam as if he were an Arbok watching its prey. Sam sure felt like a cornered Rattata that was ready to run. The car was creeping closer inch by inch and the closer it got the more Sam wanted to run. He was just about to do just that when the cop car surged forward with a roar of its engine and knocked him off of his feet. Sam let out a startled shout as he toppled backwards and hit the ground.
"Espeon!" Almost immediately Clover moved in front of him as if she was certain that should the driver decide that he wanted to run Sam over she'd be able to stop him. While it wasn't likely that her plan would work Sam appreciated the fact that she cared enough to get ran over for him. It was also something that he wasn't going to let happen.
Reaching forward Sam just barley managed to grab the end of Clover's tail and pull her backwards and into his arms as the cop car surged forward another few feet. It was close enough now that Sam could put his foot against the bumper and push himself backwards. Clover pinned to his chest by his arms Sam made a desperate attempt to plea his case to the man he could no longer see.
"Look I don't know what I did but I'm sorry that I did it and I'll never do it again." Sam's voice pleaded with the man to see reason. The fact that the engine revved and he was pushed backwards by the car was the only thing that told him that his plea hadn't worked at all.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Sam repeated as the engine revved one final time before the headlights did something that they shouldn't have done. Sam watched his eyes wide as the headlights extended outwards and towards him before they lifted up and the whole car began moving. Sam watched as metal changed position until the car that had been in front of his moments before stood up on two legs and locked red eyes on him.
Sam let go of Clover so that he could scramble backwards away from the metal giant. He moved just in time for long claws dug themselves into the ground where he had been moments before. Understandably terrified and more than shocked Sam was still able to keep some of his wits about him. Sam pushed himself up and began running as fast as his legs would carry him. Clover was running in front of him as fast as her legs would carry her.
Whatever the thing behind them intended bodily harm and while Sam wasn't really sure if it wanted to hurt him or if it wanted to hurt Clover he wasn't planning on stopping to find out. He was to busy running for his life at the moment. The ground beneath him shook as Barricade ran after him the sixteen foot tall robot running him down like Mojo had been chasing Pachirisu and Sparkplug earlier that day.
"Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!" While his repeated cursing didn't help him run any faster or guarantee that neither he nor Clover would be caught by the metal monster behind them it expressed how both human and pokémon felt very well. Daring to glance behind his shoulder Sam paled slightly at the sight of Barricade being so close behind him.
Turning so that he was once again facing the direction he was running Sam failed to see the hand that struck out at him. The blow caught him in the middle of the back and tossed him up into the air. His flight was stopped when he impacted the front windshield of an abandoned car. Breath forced from his lugs by the impact Sam could only watch as Barricade bore down on him.
"Please let this be a bad dream." Sam whispered as he closed his eyes and willed himself to wake up. Sadly his attempt failed for as he well knew he was wide awake and he wouldn't be waking up to find that he had merely been having a bad dream. Reopening his eyes Sam found that the robot that had been chasing him was standing before him it's face mere inches from his. Sam eyes focused on the being before him and after looking for a moment he decided that he was screwed. This thing was going to kill him.
He didn't know why it was going to but he was fairly certain that it was indeed going too. A pair of metal fists slammed into the car on either side of him. The action caused metal and plastic to splinter and support steel and fenders to shatter. A loud explosion of air was the two front tires bursting. The metal on either side of Sam was dented from the fists impact and Sam tried his hardest to pull back and get away from the monstrosity before him.
"Are you username egghatcher217?" The voice that spoke was deep, understandable and didn't contain even the tiniest bit of humanity.
"What?" Sam asked because he was sure that he hadn't heard what the thing before him was saying right over the sound of his own heartbeat.
"Are you username egghatcher217?" Barricade's voice was even louder as he shouted the question.
"Yeah." Sam was barley able to stutter out as he meat the artificial red gaze before him.
"Where is eBay item two-one-one-five-three?"
"Where's what?" A deep growl sounded from the robot standing over him. One of Barricade's fists struck the car again and Sam winced. Patience wasn't part of Barricade's personality programming and when he next spoke his tone was even darker and more threatening.
"Where are the glasses?" Before Sam could answer a shower of stars struck the metal monster before him. Barricade stumbled back from the unexpected assault and Sam took that moment to get his feet under him and run. The car beneath him offered little resistance as his feet hit the roof and he jumped off of the trunk.
The car was tossed aside not five seconds later by Barricade by then however Sam had managed to get a good distance away. Clover running by his side. An echo of large feet followed the pair as they ran towards the other side of the underpass hoping against hope that they could get away from the mech chasing after them. Instead of salvation the other side of the underpass offered up something else. Mikaela coming their way riding on her blue Vespa.
Horrified eyes took in the girl that was coming his way and heading straight towards the monster that was chasing after him. It took half a second for Sam to make his decision. As soon as the brunette was within reaching distance Sam reached out and took hold of the girls jacket pulling her off the scooter. The sudden weight caused him to fall to the ground taking Mikaela with him. The pair hit the ground hard.
"What the hell is your problem Sam?" Mikaela asked as she looked at the boy that had pulled her down. She failed to notice the more than panicked look that was on Sam's face.
"You gotta get up and run Mikaela. Seriously Mikaela get up." Sam's voice was panicked and scared and a moment later the reason why came into view. Blue eyes widened at the sight of Barricade charging towards them. Doing the only thing that would even register in her mind Mikaela let out an ear piercing shriek.
Sam cringed at the sound but took a hold of Mikaela's arm nonetheless and tried to pull her to her feet so that they could start running. Clover stood beside the pair her body tense and ready to attack should she need to defend her trainer and the other person with him. She was saved from doing so when another mechanical form swerved into view.
It was the very Camaro that she had ridden in the day before. The one that had disappeared the night before and that Sam and Mojo had followed thinking that it was being taken out for a joyride by unwanted guests. The three on the ground watched as the car did a forty mile-per-hour slide and knocked into Barricade causing the behemoth to topple over.
The cars passenger door opened and the words to 'Hero' blared from the speakers at about the same time that the horn began to honk excessively. Behind the car barricade was rising to his feet again. Sam watched as Clover jumped into the car as if it weren't driving itself. Safety radiated off of Clover like heat. That was all the motivation that Sam needed.
"Get up and get in the car." Sam ordered as he pulled Mikaela to her feet and started pushing her towards the open passenger door. Mikaela tried to protest but Sam had the two of them in the car before she could even get started. The door snapped closed as soon as both teens were completely in and seated. The Camaro took of with a lurch and speed down the road away from Barricade. His target getting away barricade transformed and gave chase.
The not cars chased each other through a district that was filled with factories that was far past its glory days. Had anyone been in the area they would have seen an ordinary police car chasing a beat up old Camaro. The people riding in the beat up Camaro knew differently. As the Camaro turned a sharp curve Sam and Mikaela were thrown into each other. Clover slid along the back seat her claws doing nothing to help keep her in one place. Something whizzed past one of the Camaro's windows and a second later exploded in front of them.
"This isn't happening. This is not happening." Mikaela was almost screaming. While if given enough time she might have been able to convince herself she couldn't convince Sam. Who at that moment had been involved long before Mikaela herself had become involved.
Sam himself was mumbling a steady mantra of "Go, go, go, go, go." under his breath as the chase continued. However nothing had prepared the two of them for when the car they were in swerved and started heading towards a very solid looking dead end. Both Sam and Mikaela had covered their eyes while Clover had taken refuge in the backseats floorboard in preparation for impact and the crash that was sure to follow.
A moment before impact the car spun a perfect 180 and turned to face the oncoming police car. Sam opened his eyes at the lack of impact and wished that he hadn't.
"Such a bad idea." he said as he watched the cop car come closer firing small missiles the entire way. Much to its credit the car they were in managed to dodge every single one with something that might have been ease. Sam and Mikaela only spared the missiles a glance as one exploded behind them. Police car and Camaro were upon each other now only seconds away from colliding. It was in those final seconds that they swerved and missed each other.
It was impossible to tell if the screams coming from the Camaro's occupants or the sound of squealing tires was louder. The teens screams turned into grunts as the car they were in gave a final turn and dumped them both out of the passenger side door Clover scrambled out of the car after them. Any attempts the teens might have made to get up were killed as the car in front of them mimicked a motion that the cop car had performed earlier.
The yellow Camaro in front of then seemed to shift before parts were moving and changing into a form that was alien to all except for the cop car that was heading their way. Sam and Mikaela crawled backwards as the being in front of them shifted. The robot was still the same shade of bright yellow that the Camaro had been and Sam noticed that it even had the same racing stripes that he had commented on to Clover.
The yellow robot in front of them lunged forward towards the currently transforming cop car. The two collided in midair and hit the ground hard. When they regained their feet the yellow robot moved in front of them. The robot that had been the cop car made no move other than opening a compartment on its body. The compartment wasn't empty.
A much smaller completely silver robot was ejected from the larger bot before it lunged at the robot that had been Sam's Camaro. Neither Sam nor Mikaela had time to watch the brawl that was taking place in front of them because no sooner than the fight had started the little silver robot was making its way towards them. Sam and Mikaela climbed to the feet and started running. Only Mikaela was successful for something was slowing Sam down.
Turning so that he was looking behind him Sam found out why he wasn't getting anywhere. Frenzy had taken hold of his jeans and was trying to pull him backwards.
"Get off!" Sam shouted as he attempted to kick the robot that had a hold of him. His attempt failed but while his kick hadn't worked the Swift that hit the little silver monstrosity did. Falling forward due to the sudden ability to move Sam hit the ground with a grunt. Frenzy however had turned its attention from Sam to Clover who stood not too far away from them a deep growl rumbling in her throat. She was ready for a fight.
"No!" Sam screamed as Frenzy and Clover lunged at each other.
"Adair use Flamethrower." The stream of fire that flared between the Clover and Frenzy was the only thing that stopped them from fighting a full out physical fight. And Sam was quite sure that he could've kissed Mikaela for intervening when she had.
"Thank you." Sam said as he turned to face Mikaela. Mikaela only nodded as she focused on the battle in front of her. Climbing to his feet Sam moved so that he was standing beside her.
"Adair use Flame Wheel." Mikaela ordered. Her Typhlosion was more than happy to oblige. Flames erupted from its back forming a cocoon around it as it charged towards Frenzy. Frenzy tried to doge only to be held in place by Clover's Psychic. Adair's attack hit home and Frenzy screamed in pain as flames licked at his body.
By the time the dual attack had ended Frenzy crashed to the ground his entire frame shaking. The creatures he was fighting now were different than the ones he'd fought before. This battle was harder. Lunging to his feet Frenzy made to attack Adair.
"Use Swift." The counter attack came from two different directions both Clover and Adair launching the same attack at the same time and at the same target. Blades of energy hidden in the form of golden stars continued to slam into his body. It kept him distracted enough that when Mikaela came at him with an electric saw (where she'd gotten it Sam didn't know or care) he didn't even know she was there. There was a sound of metal on metal and a minute later Frenzy's head fell to the ground.
"Not so tuff now are you? You little freak." Mikaela snorted as she hefted the saw over one shoulder. Shaking his head Sam joined Mikaela and the two pokémon that stood beside her. All of them watched Frenzy's head for a moment before it began to move. In a repeat of his failed move Sam aimed a kick at the detached appendage sending the head soaring into the air.
None of them saw where it landed and none of them could bring themselves to care. Sam and Mikaela looked at each other before turning to where the other robots had been fighting. The sounds of battle had stopped and the cop car was fleeing. That meant that it was them, Adair, Clover, and the yellow robot.
"So, what do we do now?" Mikaela asked. Sam didn't have an answer for her.
Considering their current situation it wasn't all that surprising. Neither of them knew what to do as the large yellow robot started their way. The only thing that kelp[ them from running was the fact that neither Clover or Adair seemed to feel threatened by the alien that was coming closer with every step it took. The alien stopped about fifteen feet away from the two teens and their pokémon.
"What is it?" Mikaela asked as he stared at the being in front of them.
"I think its a robot. It's just way more advanced than anything we've made. More advanced than Porygon or Magnemite or Voltorb." Sam said. While there was no actual proof for his theory it was at the time the best thing that he could think of. It also helped that there wasn't anyone around to tell him otherwise. Filled with a sense of wonder Sam took a few steps forward and looked up at the robot. It looked back down at him.
"What are you doing?" Mikaela hissed behind him. It response to Sam's step forward the robot in front of them took a step forward. Sam looked down at Clover for a moment. She wasn't scared of the thing in front of them. That was all that it took to convince Sam that the robot in front of them didn't mean any harm. "He's not gonna hurt us." Mikaela snorted.
"How do you know that huh? Those things just had a giant droid death match." Sam shook his head and turned so that he was looking at Mikaela.
"Because their not scared." Sam nodded to both Adair and Clover. "And it wanted to hurt us it wouldn't have saved us from the monster cop. It'd have let that thing kill us and saved itself the trouble."
Mikaela was looking at Adair who seemed to find it okay to sniff around the area were they were currently standing. He didn't seemed worried at all. Adair's relaxed state didn't mean that Mikaela was going to relax at least not yet. Sam and the robot were still looking at one another.
"So what now?" Mikaela asked her gaze fixed on the machine that stood in front of them.
"I think they want something from me." Sam said. His eyes fixing on the lenses that seemed to be staring back into him. Mikaela huffed.
"What on Earth could you have that they want?" Sam shrugged.
"Don't know. The other one said something about my eBay page when he had me pinned earlier." As much as Mikaela wanted to make sense of Sam's reply she wasn't able to.
"What are you selling batteries or something?"
Sam glanced at her before turning his gaze back towards the alien. "Can you talk? In words that we can understand?" he asked. The robot shook its head. That much at least was understandable as was the radio do's voice that sounded from somewhere within the robots frame.
"XM satellite radio, one hundred and thirty digital channels of nonstop, commercial free, music, news, and entertainment!" Sam blinked. "I think it talks through the radio. Or at least it can use it to try and convey what it means." Sam said to a still staring Mikaela. The robot nodded its head frantically and clapped its hands.
"What were you doing last night?" Sam asked. He didn't quite feel the need to mention his theory about his car, well what he'd thought was a car, being taken for a joy ride by a group of annoying Haunter. It would be better to let the robot explain itself.
"Message from Starfleet, Captain - Throughout the infinite vastness of space - Angels will rain down from heaven! Halleluiah!"
"You were calling someone?" Sam asked. The yellow robot shook its head again.
" 'Visitors from heaven.'" Mikaela cast her gaze upwards. "I don't think that this guys even from our planet. What are you, like, an alien or something?"
The alien nodded and emitted a series of electronic squeals and clicks. Taking a step back the alien folded in upon itself and transformed back into the familiar form of a yellow and black Camaro. The horn was honking urgently.
"I think it wants us to get in the car." Sam said as he took a few steps forward.
"And go where?" Mikaela asked as she eyed Sam. Sam turned around completely and looked at her his eyes serious.
"I don't know but think about it. Fifty years from now when you're looking back at your life, don't you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?" Sam asked as he held out his hand for Mikaela to take.
Adair nudged his trainer forward slightly and Clover sat by the open door. They were all waiting for her to make a decision. One that could change her life forever and wither that change would be good or bad she didn't know. But Sam was willing to take the risk.
"It's not gonna let anything bad happen to us. Trust me Mikaela. We're safe with it." Mikaela watched as Sam climbed into the drivers seat and as Clover claimed her spot in the back. The passenger seat stayed empty waiting for her to join them.
"Adair return." There was a brief flash of red light as Mikaela called Adair back, for he wouldn't fit in the car with them, before she climbed into the passenger seat. The door on her side slammed shut and the cars tires spun as the car lurched forward and speed down the road.
Once they were back in the main part of town the Camaro slowed to the legal limit. Leaning forward in her seat Mikaela reached out with a single hand and ran her fingers over the sun bleached and faded dashboard. It felt just like a real one.
"Hold on." Mikaela found herself addressing the car that she and Sam sat in almost unwillingly but she had a question that was burning to be answered. "If you can take a different shape then why choose this junker? I mean why not something with more style?"
The brakes squealed as the car jerked to a stop and both doors opened and the car tilted sharply in both directions dumping both Sam and Mikaela onto the road. Clover was the only one that landed on her feet. Sam stood and made to brush off his cloths then he remembered that they'd been dirtied by a days worth of work before the whole chase scene and stopped.
"I think you hurt its feelings." Sam said as he watched the car drive away. "Well sorry." Mikaela said her tone slightly annoyed. Apparently she was tired of being dumped onto the ground.
"Eee." Clover cried as her ears perked and she fixed her gaze on a vehicle that was coming in the pairs direction. Two sets of eyes widened at sight of a car that they had only would have been able to afford in their dreams. Said car was coming towards them. While the car's model wasn't immediately recognizable the yellow paint and black racing stripes were. Mikaela smiled as she took a step towards the now stopped car and ran a finger along the shiny hood.
"Now this is a car." Sam offered the vehicle his own appreciative look. It was going to be a pain in the ass though to explain the car's sudden transformation to Miles and his mom. It was however something that would have to wait for it seemed like the car was waiting for them.
The two teens climbed into the car. Clover jumping in after them and reclaiming her seat once again. As soon as the two teens were seated and buckled in the car took off again music blaring from its speakers. Reaching down Mikaela retrieved her purse from the foot well in front of her and tossed it onto the back seat next to Clover. None of them noticed the glowing eyes the peered over the purses rim.
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Poke'mon Teams (pokémon new to this chapter)
Lennox
Steelix - Titan
Luxray - Dixon
Epps
Electivire - Watts
Sam (any preserve pokémon mentioned but not listed only help. Sam dosn't own them)
Pikachu - Sparkplug
Keller
Alakazam
Glen
Snubbull - Pug
Snorlax - Fatso