After successfully escaping Snowpoint City, Shady and his new allies traveled to Stark Mountain to try and convince another rebellion leader to join their cause.
"Who goes there?!" A rebel soldier asked as Angra's boat touched shore. The human pointed a gun threateningly as Shady, Angra and General Talent disembarked.
"We're friends." Shady replied smoothly, trying not to provoke an attack. "We represent an organization with many similar values to your leader Aya. Could we trouble you for a few words?"
"Y-You just want to talk?" The soldier replied in disbelief. "I'll contact the others and see if she's willing to meet with you strangers."
It was not long before Shady and the others were taken into the volcano itself and set before the young leader of the resistance cell: Aya.
"All right, I let ya in here, so what do ya want?" The Torracat asked. "I don't have a lot of time to screw around here."
"Of course, you must be very busy." Shady replied. "My name is Shady and this is Angra and General Talent. We represent another resistance group that shares many of your beliefs. My colleagues and I wanted to know if you'd like to merge your cell into ours."
"Merge into yours? You must be crazy!" Aya replied, "You're more than welcome to join my cell but I'm not joining yours. I haven't even heard of you guys."
"Did you here about the most the NAA's most recent attack on Snowpoint City?" Shady asked.
"The one where both Nate and Grunt got trashed? That's all the other resistance cells are talking about, why?"
"That was us." General Talent cut in bluntly.
"That was you guys?! If you guys can beat back the heaviest hitters in the NAA, what do you need me for?"
"We wish to take the fight back to the NAA." Shady replied, "But we lack the manpower to do that right now. With your help, we can begin to launch our counterattack."
"What you're saying sounds great and all but that's all. It'll never happen, the New Age Alliance is simply too strong now."
"How about a display of what we could be capable of if we worked together?" Angra said. "There is a NAA regiment led by Nate and Grunt coming up from the base in the Battle Frontier to try and take revenge for our display at Snowpoint. Alone, you would not stand a chance against their power, however if you were to align with us, we would be more than willing to lend our assistance in the upcoming battle."
"You led them to us?!" Aya nearly screamed, "What is this, a shakedown?"
"It was never our intention to strong-arm you like this." Shady jumped in, trying to smooth things over. "We need your help for our counterattack and time is of the essence if Angra's plan is to succeed. I beg you to consider our offer once more."
"Hrrr..." Aya growled as she thought about the offer. While she didn't care for the way Angra was forcing her to align with him, there was a NAA strike force closing in, that her small group of fighters couldn't possibly deal with and the prospect of a counterattack against the NAA did sound tempting.
Suddenly the mountain shook as a soldier burst into the room. "Commander, we're under attack! The NAA is at our doorstep!"
"The clock's ticking..." Angra added trying to put even more pressure on the young Torracat.
"Hrrr... Fine! I'll join your little group, just help us repel the NAA!" Aya replied as she raced out of the room to join the ensuing battle.
Once Aya and her new allies reached the battlefield, they were met with exactly what Angra had foretold: a New Age Alliance attack force tearing the small resistance cell apart.
"Looks like the big boys have finally shown up." Nate said as he descended from above to confront his foes from Snowpoint.
Grunt was not far behind and continued, "Yeah, we're not gonna let you get away like you did in Snowpoint!"
"Talent take command of the troops." Angra said calmly. "I will get the rest of our troops form the boat and begin the counterattack. Shady, Aya I'll need you to hold these two off. Can you do that?"
"I'll definitely try..." Shady replied.
"This'll be a piece of cake." Aya replied, cracking her knuckles.
As Angra and General Talent turned to leave, Nate spoke up, "Hey! Don't we get any say in this! We wanted a rematch against you!" he gestured toward Angra.
"Not this time. You're outnumbered here and besides you're still lightyears away from my level." Angra replied before turning to leave. "I'll leave them to you."
As soon as Angra left the room, Shady and Aya jumped to action. Shady took to the air, drawing Nate into battle while Aya charged Grunt's Knight.
"There's not going to be anyone to save you this time!" Nate yelled as he pursued Shady into the sky. "Sonicboom!"
"Powder Snow!" Shady countered to block the oncoming sound wave. "You'll be the one who needs saving once we're through."
"We'll just see about that!" The AK pilot replied before charging his opponent with sword drawn.
The Delibird blocked the attack with an Ice Punch and countered with a Poison Jab, that was blocked by a quick turn of Nate's blade.
As Nate and Shady clashed in the air, Aya and Grunt were engaged in a fierce battle of their own. Aya's initial charge caught Grunt off guard and gave her an advantage for a short while but now the NAA officer had regained his composure and was pushing his enemy back.
"Ya know, I was expecting a better fight out of a resistance cell leader." Grunt said as he fired off another salvo of blaster fire. "You have not lived up to my expectations."
"Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you." Aya replied, countering the blaster shots with a powerful Flamethrower. "I think you've gone soft since Devon fell."
"Soft eh? How about you tell me how soft I've gotten after meeting the business end of my chest cannon!" Grunt replied before opening a compartment on the chest of his Knight housing a high power blaster cannon. "Fire!"
Realizing her error in provoking Grunt, Aya was able to narrowly dodge the attack and quickly began running up the volcano toward the nearest source of cover.
"Ya had enough yet?" Grunt cried as he chased the young Torracat up the mountain, pressing his advantage with more blaster fire from his sidearms. "You must be the one going soft if you're running away from a fight."
"I'm not soft, I'm just not stupid either!" Aya replied as she narrowly dodged another one of Grunt's attacks. "But something tells me I'm gonna have to be a little stupid if I'm gonna win this fight." After a second of gathering power, Aya began running straight for Grunt encloaked in flames. "Flame Charge!"
"If you're goin' for stupid then you're doin' it right." Grunt replied as he charged his chest cannon to fire again. "One shot from this baby and you'll be toast. Chest Cannon Fire!"
The energy blast rocketed forth from Grunt's machine toward its target, but just as it was about to make contact, Aya sidestepped the blast and continued her charge.
"That right there is your biggest weakness Grunt." Aya said as she hit her target. She quickly readied another Flame Charge and attacked again. "You may be strong in ranged combat, but once someone gets right up in your face, you're defenseless."
"You don't think I know that!?" Grunt replied after Aya's second Flame Charge struck his machine. "I have my methods of Close Quarter Combat."
As Aya launched toward Grunt once more with her Flame Charge, Grunt lowered his blasters and fired into the ground, launching a cloud of dust into the air. With her speed enhanced by Flame Charge, Aya was unable to stop and instead flew right through the dust cloud without hitting her target.
"Wha-" The Torracat began before being hit directly in the back by a shot from one of Grunt's sidearms.
"You're not the first person who's tried to exploit that weakness." Grunt said. "What else do ya got? I can take whatever you throw at me."
I don't think I have a choice but to use that. Aya thought as she slowly picked herself up off the ground. "I still have plenty more left in store for you."
"Then show me what you got!" Grunt cried before raising his blasters and firing. Her speed enhanced by the multiple uses of Flame Charge, Aya was now able to use Shadow Claw to deflect most of Grunt's attacks with only an errant shot or two breaking through her guard.
Despite Aya's boasts of unused tactics, Grunt continued to push her backwards up the volcano. It wasn't long before the two had reached the peak. Now covered in a multitude of cuts and bruises, Aya stood defiantly at the volcano's edge as lava bubbled fiercely behind her. Grunt, on the other hand, looked none the worse for wear. Other than a couple of scorch marks on his Knight's frame, there was little evidence that he had even been fighting.
"Looks like this is the end of the road." Grunt said, charging his chest cannon for another shot. "Nothing personal, just trying to preserve the peace."
"What kind of lasting peace is created through violence?" Aya countered. "The New Age Alliance is just the Devon Corporation with a new name and face."
"We're nothing like them!" Grunt replied, "They manipulated the world for years to make profits for themselves without regard to anyone else's well-being. We're trying to establish peace so that everyone can benefit."
"And yet you're manipulating the world just like they did to achieve that goal." The Torracat smirked.
"I've had just about enough of you. Chest Cannon Fire!" Grunt yelled as a concentrated blast of energy was released toward Aya.
"I'm only going to get one shot at this..." She mumbled before crying. "Blaze Flare Blitz!"
Utilizing all of the damage she had taken, Aya activated Blaze to increase the power of her Flare Blitz and charged headfirst into the cannon shot. The raw power of Flare Blitz in addition to the power of Blaze proved to be just enough to protect Aya as the energy from Grunt's shot arced around her fiery aura and into the volcano itself. Taken aback by the practically suicidal move, Grunt was unable to react in time and took major damage from the attack as his chest cannon exploded on impact.
Exhausted from the attack, Aya collapsed gasping for air as soon as her attack was completed. Even though the Flare Blitz had nearly depleted her energy, Aya had known since her failed Flame Charge earlier in the match that a supercharged Flare Blitz was the only thing that could tip the scales. Just as she had hoped, the tide of battle had turned. Grunt was now cornered against the volcano with heavy damage to his machine. As he turned to face his adversary, errant sparks began to fly from both his chest cannon and one of his legs.
"You'll pay for that!" Grunt cried angrily. A small stream of lava burst forth from the volcano to seemingly accentuate his point. Raising his sidearms, he firing angrily and repeatedly at his battered and defenseless foe as the lava bursting forth from the volcano continued to rise in intensity.
Rolling on the ground at Grunt's mercy, Aya was the first to piece together what was happening. Grunt's blast has set off a chain reaction in the mountain. The volcano's gonna blow!
The flames continued to rise as Aya called out to her troops their contingency plan. "Everyone! Operation Mustafar! Mustafar!"
"What gibberish are you yelling about?" Grunt asked, having calmed down slightly. "You've lost."
"Not quite..." The Torracat replied. "It seems Mother Nature doesn't want us to lose."
Another burst of lava was all it took for Grunt to put the pieces together. He quickly pulled out a communicator and yelled, "Stark Mountain's gonna erupt! Everyone disengage and retreat!"
"You're too late." Aya replied. "My forces have already begun taking cover in the mountain. There's no way you'll escape the blast radius." She chuckled before continuing. "I'll be fine since I'm a fire type but you might be in trouble. So what's it gonna be big man?"
"Grrrr..." Grunt growled before turning away and accelerating down the mountain in an attempt to escape the incoming eruption. It only took a moment for Grunt to realize that the damage to his machine had slowed its top speed, putting him in a tough spot. Pulling out his communicator once more he called his only hope for survival: Nate.
"Dude. My Knight is badly damaged, can you come get me?"
"I'll do what I can but that Delibird lured me pretty far away. Hold tight for a bit and I'll be there soon."
Nearly immediately after the communication ended, the volcano erupted.
By the time Nate arrived back at the mountain, lava was already flowing down the sides. Realizing the severity of the situation, the AK pilot began flying frantically about searching for his longtime comrade in arms.
"Grunt! Where are you?!" Nate nearly yelled into his communicator only to receive static as a reply. "Darn. His machine must be in really bad shape. I've gotta hurry!"
It took another five minutes for Nate to finally locate his friend's Knight from the air as Stark Mountain continued to erupt nearby. Descending to try and save his friend, the AK pilot was able to assess the damage to his friend's machine. Besides the visible damage to the chest cannon, the heat from the lava had begun to melt the machine's outer frame, frying a large portion of the Knight's circuitry. If not for the Knight's extra insulation around the cockpit, Grunt surely would have perished.
"The machine's a goner." Nate mumbled. "He isn't going to be happy about this..."
Pulling out his sword and starting its vibration, Nate slashed into the Knight's frame reaching the cockpit in a single slice. Inside, passed out from the heat was Grunt. Quickly scooping up his friend, Nate took to the air and began his escape of Stark Mountain, another battle which had ended in defeat
"This is Commander Nate." He said pulling out his communicator. "What is the status of our forces?"
A voice quickly responded, "We got out of their as fast as we could but a lot of our machine have either sustained damage or have been rendered unusable. To add onto that, no one has seen Commander Grunt since the retreat."
"I have him with me. He's passed out and probably dehydrated but alive."
"That's a relief to hear sir." The soldier responded. "What are our orders?"
"Retreat back to our base in the Battle Frontier." Nate ordered. "We'll regroup there and launch another attack soon."
After the volcano stopped erupting, resistance forces scoured the battlefield and soon found their commander Aya near Stark Mountain's peak. While she did have a few nasty burns, the Torracat was otherwise unharmed and resumed her duties as Commander immediately.
"See what we're capable of when we work together?" Angra said smugly as he, Shady and General Talent reported in to Aya's commander center.
"We do make a powerful team." Shady added. "Perhaps you would reconsider our offer of joining our crusade against the NAA."
"We did win but that was only because Stark Mountain erupted." Aya replied. "The victory here today was pure luck and nothing more."
"That doesn't change the fact that a victory is a victory." Talent said.
"Talent has the right idea." Angra said, patting his comrade on the back. "Rather than dwelling on what ifs, we should rejoice in what we have accomplished here instead: A successful defense against the New Age Alliance."
"They'll just come back stronger ya know." Aya replied. "They'll just come back with more machines and more soldiers and steamroll us."
"Not if we can strike them while they're down..." Shady said, a knowing grin on his face.
"My forces here barely held their own against the Alliance forces and I'm not at full strength. How do we attack the Alliance in this state?"
"Leave that to me." Dusknoir replied. "The wheels have already been put into motion. Soon our real counterattack will begin."
AN: Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed the new chapter: Action filled and a long one to boot! A big thanks to PsychicEevee0103 for the submission of Aya (Sorry it took me so long to get her chapter written!).
On the topic of OC submissions, the submission slot I mentioned last chapter is still open! Feel free to pm me if you want your character to be seen in Pokemon New Age. Your character would be appearing very soon. If no one wants to submit, that is fine as well. If no characters are submitted, I will create one of my own so that the story can progress.
Will Grunt be OK? What plans has Angra set into motion? Is anyone capable of beating back this growing menace? Find out next time in Pokemon New Age: Uprising!
