Sorry for the waiting times, I'm pretty busy this time of year (sigh). ANYWAY enjoy!

Chapter VI: Cold Tension

July 13, 2061, 9:04 a.m.

"What a mission this'll be, eh, Shadow?" Darrel said to Shadow at his side, walking towards the platform. "You're finally going to see what its like to take an entire city. Anxious?" Shadow kept looking straight ahead, as if he didn't hear the question. He rolled his eyes away from Darrel and shrugged. Honestly, Shadow didn't really have any type of anxiety about this. He rarely did, after all.

"Sure, why not." He replied in a voice that said, 'Whatever'. Darrel frowned at this response. "Why are you always kind of, well, depressing? Just emotionless sometimes?" Shadow glared back at him. "It's not being emotionless, it's being quiet and doing what you're supposed to be doing. If I bring people down, it's because I'm trying not to act like an idiot all the time." Darrel glared back at Shadow, who still glared, arms crossed. Darrel crossed his own arms and sighed, looking down. How did I get on this pikachu's team again?

The door in front of them slid open automatically as they entered the platform. Several large helicopters lined up in rows surrounded by grunts and pokemon were being prepared for takeoff. Shadow looked to his left as a familiar scent passed his nose. Light. He thought, seeing the raichu standing near the helicopter he and Darrel were supposed to be going in. Each one was a UH-60, laser turrets mounted on the sides of their black hulls. They all looked like they could carry around six average sized humans, and their sides appeared decently armored for this operation.

"Look, there's the captain. We need to get the targets so we know where WE are hitting." Darrel spoke, turning to walk to the captain, with Shadow looking back at him. Shadow turned his head back forward, and walked towards the helicopter that Light was standing at. As e approached he saw her ear twitch towards him, and she looked up. When she saw him she blinked twice before she looked back down, with an audible breath. He noticed that she appeared to have dark circles under her eyes and that her lightning-bolt tail lay limply by her side.

(So you're back, Light.) Shadow said in a matter-of-factly tone. Light raised her tired eyes towards him for a second or two, and then lowered them again. Shadow studied her for a moment, noticing that she had inaudibly mouthed a reply. (Speak up, Light. I can't hear anything that you're saying.) She turned her head away from him and muttered the same, near-silent phrase, though this time Shadow could hear her say, 'Can we just go.' Shadow scratched behind his left ear. (Okay then…we're going to be departing for the target soon, so get on the helicopter.) Light soundlessly turned and leaped into the helicopter, and she sat down, staring downwards. Shadow stared at her, a little shocked at her change of attitude since the time she was gone.

Was what was done to her what Darrel had told him about? Whatever the punishment was, it definitely seemed to have given Light a reason to stay silent. Curious, he jumped into the helicopter next to her.

(Is there a reason you're being so quiet?) He asked her. Light slowly lifted her head at him, eyes that Shadow now noticed were bloodshot locked onto him. (You.) She said with a certain stinging in her voice. Shadow narrowed his eyes. (You were the one who attacked your own team, so the punishment you received was justified.) (Punishment for what, passing out because I was fighting someone even you couldn't beat? I never attacked you or Darrel.) Shadow clenched his fist at his side; small sparks starting to emerge from it. (How do you still have the gall to lie like that? You know what you did, you couldn't have just forgotten that and replaced it with some memory of you passing out. You're lucky I don't punch a hole through your head right now.)

Shadow turned and jumped off the helicopter, but heard Light say, (You don't think of anyone but yourself, do you?) Shadow visibly twitched from hearing this, his left ear sliding sideways.

(I think of this organization, that's what. If you can't handle simple punishment, then you can't be here. What was the punishment anyway?) As he turned he could actually see a tear drop from Light's eye. He blinked twice, not realizing the severity of what this meant by the punishment until Light said…

(The first machine was used to try to get me to submit to dark energy… the second machine they used on me…they used it to…punish me…by violating me.)

Shadow stood for a couple seconds analyzing this before he flinched, eyes wide as his jaw dropped. Light used her arm to wipe away the tear before she bounded off the helicopter and ran past Shadow.

That's…absurd…they couldn't have..

Shadow turned and watched Light run past Darrel and out of the hanger, tears trailing after her. Darrel called for her, and jogged a bit after her until he reached the door. He clenched his fists and turned his head to where Shadow was standing and glared daggers. Many in hanger had turned their attention to the ordeal and began talking amongst themselves about it. "Monster." Darrel openly said towards Shadow, as he walked back towards the man he was speaking with, slowly turning his gaze back to him.

Used…the second machine..

Shadow gulped as he climbed on the helicopter and put his paw on his forehead, sitting in a state of disbelief.

To…rape her…

"ATTENTION. ALL MEMBERS LEAVING FOR THE MISSION, BOARD YOUR HELICOPTERS AT THIS TIME. WE WILL DISEMBARK IN 3 MINUTES. THAT IS ALL."

Shadow lifted his head as he heard this and stood up. "Finally, we're going somewhere!" A rocket grunt said as he and another, female grunt who had long orange hair climbed into the helicopter, followed by a golduck sporting a bandage rapped around its left arm. "Is that everyone? Who are we missing?" The pilot called back to them through the helicopter's intercom. "We're missing Darrel and…uh.." The male grunt replied, obviously not knowing. "Light. We're missing Light, too." Shadow stated, causing the female grunt to abruptly look down at him. "So you're Shadow, I assume?" She said with a hint of anxiety. "Yes I am…Oh, there's Darrel." He said, pointing towards the man with Light walking close behind, her head still low. Shadow sighed. Well, everyone's here.

Just as Darrel stepped up into the helicopter, Light leaping in behind him, the rotor on the helicopter began to spin. "We're going, so take a seat in the back." Darrel said to Light. "Hmm. I'd like a little nap in the back too. C'mon, golduck." The orange-haired woman said, opening the back hatch to step into the back, followed by the golduck and Light, silent. The other grunt sighed. "Why is it that women always hate to be around guys like us? I will never understand ANY species of woman." Shadow emptily chuckled a little by the hatch door as they began to lift up into the sky. "You know, that golduck was a male." He said with false amusement, to which the grunt groaned. "Shut up, you know what I mean." Shadow rolled his eyes at this comment as Darrel cleared his throat. "Okay, so we know what we're supposed to do, right?" Shadow looked up at him and nodded. "We're supposed to land near the southeast edge of town to support the guys coming in directly from the south. We create havoc amongst the Kanto army ranks, and watch for that elite that intel said was going to be fighting there too." Darrel gave a stone face at Shadow, clenching his fist. "So…have been enjoying messing with Light? Enjoying making her cry, Shadow?"

Shadow's gaze shot at Darrel where they locked eyes. Shadow's ears straightened outward and his lightning-bolt tail twitched a little, with which Darrel replied by creasing his brow. "Darrel, why are constantly siding with her? I know what they did to her for 'punishment' was absolutely wrong, I'll side with her on that, but why is it that you are always siding with her?" Darrel scoffed at this and pointed at Shadow threateningly. "I side with her because she actually has a sense of feelings, unlike you. YOU don't try to make people feel better, YOU just screw our team by saying how it could be everyone else's fault but your own. Me and Light work hard on this team just as you do, and just 'cause you're the most powerful one of us doesn't mean that we don't have feelings." Darrel lowered his pointed finger, showing his clenched teeth. "It's all just about you, isn't it…ISN'T IT?!"

Shadow felt his fist shaking, feeling the urge to electrify the living hell out of Darrel. He sat down to try and calm himself. He looked up at Darrel's face. "Allow me this question…" He said, getting back up, his head lowered. Darrel raised an eyebrow on his cold face. "What?" Shadow looked back up, squinting his eyes at Darrel. "…Why do you hate me?" Darrel opened his mouth as if to reply, but no sound came out. All that could be heard was the helicopter rotor rapidly slicing through the air along with the other grunt's sighing. Darrel stood silent, seething under the silhouette of his cap as Shadow rolled up into a ball, himself cringing with anger.

"Shadow, get ready. We're here."

Shadow lifted up his head to look into the face of the grunt. He got up slowly and noticed that the others weren't out yet. He looked to the back hatch, noticing it was cracked open. "I'll get the others out of the back. You and…Darrel get ready to get off." Shadow stated, trying to keep Darrel out of his vision s he walked up towards the hatch. He opened the hatch wider to see the orange-haired woman sitting there, staring out the window with the golduck at her side and Light on the other side of the small space sleeping. "So we're about to land I assume?" The woman spoke, standing up. "Yeah. C'mon, you have to get to a gunning position so the enemy on the ground doesn't shoot us out of the sky." The woman motioned for the golduck, which stood up and followed the woman out as Shadow stepped towards Light on the seat. (Light, wake up.) He said flatly, shaking her by her shoulder. She blinked rapidly, bloodshot eyes representing her tiredness while a small amount of electricity discharged from her yellow cheeks before she stretched her hind legs back. (Okay, I'm…going…) she said weakly, sliding down off the seat and walking out of the small room. As Shadow began following her out the room he could begin to hear the sounds of lasers being fired from the guns on the sides of the helicopter, along with the sounds of lasers zooming past. "This is it, guys. Get ready to land." Darrel yelled over the roaring of his laser machine gun. Shadow looked out the side of the helicopter to see several flying type pokemon soaring through the air, some with humans on their backs, launching varying attacks at each other. Shadow saw a dragonite fly up from underneath a helicopter and unearth a battle cry as it fired a Dragon Pulse attack from deep in its throat, ripping through the side doors on the helicopter and causing it to explode into two pieces, both of which plummeted to the ground, leaving a trail of smoke in their wakes as the dragonite flew towards their helicopter. (You're mine!) Shadow cried out as he got into a stance from which he could properly launch electricity at it. However before he did this he heard the grunt behind him cry out in pain. Shadow looked back to see the woman kick the grunt out of the helicopter, a trail of blood and water spraying out as her golduck began assaulting the pilot. "What the hell are you doing?!" Shadow yelled, enraged by their apparent betrayal. "Don't be so angry…we were never on your side in the first place!" She said, raising her hand to reveal she had a large shuriken in it that appeared to be made of ice. She dashed past Darrel into the cockpit, the golduck zooming out and jumping off onto the passing dragonite, which dove under the helicopter and a second later the whole front of the helicopter exploded in a blast of fire and some water. "Jump!" Darrel cried out. Shadow saw Darrel ditch out of the side of the helicopter as it now began to spin down into a spray of laser fire coming from the ground. "You aren't leaving so quickly!" The woman said, diving out after Darrel. Shadow saw Light run to him, an alarmed look on her face. (Shadow, we have to jump!) (Damn it, I know! Grab my paw!) Light gripped onto Shadow's left paw as he saw them getting closer and closer to the ground. (Jump!)

Shadow felt Light's grip on his paw grow tighter as they fell, the damaged helicopter above them faling past and into a sprawl of laser fire before exploding into several shards of shrapnel. (Brace yourself!) Shadow cried out as they neared a tree directly below them.

Shadow was barely able to grab hold of a branch on the tree, though the branch nearly snapped from the combined weight of both of them plus the force of the fall. (Shadow, are you okay?) Light asked softly below him, still holding onto his paw. (I'm fine, let go.) Light promptly dropped down and landed softly, Shadow dropping down beside her. (We have to find that woman. She may be the elite that they were talking about. Let's move.) Shadow began running towards where he believed he saw Darrel drop to, with Light following close behind.

"I should've known you and that golduck were fakes!" Darrel said as he barely dodged another slash of the woman's ice shuriken. "But you didn't know, which is what I was aiming for, Rocket scum!" She drew both of her hands back, an ice shuriken in each before she tossed both of them at Darrel, like two large saws. "Dodge those!" she yelled as she ran towards Darrel, who managed to leap over both buzzing shuriken. "Ggh!" He grunted as the woman kicked at him, to which he barely blocked with his arms. She used his arms as a board to bound off of, then as she landed about twenty yards back she raised her arm towards him as if trying to pick something up, and a surge of water struck out like a pillar towards Darrel. Darrel grabbed at the electro-saber at his belt and flipped it into his hand, activating it and cutting into the pillar, as it got close enough. The electricity in the saber caused the water to explode out into a harmless rain, pelting Darrel with several droplets.

"Heh, not bad, for a Rocket. Tell me…" The woman said, throwing her hands out to her sides as water spun into disk in her palms. "…Exactly how powerful is that pikachu, Shadow?" As she said this both disks froze into ice shuriken, which she began to spin rapidly. "I'd rather not tell you…how about you see for yourself?" Darrel replied with a smirk. The woman's eyes widened before she leaped high out of the way as to crooked beams of electricity shot out from the trees nearby and hit hard at where she was just standing. She looked up towards Darrel again, who now had Shadow and Light standing in front of him, both coursing electricity.

Darrel gave a fake laugh behind them, sighing at the end. "Good to see you Light…and Shadow." Shadow looked back at him with an arm out towards the woman. "Stay back, Darrel. I don't want to have you in the way. Beside, you're probably needed by the drop off point." Darrel nodded at this and ran away, brandishing his saber as Shadow watched him go. (You better not attack me this time…ready?) He said calmly as he looked back towards the woman. (But…Ready.) Light sighed, getting on all fours. The woman stood firm in front of them, getting low with her shuriken out. "Since Ash told us about you I've been wanting to see you in combat myself. Let's see…" She looked up into the sky, noticing that it was partially cloudy overhead, plus of coarse lasers that randomly fired everywhere from the battles that were already going on throughout the city. "Ah, I know! To start with you both…Hail!" She yelled, tossing one shuriken high into the sky and into a cloud. Shadow looked up to see the cloud swell in size before several, glittering shards of ice began raining down on him and Light. (Light, move!) Shadow and Light dashed from their positions as the ice shards stabbed into the ground where they just were before melting into water. "Thundersphere!" He put one rear paw back as he threw back both front paws to his right, sparking. A yellowish-blue sphere that crackled with energy formed between the paws. "Ha!" He yelled as he threw his paws forward, sending the sphere hurling at the woman at high speed. The woman quickly dodged the attack with a leap to her left, but she was immediately blind-sided by Light, who had used Quick Attack right when Shadow had unleashed his attack. "Gah!" The woman cried out from the force of the hit Light gave her as she dashed past. Light changed coarse and ran back full speed back at the woman, this time turning the attack into Volt Tackle by charging electricity all over herself. (Take this!) Light yelled as she made contact with the woman. Light felt herself actually push through the woman, some parts of the woman's chest actually getting blasted off.

Shadow eyed the woman in curiosity until he saw the woman's body splash down into a puddle of water. Shadow went wide eyed before looking up into the sky, noticing the woman coming down at him with a massive beam of water behind her, with one of her icy shuriken in it. "Water Pulse!" She yelled at them before forcing down the shuriken, causing it to bare down on Shadow much faster than before. As it was about forty feet from Shadow a streak of lightning flashed from the edge of Shadow's vision towards the attack, and as it collided with it the shuriken appeared to shatter into shards as the water rained down upon them harmlessly. Light stood several yards away, arms outstretched to where the Water Pulse attack was.

"Well, you two are definitely no fun…Ice Edge!" The woman landed and jammed her remaining shuriken into the ground. Several large, jagged spikes of ice shot up from the ground, heading towards Shadow and Light. Shadow put one paw back before leaping forward onto all fours, the spikes following him like they had a mind of their own. Light ran up next to him, a row of spikes coming after her as well. (I have a plan. Listen close.) Shadow said to Light. He whispered several things to her as they neared the woman, Light nodding after the last detail. Shadow looked towards where the woman was crouched, shuriken still in the ground. She eyed them curiously before she realized that they, along with her spike attack, were coming towards her. "Nice try!" she called out, ripping her shuriken from the ground. Shadow stopped hearing the ice shooting up behind him, and split up from Light. (Use Thunderbolt!) He yelled to Light before his tail began glowing. Light leaped high over the woman's head, crossing her arms like an 'X' over her chest. (Thunderbolt!) She bellowed, shooting several jagged streams of electricity at the woman, erratically moving at high speed. The woman back-flipped away from each small blast point that the electricity hit, and she was barely able to spin around quickly enough to use her remaining ice shuriken to block an oncoming Iron Tail attack by Shadow. Throw off by his tail's deflection, Shadow leaped back at the woman, unleashing more swings with his tail with precision, but all hits were being deflected.

I hope I've learned this correctly.

"Ya!" The woman cried out, pushing Shadow far backwards with the flat side of her ice shuriken, which was now beginning to crack. She then quickly regenerated another ice shuriken in her other hand as she saw both Shadow and Light running at her from both directions, using Volt Tackle. "Ice Walls!" She called out quickly, throwing both shuriken-holding hands to her sides, where as she spun her shuriken walls of ice shot up at her sides. She saw Light slide to a stop on her side and run off but saw Shadow leap to an exposed side with his right paw drawn back. "If you know Ash…Tell him thanks for demonstrating this attack to me during our battle…"

"Demonstrating? Demonstrating what?" Shadow smirked at her. "This…Lightning Blade!" His brow creased as he concentrated, and, feeling the energy flowing into the right place, he threw his arm back, a newly formed rod of pure electricity zapping at his side. The woman's eyes went wide and she immediately swung her right arm forward, throwing an ice shuriken, a trail of mist in its wake. Shadow brought the blade in front of him and slashed forward as the shuriken came into range, splitting the shuriken into two pieces, which flew off to his sides, melting as they hit the ground. "ExtremeSpeed!" He yelled, firing off from his position, blade behind him in a position to slash through the woman. "Fine by me. Mega Ice Shuriken!" She slammed her ice shuriken together over her head, seemingly melting together before forming one, massive ice shuriken that appeared to be around five feet wide. She immediately brought it in front of her and began spinning it like a propeller in front of her just as Shadow brought his blade sideways in front of himself to slash…

The young man wiped off sweat from his brow as he looked over his work on the laptop. His light-brown hair was damp and his glare on his glasses barely obscured his sore eyes. He reclined on his chair, staring at the ceiling. Xepher sighed.

Well, typing the report on that nightmare of an experiment is done.

Xepher looked back to his laptop and shrugged, many thoughts roaring through his mind.

What the hell is Namba thinking, doing that to Light? First the damn dark energy beam…we could've killed her with that…He shivered for a second from the idea of the second thought.

And then the use of that other machine, just because she successfully rejected the energy…She'll carry a mental scar like that for years…

He saved his report onto a flash drive, pocketing it and after fighting the feeling to, he covered his face with his right hand in frustration…

Just another mistake I've made. I'm sorry…both of you…

Shadow stood several yards behind the woman, arms stretched forwards with the Lightning Blade pointing outwards. His teeth were clenched from the pain…the attack didn't turn out exactly like he had in mind. He turned back towards the woman, standing with her ice shuriken now motionless in front of her, a bloodstain smeared on its left point…

Not exactly like I had intended…

But I still got her.

The woman suddenly dropped the ice shuriken to the ground and kneeled, covering her chest where a cut bled slowly. The woman grabbed the shuriken and rose again slowly, trying to maintain a balance. She turned towards Shadow and smirked at him. "Not…bad, Shadow. An impressive duplication of…Lightning Blade." She grasped the shuriken in both hands in front of her, just before it reformed back into her normal two shuriken. Shadow felt a twinge in his right paw as his electricity blade shot back into his arm. "Heh…" Shadow said, breathing heavy and smirking back. (Light, now.)

Light dove fast off a five-story building, speed increasing each second as the electricity surrounding her body made her look like a rather large bolt of lightning closed on the woman each second. Light brought her paw back into a fist as she neared the woman, who looked up just when Light was around twenty feet above her and crossed her shuriken above herself…

Shadow stood firm as he saw Light crash down, unleashing a deafening sound like a clash of thunder next to his ears along with a large electrical explosion and ice flying everywhere. Shadow felt the small discomfort of some small shards piercing the skin underneath his yellow fur. As dust cleared around the spot where the attack collided he frowned.

Almost.

Light jumped off a basin in the center of the ice she was standing on and landed five yards away, cradling a bloody fist. (My…paw…) She stepped back a couple feet; taking in the full sight of the thick dome of ice the woman had covered herself in. On the inside of it the woman dropped her arms down, causing the dome to instantly melt into a large puddle.

"Thunderbolt!" Shadow called out as soon as he saw the dome melt. Electricity shot out from his body towards the soaking-wet woman, who had no time to react…

"AAUGH!" She screamed as her body was instantly covered in the embrace of thousands of volts of electricity, super conducted by the water that was already on her body. Shadow saw the woman's eyes roll up and stopped. The woman's body let go of her twin ice shuriken, which both shattered as she too hit the ground. Shadow began walking over to the spot and was about ten yards away when he saw part of her body seem to turn transparent. "What the fuck…" He said, speechless, as the woman's entire body seemed to turn transparent in front of him before splashing down into a puddle of water. He stepped back out of shock before turning towards Light, who was now sitting down and holding her paw. Shadow ran up to her. (Augh…I think it's broken…) Light said to Shadow, who nodded. (Go find a medic somewhere. I saw that we had already taken the south when we were flying over the town, so head there. I'll be fighting those Kanto soldiers at the mission point.) Light lowered her head. (Right.) She turned and began walking away, small droplets of her blood dripping to the ground every few seconds. Shadow began to walk away, but stopped and looked down, sighing. (Light, wait.)

He turned around, Light doing the same. (Yes?) She asked, frowning. Shadow crossed his arms and closed his eyes, dropping his head. (I…I'm sorry. For what's happened recently. I shouldn't have exploded on you like how I did before. What I did was fucked up and you were already going for that…punishment… Can you…) He took a deep breath, defying his pride. (…Can you forgive me?) Shadow looked up as he said this, noticing a sparkle in Light's eyes.

(Apology…accepted, Shadow…Thank you.)

Light turned and began walking away again, which left Shadow to do the same, running through a street towards where he heard the sounds of battle…

The puddle that remained of the woman stayed still, reflecting the sun and the lasers that zoomed overhead, along with some flying-type pokemon. Suddenly the puddle began to shiver, not from wind but from it's own force. The water extended upwards, creating four legs, then a blue torso, then finally a finned head and a rear fin-tail. The vaporeon looked around before running into the city, towards where the Kanto-occupied area was. It silently ran towards its destination, contented.

Ash was right…It looks like Shadow is pretty interesting. Either that…

or my name isn't Misty.