Chapter 11 has arrived. It's a short one I'm afraid, but the next chapter should be much longer. I really wanted to get this up before I go on holiday.

Storm's troops had mobilised quickly and left through a chasm which passed through the center of Pyrite. It was a good thing that it was early morning and everyone was too intoxicated to care or asleep, otherwise people may have gone to investigate a mass number of bird nests in the Under.

Meanwhile, Xiphos' troops, Aureola's guardians and the three musketeers (Cobalion, Virizion and Terrakion), as well as Growlithe and Airina, were racing down the tunnel that led out to the place where Hydrote had once stood. The tunnel was much more well lit, due to the number of lamps and fire-types. Growlithe had noticed that the rickety bridge had been replaced by a much safer iron bridge. "Forst works fast," was all he said on the matter.

Once they had emerged from the tunnel, they were required to trek a far distance through the thick grass of the plains. They moved as quickly as they could. Few words were spoken by any of them throughout the journey. They prayed to Arceus that Storm's troops could survive long enough for them to get to Agate.

Stephanie sat in her chair on the bridge of her battleship; 'the Scar'. The ship was the largest in the fleet that she commanded. It was painted black and had a blue stripe around the hull. The bridge was a large building at the back of the ship. The command centre was located at the top of the bridge complete with a large window providing a view outside. Below, many peons milled about on the deck. The deck, itself was pretty bare, but below deck, large swivelling turrets stuck out of the hull. Their ammo was also located in the same room. Underneath that room, the engine room was located. The engine provided power to the thrusters at the bottom of the ship, which kept it in the air.

The command center was a room painted, mostly white. Stephanie's chair was located at the back of the room on an elevated platform. In front of her, two semi-circular rows of control panels were monitored by Cipher peons. A steering wheel was visible on one of the inner ring control panels.

The other ships in the fleet were similarly decorated, however, they all had Cipher's insignia on them. Stephanie had refused to have the insignia on her ship. She hated it. She hated Cipher, but there wasn't much she could do about it. Not since her mother was in charge. Sometimes she missed her father. Not often, but sometimes.

"Captain Stephanie," a voice interrupted her train of thought. It was a peon. He was young. Had she been normal, Stephanie might have been attracted to him. "We should be arriving at Agate within two hours."

"Good," Stephanie replied, "have all the troops be ready in one hour." She looked over at her second in command, Odan. Odan was not who she would choose as a vice captain. She was stuck with the grumpy old man because, her mother thought she needed babysitting. She was eighteen, she did not need a babysitter.

She sighed and pulled out her phone. She went onto her music and selected a MU2 album. She put her ear phones in and quickly nodded off to sleep.

Storm's forces arrived in Agate village within an hour of leaving Pyrite. Storm separated his forces into five groups. Four flew off to patrol the areas around Agate in the four compass directions. This was because, they had no idea which direction Cipher would come from. Each group had a pokemon capable of teleporting, to insure easy communication.

The fifth group stayed in Agate. It was only a small group, headed by Storm himself. The village was set into a small green hill. Grassy pathways led up the hill and around cottages, adorned with flowers. At the bottom of the village, a stream-shooting off from the nearby river-flowed out of a cave. Through the cave and on the other side of the village, the relic stone stood; a pillar of circular stones, piled up on top of each other, surrounded by a circular trench, filled with still water. The relic stone was on a circular base of stone bricks. Embedded in the middle of the relic stone was a stone plate. Text was written on the stone plate; 'Time heals all wounds, play the notes of mending and your heart will be purified.'

At the very top of the hill, a large tree grew. A house was built into the base of the tree. This house belonged to the village elder; 'Eagun'. Eagun had long, grey hair and a beard, nearly as long. He wore light grey and purple robes, a tradition for the elder of Agate village. Eagun had been sitting on his sofa, reading a detective novel. His wife, Beluh was upstairs. Eagun could hear a record playing upstairs. His Pikachu was fast asleep, beside him.

There was a knock at the door. Eagun put down his book and went to the door. His Pikachu roused and joined him. When he opened the door, he was shocked to see about ten flying types on the doorstep. The lead pokemon-well, he assumed so because, it was in front and wore some aviator goggles on it's head-spoke to him. Pikachu translated the words via their psychic connection.

"Pleased to meet you, my good man," the Braviary said, "my name is Storm. I am the commander of the flying forces of the group known as 'the Resistance'. I am here because we have received word of team Cipher planning an attack on the relic forest in an attempt to make purification, impossible."

Eagun, at first, had been stunned, however, when he heard the name, 'Cipher', he snapped out of it. "Pleased to meet you," he said, "it's too bad that this is not a good time for us to meet." He put out a hand in greeting. Storm took the hand in one wing and shook it. He wasn't keen on human contact, but he could see that this man was no threat to him. "We must thank you for coming to help us, even if it is more for the relic stone than our village."

"You're very welcome, old chap," Storm replied, "Our plan is for my flying forces to distract Cipher's goons long enough that our ground forces can arrive and set up enough defence in relic forest to frighten them off."

"Not to be rude," Eagun said, "but what if Cipher are not frightened by your troops?"

"Well, sir," the Braviary replied, "if they are not scared, we will defeat them with superior numbers and quality of troops. I fought many a battle in my home region of Albion."

"Ah, Albion," Eagun said, "I heard that it is presently under the control of a rich man who spends the majority of his time raising taxes and spending the money from the taxes."

"Some would say it's better than a fat, depressing man," Storm said, thoughtfully, "not me though. Our system is much worse than other regions."

"Anyway," Eagun concluded, "I wish you the best of luck in the upcoming battle. I will inform the villagers of the impending crisis." He closed the door and Storm turned around, leading his troops towards the relic stone.

Half an hour after this confrontation, Storm received contact from the group in the north. "We have spotted ships on the horizon," the messenger, a Sigilyph said.

"Contact the other groups and prepare for battle," Storm commanded. The Sigilyph attempted a salute, then teleported away. Storm gathered his own group and flew off towards the north.

Stephanie was awakened by Odan, shaking her arm. She took out her earphones so that she could hear him. "Ma'am, there appear to be troops belonging to the Resistance up ahead." Stephanie sat up straight. She looked out of the window at the front of the command centre. Sure enough, a large number of flying types, too organised to be wild, gather in front of her fleet.

Stephanie got out of her seat and walked up to the outer control panel. The helmswoman was staring intently at the flock of birds. "You can take a break," Stephanie said, "I'll take the helm for this battle." The helmswoman nodded and moved out of the way. Stephanie grasped the wheel. She considered spinning it for effect, but she knew it would set them off course.

Instead, she twisted the wheel to the right until they were parallel to the flock. She moved her mouth close to a microphone next to the wheel. "All troops," her voice echoed through the ship, "Ready, aim, FIRE!"

The cannons on the side of the ship fired. Large cannon balls rained down on Storm's troops, forcing them to break formation. The other battleships twisted into similar positions and began to fire. Stephanie looked behind her and said, "Hmm, Something's not quite right. Ah. Polly, come on out." She pressed a button on one of her pokeballs. All of the peons who didn't know her pokemon expected a Chatot to burst out. Instead, a Flygon emerged, spreading it's wings. "There, that's better."

"Do we have to spread such violence?" Polly asked, gazing upon the cannon fire.

"Indeed we do," Stephanie replied, "you know what mother is like."

"Yeah, I do," Polly said. "Ridiculous and violent."

"Sometimes you have to be violent to get what you want," Stephanie said, as she did a hard turn, starboard, to avoid an oncoming hyper beam. The ship would be able to withstand it, but Stephanie wanted to show off that it didn't even need to withstand it.

"If you have to be violent," the Flygon said, "it's not worth it."

Stephanie thought about this for a long moment. Then she noticed several pokemon diving towards the, seemingly, defenceless deck. She pressed a button on a control panel next to her, causing a series of turrets to emerge from the deck, firing upon the pokemon. "It may not be worth it," Stephanie said, "but fighting is a good way to unleash anger, that you have for people, on your enemies instead."

Outside the battleships, Storm's forces were fighting, valiantly. It didn't take them long to realise that the ships were pretty much impervious to their attacks and were controlled by skilled pilots (particularly the flag ship), who could easily outmanoeuvre those attacks. Already, heavy casualties had been taken, thanks to the power of the cannons. Storm decided to take a different approach.

He ordered a group of his troops to dive towards the deck of the nearest battleship. The peons on the deck gasped as they saw the flock and sent out their pokemon, in order to defeat the enemy. The pokemon began firing various attacks, but Storm's flock were easily able to manoeuvre out of the way of them. They smashed into the peons and their pokemon and sent them flying, over the side of the ship, each bird sending, at least, five peons to their doom.

They repeated this custom version of the sky drop attack until the deck was clear of peons. Next, they split into two smaller groups. One group made their way over to the door at the base of the bridge, which led to the engine room and the room where the cannons were controlled. They launched powerful attacks at it in an attempt to break it down. The other group flew up to the window of the command center, also unleashing attacks at it. The peons inside screamed as they noticed cracks appearing in the reinforced glass.

It did not take long for the window to shatter and various flying types to fly through, killing any Cipher member who got in their way. Others ran out of the room, heading towards the deck. However, as they reached the access door, it was ripped off it's hinges and went flying into the back wall, hitting several peons in the process. Those who avoided the door were in no better situation. A Dragonite stared at them as it charged a hyper beam in it's mouth. The peons attempted to scramble out of the way, but to no avail. The hyper beam singed the walls of the corridor, vaporized the peons and created a hole in the back wall.

The Dragonite, and it's team mates, made their way down a set of stairs and found themselves in the large room under the deck. The peons were too busy firing their cannons to notice the swarm of flying types until it was too late. The flying types unleashed wave after wave of attacks on the room until all of the peons were dead and the cannons, motionless.

Meanwhile, a Charizard made it's way to the engine room. When it entered, it fired a blast burn at the engine, causing it to burst into flame. The Charizard quickly flew out of the room and away from the ship. The other flying types did the same thing. Suddenly, the ship exploded, destroying any remaining peons on-board. The wreckage rained down upon the fields below.

Storm turned around to look at their work. "Looks like we're done here then," he said to his troops. "One down, four to go." He scanned the area to find their next target. "Hmm. The flagship appears to be the biggest problem here. Let us deal with it." And with that, they dove down towards the flagship.

Stephanie watched as one of her battleships exploded. Then, she watched a large group of the enemy flying towards her own ship, led by a Braviary who was, oddly enough, wearing aviator goggles. "That must be the leader of the force," Stephanie realised. Then she spoke into the microphone. "Aim for the Braviary with the cool eye-wear!"

The peons on the deck all aimed at the on-coming swarm, firing all sorts of projectiles and attacks. Stephanie kept one hand on the steering wheel as she franticly flip switches and pressed buttons with the other, to switch on as many automatic cannons as possible. They wouldn't do much damage, but they'd certainly weaken the swarm and keep them distracted from the heavier fire.

"Is the energy cannon ready?" Stephanie shouted over the noise of the battle outside.

"The cannon is completely charged and ready for use as soon as you want," a peon replied, looking at a computer screen, showing a cross-section of the ship.

"Then it is time to fire it." Stephanie looked over at a screen next to the steering wheel. She pressed a button, switching on the screen.

"No, not the energy cannon!" Polly said, looking horrified. Stephanie ignored her.

Outside, a triangular strip of metal opened up at the bottom of the prow. A huge cannon extended from it. Stephanie looked at the screen. The screen showed a view from outside. A green square, with a cross inside it, was visible on the screen. Just underneath, a small control pad was located. Stephanie used the control pad to move the square.

Odan watched, intrigued. He knew that Stephanie had spent many weeks on this weapon, but he'd never seen it in use-not that there had been any prior uses, bar testing. He needed to see it in action because, soon enough, the girl would find the battle too stressful and he'd be forced to take over. And if she didn't give up...Well-

"FIRE THE ENERGY CANNON!" Odan suddenly realised that he was missing the action. Stephanie pressed a large red button next to the control pad.

Storm watched as the large cannon aimed itself at his group and it started glowing with energy. "I recommend we all do a barrel roll," he said, keeping calm.

A Pidgeot looked at him. "You can't say that," it said.

"And why not?" Storm said, temper rising, fear kicking in.

"Because you're not a strange, white Buneary who flies in a spaceship."

"JUST GET OUT OF THE ARCEUSDAMNED WAY!" Storm screamed, slamming into the Pidgeot out of the aim of the cannon. And then, the cannon fired.

Storm could only watch as half of his group were vaporised by an amazing beam, which seemed to glow in every colour and no colours at the same time. Others were hit by the shock wave. Several were burnt from being too close to the intense energy.

Stephanie cackled with glee. Odan watched with awe. Polly covered her eyes and moaned about the pointless violence. The peons clapped and cheered.

However, the celebration was short lived. A peon monitoring a set of security cameras walked up to Stephanie. "Captain," she said, addressing the cackling young woman, formally, "I think you should see this."

Stephanie looked over at the screen. The Braviary was diving, alone, straight towards the command center, eyes burning with fury. Suicide. "Damn!" Stephanie cursed, "I didn't kill it." Then a cruel smile formed on her face. "Well then, let's see how he likes cannon fire."

All of the cannons attached to the bridge turned to face the diving Braviary and fired. Storm, fuelled by anger, dove straight into the cannon fire. He was so focused on his target that he barely noticed just how close the cannons came to hitting him. He automatically dodged each and every projectile with style. A cannon ball flew straight towards his face. He just rolled out of the way.

The crew in the command center were stunned when the Braviary collided, head first with the glass. The glass was strong enough to avoid any damage, but it still shook. The Braviary didn't react to the collision at all. He just flew back a bit-still dodging cannon fire-and prepared to take another run up (or fly up). Other pokemon noticed this and started to join in.

Stephanie stared, mouth agape. "Is she about to crack?" Odan thought, watching her intently.

Then she recovered from her state of shock. "Do we have enough energy to switch on the shields?" she asked.

"Just about," a peon replied, "but we'll be unable to use the energy cannon again."

"That's fine," Stephanie said. "Set shields to maximum power!" The ship became engulfed by an invisible force that pushed back everything around it. Storm flew straight into the shield and found himself flying away from the ship. He turned and looked upon the crew in the command center. Stephanie saw this and smiled ferociously, sticking her middle finger up at him.

"Everyone!" Storm shouted to his troops. "Fire your strongest attacks!" Waves of hyper beams, air slashes and all sorts of other powerful attacks blasted straight into the shield, doing absolutely nothing.

Storm looked upon the battleship one last time. "There is nothing else we can do," he said, sighing. "Let us hope that the ground troops are ready." He turned and flew away. The remaining troops did the same.

Stephanie watched with glee. "Looks like we won," she cackled, madly, "and now we have them right where we want them." A terrifying grin formed on her face. "Fire the torpedoes."

"Wait. What?" Polly cried. "But they're giving up. Why do we have to kill them?"

"Because," Stephanie said, "if they come back with reinforcements, they might be able to destroy our shields." Polly remained silent.

Cannons emerged from the bottom of the hull, firing torpedoes that looked on to the group of flying pokemon. Storm gasped as he saw them coming towards them. "Everyone," he exclaimed, "split up to minimize casualties!"

The group split up. Storm found himself being chased by a torpedo. "Bugger it all!" he shouted. He increased his speed as much as he could, then tucked his wings in, to reduce air resistance, and dove towards the ground. The torpedo was still faster than him.

Storm reached the ground before the torpedo reached him. He arced upwards at the last second, hoping that the torpedo would hit the ground. Much to his surprise, it didn't. Storm looked back at the torpedo. He was tired now and unable to fly as fast. The torpedo seemed to be able to perfectly follow his flight-path.

While he wasn't looking, Storm flew into a tree. He lost all control to his body and fell straight to the ground. He stared at the torpedo as it shot towards him.

And then, a white and green pokemon appeared in front of him. Storm cried out in warning at the pokemon. It turned around, looked at the torpedo and threw up a protect around them. The torpedo harmlessly exploded on the shield. The Gallade turned to storm. "Xiphos," Storm said.

"Indeed," the Gallade said. "I came to inform you that we are in Agate."

Storm looked upwards. Xiphos followed his gaze. They were looking at the large, black flagship, heading south. Storm turned to Xiphos and said, "I hope you're ready for one hell of a battle."

Next time, the true battle begins. However, I'm going away for two weeks and will be unable to write any chapters. Until next time, adieu.