The Virus

Disclaimer: See Chapter Seven

Chapter Twelve: It All Comes Together


A/N: Three years. Three years I haven't updated or explained anything as to why I haven't put up a new chapter in so long. To everyone who has been waiting for this chapter, I'm sorry for making you wait this long without explanation. The main reason why I haven't posted anything after Chapter Eleven is more personal than I'm willing to elaborate on, and it increased the issue I've had with Writer's Block for so long.

Again, I'm sorry, and I hope that this brand-new chapter from me will make up for it. Enjoy.

P.S. I've decided to use alternate brackets for telepathic and Aura speech, which one will be which will be shown later on. Oh, and terribly sorry for the paragraph text walls below, I just need to pump in some plot before narrative.


I've debated on telling the rest of the group about my discovery, but refrained from doing so, out of respect for Black's privacy. He'll tell us in due time, I know this for sure. Even though the fact that he has a life gem similar to my own in his chest is bothering me, I didn't ask about its origins. He has his reasons for keeping it a secret from us, and I'm not about to provoke him and force him away from us.

Out of the following weeks that we've regained our strength within the military base, that one incident in the mess hall was the only one of its kind. It seems like either the story of what happened spread like wildfire, or (which I expect to be far more likely) the higher-ups of this facility told the soldiers to not bother us, or meet the same fate as that one soldier.

Seth confided in me that Black's Aura was very familiar to him, although he couldn't place it. He suggested to me that something was interfering with his sensing, and I have a feeling that it's because of that life gem that Black somehow managed to acquire. John and Arc have both confirmed the same feeling, but haven't been able to pry inside Black's mind. I suggested that because they were both Gallades, they don't have the capability to fully enter his mind, unlike me and Sue.

As for Sue, she had nothing to say on the matter, surprisingly. She appears to either be oblivious to the matter, or she knows something that we don't. Both scenarios don't feel right to me, but I haven't brought the matter up with her.


One morning, a blare of alarms startled me from my sleep, completely different from the alarm clock that was provided in my room for me.

"All hands to battle stations! I repeat; all hands to battle stations! We have a Code Blue event! I repeat; we have a Code Blue event! This is not a drill! I repeat; this is not a drill!"

I shot up from the bed, frantically looking for my egg. Surprisingly, in the weeks after me and Daemon mated, all that ever occurred was the laying of my egg. Maybe the gestation period was longer due to the fact that he was a human, and not a Pokemon, like me?

{Sue, John, Arc? Do any of you know what's happening?} I asked telepathically to them.

{Code Blue events are bad news, Lily,} John replied.

{Yeah, they made Code Blue in the event a large-scale attack was happening at a base - looks like the infected decided to grow some balls and finally hit this facility,} Arc added.

{Maybe we should gather the rest of the group and keep together?} Sue asked.

{Good idea,} John replied. {We'll be able to teleport away in case shit hits the fan, big time.}

I nodded to myself and quickly wrapped up my egg in soft, warm blankets and hurried to our rendezvous point - a place where all of us (including Black, for some reason) decided would be the least suspicious location to hide.

Once inside the room, we made sure that we were all inside and locked the doors. We didn't wait for Black, because we all knew that he could take care of himself quite easily. It would be us to identify him anyways, so we would not open the doors unless we knew for sure it was him. Inside the room, we had secretly hoarded a week's worth of rations, some weapons and ammo, as well as body armour.

[Well, what do we do now?] Seth asked. [I don't like waiting for the infected to come find us - or worse, some soldier with a chip on his or her shoulder about us being here. And I'm not talking about "hiding" away from the fight,] he added, referencing the incident in the mess hall.

"We wait for Black," Alex said. "As Daemon would have said - we leave no-one behind."

Archaeon scoffed. {He may have acted all friendly towards us and all that, but how do we know that it isn't a ploy from his superiors to betray us in the end? We were never meant to be alive for this long, and they know it! We know what happened, we saw proof of their treachery, and they may just want to tie up loose ends! What if -}

{Shut up!} I yelled at him. He looked taken aback, as did everyone else. {You know as well as I do that he has no ill will towards us, so what in Giratina's name are you even babbling about? This isn't like when we met my f-father, and we knew something was up, this is something else entirely!} I said, stuttering a bit on remembering the horrid betrayal of my father against my trainer, my mate.

{Lily and Alex are right,} John said. {Black's different than the rest of the humans in here, he seems to know our plight, our struggle. He claims to be a friend, as though he's met us, or travelled with us before. I have a sneaking suspicion that he's not telling us some things, but its for our own good, and not for his gain. Father, please reconsider, he can be a great boon to us, and a great ally in combat. You've already seen how that armour surpasses even Extremespeed that Arcanine and Rapidash are well-known for.}

Archaeon huffed. {Fine,} he said grumpily. {We'll wait.}

Suddenly, there was a heavy rapping on the door, metal against metal. "Glad to hear you guys have such faith in me," Black rasped through the door, making us all jump. "I promise I'll surpass your expectations. Now, how about we get the hell out of here to fight another day?"

Sue giggled. {Just how long were you there, listening to us chatter on~?}

"Long enough to know that you guys care," Black replied, opening the door a crack. In the distance, we could hear gunfire, screams of men, and cries of Pokemon. We had to get moving. Black mirrored my thoughts as he edged into the room, rifle at his side, pistol magnetically holstered on his thigh. "Let's go."


Not even five minutes later, we all had donned body armour and sported some sort of offensive item - the humans opting for small-arms while Arch and John both opted for full-length rifles. I was the designated healer, with Elaine as my teammate. Black lead the way, assuring us that it was the way to the motorpool.

{I certainly hope that we aren't going to take the Humvees,} Arch said, huffing slightly as we kept up a brisk jog.

"Those lightweights? Ha! They wouldn't even support one of my feet inside them before I broke a hole in the floor. Nah, we're taking my personal APC," Black replied, hardly sounding like he was even working up a sweat.

"APC?" Elaine asked, curious.

{Armoured Personnel Carrier,} John replied. {Usually a tracked vehicle that can hold up to ten or more fully-armed humans, or humanoid Pokemon, plus ammo for any mounted or turreted weapon. Fully capable of going up against light tanks or aircraft, depending on the situation, as well as keeping its passengers safe from land mines - or in this case, Ground-Type Pokemon.}

"Correct! However, this APC has been heavily modified to carry my weight in full combat armour as well as one pair of every weapon this bunker has in stock, plus ammo to last for days. Oh, and we apparently have the technology to replicate food, but I haven't had the opportunity to try it out for myself," Black said. "We're getting close - get set for combat."


"CONTACT!" a soldier yelled just beyond the double doors leading to the garage. "200 meters and closing, open fire!"

There was a sustained bust of heavy machine-gun fire, plus the unmistakable "fwoosh" of a rocket launcher being used, quickly followed by a large "BOOM" as the ordinance struck home.

"Sounds like they're having fun in there," Black remarked, sounding as though it would be a bigger pain than usual to get to his vehicle. "Luckily my APC has a few...nifty gadgets installed. Here, everyone touch this pad," he said, producing a tablet from his rucksack and turning it on.

{What is this for?} I asked.

"FOF tagging system," he replied.

{The hell do you need us to touch a Friend Or Foe tagging system?} I shot back.

[Arceus-dammit Arch, you don't have to think every damn thing he produces is trying to kill you!] Seth shot at me.

"Actually, Seth's right. This is actually to help prevent you from getting killed...by the automated defence system on my APC."

Everyone quickly put their respective hands/paws on the tablet one after the other, the screen flashing green as it registered their DNA.

"So, now what?" Alex asked, sucking on the tip of his finger where the tablet had pricked him. "We sure as fuck can't go out there with all those guys shooting at other shit!"

"And that's where I come in," a heavily-accented voice cut in. All of us whipped around, looking for the source of the voice, before Black chuckled.

"Damn, Faith, just how long were you stealthing in the middle of us for?" he asked.

A feminine giggle echoed around us, slowly centering in the middle of our group, just as Black had said. It looked like there was heat waves there, slowly dissipating to reveal...a Zoroark.

"Tsk, tsk, Black, you know me, I like to...how you humans say, crash party at right time?" the Zoroark said, putting her paws on her hips and sticking them out a bit with a snicker.

"Heh, that's true, Faith. Your English is getting better. Is it still difficult to form the words?"

Faith the Zoroark shrugged. "It very different from Poke-speak, tongue twists weird, very used to talking in native tongue. Tutor did well...until Infected got her. Pick up words here, there, everywhere. But no stall further, we have to sneak, yes?"

Black nodded. "And you've got the right skills for the job. I need you to hide this group with your Illusion skill. I'll go alone, head to my APC and start it up. Take them along the walls, avoid conflict, the usual."

Faith nodded in return. "Yes, yes, I understand. Come, friends of Black, we hide soon, no talking, no noise. My skills only work so well to avoid others seeing and hearing! Might be Pokemon among them, can hear steps...we go sneaky-beaky-like~"


And with hardly another word, she wrapped us in her powers. My Aura could detect everything, but at a dulled strength. Faith even looked slightly exhausted at exerting this much to cover our whole party.

"Come closer, very hard to keep cover if too far," she panted. "I no bite...unless you into kind of thing~" she snickered slightly, giving a sly wink to all of us.

'Your mane looks very cozy, can I ride in it?' Sue asked in her native tongue, as she probably doubted that Dark-Types could receive telepathic speech.

Faith looked back at the Espeon. "Very lucky you small, would say no if bigger," she replied in English. Sue happily hopped into the thick red mane, purring in content.

{It really is quite comfortable in here~} Sue remarked, eliciting a few chuckles from the rest of us.

"Good you enjoy it in there, little Psychic kitty, because now we make fast to Black's car! We waste much time with the chit-chat!"

At that, we walked quickly through the double doors with Black, Faith covering us with her power. We split up, Black stopping briefly to talk to the soldiers fighting, to have them clear a path to his APC. As we went along the wall, we heard the soldiers shouting and the heavy guns firing up at unseen targets. I'm pretty sure that I wasn't the only one perturbed by the fact that we had to sneak about, but this was for our own safety. If anyone else found out what we were up to...who knows what would happen.

Not too long after, we met up with Black at a far corner of the garage, far away from the exit. It looked as though there was a vault hidden behind some of the walls - they seemed like they were at least a foot thick, if not more. Something important was hidden back here, and I had a feeling that we'd soon find out.

{The hell, Black?! Why'd we move so far away from the exit?!} Arch spat.

"Whoa, chill. D'you think that the military would be willing to have their most sophisticated piece of technology sitting right by the exit, where it could easily get attacked, blown up?" Black cooly shot back at Arch. "Plus, its hidden back here for good reason. We've had this area labelled as R&D, Authorized Personnel Only, so nobody ever goes back here. And with good reason," he finished, bringing out his tablet again and pushing an on-screen button.

The heavy steel walls in the corner began to lower, and lights flickered to life on the other side. As the walls ran flush with the floor, we saw what they were hiding.

Matte-black, bristling with power, armour, and yet speed, was this massive vehicle. Five wheels on each side, a massive turret that would have looked just at home on one of the tanks we walked past, with what appeared to be large cylindrical tubes mounted on the turret, with smaller copies mounted at hard points.

"Yeah, there she is, my Divine Intervention." Black said, shocking all of us into silence.

"B-Black...just who are you?" Alex stuttered.

Black took a hold of his helmet, unlocked it with a sharp "hiss," and took it off his head.

"Surprised you guys didn't figure it out sooner, I thought I gave enough hints."


CLIFFHANGER! And right when I come back from the dead!

As I've said, I'm extremely sorry for making all of you wait for this chapter. I gave writing a shot again when I published "Differences Unite" ( s/10503912/1/Differences-Unite ), but never got enough reviews of it on whether I still had the skill to continue to write The Virus like I'd wanted to. Ergo, I couldn't bring myself to continue writing - until I just got this urge TO write. Hopefully, it won't take another three years for an update to this story I so desperately want to complete, and make epic.

I'll catch you guys at the next chapter,

Chief.