Chapter 26 - Race to Freedom

Sakura's POV

The smell, it smelt like death. I opened my eyes to find myself in a dark room void of light. The air was slightly warm, damp almost. I could feel small rocks against my face, moving my hands against the rocks i managed to push myself up to a kneeling position before realising that my jaw was aching.

"W-what is-" The lights suddenly turned on, in the room was Zack and Isaac unconscious against the wall. Kneeling over to them as fast as I could I shake them by their shoulders to wake them up.

"Ugh..." Isaac open his eyes first as he lightly touched his bleeding forehead, "Ah!" He winced and touched his forehead again.

Zack was now awake; he began to sit up rubbing his neck. He looked at me, eyes slightly closed and asked, "Where are we?"

"I don't know," I said shaking my head slightly. A few more seconds of silence until the doors of the room opened and we saw three men enter two with a knife and a bat, the other without a weapon, all of them smiling at us.

10 Hours prior to capture.

"So this Dream race," Zack asked as we walked alongside one another almost near Lacunose city. "The winner can get whatever they want?"

"Anything, but the chances of winning is slim since the owner hires most of the racer to win the race." I replied remembering suddenly about the last Dream race held last year when someone entered the race and won, he wanted his children to enter a good university without getting kicked out, the kind you either need good grades or money to enter. Not many people know how the dream race is funded; some theorists have come up with a Pokémon known as Jirichi was the reason for the rewards and things that cost a fortune. Some believe they use the money the fans use to watch the game while a small few believe the game is somehow rigged so that a small amount can win the game thus collecting more money every year.

"You know," I began, "If I won I would go on a vacation somewhere with my mom, it's... been a while since the two of us went anywhere." As I said that, I remembered when my mom took me to Kalos once when I was 5 or maybe 6. We only went there because my mom was celebrating her 30th birthday with her sister who lived in Kalos. Ever since she and I moved here, managed to get a job working in the Pokémon center she hasn't had time for anything really.

"If I won the 'Dream Race' I would ask for my reward to be enough money for Juliet's operation." Isaac told us as me and Zack looked at him, Zack asked, "How much can the winner get from the Dream Race?"

"The most anyone can ask for is up to one million." Replied Isaac as we continued down the path.

The Dream Race could only give the winner a prize equalling up to one million and no more. Some winners did not ask for a million, they would sometimes ask for vacations, a certain Pokémon for their collection or a years' worth of free food.

Lacunose city was almost ahead of us, we decided to purchase a few items and food before heading towards the next area.

We stopped as three strange tall men wearing black trench coats with their hoods up and wearing harlequin like masks covering their faces. The man in the middle same height as the other two stepped forward.

"You three," He pointed, "You three are just perfect, just what I have been looking for." He stood there still pointing at all of us in silence; at first we thought they were some kind of Pokémon trainers.

Isaac stepped forward rubbing the back of his head, "Listen, none of us want to have a Pokémon battle with you. We just want to get to the city; can you please step aside and let us pass?"

The three men looked at one another and surprisingly they stepped aside standing next to one another without uttering a word. "That was easy." Isaac said as we walked again approaching the three men still standing there hardly moving an inch.

As Zack walked in front of us and past the second man, that's when I noticed the third man near Zack turned his head and punched him as he fell to the ground. The second man then attacked Isaac punching the back of his head knocking him out. But before I could look at the third man, all I can remember was sudden darkness, then pain.

Back to the cells

"Greetings new inmates," The three men from earlier entered along with a fourth man wearing a white buttoned shirt and tie. His brown hair was rather long, almost reaching his hip. He looked young, probably a little younger than Deacon. The man every now and then blinked twice instead of one, "He must have dry eyes." I thought at the time.

The man smiled as he placed his hands behind his back, "My apologizes for how my men brought you here injuring all of you." Isaac stepped up clenching his fists and demanded, "What have you done with our Pokémon!?"

The man continued to smile as he ignored Isaac, "We wanted to bring you here by different means, but we didn't want-"

"Hey!" Isaac interrupted the man slightly startling him, "I asked you-" The man quickly ran up to Isaac and punched him right in the stomach. Isaac groaned in pain as he fell to the ground holding his stomach.

"Anyway, as I was saying..." the man returned to the others continuing his speech as me and Zack helped Isaac, "We wanted to bring you here without causing you harm, but time was running out for us."

The man cleared his throat, "My name is Mark, and I am the boss of the 'Dream Race' I welcome you." Mark greeted us as his grin became much wider earning a few laughs from the three men standing behind him, again he double blinked.

"The reason I have caught ya'll is for one reason:" He paused as his grin faded momentarily, but returned as he said, "For all of you to work for this arena as slaves." Before any of us could attempt to speak to him, Mark sighed and uttered, "Take them."

We were then thrown into another area, much larger than the cell but we were in the race course area with a few other people, most with guns, the others carrying boxes and repairing equipment off the side all looked tired and dirty.

An old man in a wheel chair approached us and greeted us, "Hello there, I see that you have already met Mark then?" He was wearing a Castelia baseball cap, a dirty white shirt with a darkened red stain on his shoulder, and green pants... both of his legs up to the knees were gone now covered in bloodstained bandages.

"My name is Jake, c'mon I'll show you to the work area." As he turned his chair around, Zack stepped forward and asked him, "Wait, what's going on here? Why did this Mark guy capture us?" Jake stared at the ground for a moment scratching his nose a little.

"Mark uh... he's been using us as slaves for his Dream Race for about 5 months now. I don't know why he started doing this, probably lost his mind or something." Jake then patted his legs, "You see these two? 3 months ago I entered the race to win my freedom... I came in 3rd place in the end while his hired racers won again for the 5th time in a row. As punishment for losing the race, Mark did this to me saying; 'Now you can never race again'"

"Why haven't the police got involved? What about your families?" asked Isaac as he stood up properly after almost recovering from the punch from earlier.

"Mark saw to that our families wouldn't question our absence. He wrote them fake messages just to keep them away from here. Sometimes he gave us the letters our families sent us. Now as for the police, no one has shown up about us; probably don't even suspect anything going on over here."

Jake then wheeled his chair to the workstation where we were given small boxes to carry, "Take these boxes and carry them over there." Jake pointed towards a garage on the opposite side the arena. "Once you've done, return here and repeat until all 40 boxes have been delivered."

Isaac lightly rubbing his stomach was about to walk over to one of the guards giving him a dirty look, grabbing his arm I asked him, "No Isaac, don't."

"But what about our Pokémon? We can't let them do this to us." Isaac gritted his teeth and was about to walk towards the guard, but he looked down at the ground and walked over to the stack of boxes carrying one of them.

Meanwhile in Mark's Office

"Greetings my friends," Mark laughed as he stood towering above our Pokémon out of their pokéballs and not in any cages. Most of them attempted to use their moves to attack Mark, but for some reason they couldn't.

"Don't bother trying to use you moves, cause this sweet baby," Mark pulled out a small grenade like device from his pocket and showed it to them, "This beauty nullifies all Pokémon moves and abilities. I managed to swipe it from an Annihilation solider once." Mark double blinked again "These things are very rare to come by, makes you wonder why they didn't make more of them..."

Mark turned away from the Pokémon and walked back to his desk, 4 of his henchmen all armed with guns aimed their weapons at the Pokémon threatening to shoot them all if any one of them moved out of the group.

Mark then wrote down on a piece a calculation of how much money he could earn if he sold them to Pokémon hunters. "Hmm... yeah but how am I supposed to know if they will pay me this much and try to pay me less?" Mark's face then began to sweat and his blinking increased to 3, then 5 and 7.

*Blinking Intensifies*

"Nah, I'll just kill them." Mark then scrunched up the piece of paper into a ball and threw it into the trashcan whooping as the ball fell in, "Damn, 100 points."

The Arena

After finishing up with the boxes, the guards let us have a small break with a few other 'slaves' eating from ration boxes and drinking coffee from a plastic cup left out on the tables free for anyone to grab.

"Well, how did your task go?" Jake asked as he wheeled up over to with a cup of coffee in between his thighs.

"Why the hell are you treating this as everything is normal?" Shouted Isaac as he threw his cup down on the ground. "They captured you all like Pokémon, forced you to work, they even cut off your legs for crying out loud." Jake took a sip of coffee from his cup and set it down on a nearby table.

"True, he did all of this." Jake looked up at Isaac staring into his eyes. "But they have weapons, we don't. 7 of us 2 months ago attempted to fight them with nothing but wrenches, shovels and our fists. You can obviously tell who won that fight."

Isaac sighed closing his eyes before asking Jake, "There must be something we can do to escape from this place. Is there a way?" Jake looked down to the ground shaking his head. "There is one way, you could try to appeal to Mark to letting you go. He'll most likely say 'I will unless you win a certain challenge.' and do that weird eye thing of his. He'll ask for you to participate in the bike tournament. Should you win, you could earn your freedom, unless he decides to claim you cheated in the race."

"But I... I don't know how to ride a bike." Isaac and Jake both looked at Zack, but he shook his head, "Sorry, I don't know either."

"What about you missy, can you ride a bike?" Jake asked me smiling a little. I gave him a short nod and replied, "I can, but I'm pretty sure my riding skills are nothing compared to the tournament."

"Mark is a man who can be reasoned with," As soon as Jake said that, Isaac scoffed and said, "Reasoned with huh? Yeah right..." Jake raised an eyebrow before continuing. "Just ask for some time to practice before the next dream race begins. I was once a racer believe it or not, in my day I won several tournaments during the Kanto summer of 1978-1995. I can help you get ready until then."

"Are you sure you want to do this Sakura?" Zack asked, I thought about it, the way he had cut off both of Jake's legs for coming in 3rd... I didn't want anything like that happening to me, I was...scared. I didn't show this on the outside, I seemed calm and steady.

"Okay, I'll do it."

Sometime later in Mark's office

The office was rectangular, nothing too big. It only had a wooden desk with nothing on top. The trashcan in the corner of the room had a few paper balls inside, and a rotten banana. The walls were nothing important, just white painted walls made out of concrete, no window anywhere. Standing in front of the desk like I was told to by the guards before entering, behind me where our Pokémon holding onto one another slightly shaking each time a guard aimed their weapons at them. Mark had entered the room smiling and double blinking as he sat behind the desk arms and legs crossed.

"So I hear you want in on the Dream Race, this true?" He grinned revealing his slightly yellow teeth... ugh.

"Y-yes, I would like to enter the race." Mark opened a draw from the desk and grabbed a document and pen. "You do realize what happens if you lose don't you? Let me see what you will lose..." Mark sat their searching up and down my body, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"I say should you lose the race, you will have your tongue removed. You will never ask for another race again." Mark then chuckled to himself as he slid the paper towards me and rolled the pen as it almost fell of the desk. I picked up the pen and read from the document and began to read it;

Welcome to the Dream Race,

You the challenger have declared to enter the race to win anything you desire, from riches, to vacations. By signing this form, you agree that by losing the race you must give up something to prevent you from participating in the race ever again.

Please sign here:

The document was probably made for the slaves trying to win their freedom here. Instead of backing out like I wanted to, I signed the form and passed it to him as he smiled.

"Excellent, you may go back to the arena to continue your work until the race begins." But before any of the guards attempted to drag me out of the room I spoke up, "Wait, please allow myself to train before the race."

Mark stared at me for a few moments and asked, "and why should I do that? I think you'll be better off working, don't you think so?" the guard who I just noticed was standing beside me.

"Please, let me train until then. I'm a little rusty with riding bikes and I just need a few training sessions." I pleased to him hoping he would accept.

"I suppose so. Now go and train then. Take her to the warehouse, okay?" Mark shooed me away as the guard grabbed me by the arm pulling me out forcefully.

Stadium Warehouse

We arrived at a set of double doors being opened by the sole guard armed with a baseball bat. He wore a dirty vest, green shorts, and a pair of sandals. I'm not sure of his age, maybe…30ish, 40s maybe. Once the doors opened wide, the guard holding onto my arm pushed me inside making the other one laugh as they slammed the doors behind me.

Running back towards the doors I heard the keys as they locked the door, followed by footsteps leading away. With a short sigh I turned back, the warehouse wasn't large really; it was a room equal to the size of the entrance to a regular Pokemon center, except this room was slightly dark, damp… and smelly. There were a few small desks at both sides filled with biking equipment, helmets and suits.

Walking up to one of the workshop desk with an almost dismantled bike set on top, I was suddenly reminded of my childhood years. The bike I saw on that desk was the exact same color the one my grandmother gave me for my 5th birthday when her, my mom and I went to the Kalos region to celebrate a promotion my mother received.

As I touched the handlebar with my fingers, it was as if I were touching foreign to me. That bike from my youth was only used once, during the longest summer, the best summer I had… before he came into the picture, that man who turned my youthful cheerful sunny summer, into a cold and rainy storm. Just the thought of that man grinning at me sent me back to reality, still touching the handlebar of the bike, I let go stepping back a few steps away from the bike.

Now standing in the center of the room I sighed once more placing my forehead in the palm of my hand. "Why did I have to participate in this stupid bike race?!" I thought trying to find answers, but came up blank like always… sighs.

*Slam!*

The doors burst open as Jake was thrown head first onto the cold dirty floor. The two guards armed with metal baseball bats walked up to him and kicked him right in the stomach.

"Get to work old man!" ordered the guard as he rested the bat on his shoulder. The guard then smirked, "Get some progress done today, and you won't lose another limb. Legless freak!" both guards laughed at that as they walked towards the doors, slamming them shut before locking them.

Running over to Jake, Jake looked up from the floor and pointed over towards one of the workshop desks. It took some time, but I managed to carry him up on top of it.

"Sighs… T-thanks kid. Gah!" Jake winced lightly as he touched his stomach again.

"Why did they do that too you? What happened?" I asked him, Jake shook his head. "They do that most of the time, to prisoners like me, your buddy Isaac. Age or disability, they still walk all over you, as if you were a small tiny pebble amongst the many thousands on the road." Jake rubbed the back of his head and sighed.

"As for Pokemon, you may have noticed not a single Pokmeon has been sighted, no Pokeball strapped onto a guard or two. Mark, he captures them and sells them to the highest bidder." He was right about that. Jake continued as he looked up at the stained ceiling.

"But for women in this place, Mark ordered the guards to never harm or injure any, no matter what." Jake looked up at me with a worried look, "Mark attempts many times to push women to take part in the tournament. Should they lose the race either disqualification or came in any place other than first… he claims them as his."

My eyes widened as I heard this, I had to ask, "Claim? You mean as Mark's personal slave?" Jake gave a small nod. But why did Jake suggest this idea to me, wouldn't he had wanted to keep me away from it?

"But why ask me if you already knew what that man does? Are you with him or something?"

"Of cause not, i didn't ask to come here to teach you how to race." Jake from where he was sitting leaned back towards the wall and with his arm reached down as if he were trying to get something, until he did.

What he brought up was a makeshift gun made out of wood, old tools and gears all held together by duct tape, a lot of tape. He also brought up a large box of steel nails and began inserting one by one into the makeshift gun, or nail gun if you prefer.

"Did you know I spent a long time here? So long, I cannot recall what the sun feels like, the warmth, the brightness from taking one glance at it, floating in the sky." Jake finished loading up the gun and held it with both hands. "Ever since they took away my legs, I built this gun with help from many others, some I called friends, 1 I called my lover… she was taken by him never to be seen again." Jake now gripped the gun tightly as he aimed at one of the bike racks.

"To tell you the truth… I am no champion, never won one race. I came close at one point, but I never did reach that finish line, I was always to slow at it." Jake lowered the gun down to his lap and swallowed. "My father was a lawyer once, at a young age he taught me from right and wrong in his own way. He wanted me to be a lawyer like him, but I never wanted to become a lawyer, it wasn't my dream. My dream," Jake chuckled to himself smiling slightly.

"My dream is to finally win a race, to reach the finish line, make my father understand that this was the path I had wanted, to become a racer… but I never did." Jake placed the gun down beside him, "I don't care if I die today, and I want to do everything I can to save my friends in this place called hell Mark created. Sakura," Jake looked at me with a very grave look. "Please, help me escape this place. For months I spent finding theses cruel bastards patrol route and I have, there won't be too many guards, only 5 or less. But with my weapon, we should make it out. The guards here won't use pistols or assault rifles because of how close we are to the civilians out there. I wouldn't be asking you if I didn't know we can do this, this is a solid plan, I know I don't have legs, but if were to use one of the bikes over there, you could push me and I can just focus on using the gun."

I just stood there; I didn't know what I should do. Fear of getting caught, the plan was to fail, the guards capturing and to punish us. Doubts, doubts that plan like this could work. What if there were more guards than Jake thought? What if they had a silenced pistol or something? It's not as if me, someone who hasn't ridden a bike in years suddenly relearns, masters and wins the race against high ranking racers. I didn't want to disappoint anyone of them or get someone killed because of me.

"I-I'll do it." I gave my answer, Jake's face lit up as he heard that, his smile widened for a short moment until he sighed, and so we began.

A few moments later…

Okay, so what Jake and I did was first; grab a bike, any random bike from the racks so Jake could sit on as I pushed him with it. Jake would aim the weapon, if a guard either noticed us or got in the way. Second thing was; get extra nails for the gun. And finally; to get into place, right outside of the doors ready to strike.

Picking up a small tire iron, I hit the doors to gain the attention of the guards outside, *Clank, Clank!* and followed with the plan.

"Hey, I need help! J-Jake he- he won't wake up! Please, help!" I shouted hoping it would convince the guard to open the doors.

We waited… nothing, silence.

*Click* the doors suddenly unlocked and opened up. A guard armed with a wooden baseball bat this time stepped inside scanned the room for us, until he found us. Eyes locked his and mine. Jake still aiming the gun at the guard, even before he locked eyes with me waited until I heard a loud metallic click noise beside me, it was kind of like a *Clang* (I'm never doing sound effects again… ugh.)

The guard then fell to the floor dropping the bat; Jake had fired the weapon directly aimed at the man's forehead. The power of the weapon was enough to pierce through the skull killing him instantly; from where I was standing I couldn't even see the nail sticking out, must've went in …d-deep… ew.

Outside of the door, Jake searched every corner for any sign of another guard or more, but there weren't any thankfully. "Alright, let's get a goin'." Jake readied his gun signalling me to push the bike further out.

All Jake did was point me in the direction to the exit of the stadium that was close by from here. The guards guarding the area were very low on numbers here, so we wouldn't have too much of a problem I had hoped.

Constantly I looked back to that corridor we came from, what if someone found the dead body of the guard Jake killed? How long would it take for most of the guards to storm this section of the stadium?

Finally opening the door we encountered another long corridor leading to another corridor was the exit was. But as we finally reached the halfway point, the door opened behind us.

"HEY!" a guard wearing a blue suit armed with a baton ran up to us. Jake quickly turned around and fired his weapon as fast and as accurate as he could as I pushed the bike towards the exit. The guard was hit in the right shoulder, but it didn't stop him from running at us.

Another guard ran out of the door behind us wearing the same suit as the baton man (didn't know what to name the guy.) only he had a pocket knife with him. As we reached the door, Jake opened it and pushed me inside blocking the door with his entire body and bike shooting a few nails at the guards.

"Sakura, forget about me, run! Save yourself kid!" before I could do anything or try to help him, Jake was grabbed by the two guards and attacked. Quickly I turned around and ran for the exit in front of me.

Nearing halfway down the corridor I heard screaming. Was it Jake's or on of the guards I couldn't tell, I just ran as fast as I could. Suddenly the door opened behind me and out came one of the guards covered in blood on his torso and ran at me.

Reaching for the door handle of the exit, I grabbed it and turned it… it opened. The suns warm light touched my face; it felt good to be out again. But I didn't stay like that for long; the guard was inching closer and closer towards me hearing the echoes of the footsteps becoming louder. I noticed a wired fence I could climb; civilians walking with their Pokemon were just on the other side.

With a running start I jumped up on the fence and climbed as fast as I could. As I reached the top I fell face first over the other side, luckily my arms shielded my fall. I began to cry after I landed on the ground, many of the people walking by asked if I were alright; I begged them to help, to call the police about the stadium.

Meanwhile back in the corridor…

Jake was now alone, bleeding slowly to his death, 'When?' he thought, he did not know. For a while he had been crawling towards the door Sakura left through, each movement felt more and more tiresome than the last, he knew he was almost going to die soon, he didn't want it to end in a cold corridor alone.

Finally opening the door he crawled through, his arms tired, eyes weakened… Jake was afraid.

"Welcome to the 7th Unova Racing Tournament Finals!" A loud announcer-like voice boomed loudly through the corridor startling Jake a little. Looking up, Jake looked up ahead and saw something he had not seen, not felt for years… the sun. Jake then heard a crowd, cheering, applause; he heard them as they cried out his name.

Jake with all of his strength that remained in his dying body as he struggled inch by inch to reach the sun… to reach, the finish line.

As Jake reached halfway, he saw people cheering him on, people he once knew before and during his enslavement within the stadium. Jake assumed he was hallucinating due to the amount of blood he had lost, but he didn't care.

"Yaw da man, dude!" Jake looked over his shoulder to see his older brother Simon who died in a war 10 years prior. Simon was a man who looked up to his little brother and honored his dream to become a racer.

"Win dis sonovabitch for us, yo!"

Jake couldn't hold back a tear from hearing his voice again, even if it were a hallucination. And so he crawled. Jake then began to notice more people and Pokemon he once knew from childhood to adult years. friends, family, neighbors he had a friendly talk with every now and then, all of them cheering his name all voices accurate as if they were truly there.

The announcer spoke again, "Jake Marsh, is inching closer and closer to the finish line. Can he do it!?"

As Jake drew near to the line, towards the sun, he saw another figure… no, two figures of two people he never saw together in a way they were now. His mother Debra Marsh, and his father smiling, are cheering him on together. The arguments they had before they separated, the bitterness they tried to hide whenever in front of either Jake or Simon, all was completely gone and replaced with a happy smile and cheering.

"You can make it!" Smiled his father, something Jake hadn't seen since he was a young boy. "Go for it sweetie!" cheered Debra waving at him. Jake without knowing it waved at the crowed and had almost reached his goal. He was even going faster this time, panting harder and harder as his vision had almost completely faded.

"Look at him GO!" the announcer proudly announced causing the crowed to cheer louder now chanting 'You can do it Jake!' over and over.

Reaching the opened door, the sunlight touched his reaching hand. The warmth alone wasn't enough, he wanted to look upon it, not caring if he were to be blinded by it, he wanted to be embraced upon the suns warm light. With one final pull, he managed to leave the building and turned to the sky to view the sun.

He had finally crossed the finish line.

"Jake Marsh, WINNER!" The cheers erupted loudly… until they faded.

5 Hours Later – Lacunose City Hospital – Sakura's POV

It wasn't long until the police had shown up. One by one reporter trucks parked right outside of the stadium to either film one of the captured people taken away to the nearby hospital or ask them questions, some of them not caring if they were either unconscious or too injured to utter a word other than a painful groan.

The police who had stormed the stadium arrested the guards and of cause Mark surprisingly without a fight or any kind of resistance. Apparently, the Saviors had been searching for Mark on suspicion of being an Annihilation member and for his slavery crimes from other regions.

Zack and I waited for Isaac still being treated after he was kicked in the chest not too long ago. All of our pokemon were given back to us safely without a scratch on them. Marill returned to her ball after a brief wave, and then left without saying a word. Minccino rested her head on my lap as we waited for Isaac to return. Zack when reunited with his Pokemon all hugged him for a long time. Latias was the last one to remain holding onto him as she began to cry, causing the others to either roll their eyes or just smile at her behaviour. After a while Latias levitated over to the large window next to Dewott.

The waiting room was full of the family of the slaves, most of them young, probably their children, and the others were a lot older than most. I noticed the TV had been turned up as a young girl, maybe my age I guess with another girl stood in front of the TV monitor hanging from the wall.

"Recently, the Marsh family mansion was burnt to the ground due to the fierce storm within the Kanto region. The Marsh family wife and young daughter were found dead within the mansion. Elliot Marsh, the father and husband of the deceased and their family pet Eevee remain missing. More details very soon." After that a commercial break began playing. All I could hear were audible crying from someone in the room. Not too long ago, I discovered that Jake Marsh died long before anyone got to him, It made me feel somewhat guilty in way, leaving him to die like that…

"Cinno…" Minccino got up from my lap and gave me a soft hug, I hugged her back. Looking up at the waiting room entrance I noticed Isaac walking up to us with Yamask beside him with a large green lollipop in hand.

"Sup." He waved standing in front of us smiling. "Man, that doc sure speaks a lot."

"You alright, what did the doctor say?" Zack asked scratching the back of his head slightly. "I'm good, just a few bruises that'll heal sometime soon." Yamask then began to poke Isaac with the wet lollipop against his cheek.

"Sakura?" Zack asked as I looked at him. "I'm sorry what happened to Jake."

"Yeah, Jake sure was a hero." Isaac sat down on the chair not to far opposite us with Yamask occupying a chair of his own. "The people that did this, enslaved all of these people, they'll get what's coming to em'."

"Thank you, both of you."

A few days Later – Lacunose City Police Dept.

Mark still locked up was walking within the station with another officer, he was allowed one phone call. Who would you call if you were locked up for doing something so awful like forcing people from the streets as slaves? Your parents? A sibling? A life partner? Or maybe a friend? Mark in a way didn't have a mother or father to talk to anymore. His siblings, he did not know their number, and wouldn't speak to them if he did. Life partner? He was in a way married to his work, he was dedicated to it, life on the outside was nothing compared to what he had… it was something he enjoyed. A friend? He had a few, only a handful of people he considered close…

Mark standing next to the phone as he dialled the numbers, looking back every so often and covering up the numbers to make sure no one or camera noticed.

"Yo, it's me, Mark. I'm here at the-"

"The local police station. I know, I saw it on the TV… *sighs*" Sweat began to form on his forehead. His heart began to beat faster, his muscles tensed.

*Blinking Rapidly*

"Now Mark; Why don't you tell me what happened? Oh and do not worry, this connection is between us. I made sure that no one will ever trace us."

Mark gulped, looking over his shoulder he began to notice one or two people looking at him. 'Keep it cool Man, just… k-keep it cool.' Two things happened at that instance that almost made Mark scream out loud; first was that he noticed the police officer who had escorted him to the phone was standing very close to him. And second was what was on his neck he saw reflecting from the window just behind the phone booth.

"Right now, if you didn't realise yet, I have hired an assassin to come and finish you off should you do any of the following things; moving away from the window, hanging up on me, or running away. The assassin I hired is is one of the best. Never misses if I recall from his M.O." The laser dot on his neck went away. Mark felt slightly relaxed that the dot was gone, but he somehow felt that he was still being aimed at with a hired killer with a gun that would end his life.

"The police t-they uh… *coughs* they s-showed up and arrested us all and uh, yeah, t-that's about it." Silence followed. The corridor Mark and the police officer were standing in too became silent. 'Talk to him again you idiot! Do something man!' Mark shouted to himself hoping that he could reason with Juro, to let him live.

"Now tell me, how did the police arrive?" Juro asked sounding as calm Mark wanted to be. Whenever Mark panicked, he could never think straight, he always rushed, made mistakes. How he wished he had Juro's patients.

"T-t-they uh… arrived in their cars?" Mark smirked at his response, almost slapping himself for that.

"They arrived in a car…really? You sure they didn't arrive in a flying donut? That would be the day now, wouldn't it?" Juro gave a small chuckle.

"O-oh w-wait a sec! I do remember, a few hours before we were caught, we did capture this girl and her companions. One of em' was a member of the Saviors."

"A Savior then?" Juro asked Mark responding with a silent nod to which Juro couldn't see over the phone. "Tell me do Savior members have devices they carry, often known as Savior Devices?"

Mark lightly scratched his head trying to think back at the items he and his guards examined at the office, everything from the cash, potions, even to a small journal belonging to Isaac, but not a Savior Device.

"I uh… don't seem to recall such a thing." Mark cringed as he heard Juro heavily sigh.

"Mark, Savior Devices have something built inside them that keep track of the user, updating every 24 hours of their current location and mission status." Mark stood there and waited for Juro to speak again, again he heard another sigh.

*Blinking Rapidly*

"Meaning, the saviours would've tracked the device to your location. Also, YOU and our operation would've been caught anyway!" Mark didn't respond after that, he just didn't have anything left to say, not an apology or anything.

"Do you know how I see you? An example; I see my Annihilation as a kitchen in a way, and I am the chef. The project to work a slave to repair weapons and create new Animated corpses was left to you now failed. I once saw it as a pot of delicious food about to be served… but then a random fly happens to mess it all up by landing in it! You Mark, you are that fly… you ruined 8 years of my plan you moron!"

The police officer standing right next to him began to notice the yelling from the phone Mark was still using. With each insult Juro shouted just made Mark frustrated with annoyance.

*Blinking Level=Ultimate*

"They arrived in cars (!) What kind of answer is that!?" And what followed after that sentence was the glass window breaking with a loud smash.

Did Mark die by the assassin that day? Was the window breaking caused by Mark hitting it with the receiver caused by rage at hearing Juro scald him? Or was it a bullet? My friends and I never questioned him after that, it was just one of those things we didn't want to talk about anymore. We never saw him again after that, and so his fate remained ambiguous from us.

To be continued...

Audio Entry 02/02 - Child soldier joining Annihilation

Recorded-Unknown Date

Other-N/A

Note found on back of tape: The child joining will be called R for the first week to hide his identity until acceptance into Team Annihilation.

The tape begins, Juro speaks first. "Have a seat please." Sound of a chair is head being pulled, silence for a moment.

"I hear you want to join us, please state your reasons." Muffled sounds from the outside of the room can be heard… it is currently unknown what the sounds are at the moment. [Scanning in progress]

"I want to get away from things... Things like family, trainers and stuff." The boy speaks into the microphone.

"You didn't want to become a trainer? Do you have any gym leaders or elite four members you want to battle some day?" Juro chuckles softly.

"Not really." The sighs, followed by a short sigh. "I-I wanted to do a job that matters, fame doesn't interest me that much. Travelling around a region seems boring to me…"

"You know, we normally don't accept children into our organization."

"I'm not a child." Silence for a few seconds. Voices from outside of the room can be picked up but the voices are too muffled to pick up.

"Say if we allowed you to join our cause, then what?"

"I would want training, I want to become strong and help in any way I can for Team Annihilation."

Juro sighs, "A 12 year old like yourself could... well I suppose we could teach you the basics on how to use a weapon properly and CQC."

"CQC?" a loud banging noise is heard 2 seconds prior to the boys last word.

"Close Quarter Combat. One of our members will be like a mentor to you, so whatever they say you do it, okay?"

"Yes sir."

"Welcome to Team Annihilation, son." Silence….

*Audio tape skips to another conversation with Juro and an unknown member of Annihilation*

An adult male's voice can be heard on the tape. "Why are you accepting children into this team? Children have no place here." Gunfire can be heard from multiple guns, it is possible they are from a training area.

"16 already have asked us and signed the form to join Annihilation. Most of these children have lost those that have been taken from them. Harming innocents wasn't and isn't my plan."

The unidentified man sighs, "You know, other members have asked if they could bring their children here, they believe it will be safer for them. I suppose we could ask Martha if she would want to take in more children here."

*Silence for a 1 and a half minute.*

"But they want to fight with us!" the unidentified man shouts hitting a hard hollow surface.

"We need all the help we can get to end this war with those scum of this diseased planet. Every Annihilation member will help us achieve our goals. I have waited far too long for my dream to become a reality, soon that dream will be."

*Audio tape ends.*

Actions:

Find out the identity of the child soldier is.

The Annihilation member Martha is confirmed still alive. Savior ranks 01 and 02 must deal with her as soon as possible.

[ACTION DELETED]