Chapter Twenty-Seven - Assimilate
Day 15, 7:35 pm...around 5 minutes before the ending of last chapter.

It was quiet—maybe too quiet. The door was shut and sealed as normal, and James had on a pair of one of Lexi's pink headphones that he borrowed so the thick atmosphere didn't alert him. He was focusing on cracking the code—he was so very close—just one last variable to check—

"Shazam!" He cried, slamming down the laptop. "I FOUND IT!" With momentous joy he sprung from the suite bed and swished his hips and bumped his arms around, knocking the headphones off his ears and the screen shades from the bridge of his nose. Mid-dance he stopped and quickly wrote down the coordinates before he forgot them.

Just in case, he went to Google Space Maps and typed in the coordinates. The process would take a few minutes, so he closed the laptop and stuck it into his pocket. Then he resumed to dance around, wearing the cool headphones and glasses again.

I did it! I did it! Yo lo hice, I did it! I cracked the code! He was so proud he couldn't wait to tell anyone! Oh—but who to tell first? Lexi was at the beach pier departing from her parents who were taking a ship back to shore while Daniel was—err—it was really hard to tell, he could be anywhere on the island. Serena had gone somewhere too, and he wasn't too fond on speaking to Ashka or Gerard either...

He skipped down the hallway, half victory-geek dancing with the folded laptop creeping out his pocket. As he navigated around he failed to realize the absence of people, or moving sidewalks, or helpful 'bots. Either from the amazing discovery or from the loud music drumming in his ears, he was only half there.

He came upon the lobby now, after stepping on the wet carpeting next to the girls' bathroom. His mind came into focus now when he noticed all the TVs were off their regular pokéball screensaver. Cautiously he took off the glasses and slid off the headphones.

And he finally heard the screams.

He rushed through the hall to the courtyard—he stopped mid-way, peering through the concrete columns to the sky that continued to flash an eerie, bright green color. A pent up emotion, within him in a cauldron—it was bubbling, and it was urged to be coughed out—excitement, he couldn't contain it—

"ALIENS!" He yelled in a combination of mixture and disbelief.

It set off the gathering crowd, from whispers and murmurs to calls and yells and then—screams. Now there were shapes in the clouds—triangles, like a bowl of tortilla chips, all silhouettes, going on for miles and miles in the clouds, no gaps—and the people in the courtyard were panicking and screeching even louder now, screaming that the robots had all dropped dead. Like frightened birds, almost all the people scattered.

James hugged the concrete arch, hoping to God that no one would squish him.


Sherry Brogan Has axxxxe else xxxicxd xhat xx xxes axx prxxtier xxxx xhe sxy? xxah ;x

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About 5 minutes earlier...

"Bye mom-unit! Bye dad-unit!" called Lexi from the edge of the pier, "Bye Jen, Terrance, Shane, Corey, Ashley, Candy, Lyla, Janine, and Kimberley! Take care! See you all in a few weeks!"

She rested her arm, smiling contently at the amount of hands that as equally enthusiastically waved their last goodbyes. The ship her family was on already disappeared into the night, and all the lights were hazed out from the fog. Her sideburn-rubbing friend sat on the bench behind her and watched her sigh at the sappy departing scene that occurred minutes ago.

"Must be a pain in the ass to remember all those names." Paru said once she finally turned around.

She shrugged. "I've grown up with them. We all share 3 crammed bathrooms. The mornings get interesting." She took the seat next to him on the chillingly cold metal bench. Paru stared down at the rippling ocean waters while Lexi stared longingly at the sky and the grey clouds that covered the stars.

"What is..." She started—Paru turned. "Do you see that? That triangle shaped thing in the smog?"

"No. I see several triangle shaped things in the smog."

Both their necks pointed upwards for further analysis. Around them, 'bots dropped to the ground without warning, happy emote screens blinking out, and regular civilians were beginning to get worried. The fog horn from another ship was impossibly drowned out by someone screaming,

"ALIENS!"

"Doesn't that sound like James?" Lexi noticed, turning her head to look at Paru.

He nudged her to look back up and pointed.

She had mistaken one triangle for a mural of hundreds—or possibly thousands—of triangles. Their presence created no gap in the sky as far as the eye could see. Lights were searing through the smog, further outlining the triangles, and they would flash green periodically. Lexi instinctively reached for Paru's wrist in preparations of some kind of escape. When the smog suddenly cleared like a blown out candle, Paru slid his hand back and held hers tightly.

Spaceships. They were spaceships. And by the formation and number of them, it was clear that it was an armada.

"Frak," Paru could only utter when the first beam of neon green sliced through the air, into the stadium.

The two shot up from their seats and began running, hand in hand, towards the lobby doors—between the others screaming bloody murder and running in the way, dodging more of the beams and the groups of spaceships concentrating on this area—and a person who was running directly on their left was touched by the beam of light—instantly, their particles flew up to the mouth of the spaceship that shot it.

Paru and Lexi didn't share a look. They continued running as if their lives depended on it, which it probably did. The lobby doors were locked with Nicolas on the other side holding the master remote.

Behind them, trainers were releasing pokémon to fly off the island, but some only got so far before being captured by the spaceships. The sound of the tractor beams were loud and startling and the closer they got the more serious it felt, and Paru pounded on the glass for Nicolas to pay attention.

"Open the door, dammit!" Lexi shrieked.

"Wha ba?" Nicolas was confused. He dropped the remote.

"I've seen what aliens do to humans in movies." Paru said dejectedly, setting his head to the glass. "They drill screwdrivers into foreheads, which if you think about it is really inefficient considering the skull and blood and brain splatters and—"

"Don't think like that!" Lexi shrieked. "We're going to survive this!" He gave her a look. "We can hide underground!" She shot back to his expression. "These things aren't going to abduct us, okay?"

Both dropped to the concrete when a green stream of light blasted right between them, knocking into the glass. Nicolas screamed in fright, dropped to all fours, and scurried deep into the lobby where the rest of the population was hiding. Rodolfo was nonchalantly walking down the red carpet of the lobby as if this "green light special" wasn't significant to his existence.

Behind the two on the other side of the door, one of the spaceships was so close that its nose tip could puncture the building. The marquee lights at the bottom of the ship reflected on the grass and they could faintly see the opening of the spaceship—a swirly portal looking thing, for beaming up things no doubt.

"Let us in!" Lexi cried urgently, banging on the door again.

"What's the magic word darling?" Rodolfo cooed, swiping the master remote from the floor.

"PLEASE, DAMMIT BEFORE THE FREAKS IN FOIL SUITS BEAM DOWN WITH THEIR LASERS!" Paru shouted. Lexi gave him a strange look for a half second.

Rodolfo shrugged. "Alright."

The doors zinged open. Lexi and Paru scrambled inside—a tractor beam lit into the hall—screams filtered throughout the lobby where other refugees had hidden—the beam took the carpet, a few plants, and somehow, only Rodolfo's shoe. Lexi frantically snatched the remote from Rodolfo and closed the doors, sealed it shut, and put it under security mode. Thick metal sheets closed around it so they couldn't see through it.

Rodolfo snatched back the remote when she let out a breath of relief. "Rude!" He shrieked, striking his nose into the air.


There were so many ships, so many that Irene's novice spaceship steering had them flying upside-down into a V-formation of ships. She knew Kai wouldn't like that once he heard the bunt end of it. Jun became a back-seat driver, frantically shrieking into her ear to turn left and right and "watch out for that tree!", to which she smacked him for just for wasting his breath. In a matter of seconds the two had flown past the armada and were now safe miles above the Earth, out of the abduction beams of the others.

Irene sighed, placing the spaceship on hovermode so they were just an entity in a smog cloud. She was now her entirely Bluman self, with no shame in her appearance. Jun was not comfortable with what was happening and the guilt ripped through him like ferocious spider climbing through his insides. He kept himself at a regular appearance, although every now and then Irene would offer him a bottle of water to drench off the cover up.

The two sat behind the dashboard, watching the feeds from the other ships. Humans and pokémon alike were being abducted and taken away. They got feeds from Lilycove, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and from almost every major city across Oceania. Holon and Sohjay were left relatively untouched, whereas no feeds have transmitted.

Jun swiveled his chair to turn away from the screen projected in front of the dashboard. He didn't like it and he wasn't going to lie—he still wanted to stop it.

"Isn't this...immoral?" He said, leaning his chin on his fist. Irene pulled down her headphones and turned to face him.

"What? The abduction?" She asked. He nodded solemnly. "I dunno. Morality wasn't in the equation when Kai explained his plan to me."

"Is this what Krude really wanted? To take over Earth?" He continued to question. "What about the other continents? We're only Oceania. What about Europe and Asia and Africa? What about them?"

Irene was tempted to glare at him for such a complex question. Why couldn't he accept the facts and roll with it like she did? "Here's how I see it—" she started, turning her seat back to the dashboard.

She opened the internet browser and pulled up the map of the world. Oceania was a midget compared to all the other continents that they hardly interacted with. The other countries had more restrictions on journeying and had exotic breeds of pokémon and plants they've never heard of.

She made points around the map with her finger, which interacted with the map and made marks. "We are here." She circled Hoenn. "Holon is the capital. Whatever happens at Holon, happens everywhere else in Oceania."

"Okay, I get that. That's why Kai implemented the one-pokémon policy right?" Jun asked.

"Yeah." Irene said. "Oh—and I picked up all your pokémon from the pokémon center just in case you said yes." Her cat smirk wasn't well hidden. She had predicted very well into the future to believe that Jun would come aboard the ship with her. Jun was merrily relieved that he didn't have to go back to a pokémon center to retrieve his pokémon.

"So the other countries then?"

"Right." Irene turned back to the map. "Kai is starting with Oceania...tomorrow some of our envoys that replaced the leaders of the other countries are going to call the signals for the ships. I guarantee that the whole globe won't agree, so we'll probably have to abduct a few million people to get the idea into their head."

"Will a million people fit in Krude?" asked Jun, amazed at the number of people that she was anticipating.

"I think so. Marrion is a huge planet with a lot of undeveloped land. We could use a million people to expand." Irene muttered. "This world will be ours in a matter of days, you'll see." She closed the map. He noticed the slight frown on her face. "It wasn't meant to go to the whole world." She admitted in a mutter. "We just wanted to be accepted back into society. We didn't want to take over it completely." She stood up and started for the bathroom where she sat for contemplation. "It was Kai's idea." Was the last thing he heard before she shut the door.

Jun sat back, still unsure what he wanted to do. He had a window of time now that Irene was in the bathroom. He could always lock her inside—but then it would give him away. There had to be something he could do...He got up and began walking around the ship. Irene had warned him that he would get lost if he strayed anywhere from the control room, but he was convinced that there was something in here that could help him.

He started downstairs. The hallway was narrow and branched off into rooms but all of them were empty—there was just a kitchen, an in-home theater, bathrooms, guest bedrooms, game rooms, and then an observation deck below the nose of the ship where he could see the sky from a completely glassed in wall.

Bored, he returned to the control room after navigating around the ship. It wasn't nearly as big as the other ones that were invading the regions—this spaceship was used strictly for traveling from one planet to another, not for military conquest. When he found his way back to the controls he found that Irene was still in the bathroom.

He discovered another door he hadn't seen before because of the dark lighting, right across the stairwell. He ventured inside.

The first thing he notices is Ashka and Gerard inside a tubed cell.

Gerard forlornly sits against the wall and stares at the ceiling, looking as though he had completely given up on ever returning to the regular life he used to hold. Ashka sat next to him, staring deadly ahead. Once the door swiped to the side and there stood Jun, her eyes fixated against him. Her burning glare made it clear to him that she was labeling him as a traitor.

"What are you guys doing here...?" Jun asked, stepping closer. The only response they both gave were eyes of a feline preparing to strike. He turned around to check the bathroom door directly across, but Irene had yet to emerge from it. She must've just been there, sitting on the covered seat and reading 'Take over the World' monthly.

"I knew you were one of them." Ashka finally hissed, rising from the ground. Despite having been knocked down and exiled to an aquarium, she stood solid and defiant. She had a glow around her that seemed to rock the cage. If she was a pokémon, she could've definitely broken the glass with her mood.

"I'm sorry," Jun apologized. "I didn't want to do this, r—really, I don't..."

"Then get us out of here." She replied, her tone still over the border with clawing anger.

"Do what she says." Gerard said, appearing at her side.

Jun looked down at the device in Gerard's palm. "Isn't that Mr. Daniel's styler?"

Ashka smacked the side of her fist onto the glass. "Dammit Jun, get us out of here! We're wasting time!"

"So you know my name." Jun hadn't meant to make his smirk look malevolent, but that's how it turned out when he realized he wasn't the ignored guy of the group as he had thought he was. Or maybe he was ignored—but at least they knew he existed.

"Of course we know you're name. You lived in White Forest for a few years for Christ's sake." Gerard deadpanned. "Now open the damn door, got it?"

"You promise not to hurt me, right?" Jun checked. The two gave a single austere nod. He reached for the panel beside the doorway and swiped it with his hand. The door slid open. The two walked out, and Jun hesitantly watched them—

Ashka whipped around, slammed her fist into his nose, took his shoulders while his hands were cupping his face, and threw him into the cell. Quickly she shut the door, leaving Jun holding his stinging nose in confusion with eyes strained to look up at them.

"What the—" Jun started, only to be muted when Ashka muted the cell.

Gerard shook his head at her. "Was that absolutely necessary?"

"I'm not trusting any of them." She muttered, stomping into the control room.

"You didn't have to hit him!" He whispered after her. She made a motion, pointing to the bathroom door. He nodded and began locking it from the outside.

Ashka came upon the dashboard. It was a computer with another panel completely devoted to buttons and levers, and with her zero experience with driving, she had no clue how to start with a spaceship of this size. She found the button to press to turn off hovermode, but after that she didn't know what to do. She sat down and took ahold of the two-fisted steering wheel.

"Up is down and down is up, left is left and right is right. Right?" She muttered to herself, testing out the wheel. It was just like the one James used for the hovercraft. She tried to remember how he steered, yet the only memories coming up were the ones where she greatly felt like barfing on Gerard's lap.

"It's locked," Gerard said, "Hurry and get us moving!"

Ashka tried to take them off hovermode, but the second she did a warning message came up. A giant wave is heading for Fortree.

It'll be coming for them in Lilycove minutes after.


The madness of abduction had finally paused, and the rangers somehow were still standing in the courtyard amidst the scattered leaves and robots when the others were sucked into those spaceships.

"Why did they stop?" Megan asked Daniel in a frantic whisper. Both of them were hidden between the back of a wooden bench and a wide, prickly bush.

"I don't know. Stay down." He whispered. Above them one of the ships had taken the initiative to come down and was now casting a shadow over the entire stadium—or at least, a shadow from the moon. The portal at the bottom of the triangular shaped ship lit the courtyard with light, but the rangers hesitated to move in case they were spotted.

A beam shot forth from the ship and something dropped onto the ground. The ship rose back up into the air, far into the sky.

What was dropped was a Gyarados. A furious one.

The ships began to disperse from the sky, soaring in different directions but somehow still looking like a perfectly executed drill exit. Gyarados began screeching at once and thrashed. It became obvious that it was dropped here to destroy the stadium. With the spaceship threat absent, Megan pulled her styler out from her belt and stepped away from the bushes.

"Come on Daniel!" She said, preparing her baton.

"I don't have my styler!" He wailed embarrassingly. She tossed him a look of disbelief before going after Gyarados herself. "I'm sorry!" He called. She shook her head and aimed her styler.

Gyarados's were serpent beasts of the sea, more powerful than Milotics and faster prone to anger. It was a test of Megan's B-rank ranger skills to stop an animal that was toyed and tortured by aliens for who knows how long. It must've been from their planet—it had a strange, indigo scale color instead of cerulean. When Gyarados used Fire Blast on the surrounding buildings, the fire was blue too.

"Capture, on!" She called in a powerful voice that oddly turned Daniel on. With her baton and styler, she wrangled Gyarados into a clean white ring of light. Gyarados thrashed and swung around, but she expertly widened and narrowed the rings when necessary. Daniel nodded and cheered her on. In a final swoop downwards she sliced the baton, and the ring of light absorbed into Gyarados's skin.

Gyarados flung itself into the left side of the building. A great crash sounded through the area as glass and concrete walls collapsed, and shrieks of fright rang through.

"It didn't work!" Megan said worriedly, checking her styler. "Where's your styler?" she said to Daniel.

He shrugged apologetically. "Gerard has it! I'm sorry!"

"Why would—" her words were cut off by a loud siren sound that looped up and down in pitch. The two rangers' eyes widen. They were familiar with the alarm.

Tsunami.

"We need to get to high ground—" said Daniel,

"But the Gyarados!" cried Megan,

"OH MY GOD. THE INTERNET ISN'T WORKING ANYMORE!" James cried, still clinging to the pole in the hallway to the courtyard. "The world is ending! 3012! Listen to those sirens!"

"James, calm down! It's just a tsunami!" Daniel yelled from faraway.

"Just a tsunami!"

"Wrong choice of words." Daniel muttered. "Go find the others and bring them underground! Don't worry about us!"

James nodded and quickly turned back to the lobby. The triangular ships overhead were returning. Daniel took Megan's hand and started pulling her towards the hallway but she refused to leave without Gyarados calmed. It continued to destroy the left side of the stadium.

A beam of light spotlighted on Megan, and she began floating up against her will—her eyes widened, Daniel grabbed her wrist with both hands and pulled—

"AHH! Daniel, get the Gyarados, not me!" She cried.

She was trying to wiggle out of his grasp. "Are you insane! I'm not leaving you in the hands of the Blumans!" He yelled, pulling harder. He could feel his feet starting to come off the ground. He wound his leg against a pole and tugged on Megan's arm.

"It's no use! It all goes downhill from here!" She said, her eyes looking gravely sad at him. "I'm sorry...! If I don't make it through this, you can find someone else! I understand!"

"Don't talk like that!" He barked. "The only one I want is you! You and only you!"

Her eyes softened and he strained himself not to look at her. "...Really? Only me?"

"Of course only you..." He said, looking back up at her. "There's no one else I rather wait for at the altar!"

Her expression melted to relief and happiness and for a brief second, he forgot that he was trying to save her and loosened his grip, only to realize once she started flying up into the green light.

She gasped, and her tears twinkled beside her. "Dan—" she could not finish the sentence because she turned into particles, and then finally sucked into the large spaceship. The spaceship disappeared into the skies.

"Megan!" He called agonizingly. He couldn't believe that just happened. The spaceship will bring her back, right? Right? The tsunami siren sounded again and James ran towards him with Lexi and Paru following.

"We can't find anyone else!" James wailed. "Everyone is gone! Ashka, Gerard, Jun, Irene, Lucas, and Serena! All of them!"

"I told you guys to get underground!" Daniel yelled. "We don't have much time!"

"He's right. They had live coverage of the tsunami. It just hit Fortree." Paru said surprisingly calmly. "I could tell you where it was now if the internet hadn't blown out."

"What do we do Mr. Daniel?" Lexi asked. "My family just went on a boat back to shore! What's going to happen to them?"

"They should be fine, boats turn into submarines." Daniel said. "We need to worry about the others! What about Mr. Valacio? What about Amber and Imogen and Sherry? And damn, don't tell me you left Nicolas out."

"They're all underground." Lexi said. "But we can't find the others!"

Gyarados gave another screech. This time it was hit by something in the sky—a laser—from a similar triangular ship that abducted Megan, only this one was smaller. It lowered all the way down to the courtyard in front of the 3. All of them stared at the spaceship nervously, unprepared for what was to come out of it.

But—they saw Gerard waving to them from the nose of the ship, at the bottom level.

"Is that...Gerard?" Lexi said in disbelief, a smile upturning on her lips.

"What's he doing in there?" Paru wondered.

Part of the glass in front of Gerard must've had a door because he opened it and beckoned for them to come in. "Come on guys!" He shouted. "The tsunami is almost here!" They all ran, and once inside almost all of them gave a breath of relief.

"Who else is in here with you?" Daniel asked, graciously receiving his styler back.

"Ashka, Irene, and Jun." Gerard answered, closing the door. "I'll explain later." He took a CV radio from the side of the wall and spoke into it. "Ashka, let's go! I've got everyone!" He looked back at the others. "Where's Ms. Megan?"

Daniel looked downcast at the floor. "Gone." He muttered. The others understood instantly and their faces turned sour. The spaceship began moving up slowly. They could see black, sludgy, chunky water lapping over the stadium, flooding into the courtyard, swallowing the Gyarados, busting open windows, dowsing the fires, everything. All the stuff they left there was likely lost.

"My God..." Lexi muttered, watching the scene from the edge.

"Wait," Daniel said, taking the CV radio from Gerard. "Ashka, stop the ship! I see Rodolfo!"

"You're going to save him?" James asked with a lifted eyebrow. Ashka repeated those same words on the other end.

"A person is a person, no matter how much of a scumbag he is." Daniel muttered. The ship lowered to above the roof to where Rodolfo was standing, hands on hips with his hair flying behind him. Daniel opened the door and reached out a hand. "Rodolfo, over here! Come on!"

"What for?" Rodolfo spat. The black sludge was rising, pent up, threatening to seep over the stadium that it already gulped down. The giant tidal wave had left no traces behind it. "Why would I want to ride in that God awful looking thing with you?"

"Tsunami?" Daniel said, pointing. "Do you not see the urgency of the situation?"

"No!" Rodolfo said defiantly, shaking his head. "You are being ridiculous! There IS not, WILL not, and will never be a tsunami to consume a heavenly man like me! A low ranking ranger like yourself should not be making notions like that!"

A wave of water surged through, smacking into Rodolfo's chest. By the looks of his almost-hidden expression, something sharp had punctured him.

"Rodolfo!" Daniel yelled, reaching for him as he floated closer—the ship pulled up, out of reach, and Rodolfo was completely smothered. The black water of mixed in things had taken him completely. When the ship had backed up even further to see the whole island, it seemed that the tsunami had swallowed the entire thing.

"And now there is no Lilycove at all." James muttered, looking sadly at what once had been.

Daniel checked the radar.

Even if Rodolfo had his styler, it wouldn't have registered.


Everyone was sitting in the control room now. James took co-captain seat next to Ashka to aid in driving the ship, despite her steady control from earlier. They navigated above the underwater city of Sootopolis a few 50 miles from Lilycove. It was untouched by the aliens and they didn't see any more ships in the sky. They turned off the motor and sat underwater.

The situation was explained in detail by Daniel who had confirmed that all of them would probably be going home after this. If they were going to live in the hands of alien overlords, the best for them was to be in the comfort of their own homes. The teens looked crestfallen by then.

Ashka and Gerard then told of the two hostages they were harboring themselves. Lexi, James, Paru, and Daniel were visibly freaked that both Irene and Jun had deceived them the whole time. James thought it was pretty cool, but he decided not to voice it since the others had put them in bad sentiments.

"What are we going to do now?" Lexi asked, slumping her arms in her spinning chair.

"Like I said...home. All of you." Daniel said, looking to the downcasted eyes around the cabin. "Who knows what's going to happen now that the Blumans are here. All of our lives are going to change." He grimaced. "There's nowhere to hide now."

"What I don't get—" James said, catching everyone's attention, "Why did they abduct all those people? Why abduct if they're only going to take over our governments?"

"It's easier when the numbers against you are smaller." Daniel answered. "I only hope that Megan and Lucas and Serena are okay..."

In the moment of silence, a banging on one of the nearby doors had the others turning their heads to find the source of the sound. "Let me out!" cried the muffled voice.

"You locked Irene in the bathroom?" Daniel lifted his eyebrow at Ashka.

She shrugged. "The girl is crazy! I didn't want her to slit my throat."

"Unlock the door. I'll take care of her."

"She's going to try to reach for the controls." Ashka protested. There was a tense moment where both of their authorities were tested. She sighed. "Fine...just don't let her touch the controls." She beckoned for Gerard to unlock the door. He and Daniel went to the door, preparing to catch the beast banging on the door incessantly. Once the lock was undone and the door slid open, Irene yelped in surprise as the two guys each took one of her arms and lifted her inches into the air so that her feet hung.

"Let go! Let go of me!" She said. Part of her had been assaulted by the fact that she was the only blue thing in a room of cream and tan. She was embarrassed.

"You have questions to answer." Gerard said.

"And don't give us crap either." Daniel added. Irene pouted and struggled to get out of their grip, but even if she did she wouldn't know what to do next. The two guys sat her in a chair and hovered over her, casting shadows, unabling her to leave. Lexi and Ashka gave her an intimidating stare and Paru boredly looked around.

"Shouldn't we be questioning Jun too?" Paru asked.

"That idiot doesn't know shazz." Irene barked. Daniel tightened his grip on her wrist and she winced.

"Answer us truthfully. Why are you guys here?" He said.

"Really? That's the question we're going with?" Ashka asked. "I want hardcore answers that make her sweat! She ruined my summer vacation, dammit!"

"Oh please, I made it a hundred percent more exciting!" Irene spat, shaking her blue hair around wildly. Gerard and Daniel pressed her back into the chair when she tried to rise.

"Answer mine." Daniel said.

"We're here because we want to be!" Irene shouted, angrily battling his calm expression with her wild one. "We want what you guys have! An internet! A beautiful, problem free world! Millions of cultures instead of one dead one that branched from yours!"

"I'm not understanding." Gerard muttered.

"Let's try something else." Daniel muttered. "Irene. Who do we go to to stop this?"

"Stop this?" Irene said, giving a bitter laugh. "There's nothing to stop. It's all going according to plan. It's too grand scale to stop. No one can stop us." She added emphasis. "No one."

"Guys, I see something outside." James said from the dashboard.

Daniel shushed him with his hand. "Irene," Daniel said, "You know this isn't right. You've grown up on Earth. You're a human who happens to be blue skinned with...oddly shaped ears. Do you want your freedoms to be stripped from you when the aliens take over?"

"I am an alien." She replied proudly, her eyes narrowing. "My freedom won't be affected. Yours, on the other hand, will." Ashka wanted to smack that smug smile off her lips.

Gerard sighed. "We won't be able to get anything out of her. She doesn't know anything."

Irene glared. "I know plenty! And if you think I'm going to tell the likes of you, you're damn wrong!"

Daniel nodded. "Stuff her back into the bathroom."

After great struggle and Irene constantly screaming "No! No!", she was finally thrown back into the bathroom and locked inside. They didn't know what to do with her—if she wouldn't speak, she was useless.

The cabin rumbled and rocked to the left, jerking everyone in that direction. With several shrieks of surprise, Ashka and James returned to the dashboard and addressed every new problem that was popping up in red.

"We're hit!" James cried.

"By what?" Ashka said, searching the screen and complex buttons. "There's nothing out here!" James pulled up the radar. The grid was flooded by hundreds of blinking circles. They were surrounded.

"They're cloaked," Daniel said, sitting quickly and fastening his seatbelt. "Everyone hang on! Ashka get us out of here!"

Ashka pulled the steering wheel down full throttle, and due to not starting up correctly the ship jolted up and down, jerked the passengers, and James smacked his forehead on the windshield. He was glued to the ground as the ship sky rocketed into the air, faster and higher than they had ever gone. Gerard inched towards the dashboard and slammed his hand down on a sensor. The ship came to an abrupt stop, pushing everyone forward.

"Ow!" James said, smacking his head on Ashka's chair. "What the hell..." He muttered.

"What was that?" Ashka asked, turning to the others with disbelief. Lexi shrugged, trying to fix her hair from that rushing experience, while Daniel was holding his head and trying to get that combobulated feeling out of his stomach. Paru stared calmly ahead at the windshield.

"I saw them." Paru said.

Lexi turned and stared at him oddly, as did Ashka. "You did?" Lexi said.

"You couldn't have." Ashka stated. "They were invisible."

Paru shrugged. "Might be from my eye balls being burned out from hundreds of hours on the television...but...I saw those ships. Pretty hazy, don't get me wrong. My vision is crap. The ships were different...same design as ours, bigger, but the color was different. It was uhh...red and white. Striped."

"Like a peppermint?" James suggested.

Paru snapped his finger. "Yes. That. Odd design if you ask me."

Ashka and Gerard swapped glances. "That isn't a Bluman ship." She said.

"Do you think..." Gerard started. Their eyes shared a similar memory—just a few hours ago, right before Kai's battle, when they were eavesdropping on him and Irene. "The Pups?"

"You know, it'd be nice if you spoke louder so the rest of us could hear." Lexi said albeit a little obnoxiously. "Unless—if you're going to confess your love you shouldn't do it with so many people around!"

The two ignored her and turned to Daniel. Ashka spoke. "It's a different race of aliens." She said. "Irene called them Pups. I heard her talking about it with an accomplice."

Daniel nodded. "We should get farther away. Navigate us to Mossdeep."


Daniel had left the kids in charge of the ship a few steps outside of town on cloak once they landed in on the mountainous island of Mossdeep. Although he had said he was only going to buy fuel (premium kind, since he wasn't sure what it took), many of the campers thought he was going around town to say hi to old friends or to see his dad. Daniel didn't have that kind of relationship with his father to visit him first. Lexi suggested that he was going to see an ex-girlfriend, though Ashka was quick to shoot her down with the fact that Megan had been abducted, and the last thing Daniel probably wanted to do was fish for another girl so early in a grieving period.

"I'm hungry. Do you think Mr. Daniel will bring back snacks?" James asked, twirling side to side in his chair.

"We should call him and order something." Lexi agreed, pulling out her 'Gear from her pocket.

"Won't work." Ashka reminded. "Connection has been down ever since those aliens came in."

Lexi 'oh'd and slipped it back into her pocket. "How inconvenient." She muttered. "No internet, no phone. It's that magnetic storm all over again. Hmm...I hope my family is alright." She looked over to Ashka. "Hey Ashka, do you think your family is okay?"

Lexi's question seemed to hit a barrier that caught Ashka's attention. She didn't usually talk about her family, but being defensive or stubborn so early in an argument was petty. She had worries she wanted to get off her chest, too. She shrugged. "I dunno. I hope so."

"The invasion hasn't hit Unova yet." Gerard said. The others nodded in acknowledgement. If they could still access the internet, they would've seen hundreds of newspaper reports pop up about the invasion.

James stood and skidded away from the group, although none of them had paid attention to him anyway. He slipped into the room across from the bathroom where the cell was. He stared at Jun, who just sat there picking at his nails, in fascination.

"Are you guys going to let me out now?" Jun asked. "I didn't do anything!"

James came closer and analyzed Jun. Jun was greatly weirded out by his acquaintance. "Why aren't you blue?" James asked.

"I'm not blue." Jun said quickly. "I was never blue. What're you talking about?"

"We know you're a Bluman. We know what you and Irene are." James said. "Whose your leader huh? Who do we talk to ta rough up?"

Although Jun was certain James could do zero physical damage to anyone, he nevertheless gave truthful answers in hopes that it would lead to a closer freedom. "Last time I checked, Kai was head honcho. He's not being reasonable at the moment."

"Where is he?"

"I'm not sure, at the capital maybe..." Jun muttered.

"James, come here!" Lexi called from the cabin. "Something just came up on the screen! ...Ashka don't press it! It could be a virus!"

James scurried out of the room and shut it, leaving Jun alone. Jun grimaced and stared down at the pristine floor again. He was bored and antsy in here, and he didn't feel at fault for what happened. He wasn't the one sent out those fleets—at least, he didn't think he did. He scraped at a mosquito bite and the cover up shaved off. At the sight of blue he stopped scratching and hid the arm behind his back.

James joined everyone at the cabin, standing up and hovering around the dashboard as the windshield monitor gave an image of a video that was waiting to be played.

"Why would it be a virus? It's a video." Ashka retorted to what Lexi had said moments ago.

"How would you know? Scams come in every size these days!" Lexi shrieked.

"We'll never know until we find out." Gerard said, touching the middle of the screen.

"It's a live feed." James said. On the screen at the moment were birds-eye views of cities around Oceania, with past clips of abductions and buildings getting bombed and lasered. Fires broke out and buildings fell, but most of the destruction took place in Hoenn and Kanto. The tsunami also went by on the screen but there was no narration from the news anchors. On the ticker tapes at the bottom of the screen were, major blackouts all over the country and internet inaccessible worldwide. Those two situations scared James to hide behind Paru.

The feed cut to a room in Holon. It was the president's office which is usually never taped for broadcast so having the scenery there brought confusion to the teens. The fact that Kai was sitting there instead of their president made it even more unsettling. And Kai was blue, trumpet ears and all.

"Is it on?" Kai was asking someone behind the camera. With a nod to the camera he scooted back into his chair and smirked into the camera. "Good evening humans! I am Kai, and as you can tell, I am blue. Me and my friends here are going to have fun on your planet." He was surrounded by others of his kind with laser rifles in the military uniforms. "I'll be leading your country now. All of your government is under my control. The one pokémon policy still stands; also, we'll be taking one person and pokémon from every household and shipping them to my home planet. We need the genetics, you see. It'll be a good experience." His tone and smirk could prove otherwise.

"Damn him." Ashka muttered.

"To think he and Jun are friends." Lexi muttered with disgust.

"We have to go to his home planet? Are there good shows there?" Paru wondered. Ashka and Gerard glared at him for having a positive view on the intruding race.

The camera panned out to show the entire office. Things were moved aside and two people were on the far left. Both were frozen in place by a pokémon's Psychic and had bandana's tied around their eyes.

"Oh my God! It's Kay and Elliot!" Lexi said, pointing.

"Oh no..." Ashka muttered. She had a bad feeling that their time there wouldn't be pleasant.

Kai turned back to the camera and accepted a laser rifle from one of the guards beside him. "This is a warning for anyone who tries to stop us."

"Wait, what's he going to do?" Kay asked worriedly. Elliot muttered for her to shut up.

Kai switched around the ammo for his rifle. He aimed.

BAM! BAM!

Kay and Elliot were shot in the chests. Both were dead before they hit the floor.

Lexi gasped, turning her eyes away. Ashka grimaced and pulled her eyes to Gerard's chest. Gerard wrapped his arms around Ashka and rubbed her back, telling her that it's alright although it clearly wasn't. Paru gave a rude whistle, mimicking the sound of a bomb falling, that had Lexi glaring daggers. James turned his eyes away as well.

The camera returned to Kai's face. "I won't hesitate. Defy us, and you'll get the same treatment. Goodnight, all." The feed cut off. Lexi couldn't stand at the thought, and she had to take a seat on one of the benches. Two people that all of them had known—each creating different experiences for them—had just been killed right in front of them, in front of millions of eyes. Elliot, although he had been a jerk to most of them, he didn't deserve to die like that—not in the hands of Kai. There must've been good in him—there must've—he loved Kay, and she had been with him even when he got physical. And Kay—although the teens didn't know her as well, they knew that an innocent, bright flame had just been blown out just to make a point.

Ashka pulled away from Gerard and slammed her fist on the windshield. She wanted to break it. "Damn him. Damn him to hell." She hissed, glaring towards the ground.


"You've got the coordinates?"

"Yes sir Mr. Daniel sir!"

"Good." Daniel moved aside so James could reach the QWERTY keys. "Type them in for me." The decision sounded made but Daniel gave no elaboration to what they were going to do. Paru, Gerard, and Lexi were downstairs in the game rooms, trying to occupy themselves until a plan was made.

"Wait, so we're going to their planet?" Ashka asked, rolling up to the dashboard with her chair.

"No...I'm going to their planet." Daniel said. "I'm dropping you guys off at home."

"Alone?" James said, lifting an eyebrow.

"If you leave us at home, we might get sent there!" Ashka protested. "First borns are shoe-ins for first selection! I'd be better off risking my life with you on the ship!"

"No!" Daniel immediately replied. "I'm not risking your life! You don't know what could happen out there! I don't want to be responsible if you get blasted like Elliot or Kay!"

It had shut her up, sure, but it had also laid a blanket of grief on them again. Ashka shook her head. "I'd pretty much be a sex slave over there, bearing babies for their "genetic pool". You want that?" She asked, crossing her arms. Daniel sighed and shook his head. Of course he didn't want that.

"I don't want your head to be on the Summer Trek's shoulders..." Daniel muttered. "You lost all your stuff in the tsunami...even some of your pokémon..."

"My pokémon are all at home." Ashka retorted before he had anything mistaken. She would never put the lives of her pokémon at risk like she was doing. "And I refuse to get off this ship. I bet none of us would get off—right James?"

James looked up hastily, afraid that he was in trouble. Realizing what she said, he replied, "Yeah Mr. Daniel! Take us with you! We won't be any harm!"

"And you've got Jun and Irene here too." Ashka pointed out.

"I'm not sure what to do with them." Daniel muttered. "I'll probably drop them off at their planet..." He groaned. "But Lucas and Serena are gone as well...and so is Megan..."

"So we can come?"

That happened to be Gerard's voice. Behind him were Lexi and Paru, who had also been avidly listening to the conversation. They flooded into the room and turned into a chorus of pleads and reasons that they'd be an awesome addition to his team. Daniel tried to argue with all of their voices, but their numbers were against him. It was 5 against 1.

"Fine, fine, fine! You can come!" He said. Their cheers were washed out by the alert coming from the computer just as James input the coordinates. It was a call screen, but none of them recognized the numbers.

"How are we receiving calls? All the lines are dead!" James wondered. Daniel tapped the screen and answered.

Amber's face appeared on the screen. Behind her were two men in astroforce uniforms. She wore a similar uniform, and she looked pissed—as she always did.

"Mr. Daniel, where ARE all of you? You left us in Lilycove! We can't even find Mr. Rodolfo!"

"I'm sorry." He said, "I'm in Mossdeep with the others. Where are you? Who else is there?" He pointedly ignored the Rodolfo question. It would be better for everyone if he didn't answer.

"Me and all the other survivors of the tsunami are underground in Lilycove—in the ruined city. The astroforce against Kai has come in to help, but they've only been able to help out a few at a time. Me, Imogen, Sherry, and Nicolas will be last. Damn those aliens!" she screamed. The others winced. "They're ruining my summer! Mr. Daniel, are you going to let them DO this?"

"I've decided what I'm doing." Daniel said calmly. "I'm going to Marrion—we're all going—and we're going to speak to whoever is in charge over there. We'll stop it at the heart."

Amber rolled her eyes. "Words are fine, but that isn't what's going to get Kai's ass out of here. If you need an army, I can GET you one."

"I can't use a hodge-podge—"

"They won't be hodge-podge, trust me." Amber smirked. "Get going. The longer we keep communications up, the easier they can find us."

Daniel nodded, and they all waved good bye. "Thank you Amber. I don't know what we'd do without you." The sarcasm was absent from his tone.

Amber smiled and nodded. "Godspeed, soldiers."


She was in a pristine and blank cell with many, many other people. Whenever someone new was beamed up, they came from a teleportation pad at the center of the cell. There were children, teens, adults, and elders here. The aliens took whoever they saw on the streets and beamed them up. The cell seemed to be in a basement of some type, because the aliens could see them from a platform above. It made them all seem like lowly rodents.

Megan, naturally, took care of the children who were separated from their parents. Everyone was scared in a time like this, especially when their pokémon and devices were stripped from them. Even Megan's styler was taken, so now she was just an ordinary civilian like the rest. The people had yet to tell them what they would be doing with them.

"Her. Take out her. I wish to examine her." A voice from above said.

Megan felt herself being lifted by Psychic. The children cried for her not to go, and she tried to hold on to them as tight as she could, but their grip was ripped apart as Megan was sent flying upwards and out of the cell. She was sat in a chair in front of two aliens with their Mr. Mime. She couldn't move at all. The two people were dressed exactly the same—tight red two-piece uniforms—but they were of different genders.

"Who is she?" asked the male. He had scary, bulging muscles, but was surprisingly handsome.

The female with the clipboard moved aside the electronic files. "She is Megan Valacio, pokémon ranger. Look at her, she's so strong." The two aliens stared at her body appreciatively, but Megan thought of this "examination" as highly violating and creepy.

"What should we do with her?" asked the male.

"Let's see what she'll say. Mr. Mime, allow her to speak." Said the female.

Megan could feel her lips move. Her eyes narrowed. "You damn freaks separated me from my boyfri—"

The woman put up her hand and Megan was silenced, to her annoyance. "She's annoying. Maybe we use her for fetus production instead."

Megan's eyes widened. There was no way in hell she's carry any stranger's baby. The only baby she'd want was Daniel's.

"But she has muscles and experience in rangering. Perhaps she could tame the pokémon outside of our cities?" the male suggested.

"The pokémon outside of our walls tend to be taller than the walls we build." The female reminded. "But...she could come in handy. I'll list her for both."

List me for none, freakin' bishes because once my hands are untied I'm strangling your foreign blue skinned ass—

Megan's thoughts were thrown aside when she was literally thrown off the platform by Psychic. By some grace of the pokémon, though, she managed to land on the ground without hurting herself or others. She was quick to return to the children she had been with earlier.

"Miss lady, when are we going home?" asked one of the children.

Megan hugged her and sighed. "I don't know sweetie...soon I hope..."


Good evening! :D I knew I'd update on time! Or at least..hoped..

Anyway, I really have nothing more to say about what is happening. We've got a few more chapters until the end :P

Thank you so much to the reviews last chapter! :D I love when I hear feedback. Critism is appreciated just as much. Thank you to BNVshark, Zokolov, KingOfStories01, AshKetchumDarkSide, WolfehUmbreonWarrior, and Shadow of Eckhart for reviewing! :D You guys rock!

Anyway, I have another project due soon (I'm such a bad procrastinator..) so I will delaying next update around...March 24th-ish, maybe 30th if I can't get to it. I'm trying to update before I leave for Italy for Spring Break (I leave April 1st and come back the 8th o_o). Then I wont have access to a computer at all ._.

Thanks for reading! :P Feedback appreciated!