Chapter 35 – The Great Prison

The Great Prison – Kanto Region 1701

It happened again immediately after we had just left the portal of this time, a recurring theme in our travels through time… we were found and captured by the people here and locked inside (you guessed it) another prison, but this prison was unlike any other we have ever been in, this place was The Great Prison of the Kanto region.

The only thing I know about this prison was from an old book I read out of once when I was still a kid. I remember reading about the prison and how it was well known throughout the region to many as an inescapable prison from when it was first opened during 1567 and closed down sometime in 1710 or should I say ultimately destroyed during the Kanto/Hoenn war at the time.

It was quite the large prison, it was said to hold up to about 1000 inmates with a few hundred guards and Pokemon watching over them day and night. The inmates 'cells' were empty, no beds or anything for the prisoner, instead the inmate had to pay for things like that for their cells, they had to pay for food, new clothing and medical care. And to get money was to work within the prison, laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc. The guards didn't care if you didn't work or not, if you starved to death or needed to go to the medical wing to get treated, money or not they were only there to make it so you stay in the prison.

There were stories of inmates paying some of the guards some of their hard earned money to buy them protection or to bring them food, medical or books, it was what most of them did fearing that their neighboring inmate or random inmate a few cells over would try to rob them of their items or money or worse.

Around this time of the Kanto/Hoenn war, most of the inmates here were believed to be spies and soldiers of the enemy; they were treated unfairly, given less food, less money when they worked. The guards of the prison knew who the inmates were. Born and raised within the Kanto region; you are treated better than people of other regions, that was just how things were around here.

As for us, we were believed by the guards and most inmates who saw us to be spies travelling around with 'odd' Pokémon from other regions. Oddly enough they didn't take our supplies or our Pokémon away from us, it was as if they were wanting us to escape from here… or it was something else.

The Great Prison – Cell No.118 Block D

Yeah, there was something I forgot to mention about these cells inmates stayed and lived in, it wasn't just one other person with them, no… it was 10 others living in the same cell, some with better beds than the other, more clothing and more rations you had to keep a close eye on if you didn't want it stolen by the others.

Luckily in this cell were just me, Espeon, Lisa and Brent with one other but older inmate with a long white beard and bald, He was wearing a dark brown tunic and knee length pants wearing sandals sitting in the corner of the room leaning against the wall on a stray bed reading from a torn book. From outside of the cell doors I could easily hear the other inmates shouting and screaming down both ends of the corridors. I wasn't sure why they were screaming and shouting, but sometimes I could hear loud noises before I heard a scream, noises like clattering of metal objects and cell doors being rattled with inmates begging to be set released claiming to be innocent. The guards continued to stand idly by in silence not listening to either one of them.

Brent was pacing up and down the prison cell with his hands in his pockets muttering something about the anomaly ball who told us about how we could find Anger, that this was either a trap they set up or the anomalies do not want to help them. He was at this ever since we were captured and placed inside this prison… that was 10 minutes ago and we had only 50 minutes left to find Anger within this timeline so we can get the device off of her to use it to reach Infinite.

"We gotta get outta here." Brent finally spoke after stopping in front of the cell wall near the old man still reading from his book taking no notice of Brent at all. "I'm sick of getting ourselves trapped inside these prison cells almost every time we come out of those things!" Brent turned and leaned against the wall. "What do we this time? Attempt to break out and hope to find Anger in this forsaken prison? Just in case y'all haven't guessed it yet, but they call this prison an inescapable one for a very good reason." Looking up above the cell doors were a strange gem stuck in place glowing a radiant light. This was the first of many of its kind way back then; created by scientists in either the Kanto region or Hoenn (This is still in debate by many of who created these gems.) as a way to prevail in any battle against the enemy if they have Pokemon with them in their army. But these gems were only affective if the enemy Pokemon was within the gems small range proving difficult to use in combat. They instead used the gems for another purpose; to use in prisons to deal with both the enemy humans and their Pokemon. These gems were powerful, powerful enough to prevent Pokemon from using their moves anywhere within the prison. There were other means to keeping Pokemon within the prison; trade Pokemon with other inmates to serve as their protector, sell for food and a good amount money depending on the kind of Pokemon it was and for how rare it is… or food.

"So these gems are negating Pokemon moves within every room, every day and night." Espeon said looking up at the gem. "Is it possible to destroy these troublesome things? It's as if I am getting a headache from just by looking at them."

"There are a few ways to destroy them; heat, crushing them with strong machinery, or waiting 10 years for its power to completely fade." Lisa said. "But in other words we don't have anything to destroy them with, or the time needed to do so." Echoing throughout the cell and beyond with volumes raising high above the shouting and screaming in the distance was the old man howling with laughter patting at his lap with tears flowing from his eyes.

"What are ya laughing at, old man?" Brent asked raising an eyebrow at the man still laughing. "What, ya laughing at us because we are talking about them gems, planning on destroying them to escape? Cause if that is the case then no wonder your alone in this cell… everyone else saw through your craziness, I tell ya what."

"No-No, I ain't trying to offend y'all." He laughed placing his book beside him "It's just that back in my time when new folks be entering the first thing they talk 'bout is the prison in general, not escaping'. I mean nothing by it, honest. Just never heard new folks talk 'bout escaping immediately after they were brought in. Woo boy, that's a new one." The old man sat up against the brick wall behind him and smiled again. "Where y'all from? Cause that accent some of y'all have is a dead giveaway if ya tryin' to pass off as a native Kanto born human instead of a foreigner, a spy as most would call 'em. Folks round this prison *whistles* tear out ya hearts if given the chance."

"We come from all over the place." Espeon said. "Me and good old Bent you are standing next to are from the Kanto region born and raised… unless his origin story reveals otherwise" She said that last part quietly, but me and Lisa heard her from where we were. "LisaLisa here is from the Sinnoh region, and Zackary; my trainer is from the Unova region."

"Not sure what I find odd 'bout any of this." He said coughing soon after. "Y'all come from different regions, and seem to be good friends, or that there Espeon can talk… or somebody gave the wrong kind of mushrooms in my soup last night… and I usually get 'em once per month…" He shook his head and stood up walking to the center of the room. "Well anyway, ya were bein' honest with me, i sort've have a knack for knowing when someone is being honest with me or not, a really good thing to have living in a place, knowing who to trust and all. And you my Espeon friend ain't lying."

Espeon turned to me and smiled and whispered. "I like this old guy, let's take him with us." She turned towards him and raised her voice so that he could hear. "What's your name? Because I did introduce you to us, it would be fair if you told us yours."

He smiled and laughed a little, but his laugh was interrupted by more coughing. Clearing his throat he smiled. "The names Chuck. I am THE captain of the Saffron City Kanto army of 1650 to 1670." He said proudly crossing his arms. Then turned to Brent shouting "So don't call me old man ya foolish boy! That's sir to you!"

Brent saluted and said "Y-yes sir!" Shivering in fear as beads of sweat began to drip from his forehead and onto the cold hard floor as Chuck watched Brent stand as still as he could.

Chuck began to laugh again and pat at Brent's back. "Ease up there kid, ya alright. In fact, all y'all are okay in my book."

"I know there's still a war and all, but why are you locked up in here if you're the captain of the Saffron city army?" I asked stepping away from the cell door. "Wouldn't someone come for you by now?"

He shook his head. "Ah yeah, well the thing about this prison is the mailing system they have goin' on here. You have to pay the equivalent of three days worth of food you earn to get messages shipped outta here. Usually it takes about a week or two if ya save up often and don't get robbed in between… I tried to send messages, but ya have to purchase ink and a parchment and other stuff for this mailing thing." Chuck leaned his back against the same wall Brent leaned on before. "So I had to live in here for 30 years almost surviving on instead of tryin' to mail to people I care 'bout."

"Listen, this prison life sounds very… interesting and all, but we can't stay here." Brent approached Chuck. "We need to get out of here as fast as we can. Do ya know a way outta here?"

"So, you young scamps wanna get yeah hides outta here? Huh?" He smirked. "Why? What did y'all do out there before getting ya selves locked up in here? Because I wanna know what kind of people I'm helpin' here. Cause, how am I supposed to trust y'all? Could get backstabbed the second we get outta here, don't wanna risk it."

"We were travelling to many regions fighting against our enemies that have attacked many cities and regions and uh… well we are trying to locate their leader wherever they may be." Lisa said to Chuck careful at what she was revealing to him about us whilst scratching Espeon behind her ear as she leaned on her lap. "The location of their leader can be found when we find one of his agents, a knight wearing red armor named Anger. Once we find her we can find their leader and end this conflict before more innocents lives including those we care for are hurt."

Chuck stared at Lisa for a while before nodding. "Alright, alright I'll help y'all escape from here. Y'all seem like decent folk, but I will help. Tonight when the screaming dies down and the guards become less frequent on patrols-"

"Whoa hold up!" Brent interrupted him. "Did you just say you could get us outta here… tonight?" Chuck nodded, but before he could say anything further, Brent spoke again. "But we need to get outta here now, we can't stay in this prison any longer."

"Listen, I know y'all wanna see the daylight again as free people and Pokemon, but I can't take the risk on leavin' now. It's too dangerous in the morning." He said making sure his voice was low so that it wouldn't echo out of the cell so other prisoners or guards could hear. "At night it is safe, that is out opening, far less guards and we can stay hidden in the dark that way. But mornings, there are so many I-I can't risk being seen. The things they do to prisoners tryin' to escape, ya bearly can recognize 'em anymore on what they do to ya. I don't wanna die like that; I wanna die a natural death, not tortured. I'm sorry, y'all are nice folks, but we can't go now."

"Chuck," I said approaching him. "We need to leave right now, our mission is too important for us to be waiting in here. The longer we wait in here… a lot more innocent lives may be at risk. We are looking for a woman, a dangerous woman wearing red armor, in other words she is our enemy. We were told she was here somewhere, and we need to find her before time runs out for us." Chuck glanced to his bed still looking unconvinced. "She is teamed up with bad people, they are hurting so many people and Pokemon, our friends and family's lives are in danger if we don't defeat them now."

"Chuck, don't be afraid." Espeon said walking up to him. "We are not just some random citizens you'll find on a random street corner or store. All of us here know how to fight, and I know how to fight without my moves, without problem. If we work together, if we be as careful as we can possibly be, I know we'll get through this. We have gotten through situations like this in the past, and every time we make it as free people and Pokemon on our next quest."

Chuck stood there for a moment taking in everything we told him. It was clear to us that he was afraid, but we had no other choice. To return to the Time Dimension we needed to enter the portal again that brought us here. We weren't sure how long Anger would stay in this time for, we couldn't waste any time here or risk the portal from disappearing on us.

Chuck sighed staring at his bed again for a short while before he began to speak. "I told y'all I was a captain of the Saffron city army. Before then I was an interrogator questioning the enemy to find out if they's were lyin' to me or not… I had that kinda eye and ear to find lairs and those being honest with me. But y'all never lied to me once. But I will help y'all escape… right now if ya want to."

I looked back at the others all of course agreeing to go now. But how would we escape I wondered. Would Chuck call out to one of the guards or something? We didn't know what his relationship was like with the guards outside the cell or if he had hired help waiting for him for the word to move in so we could escape?

Chuck then knelt down beside his straw bed and pushed it down the cell until a large square shaped hole was revealed hidden underneath. "W-what the heck?" Brent stepped forward and looked down at the hole. "How did ya manage this one, pops?"

"I had this hidden for two months now. It's a surprise that the guards on the past few cell inspection days overlooked this and last month always overlooked checking my bed." He said. "They always seemed to be bothered about what kind of books I was reading. I guess since I am captain of the saffron city army they assumed I could be trusted."

Tunnels

Entering the small hole in the cell we found ourselves in the tunnels underneath the Great Prison. They were pretty old tunnels, so old there were barely any source of light down here except by the light of day beaming down through small holes. Chuck was planning on getting some material needed for the escape tonight, but the only things we had were our healing items and our Pokemon.

I was surprised after about 5 minutes of walking through this damp tunnel we encountered no guards or anything here. No one used these tunnels anymore and no one knew what they were for. Not even any of the historical records of this place even mentions the tunnels, only about the notorious prisoners they held here and certain events that happened in the last hundred years of the prison still being open.

"Yeah, ya can see why I wanted to go at night time; I hadn't collected the materials I needed to craft a wooden torch from some friends of mine in the prison." Chuck said walking a little further ahead of us but careful not to raise his voice so that it would echo through the tunnels. "Guards don't come here at all, so we'll be alright for now. Best keep ya voices down in here. You'd be surprised by how far an echo travels down here. Not even sure why this tunnel is here in the first place."

Following Chuck as he led us through the dark tunnels we passed endless corridors and rooms all resembling that of another cell block for prisoners. There were old prisons bars rusted and covered with cobwebs. Above most doors were the same gem fitted above, but these gems didn't radiate any kind of light like the one we saw in the prison cell. Espeon thinking that she could use her moves here tried to use Psychic to move something, but the gems power from above could still reach her. We just hoped when we finally reached the outside our Pokemon could use their moves again, especially if we were to face Anger we would be powerless to fight her.

"Wait a minute!" Chuck whispered stopping us from advancing any further. Chuck gestured for us to get as low as possible and behind some barrels outside a room while Chuck hid behind a flipped table peeking his head over at the sound of a loud noise echoing closer towards us. Peeking out from the side of the barrel I saw as two guards both with burning torches armed with swords stopped in front of us turning to each other.

"Search this side." One of the guards said turning away from him. "The prisoner must still be in here somewhere. If you see him, kill him. We can't have failures running through these tunnels like wild Raticate's." The guard walked away up the corridor while this one walked slowly towards us. We would've been caught if the barrels and flipped table weren't close to the doors on ours and Chuck's side allowing us to quickly and silently enter.

We had a few moments to think of something, hide or attack… no wait, if we did attack the other guard might realize that we were here along with this other escaped prisoner and they would call for more reinforcements making things a lot more difficult for us to escape from here. Brent hid underneath the bed with Lisa while Espeon and I hid behind the door.

The guard entered our room first, and surprisingly he didn't find us or search underneath the bed or the door, he just glanced inside then walked out and into the room Chuck was hiding in. The guard stayed there longer than he did when he was in the room we were in, but he then turned and walked further down the corridor and into other rooms searching for this escaped inmate said to be down here with us… or was he talking about Chuck or us?

Climbing out from underneath the bed and from behind the door we left the room together as did Chuck in his room meeting us. "Did ya kids hear that?" He whispered. "These guys are searchin' for another escaped inmate down here. Now ain't that quite a pickle?"

"How so?" Espeon asked standing beside me crouching behind the barrels.

"As far as I am aware of and with my knack for eavesdropping from time to time I haven't heard inmates ever talk about these tunnels or met those that are aware of what's down here. Even most of the guards are still unaware of this place, now this is an odd sight indeed."

"What does this mean for us?" Brent asked peeking over the barrel to see if the other guard that disappeared ahead of us was coming back, but he wasn't. "Will these guards cause a lot of problem for us?"

Chuck shook his head, "They shouldn't do, and these guards are probably talking about someone else. There ain't no way they know we have escaped yet. Guards check the cells every hour or so, we have only been here for like 5 or less."

"But let's not waste anymore time here. This here corridor shall lead us to an old cafeteria up ahead. Then we should find another room further up, and in that room is our exit out a here. So enough with the chit chat, let's get movin'." Chuck crouched ahead of us leading us through the dark tunnels careful not to cause too much noise.

We passed a larger room than the other two, inside were many old stacks of broken boxes and sacks covered in cobwebs. We assumed the other guard that walked in this direction was in this room, but he wasn't, he was further up, and that was where we saw him standing just outside the second room to the left. It was clear we couldn't walk down this way without getting caught so we had to go somewhere else until he left or find an alternative. Then Chuck entered the first room on the right with Espeon, Lisa, me and Brent following behind silently and slowly in a single file not to alert the guard. Inside this room to the left was but a single bed against the wall. Chuck was lying prone on the stone floor and gestured to us with his hand for us to do the same because the wall underneath the bed was a large hole big enough for all of us to crawl through it to the other side of the room. Lisa went first and so did Brent and Espeon. Chuck grabbed a small rock from the floor and pointed at a broken desk with a slightly chipped vase resting on top, he was planning on throwing the rock at it to distract the guard outside the room allowing us to sneak our way through to the cafeteria. Understanding his motive I nodded and crawled under the bed reuniting with the others crouched against the doorway waiting for Chuck.

All of us heard the vase smash just as Chuck crawled out of the wall and crouched beside us, taking a peek from the doorway and at the guard, the guard with sword in hand walked slowly yet cautiously towards the room to investigate the sound. When he had finally entered the room, Chuck crouched out the room and made our way to the cafeteria.

The cafeteria, just a little bit further and we'll be out of this prison and back to searching for Anger and the device that'll allow us to get to Infinite, but first we had to deal with the four guards in this area first. It was a large square room with many old tables and chairs piles in multiple places throughout the room providing us with cover to hide behind by the patrolling guards.

The door to our escape was right at the opposite side of the room, but to do that we couldn't go together, the guards would obviously see all of us together, so we had to split up and get to the door. Chuck, Lisa and Brent took the left side of the room while Espeon and I took the right immediately hiding behind the tables making our way to the bottom corer of the room.

The guard standing behind the table we hid behind was looking towards the doorway we had just entered from. If we had been any slower when entering we probably would've been caught… who knows what could've happened after that; a fight maybe? Run for it? Couldn't say.

The guard then walked towards the doorway giving me and Espeon a chance to move forward to hide behind the next set of broken down tables and chairs. We were now halfway between the entrance and the exit of the cafeteria hiding and watching carefully as to where the guards would go next.

The guard standing behind the broken furniture we were hiding behind was facing towards the doorway alone, the other guard standing opposite him was walking towards the other side of the room for some reason. Seeing a small rock beside my foot I picked it up. Remembering what Chuck did earlier by throwing it at the vase causing the guard to investigate the noise, I decided to so the same by throwing the small rock in the top right corner of the room hitting a few stacks of chairs leaning against the wall. The guard turned his head in the direction of the sound and walked towards the corner of the room.

"Nice going, Zackary." Cheered Espeon quietly while watching the guard still investigating the corner of the room just in case he returned back to his post or informed the others of the 'strange' random noise. Crouching towards the exit of the cafeteria, we were reunited with the others and together we entered through the exit.

Closing the door behind us we were met with something unexpected, we thought that this was it, that the guards had found us and we would be either returned to our cells… or new ones since they would most likely have found the hole by now or worse.

"Well, what's this then? Who's entered me secret home; other prisoners, hm? Or bloody guards!?" We heard a man laughing just as we shut the doors behind us. There standing in front of us holding and aiming a knife directly at me was a man tall and thin as if he hadn't eaten in weeks with visible ribs one could easily see from his torn tunic. He had long dark blonde hair and beard with many scars on his face. "Didn't know I had other roomies in here with me. Can't have that now, can we?"

"You're the inmate the guards are looking for, right?" I asked backing away from the knife still pointed at me. "Please, we just want to go through those doors and leave." I pleaded to the man hoping he would lower the knife and let us walk out of here. But another thing that almost always happens to us when trying to convince others to let us go is the other guy won't listen and attack us with a self laughable one liner they use.

"Sure I'll let ya go. Cut all of your heads off and then those guards will be sendin' ya all off to the gallows soon after!" He laughed.

"Uh… does this guy have any idea what the gallows are?" Espeon asked looking up at us with a confused look. This however startled the man back at hearing Espeon talk with a loud gasp allowing both Chuck and Brent to tackle the man to the ground. The two managed to grab him and knocked him down, but as for the knife still in the man's hand, it had sliced the side of Chuck's chest. Brent punched the man in his face knocking him out cold and helped take away the knife gently away from Chuck.

"Chuck are you-" Lisa asked but was interrupted by Chuck quickly saying with a nod, "I-I'm alright…" He removed his hand from his wound to get a look at it then quickly covered it back up. "Luckily it didn't slice me open too deeply… I'm good."

"That slice did look pretty deep." Espeon said glancing at the knife before trying to catch a glimpse of Chuck's injury or any blood. "We should search for some medical supplies and treat that wound of yours before we head out."

"No!" He quickly said, standing up. "I'm fine… c'mon, let's get outta this stinkin' joint; I can almost feel the warm sun on my skin again. Boy, it's been long." The odd thing about it was we didn't see any blood, on his tunic where the wound would be, or on the knife. I wasn't sure why we didn't ask about it then and there, maybe we were just too focused on the mission.

Standing beside the inmate lying unconscious, Lisa asked Chuck. "Did you know this guy?" Chuck shook his head and replied.

"Never seen the man in my life, whoever he is. I wonder how the guy knew about the tunnels and what lured these guards down here in the first place? Questions we may never have an answer to."

The Great Prison – Courtyard

Opening the door we found ourselves at the front courtyard of the prison. We had expected t see guards here patrolling the gates, but what we found instead were signs of a riot now. Prisoners not too long after we escaped from our cells did the prisoners do the same thing, released other inmates and together in large numbers attacked the guards some trying to escape the prison. A good handful of prisoners made their way to the courtyards and attacked the guards and some tried to the use the cannons to blast a way out which would explain the front gate was almost destroyed and ground now with small burnt crater-like holes everywhere.

Luckily for us the courtyard was empty giving us a chance to slip through the gates and escape unnoticed by the guards, wherever they were.

"Look," Chuck pointed out at the damaged gate. "Help me lift this up and we'll get the heck outta here!" We then ran together with Chuck towards the gate and lift it up with little difficulty since the destruction had blown at least half off the gate already.

"Hey, are you aright Chuck?" Lisa asked noticing as Chuck winced after lifting up the gate. Chuck then just nodded and replied with "Yeah, n-no prob… j-just h-help me move the d-damned thing!" Once the gate was lifted and out of our way we then heard something behind us.

Under the rubble near the destroyed stairs we could hear something; it was a woman's voice underneath. We quickly ran towards the rubble and picked up the pieces as fast as we could to help whoever it was trapped underneath. But after the last rock was removed revealing who it was trapped underneath, we paused in shock. "Oh look… *coughs* h-here they are n-now!" It was Anger still in her red armor with a metal pipe sticking out of her chest. She was fading like the other anomalies and knights before her. "Betchya wanted a-a b-battle, eh? *Coughs* Well… I g-guess you w-won't be gettin' o-one then…" Both legs had completely faded and were moving up to her chest. But clutched tightly in her hand was a red gem, similar to that of the gems the prison had used to prevent Pokemon from using moves, but this one was a dark purple that radiated light similar to the same portals the knights used.

"Funny… i-isn't it?" Her voice became weaker as she asked. "You have f-faced other knight's b-before me, and yet y-you haven't fought me… s-such a pity. I w-would have s-shown you a good f-fight. Or p-perhaps this w-was the best way…" She raised the gem upwards. "This was what you w-were after… r-right? T-take it… I have n-no use for it… n-not anymore."

"Huh. This was the easiest armored Infinite knight boss fight we have ever encountered." Espeon said cocking her head to the side. "But we still have one more armored knight to fight against, right?" Espeon asked as she tilted her head to look up at us. Lisa nodded and replied with 'Just one more' but with a saddened tone to her normal but calm voice.

Anger opened out her hand allowing us to take it the gem from her. After grabbing the gem, with Anger's other hand she grabbed my arm. "Take t-the gem or n-not… I-Infinite shall prevail… hehe… y-you will n-never defeat our m-master… a-and I shall l-live the life I a-always wanted…."

Suddenly, an injured but fading Flareon walks up and rests on Anger's chest. Anger strokes its head then says to it. "You've always been t-there for me, e-even when I became this...thank you my f-friend." The two faded, and just as the two faded completely, and like with the other knights we have defeated, a bright light engulfed us.

With the courtyard, the inmates fighting against the guards pushing them back and the shouting from within the prison have all faded and gone leaving only silence in this now bright silent void.

We were shown an image of a small rundown village in a region we couldn't recognize. The buildings were old, houses were falling apart and crops were dried up and water wells had been contaminated with dirty water, but the villagers had no choice but to drink it up. Sure you could ask why they had to stay in the village, why not leave and find somewhere else to live. The villagers could've easily done that if it weren't for one thing, the bandits that surrounded the little village draining them of supplies ignoring the endless pleads of the villagers to allow them some food and clean water to drink to regain their strengths, but to not avail their pleads were heard.

We then saw a teenage girl her legs and feet cut up and wearing nothing but an old dress as she sat together with a Flareon with many scratch marks on its body beside her sharing food together inside a dirty house full of broken down furniture and broken glass almost everywhere on the ground. The Flareon warmed her up most nights, tried all it could to keep her fed. And like any other Pokemon, Flareon cared and loved its trainer wanting to keep them going not wanting to leave the girl alone to fend for herself.

One night, the villagers were attacked by the bandits as they burnt almost anything they saw; building and villager demanding food to be brought to them. The girl and her Flareon were caught in the attack and were brutally attacked and left for dead.

The girl in her last moments alive could still see the villagers attempt to flee from the bandits, but no matter how young or old they were, they were still attacked or killed by the bandits howling with laughter as they watched the people they had ordered around for months on end scream and tortured to death.

The girl then felt her Flareon fall on her chest, it only took her a short brief moment to see the arrow sticking out of its back from the bandits attack, and her Flareon was now dead. She looked around to see that a strong fire had surrounded them preventing the bandits from getting closer to them to finish the job. In its last moments before death after getting shot with an arrow, the Flareon had used a fire type move to surround them in fire to protect its trainer.

The last thing the girl felt before death was anger, anger at how her life in the village had to end this way. She wanted to travel and see the world with her Flareon… but all of that was taken.

The girl's name was Alexis, and after her revival, she was granted a second chance, a second chance at life as an agent of Infinite; Anger.

Somewhere east of Vermillion City and north of the Great Prison

After returning to the place the portal was near to and where we were first caught by the guards, we ran together with Chuck with no intention of stopping, we didn't know just how long we were gone for in that prison, but we knew it was time for us to leave.

"Boy, you kids sure can run fast when you want to… Phew." Chuck gasped for breathe resting on a moss covered rock. "But we are in the clear from them guards finding us anytime soon."

"So I take it that was one of them enemies you were talking 'bout, right? Got what ya were after then?"

"Yeah, we think so." I said placing the gem gently inside my bag. "With this we'll find their leader in no time. Thanks Chuck."

"Ah, no need for thanks, it was my pleasure to helpin' folks like you out. I was captain of the Saffron City army, ya know."

"Hey, you said you still were the captain." Brent called out pointing at him with his index finger. "Did all this excitement mess up ya memory or are ya making up stories?"

There was a small pause, Chuck sighed and nodded. "Alright, alright! Ya got me… I was a captain… of a fishing boat." Chuck said sounding defeated. "Saying that I was a captain of the army of Saffron, the first thing that came to mind when I entered the prison, sounded cool at the time when I said I was one. I was from Johto, not much respect by any inmates after finding out you were from Johto. I wanted to sound impressive to the others, wanted to be a hero to 'em. They love that stuff in that prison… no one ever questioned my story… always came up with lies sayin' I survived battles and took part in campaigns said to be the worst of 'em all."

"You have been telling me the truth ever since ya met me." He said looking up at us. "And I was lyin' to y'all 'bout my life. I'm sorry."

"What did you do to end up in the prison?" Espeon asked. Chuck glanced down at the ground.

"We weren't gettin' a bite, so this other ship catches a massive load and thought I could take a handful of 'em to get me through the month. But I was caught… that was so long ago now, missed so much of my life because of that stupid decision. Lost so many friends because of that, my family… *Sighs* wish I could go back and change all that, but now I can't." He nodded to himself before looking up at us. "We should split up, get as far away from here as we can possibly get."

"We'll be fine." I said. "Thank you Chuck, for everything." Chuck smiled back and watched us walk away leaving through the forest towards the portal. But not before Brent looked back and shouted back.

"And get that injury looked after, ya hear!?" Chuck waved back again before covering his wound again. Chuck remained on that rock long after we had left staring in the direction we had disappeared into.

In historic records about the Great Prison, there was some information about the riots, the same one we used to escape the prison from. The document however didn't mention anyone escaping, not Chuck, or anyone of us. Nothing was ever mentioned of a Chuck ever existing in that prison to begin with. There was still documents from the early 16s until the prison closed early 17s of who was incarcerated within the prison, no one there was named Chuck.

Chuck glanced down at his feet sighing at what he saw, the pain didn't affect him anymore. "Good luck kids." Chuck said quietly as his entire body began to fade from existence. "I came to this timeline to see if ya had what it takes against Infinite. Anger injured in the courtyard wasn't because of the inmates or the guard's fighin' it was the anomalies free from Infinite's command assisting you kids. I should've told you who I was… but I think it was better this way." Chuck smiled. "It was nice being treated as a human, as a real person. I know you can do this, kids. Free us." They were his last words before Chuck had faded completely, the anomaly once known as Chuck was no more.

Time Dimension

Using the portal to head back to the Time Dimension we were now back at the corridor with so many portals left, some we had entered and most left leading to different times still unexplored by us, but we needed to fight against Infinite and stop him for good. If Anger never had the device that would lead us directly to Infinite's location, we would've walked down that corridor for as long as we could.

Holding up the gem up for a short while, the gem glowed and levitated off my hand and a portal emerged right in front of us. It was the same dark purple portals the anomalies and knights used. This was it, this was how we would find Infinite and put a stop to the Time Crisis once and for all.

"Ya know," Brent said scratching the back of his head. "I gotta say, outta all of my missions I ever had with the Savior's, this has got to be my best one. Well, if I hadn't agreed on doing this mission I wouldn't have met you guys; beating bad guys together, travelling through time both past and future was defiantly a sight to see. So even after we finish this up and return to the present, I just want to say that it I'm glad to have met you guys. Especially people I'm glad to call my friends."

"Even me?" Espeon asked smiling up at him. Brent rolled his eyes but in the end smiled back. "Yes Espeon, especially you."

We stood for a moment standing in front of the portal, Lisa glanced back to where the portal to our time was finding it now gone. "So it's just; Greed the final armored knight of Infinite, Requiem, and Infinite left to take care of. This may be difficult, but I'm sure we can do this." Lisa said retuning to face the portal with us. "But we mustn't be careless."

"Once we go through this portal, there is no turning back." Espeon said her eyes still fixated on the portal ahead of us. "So in other words; this is the final dungeon before the end. So now is the best and only opportunity for us to go back and finish some unfinished task; Secret bosses, side quests, collection, or maybe we could level up a little, stock up on supplies before we tackle the big bad."

Espeon finally looked up at me and asked. "So Zackary, are you ready to end this anomaly crisis once and for all?"

To be continued...

Trivia:

In the original, there were five agents of Infinite; Happy, Greed, Anger, Fear and the cut character Sadness. Sadness was meant to appear within this chapter alongside Anger to team up together to defeat Zack and friends. This was cut due to time, it would've been split into two parts, and I didn't want to exceed over the 40 chapter limit of the story. So maybe they'll show up in Side Stories section after the main story.