Chapter 35

"I...I can't hold on for much longer," I groaned. "You're slipping."

"Yeah, I know," Glade said. "And yet, you can still hold on."

"No I can't. I know I said that a moment ago, but now it's serious. I'm going to drop you."

Unova was in sight-barely. At least we were close enough for Glade to swim the rest of the way. And that, my friends, is why either Harpy, Latias, or Lenny did this job. Wait a freaking minute. Latias! I could be able to call her. Or, on the other hand, I could drop Glade in the ocean with the sharpedos.

"Help!"

I looked down to see him treading the frigid water. Why did this have to happen to me? Why?

"Hold on!" I cried, and plummeted to get him. As I was searching for some hair to grasp on to, an abnormally large wave came over us and pushed us both beneath the surface. I held my breath and tried to "fly" under water, much like an empoleon or delibird. It sort of worked, but I wasn't moving fast enough to beat the power of the powerful currents that existed below.

My heart was failing. Or, that's what I thought the pain in my chest felt like. Glade was actually above me. I had jumped in to kill myself. Then came the sharpedos. Five of them started circling us like a flock of mandibuzz. I thrashed even faster and finally broke the surface to catch as much breath as I possibly could.

This is it, we're done for.

I'm terribly sorry, I don't know what to do. Making you invisible and odorless is a tall order! I...cant do it.

Glade motioned towards shore. "I have an idea! Get on my back!"

"Yes, Mr. Lycanroc!" I shouted.

Haha! I get it! How can you make such hilarious jokes under immense pressure?

I perched myself right behind Glade's head, and from that position, I understood what he wanted me to do. I held out my soggy wings and began to beat them as hard as I possibly could. Glade screamed out.

"The sharpedo! Got my leg! Fly us out of here! PLEASE!"

I flapped harder, but I couldn't get us off the ground. We moved towards Unova at the speed of a jetski, however, which was good. Glade literally screamed the whole way until we slammed into the one of the many docks that littered the perimeter of Castelia City. For some reason, I blacked out right there. It was most likely from heat exhaustion.

Eric stood up from his bed and walked up to me. "I see. So you want to learn more about Mount Pyre. Arceus never told me that he killed your swampert to make me a replacement. I just thought that he randomly picked me to fill that empty spot in your team."

I nodded. He was telling the truth, I knew that much. Even though he didn't know much about Arceus's intentions, it would've been worse if he had just lied.

"Hey, I know that this may come off weird, but hear me out."

"I'm listening," I said.

"Okay, so I've been hearing some voice in my head-"

"YES!" I said. "So you've been hearing it too?"

Eric nodded. "Probably much more often than you, though. It's Arceus talking. And he's helping us fight against Arvil."

My eyes narrowed, searching Eric's face. "Are you sure? He could be bad. In fact, I know he's bad. Otherwise, he would have already blasted every single evil person in the world to smithereens."

Eric shook his head. I swore that if he corrected me one more time, I would have a gardevior create a miniature black hole and suck him in for good.

"The Hall of Origin is so far away from Earth that Arceus has only a small influence. Even traveling at the speed of light would take years for him to get here and personally take care of them."

I shook my head in disgust. "How convenient!"

Eric cracked a smile. "I know."

I uncrossed my legs and stood up. "Well, I guess I'll be going. Good luck tomorrow."

He waved me out the door. "Good luck."

I was about to shut it, but he had one more thing to show me before I left. He unclasped the belt that was attached to his waist. Oh!

"That's right, Brendan. I'm now a pokemon trainer. You better watch out, because once we take Arvil out, I'll come for you next."

Oh yes. A challenger. How ironic that one of my own pokemon turned out to be a human who is eventually going to be a major competitor.

"I like how you said 'once we take Arvil out,'" I said. "It makes me hopeful."

He looked me directly in the eyes. "Don't say that you're hopeful. Say that you're grateful. Even if we all die tomorrow, or get imprisoned, or whatever may happen, you will always have me as your friend."

I wasn't a crybaby, and even if I was, I wasn't about to show it. "Okay."

I walked out the door feeling like victory was in reach.

Arvil was in a terrible mood. He was considering rescheduling his flight to Kalos due to the fact that there was some kind of hidden mutiny within his ranks. What was he doing wrong? Wasn't he paying his admins and grunts enough already? Nero was going to be ticked off if he didn't hurry up with the PC hacking mission.

Since the server was located at the poke ball factory only (no where else), he would have to physically go there himself. He would've sent Beatrice to fulfill the task a few days ago, but now he didn't trust anyone due to the fiasco that happened very recently.

"Is the cargo ready to go?" he asked the nearest grunt with a clipboard.

"Almost, sir. Lunala is caged and already with the cargo in the plane."

"Good. Let me double-check who the pilot is." He looked at the names of the flight attendants. "Seems good. Notify the pilots to fuel up and be ready to fly in an hour."

The grunt's face paled for a split second, but that look passed quickly. "Y-yes sir."

Once Arvil had gone off somewhere else, the grunt held up the small hidden communicator attached to his right forearm. From a distance, it looked like he was dabbing or something weird like that.

"Mr. C. Bad news. For unknown reasons Arvil decided to leave for Kalos twelve hours earlier than anticipated."

A burst of curse words came from the opposite end.

"You're going to wake the kids up, aren't you?"

"Yes. They're going to be upset. Hopefully they got all of the energy they needed from those three hours of sleep. The time to act is now, Sammy. Stand by at Arvil's headquarters."

"You got it," the spy said. The line broke, leaving Samuel alone in his thoughts. He watched his fellow grunts walk in different directions down the hallway on various assignments. He wondered how many of them actually thought that what they were doing was right. He guessed that it was about half. He was more accurate than he knew.

The story is almost ready to come to a close. There is probably five to 10 chapters remaining, so bear with my slow updates. You will see why Lunala is getting special treatment from Arvil pretty soon. Also, Nero is someone you'll learn more about in book two. Yes there is a book two. Thank you for reading, and you're welcome.

-PatrioticSwellow