Disclaimer: I own nothing - has been said before, I think, but better safe than sorry, right?

A/N:Yeah, it's been a pretty long time since I updated, I know. Sorry. I've been pretty busy with other works of fiction. I hope this chapter will make up for the wait. Ash is going to throw down and he's going to throw down hard.

Now, I have to give a huge thank you to those who've reviewed. Thanks to:

Mercenary Flyer: Thanks for the review, and the thing with May was to illustrate another part of Ash's character. Hope this next chapter will live up to your expectations.

Noblenoisii: Haha. Sorry. Couldn't help leaving it there, really. I thought it was a good place to end it, you know, building up to the first real fight of the story.

blackicethunder: I try to write every chapter so it doesn't feel like it is just a "filler chapter". And I've always enjoyed stories where the writer treat the story and its characters like they were real persons. No matter how outlandish the powers and monsters in the book may seem, they have to feel real to the protagonist because it is real to that person - in this case, Ash. Thank you for your review.

Pyrrhos Nightmare Dragon: Thank you again for the review, but the real badassness should - hopefully - be this chapter.

spdyturtle11: Thank you for your reviews, that's great you enjoyed it so much. I hope that you'll like this one, too.

snooper roofle: Thank you for your kind words, and thank you even more for your advice. That's really the most important thing about writing, getting good and useful feedback in return. I'm not sure I agree with you, though - and I'm not saying that because I'm angry or anything. The exact opposite actually - but this story is written in Ash's perspective, using Ash's own words to describe the situations he sees, hence the overload of swearing and the "Live and learn" saying. People - or at least me - have some words we just use more than others. I have one or ten words I use almost every day, and probably a great deal more than I should. But then again, you could be right and I could be wrong, stranger things have happened. And I do see your point about being careful not echoing words - I'll look into it, and hopefully avoid it where it is unneeded and doesn't add anything to the story. Again thank you for your review. It made me consider some things, which hopefully will make me a better writer.

Thank you to all that have been with me so far, and an even bigger thank you to those that have reviewed, you make my day.

Merry Christmas!

And now, onwards with the story.

Painting the City Red

He didn't do it out of some misguided sense of revenge.
He didn't journey through the fires of Old and Dark because
he saw some mythical power to be gained. No. He did it for me,
he did it for you. He sacrificed his soul to give humanity another
day in the sun. He became our salvation because somebody had
to fight the madness. His name was Ash Ketchum – and he's Legend.
Always and forever.

-May Hutton

I adapted to the circumstances, I always had, Drew. We were all standing and looking at each other for a second, you know, confused as all fucking Hell as to what was going on – it was going down, baby! You know it's funny, the first thing that went through my head was not shit, there are many! What am I supposed to do? No, I was fucking excited, a fix of ecstasy burned through my mind.

I tracked May's progress, a half-thought tracing her path down the stairs, and came to some startling conclusion pretty fast. The monsters were not after me, I spent a half-second taking that in. I wasn't the target, man; I just stood there feeling all confused – and perhaps a touch insulted.

I mean, look at me, Drew. Take a look at the goods; revel in my presence like I was The Second Coming, because it's not that far off.

They should have focused all their attention on me!

A Pokémon screamed to my left, the suit identified it as a Primeape a split-second after I did and I got front-row seats to a bloody massacre as the motherfucker just jumped right through the elderly girl in blue that May had been talking with before, tearing through flesh and bones like it was fucking paper, man.

She didn't even have time to scream before she was down, her head no longer attached to her body.

Seeing that, jarred me into action – can't save them all, man.

I saw red, red-raw flashes of fury, almost blinding me, quivered my already strained sanity. I moved, almost breaking the unstable floor beneath me, and blurred into the fuckers face. I grabbed it between my hands, holding its round head-body… thingy – what do you call it. Bio-body, right – and I felt its skull crumble beneath my fingers as I squeezed.

It had a second to take it in, a precious moment between one second and the next where its eyes went from mad to silly-stupid and wide, and then it went far and unseeing and most certainly dead. I let it go and moved on, not dwelling on what I'd just done. It would only slow me down. And there were still screams in the room, a heavy stench of death settled over the atmosphere, and I was mowing down monsters turned mad. I was the only one that could, after all.

Innocent women and men were scrambling over tables and fallen debris, seeking cover from the madness they couldn't possibly fathom the meaning of, and I fought – as I'd been born to do – taking monsters down with my Aura faster than a speeding bullet.

A girl, who was younger and far prettier than me, screamed as a Pidgeot came screaming through the window, a shower of broken glass in its wake. I lifted my hand on instinct, a pool of sizzling, pure energy in my hand, and suppressed fucking Aura at the thing that would dare to hurt such an innocent thing as the girl.

My attack cut through the air between me and the bird in less than a second, slashing through its impressive plumage and through its heart. It crumbled in front of the girl's feet, dead and cursed. I was just about to draw my eyes away from the sight, and into the game again, when something caught my attention, something that wasn't supposed to be here now.

Laughter. The girl – woman – I'd just saved was laughing, all throaty and delighted – femininely. I shivered as a lance of cool pleasure shot through my body; going through this cold, steely weave of awesomeness like it was nothing.

Her body rippled with energy, changing before my eyes as if changing skin – like fucking Nymphadora Tonks from Harry Potter – and suddenly the thin form of a young girl had been replaced with the oh-so fantastic curves of Sabrina.

She turned to me; a little giggle on her lips like the world wasn't coming undone around her. "You have a world to save, Guardian – don't fail on me now, Ash Ketchum – I've plans for you." She shimmered, her body going in and out of focus as if losing the connection, and then she was gone like she'd never been there.

"What – what the fuck?" I was flabbergast, had she just teleported? I think she did – wauw? For a moment, nothing else mattered. She – no – what?

Moving on, I said to myself, turning my body and mind back in the fight. But my mind was still a little off. Sabrina knew my secret. Had she known it since back then, since the first time I challenged her all those long and hard years ago? Maybe, possibly, most likely, yes. Ah, fuck it all to…

BANG!

Something big and hard slammed into me, it didn't have Aura, and I was forced on my ass, busting up my messed thoughts and effectively turning the world back on. Sounds and aromas made sense again, I was unbound, and I was moving already. The little shit of a Raticate that had thrown the table at me tried to dodge as I came flying at it, jumping as fast and as far as its legs allowed it to. It was not enough.

My fist collided with its stomach, making it double over in pain, and I grabbed its ears with my hands, driving my right-knee into its head so hard blood pumped out of the back of its head. I threw its corpse away and went at it, hands blazing with blue fire, and shot at everything and everyone, my shots hitting the targets with inhuman precision.

I could do this all day – with eyes closed and a scotch in hand. Well, maybe not the last part.

They fell around me, and I stumbled in the wake of my beams of pure power. The people had seen me now, seen what I could do, and flocked behind me, taking shelter in the shadow of my tremendous strength. But the Pokémon had seen me, too, of course, and were also flocking me, but for a different reason, I suppose.

It became a slaughter there. To me, they might as well have been humans. I was mowing through them faster than weeds, pumping them so full of Spheres of Aura there wasn't even blood left behind. But it didn't matter, either, because the bastards just kept on coming, pouring in from the balcony like it was a gateway to another dimension full of blood-sucking demons waiting for something to eat.

I created shields that could withstand Hell itself, maneuvering it around to block the incoming arcs of fire and destruction. Rainbow-colored lights danced around me, humans screamed for salvation, and the floor was groaning so much I thought it a wonder it hadn't broken down already.

I felt to one knee, took a fucking knee, Drew, my will and power failing me slowly, painfully, and I was just a shaken mess of corded muscles and Aura that was fighting alone against something far bigger than me. If Sabrina could teleport, then why the fuck couldn't she'd stayed around to give a damn hand?

Fucking cunt! Yeah, I'm talking to ya.

My body ragged with so much pain even the damn suit couldn't dull the ache, man. I thought I heard May. Must had been my mind playing me a fool, right? I mean, I told May to run; she'd have been down with Lance now, getting her delectable ass saved, right? Right?

"ASH!" Ah, okay. So she hadn't listened to me, after all. Because she was standing right beside me, her revealing, red dress dancing so desirable around her hidden curves of untold pleasures in the vortex of wind and power, created by my power clashing with the Pokémon's. And she looked fierce and scared at the same time, standing her ground even through her own fears.

I loved her for that.

But it was a stupid-ass decision, because now she was an open target, out of the range of my shield, and the Pokémon had spotted their opening, directing their awesome powers at the innocent girl I loved.

I was beyond fury – at that moment I was even more inhuman than the machine I was inside. As if Harry Potter himself had swung his Holy wand, my shield expanded into a dome of scorching energy, encompassing May and the rest of the humans behind me.

And just in time to save May's life. The arcs of destruction hit my shield and were deflected up through the roof. "YOU DARE!" I screamed, out of my mind with cold fury. "I'M GONNA KILL ALL OF YOU!"

I pulled my outstretched hands into my torso and, as if following my hands, the boiling dome of Aura began to shake and move inwards, turning the heat around us up and smoldering the floor. Just what the hell was that floor made off? It should have been broken down by now. I felt the strain of my full power unleashed all at once, knelling on my one knee, my whole body shivering like I was ragged with the plague. When I felt it was good and ready, I threw my hands out again, screaming pure insanity against the madness of the controlled Pokémon.

My shield-dome – call it something else if you want, Drew – flickered with unspeakable power and changed into a sphere of super-hot, raw energy. And with nothing but a half-thought, the Sphere charged the Pokémon down.

BOOM!

This time, some of the floor broke down at least. The Sphere expanded upon contact, lighting up the whole damn room and making even my senses blinded. May stumbled into my side, the howling wind pushing her, and I caught her without taking my eyes off the chaos I'd created.

The lights fainted off, and I heard May suck in a breath as what I'd done was revealed to us. Hell, even I was a little surprised by the amount of damage I'd done. Barely three feet in front of us, the floor just ended. My attack had cleaved off the floor, balcony, and even most of the wall, leaving nothing but silence in its wake.

I hope nobody was down on the street because it's raining.

"A touch excessive, perhaps," I said into the silence, scratching my steely neck. I stole a glance to the side, shamelessly enjoying what the thin sheen of sweat did to May's body. "Didn't I tell you to stay with Lance?"

"Ah – yes… I – how?" May looked lost of all bearings, hugging her arms under her breasts in what looked like an attempt to shield herself from the destruction in front of us. She snapped out of it a moment later, taking it on a leap of faith, I think. "The roads were blocked," she said, all composed and sharp. "They tried to ship Lance through the tunnels under the streets to the Pokémon Center – None-League members and security personal weren't allowed to follow."

I raised an unseen eyebrow, feeling a headache coming. "They just upped and left innocent people hanging because of a damned protocol?"

May nodded. "Pretty much, yeah."

"Wait, go back a sec, the road was blocked?"

"Pokémon blocked them, kinda like they'd thought out a sound plan before attacking, which should be impossible, right?" May frowned in thought, biting her bottom lip. I wanted to kiss her, to make love to her, to fall asleep with her in my arms, Drew. I wanted peace already. You see what I meant, right? She could turn me, dull me – break me, man.

"You'd think so, yes," I said, trailing off, I remembered.

"Don't go all enigmatic on me now, Ash Ketchum."

"Would you keep it down," I hissed, glancing at the horde of people behind me. They still hadn't dared to actually move out from their hiding spot. "I'm trying to keep some form of secrecy here, May."

"Oh? Like a superhero kinda thing? Well, that's pretty cool – good headlines…" May lost herself in tomorrow's paper for a second, probably thinking about what to write already. "What are we going to do now?"

I smiled, still unseen, man, and took a step toward the destruction I'd waged. "You're going to stay here, and this time actually do it, and I'm going to take a leap of faith."

"Sorry?" May blinked. "A leap of faith, what do you mean?"

"See you later, honey. Don't wait up," I called over my shoulder.

"Ash," she whispered. "You're not making any sense."

My voice softened into something sweet and human. "Stay here, May, you'd be safe."

Then I jumped from eighty-seventh floor, free falling through mad Pokémon and fiery arcs of devastating attacks. May's frantic screams rang in my ears, and I turned the hardened mask of a seasoned warrior back in place – unseen and unbound – and started twisting my body in the air, firing Flying-Types down as I fell.

Before I knew it, I hit the ground – hard – landed in a crouch, and took off a split-second later like I hadn't just done the impossible. It was chaos, just terrible, dark madness of a hellish power unleashed upon a godforsaken world.

The concrete ground was on fire. Everything was on fire. Fire. Cars had been toppled over and lay abandoned on the road sides – and, you guessed correct, on fire – burned corpses, flattened and ashen, were scattered all over the streets. People were still screaming around me, though, there were still survivors; I still had someone to save.

But that was the farthest thing from my mind. I didn't know if it was the suit or simple just me that had a couple of screws loose, probably a bit of both, but I simply didn't see the situation in front of me as critical: it was a battlefield, sure, but it was also a test of my new, awesome powers, Drew. Something big and concrete to measure myself against.

I was fuckin' excited, buddy.

But even that excitement was dulled by the suit, hidden in favor of cold, hard logic and assumptions based on facts. Basically, it turned me into the perfect weapon, no conscience, no emotions, just cause and effect. Wait, cause and effect, cause and effect, cause and effect, there it was, man, cause and effect!

Why the Fucking Hell didn't our bigass cannons rain down one helluva godly firestorm upon the Pokémon when they attacked us? I looked to the stars and the masters above, wondering why the hell all the expensive defense mechanisms, which had been paid with citizen's tax money – my hard-earned money, I might add – hadn't blasted the Pokémon to kingdom come already. I mean, if they take over forty percent of my hard-earned money, then whatever they use it on better fucking work properly, man!

Yes, I'm angry – you should be, too!

Boyscout… Yeah, I'm talking about you, Drew. Do you bend over for them, too? Be a fucking man and take a stand for once in your pathetic life.

Anyway. I spent a half-second wondering why the Pokémon hadn't been gunned down when they first arrived before the suit provided me with all those logical assumptions and statistics. Power-failure of some sort seemed most likely, especially if you considered half of the blocks buildings were without power.

"Danger," the smooth and dangerous voice whispered inside my helmet and brains, and a moment later I was feeling it, too. A Hyper Beam screamed at my back. I spun about on the broken concrete, my movement taking me well out of harm's way, and raised my hand toward the Dragonair that had attacked me.

The blue, snake-like Pokémon floated on midair down the street like a boss, another purple beam already forming in its orifice. I was faster, though, I let the energy course through my arm and into my palm. A cone of ethereal light flickered to life, and shot out like a pencil-thin beam of concentrated power a second later. It traveled the space between me and the Dragonair, sixty feet at least, in the span of a second, carving through its forehead like laser.

I didn't even know I could do that, Drew! I just did it.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" I whispered, waving my hand around like it was on fire, as the creature fell spiritless to the ground. "What the fuck did I just do – and how do I do it again?" But it was a stupid question, because I'd memories of being here before, taking down enemies like that before. Aaron, and therefore me, had done this before.

"Ah, I wanted to fly…"

A girl ran out of a shop a little down the street, Meet your new friend today, the sign above said. A Pokémon store, then. Cute. What came squealing after her wasn't cute at all, though. It was a hideous, there's no other word for it, Drew, Jynx. And I swear by my mother's grave, it looked like it was trying to kiss the poor girl, kiss the soul right out of her body, I mean.

A second later, and I was tearing through fire and chaos to get to the girl's rescue – feeling my blood pump me full of adrenalin again. But I didn't make it, because just as I flung my Aura sphere at the crazed Pokémon, it got its clammy hands around the poor girl's neck and kissed her. She sagged immediately, I could imagine her eyes grow cold and distant, and she fell down just as my attack took the Pokémon's head off.

When I arrived to the scene, the Pokémon and human were lying almost on top of each other, uncanny smiles on their faces. Yes, even the one I'd just cut off was smiling like I'd just granted it its biggest wish.

That took my breath away. That gave me the sudden spike of the pulse, the fear.

It wanted death because it didn't want to do what it was forced to – because even Pokémon knew that's just wrong.

That was one helluva day, huh? You were there, weren't you? You saw how people act when shit hits the fan hard and merciless. We are like Pokémon. When all logic fails us, when the chaos is unleashed, when it is every man and woman for themselves, our precious codes and morals are worth shit.

We become worse than even the most savage Pokémon.

No. No, I'm not blaming them for anything. I'm not blaming them for thinking of themselves first in a situation like that. Hell, you could say I was thinking of myself, too, because I was bloody well enjoying myself.

Insane? No, I'm not insane, Drew, do your homework. I am a stand-up sociopath. There is a difference. There is. Are you or are you not a psychiatrist, huh? Anyway, I'd kinda been waiting for something like this to happen. I had a sound plan. Fight and stale. Give time to Lance to assemble his own personal army of Pokémon at the Pokémon Center.

I mean, with Lance at my side nothing could stop us from taking the control of the city back, right? My power and Lance's army of dragons and Pokémon trainers would see the insane Pokémon burned before the night was over.

That would have been too easy, of course.

I fought my way down Silph Street, blasting and slashing through hordes of different Pokémon. And at that point, I thought that I would be done and done by the end of the hour, maybe even catch some alone time with May, because it didn't matter what they threw at me, I just killed it.

I was good and getting better.

I end up at Wall Street and that is where the real party is, Drew. Sorry. That was where the real party was. Sometimes, it feels like I'm still in the game, you know, those burning memories that just won't leave you no matter what you do… no matter how much you just want to forget.

Forget is a bliss is a curse is a stupid man's game.

Or something like that.

But in any case, it was at Wall Street that the big guns were fighting. A small amount of defiant Pokémon trainers were scattered across the road, and were fighting with every Pokémon they could control at one time. I joined the fray, trying to stay alive long enough to not get dead, and watched as the good Pokémon and their trainers fell like flies around me – and I can – could – do nothing about it.

But then the light came souring on the burning night sky above. It was just so beautiful, you know, just beautiful. Lance and his dragon came flying through all those arrows of fiery energy, dancing on the sky like the most elegant ballerina.

The few Pokémon trainers that were still alive saw their chance, got back into the game with renewed energy and vigor, and started fighting back. And we were winning; I blended in and took them out in the shadows. We were fucking winning, Drew.

And then everything went from okayish to really fucking badish…

I jumped over the Flamethrower, reaching sixty feet easily, and rained down bombs of Aura on my attacker, a Charmeleon of all things.

Arcs of multi-colored lights, sizzling beams of energy and fire designed to kill and wage chaos, cut through the air. A large battle was being waged before the Gym, Sabrina's Gym, and I wondered if she'd sought cover inside the reinforced walls of steel. Then again, she could be in another Region if she could really teleport. At a quick glance, I panned out the battlefield and its contesters. Lance, riding on the back of his trusty Dragonite, had arrived not five minutes ago and was leading the battle in the air. The few Pokémon trainers still alive on the ground were scrambling head-over-heels, shouting out orders in obvious fear to their Pokémon. They were dying, all of them.

We were laughing ourselves silly, twisting round ourselves and firing at everything we deemed worthy of our Aura Spheres. We tore through-

I, goddammit, I… I was laughing myself silly, twisting round myself and firing at everything I deemed worthy of my Aura Spheres. Man. I tore through their numbers easily, savagely.

Men and women, dressed in official League attire, were running toward the madness now, steely expressions firmly in place, and jumped right into the fray with Poké Balls and enhanced guns. More wild, crazed Pokémon joined our enemies, somehow finding enough brains to realize that they needed to focus on this part of town.

All civilians were gone, killed or worse, the field of battle was evolving into a wasteland of death and burning destruction. A building was collapsing, a twenty floors terrace-house, burned and destroyed by a Hyper Beam from I-don't-know which Pokémon. It gave a mighty groan, the most terrible sound I'd probably ever heard, and it just… lost it legs, you know, groaned and collapsed.

All there was left was fire – fire and death.

I stopped, blinking, unseeing, I remembered again. I remembered seeing this somewhere else. I remembered running faster than my skinny legs could carry me, as Pallet Town burned a couple of miles down the hill.

I remembered it being my fault – always your fault, Ash Ketchum. Now get you head back in the game! – I jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding whatever that white beam was, tucked and rolled on the all but destroyed street, and got back up and shot a scorching shaft of energy straight at whatever had attacked me. It was all pure reflexes, really.

Lance's eyes were wide and wild. Heaving and pulling, he got the Dragonite he was riding to move, barely getting out of the way of my attack.

Oh.

Shit.

Lance screamed something, a comm link appeared on the side of my visor, and I realized the suit was hacking their frequency so I could overhear him.

Two seconds. Two seconds was all it took before the suit had hacked the secure network of the Pokémon League, Drew. Two seconds and I'd access to practically anything I wanted.

Two seconds. Damn.

"…Get that abomination of my street!" Lance screamed into his mike. Wait, what? He was looking right at me. I looked over my shoulder, I looked to my right, and I looked to my left: nothing. Even our good ol' insane Pokémon were retreating, like their realized what was about to happen.

"Ah, fuck it all…"

They were about to fire at me. The whole surviving squad of League officials and Elite Four and Champion of Kanto were about to fire everything they had at me. The air seemed to be supercharged in the moment between his order and when they complied with it. I felt the ground shake beneath my feet – or maybe it was just me that shook in my steely weave – and I could only watch as hundreds of enhanced guns and super-trained Pokémon pointed their attacks and bullets at me.

"…to fucking Hell."

I tensed every fiber of my being, enhanced cords of muscles and Aura, and pooled so much potent power into my hands that I could probably make this whole goddamn city go boom-boom. A thin string of ethereal light simmered out of my hands, so thin and lithe you'd think it was blue air. Slowly, it reformed itself, all guided by my intent, into a very thin, almost opaque, dome of energy. That dome shaped into the same size and form as my body and settled over my great weave.

It was kinda cool, but all I could think at the time was, what the fuck am I doing? But I didn't get to think that for long because they released their attacks just as I'd wrapped myself in this… thing.

The air was hot, the sky was black, only lit by the lighting that cut through it, and I stood alone against the power beyond Mother-fucking-nature. But you know what, Drew? Underneath the thin, blue shield, underneath the super-strong helmet, a shit-eating grin split my face as I reveled in the moment. Me against the odds.

I know who I'd bet on that's for damn sure.

I wouldn't bet on myself – just so you know.

BOOM!

For the second time that evening, the world became blinded, white lights and an annoying buzz in my ear, but this time I actually felt it. I fucking felt pain, and it was glorious, man. I could feel pain! I was still human!

Except, humans don't survive over hundreds of Pokémon and bullets blasting you down at once, do they? I was covered in smoke and dust, kicked up after the attack on me, and I used that to my advantages, spanning the area around me.

It was like someone had decided to throw a nuke.

I stood in a crater, deeper and wider than the building that had been caught in the crossfire, and wasn't sure if I felt awesomely scared or sacredly awesome. Because this was sacred, you know, standing on the scorched earth, with magma running between my feet.

I didn't even have a scratch on my body.

The pain was dimming already, though, and the dust and smoke was being carried away by the wind. Slowly, teasingly, I was revealed to the Champion and his merry band of followers. I thought about Giovanni for sec, where was he? Didn't he escape with Lance and the others? Were Team Rocket abound somewhere in Saffron, using the chaos as a distraction to go after the Master Ball?

If they were, I'd failed my mission to protect the Ball, because Lance and the others had seen me now, gaped at my continuing existence, and stilled in terrible, fearful silence. I was out of their world by the looks on their faces.

I broke the deadness between us. "Lance! I'm not here to fight you." In that moment, I hated this mechanic, inhuman voice even more, because it obviously rubbed them the wrong way. I pushed on. "We need to get the power to the cannons back on! It's our only chance to end this mess…"

"It – it speaks!" a Pokémon Ranger said, deeply disturbed tone of voice. He took a step back when I turned to him. "Stay back, you freak!"

My suit scanned his face – Patrick Phillips – scrolled down the side of my visor a second later, along with his entire life story. "Mr. Phillips," I said just to scare and unnerve him even more. "Shut up before I make you." I turned back to Lance. "As I was saying – before I was so rudely interrupted – we need to get the power back on, Lance, it's our only chance to set this right."

"What the fuck are you?" Lance hissed at me, ignoring my words completely. More screams and explosion waged in the distance, and I could see fat, fetid smoke rising from buildings streets and streets away. People were dying while we were having niceties!

"There is no time! WE HAVE TO GET THE POWER BACK ON BEFORE MORE PEOPLE DIE!" Okay, maybe yelling wasn't the best idea, but I was kinda out of it – had been for years, really.

Ha. Ha.

My yelled words must have been interpreted as threatening behavior, because even that big and mighty Dragonite staggered in the air, like I'd sent a burst of pure power at it by my words alone. But I couldn't do that, right? I wasn't that powerful. Was I? Am I, Drew?

Don't answer that, buddy.

Lance shook his head, holding his temples like I'd screamed into his ear. "Okay, do that again and you're dead," he said, voice cold and full of promise. "I'll ask you again, Pokémon, what are you? Where did you come from?"

Pallet Town, I almost said. I blinked, however, and looked down at myself. Pokémon? I looked back at Lance. "What are you talking about – no, forget about it. Lance, we need to organize a line of defense and we need to get the power back-"

Patrick Phillips, good ol' Patrick Phillips, screamed in primal fury beside me, it sounded like a girlyman's scream, man, and started Swiss-cheesing me with speeding bullets. I didn't even dodge them, raising my right-hand like Neo; the thin weave of ethereal light around my body sprung to my palm and deflected all the bullets like it was snow.

Silence ruled the air between us again. The silence spoke more than a thousand words. It was dark. It was fearful. It was like a brooding cloud of impending doom on the scorched horizon. It was a mad eternity of regrets and mistakes and the make-believe.

It was me.

"Ash! My God, Ash, what the hell is happening down there?"

I almost jumped in my skin of awesomeness. There were voices in my head again. And trouble on my burning horizon. But then I recognized the voice, the sheer bastardly brilliance in the old man's voice. The Old Man's voice. Professor Samuel Oak was with me again. I could see a comm link with his name-tag in the upper corner of my visor.

"Hey professor," I said lowly, cheerily, because nothing says I got this like false cheer. "Did I wake you up?"

Oak sighed on the other side. I could almost imagine his eye-roll. "I leave you for a couple of hours and the world is ending around you. Ash, what have you gotten yourself into this time?"

"Oh, the usual, you know, crazed Pokémon with intelligence on par with humans." I frowned at the horde of League officials in front of me. "And Lance is being a dick as usual, as well. Like I said, the usual. That was a lot of usual… I don't usually use usual so usually much-"

"Are you done?"

"Well and truly fucked, yes – sorry the language, but this is one heck of a ride."

"Are you done?" Would Oak really hang up on me? It sounded like he was close to.

"Yeah, done and done. So… got any ideas how to get the power back on, seeing as these assholes don't seem to want to work together?"

"The power? Oh, the cannons…" Oak seemed to do something on his end, playing with some kind of remote, and suddenly I heard the TV turn on. Oak sucked in a breath. "Well, that didn't take you long to make a name for yourself again…"

"What?"

"Look up," Oak urged me.

I complied with his command, looking up against the glaring lights coming from the helicopter above. Oh. "Please tell me that isn't a news-helicopter…"

"When I give orders to," Lance's voice sounded over our comm link, interrupting my conversation with Oak. "You give this… Pokémon… all you got. Shoot to kill, men."

"Lance?" Oak asked confused, franticly. "Lance, is that you?"

"The suit hacked the League's network. He can't hear what we're saying unless I want them to, but we can hear what they are saying."

"How do you know that?"

"The suit told me," I half-lied. The suit had, in a way, told me. It had showed me memories of something similar, something Silph Co. had been working on for years now. The suit just did it without trouble where as the greatest minds in the world couldn't.

"The suit told you?" Oak sounded horrified. "Ash, are you sure that suit is good news?"

"Yeah, fine news, the best of news. The suit just hacked their network in two seconds like it was nothing. We have access to all their files now, all their communication, everything."

"I'd say such a thing was impossible, but given what I've already seen that would just make me sound stupid."

"Ha. Ha." The sound of my laughter rumbled into the silence, echoing from me to Lance.

"Is it… mocking us?" Lance said, acting all indignant. He pulled at his Dragonite's neck, making it rear back its head with a sphere of something hot and dangerous between its lips. "Shoot this fucker down!"

"Get out of the way, Ash!" Oak yelled, sounding more afraid than I'd ever heard him.

I frowned. "Ah, no, I don't think so." I stepped off, planting my feet so solid in the crater I could withstand mountains, and focused the raw energy inside of me to something defiant and cool. "Don't take your eyes off the screen, Professor. I'm gonna be a rock star."

And just as Lance yelled, "Fire," and Oak yelled, "Ash," I released my wave of blue energy.

The attacks were coming in hot and fast at me, and my tidal wave of Aura was slow and heavy, but it didn't matter how slow it was because all the beams of fire and death were just absorbed into my energy, creating a wave of multi-colored, otherworldly power.

I turned the night sky ablaze, motherfucker.

One helluva monster-wave, sizzling with barely restrained energy, cut through the hordes of Pokémon and League trainers. But I'd kept my humanity with me, locked inside the deepest parts of my being, because the wave wasn't designed to kill, it was designed to push and distract, as I made a run for it in the wake of my power.

Like fireworks, the world was on fire around me. Men and women, strongest bunch Kanto had to offer, felt to their knees as my Aura slammed into them. I saw Lance loose his grip and fall down, his Dragonite not far behind.

I saw my chance. Blurring with untold momentum, I jumped through the air, through fires and falling Pokémon, and plunged Lance right out of the air. I landed in a crouch, skating along the dirt and rumble, took off running, and hid behind the nearest wall. Lance squealed in my arms, kicking and hitting at me.

I laughed.

Giving the man a slap to the head, I threw him against the wall, putting my blood-red visor directly in his face. "Where is the generator?" I asked, voice mechanic, cruel, and all kinds of intimidating. "Tell me where it is, and you shall receive no more suffering."

He spat me in the face, the wet liquid running down the side of my visor. That pissed me a little off; there weren't any windshield wipers on this thing, man. "I'm not telling you – anything," he grunted through the pain.

I laughed, strong and half-insane, I suppose, and tightened my hand around his neck. "Tell me where the generator is or every man and woman in this city will be dead and gone before dawn."

"I – I won't… argh!" I clenched harder, feeling his bones and tissue quiver under my hand. "Silph… Co. building," he finally said, hoarse and broken – ashamed of his weakness.

I let him fall down – of course it was in Silph Co. – seeing routes back to the building flash by the left side of my screen like a fucking GPS. I looked past Lance, seeing people and Pokémon panning the area close to us with my Aura, and made sure he wasn't dying before turning my back on him and toward the Silph Co.

"What – what are you?" Lance said quietly, controlled. I turned my head leisurely, giving him a blasé attitude with a half-look over my shoulder. All part of the mask, Drew – I was frighten by the question. Lance looked weak and oh-so tired, coughing up some blood. So something did burst inside that weak body of his. "What are you?" he repeated, stronger and less controlled voice this time.

Everything was quiet, the turmoil and madness were quiet around us. It was only me and Lance, all alone in the dark, dead ally. The shadows seemed to reach for me, not able to hold all the monsters that only I saw, not able to hide my most inner thoughts. I was scared, not of the world around me, but of the monster lurking inside. Had I really almost killed Lance – the champion of Kanto?

"I don't know," I said and, with all the masters above as my witnesses, I felt defeated already.

Fighting for your life is not a matter of skill or power. It's a matter of the soul, of the mind, of the sheer will to survive. And fearlessness is just a weakness waiting to be explored by your enemies. There are those who say that the fear of death is stupid, that it is evil. Those that say so, Drew, are what I call know-it-all idiots who have never been in a real fight in their life and just want to sound wise.

In a fight, in a battle, in a life and death situation, there is nothing more important than that jump of a pulse when the monster is about to rip your head off. That sudden jump tells you to duck, to dodge, to get out of the fucking way. That sudden jump, that sign of fear, is the impulse that will save you more often than any hard-earned skill or power ever will.

Don't get me wrong here, if you want to make a difference like I was trying to, you need those hard-earned skills and power, but if you were just trying to stay alive, you needed to fear death – and be strong enough to work past that fear. Or better yet, work with that fear.

The problem was, that sudden spike of the pulse, that tell-tale sign of blood-freezing fear, had left me. I'd become, from the moment I put on the suit, fearless. And that's just a weakness waiting to be explored by my enemies. I didn't fear death because I'd already died – died and reborn inside this damned suit – I couldn't fear something I understood so well.

We fear the unknown, you see, we fear what we can't understand. I know what it means to die. I know what it means to gaze into Infinite Darkness and feel it stare back at you, judging you. I was way past the limit; so far gone I didn't even feel the border breath down my neck with its putrid odor of Death.

How can I save you all when I can't even tell the difference between right and wrong anymore? How shall I ever find it in me to be a hero to the masses when all I care about is how much I enjoy waging havoc and chaos? Tell me, Drew, what I am, because I simply don't know. And the scariest thing is, I don't even care about that, either. Voices of Past and Olden whispers in my ear, tells me that war is won by the one who is willing to sacrifice the most.

For every battle I take part in, for every monster I eliminate – for every time I slay my own mortality and morality – the lines blur a little more, making it all but impossible to see where I'm going. I sacrificed my soul, Drew. Would you have been prepared to do the same?

But, Drew, I still have hope because I have friends. Cliché, I know, but I have friends that would never turn their back on me. And those precious few friends are counting on me to set this right, to show the world that one madman is not gonna win just because he has the power to control Pokémon with his will.

I will win, I have to…

I left Lance behind, blurring between damned wreckage and burned corpses faster than I'd ever thought possible. May was, hopefully, still back at Silph Co. and maybe she could tell me where exactly the generator was inside that building. My bet was underground, because that's where those things usually are, Drew.

Why didn't I just ask Lance? Well, he probably wouldn't have told me unless I started to get really rough with him, and I really didn't have the time for that. The world was coming undone, you know?

I barely made any stops along the way, throwing beams and spheres of Aura around here and there, trying to save what little I could along the way, trying to make that goddamn difference we all want to. The city was ablaze, though, great column of smoke and fire rising into the twinkling starts above. Buildings looked dark and abandoned, the power slowly cut from the whole damn city. You could still make everything out clearly, as if the fuckin' sun was still burning down on us with its rays, because even though the power and lights were gone, there was still hellish fire burning everywhere.

The City of Light had been replaced with the City of Fire – still lighting the world up like the Torch of Hell.

But that was nothing, that was easy to swallow, just as the dead bodies lying fucking everywhere was. It was the Pokémon, wild and insane, scatting up the walls like the Hulk that was truly frightening. They weren't even after something anymore, just mindless destruction when it was sweetest.

They hadn't been after me today, never had, they'd been after Silph Cooperation, but why? It didn't make any sense – if someone was controlling these beast, and there had to be one, then why did he or she not try to steal the Master Ball instead of just destroying the place.

Flying-Types split the night above me, circling humans like the reaper, and I threw arcs of devastating attacks after them for good measure. All just part of the bigger plan, chief, I thought, jumping over a toppled and burning car, and sent a burst of superheated, blue flames from my palm and into the bigass Nidoking before me. It crumbled under the onslaught, its purple hide, evolved to withstand any fire known and unknown to mankind, melted of its bones faster than a second.

I jumped over its lifeless and smoking eyes a second later, blurring through the streets back to May, back to Silph Co. and the generator to the cannons. "You know how to restart the damn things?"

"Ah, not entirely, no," Oak said, his tone hesitant, unsure. "I mean, I think I can work it out once I see it, but I'm not sure."

"Fantastic." I could see the Domain Tower a couple of blocks away now; it looked dark and dead, devoid of electricity like the rest of the city, half of the side blown to oblivion. It looked like a terrorist attack. Well, I suppose it was some kind of terrorist attack, a new kind. "Can you see May, Oak? Is she alright?" I'd asked Oak to hack into the security cameras, the ones who operated on their own power, and check in with May a couple of minutes ago. So far so good, I'd divert their attention to me.

"She's fine. How was it seeing her again?" he asked me out of the blue, sounding far calmer and teasing than he had all evening.

"You really want to talk about that now," I said, blasting three Pokémon away with a wave of my hand. "I'm kinda in the middle of something here." I jumped three floors and through the window, landing in the middle of the stairwell of Domain Tower, a shower of broken glass falling after me. "Eighty-four floors to go."

I flew up the stairs, sometimes jumping over whole sections, and felt Pokémon scale the side of the building, going up and down a few feet and a wall of solid steel away from me. Shattered bodies and smears of blood lined all the way up the stairs, some of them wearing those official-looking, dark suit and sunglasses. I thought I even recognized one of them as the one that had checked me not four hours ago.

This was the people left behind.

Damn how time flies, huh? I could see the end of my route now, smoke billowing down from there: not good. I couldn't hear anything but the wasteland of destruction way down below: not fucking good.

Oak was getting everything I saw. The suit established a link, remember. "My God, who would do this?" he said, as I caught a glimpse of a man split in two at the waist, a set of teethes digging into where his navel used to be. Oak sounded as sick as I should have felt.

"I don't know, but we're going to find out," I promised, jumping five floors up and latching on to the rails and hoisting myself up. "We'll avenge this…"

I heard Oak nod on the other side, don't ask me how, Drew, and nodded myself. We just made a silent promise to figure this out, because somebody has to fight the madness, man, no matter what the cost. "We will avenge this…"

I reached the smoke in record time, blurring right through it with all-seeing eyes. "May? Where are you?"

"Red?" May yelled. Red? "In here." I followed the voice, tracking it back to the edge of the destroyed balcony, the only place where the air was just a little clean. I can't tell you how relieved I was when I heard her voice, man. The few survivors I'd first saved were huddled together; seeking warm and comfort in their numbers, but May had risen and met me halfway. She didn't hug me, which I admit would have been a welcoming gesture, but she did looked mighty relieved. "How did you survive that fall?"

"No time, the Pokémon have gone mad," I said, feeling the suit edging me to get the niceties over with. "Look, the cannons should have blasted them out of the sky before they even made it halfway in here. Somebody must have tampered with the generator. Do you know where it is?" Why did hell doesn't Oak know about it?

May frowned, scratching the side of her head, and raised a perfect eyebrow at me. "Well yeah, I do – everybody knows."

"Great," I said and waited for her to elaborate. She didn't. "May, I've missed a lot of things the last couple of years. Tell me where it is?"

Something in my voice must have jarred May into action. "It's down in the basement," she said, fast and urgent. "But you need a password to unlock the doors."

"I'll just blast my way through," I said, already turning to do just that.

"No, you can't do that!" May grabbed my shoulder. And then she stopped, frowning in confusion. "Wow… it feels so real…" she ran her delicate hand down the side of my shoulder, almost caressing me, and I felt myself shiver in cool pleasure despite myself.

I shook my head, clearing it of past pleasures, and grabbed her wrist. "Why can't I do that?"

May snapped out of her thoughts. "It will self-destruct if you don't punch in the password first. The cannons will be reduced to useless pieces of junk."

"Great," I growled, looking over May's shoulder at the sorry bunch behind her. My suit was already working for me, as if knowing what I wanted before I did it myself. Bingo. "Take him." I pointed at a man with balding, grey hair and a white suit. "Mr. Jacobs knows the code – and how to operate the damn things."

May looked between me and him for a second. "How do you know?"

"Jacobs, get up here now," I yelled, making the man jump in fright. He rose up quickly, not daring to contradict my words. "You two are gonna save the city, okay? We need to get the generator back up and running."

"You're not going down with us?" the man, Benyamin Jacobs, asked me as he came to stand beside us, his words opposed by his body language that practically screamed at me to go away.

I shook my head. "I have a feeling that the Pokémon will storm this place the moment they realize what we're about to do," I told him honestly, seeing his face go milky-white. I enjoyed that – if he hadn't been so chickenshit, he would've gone down there the moment he realized that something was wrong with the cannons and fixed them. It would have saved a great deal of people. "I'm going outside to keep them at bay; you just focus on getting it up and running again."

May nodded, her eyes looked troubled but defiant; she'd do what was necessary. That scared me more than everything else that'd happened this evening. "Let's go," she said, looking with a raised eyebrow at me. I looked at her, my confused look going unseen beneath my mask. She gestured with her head down and I followed it, noticing that I still hadn't let go of her hand.

I released it quickly; thanking the masters above that nobody could see my rising blush. May smiled at me, expression enigmatic – perhaps even a touch seducing. She grabbed Jacobs arm and pulled him with her into the dark smoke.

"But how will the Pokémon know we're reinstalling the thing? And what if the ones who cut it off are still down there?" Jacobs was grasping for straws, hoping to weasel his way out of this madness that had knocked on his door.

May didn't answer him, but she didn't stop, either. And a moment later, they disappeared from my field of vision, braving the smoke and ashes of the scorched walls. There was nobody down there because I couldn't feel anyone inside the building, and the Pokémon would come because they already knew I was here. I could feel them drawing closer to me like a moth to a flame.

I turned toward the hole in the wall, sparing the rest of the people a second glance. "Stay here, help will come."

And then I was off, falling through the air once again.

Team work is important. Remember that, Drew… remember me.

I was born to do this. Born to fly, baby! I was born to defy the monsters and Legends that threatened to cover the city in Darkness-Neverending – and yeah, it is Darkness-Neverending, Drew – Darkness-Neverending and madness and illness and chaos.

Death and Darkness, the same thing, sometimes, but always and forever an instrumental part of my fucked-up life.

Live and learn, bitches. I learned the hard way. Still does. And I've said that all before so many times, yet never enough to make it known to the world that I'm just here to save it. We're all born equals, right? That's the shit of the century. We are all born with the gift of life. What matters is what we do with it. Yeah. No. What matters is what the big-shots tell you, Drew. What matters is how much and how well you can suck up to your bosses.

Funny thoughts, right? Those were the thoughts that swirled through my head as I plunged through the air, down and down and into the ground, man. I created a second crater, right next to my other, and set out immediately, panning the area surrounding Domain Tower for enemies and Pokémon turned mad.

There were coming from fucking everywhere, from beneath the ground, from the air, and on foot, all of them going for me with blazing insanity in their eyes. And they were big, holy shit, they were enormous. They were all grand cords of muscles, flexed and enhanced, like they'd been sprayed full of steroids. All kinds of Types, all kinds of sizes, all kinds of bloodlust, and all of it pointed at me.

Yeah, you know the drill, right? Fight until you have nothing left to give… and then fight some more.

I focused on my comm to Oak. "You got any ideas?"

"Do you have any Poké Balls on you?"

I blinked. "Sorry. This edition didn't come with extra pockets. Of course I don't have any Poké Balls!"

"Sorry, sorry."

"What good could a Poké Ball do, anyway?"

"If we could get our hands on one of the controlled Pokémon, we might be able to see what's affecting them," Oak breathed hurriedly, excitedly. "There has to be something that's affecting their systems to make them act in this way."

"Find a Poké Ball it is, then." I sighed. "You don't suppose Silph Co. will let me borrow their Master Ball, do you?"

Oak laughed with no humor whatsoever. "No. See if you can find some of those damned League officials. They gotta have spares, right?"

"Have faith, young one; is that what you're saying?"

"Something like that, yes." Oak hummed on the other end.

"I can't leave my post, though, May and that-Jacobs-guy need time to set it right."

"Lure them to you, then," Oak said, sounding like he actually believed that to be a good plan.

"Sorry." I dodged as a screaming column of white-hot fire cut right past me. The Charizard on the other end was colossal, not as big as mine, mind you, but still fairly impressive, and it looked hungry for burned meat. "Gonna have to call you back later, professor – trouble on the road."

"I see it – look out!"

"Got it," I snarled, as I raised my hand and caught the fist, ablaze with pure fire, and pulled it over my shoulder and hurled the Infernape the fuck off. Raising my other hand, I pooled a fuck ton of Aura in my hands, the grey skin vibrated with blue lights and shadows as I lit up like it was fucking Christmas, and fired after the trajectory of the Infernape.

I made it go boom-boom, Drew.

It became a fight after that – no, it became more than a fight, more than a simple struggle.

We were at war.

I turned the world and houses around me on fire with my power, firing arcs of multi-colored lights at everything that dared to get to close to me and Domain Tower. Some part of me wondered why the hell my Aura was more than just the normal blue color, but the other part of me was laughing blissful, brilliant insanity. This was awesome! I was feckin' awesome, man.

I was saving the day – and making everything go boom-boom. HA!

"HA! HA! DIE!" I snarled, fiercely, out-of-control, madness etched into my pretty face beneath my blood-soaked helmet. I let loose whops of delight as I blasted the Charizard to pieces, never spending a second to wonder why that didn't make me cringe – it was so much like my own, man – and I just kept pumping and suppressing them full of Aura.

And I just didn't tire. I kept unleashing my cold fury into something tangible and dangerous, tapping into an endless supply of power. I was the reaper, I was the man with the dice, rolling it and already knowing the outcome. I was the magician to their dwindling numbers. I was into it. It wouldn't have surprised me if I had a hard-on down there – somewhere.

I was crazy – batshit insane…

And Oak, poor, old professor Oak, was along for the ride, a not-so-silent spectator to my own undoing. "ASH! LOOK OUT! YOU'RE INSANE!"

I just laughed, not finding any shed of care to consider his words. I barely even heard them. "Watch me work, boys – because it's the last thing you'll ever see!"

An extraordinary roar split the air, making me lose a step and stop my single-mindedly war against anything that moved, and looked up, seeing Lance ride on his Dragonite like the fucking boss. He looked angry, no other words for it, Drew, just so angry.

"Kill it!" he screamed, going for me, and practically ignoring the rest of the merry band of psychotic Pokémon.

"MY NAME IS RED!"

We fought.

We fought and, Arceus forgive or forsake me, I enjoyed it. Turning the dust to smolder, ground to coal, we unleashed Fire. True Fire, Fire that could burn the very fabric of reality. He danced on the air, far more graceful and clear-minded than I, and somehow managed to control six of his Dragons of Doom at the same time.

I was fighting on two sides now, Lance and his Dragons on one side, and the wild, mad, and all-to-fucking-smart Pokémon on the other.

I was doing pretty well, all things considered.

I screamed a laugh out, which ended in a pained groan as I took a Hyper Beam directly to the chest; I staggered and retaliated with my own beams of Aura. My five fingers alight with pure energy; I released five needle-thin strings at the Dragons around me.

They tore right through the skin of Lance's smallest Dragonite, making it howl in pain and fury as it staggered to the ground. I've never seen anything fall so gracefully, Drew, it was beautiful. Just beautiful.

"Ash, we need a wild Pokémon. It's our only chance to find whoever's behind this," Oak said, almost pleaded with me. "Please, Ash, find yourself, son…"

I don't know even to this day if it was his plead that actually got through to me, but it was like a cloud of darkness and misery lifted off my shoulders, and I could find some semblance of Ash Ketchum in me again. "Damn suit…" I mumbled, changing my beam, which was supposed to kill the Dragonite before me, into a shield that took the brunt of the next horde of fiery attacks at my person.

But I'd not made it strong enough, didn't have time to, and for the first time that night I was sent staggering and hurdling ass-over-heels to the ground. Hurting all over, dazed and half-conscious, I felt the suit starting to work on my medical condition, fixing whatever needed fixing – probably.

Then something sweet and golden resonated all over the City of Light. I looked up, tracing the sounds to the top of the skyscrapers, and saw, with no small amount of rapture, as the roofs split open to reveal cannons – Cannons with a capital C, man.

Lance recalled his wounded Dragonite and looked to the stars, too, sensing that something was about to turn in our favor.

"Ash, you need to find a Pokémon before they are killed. Find one NOW!" Never heard Oak yell before, always and forever something new, huh? "Get a fucking move on, son!"

Did Oak just swear? I thought, quite incredulous. But I didn't dwell on it, not for more than a second at least, because then I was moving again, running faster than the eye could follow through hordes of insane Pokémon, scooped up a Poké Ball from one of the fallen trainers – and ran away from Lance.

But I didn't get very far before something big, strong, and ugly slammed into my side and caught me around the waist, and then I was flying, swept away by a beast. I didn't feel like the beauty, though, and wriggled around to release my hand and plunge it right out of the sky.

By the time I'd done just that, I'd realized two things: this was the third of Lance's Dragonite and it had carried me up to the eye of the Cannons. The Cannon zoomed in on us, and I thought for a moment I was gonna die with the beast, but then a red beam struck the great dragon and it dematerialized in front of my eyes. It was gone with the wind, man.

Ah, man, that's just not fair.

For one second, one precious moment in between one breath and the next, I felt all alone and unmoving, floating on the wind in front of my executioner. But then gravity took its hold and I descended fast and blazing and screaming.

I slammed into something else, and I grasped for something to grab a hold on. I found its neck. It's big, long, feathery neck. I heard it howl at me; saw it snapping its long beak at me. It was a Fearow, usually known for its bad temper – this time was no different, just with a touch of madness thrown into the mix, chief. But it was busy because now the Cannons had recharged again and was raining down a godly firestorm upon us.

I was strongly reminded of my first fight against the insane and unknown. Back then, I'd been flying on the back of my trusty Charizard, a Pokémon that would go through fire and death for me. This time, I was on the back of a thing that would've, if not for the columns of laser blasting down at us, tried to kill me itself.

We spun through fire and laser, losing sight of where we were going, and all I could do was hold on tight with one hand around its neck and the other around the ball. I tightened my legs around its trunk and released my hand from its neck. Shinning with an ethereal light, I slammed my fist down on top of it head with all my might and Aura.

It didn't even groan, the lights just went out like a snap – for a moment I feared I'd killed it. But when I touched it with the stolen Poké Ball, the Ball absorbed the Pokémon in the tell-tale red lights. The Ball never quivered, just blinked red once and caught it.

And then I was falling alone. First then did I notice that the Fearow had taken me out of the city, a blue-green ocean stretching out below me as long as the eye could see, and I plunged straight into the waters, beneath the starry sky and twinkling Legends to be.

I'd saved the city – I'd won.

Done and done. Thanks for reading the chapter. Don't forget to review to tell me what you think. Did you hate it? Did you like it? Something I can improve? Just bring it on, folks.

Anyway, thanks again and I wish you all a merry Christmas.

We will probably not see each other until next year so happy New Year, as well.

Stjernefald is out of here.