Chapter 4: A Spark

We had started traveling in the warm summer- wait, was it even summer? Whatever, it was warm. Traveling in the warm air when a large group of helicopters could be heard off in the distance. Alex and I climbed up to a vantage point to observe helicopters from above the canopy of the forest. We watched as the small dots in the sky all hovered over a large clearing in the woods, marked with scorch marks.

"I really hope the technology left on my ship is too advanced for them," I mumbled gravely.

"...What?" Alex looked bemused.

"Well, I don't really want any organization to get their hands of some of the massively destructive weapons that I could not destroy. I mean, look at this world, so peaceful and not to mention vibrant. Where I came from, those weapons sucked the color out of everything. The planet was a dull gray and... I don't want the same thing to happen here,"

Alex looked confused, "Why do you care so much about what the humans do? I doubt they would be able to destroy this world, not with all the Pokemon who would defend themselves."

"Human greed. It's bottomless, and for the technology, the guns on my ship are highly focalized bursts of plasma. If someone were to defocus that and be able to power it, the blast from such a weapon would be massive."

"...You lost me on highly..."

I looked over at Alex with a glare, "focalized plasma, think liquid fire that moves fast. Then focus tat into a beam. So what would happen if someone had a really big gun to shoot a big beam from?"

"Well... you lost me further into your explanation than last time!" Alex stated shyly.

I mumbled something along the lines of, "why do I even try anymore," before standing up to continue marching to who knows where. Speaking of who knows where, "So, Alex, do we have a destination or are we just meandering wherever?"

"We're headed to my home... of sorts," he mumbled.

"If you get any more excited about this, you might faint!"

All that got out of him was a quite grunt. Along with some glaring. And maybe a few huffs.

I decided to say no more after that, just walk and enjoy the sights. I looked out at the forest, watching as a flock of pidgey, or spearow, or some other bird type, flew out over the tree tops. I noticed every small detail. The way the water glistened off the leaves in the morning sun, how the trees shook when a pokemon moved through them.

After looking around a bit I took a deep breath in through my nose and was immediately overwhelmed by the number of smells there were. I stumbled and clutched my head as my senses overloaded, blurring my vision for a second. I felt a hand steady me a looked up to see Alex there.

I heard him say, "You okay?" as my senses started to go back to normal

"Yeah... just no more deep breaths in from my nose for a while. That was quite the experience."

"What does your nose have anything to do with your head hurting?"

"Simple answer, I'm still used to human smelling which is not nearly as sensitive, and wow... human smell really does suck..."

"Still don't understand how smelling has anything to do with your headache,"

"My head was not expecting so many smells when I sniffed the air. And my head did not like being that surprised,"

Alex still looking confused, I put it in the best way that would relate to him, "You evolved from a zoroa right? Well, how did it go your first time walking on two legs instead of one?"

"Well, it was bit weird, but it got normal quickly, but what does... oh I see, new body, old mind, just like an evolution,"

"Exactly. And now that I think about it, I had the white light of an evolution too... it was just mixed in with a lot of red and orange... you know what, forget I said that," I finished shaking my head vigorously, jolting myself out of my slur.

It was around midday when we stopped marching off to I don't know where, and we settled down for some lunch. Alex managed to find a large assortment of berries, along with my new favorite, a razzberry. I also tried a bunch of berries I didn't recognize, some I liked, others not so much and I nearly launched an ember attack after Alex tricked me into eating a tomato berry. Lunch was mostly good, at least there was no stealthy assassin trying to kill me.

After the delicious berry munching fest, I felt it best to do a little bit of body toning. That involved a pathetic amount of pushups and a good amount of sit-ups before I couldn't go further, which to say, is horrid to what I used to be able to do. Looks like I won't be doing anything physically exhausting anytime soon.

"Well seeing as your training session came to an abrupt end," I glared at Alex as he tried to stop snorting before continuing, "Maybe I'll just ask you a few questions."

"Well, I answer with what I know, but don't ask about this planet," I waved my arms dramatically, "Because... then I got NO clue,"

"Well... have you ever killed?"

"...I was in a war... for 1,000 years... Do you really need me, to tell you, the answer to that question?"

"Uh... well... I really didn't think many humans killed..."

"Must be because they have pokemon... so, anything else?"

"How well can you fight"

"Well, it may not look like it but, no one could beat me in hand to hand combat. I still know how to do all of the stuffs but I'm not sure how much strain my body could take."

"Could? What is that supposed to mean?"

I gave him a sideways glare before continuing, "well... I really haven't fought anyone here... so... who knows!?"

"Yeah. Right. Well, we can add that to the list of things to do,"

"What. You coming up with a training regime for me or something?"

"With that pathetic 'training' earlier today, I figured something of the sort would be good so your not completely dead weight,"

"Thanks... but I'm not so sure about the 'dead' thing, I have this bad habit of not dying,"

After that, we walked or jogged for the rest of the afternoon. Around whenever the heck it was that we ate dinner, we found a good cave to seek shelter for the night.

I laid there, staring up at the roof of the cave, finding difficulty in reaching the dreamworld. Whenever I closed my eyes the sounds came back, the never ending sounds of a living hell. The screams, the gunshots, the bombs going off around you. The feeling of abject terror and helplessness stuck with me until my body overpowered my stressed mind and pulled me into sleep.


"Confirmation of hyper-matter charge at 11.1, 15 clicks."

1 minute on the clock

"3 confirmed possible targets, the Striker, the Albatross, and... us."

I glanced up at the enemy frigate, sitting motionless as its main gun aimed right in between three of our ships. At most, 2 seconds to aim the gun. 5 seconds to stabilize the beam and no time for us to get out of the way.

53 seconds to wait

"Activate protocol 7.44.9, standby for emergency evac and core release." I shuddered at the thought of what could happen if a fully charged hyper-matter beam would do to an active hyper-matter reactor.

The crew scrambled around, standing near their designated escape pods, keeping a constant eye on the computer equipment, hoping our enemy, The Red Legion, would slip up and aim the gun too soon.

20 seconds to wait

All stations and all ships reported in clear for emergency evacuation. If the gun was not aimed at their ship, they would commence emergency rescue ops, or continue to bombard the enemy fleet. The fleets ships let out a full forward firing solution towards the hostile cruiser on an intercept course with a rescue corvette. I watched as two battleships decked it out, broadside after broadside, with each other, rounds ripping through both of their hulls.

The computer speaker rang out across all ships, all decks, "Target Confirmed. DRASTIC Flagship, The Skyhook."

7 seconds

The first escape pods ejected

6 seconds

Important cargo jettisoned out the airlocks towards allied ships

Swaths of fighters and corvettes rocketing out of the ship's hangars

5 seconds

The cannon was fully turned. A shaft of light approached my ship.

A single explosion along the center of the ship.

4 seconds

One notification, "Reactor malfunction, Cannot proceed with emergency ejection. Please use manual override."

The shaft glows brighter

3 seconds

One message to type

Rescue ships beginning to detach from the allied vessels

2 seconds

One message sent, "Abandon rescue ops. Reactor detonation." Short and to the point, but not enough

The light solidifies

One can look at the darkness of space, willing to lose their mind to the expanse, but never willing to lose their body.

1 second

The sirens continue to wail, my hand hovers over the eject button

Ships turning around, heading away from the flagship

People and supplies abandoned, already lost causes

A man, across the beam, grins. Something of his went to plan.

0 seconds

The beam fires. Slicing through the ship like a hot knife through butter. Metal screams as it gets torn apart, but the sounds are lost in the vastness of space. Ammo lockers detonate milliseconds after the beam connects. Within half a second, the beam traveled from the port side to the center of the ship. To the reactor core.

The hyper-matter reactor collapses in on itself, before detonating in a sphere of pure nothingness. Antimatter. It covers the ship in microseconds. I see nothing but black, but feel every cell in my body get its atoms torn apart and healed together even faster.

The DRASTIC CoC2 The Albatross gets vaporized in a flash of nothingness. The DRASTIC CaC4 The Striker gets half of its port side seared off in the blast. Anything in the area between the three ships, escape pods, cargo, fighters, rescue corvettes, all assimilated into the oncoming darkness. Tens of thousands dead instantly, hundreds of others lost to the void of space.

I awoke, hours later, floating away from the battlefield. Flashes of white, purple, red and yellow emanating from the ships still fighting. I was wearing nothing, anything on me destroyed by the antimatter, my skin red from the constant healing. Nothing to protect me from the oxygen less cold space, but nothing needed, for I had felt colder. Breathing, I didn't need that either, not with extreme energy production from the antimatter that coursed through my veins from that lab accident.

The occasional purple beam of a laser flew by my position, traveling onwards into space until it ran out of energy to keep it stabilized. White, flowed by purple, lit up the swarms of fighters, like bees protecting their hive from the wasps. Red and yellow quickly diminished in the no oxygen environment, losing their ability to breath. But they stayed long enough to know when a cannon fired, and where it hit.

Why do we fight? Is it to protect what we think we own? Is it a battle of ideals, a way to prove who is right? We all have a reason in war. Do we fight to avenge? To control? To free the oppressed? Or is it something more? We claim many things when we fight. For freedom. To rule. To expand. To prove ourselves. I used to claim I fought to defend those who can't defend themselves. But when did defending others include blasting science labs into smithereens? When did it include destroying entire cities? When did my reason change, or, what was my reason in the first place? Was to defend others just a fluke, something made by my brain to make this war justifiable. Maybe I fight for something else, something, or someone. Am I defending, or am I fighting to cure the corrupt, the power greedy? What if I am just fighting a war to save one person, to save him?"

A red, blue and white light slowly approaching from the dark. Slowly, the from a ship can be made out in the dark. The engines exhaust are extremely bright in contrast to the dark sky. A spotlight turns on, a blinding white light...


… A crash of thunder. I opened my eyes to a loud hissing, noticing a wall of red, orange and white approaching the cave entrance. The steam and smoke billowed off of the oncoming wave, the white getting consumed by the black. A stench filled the air, a stench of burning wood and the occasional animal unlucky enough to be caught in the fire.

A quick rattle of Alex's shoulders got him up. No words were needed, the smell was enough of an explanation. Before we had even reached the mouth of the cave, a voice rang out in the inferno, "Do NOT let any of these pests escape!" Alex took a look at my face, then out the cave and back at my face.

"No," he said, "We are not going out there, I've heard the stories, these humans... they will do worse than kill you,"

"And you're willing to condemn every other pokemon out there to that fate just so you can escape? That's not how I work. If you want to go run and hide, go ahead. But I will fight, spend my last bit of freedom if I have to, to even give a chance for others to escape toady. If I go down trying, so be it."

"Fight with what? You don't even know a single move! And you cant even from illusions, a zoroa could do something better than you!"

"A zoroa beating me is not saying much seeing as I cant even from an illusion, but... there always is other ways to fight." I glanced back at Alex, a twinkle in my eyes. A scary one, but one none the less. I had a plan, and I was gonna use it.

"Whatever you have in mind... It better work."

With a nod from me, we moved to the mouth of the cave, sticking to the inside wall, peeking out around the rocks. There was a large ring of fire, going from one side of the steep mountain forming a ring towards an incline up the mountain on the other side. A hundred or so pokemon were caught inside the ring of fire, and three men, two with their stun-sticks and pokemon, and one with a holstered sidearm blocked the only exit path. The two forward grunts had their pokemon out, suppressing any pokemon who tried to fight.

"Hmm... How good are your illusions?" I asked, a slight smirk emerging on my face.


The plan was devised, now we just had to pull it off. We slipped in and out of the crowd, moving towards the far edge of the walkway. My teeth rattled and heart bleed when a powerful Hyper Beam dug a small trench in the ground, followed by the sound of terrified screams. The smell of things burning was so much more overwhelming to my new nose, but I pushed onwards, through the smoke and fleeing pokemon.

I watched as the few strong pokemon attempted to retaliate, only to be beaten back by the flames and countless pokemon attacks. I listened as the parents comforted their children, their quite cries standing out in the chaos. We moved closer towards the blocked escape route, diagonally towards the edge of the cliffside leading downwards.

"Make sure none of these monsters escape!" A voice booms over the ruckus. Slowly, more and more of the pokemon are captured, first, those who fought, then those who were too weak to escape. Shouts of the trainers commanding their pokemon to use flamethrowers and embers to keep the fire burning strong ripped through the air.

"Hey look, two extremely rare pokemon! Let's gettem!" one grunt shouted to another, before ordering a flamethrower straight at us.

"We need to disappear," I shouted, diving away from the column of fire splitting us in two. I watched as Alex concentrated for a second before moving forwards.

A shout of "Hey! Where did those pests go!" told me that the illusion worked like a charm.

Moving quickly under the cover of Alex's illusions, we reached the cliffside.

"Go, get into position, I'll be there as fast as I can. Take the upper cliff route, but save your strength for the real action."

"You sure this will work?"

"We always have plan B,"

Alex hovered a bit before nodding and heading off, still hiding. I started moving forwards, crouching low to keep my balance and on the cliff edge, making my way towards the three humans halfway up the path. I had to be careful to not get noticed now that my cover was gone.

"Stop fooling around and capture those pokemon you idiots!" A shout from the man with the holstered pistol along with the many following shouts of "Yes Sir!" confirmed our suspicion of who the operation commander was. Sitting just behind the front line, all I had to do was wait.

I watched as the commander shifted his feet, widening his stance. I saw his fist clench, leaving only the pink finger to tap against his leg. Seeing his holster empty and his weapon sitting on the ground behind him, I rushed forwards, breaking past the line of wild pokemon. Before any of the humans could give the order to attack me, I dropped into a slide, moving under a koffing and past a doduo before using my bent leg to spring back up onto my feet. Moving past the forward two humans, I ran straight at the commander. Ducking under a sloppy punch, I twisted around him, backpedaling straight to the gun before picking it up, fingering the safety to off, aiming and...

CRACK...

The sound of a bullet leaving the gun echoed louder than anything else in the area, causing all of the grunts heads to turn. I watched, along with everyone else, as the commander's limp body hit the ground, a bullet hole in his head. I raised the gun at another grunt, issuing an unspoken challenge. Try me. I dare you. And as if by an unspoken command, shouts of return filled the air as the grunts split, leaving the remaining pokemon to go free.

"Well, that went better than expected," I muttered to the overly dark shadow covering up part of the rock next to me. I looked onwards and the remaining wild pokemon as they walked passed me, some mumbling their thanks, some holding tightly to loved ones. Others frantically searching the small crowd of no more than thirty pokemon for family members, old friends, and small children.

It was odd, seeing a species so different from humans act so familiarly. There were differences, like the way affection was shown, but how most beings acted struck a chord with me. I never saw much of this during the war, there was just too many broken spirits. Humanity, and their easily broken spirits, but a determination that can outclass almost everything. The war coiled me up like a spring, and here I am, doing the things that stress me out. But at least this time I'm having a greater impact on others lives.

'If you can't find it in you to smile, give others the opportunity to do if for you, and one day, when you need it the most, those smiles will come back to you.'

I said those words once, to an old friend. Looks like most advice we give out is in some way going to help those who give it out. As the crowd thinned and the last of the pokemon trotted off into the woods, no one noticed the commander's body disappear. Made my life easier, not having to answer weird questions.

A quite thump sounded from next to me, revealing Alex and the unconscious commander's body both slumped against the rock.

"Do you... even... know... how hard... it is... to keep something like that up?" Alex mumbled out.

"Nope! Never tried!"

Alex mumbled something comprehensible under his breath, before standing up by my side and glaring down at the body.

"So what do you wanna do with the dead weight? And no Alex, we are not gonna kill him,"

"Why not? He deserves it! You just going to let him walk free?"

"Hu. Have you ever taken a life? Are you okay with having someone else blood on your hands?"

"I've hunted before! This isn't different. He is the prey, I'm the predator,"

"So you place yourself above him. If you are okay with killing a defenseless being, if your okay that his blood will be on your hands... then who am I to stop you? Just know, everyone deserves forgiveness..."

Except me. I burned a planet to the ground. I killed trillions. I created weapons that ripped continents apart. I annihilated cities with my fists. And for what? To save a single person? To protect something that might not even have needed to be protected if I had not struck back in the first place? A sigh from Alex brought me out of my musings.

"Well... let's just go. I'm done with this place,"

"But first," I kneeled down and searched the body. I eventually pulled out what I hoped was his communicator before tossing it to Alex, "Snap it, smash it, I don't care. It just needs to be gone."

I watched as he placed the communicator on the ground before smashing it up with a rock. With a nod from Alex, who was looking unsurprisingly calmer now, we set off along the path away from this destruction. I slightly smiled for the first time since I got here, knowing that sometimes the best way to calm your anger at something was to smash something else. The thunderous roar of a helicopter swung its way across the valley, directly over our heads. Two more joining that one, they set off towards a spot in between three mountains, racing across the sky. Specks in the sky grew larger until it was clear that every nearby chopper was headed to the same spot.

"No... no, no..." Alex looked like he had seen a ghost, his body tensed up, ready for him to sprint right into the danger or to get as far away from it as possible.

"What's over there?" I asked, placing my hand on his shoulder, causing him to stare me directly in the eyes.

"Home."


Well, that took way to long to get out. It seemed that whenever I attempted to do something with this chapter I got writer's block. That along with school made it difficult for me to focus on writing

But no more, I finally released this chapter and already know where I want the next one to go, so that should not take as long to get out.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed that, and if you have any ideas or tips to make my writing better, dont be afarid to PM me or leave a review