Flinky: So... No epilouge here. Sorry.

Red: Lazy ass...

Flinky: Yea, yea. I tried four different drafts, and didn't like any of them, so there won't be an epilogue.

Blue: Come on. You didn't even have a good closer in the last chapter.

Flinky: I'd say it was pretty good, minus the conversation about making an epilogue. I really need to tone down the fourth wall breaks... anyways, To Blast a Rocket is over. I have a new story planned though, but I'm taking my time with this one.

Red: So what is it?

Flinky: Right now, it's a sorta-mystery dungeon story. I don't plan on continuing on with The Truth (my first story), but the lead character in the new one is fairly similar.

Red: Let me guess: He's a sarcastic, smartass teenager with ADD who broke the law somehow and is completely overpowered.

Flinky: That's like, 50% accurate.

Red: You really need to have different characters.

Flinky: That's part of what I'm making... fuck it, I'll post chapter one here. Fair warning, I will not actually publish any part of the story until it is completely finished, and chapter one ends on a cliffhanger. If you don't want any part of it spoiled, or only want to read it when it's finished, I advise you scroll to the bottom.

Red: Alright, let's see how different this new character is.


December 4, 2026; 9:00 PM - 3 Hours Before Launch - Houston, TX

It was a nice and cool night in Texas. Couldn't necessarily be called quiet though, as the martian rover Hope was launching at midnight, 3 hours from now.

"Hurry! Before they catch us!"

A boy at the age of 15 was running down a road, with a bag containing several electronic devices. Following him was a girl at the same age.

The boy reached into his earpiece. "Aidan, are the assist boosters ready?"

"Almost," Aidan responded through the earpiece. "Their wi-fi is too heavily encrypted so I'm forced to connect through of cellular which is a pain-"

"Tell us when you're ready," The girl said, cutting him off.

"Will do Nicole."

Further down the street was a red and blue flashing light.

"They're catching up!" the boy said.

"Come on. You're Danny. I bet you have some idea to get us out of here."

"Of course I do," Danny responded. "Jump off at the bridge at the next block."

"Are you sure?"

"Have I been wrong in the past?"

"Well… no-"

"Then trust me."

They came up to the aforementioned bridge, where Danny stopped running.

"Three...two...one."

They both jumped off the bridge, which was a 10 foot fall. However, before they hit the ground, they were caught by a pickup truck going on the road directly underneath.

"Hey Nick!" Danny yelled, as he climbed into the back seats of the truck. It was being driven by a 16-year old boy.

"Hey, are you guys okay?"

"Of course," Nicole said. "How's Emma?"

"Good. She's back at the base practicing her flight skills. She's gotten everything good so far."

"Alright. Let's head back then."

The three of them rode back to "the base", which was really just Danny and Nicole's basement, heavily modified for what they decided to do. This time it was piggyback off a martian rover launch to get their technology in space.

"Hey Aidan," Danny called.

He was at his computer but waved to the three returning people.

"Emma's still in the sim, right?" Nick asked.

"Yep. This is her last test before the real deal," Aidan answered.

Danny turned on their TV and set it to the news station which was playing a video feed of the launch soon-to-come. To the naked eye, everything would appear normal. However, if one payed closer attention, they would see the cargo portion was longer than it should be, as Danny and Nicole have planted satellites onto the side of it.

Danny, Nick, and Nicole sat down to watch the event.

"Got it!" Aidan yelled.

He was met by confused stares.

"I got into the NASA wi-fi. The extra boosters are good to go."

In a corner of the room, the closet door opened, revealing a 14-year old girl.

"Emma! Are you ready?" Nick asked.

"I hope so. The last five have been good, but I don't know if I can do it when the real thing comes."

"You can do it... Anyways, We still have a couple hours. Why don't you relax for a while?" Nicole offered.

"I don't know... I really want to be sure I got it."

"You'll be fine," Aidan reassured. "Unlike NASA, our margin of error is over 25%, and you've been nailing it every time. You'll do fine."

"I guess…"

Eventually, they were all seated in front of the television. It was ten minutes until the launch.

"I'll go get ready," Emma said, going back into her closet. As she closed the door, the projectors fired up. She had a view from the two extra cargo shipments Danny and Nicole installed. Each load was equipped with two boosters: One to steer itself once it's broken away from NASA's rocket, and one to be sure it doesn't stop the rocket from reaching Mars. They may want to get a satellite in space, but they're not going to stop billions of dollars of research.

"T-10, 9, 8,

Everyone was looking around excitedly. If they're plan worked, not only do they get a satellite for themselves, they also win a 5,000$ bet with some private scientists who said that they could get a satellite up before they could.

"7, 6, 5,"

Aidan was frantically looking through his computer to be sure he didn't make any mistakes. Fortunately, he did not.

"4, 3, 2,"

Emma was holding on to the throttle tightly. If she failed, everything they've worked for in the past year would be for nothing.

"1, 0. Ignition."

The rocket started firing up. Emma turned on the support boosters. It shouldn't be noticed yet, as all the smoke from the main rocket is covering it up.

It started moving upwards.

"So far, so good," Danny said.

"Don't jinx it," Nick responded.

One minute has passed. The rocket is picking up speed, and they're certain NASA has figured out their stunt by now. But it's too late for them to call it off, so there's nothing they can do.

One minute and thirty seconds. Emma detached the satellites from the main ship. The force should carry them out of the atmosphere.

Sure enough, it did. The rocket has officially left Earth's atmosphere. The satellites left their shells and began receiving controls from Emma.

She activated the thrusters so they would go into their proper orbit. There was very little fuel, so she had to get it right the first time. The thrusters on both flared up, adjusting the path. Emma was sweating, hoping she wouldn't mess up.

"WE DID IT!" Danny yelled. Akin to how other space scientists lose it when they succeed, they began to yell and hi-five each other.

Danny began writing the e-mail requesting the five thousand dollars they would use to fund their next… event. Aidan was establishing communications with the satellites, ensuring that they could use them in the future.

Emma came out of the closet and took a seat with the others.

"Guys," Danny began. "This was fucking awesome. We've done some crazy shit in the past, but this one takes the cake."

They began watching the television waiting for the statement on Hope's unexpected passenger. Sure enough, it came.

"Breaking news!" the reporter began. "NASA has disclosed that Hope was transporting more than just the rover. Two satellites have been attached to the main cargo load and separated during the initial liftoff. This extra load had boosters so as to support it's own weight. However, these boosters actually saved the rocket. The upper-stratosphere wind speed was higher than anticipated, and, should the extra support not have been there, would've sent the rocket off-course."

Danny, Nicole, Nick, Aidan, and Emma looked at each other. They saved the Mars mission!

"NASA has confirmed the identity of the people who have attached the boosters. Daniel and Nicole Xavier, siblings by adoption. There pictures are as shown:"

The news network put up pictures of Danny and Nicole from their high school yearbooks.

"These people will be reimbursed for the price of their cargo and cleared of all criminal charges."

"Well," Danny said. "I guess we'll stop by Johnson Space Center tomorrow."

"Dang… this is just too awesome," Nick said. "We built a satellite from scratch!"

"Well, technically, we didn't launch it," Nicole said. "But we built the piece of metal that's orbiting us."

Just then, a phone buzzed.

"That's me," Danny said, pulling out his cell phone. "Hey mom...Yes, we did sneak onto a rocket...no, we were not launched with the rocket... No, NASA cleared our name… No, we didn't spend all of our money on this… Bye."

He ended the call.

"What's going on with your parents?" Emma asked.

"Apparently it's a cause for concern when your face is on national television," Danny replied.

"Didn't they know about this?" Nick asked.

"Nah," Nicole responded. "They've been out of town for the past couple days."

"Okay then…"

No one moved for a while.

"Alright! I got the transmissions between us and Dialga up!" Aidan cheered.

"What's Dialga?" Emma asked.

"It's the name of one of our satellites. The other is Palkia," Aidan responded.

"Why did you name it that?"

"Dialga and Palkia are basically space Pokemon," Danny explained. "I didn't choose the name though. Aidan selected it and it kinda stuck."

"Geeks…" Nicole muttered.

"Hey! You helped launch it too! We're not the only geeks," Aidan said.

"Yea… that's true."

Aidan began typing at his computer.

"Okay. What do we want to look at first?" he asked.

"How about Orion?" Nick said.

"Okay. Constellation or nebula?"

"Nebula, of course."

"On it. Putting in the coordinates… Alright. It'll take a couple minutes to load."

"Then we wait," Danny said.

No one really did anything but sit around, anxiously. Although Dialga may have gone into orbit, the camera could have been damaged. They would only know once the picture has come in.

"Here it comes. I'll decode it… Okay. Putting it up on the TV."

The TV switched to a mass of purple, red, pink, and brown dust.

"Okay. That is pretty cool. But what will we do now?" Nick asked. "I mean, having a satellite isn't that useful for day-to-day work."

"Normally," Danny said. "But do you know how long the wait list for the Hubble is? If I were to need a picture taken it would be 1 and ½ years before It would actually come in. We just added two new satellites with similar capabilities to Hubble. We can charge people to take pictures. And I mean we can charge a lot."

"Well... Alright, you've got me. That's pretty good."

They five teens continued to look at their picture, the first one from all of their work. As they were admiring it, something caught Danny's eyes.

"Hey, do you see that white streak in the corner?" he asked.

"Yea, now that you mention it. But what's strange about it?" Nicole asked.

"I'll tell you," Aidan said. "White is not a color space likes very much. In a visible light image such as this, that color can only be on white dwarfs and some dwarf planets. Since there are no planets that could have formed given the age of the nebula, and it's too early for a star to have died and make a white dwarf. That's not normal."

"Then let's look at it," Nick said. "Zoom in as far as you can."

"On it…"

Aidan zoomed in on the picture. There was definitely a figure there, but it was difficult to see what it was.

"Okay. That is definitely not normal," Aidan said. "But we can't get a clear picture of it. Probably can get a pixel-fusion if Palkia-"

"English please," Nicole asked.

"To get a good picture Palkia has to pass by that location. That will take about… 2-4 hours. Once I get the image from Palkia, I can combine both increasing the resolution. That way, we can see what that thing is."

"So we wait till tomorrow?" Nick asked.

"Pretty much."

"Okay then. Then we're done for tonight."

"Yep," Danny said. "Aidan, you're welcome to stay here if you want to take more images. Everyone else should head out though."

Emma got on her bike and rode home, while Nick got in his truck.

After everyone left, Danny and Nicole went into their rooms and fell asleep. After all, it was one in the morning.

3 AM - Danny and Nicole's House - Houston, TX

Aidan was starting to get tired, but Palkia was approaching its position. After this he could get some rest.

Although he was sitting there preparing, he already communicated with Palkia telling it to take a picture when the time was right. He was just getting ready to receive it.

The words he was waiting for all night showed on the screen. "Transmission incoming. From: Palkia 484."

'There it is,' he thought. The picture was almost identical to the one from before, except this time it was from a slightly different angle, which was necessary for the picture enhancement to work.

He ran the software on the two images. Once it was completed, he zoomed in on the white streak.

Once it was enhanced, he stared. At first, it didn't click, before he realized what he was looking at.

"No way… Danny! Nicole! Wake up! This is important!"

The siblings groggily went downstairs.

"What is it?" Danny asked.

"Look at the image," Aidan said.

They both stared, and saw the same thing Aidan did.

"What's that?" Nicole asked.

"Okay, not funny. It's way too early to be messing with us," Danny said.

"I'm not messing with you, I swear! Look at the picture! It's way too clear to be edited in."

"Are you saying this is for real?" Danny asked.

"Still don't know what it is," Nicole commented.

"Nicole," Aidan began. "That is Arceus, a Pokemon."

She paused for a while before laughing.

"Are you kidding me? That's what you wake me up for?"

"Okay, I had 2 hours. Look at the position it's in."

The Arceus on the screen was laying vertical with its ring glowing.

"If you can find that exact pose on the internet, then you have reason to doubt me."

"I'll look then," Danny said tiredly.

He took over the computer and went to DeviantArt.

"Let's see… Arceus with glowing ring…"

He scrolled through the images, none of which were relevant.

"Maybe on page two… Oh god, why?"

"What is it?" Aidan asked, before looking at the screen.

"Arceus does not have… just, no!" he yelled.

After the two recovered from a picture of an anthro Arceus with exaggerated feminine body parts, they continued searching.

"Okay, do you see anything?" Aidan asked.

"No, so are you…"

"I wasn't lying. It's true."

"Holy shit…"

"Can you please stop acting like I know what you're talking about?" Nicole asked.

"The Arceus… is real," Aidan said. "We should call the others."

"Do you think they'll believe us?" Danny asked.

"Normally, no, but if we can convince Nicole to say so, then we may stand a chance."

"I'm right here," Nicole said.

"We know," Danny replied, slightly irritated. "Alright. I'll call Nick and Emma. Aidan will keep following it. Nicole, you should contact NASA and have them photograph Orion as soon as possible."

"Okay," they all said, getting to work.

7 AM - Danny and Nicole's House - Houston, TX

"What do you mean 'Arceus is real'?" Nick asked.

"I mean he's real," Aidan responded. "I got the transmission from Palkia a couple hour ago."

"Nicole, is he telling the truth?" Emma asked.

"Yea, as much as I'd hate to admit it."

"Well, sorry, but that's not possible," Nick said. "It's a fictional game modeled after some Japanese dude's childhood."

"Look, I'm calling NASA as we speak," Nicole said. "We can have them get a photo and prove it."

"I'm sorry, but that cannot happen."

The basement was illuminated by a huge flash of light. when it died down, Arceus himself was standing in front of the friends.

"What… the… fuck," Danny said.

"I am sorry, but you five are a victim of chance. You have photographic evidence of my existence, and that cannot be permitted. I cannot allow you to inform other humans of your discovery."

"What's going on?" Emma asked.

"I would advise asking that once you are on the other side."

A white glow started filling the room.

"What do you mean?" Nick yelled.

"I mean that you will no longer exist in this world. I am sorry for the inconvenience."

The glow brightened. Nicole started running for the stairs.

"There will be none of that."

As she tried running up, she was knocked back down by an invisible force.

"What are you doing?" Danny asked.

"I am simply protecting my creation."

After a couple more seconds, the teens passed out.


Flinky: Welp, that's the first chapter for my new story. Like I said, it will be a while before I actually publish it (and release chapter two). Anyways, thanks again to everyone who's made it to this point in my story. Now, this is Flinky, signing off for a couple months.