Hi, me again. Sorry for taking a while to update, a lot of shit has been happening in my life. But, that's no excuse for taking so long with this chapter, right? I know I promised you readers that I would update more often, and honestly I'm trying. Please bear with me, I'll try and make sure that these future additions to Hoenn Chronicles are more than worth the wait. Thank you for taking the time to read this, you can enjoy Chapter 18: Sky Rocketing now.

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Reiko's POV

That... had been way too close.

It took me a second to realize that no, I wasn't dead. That girl had missed, though granted it really was a near miss; I had the cut on my cheek to prove it. Just when that kid had pulled the trigger, she fell to the ground, making the bullet swerve just enough for me to not get my head blown off. I was still sitting there in shock, having fallen back when she tried to shoot me. But, now that I had snapped out of it, in front of me was a green-haired kid holding the sides of her head while screaming in pain.

"Christ... What the heck is that thing doing to you?" Frowning, I hesitantly approached the kid (she dropped the gun so it was safe to say that she wouldn't kill me now), right before noticing the gun was in reach from the bars. Translation, I could shoot the damn lock off.

Come on, have one more bullet... After thinking that I frowned slightly, backing away from the door before taking aim. If I did this right, I could free myself, get the metal thing off of that kid's head and get the hell out of here. I couldn't help but smile to myself though, mostly because even though that kid was in pain... She wasn't being controlled. Kazu must have finally deactivated it; I'd have to congratulate him on his timing later. Right now, I had to block out the kid's screaming so I could aim.

Trust me; it wasn't as easy as it sounded.

"Ready," I took a breath and held it while I took aim, my arm quaking. What if I missed and hit that kid? It seemed like she had passed out, but still... Even without the screaming I was nervous as all hell. You'd be too if you weren't too sure about how to aim a gun, "Steady... Go!"

For the second time that day I was unbelievably lucky. Not only did I hit the lock but it went right into the hole and right through it, landing and skidding against the ground until it hit the wall. Unfortunately enough, that bullet going right through the lock wasn't enough to break it open, something I found out when I tried to push the cell door. But, thankfully, it had some help.

"GO DOWN, DAMN IT!" I shouted at the door while trying to kick it down, and though my foot hurt now I was finally successful; the damn lock gave way and the cell opened up, giving me a chance to finally get the hell out of there. In fact, I almost ran for it before I paused, looking at the ground, "I knew I was forgetting something..."

After picking up the unconscious body of the kid (and crushing the mind controlling thing with my foot for extra luck), I began to run down a hallway to try and find a way out, but what I found was something shocking instead, "What the-? A Mew?"

I stood there dumbfounded as I saw what seemed to be a dark grey (and partially see-through) pokémon flying at me, going right through me before it paused and turned to look at me, "Uh oh."

"There it is! It's helping the prisoners escape!" Just about a billion grunts turned the corner, all with various tranquilizer guns in their hands and all running at me and the cat pokémon at what seemed to be top speed. So, really there was only one thing to do; run for my life while following the pokémon that seemed to be Mew.

Which was a lot easier said than done, seeing as I was still carrying a kid that was currently unconscious and slung over my shoulder.

It seemed like this Mew was leading me in the right direction, but something was off; clearly the rockets weren't trying to shoot me or they would have hit by now, they kept trying to shoot at the Mew in front of me instead. And every single shot that should have sent it down went right through it. I'd really have to ask later, but right now it was time to run for my life, not time to quiz the ancient floating pokémon about why the hell this stuff was happening.

And I was fully aware of the damn thing using telepathy to talk to me. Otherwise I wouldn't have thought about quizzing it later.

Right now, I was seeing a way out of the base. There was a door wide open in front of me, and after going out it the pokémon led me out and out of the line of fire. I ended up hiding behind a few bushes and putting the kid down while I saw tranquilizer darts shooting right through the Mew, falling back to the ground soon enough. Just how stupid were those guys anyway? If it didn't work the first time, it wasn't going to work the fifty-billionth time either.

However, it seemed like the Mew led them outside for a reason; the building started emitting a siren rather than an alarm. That could only mean one thing; the base was about to blow up.

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Jack's POV

"I think it actually worked."

Crescent and the human stared at me, their eyes going back and forth from the computer screen before they stayed on me, "You actually managed to beat the mind control device. Who knew smashing your tail against the control center would actually work?"

"See, you don't have to think too hard. Just smashing things will always work."

"It's easy to tell that you and Fervo are related... Your technological expertise is identical to his."

I had a feeling that I had just been insulted. But, the human interrupted the pseudo Vaporeon right then and there, "All right, let's get the hell out of here! I'll ask about the psychic powers later, but it won't be long before-"

"Vigoroth, restrain that rocket!"

And just in time, Idiot came in to screw things up. Crescent and I quickly turned as the ape-like pokémon tackled the human in the lab coat, causing him to cry out, "H-Hey! Get this crazy pokémon off of me!" It was kind of funny to watch him freak out like that, so what else could I do but laugh?

I felt Crescent glare at me before he used his psychic powers to talk to idiot, "Wait, he's all right! He just freed your daughter from Team Rocket's control! Call off the monkey already!"

I only laughed harder at the look on Idiot's face when Crescent yelled at him, and after a second or two Vigoroth was ordered to climb off of the other human. I honestly didn't think I'd get a good laugh out of this trip but am I ever glad I did! Needlessly said, Greg followed Idiot into the room soon after, the Swellow from earlier perched on his shoulder.

"What happened?"

"I think the Vaporeon just used psychic powers to tell me this guy freed Alexa..."

"Look, I think we can all ask questions later. Right now, don't we have to get the hell out of here before we're ambushed?"

"It's a little too late for that, traitor. I just didn't think you'd have the balls to turn on us again, Kazu."

Now that was a voice that wasn't funny at all. Before I could see just who the voice belonged to though, the mutt and this dainty looking pink and green thing were thrown onto me while Mudkip landed on Crescent. I was pretty much crushed under my load, why couldn't the bloody psychic get the heavier load?

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I should be more concerned about the health of the pokémon that just got thrown on top of me. But, please try to understand that they were heavy, damn it! At that point I was just hoping they didn't crush my lunges.

I only managed to look up enough to see that it was that human Kujaku who had thrown those pokémon onto us, a floating grey thing beside her and smirking evilly at us. Granted, it wasn't as ugly as Kujaku was, but it was close, "So, tell me, are those pathetic pokémon your last line of defence against me or do you have something more fun in mind, Norman?"

Idiot growled when she said that, but really I couldn't see what was going on; I was still pinned by the mutt and the delicate thing. For some odd reason said twiggy reminded me of Ralts, but right then I wasn't really thinking too deeply into that. I was having too much trouble breathing.

However, out of the corner of my eye I saw Crescent crawl out from underneath Mudkip and smirk before he slammed his paw on a big red button up on the keyboards. That was when a really loud alarm (similar to the one in that other Rocket Base) began to sound, red lights flashing on and off in the hallway outside. And then, a human female's voice came out of no where, and although it confused me to no end I knew I had to take it seriously, "Rustboro Rocket Base; Self-Destruct Sequence activated. All staff please abort base. Detonation will begin in five minutes."

That was pretty much the cue to run for our lives. I saw that damned Kujaku woman running out ahead of me while returning the ghost thing to its pokéball, Idiot doing the same to Vigoroth and to the delicate thing (which was odd, when did he catch that?), Greg also returning Mudkip and Swellow before I found myself in Greg's arms. Idiot was currently carrying the unconscious mutt while the human in the white lab coat and Crescent began to lead the way out of the base. I just had the feeling that this was going to be one hell of a race against time.

And, sadly enough, I was right. Again. It's really bothersome to be right all the time, don't you think?

Crescent had turned the wrong way at least three times before we heard a similar warning to the first one over the blare of the sirens, but of course there was one thing different; instead of five minutes we only had one left. Finally, I heard the Vaporeon in disguise shouting at us using his psychic powers, "Anti just told me, we're going the right way! We should make it!"

Naturally, that jinxed it as I found when a rather thick steel beam fell right in front of us. The humans yelped rather loudly and both the mutt and myself were dropped to the floor. In their panic the humans ran ahead of Crescent, the mutt and I, which of course made me sigh. Of course, most humans were probably more selfish than I was. Crescent stared at both the mutt and I before sighing, "Come on, help me carry him. I can't do it on my own and I can't risk using my psychic powers now that we're in close range of the rockets."

"Do I have to? That mutt nearly fried me in Idiot's gym!"

"He's also helped in saving your trainer's life by making sure that bitch Kujaku didn't-"

"Detonation in twenty seconds."

"We don't have time for this, just help me carry him!" It was too bad that our argument was cut short, but I think I'd rather stop arguing with the bloody psychic than get my head blown off by people and pokémon I hated even more than the mutt. So, with a sigh I reluctantly began to help Crescent carry him. This was a lot harder than it sounded, seeing as Houndour was heavy and we were racing against the clock.

In fact, we were just barely at the door when I heard very very very loud banging noises behind us. And the burning sensation against my back was none too pleasant either, something everyone seemed to notice when I started screaming bloody murder for them. That was definitely going to hurt in the morning...

But, there was good news. Something that seemed to numb my pain a little. And that was seeing, behind the body of another human in a white lab coat, Alexa peacefully sleeping on the ground without the device on her head. They were right; she was perfectly okay now, so really... Our mission was a success.

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Reiko's POV

I had to wonder who half the people were that were running out of the base and right towards me, but it seemed like the floating grey cat pokémon knew exactly who they were. And since it wasn't trying to distract them (as far as I could tell), it probably meant that these guys weren't going to try and kill us. A Treecko seemed to have gotten a little burned in the explosion though, something that made me wince when I finally stopped covering my ears. I had to give Team Rocket credit for one thing; when things go wrong, they really go out with a bang. A big one.

The sun was setting over a distant ocean while we all introduced ourselves; the kid with silver hair was Greg, the old (I guess 'older', but compared to me he seemed like a geezer) guy with the near-bowl cut was Norman, and apparently the floating Mew was friends with a Vaporeon that could use psychic powers. The Houndour was previously a rocket pokémon but changed sides and the Treecko belonged to the kid I had hauled out of there, a girl named Alexa. Who was also bowl-cut's daughter, though the family resemblance wasn't really there. From what I could tell anyway.

Regardless, my attention finally turned onto who was important; I probably stared into Kazu's eyes for a full minute before I bit my lower lip, "You idiot. Your timing was too damned good!" That seemed to earn a confused look from him but I didn't care; What I did care about was the fact that I had flung my arms around him and actually began to cry into his shoulder. Damn him, putting me through all that only to save me at the last possible moment! Why did he have to do so much for me?

"Shh, Reiko, it's okay. We're out now, and we're safe. That's all that matters," Finally, he didn't say or do something stupid. I felt him petting my hair while I just sat there and cried; Everything was spilling out then. All of the shit with the second clone, all of this shit now, and to think that it was finally over... I owed so many people - and pokémon - so much, including my life in quite a few cases. I took a couple of deep breaths and managed to regain control before looking back up at Kazu's tired but smiling face, "There. That wasn't so hard, was it? And here I thought you had actually grown testicles of your own."

"Bite me," I stuck my tongue out at Kazu only to earn a laugh, right before turning to the ignored parties; Norman and Greg seemed to be tending to the Treecko and the unconscious Houndour, leaving Kazu and I to stare at the Vaporeon and the floating grey and partially see-through Mew. The latter of the two sighed and looked to the former before he spoke using psychic powers again.

"They might as well know. I kinda blew it anyway, sending a hoard of rockets after our good friend Reiko and the kid by accident. Besides, they hate Team Rocket as much as we do. Who are they going to tell?"

The Vaporeon frowned and looked back up to the floating cat pokémon; they were probably having a private conversation now because that was pretty much the last we heard of the dialogue before the Vaporeon looked at us, "Okay, I'm only telling you because I know I can trust you with our secret. However, you'd better not tell anyone or you're Gyarados food."

Kazu and I weren't the only ones paying attention as, with the sun's light finally fading away, the Vaporeon glowed white and changed shape; now there were two floating cat pokémon in front of us, and now that I got a chance to compare it seemed like the one that led me out of the base was more of a ghost where was the one that just got out of disguise was the real deal. Later Kazu and I would probably freak out at each other about actually meeting these legendary pokémon, but that most definitely wasn't the time for it.

"Yeah, that's right. I'm Mew, and by special request I've helped you out of your little jam. Now... If you're gonna talk about me, please refer to me as Crescent and the moron over there as Anti?" I saw the pink one jerk its thumb at the grey one when it said that, something that made me snicker when the grey one put its hands on its hips.

"Team Rocket can't know about us. Kazu and Reiko already know why, but as for you two," Now the pink one was pointing a paw at Greg and Norman, "Don't trust anyone else with information about us. Except the kid; if you explain how important it is that she doesn't blab, she can know since she does owe us big time."

"Hate to cut you short, but shouldn't you call Flame and the others now? I think they'll be wondering just how well we did in kicking Rocket butt over here."

"Yeah yeah yeah, I'll do that now. Excuse me for a few minutes," I saw the pink and the grey Mews fly behind a nearby rock and made a few noises. It almost sounded like they had taken out a cell phone, something Kazu had pointed out to me, and that Greg had pointed out for Norman. I could only nod in agreement before we spotted the two pokémon coming back, "I still don't get why they didn't pick up..."

"You picked an annoying ring tone. Not that I would have picked any differently, I just know from experience," The grey one seemed to be acting the part of a smart ass against the pink one, who was obviously not in the mood for an argument, "But still, I think we should get back over there. Knowing Fervo and Flame, it'll be a miracle if the island is still standing when we see them all again."

"Fine, you fly ahead. I'll catch up in a second, just let me wrap some things up," Then the grey one flew off, leaving the pink Mew with us as it approached Kazu and I, "You two, thanks a bunch for helping Eve. You know how important it is for Team Rocket not to know that I was here, but they're still going to go after you. Good choice in picking the Hoenn Region as a hiding spot, but a bit of advice for you two; Stay away from the machines for a while, if you know what I mean. If I get a chance to, I'll look you up. But for all of you, I'm gone. Tell Jack he's a Slowpoke for me!"

I heard the Treecko speak in retaliation to the comment, causing the pink Mew to chuckle before it began to fly off after the grey one. I guessed that meant that the Treecko's nickname was Jack, not that it was important but I felt like making the mental note. Kazu helped me to stand up then, grinning at me widely before ruffling my hair, "Let's go for that dinner now shall we? Maybe we should find a nice house somewhere; Fallarbor Town, Verdanturf Town, or maybe Fortree City..."

"That last one sounds nice. As soon as we eat, let's go there. Who knows, we might get a chance to live in peace for a while."

"I never thought I'd hear you say that," Kazu and I both laughed as we waved farewell to the others. That was one hell of an adventure, not to mention that it was probably one of the ones I would never forget. But... Everything worked out, so in a way it was a good end to the day. I just hoped it would be that way for everyone else.

'Cept for Kujaku. She deserved whatever hell she'd get from Giovanni, and the thoughts of what would happen were definitely warm and fuzzy ones for me as Kazu finally managed to treat me to that dinner he promised me.

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Jack's POV

It was morning when we finally managed to reach the Pokémon Center again, though I couldn't tell until I was let out of my pokéball again; Greg had returned me to my pokéball so that he wouldn't have to worry about carrying both me and Houndour. I let out a low yawn before I was grabbed from behind and held in the air. In fact I almost attacked before I heard a voice I had been aching to hear for quite a while, surprisingly enough, "Hey, Jack! It's good to see you again!"

Someone had woken up. I tried to put on my best smile as Alexa turned me to face her, and really none of the malice Team Rocket had given her through that bloody contraption had stuck around; she looked happy, energetic, and thoroughly unaffected by her experience. She probably didn't remember a thing, which after a second I decided was probably for the best. I allowed the kid to suffocate me for a bit longer before she put me down, "Guess what! Greg found a wild Houndour and is going to let me catch it!"

I had to work with the bloody mutt permanently now? Wonderful. However, what I noticed was that Houndour was looking even more depressed than usual. And that, naturally, was a bad thing. I sighed before I saw Greg approaching Alexa, taking her over to Idiot. They were probably going to chat about the events, which probably meant she wouldn't be happy for too much longer. Ah well, for the time being it wasn't my problem.

I walked over to the mutt and sighed, trying to dig something out of my ear before I finally asked, "What the bloody hell is eating you now? We've gotten the kid out of there, there's nothing for you to be sorry for anymore is there?"

Silence. That was all I got... Well, that and Houndour turning his back to me. This annoyed me, but when I was about to give him a piece of my mind I saw a drop of water hitting the floor. Was the damn mutt crying? Bloody hell...

With a sigh I sat down beside him, and while trying not to puke I finally managed to work up enough compassion to ask him, "Did something happen when you were ordered out of the room by Crescent back in the base?"

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Finally, Chapter 18: Sky Rocketing has been brought to you! I know, it took far too long, and I have several things going on that just made it almost impossible to work on; a whole bunch of stuff on different websites, school work, and on top of it all I had this terrible cold. But, despite all of that I finally managed to bring this chapter to you, and although there is a bit of a cliff-hanger it's not that bad, right? Regardless, thanks for sticking with me (as well as being unbelievably patient with my updating and the periods in between) and I'll see you next chapter! I'd promise you guys a sooner update but... Well, whenever I go and do that, shit happens. So I won't and we'll see what happens from there. Until next time!