Chapter 1
'When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.' - Peter Marshall


As I entered the prep-room I heard lieutenant Keeves call to me. I turned to face his resonating sarcasm from the gloom behind me.
"Ah, Razz, the one and only! Any idea why the major is calling us here?"
"I've no idea Keeves, maybe you should ask her when she gets here" I stared him emotionlessly in the eye, I had no intention with provoking him as of right now.
"Alright, alright. My, his majesty is in a bad mood?" Keeves chuckled boldly to himself. His satirical joke broke my emotionless state.
"Very funny Keeves. I'd insult your mother but she's dead isn't she? Besides there's no Umbreon caste-system anymore as there's-" I would've continued if it wasn't for the soft black paw that found its way onto my lips.
"Shut up Razz. You're feeding him." Major Light practically purred to me, it sent a shudder down my spine. "Right! Listen up freeloaders! You know our mission, the NPS is hiding something in Trafalgar, there's way too much military activity in that region for 'Royalist activity'" She rolled her eyes as she spoke the words. "Our mission is simple: find out what they're up to and put an end to it!"
I listened to Light's tactics from the other side of the table that was positioned in the centre of the murky room that smelt like sulphur as torches scintillated in the four corners of the room. As Light spoke I couldn't help but notice how she holds herself in an almost impenetrable confidence. Her paws positioned on the table, pressed hard against the glass, but light enough to allow fluidity in her body language, the way the Geiger counter on her leg clung to her fur; as though it were a lost pup clinging to its mother for protection, but loose enough to provoke the implicature that even inanimate objects trust her with their lives. My attention was drawn to her face now. She was staring at me, with an almost irritated look on her face.
"Are you even listening Razz?" the words took me by surprise.
"Uhhh...Y-yes ma'am" stuttering my words, I tried to fixate my mind back to reality.
"Mhmm." Light didn't sound convinced, but she continued anyway. "The 6 of us will separate into two groups of three. Keeves, Paddington and Lambeth will be team Alpha. You guys will move from station to station from Old Town and ending up in Leicester Square. Team Omega will be Razz, Vauxhall and I. We will move through the underground tunnels at Old Town and will rendezvous with Alpha team at Leicester Square just outside Trafalgar. Understood Commando's?"
"Yes ma'am" the four other Commando's and I all called out simultaneously. We were all ready to ruin whatever the NPS were up to, but then a question found its way into my thoughts; was I ready?
"Oh and Razz." Light called to me before I left the prep room, "If you endanger anyone's life on this mission, I won't hesitate to take yours. Understood?" my heart sank as soon as I heard the threat.
"Yes…ma'am" I replied sullenly. I followed Vauxhall out of the prep-room; feeling Light's burning, judgemental, God-like eyes tearing into the back of my neck. I didn't realise what was at stake with this mission. This could be the last thing I do on this world alive. If I messed up once; just once, I could find Light's gun entrenched in the scruff of my neck, pressing firmly until the barrel burst into flame, and subsequently, so would my head. This could be the mission where my heart stops.

As we made our way to Old Street the six of us broke apart and stood in our two teams; Alpha and Omega.
"Right men!" Light's voice broke the ghoulish silence "Umbrage rifles ready?" the sound of rifles being bolted and cocked followed. A tiny but distinctively clear voice interrupted me as I manipulated my Umbrage Rifle into existence and loaded it.
"Umbrage rifles?"
"Vauxhall? Have you not reached this point in your training?" Light questioned Vauxhall with a perplexed look on her face, yet a gentle, amiable voice emanated from her lips. Vauxhall simply replied with a frightened but anxious shake of her head. "Ok," Light paused for a moment; thinking. "Razz. I'm going to speak to Keeves for a moment, I need to know if his team is prepared for the trek to Leicester. Can you teach Vauxhall how to use Umbrage?" I nodded in acknowledgment, as soon as I had, Light disappeared.
"You see, Vauxhall, we, as Umbreon are naturally attuned with the ability to manipulate negative energy. As we manipulate it; it ripples space and time, causing an entity to occur, we call this entity 'Umbrage'. This Umbrage can take the form of anything we wish for it to be, in this case, rifles. All you have to do is focus your mind and energy on one point in front of you, OK?" I spoke softly and with a calm and patient manner. Vauxhall was young and a blood-mutation. Unlike I, who was a rare purple-blooded mutation, she was a much more common blood. Her rings were green and she was always cheery and prepared for anything, which is ironic, considering her unpreparedness for this mission.
Vauxhall and I were close, so teaching her was easy, after my explanation of what Umbrage is, and how you can form it, I gave her a few demonstrations.
"OK Razz let me have a go" Vauxhall whistled to me in a sing-song voice. I smiled and gave her the chance.
I watched anxiously, but somewhat eager; eager to see if my training skills were ample enough to allow another commando the chance to learn. As I stood biting my lip, threating to puncture the skin and draw blood, I wanted to intervene in what Vauxhall was doing, there was something about watching her strain as she attempted to focus her mind and energy into one point in space and time that made me uncomfortable to watch. Needless to say, the whole thing was unsettling. I turned away to see Light's attention turned towards preparing the other team. That's when I heard Vauxhall's happy giggling.
"I did it! I did it Razz!" to my shock, Vauxhall had caused a ripple to form "Now what?" she asked with a genuine tone of a sense of hopefulness mixed with the urge for guidance.
"Just think about what you want. A rifle; think about a rifle!" My angst had turned to eagerness and I now couldn't take my eyes off of her. As she strained, sweat began to bead from her forehead. I flinched as my teeth dug into the flesh on my bottom lip, soon after I pierced the flesh on my lip, my lips curved into a smile. The Umbrage, that was between Vauxhall and I, began to shift; it convulsed, conformed and contorted into various different shapes as it tried to configure itself into a rifle, suddenly the Umbrage convulsed in such a way that it formed the shape it was after.
"I did it Razz! I really did it!" Vauxhall's voice cracked as she squealed out with joy, she blushed in embarrassment after she realised it herself, this caused me to chuckle softly.
"Congratulations Vauxhall, now, are you two ready to move out?" Light's voice broke into the conversation before I could congratulate Vauxhall. My face grew serious as I replied,
"Yes ma'am, Vauxhall and I are ready to begin the mission."
"Ok brilliant. Keeves, start leading your team to Leicester, contact us using this" I curiously watched as Keeves was passed a watch-like device that he fastened to his front leg. "It's Umbrage-Tec. It's a prototype communicator for new Umbrage Commando's. Only use it when it's imperative to contact my team and I"
"Yes ma'am" Keeves ran off down the road, his team not far behind on his tail. It was now, that my attention was drawn to the eerie, wrought iron-gate that held the gloom of the subway station at bay.
"Ready team?" Light reassuringly patted me on the back.
"Yes ma'am" both Vauxhall and I held expressionless faces. But you could almost smell our fear, our faces, however, would never show it. Light's next words brought a shiver of echoed fear down my back.
"Then Let's go" she spoke with a dark tone and a blank expression. She moved to the gate with an otherworldly fluidity. She pushed it open; rifle raised, she skulked through the gate and into the gloom below. I could smell the poignant stench of rot and mould.
"It's clear! Are you guys moving?" she called to us, the stagnant fog almost muffling her voice.
"Yes ma'am" we called back as we followed into the station; like meat to the slaughter. I reminisced; yes ma'am…how many times have I said that without a thought towards my own safety.

The atmosphere in the underground station felt heavier. The gloom pressed down on my body, making my movements feel heavy and uncoordinated. I kept my rifle raised level to my eye, making aiming easier. I looked over to Vauxhall who was learning how to manoeuvre and aim with the rifle, she seemed like a natural.
"Let's move" Light's voice was shallow and emotionless. I followed behind her as she moved, Vauxhall followed shortly behind me. As we stepped onto the abandoned station platform, all natural light drained from the world and only darkness and gloom prevailed. I flicked on my flashlight, as did Light and Vauxhall.
"Tread carefully Vauxhall" my whisper was carried far by the acoustics of this hollowed ,underground, man-made cave. I heard her acknowledge my words with a simple mhmm. I shone the torch onto Light who was watching me with her deep blue eyes.
"Listen up, we have no idea what lies in this place. I've heard from other commando's who've scouted out many of these tunnels, that a group of feral Persians have presided here. You know what that means Razz" I screwed my face upon hearing this; less than satisfying news.
"Hellions…" I cursed under my breath. I heard Vauxhall laugh with a less than pleased tone.
"What's a bloody Hellion?" her voice was brittle in the echo and was partially lost, but the sound of immediate fear wasn't. I tried to explain as best I could.
"A Hellion is a Persian who's been subjugated to deadly doses of radiation…so much so that their genetic DNA has altered completely; meaning they don't age. They live until they're killed. Typically, Hellion are just mischievous and behave like normal Persians, but after so much time their brains' are decayed to a point that they become feral and lose all sense of rationality and will kill anyone, who isn't a Hellion, on sight." I could hear her shudder with fear. She didn't back down though, instead she soldiered up and stood straight again.
"I can take them" she said with a barely, believable tone.
"Are you sure Vauxhall?" I asked cautiously; not wanting to sound condescending. That's when she cocked the bolt on her rifle.
"Affirmative" her tone had now changed from false heroism to bravado. It rang hope through me; hope that I, no; we, may survive this mission.
As we made our way down the eerily, darkened, claustrophobic tunnel tracks; no words were spoken. Only the sound of our paws patting the gravel down, compacting it beneath our claws, echoed through this archaic underground tunnel. Our flashlights searched the tunnels to an almost echo locative precision. I watched the left, Vauxhall focused on the right and Light kept our front end covered. Our only weakness was from behind. I jumped when Vauxhall gasped.
"Are you okay Vauxhall?" I spoke loud enough for my voice to be carried through the echo to her.
"Yeah I'm fine. I just caught my leg on something" I heard her struggle. "It's stuck." I heard Light grunt in displeasure. Before Light instructed me to do so I went to aid Vauxhall. I shined my flashlight down to her paw. The reflection of her green rings obtrusively imposing the reflective glint of green into my eyes. I squinted to lessen its effects and saw that her paw was caught between the track and a point in the gravel that had caved in around her foot like quicksand.
"Light, keep an eye out. I'm going to try and free her paw" my voice carried out an echo much louder than I had anticipated.
"Sure. Whatever, just hurry up" Light raised her rifle and aimed down the tunnel, her flashlight lit the entire tunnel up in front of us, but only for a couple-hundred yards. I began to kick up the gravel around Vauxhall's paw, this consumed most of the time and as soon as I had finished freeing it from the gravel, pulling her paw out was easy.
"There, done. Now get ready to move." I smiled at Vauxhall but she wasn't smiling. Her complexion was that of a ghost. I looked to the tunnel ahead and saw nothing. What was she staring at? She tapped me on the shoulder, only she wasn't facing forward. I turned to look behind us. That was when I heard the hissing. "Hellions…" That was when Light turned around and her blue eyes lit up with fear.
We turned and levelled our rifles; took aim and shot. All the while we retreated backwards down the tunnel, the way we were supposed to be moving.
"Shoot these ugly bastards!" Light bellowed out at the top of her lungs, her yellow rings flared as my flashlight on my rifle enveloped her as I reloaded. I took another shot, followed by another. It seemed as though the more I took down; the more that kept coming. I counted as I shot. Seven…Eight…Nine! How many more? Someone must be hearing these shots.
"Screw this" Light muttered loud enough for both of us to hear. "Run!" Upon Light's order, I laced off one final shot and turned tail and ran down the tunnel. There was only a couple of Hellions down this side of the tunnel. I dodged past them as they lunged forward, trying to push me over with their considerably larger paws and sink their teeth into me. I had a near escape as one of them slashed at my back left leg, one of their claws latched into my skin and tore it; deep. I remember shouting out in pain, my body instructed me to stop and rest; but I know that would be certain death. I continued running, dodging, ducking, and weaving around and past these ferocious attackers.
As Light and Vauxhall stopped, waiting for me to catch up. I was pounced. I pushed back with all my strength onto the Hellion's chest. Keeping it just inches away from tearing out my throat. I could feel it swinging its claws around, clawing at my skin, creating many lacerations down my body; they were only minor wounds however. My strength gave for a second and it sunk its teeth into my shoulder and that's when I heard the shot. It's eyes sunk to the back of its head and collapsed on top of me. I scrambled underneath it and managed to pry its teeth from my flesh and I kicked its lifeless body off of me. Vauxhall gasped as she shone her flashlight on me.
"You're a mess! You've been bitten and clawed apart!"
"Thanks, you look good too" I chuckled weakly, my head spun and the adrenaline in my body began to fade, making the pain from my wounds all too apparent.
We walked for another couple-hundred yards before we made it to the next station across. As we made our way off of the tracks and onto the platform, I collapsed into a bloody heap on the floor. My mind began to wander in circles. I saw Light yelling, but I couldn't make out her words. All I could hear was a loud humming in my ears, then my vision started to blur; the Umbreon that was Light became a contorted mess in front of me. I saw this mess; this pixelated blur, begin to move and fumble around in what appeared to me to be another blur, but this one was a different colour, it wasn't black, maybe a brown? As my mind started to loop circles and my eyes began to close, I felt a sharp prick of a needle and the release of fluid under my flesh. I yelped in pain. My vision had returned as did my hearing. That's when I saw Light drop the Adrenaline shot from her mouth, the needle pointed towards me. That's also when I had noticed my wounds were bandaged up.
"H-how did-" I was cut off by Light.
"Shush, Razz; you passed out. I thought you had died on me lieutenant." Her voice was soft, her yellow rings were caught by the moonlight from the foyer above. She smiled at me. "Vauxhall bandaged up your wounds after cleaning them out. You should be fully recovered in the morning, aside from having some wounds still open. But you'll live." She smiled at me, her expression was riddled with angst and worry, but she'd never show her worry, she kept a cold exterior, but I could see through her cold stares and her expressionless eyes. As I smiled back at Light, the faint crackle of wood and the aroma of pine wood wafted across my nose, I turned my head to find the source of this sweet stench. Vauxhall had lit a fire, unsuccessfully and successfully were debatable, but as far as I was concerned, the scent of singed fur was overridden by the glorious smell of burning pine.
"That nearly lit me alight!" Vauxhall violently whispered, so as to not alert the Hellions to our presence.
"How did you light that?" I asked curiously.
"Will-o-wisp" she replied with a sharp chuckle and a look that accused me of being crazy. "Why is that so weird to you?"
"Why? I'll tell you why. Since the war that killed the planet, Pokémon haven't been able to use movesets. It's an archaic ability of which that we no longer need. Because the people who used to train us to use these moves are now all dead." She screwed up her face in thought.
"Does that mean-?" she asked even though she already knew the answer. She swallowed heavily. "Does that mean I'm a mutant?"
"Who knows. For all we know, Razz and I are the mutants." Light made a brilliant point, were we the mutants? The ones who can't use abilities like our pre-war ancestors could? But we're the majority. There are more Pokémon who can't; than Pokémon who can. So going by the majority logic, we were normal. Vauxhall shook her head. She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by a hiss. My heart practically stopped.
"Razz, can you run?" Light asked me with a tone of urgency. I tried to stand, but my legs buckled beneath me from exhaustion.
"I can't even stand." I saw Light's eye twitch in the moonlight.
"I'm sorry Razz…Vauxhall, create a rifle let's get out of here." My heart threatened to stop.
"We can't just leave him here Light!" Vauxhall spoke out but I knew it was hopeless.
"Well, I'm out of here, with or without either of you." That's when a Hellion pounced from the darkness behind her.
Time slowed down, my heart raced at a speed that made me feel faint. I had to save Light. I formed an Umbrage handgun in a flash; I took aim and, just before the Hellion suck its teeth into her neck, I took the shot. The Hellion collapsed to the ground, lifeless and limp, but for a split second the muzzle flash illuminated the entire station platform. There were thousands of them. Light's eyes were stricken with fear. That's when I felt my body being lifted and I was being carried by Vauxhall.
"Light! We have to get out of here!" Vauxhall shouted at Light. Light snapped out of her fear-frozen state.
"We have to get up top, to the station car-park" Light commanded us through a stutter. As soon as the word was said Vauxhall shifted both her and myself up the staircase to the surface, followed closely by Light.
I saw the Hellions follow us up, I took a couple more shots and then my pistol faded. I had no energy left. My vision blurred again, my hearing became impaired. I could feel myself going back under the grasp of darkness, even though the moonlight beat down onto my blood-matted fur. My eyes started to close, a voice that sounded like Light rang; muffled in my ear.

I felt the sting of a needle into my skin again. I sat up and stared at Light and Vauxhall, both staring at me with relief. Vauxhall had a bad cut across her chest, she winced at me as soon as she had noticed my eyes fixed to it. That's when my attention was drawn to the matted fur on Light's left-side of her head. Blood knotted her fur and the top part of her ear had been bitten off savagely.
"What happened?!" I panicked.
"It's okay Razz. Vauxhall got you out of that underground station over there" she pointed her paw towards the underground station entrance a few feet away from where I lay, though my vision hadn't returned fully, so I couldn't quite make out its name. "As soon as we made it the end of the car park, the Hellion were upon us. One tackled me, had its teeth around my ear, and as it shook my head around trying to snap my neck, Vauxhall took the shot, unaware of the Hellion's paw that soon took a slash out of her. It didn't live long after that. And this is where we held off until the sun came up. Which they don't like." Her ears flattened against her neck as she told me what happened. Tears had filled her eyes. "Oh…and I'm sorry I nearly left you to die down in the station…I wasn't thinking I-" she cut off as one tear ran down her face. Light had been broken by fear and her cold exterior lay in ruins. Years of suppressing her emotions began to flood out in tears.
"It's okay Light. You needed to make a decision and if I was in your position I probably would've done the same thing." She smiled as her tears ran off her face.
"Thank you Razz" I smiled weakly back at her. She had so much pain that she suppressed; she didn't need me, her friend, hating her for one mistake.
Vauxhall pulled one of the barrel fires near to us and we all laid around it as the sun started to set behind the horizon. Vauxhall had bandaged up her chest wound and now had a sash of blood-soaked bandaging tightened around her body.
"How does it look?" she chuckled whimsically.
"Sublime Vauxhall" Light spoke with a satirical tone in her voice. Vauxhall and I laughed at her response. As the laughter died down, we all stared off into the fire in the barrel beside us. I sighed.
"What's the matter Razz?" Vauxhall questioned me. I screwed my face up as I thought.
"You know we should probably move away from here." I paused. Neither Light or Vauxhall replied. They both knew why. Then Light sighed.
"Yeah you're right, those Hellion know we're here. We should probably get away from here, or else we'll be sitting Psyduck."
"A Psyduck could probably defend itself more than us at this point." Vauxhall replied in finality. Then she looked to me. "Can you stand?" My paws became sweaty as I remembered the station platform. I couldn't stand and I was nearly a feral Hellion's next meal.
"I can try?" I stuttered. My voice lacked the confidence I intended. I breathed slowly and I swallowed viscously. I flattened my paw on the concrete and pushed on it, this gave me the momentum that I needed and I wobbled to my four paws. My head swam. My legs told me to lay down, as did my body. I took one step and winced in pain. "I can barely walk." I spoke through wincing eyes and gritted teeth.
"It'll do to get to that building down this road, can you make that Razz?" Light's voice was caring and frightened.
"I can try ma'am" I winced as I stepped forward.
"That's all I ever ask of you Razz." She said sullenly.
Vauxhall walked next to me as Light darted off down the road, every time I tripped or stumbled on my unbalanced legs, Vauxhall helped me recover. We made it halfway down the road when the sun slipped beyond the horizon.
"Crap." I scolded myself and tried to break into a light run. Adrenaline took control of my body and I ran, with a limp, towards the building Light had pointed out. I could hear the cacophony of hisses emerging from the station. My heart wavered in my chest. I looked up. We were nearly there; but then so were the Hellion's. 20 yards. 15. How much further? I looked behind me and saw one of the hellish, red eyes appear from behind the stations entrance and it stepped out onto the car-park. That's as I skidded around the corner and into the building that was to be our safe haven for the night. Vauxhall followed behind.
Light, Vauxhall and I made our way up the stairs and we sat on the top floor of the cold, ruined, skeleton-of-a-building; in the cold, unable to light a fire in fear of being found, Unable to warm our bodies, we waited there in the cover of night, hidden from the Hellions; but our flesh was being eaten by something much more painful – the cold.

At some point in the night I had passed out from pain and exhaustion. I woke up, my pains had been soothed by the moments I was asleep. I stood on shaky legs and made my way to Vauxhall who was shivering in the corner with Light, hunched over and curled into a ball to preserve their body-heat. I pressed a paw onto her back, she smiled at me, as did Light. They both expressed their pleasure at seeing me move.
"I thought you had died in your sleep Razz!" Vauxhall, who had her paws wrapped around me, laughed. "One moment you were letting off quiet, agonising, moans of pain; and you were shivering. The next moment, you weren't making any noise and you weren't moving." Light nodded along with Vauxhall's description.
"But now you're up, we can move out. If we head down this road we may be able to meet up with Keeves and the rest of Alpha team." Light sat up as she spoke, her body seemed to appreciate the movement. She stretched outwards, her ears flattened against her neck again and she winced in pain as her bloodied ear twitched. She shook off the pain and wrinkled her nose. "Not quite used to having half an ear yet. But it'll be an interesting story to tell nonetheless." She chuckled to herself.
"You're not the only one, I'm not used to having scars line my body and being a poor walker." I spoke as subtly as I could, trying not to invoke the feeling of guilt back into Light for nearly leaving me to die. She simply stared off down the stairs and muttered inaudibly.
"Shall we get moving then?" she asked rather more sullen than her previous words.
"Yes ma'am"
"Please stop calling me ma'am" Light placed her paw onto the first step and looked us in the eye. "Just call me Light. Please." Vauxhall and I nodded, not in understanding but mainly in confusion, but we dared not to question her motives.
Light led the group down the stairs, Vauxhall was in the back, Light was in the front and I was in the middle, this meant I was the one that kept the pace. If I fell behind, so did Vauxhall, then Light would notice and close the gap. We had this formation because I was too weak to keep any form of Umbrage weaponry materialised for long, making me almost worthless. We walked in complete silence, only the ambience of nature and the sounds of gunshots in the distance would echo around. Our footsteps were light, except for mine. I limped painlessly as one of my legs was wounded so badly after I had been pinned by that Hellion back in the underground tracks, it was a miracle that I was able to walk on it at all. Vauxhall seemed more atone to controlling a rifle that was merely manipulated from her mind. Light seemed off in a daze as she brooded and watched her surroundings. That's when the ticking started. Light looked down at her leg and pounced back until the clicking stopped.
"Radiation." She muttered.
"How much?" I asked, though not really wanting an answer.
"Too much. We have to go around." Light span around and began to walk back the way we came.
"Alright come on Vaux-" I turned around and saw Vauxhall sprinting across the irradiated path beyond me. I shouted to her "Vauxhall! It's irradiated! Get back here!" She stopped and turned to face me. Her eyes were lit up with fear. I looked at her quizzically, then she ran, continuing down the path. That's when I turned around, expecting to get a look of confusion from Light. Instead, I saw something much worse than a Hellion.

A Machamp had Light by the throat, pinning her down. One spotted me and was soon upon me, my body was too weak to fight back. Instead of pinning me by the throat, like the other was doing with Light, it grabbed me and pushed my head into a pothole; filled with rainwater from the most recent shower. I struggled as the water flooded into my mouth, I kicked and bit down into its hand, but Machamp had mutated in a way that negated pain. They had no feelings or emotions. It was for this reason that they were known as the Frozen. Cold hearted killers, right down to the core. I could feel my life draining as I began to drown in this pothole. From the surface I saw Light form a rifle and laced a shot through the Frozen's head that had me pinned. I felt the crushing pressure release on my neck, I pulled my head up to the surface and I gasped for air. I look to Light just as I saw the Frozen incapacitate her. I growled and was ready to throw myself at it, but that's when I felt the pipe come down onto my skull. The world spun around me, light began fading from the world. That's when I lost consciousness.