Chapter 7
'Wanted dead for being'

Before Karli went to bed, leaving the pitch black lower floor, she stopped on the stairs and made one last look to see Glim close the door to the Rein ne dure. Seeing that the little glaceon had made the tough decision in what to evolve into, Karli gave one peek at her dawn stone, before looking back at Glim.

'Hey Glim?' said Karli, her face was a mix of hopelessness, depression and care.

'Yes?'

Glim awkwardly paused, staring at Karli, while the floor above them appeared lit up, judging from the light coming the stairs. The only light downstairs was the lantern that Beryl lit earlier, which was dying down. The braixen, sneasel, budew and pikachu were upstairs, calling it a night, though by the sounds of upbeat talk and laughter, it sounded as if the friends were trying to get the web off Beryl's arm, which was also on Gina's back after their hug. Every ten seconds, they would both yelp as the web would rip off their fur, even with the techniques to soften the very sticky web.

'Can I ask you, Glim, why you chose to become a glaceon? I remember when you bought that dress, you didn't want to talk about why you evolved.' said Karli, moving down the stairs, but not moving any closer to the glaceon. 'Unlike most pokémon, you eeveelutions have the choice. You're not bound by gender or difficult methods of travel, which in a way, does make your decision even tougher, since you have so many choices.' she said, approaching the little glaceon. 'So why glaceon, Glim?'

The little glaceon had his usual sad expression and looked down.

'I don't want to talk about it.'

Just as Glim finished his sentence he tried to pass Karli, who stood in his way. She, like the glaceon before her had a saddened expression, like she was worried for him.

'Wait…' she said, placing her hands over Glim's shoulders. 'You can tell me sweetheart.'

'No I can't.'

'You did want to evolve into a glaceon, right?'

'I said I don't want to talk about it!' repeated Glim, weakly knocking Karli's hands away from him. The kirlia stared at him in shock, with a hint of frustration, while the glaceon refrained from giving her eye contact. 'I-I'm sure you could understand. But… well, you say we aren't bound by gender. How many sylveon do you see, male?'

Karli wanted to answer, but she had never seen a male sylveon before. She had forgotten there were some pokémon evolutions that were very often avoided by specific genders. Sylveon was one of them, along with gardevoir, gorebyss and bellossom, which were hated to be male pokémon, by other males, despite the sexual fantasies often portrayed in the Day Care Couple magazines. Not that female pokémon had it any better, it seemed that males would demonize female machamp, alakazam and swampert too. In answering Glim's question, Karli did not want to put down his feelings.

'I'm sure there is one somewhere, Glim. There is nothing-'

'Wrong?' answered Glim angrily, glaring at the shiny kirlia, getting somewhat violent. 'Just- just don't worry about it. It wasn't why I evolved into a glaceon anyway. And I don't want to talk about that either, I'm sorry.' he said storming off as Karli just watched.

During the night, the lights that were lit by Beryl's flame had died down and everybody had fallen into a deep sleep. There were thankfully enough thick blankets for everyone. Belle wanted to share the blanket of her hero sneasel she looked up to, while everyone else slept in their own blankets, all of which were a deep navy. The attic room may have seemed homely, but it had that unmistakable feel that the outside world was a warzone, even if their street seemed relatively quiet. The one window was tightly sealed, with two planks of wood poorly covering the window which still showed the dark light of the miserable midnight sky. Even though the old window was closed, the sounds of violent pokémon shouting and smashing of metal and walls were still audible in the distance. The noises were not so frequent during the night, however the darkness was taken advantage by members of both the Crimson, trying to win the city back and the Republic when on their routinely hunts. The worst noise to hear were the screams of death. A pokémon screaming in pain was common in times of revolution or war, but one could always tell when someone was screaming in their moment of death. The sound was psychologically scarring to hear, for any pokémon sensitive. Glim was one of those pokémon, having trouble sleeping and just lying with his eyes open, facing the wall in front of him. He kept looking at the torn wall paper and kept imagining, that the room they were in was once a bedroom. Judging by the colourful flowery patterns, it may have been a little girl's room. The little glaceon wondered what that girl would feel to see that room as it was then, when they were sheltering themselves from the cruel world outside.

'You were not very nice to the kirlia, Glim.' said the voice of a grown female.

The glaceon, not realising that he had fallen asleep recognised the voice. It was the same one who spoke to him when the vileplume put him to sleep.

'It's you again.'

'Yes.'

'Who are you?'

'Your behaviour had been… less than lively when that alakazam generously broke you out of that death camp. In fact, you felt as if you did not want to leave, like you wanted to die.'

'I was not afraid to.'

'Glim, you did your best to save your friends.'

'I ended up getting them killed.'

'As your braixen friend said, Glim, it was the Republic who decided to Dragon Raid the island. You risked your life trying to please Prince Snowdrop and even got cut up, trying to persuade him. If your friends saw that, they would never have blamed you.'

Glim stayed quiet for a moment.

'Your friend Karli.' continued the female. 'You already feel for her. You know she wants to become a gallade. But she also hates the idea of becoming a boy to do so. That is like climbing a ladder, to escape a fire, but someone keeps building the wall slightly too high, just because they do not like her. You know very well what that is like Glim.'

The glaceon remained quiet again.

'Your friends are heading to Haine, Glim.' she continues. 'Your friends Angel, Beryl and Karli are keen to join the CR again. Yes, they were already members or thinking about it. So stick with them, little glaceon. One day, you will realise something far too important to ignore now.'

'What?'

'One side has to fall, as Jane says, yes. Except only one side can bring peace, post revolution, Glim. That side is the Crimson Revolution. If the Republic were to win, Crio will still fall. The neighbouring regions will refuse to bail the prime minister out from the damage he did to his own region, which will eventually fall into another revolution, for blood and survival.'

'But what can I do about it?'

'Stay with your friends.' said the female, happily.

The little glaceon paused for a while, before whispering 'okay', knowing that was the end of their conversation. He was about to ask the name of who he was speaking to again, before being nudged slightly by something very soft and delicate.

'Glim, wake up.' whispered Beryl.

Still only seeing a pitch black void, Glim did hear the voice of the sweet braixen, but felt as if he had no energy to respond. Until suddenly, Angel screamed very loudly, jolting the glaceon from his slumber and straight onto his bottom, sitting in a daze, still half asleep. The sneasel and budew standing next to him then chuckled. Beryl meanwhile, who seemed jumped from the manly scream, as he was kneeling close to Glim and looking back at Angel.

'Sorry lady-boys.' said Angel, grinning. 'It's six AM and things will start to get hectic in Hydrangea if we don't move around now.'

From where Glim was sat, recovering his senses, Beryl lightly took hold of his paws and pulled the dazed glaceon from the blankets and onto all fours. Glim noticed that neither Karli nor Gina were present upstairs. Angel picked up Belle, with his uninjured claw in a heroic manner, when really he was trying to ignore the pain of severely damaged ribs and proceeded to the stairs.

'We'll see you downstairs, okay?' called the sneasel.

'What's going on?' said Glim, asking Beryl.

'Angel and the others are going to Hydrangea harbour, to catch the next evacuation ferry, over to Camellias Island.'

'Aren't they going to Haine?'

'We are, but, Freesia's off limits after what happened to Gerbera, and Crio's three lakes have massively fortified due to what is happening in Haine. So we're going to have to take the long way round.'

'Oh right.' replied Glim, nodding.

The agreeable tone from the glaceon came as a surprise to the braixen who shot Glim a rather cute look of curiosity.

'S-so, you're coming?'

'Yeah.' said Glim, seeming confused.

'Oh good.' replied Beryl happily. 'It's just, yesterday, you seemed so… well. A-and the others said you won't want to come.'

'Well I am.' answered Glim, with an unexpected, determined expression.

Downstairs, Gina and Karli had a map laid out on the counter, it only covered Hydrangea City, being the fourth biggest city in Crio at three miles long. It was also a coastal city like Iris Town, which was eighteen miles southwest. In their current location, the next destination for the six friends was north, to Hydrangea harbour, to ferry to their next destination, fifteen miles away.

'Camellias Island.' said Karli, tapping the edge of the island that peered on the edge of their tourist map. 'Ever been there?'

'No.' replied Gina, frowning.

'Neither.' said Karli, shaking her head. 'Apparently… well we already knew it was a holiday resort.'

'Yeah, yeah.'

'But now, it is a refugee zone. Once there, you should be safe.'

'Yeah, "should" be safe.' replied Gina, finishing her sentence shaking her head sadly. 'We don't need tickets do we?'

Before the kirlia could answer the pikachu, Angel came downstairs, catching Karli's attention.

'Raring t'go?' asked Angel.

'I'm more interested in how you're getting us to the harbour.' replied Karli, frowning back at the map, which was covered in annotations of warnings. 'Most of the city are real danger zones, especially the city centre.'

'That's why we're not going through the city centre.' answered Angel, standing right to the kirlia, also looking at the map. 'But, we will have to go through the subway tunnels.'

'The tunnels?' repeated Karli, disdainfully.

'Yes.'

'Why is the name crossed out and replaced with "spiders are sexy"?'

'I-I don't know.' chuckled Angel. 'The map's not mine anyway. Besides, it's only a mile or so and the harbour's there.'

As they spoke, two boys were coming down the stairs next to them. Karli and Gina looked up at the descending glaceon. The kirlia had an expression that looked curious and somewhat surprised, to see Glim appear so serious. Unlike every other time Karli saw him, his face lacked the determination he had then.

'You're coming too Glim?' asked Gina.

'Of course.' he replied. 'And I'm not stopping at Camellias.'

That statement made Angel glance at the little glaceon, seemingly interested, but was actually surprised.

'So, you're coming with us to Haine?' asked Angel.

Glim nodded.

'In the past few weeks, the Republic refused to rescue me, bombed my hometown, bombed an island who were willing to befriend me, killing my friends in the process, interrogated me, threatening to kill me and threw me in prison.' said Glim, pausing angrily. 'I think I know what side I should join. And after hearing of all the crap they have done, from blaming to hunting dark type pokémon, to executing pokémon out of hatred. I can see now, why the Crimson started their rebellion. They weren't just some pissed off thugs as I thought them to be. They're standing up for what's right.'

During Glim's speech, Gina could not help sympathising, having also lost someone so dear to her. Karli ironically looked cheery, thankful for the glaceon to not have given up. The sneasel meanwhile kept his expression of dry interest.

'You've only just figured that out?' asked Angel.

Karli interjected 'well, when you've lost friends-'

'I know, I know. I've lost friends too.'

While the kirlia and sneasel spoke, Gina approached Glim and hugged him. The little glaceon did not break down or hug back in deep joy. He and the pikachu were sharing there each other's compassion over their losses. Glim's expression only resembled grief and reassurance.

The mornings were always freezing at that time, even with the clouds blocking out the sky. The cold was comforting for most ice type pokémon, but Angel dressed up in his usual thin shady trench coat, so little Belle could stay a little warmer in his backpack. Being a little plant pokémon, Belle who was in danger to the cold was ironically safer away from her hero sneasel, yet she refused to leave him. It did make Angel have to adapt to responsibilities, but as cool as he is, even with a broken claw and ribcage, the sneasel was quick to adapt. During the run from the old toy store, the six friends had trailed down an alley, where Belle stuck her buds out, to get a feel of the present situation. Glim had noticed the budew and for the first time wondered how she ended up being in Angel's care.

The group were on the last street, before entering Malaise Park, which was a rather big local park for children. At least, it was made for the interest of children, but when the friends entered, the input sense of country was replaced with carnage. Two houses were blown to rubble, some of which were crashed over a corner of the park. The ground was torn up in several locations, along with the body of a giant aggron lying on its left side. Nearby was a house that had clearly been ablaze with several dead bug pokémon just lying outside of it, the only body that seemed intact was a leavanny, who was left lying over the bodies of younger pokémon. The sight was horrible, but with the occasional bang noises in the distance, the massacres were still in motion.

Despite the scene and sight, Angel at front only took two glances left and right, before leaping over the fence to the park, whispering 'go, go, go' as he did. The glaceon, kirlia and pikachu followed the slick sneasel having to climb over the fence for being so small, while Beryl also jumped flamboyantly over the fence, like he was in some performance. Angel had already ran ahead, near to the other side of the park. When the four friends attempted to catch up, passing the corpse of the aggron which had its back to them, Beryl could not help but look, only to see the beast's iron helmet completely crumpled into its head. There was a whole puddle of blood under its head, like it got hit directly by a falling iron ball. The forearm was missing from the aggron but most upsettingly, it seemed to be trying to protect a little aron and cranidos that laid dead just in front of it. Seeing the bodies made the braixen quickly glance away, shocked and sorrowful.

After the horrific detour, the four friends had caught up with Angel and Belle who stopped just outside what appeared to be an underground passage, ones pedestrians would use to going under roads and avoiding transportation vehicles. The entrance was sealed by a folding metal fence and by the state of it, it looked like it had been sealed off for years. The sneasel was picking at the lock until it clicked open after little effort and pushed the creaking folding fence. Judging by the tenseness of Angel's push, the fence appeared to be rather stiff. Ahead of them laid a flight of stairs and a left turn into complete darkness.

Down underground, what felt like an abyss, the only source of light appeared down an elongated corridor, which Angel confirmed to be the entrance for the trains into the tunnel, which was where they were heading.

'Angel?' asked Glim, breaking the silence.

'Yo.'

'Can I ask you about Belle?'

'You're probably wondering how I ended up taking her into my care.'

'Yes actually.'

'Well, it was also when Karli and I met as well.'

'We had met before, though.' interjected Karli.

'Yeah, yeah, but it was a few- no, yesterday! We all got together and made it to Hydrangea.'

'Oh god, yeah,' said Glim. 'The Dragon Raiding of Iris and Lilac was only yesterday. Holy crap it feels like it was days ago.'

'I know. But that morning when it happened, most of my flat was obliterated before the sirens even went off and I had just enough time to escape, my house at least. Just like Karli, I got hidden in a mass of rubble straight after. And when I got myself out, I did my best to find anybody else. That was pretty much how Belle and I met.'

'Yeah!' happily called the little budew from inside her bag. 'Angel saved me from my house falling down.'

Glim only looked at the rustling bag, interested about what happened to Belle's parents, but deciding not to ask. He had a similar thought for Gina and Karli as he looked back to them with an expression of concern. The glaceon wanted to ask if they were the only survivors from the dress shop, but was again afraid to ask.

Emerging from the tunnel the four could immediately see the sea, but as they were still on train tracks, the path they were on were was boxed either by walls or chain linked fences. However on the next right turn, following the track around a hill, Angel spotted Hydrangea harbour and a low ledge that was neighbouring the tracks, which was a road leading to the harbour. The sneasel began to rush as he saw the harbour, swiftly climbing the ledge and frequently looking back for his friends. Glim, Beryl, Karli and Gina were easily following Angel, as if he was their leader as he ran ahead, but only so fast to not leave them behind. The glaceon could see why he was running, at the port there was only one ferry, and there was an unmistakable crowd just huddle in one small area on the dock.

'There's only one ship!' shouted Karli. 'What the hell!'

'Once we're on it, the Republic aren't catching us.' said Angel, slowing to run alongside his allies.

It did not take long for the crew to catch up to the crowds who were mostly pokémon who could not swim or were disabled, injured or elderly. Glim and his friends were uncannily at the back, however the pokémon swarming on board was not slowed at any rate, meaning there was still plenty of room and that the doors to the deck had only just opened. Angel noticed that the vessel was one long deck, often used for evacuations from dangerous locations, which is why it has so few levels, in case the ship was to sink, the option to float, swim, fly or be rescued was still an option without anybody getting trapped.

On the deck were hundreds of pokémon ranging from all kinds of species and types. Very few of them were water or flying as they usually had their own advantage of escape. Being the last individuals to board, the hitmonchan and pangoro guarding the bridge to the deck made quick, but thorough checks on each of the friends. They did not like Angel, demanding him to take off his coat and revealing what was in his bag, being a dark type pokémon did not ease them any quicker either. However, the sneasel was very calm and quick to cooperate as he followed their demands. The bouncer's nerves calmed when they figured he was friends with the children behind him and that he had a broken arm. Instead of an explosive weapon being hidden in his bag, Belle the budew happily hopped out, relieving the guards, who looked back at the desperate pokémon behind Angel.

'Foster father?' asked the hitmonchan.

'No, just… helping.' answered Angel.

The pangoro nodded, believing but still intimidating the crew and gestured for them to come on board.

'We'll be leaving in five.' said the giant panda pokémon, as Glim made the first step onto the vessel, followed by everyone else.

The sneasel was the last of his friends to board the ship, having to carefully put his coat on his shoulder whilst watching his little budew friend scamper after the others. There was more room than expected, but the place seemed chaotic, most of the pokémon were comforting others or arguing about leaving or staying. Judging by the ones who were arguing, most of the male pokémon were talking about keeping the safety of their family while they would come back to Hydrangea or leaving for Haine. Some were only complaining about the cold or not liking to sail. Karli and Glim did not stray far, while Beryl, Belle and Gina waited for Angel. They looked for a spot to sit, but seeing that most of the crowd were just sat where they were, it did not seem that they were going to find luxurious spa beds any time soon. Knowing that Belle needed to keep warm more than any of them, Gina suggested to sit close in a circle, so when Angel joined the two girls with Beryl were already sat down surrounding the little bud pokémon. Glim however understood the intention and sat behind Beryl and Karli. The sneasel patted the little glaceon, as he took one step heading away from his friends.

'I'm gonna look around, okay?' said Angel, winking to his friends. 'I'll be right back.'

'Okay Angel.' said Karli, while Glim only nodded. 'Wait, can we borrow your coat?'

Before he left, the sneasel passed his coat over to the kirlia, who then wrapped the little budew in the coat, letting her face and buds stick out. Her usual green had turned much darker and felt strangely sturdier as Karli wrapped the coat around her. While she did, Belle could not help but try to speak while her mouth became masked, making her friends smile.

'This'll keep you warm Belle.'

'Wait a minute…' said Beryl, looking around him. 'Would I be okay to…?'

'What?'

The braixen drew his beautiful wand from his tail and lit it, creating a small flame and held it just between himself and Gina.

'Ooh that's better, thanks.' said Gina.

'Excuse me madam.' said the pangoro guard to Beryl, appearing behind Glim. 'You'll be careful with that okay?'

'Y-yes sir.' replied Beryl sheepishly.

'We're just trying to keep this one warm.' Karli interjected, stroking the budew between them.

'I know.' replied the pangoro, nodding. 'Incidentally can you light something of mine? Not a lot of fire types on board.' He said holding out a retro lantern which was strapped to the side of his belt.

'Oh of course sir.' answered Beryl, placing the flaming side of his wand in the lantern and setting light to the candle.

The pangoro thanked the braixen quickly and left, headed through the crowd toward the cabin. Seeing the lantern and structure of the ship, Karli did notice that the vessel was surprisingly outdated.

'I'm no sailor, but isn't this a SF ferry?'

SF stood for stunfisk, for its flat design and offering its passengers a wide sky view, but was more famously known for its endurance as it was originally designed for wading supplies through ice and treacherous swamps. It was probably why that vessel was being used as a civilian escape vessel, having survived whatever the revolution may have done to it, unlike any other design of ferry.

Since the pangoro guard had passed by, Glim looked back, to see if the gates onto the vessel had closed. Even with several percentage of the crowd sitting down, the little glaceon still could not see the gates, masked by much taller pokémon, like an ursaring, clefable, a garchomp couple and a lopunny with a pachirisu and zigzagoon. Glim did notice one of the lighthouses very close to the harbour and that is was nudging slowly to the left. Suddenly a horn blared very loudly, making the five friends jump. Beryl squeaked like a pichu, while Karli only tensed.

'I think we're moving.' blurted Karli.

Much further at the hull of the ship, which was surprisingly long, Angel was passing through, curious to know if he can be of any help, even though he only had one claw. Like what Glim saw, most of the citizens were refugees evacuating to safety who were trapped in the warzone of the city. One linoone was frantically asking around if anybody was a midwife or a doctor, which caught the attention of not only Angel but a lot of pokémon nearby who were hearing the unsettling groans of another linoone going into labour. As much as the sneasel would like to help, he was neither a midwife or in condition to help in that scenario. Thankfully some middle-aged kadabra passed Angel confirming of his medical experience and offered to help. He followed the desperate linoone through the crowd, which Angel was having trouble seeing over. However, he was reluctant to get in anyone's way and continued his check. Angel then stopped, near the very front of the vessel at the sight of a familiar electivire leaning on the barricade.

'Alexander?' asked Angel.

Hearing his name, the enormous electrical pokémon glanced back, surprised but with a hint hope in his eyes. That hope is then turned into annoyance as he just as quickly recognised the sneasel before him.

'Angel?' said Alexander as the sneasel approached, neither of them looking pleased and awkwardly paused for a moment. 'I would Hammer Arm you right now, but I see someone's already beaten me to it.'

Suddenly Angel burst out laughing.

'Y'know, funnily enough, my arm was done in by a metagross using Hammer Arm.'

'Why is that funny?' replied Alexander, shaking his head.

The sneasel quickly stopped and then had an awkward smile, knowing his attempt to cheer the mood was not going to work.

'Well… I'm not going to cry whenever I lose something. I like to move on whenever my shit hits the fan.'

'When you say 'move on' you mean run away.' said Alexander and suddenly Angel's expression slowly got more serious. 'Who'd you smuggle in this time?'

'Hey!' interrupted Angel. 'Do you think I'm committing a crime, all the time? Look at me, my arm's fucked and I'm armed to evolve. And I've had a pretty rough day yesterday.'

'Same, what happened?'

'Well, we both were survivors of Iris' Dragon Raid presumably.' said Angel, gesturing at himself and the electivire.

'Yep.'

'But that's when I stayed to help Belle, Karli and her friend to get over here. And just when I find shelter, some bitch alakazam gives me all this 'you're the future' crap, making me bail two chicks, who turned out to be dudes. And then got my ass kicked by some hard as hell meta! Five lives, in one day and did I get laid that night, fuck no!'

'Are they with you now?'

'Yes, they're huddling back there for warmth. Including that glaceon that I… did smuggle in day's ago.' said Angel pointing behind him and chuckling guiltily.

'Yeah, that's why I was keen to beat the hell out of you. We knew immediately when you two went in different directions. We weren't stupid.'

'Yep.'

'And by the time Ford and I gave up looking for ya, a fight had broken out just outside the Cove! My boss was pissed!'

'Be honest. Does that really matter now?'

The electivire paused. 'No… it's just been edgy is all.' He said, calming down and turning to lean over the fence again. 'So you actually helped five people get here?'

'Yeah,' replied Angel, only leaning on his injured side against the fence. 'I didn't smuggle them in… we-'

'It wouldn't have mattered if you did.'

Far above, the pace of the evacuation vessel was visibly fast, half way to its destination over seven miles away. But from the air approached three figures moving faster. In the middle was Sergeant the magnezone, accompanied by two hydreigon. Sergeant made several radio noises from its antenna and the hydreigon began their descent to the vessel. Meanwhile Sergeant charged up its two front magnets and fired a bright rainbow laser into the sea just in front of the ship, signalling it to stop. Being such a bright laser, it was very hard to miss as Glim, Beryl, Gina, Karli, Angel and Alexander all saw it and immediately glanced up, just in time to see the two hydreigon swoop down with very disturbing roars. The people on board began to sicken, complain or even panic. They knew the Republic were coming to survey the ship, which does not always mean they will let it pass. Unwilling to lose his passengers, the swampert captain stops his engines and sulks angrily.

The five friends stood up, convinced they were under attack. Glim then spots the magnezone as it descended over the crowd and faced the bridge, while the captain appeared to be yelling at it. The crowd was not quieting down and was also complaining at Sergeant, saying very anti Republic phrases and all manner of insults. The little glaceon feared if it was here for him and Beryl.

'Attention everyone!' called Sergeant, speaking through some filter that raised its voice. 'I am not here to bring harm. But this vessel has been boarded by two criminals that had escaped Hydrangea's Royal Talon Prison.' Hearing that made Glim cower behind Karli, who seemed uncaring that he was also looking up her skirt. 'The Republic have only sent me to reclaim these two individuals, so we would appre-'

During its last statement, the crowd began muttering again.

'Yeah?' yelled a marowak. 'What were these "criminals" prisoned for?'

A lopunny screamed 'we've had it with your revolution!'

'I order you to cooperate!' replied the magnezone loudly, while the two massive hydreigon glided to his sides and glared back. 'Now, I understand what the Republic are doing. But no one here, wants to die, correct? I have been ordered, simply, to arrest the glaceon and the braixen, both males. I would appreciate-'

'It's not going to happen!' yelled Angel, leaping into the open space that had formed and looked up at the floating magnezone.

Concerned about the other refugees turning against them, Beryl and Glim attempted to sneak back and hide in the cabin or something. They were then met by the pangoro guard just behind them who whispered to them to keep quiet and stood in front of the two. Meanwhile Sergeant descended, while the vicious dark dragons stayed above it.

'Are you not the sneasel who broke them out?' asked Sergeant, while Angel remained quiet. 'My colleague is in critical condition after your operation. We are merely following orders, so kindly-'

'Your "orders",' growled the mother lopunny, stepping forward. 'Are thoughtless demands from your sick heartless freak prime minister! Who ordered the deaths of so many of our families, including my son!'

The crowds resumed cussing and shouting at the magnezone, who remained silent and staring at Angel.

'I am afraid I am not leaving without the criminals, people.' said Sergeant.

'You want my friends, you're going to have to get through me first.' snarled Angel.

'And me!' shouted Alexander emerging from the crowd.

The crowds got louder in their shouting as Sergeant finally decided to ascend, oddly with a regrettable look in its eyes. While the crowd were yelling for the Republic crony to leave, Angel knew that look the sergeant had and was wondering what it was thinking. Most of the crowd did not notice, but Sergeant's antenna was lightly flashing, meaning it had received a message. The magnezone was not the only one to receive a message, the two hydreigon above also received it. The two evil dragons pulled wide grins and looked at each other.

'Mr prime minister… sir, I-' stuttered Sergeant glancing round, noticing that the hydreigon had begun their ascent. 'No!'

Immediately the magnezone unleashed a silver blast upward to either hydreigon. The dark dragon on the right took glimpse of the attack and quickly hissed for its ally to drift back, which was quick enough for both of them to dodge it. The same hydreigon countered just as quickly by beaming a stream of fire directly at the rebelling magnezone, which hit at an astonishing speed, leaving Sergeant no time to dodge at all. The Flamethrower shot the magnezone, screaming in agony through the ship's deck and disappearing beneath it. It was all happening so fast, the passengers did not know what to make of the scene. What some of them did realise, was that the hydreigon were likely given orders to use Draco Meteor and destroy the ship, which was why they took flight as their eyes and mouths began to glow.

'Oh god.' said Angel, turning round and running into the crowds to find his friends.

Rather quickly, the angry shouting of the pokémon turned into panic and rebellion as most of the crowd began to shove up against the fences desperate to cling on to something, while others took to the centre and already tried counter attacking whatever was about to hit them. Even the captain tried to start the engines and move the ship as quickly as he could. But very high up, away from the reach of any of the pokémon on board, the two hydreigon burst what looked like millions of fireworks, heading directly for the ship. It was impossible to not see, even with eyes closed. Glim was paralysed at the sight, while pokémon were rushing away or shooting up their own attacks trying to stop the rain of comets. Angel meanwhile had enough time to run up to Glim and Beryl.

'Belle!' called Angel, but then immediately, the Draco Meteors impacted, exploding all around the ship, blinding the glaceon and blowing him back.

For a moment, all Glim could hear, trapped in his dark void that was merely his eyes closed, were the sounds of mass hysteria and explosions. When his senses came back, the screaming was still happening, but the fierce rocking of the burning explosions was replacing unsettled by somehow relaxing waves. The little glaceon found himself woken up still on the ship which was on fire ahead of him. The damage to the vessel had not sunk into Glim's mind to tell him about how much danger he was in. All he saw ahead of him was actually the back of the bridge, while the rest of it was pointing downward slowly. The entire ship had been broken in half and craters were everywhere, all of which were burned black, some with traces of blood.

The carnage was not the first thing that caught Glim's attention when his vision and hearing returned. Lying on his back, his eyes were following the two creepy green lights that were floating near him. When the lights got closer to the little glaceon, he realised they were not lights, but two unown, pulsing their possessed, yet enraged eyes. Glim recognised the unown, they were part or servants of the Martyr being he had fought back in Iris.

'Oh my god.' said Glim, trying to stand.

When he stood he clearly heard the metal fence behind him get hit by something fierce that hissed just afterwards. The little glaceon jumped in fright and glanced round, to see the dead, enraged face of some kind of turquoise fish with stunning long ruby hair. Judging by the length of its body, it appeared to be some kind of snake pokémon too. Its eyes were a horrifying black that was melting liquid from it as the head was biting hard on the rail.

'Your decision to sail has doomed you and your friends!' screamed many voices through telepathy.

The fish let go of the rail, revealing four more unown levitating behind it. All of which flew away in adjacent directions. When the confrontation seemed to end, Glim spotted the two hydreigon whooshing through the air above him, fleeing the scene. He looked back to see the ship and multiple fragments of wreckage idly floating away and disappearing into the fog that had thickened.

The little glaceon knew that the vessel he was standing on was doomed to sink too and proceeded to look for something that was already afloat. On the vessel with him were a few pokémon who were shaking out of trauma, in particular children who were small enough to dodge the devastating Draco Meteors. Of the starboard side of the cabin, Alexander the electivire emerged, climbing up the tilted vessel. He was offering to help anybody who was too paralysed to move and was already carrying an unconscious pikachu on his shoulder, who happened to be Gina.

'Glim!' yelled Karli, from the opposite side and climbing back onto the sinking ship.

Glim tried to run down to help her, but as soon as he took his first step, a strange, terrifying and mechanical roar sounded from the sea below, followed by what sounded like a train, using the water as its tracks and zoomed into the remains of the vessel very loudly. Immediately the side of the ship was catapulted in the air, disintegrating instantly and somersaulting well over the other side of the destroyed ship. Glim, several metres away from Karli, Alexander and Gina was helplessly flung with the ship, finding himself stuck to the floor he was standing on, which luckily broke his fall on the hard water. The large wreckage sunk slightly before rising above sea level and remaining afloat. When he emerged, the little glaceon frantically looked around for his friends. But all he was seeing was the tremendously thick fog. Eerily the screams of pokémon had stopped.

There was no mistaking that whatever it was that hit the ship was another remnant of Martyr, which came to kill him. For that reason, Glim stayed quiet, hoping to be assumed dead from the previous attack.

Suddenly, a giant yellow arm lunged out of the water behind the glaceon and grabbed onto the huge fragment of wreckage. The heavy thud made Glim jump, turning to face it, instantly recognising it to be the arm of the electivire he saw only moments ago. Alexander partly pulled himself out of the water, appearing to be hurt, judging by his grunting. The glaceon rushed over to offer a paw, though the electivire was already on the wreckage. In his right hand was Gina, who was twitching but seemingly unharmed.

'Gina?' called Glim, scurrying around the pikachu to face her. 'Are you okay?'

Alexander rolled completely onto the floating floor, still grunting about the pain in his left shoulder, while Gina opened her eyes, shivering in place.

'G-Glim?'

'Come on, get up!' said Glim tucking his head beneath Gina's and easily lifting her back onto her hind legs.

The pikachu was barely standing and still frozen solid. The electivire meanwhile stood up, also looking around for any survivors. Gina was not responding, just staring into nothing, even with Glim giving her eye contact, but his leaning left to right confirmed that the pikachu was still frozen in fear. The glaceon placed his paws over her shoulders and lightly shook her.

'Gina, Gina!'

Nearby, the sound of a young girl gasping for air burst out of the water. Only looking to his right, Glim saw it was Karli, who seemed in one piece and pulling herself toward the safety of the wreckage. Even so, Alexander rushed over and offered his huge hand and pulled the little kirlia on board. She was also grunting in pain, though it seemed to not be of an injury.

'Oh my god, that water is freezing!' growled Karli.

'Are you alright?' asked Alexander.

'Yeah, yeah.' nodded Karli, but then pointed at the water. 'But there is something down there, and, it, is, huge!'

Knowing what the kirlia was referring to, Glim had a more desperate expression, gazing back at the pikachu and shook her one last time.

'Gina?' he said angrily, but when he still got no reply, the glaceon rose his paw and slapped Gina, pushing her over. The pikachu squeaked, holding her cheek, while Karli and Alexander both glanced at the two. 'Snap out of it!' he cried, worryingly.

'Glim stop!' said Karli, running between them and kneeling in front of Gina.

'We're going to need everyone for what is about to happen!'

The kirlia, electivire and pikachu glanced at the frightened glaceon, who seemed so serious all of a sudden.

'Why- what's going to happen?' asked Alexander.

Before Glim could answer, something lunged out of the sea behind him. The sudden splash made the little glaceon react quick enough to glance back, to see the same terrifying fish face zoom right into his icy crown. The impact hurled Glim passed Gina and Karli, while Martyr bounced upward, hissing in pain. Reacting in fear, Gina screamed while Karli quickly waved her arm, forming four green leaves, while the giant electivire threw his arms forward and burst a stream of lightning. The attacks hit the long snake of Martyr, lightly pushing it back into the water. The glaceon meanwhile was quick to get back up, but was clearly dizzy from his clash. He was lucky it hit his ferociously tough crown of ice as the momentum even hurt the snake itself.

'What the hell was that!' yelled Karli.

'It looked like a milotic, I think.' blurted Alexander. 'Back to back!' he ordered, pacing backward.

The glaceon, kirlia and pikachu did not understand what Alexander meant by his instruction as they stood still, on the lookout. Karli meanwhile was staring at the tense glaceon.

'Glim, what was that?' she demanded.

'I said back to back!' repeated Alexander, stopping in front of the girls who suddenly understood the tactic and faced outward.

Glim joined the trio in their lookout stance, standing between Gina and Karli.

'I don't know what they are.' said Glim, shaking his head. 'They just call their selves "Martyr".'

'Whatever it is, stay on guard!' interrupted Alexander.

On the edge of visibility in the fog, the snake like fish suddenly rose its head out of the water, in sight of the giant electivire. Instantly his cable like tails erected, pulsing in electricity.

'There!' shouted Alexander, using Thunderbolt again, followed by Gina also firing lightning and Karli shooting a ball of shadows in the same direction. But even before Alexander fired his attack, Martyr instantly sunk back into the water like a boulder.

When the three pokémon ceased their attacks, the wrecked below all four of them was met by a huge force, throwing them into the air again and into the freezing water. The deep cold was the least of their worries, especially for Glim, who seemed to have disappeared. Karli meanwhile quickly regained her balance and saw Gina panic swimming ahead of her. Further below she saw the silhouette of the snake part of Martyr streaming past. The kirlia did not hesitate for a second and swam for the helpless pikachu who was not calming down as she pulled the both of them back up. Above the water, the two girls breathed deeply.

'Gina, it's me!' cried Karli, trying to reassure her friend who was choking on sea water.

The kirlia spotted the raft they were knocked from only metres behind them, which appeared to still be in one piece. Just before Karli grabbed the edge, a bright flash beamed from the water below and suddenly Karli could hear distorted screaming in the midst of the fog. She was very confused, but figured the fight was happening underwater as she threw Gina back onto the wreckage and climbed on herself. Shortly afterward, Alexander also emerged from the water, barely holding on. He was growling in pain.

'Are you alright?' called Karli, but getting no response. 'What happened? Where's Glim?'

Just when the kirlia asked her last question, she got her answer when the same glaceon suddenly appeared, inhaling as he grabbed onto the raft. Karli rushed over to pull him up. Glim had an expression that seemed like he was begging to the kirlia.

'Hey Karli?' asked Glim.

'What?'

'Do you know how to use Signal Beam?'

'No.'

'Then get behind me, now!'

Glim hastily got on his four feet while Karli helped up Gina as they stood behind the little glaceon. The water ahead of them trembled violently as an enormous creature burst, roaring out of it. Presumably to be the other half of the fish head creature, the side of Martyr the friends were facing was just as nightmarish as Glim's previous encounter. The base appeared to be a milotic, with the horrifically intimidating eyes of a metagross and giant fins of a lumineon in place of its hair. The metagross part was actually fused to the same head, just under the milotic, separated by the large X on its face, though the X looked more like the same kind of fins from a lumineon. The metagross still had its front legs, without any change, but its eyes were strangely beautiful, being the mix of the lumineon's and milotic's. The remnant was a colossus and like the last one Glim encountered, it was furious. Its roar, due to the species it had formed from made the beautiful lament of a milotic, combined with the raging scream of a train.

'Oh my god!' screamed Gina, holding Karli in terror.

As it roared, Martyr raised its giant metagross leg as an arm, while the glaceon responded with another blast of rainbows, but his attack was suddenly blocked by the tail fish-head that burst out of the water in time. Though the tail was screaming, nothing stopped the huge mechanical fish from hammering its entire body down over Alexander, who was taken underwater with it. The attack had hit the water so violently close, the raft was thrown into the air, but thankfully stayed level as it landed onto the water. The glaceon, kirlia and pikachu sputtered and fell on the rafts landing. Karli quickly looked over to see if Alexander was still there.

'Sir! You okay?' cried Karli, staring at an arm that remained tightly gripped onto the wreckage, but shortly after her question, the arm had let go and as it drifted, the waves revealed it to have been amputated from its electivire. Karli said nothing and just assumed the worst.

Suddenly the wreckage was hit upward again, breaking completely, hurtling Glim and Karli in the air, while Gina, who felt less of the impact was simply knocked over into the water first. The little glaceon and kirlia fell into the water, but due to Glim being slightly heavier, he sunk deeper into the sea, while Karli was desperate to breach the surface again, not for air, but to know where Martyr was. It had clearly resorted to destroying any raft wreckage to bring the full fight underwater.

The kirlia emerged, inhaling when she did not need to, but what she was seeing had her gasping anyway. The giant mechanical fish monstrosity had hold of something tiny and yellow, in its huge metagross claws. Karli for once froze, knowing that was Gina who was screaming in agony as Martyr easily tore her in half, creating a river of blood to explode from her.

'No!' screamed Karli, which got the attention of the pokémon hybrid.

Martyr merely dropped the dead halves of the pikachu in place, as it sunk slightly and suddenly the floating kirlia was violently grabbed by the mouth of the tail. Karli had no time to react and could not move as she was held up in the air. The teeth sharply digging into her shoulders and hips, combined with the salt water was agonizing. The Martyr remnant opened out its arms, when it was hit by a beam of rainbows coming from underwater. Immediately, the pokémon hybrid shook violently, changing colours, while multiple screams could be heard from the fog again. During the attack, Glim himself emerged from the water, trying his hardest to not stop, but he desperately needed to breathe. Using Signal Beam was causing him to scream out his energy. Eventually the little glaceon had to stop and take his quickest breath ever, but in doing so Martyr fell back and let go of Karli, leaving her to body slam into the water.

When the kirlia swam up, not being so deep due to her entrance, Glim remained focused on the Martyr colossus, readying himself for another Signal Beam if it came back up. Karli meanwhile was only grunting in pain, unaware just how tough she had become with the use of her eviolite. She was then nudged from behind by a piece of wreckage, presumably part of the wreckage they were fighting on earlier.

'Glim! Look!' called Karli, swiftly rolling onto the long, narrow flooring.

The glaceon looked back at then climbed onto the raft as well. He was still on edge, feeling as though Martyr still was not done yet. Most of their energy had been depleted from swimming and climbing onto wreckage again and again, but though they were getting exhausted, Glim and Karli were staying determined until they died.

On the raft, the waters became quiet for a moment, until the two started to hear many creepy, inaudible whispers getting closer. From the fog, six unown, glowing their green and white eyes slowly approached whilst floating above the water. The glaceon and kirlia stood back to back, but the unown did not get any closer.

'We pleaded.' whispered three voices from the sea, causing Glim and Karli to glance to it, seeing nothing. 'We wailed.'

Suddenly something dark appeared behind Glim and hit him on his protective crown with a huge blow, instantly knocking him out. Karli gasped, reacting by waving her arm right, summoning multiple leaves to strike as quickly as she could, but all she saw was a huge black handle of a weapon and a human-shaped figure leaping away and fading out, all at once.

'We died.' continued the voices.

'Glim, Glim!' cried Karli, nudging his body desperately, noticing his extremely sturdy crown was cracked. 'Get up!'

'We are Martyr. Revenge be ours!' screamed Martyr, followed by what looked like a volcanic eruption from the sea, as the whole Martyr hybrid flew out from the water. Screaming its horrifying train like noise, it arced in the air and was clearly diving down to fully crash into Glim and Karli using its entire body.

Thinking quickly and out of insanity, Karli stood, waving her arm up and belting the wreckage with her fist, summoning the biggest reflective wall her adrenaline would allow. Surrounding her and Glim, the Reflect brightly beamed into existence, bouncing the unown away and used just before the colossus crashed into it, emitting an ear pounding bang, which echoed for miles. The impact due to the attack, caused the sea around the survivors to waver into tidal waves, heading outward as Martyr appeared to bounce off the Reflect, which shattered completely. Karli fell onto her back as it happened. She looked up to see that the giant fish hybrid to remain oddly frozen in mid-air, turning black and gradually shrinking, until three figures emerged from it. There was a finneon, a feebas and a beldum, all of which looked dead somehow.

The three little pokémon appeared to sink slowly, until the surrounding unown closed in, catching them somehow.

'Glim.' whispered the three pokémon, as though they were crying. 'We remember.'

Karli sat still, overwhelmed by emotions from her experience and just remained staring at what she was looking at, while Glim remained unconscious next to her. The kirlia tried to wake him up again, but it was no use, for a moment she worried that he might be dead. But as she was thinking that, the six unown with the three pokémon they surrounded had disappeared. As soon as everything became quiet again, the sound of sirens approached.

The fog made like a thundering noise, before quickly being blown away like flour and from the water, two gyarados and a floatzel sped across the water.

'Is anybody else out there!' yelled the floatzel.

'Yes, yes! Over here!' cried Karli, waving her arms and jumping up and down.

Keeping their speed, the three water pokémon made a sharp turn and stopped just in front of the little wreckage without even causing any water to splash up onto the survivors.

'Don't worry ladies!' said the floatzel in some lifeguard uniform, matching that of the gyarados'. 'You're safe now, we'll have you over at Camellias in no time.'

'Wait a minute.' interrupted Karli, as the weasel pokémon carefully placed the unconscious Glim onto the back of the gyarados. 'Did you see what just happened here?'

'Not with all the fog, no.'

'We heard an explosion just now.' said the unoccupied gyarados.

'Yeah, have the Republic come back to attack you?' asked the floatzel.

'Are you fucking kidding me?' replied Karli, angrily. 'You didn't see any of what just happened!'

'Hey, hey calm down dear, we're trying to rescue you.'

'Ugh, sorry, sorry. Let's just get out of here.'

'It's alright.' the floatzel interrupted. 'Almost every survivor so far has been traumatised.'

Karli gasped at the statement.

'There are survivors?' she asked, already knowing the answer, but the lifeguard confirmed it again. 'What about…' she paused, remembering that Gina was torn in half, which she herself had witnessed.

Regaining her strength, the kirlia had a sorrowful expression as she climbed onto the same gyarados who was carrying Glim. The lifeguard had assumed that Karli already knew her answer and decided not to push the question, since he could not see any more survivors in their vicinity.