"voice dialogue"

'thoughts'

[telepathy]

(Author's notes)

Chapter 2

"Er... hello? Anybody there? Oh. Hi there, father..." I answered a private call through my cell phone. At first, I thought it would be someone else, but I should have known that it would be my father since he was the only one who called me nowadays. He always used private calls, I dunno why, but that's just what he did. I just recently woke up. My watch told me it's exactly ten in the morning. A little late by my standards.

"Good morning, son," the voice of my father sounded from the speaker. "Hey, I need you over here at my place. This is rather important, so I need you to be here as soon as possible, okay? You know the drill from here, so no need to repeat them. I'll be seeing you here soon." He then hung up, causing me to sigh and put the phone down. I promptly went to my closet and grabbed a simple, casual street outfit, then walked straight to the shower.

Oh, I should have introduced myself first. My name is Marcos Walker. I am an eighteen year old man, who graduated from high school just half a year ago. I belong to a family consisting of just my father. My mother apparently left my father when I was just three. I didn't remember much of her, nor did I care to. With some effort and skill, father had been able to support us both. We were nowhere near as wealthy as the nobility class, but we were still well within middle class. I have dark brown hair, neatly cut shortly. I am lean, yet reasonably well toned, and I'm six feet tall.

After my shower, I got into my chosen outfit, went back into my room, and packed the rest of the things I always carried along with me; my phone, wallet, identification, and two pokeballs. They contained the pokemon I had cared for, despite how other sorts of people treated their pokemon. One held Adagio, a rare shiny noivern, who I had caught many years ago when she was just a little noibat. At first, she appeared to distrust me, but she opened up to me after we spent more and more time together, as well as me risking my liberty in order to train her in secret, because Unova's laws prohibited people from training pokemon, unless they're training pokemon for fighting competitions. The same can be said for my other pokemon, Morel, the breloom. I had to admit, he didn't have the finest combat skills I'd seen, but he could hold his own pretty well.

After getting my stuff ready, I walked outside my small cottage, which was in the far outskirts of Nimbasa City, locked the door, and then proceeded to my passenger car. Nothing really special about it, really, it was just a dull gray color. I unlocked the driver's door, then started the engine. After closing the door, I tuned into the radio, trying to get what's going on today. After fiddling around with the buttons for a minute, I finally tuned into a news channel. I listened to what they were talking about.

"On Inter regional news, the city of Jubilife in the Sinnoh region is currently being besieged by pokemon rebel forces, who now surround the entire city. According to the Champion of Sinnoh, military forces are being dispatched to crush the rebel forces. The local officials and police force are currently holding out quite well, according to the chief of police stationed in Jubilife City. Civilians had been evacuated just before the assault. This is just one of the multiple rebellions taking place in all regions. So far, we have little to no contact with other regions, so stay tuned for further news."

'Ugh. Another one. This is just terrible.' I told myself, shaking my head. I just started to drive out of the road way connecting my home to a narrow road that took me to the neighboring Driftveil City.

The journey was fairly uneventful. My main concern was being ambushed by any pokemon, like what happened to those military convoys. Thankfully, I haven't encountered any pokemon, despite the fact that I live rather close to Lostlorn Forest. Jeez, that place gives me creeps. I've heard tales that say people often disappear whenever they journey into that sinister forest, long before those rebellions started breaking out.

When I arrived at the bridge leading into Driftveil City, there were several groups of people whom I instantly recognized as soldiers, with their gray and black fatigues. Several had helmets of the same design. One of them signaled me to stop with a stop sign. I slowed to a halt almost instantly. 'Shit. I don't want them searching my car... if they find my pokemon...' I started to panic, but was determined to look as calm as possible.

I looked around at my mirrors, and noticed that the soldiers had their guns pointed at the car. I started sweating uncomfortably, fighting the urge to stretch the collar of my shirt in case they noticed. But they hadn't shot me yet. I looked around again. I then saw what made them stop. There was some kind of officer stationed with them. He had the same colored fatigues as the rest, but he wore a black beret instead of a helmet. He calmly walked over to my car with a neutral look on his face. He knocked on my driver's window, and I proceeded to slide it down.

"Please present any identification, as well as state why are you entering Driftveil City," the officer spoke out through the open window.

I quickly reached into my left pocket, trying to be as fast as I could so that I wouldn't show my nervousness. I took out my ID card, which was, thankfully, my military identification card as well, and gave it to him.

He gave me one stern look, before gazing at the card, glancing at me a few times, probably to make sure that I was the same person as in the photo. He grunted, then handed the card back to me.

"Alright, Mr. Walker. Your ID looks fine to me. Though I must ask you: why are you going to Driftveil City? Despite being off duty, you should be in your military outpost, back in Nimbasa. You know there are rebels that need killing," the officer questioned, his eyes still on me, probably out to look for anything suspicious. Hearing that last part forced me to resist showing my anger to him. 'If I were to do that, being dismissed from service would be the least of my concerns...'

I needed to quickly come up with a lie, since I think that going to a neighboring city under martial law to talk to a family member would sound very suspicious. An idea appeared in my mind. "I need to visit the hospital. One of my closest comrades has been attacked by a wild zoroark. She's badly injured, and I can't stand not seeing her. That is why I am here. I promise you, I will leave as soon as I've finished seeing her." I answered quickly, to make it sound convincing.

A few moments passed by, with the officer still giving me a strange look, before he nodded in approval. "Alright, sonny. You can go see her, but you MUST leave this city by sunset. Are we clear? And don't do anything else, unless you want to start trouble."

I shook my head in false glee. "Don't worry, sir. I won't cause trouble. And we are, indeed clear. Will you now let me in?"

"Yes, of course," the officer replied. He then motioned with his hand to his soldiers for them to clear a path for me to drive. I moved my window back up, gave out a deep breath, and then drove across the bridge into Driftveil City.

-(POV CHANGE)-

"Look, I already told you what you needed to do before. That was your only job... what? No! Yo- ugh fine! Just remember what will happen if you screw this up. You know we need to have at least one of us present in every city in every region, understood?" a 'yes' came from the other end, "...That's what I like to hear. I'll be expecting good news soon. Bye." A man in a blue, wrinkled suit hung up the phone he was using and set it down on the table before him.

He was in his mid 40s, with messy, gray hair, and a firm, stressed expression on his face. He looked down at his table; it was littered with piles of books, both new and worn. Mostly books about politics, but there were also a few philosophical ones as well. In the middle was a stack of papers with text written on every sheet. The man glanced at the mess, and sighed.

'Well... I need a break. Too much shit going on these days,' he thought to himself. He walked out of his library. He loved to read, especially about things concerning politics and philosophy. They were clean and dust free, thanks to him caring for them on a regular basis. As soon as he had left the library, he was greeted with a familiar touch and purr. He looked down and saw a little purrloin rubbing itself against his leg, purring the entire time.

"Hey there, Violet. Nice to see you too," the man smiled kindly as he picked the cat pokemon up and cuddled her. Violet was always a bright ray of sunlight to the stressed man. No matter how angry, sad, or hurt he was, Violet's affection always brought a smile to his face.

[I'm glad you are my owner, Wilson. You are the kindest person I've ever seen,] the purrloin cheered in his mind. [I wish that there were more people like you and Marcos out there.]

The man named Wilson simply sighed, but smiled warmly in return. "I want more people to treat pokemon like me and my son do, but I'm afraid it's easier said than done," he hugged Violet a little tighter, and walked out to the living room, which was nice and tidy, with a sofa and a television set. Several paintings were hung up on the sky blue-colored walls. "But don't worry, I will do my utter best to do so. And I will succeed," he pledged as he stared at his favorite painting; a picture of a grassland, with people and various types of pokemon interacting and enjoying each other's company, including a woman and a skitty reading a book together, a man and his houndoom playing Frisbee, and a boy and his luxray on their backs while watching the puffy cloud-filled sky. Everyone seemed to be happy together, except that everything else seemed to be a mirage, like what you would see in the middle of a dry desert

Suddenly, he heard sounds coming from outside. He paced to his window, and saw a car stopping at his front door. 'Finally, he has came,' Wilson thought to himself. He set Violet down on the sofa, "Sorry, sweetheart. But I have to get the door."

The purple cat pouted playfully, before smiling for real while getting at an itch with her front paws. [Sure. I'll just be right here if you need me]

Wilson made it to the door, and opened it. He was greeted by his son, who waved to him and started walking towards him. "Hey there Marcos! You've made it. Glad to see you're still alright."

-(POV Change)-

I walked up to my father, and nodded. "I trust that what you called me for is important, eh?" I asked curiously.

Father nodded sadly, and started to speak "I'm afraid it is, but not in the good way. Come inside, it's best if we continue talking there," he then motioned me inside. I complied and walked in, followed by father, who quickly shut the door. He glanced at me "The time is near. Sooner or later, we're going to have to carry on with this plan."

I sighed, knowing exactly what he meant. I never liked his idea, but it seemed like there was no other option. "If that's what they want, they shall get it," I declared as I sat down on the sofa next to Violet, who was quietly grooming herself. "But are you really sure you want to do this? You're putting lots of lives on the line for a cause that could go wrong easily. "

Father shot his arms up at my response, "Of course I'm sure! I have already dedicated too much time, money, effort, and colored hair to just give it all up at the last minute," he growled, giving me a look of frustration and determination. "I already have an agent stationed in almost every city in all the regions. They're all willing to do it for low cost, mostly because we all share ideologies." He closed his eyes before taking in a deep breath and calming down. "You know this is far more than what it simply is. We're putting our beliefs, our mindset, our very values on the line for this cause."

I nodded my head in approval. Father was one of those people who loved to think about world issues, and try to think of a way to solve them. Though he was obsessed with the relations between people and pokemon, especially with this rebellion going on everywhere. "Then if your preparations are well executed, we will be able to succeed in this, no doubt about it. Now, about the lack of an agent in Nimbasa city-."

"Yes, about that..." father interrupted me, a smile appearing on his face. "I've decided that it'd best if I let my son be burdened with such a responsibility. You will become the agent for Nimbasa city. You are familiar with the role, and I trust that my only son can handle these types of tasks easily."

I was surprised that he was giving me such an important role. To be honest, I was expecting someone else within the city to be chosen. I doubted that he would let such a valuable person, in his eyes, be given a role with such danger. But I stood back up with a look of gratitude on my face, "I-I am glad that you have such faith in me. I promise I won't let you down!"

-Time-

After discussing more about the matter, I needed to say goodbye to father, and get back home, before the Driftveil troops become suspicious of me, plus it was getting close to midnight. As I headed back home, my phone started to ring in my pocket. I took it out, and examined who was calling me. It was my best friend, Paul. I quickly answered to see what he wanted with me. "Yes, Paul? What is it?"

"Hey, Marcos. The general has called us for something. I don't know what he wants, but it must be important. He's practically shouting at our squad to report to the barracks. Haven't you heard?" Paul called, his voice clearly anxious. "N-no time for questions. You need to get your ass to the barracks, right now. It's very, very important that you do so." He then hung up on me. I immediately headed for my assigned barracks at the heart of Nimbasa city.

By the time I got there, there was my squad, waiting for me with some gear I didn't recognize. They were all wearing white and red body armor suits, with helmets in one hand, and a gun in the other. General Lister was also waiting for me; he was clearly not impressed at my lateness.

"Well, what do we have here, mister Walker? In any other situation, I would had you flogged on the spot, but I have a very special mission for your squad," Lister gave me a wicked grin, with no friendliness in his hazel-colored eyes. "Go inside and get in your armor, grab a gun, then report back here. I'll give all you maggots the details then. Now move!" I quickly saluted him, and dashed inside the barracks.

There, waiting for me, was the same suit my squad mates wore. I asked a supply soldier nearby about what they were. Apparently, it was a recently released piece of technology that was made to withstand pokemon moves. It had strong, heat reactive plates that were surprisingly light and covered everywhere, leaving only very small gaps that revealed the shock absorbing material underneath, followed by a strong layer of temperature resistant carbon fiber that was made to hold off against fire and ice type moves. When I put it on the carbon fiber felt so comfortable on my bare skin. This was truly state-of-the art armor right here. Anyways, I took a weapon from the gun rack: a M16 with a laser and a suppressor, took a few magazines of ammunition and put them in my belt patches, grabbed my helmet, and proceeded back outside, where Lister was tapping his foot impatiently.

"Well, new record, right there. You only took half of eternity to prepare. Truly an achievement!" Lister shouted with sarcasm. I simply ignored him, as backtalk could get you into a lot of trouble. 'Well fuck you too, Lister.'

The general then looked back at the squad, before talking about the mission. "Alright, maggots. Here is a simple task that should be a real walk in the park. You all know about that sabotage that happened to one of our camps a couple of days ago? Well, it goes to show that I am not happy about this. Not one bit," he spat at the floor before continuing. "So I need you lot to roam around Lostlorn Forest, and kill every pokemon you see. It'll teach them a lesson not to mess with a superior species, and give up on their pathetic cause." Pfft. Can you believe this guy? Lister then grinned once again, before talking some more. "And don't you worry. You'll have aerial support when you arrive. You will patrol the sector until midday. Are we clear?"

"SIR, YES SIR!" the squad shouted in unison. And with that, we were ordered to go into the light transport truck.

By the time we got to the forest our air support was already waiting for us: an AH-56Aa, cruising slowly around us, rotors giving up a low hum, with flights of rockets attached to it's wings, and a minigun attached to it's nose. 'Talk about overkill. We're not fighting against tanks...' I thought to myself sourly. Frankly, I'm very pissed off after the encounter with Lister, and getting mocked by that asshole of a soldier, Bill Mahon the entire way to the deployment zone. And just to my luck, I saw him leaving the transport truck, heading in my direction. His black hair and well-toned body were his trademarks compared to the rest of my squad.

"Well, well, well. Here's the general's bitch. What? Oh, right. You're too much of a pussy to be here shooting pokemon. Yeah, well you just stay right here, and daddy Billy will take care of this," He then pounded me hard on the back. The shock absorbing armor made me feel no pain, but I still staggered on my knees from his strength alone. He laughed like a maniac, then walked up to the rest of my squad up ahead. I gritted my teeth in hatred and fought the urge to shoot him with my M16, because I knew better. Besides, karma's a bitch, right?

I joined up with the rest of my squad, who were all listening to the assigned squad leader at front. "Alright, boys. Remember the objective of this mission: to scout this sector, and neutralize any pokemon you encounter. We will travel together as a group, and I don't want to tell the general of any stupid matters, so be on guard at all times. Now lets go!" The squad leader motioned for the others to follow him, which we did without question, and started our patrol into the forest, with the attack helicopter moving ahead, almost disappearing over the dense trees.

As we marched our way through the forest, which strangely didn't have any pokemon to encounter, I saw Paul, who was marching a couple of rows in front of me. He looked back, and, as soon as he saw me, he motioned to the squad mate next to him to switch positions. He agreed, and I found myself marching side by side with my best friend. "Hey there, Paul," I whispered.

Paul whispered back, "Hi, Marcos. Happy that you came over to help. Yeah, sure the general's an asshole, not much different than Bill, in fact. Understandable that you would go home instead." He nodded as we continued with our march.

"Yeah, it was nothing. Just following orders, you know. But still, thanks. Now why are we here?" I asked plainly. Paul shook his head.

"Ah yes. Well, as far as I know, Lister is pretty angry that that camp got sabotaged. Almost all of their supplies are gone, and it will take a long time to recover their stockpile, not to mention the human casualties. Apparently, the sergeant stationed there thinks that it was a zorua or zoroark that did this, as he claims to have encountered a strange guard, which could've been an illusion, and unwittingly took her to the stockpile, with the explosion happening not long after." I was stunned to hear about that. With the powers pokemon are capable of, they have all sorts of advantages against humans, despite us being technologically superior.

"Could be all made up, or just speculation. Are they sure it was a pokemon that did that?" I asked hopefully, hoping that it could instead be a human betrayal. Paul shook his head once more.

"No. Soon after the explosions happened, some guards recovered the person who the pokemon was disguised as. They claimed they were knocked out when on a patrol, and were dragged to the bush where they were found." He then chuckled nervously, before commenting. "Let's all be lucky and not have that kind of stuff happening to us tonight."

"Agreed"

After what seemed like hours of idle small-talk, we all heard the sound of grass rustling nearby. The squad leader immediately raised an arm to signal us to stop in our tracks. We all had our guns ready to engage anything that jumped out. The attack helicopter turned on a spotlight under it's nose, then flew around a little, before coming to a stop. After a few moments, it moved it's spotlight to a tree branch, which we didn't see too well, but apparently, the pilot saw something, then flew off, turned towards the tree, and started to shoot at it with it's minigun.

We then heard the clang of metal right at our feet, followed by a burst of white smoke. It blinded me, but thanks to the helmet, I had no issues breathing, but we were all panicking, even more when we heard the shrieks and explosions of the helicopter using its rockets. 'Oh dear! This can't be happening' I yelled at myself.

"Oh lord! Engage, boys, engage!" The squad leader yelled. We all shot blindly around us, hoping to hit anything. I was shaking with fear, and my shooting became even worse because of that. Lead cracked as shot after shot was made randomly.

We soon heard footsteps, followed by a scream of someone behind me getting swept. A squad leader next to me took a flamethrower, which burned his armor pretty badly. "Uuuooooo..." He cried in agony and dropped his gun as the strong fire burned through his armor, and it's strong head lapped through his carbon fiber layer, arms failing wildly as he was essentially cooked alive, before collapsing to the ground, dead.

Fear got the best of me as I backed off out of formation, accidentally bumping into Billy, who tossed a grenade out, "Ugh, shoot, motherfucker! Shoot!" He hollered at me, gun blazing away, followed by a large explosion. I tried to gain some courage to get back in formation when a beam of purple and black hit me square in the chest, sending me flying against a tree, causing some of my back armor to break off.

I groaned in surprise as I tried to get back up when the attack chopper launched more rockets, and backed up above where we were fighting, which caused the smoke to clear. From there, I saw who was attacking our squad; a lucario, a garchomp, a blaziken, a gengar, and a zoroark, and boy were they turning the squad into mincemeat. There were 25 of us... no 19 of us... 16 now... 10... 6... 5... 4...

I heard a loud sound of glass breaking above me, and saw another lucario, who smashed the cockpit of the attack helicopter with what looked like metal claw and killed the pilot. The flying machine jerked awkwardly before coming down in an uncontrollable spin as the lucario jumped off onto a nearby tree branch, followed by a boom and a cloud of black smoke that sent metal, glass, and body parts everywhere.

Cowering in fear, I got back up and pointed my M16 at the zoroark's direction, but I just couldn't find the courage to pull the trigger. Sadly, it only took that split second before the illusion fox pokemon turned it's head at me, and dashed sideways to me.

Before I knew it, it was right in my face, and a jolt of pain spiked at my stomach as I was launched back again, this time missing the tree and landing at a patch of grass. I struggled to get back up, ignoring the pain as I examined my wound: the armor has been ripped off, leaving me with a bleeding claw mark. Another wave of pain coursed through my body, and I collapsed once more, in too much pain to get back up.

"Rrrrroooo..." I groaned loudly before watching the squad leader just ahead of me get disemboweled by the garchomp's sharp blades, and seeing only Paul and Bill remaining, before I blacked out.

I woke up on the dirt ground and started to get up. Thankfully, the pain was much softer this time, but I was pinned down by a furry foot on my back. I looked behind my shoulder to see the zoroark towering over me, its mane all messy, and its breathing heavy.

[Hey, Aigan, this one is still alive. Shall we take him along with the others?] I heard a voice in my head. I was shocked to hear a pokemon talk using telepathy for the first time. One of the two lucario walked up to her and reached down to place a paw at the side of my neck, as if to make sure I'm alive, before standing back up.

[Hmmm... yes, Yusko. We will take these three as prisoners, and hope that the humans will take our ransom.] The lucario growled, then dragged me back up, and turned to face me. [Consider yourself lucky, human. Because you will become our pets in the same way you lot treated us before.] It's eyes radiated hatred and fury. Before I could protest, the lucario called Aigan's other paw started to glow a white light, and he quickly planted it on my forehead, followed by a loud crack, and darkness filled my vision once again.

(Whew... this chapter was a pain to write. Sorry guys if this took so long. Was very busy real-life wise, and didn't have a lot of time to write this chapter. I hope the content in said chapter was worth the wait.

Adagio is an OC submitted by anonymous user

Morel is an OC submitted by tommyff687

Props to these two for their submissions *\o/*

OC character submission is now closed, but that doesn't mean I won't take any more, so stayed tuned when I start accepting OCs again!

Thank you all, and fly dangerous o7)