"vocal diologue"

'thoughts'

[telepathy]

(Author's notes)

Chapter 5

"Time, Velazco?" The lieutenant asked, who was already in full lime green body armor. He gazed up on the right sky, right out on the deployment zone. The moon was still full, but occasionally covered by clouds. He turned his attention back to the Sargent who was moving towards him.

"It's a half hour until midnight, sir." Velazco replied shortly after saluting to his superior. The lieutenant nodded, before going back into his tent, where a table with a map on it are located inside. He then motioned the Sargent inside, who had a confused look on his face. "Sir?"

"I'm about to assign you orders on how we will proceed with this assault. I need you to be able to carry these orders as soon as we begin the assault, are we clear?" The lieutenant said, with both hands on the edges of the table, waiting for an answer.

"Yes, sir. Anything you order, I will execute."

"Excellent. So you see, the General has granted me fifteen tanks. Over here is where the coordinates of the image from reconnaissance was made." He then pointed at a large triangle drawn at a patch of land on the map, and is surrounded by diamonds at the bottom, and squares at the sides. "I decided to take four T-72s, ten MBT-70s, and one T-80 on this assault, and here is what I've planned: we will send our main force, the MBTs, and attack the camp with it directly, and through the front door, on the southeast" The lieutenant laid a finger down on the group of diamonds. Velazco nodded, before pointing towards the squares.

"And what are those, sir? What will we send along?" The Sargent asked, with a brow raised.

"That's where we will send the T-72s at, two on each flank. In order to do that, they'll have to take a longer route to arrive, and by the time they reached their destinations, our MBTs would have already smashed the enemy defenses. That will grant us the opportunity to provide flanking fire." The lieutenant grinned at the Sargent.

"Aye. Smart move there, sir. Is there anything else I need to know?"

The lieutenant shook his head at his question. "Negative. I will be dictating the rest of the assault. As for the infantry, they will be arriving in armored trucks. We have to protect them with our MBTs. They will stay at the rear, while the tanks will soak up any resistance. The pair of flame tanks will be carving a path so that it will be easier for them to travel. I will be commanding from the T-80, slightly behind the MBTs." After a brief moment of silence, the superior rolled up the map. "Are we clear on the plan, Mister Velazco?"

The Sargent quickly nodded. "Rodger that, sir."

"Good. Rally the men; we will be heading out right now." The lieutenant said. "Dismissed."

"By your command." Velazco acknowledged. He saluted his superior, before turning back and hastily leaving the tent.

-POV Change-

I collapsed on the bed back in my den as soon as I made contact with it. 'Ugh... so... tired..' my mind told me. I was exhausted from training. Never thought that time flies so quickly. Before I knew it, it was already dark. Every single inch of my body aches. My mind is filled with nothing, but a desire for sleep.

"Mmmhmm.. need rest." I grumbled softly. I curled up, and closed my eyes.

It didn't take long, before I started hearing knocking noises. It was giving me trouble staying asleep. I tried to ignore it, before I heard a familiar voice.

"Yusko? You there?" I slowly opened my eyes, and slowly made my way outside, grumbling some more the entire trip.

I finally reached the exit, and crawled outside. I looked around to, my surprise, Aigan was waiting for me. I quickly stood up to meet him.

"Yes, Aigan? What is it that you need?" I asked curiously. He never comes here, unless it's something very important. The lucario motioned me to sit down on the ground.

"Sit. There is something I have to tell you." He said in a soft voice. I obeyed his request and sat down right in front of the entrance. Shortly after, he sat right next to me.

"Is it something important?" I asked. However, Aigan ignored my question, and made eye contact to me.

"Look. I am sorry for what's been happening recently. I never wanted to let it all out on you, Yusko." He softly placed a paw on my mane, and stroked it softly. I couldn't help, but purr softly at his smooth touch. "You are special to me. Last thing I ever wanted is to berate and hurt you."

I continued to stare into his red colored eyes, which burned alive with spirit. I can tell he was telling the truth. "I know, Aigan. After all, you saved me back at that house. You could have let me out there to die."

The jackal nodded at my response. "I'm just stressed out. I can't seem to find trust to your friend. Not any human, in fact." He sighed deeply and closed his eyes. "I hope that you didn't take it personally. You are a special, valuable pokemon, and I would never get truly angry at you. Please, forgive me."

Neither of us spoke for a short while. I looked away, and started fidgeting with my claws, deep into my thoughts. 'He speaks truth. I should forgive him. After all, look at what he gave you...' It is true; what I have now, is far better than I would ever receive back at the care of my former master. Aigan as gave me things that I could never experienced otherwise: freedom, proper food, a proper shelter, friends... a life of greatness and happiness.

I looked back to meet his waiting gaze, with my answer. "Yes. I do forgive you." He immediately ushered a deep breath of relief. I continued with my response some more. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have experienced such a good life. One of that of freedom. Without being the slave of humans." I closed my eyes, fighting back sorrow that was creeping up on me. "I am grateful for everything you've done. I felt the same for you as well. Hurting you would be the last of what I will ever do..." I stopped speaking, fighting off sadness that was growing stronger and stronger.

The lucario must've noticed my sadness, because he stopped stroking my mane, and felt his body embracing mine. I quickly opened my eyes, and noticed that he was giving me a hug, his muzzle buried deep in my mane. I returned the favor and soon, I found my snout buried in Aigan's cream colored chest fur, minding the metal spike at the center. I wrapped my arms around his waist. I felt the sorrow slowly go away, being replaced by comfort.

"Shh... It's okay." I heard Aigan's voice as he continued embracing me. We continued hugging for what seemed like an eternity, but can't be more than a couple of minutes. The lucario was the first to let go, his expression full of gratitude and joy. I noticed that he looked slightly red. It was hard to see, under all the blue and black fur, but I can almost certainly tell that he was blushing. "Heh... so are we cool with everything?" I nodded slowly at his question.

"Yes. We are good." I then saw Aigan reaching out to lay a paw on my forehead, his eyes once again made contact with mine. I couldn't help but blush a little myself. It all felt so relaxing, yet awkward at the same time.

"Excellent. Now, you should get some hard earned rest. You look like you need it. I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight. " He then stood back up and started to head at the more crowded area of the camp, before freezing right in his tracks. His ears perked up and started to move erratically. His aura detecting appendages stood up. I stared at him, curious at what was happening.

"Is there something out there, Aigan?" He instantly turned back towards me, with an anxious look on his face.

"Yusko, get inside. I detect lots of red aura. There is some-"

BOOM!

I flinched hard as I saw a large flash of light, followed by a trail of smoke. I shot back up on my feet, fear now starting to take over my body. I saw one of the two watchtowers collapsing, which was covered in fire.

"CONTACT! CONTACT! Tanks inc-" I heard a voice say, before another explosion cut him off. I flinched once more, and saw that the other tower was nothing more than molten metal and splinters. The entire camp bust to life, as confused pokemon were scrambling in random directions, screaming.

I looked snapped my view back to Aigan, who sprinted towards the mess of terrified pokemon, leaving me alone.

"Wait! No Aigan! Don't leave me!" I yelled, terrified at what was happening. I ran after him, despite him telling me to stay inside of my den.

Another few explosions were heard, each scaring me more and more. I looked around, to notice that the front walls of the camp collapsed, pieces of it were flying everywhere. I quickly hid behind a large tent, and looked around the corner.

And I now know what is that is causing this much destruction: a row of tanks were lined up, fronts facing us. I heard another explosion as one of them fired at a tent, reducing it to burning rubble. I winched as I hoped that nobody was inside.

I heard somebody roaring behind me, and turned to see Aigan, Thoro, and a few other pokemon standing behind me. The lucario looked at me with a determined, but confused look.

"Yusko? I told you to stay inside..." He then shook his head, before continuing. "Ah never mind. Might as well help out on the defensive effort. I need you to take out those enemy tanks, whatever it takes."

He charged and aura sphere, and sidestepped in front of a tank, which had it's gun pointed elsewhere. He threw the blue orb of energy, which made a direct hit on the front, kicking up dust in the process. But when it clears, the tank still stood, with a mere dent in it's armor. The armored behemoth started to turn its turret towards us. The lucario shouted at us "Run!"

But before we could run, a stream of fire erupted from the sky, incinerating the tank. I looked up, to see Adaigo use her flamethrower attack. The shiny noivern's attack left a charred black color on the armor, but still stood.

I snapped out of my trance, and immediately started making my way around this thing, dodging fallen debris and injured pokemon. As I weaved my way, I noticed something coming from where the tanks arrived. I stopped for a moment to see what it was, and my heart sunk when I noticed what they were: transport trucks. 'Noo... this can't be. They brought infantry.' I thought to myself. I starting running once more, until I found myself facing the side of the tank.

I remembered Thoro telling me how to deal with these things. "Their armor is strongest at the front. Attacking from the front will only waste your energy. Attack from either the sides, rear, or top. That's where their armor is weakest." That is what he will tell me and the other pokemon during a training session.

Cracks and bangs interrupted my thoughts and I peeked around to see that the metal monster was trying to shoot down Adaigo with some sort of gun on the top of the turent, but yielded no results as it failed to hit the fast dragon-flying type, who was dancing around the tank

"Help me guys! I can only do this for so long." She yelled out loud.

I took a deep breath, and focused on spawning energy from my hands. I gazed at the side of the tank, which started moving forward. 'I need to make this quick, while I still have a chance.'

I felt a strong tingling sensation at my claw tips, and looked down to notice a bright blue sphere of energy was formed. I looked back at the tank, cradling the sphere carefully, still focused on gathering more energy. It is a strong mental process, but training has prepared me to make it easier.

"TAKE THIS, YOU METAL MONSTER!" I shouted as loud as I could, as I finished using focus blast, and launched the sphere at the tender side armor. With a strong, blue flash, and powerful explosion, I looked again at what was once the unscratched side, now almost shattered. Metal bits littered the ground, badly bent pieces of it still stuck to the hull. It jerked awkwardly sideways, as I looked at it's tracks, to see that the once I shot at was in pieces as well, it's wheels rotating hopelessly.

I heard more roars, as Aigan and Thoro dashed at the now immobolized behemoth. I watched in awe as Thoro leaped up high, and landed on the top of the turret.

"NOW YOU WILL ALL PAY!" The garchomp roared in fury, as his huge wing "claws" started glowing a bright white, before slamming them hard on the top armor. They dug in deep, bending the armor around as if it was a mere can. He started tearing at it with ease, removing huge patches with ease. I was stunned at how strong Thoro can be.

I also saw Aigan, who was hacking away at the large gun. He was throwing really fast punches and kicks, each were almost too fast for my eyes to catch up. Each blow seems to damage the gun really badly, which was now crooked and covered with dents. He was definitely using close combat.

I quickly joined in, making my blood red claws glow, as I hacked at the damaged side armor with night slash. Each blow hurts my claws a little, and winced slightly as a result, but it was worth it as I see the metal quickly peeling away under my attack. "Ow, ow, ow. Almost done." I growled

Smaller bangs and cracks interrupted my attack as I looked back, and saw that the trucks have finally arrived, each having human soldiers in armor that shined green and tan colored in the moonlight came pouring out. 'Oh dear Arceus. There's dozens of them.' I quickly called out to Thoro and Aigan, who were still pounding away at the now scrap heap of a tank. "You two! Look!"

The two stopped attacking, and looked at the horde of humans, most of them hiding behind ones with large shields, who were now charging towards us. A few of them fired their guns, which landed on the garchomp. The dragon-ground type blocked off most of the hits with his wing claws, but he still groaned in pain.

I decided to attack with a dark pulse. With a crisscross of my claws, a beam of purple and black energy burst out, and hitted one soldier with a shield, sending him stumbling backwards, and sending the aim of the soldiers behind him off. That was enough for Thoro to make a quick escape.

One of them looked at me, and I hardly hear what he was saying, but it's not good at all. "That zoroark! The zoroark is the primary target!" He shouted, with a finger pointed at me.

I didn't think twice while I ran behind cover, which was a concrete barrier. I heard more gunshots, as well as the sharp pings as the bullets bounced harmlessly. My hands were trembling in fear. I look around, desperately looking for the lucario. I felt a nudge at my shoulder, and flitched before a paw laid softly on my shoulder. I looked to meet Aigan smiling softly, but still looked shaken up.

"I need you to trust me on this." He ordered. I nodded, willing to do anything to get out of this situation. "Good. I am going to get in close, and use close combat on the group. They are going to be distracted-"

We both flinched sharply as a bullet ricocheted off the edge of the barrier, and very close to our ears. The lucario shook his head, before continuing. "When they are distracted, I need you to come to my help, and take out the distracted soldiers. Use whatever, night slash, night daze, I don't care. Just do some damage."

"Got it, Aigan. Don't die out there." I replied softly, very worried that he will get hurt. Aigan stroked my mane once more in a kind manner. His warm touch making me purr.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine." He assured me, before leaping over the barrier, and closed the distance between him and the attacking soldiers, with lightning fast speed. I instantly realized he was using extremespeed.

As soon as he got close enough, he landed one punch on one of the shield wielding soldiers, sending him flying a couple of feet. The rest tried to retaliate, but Aigan was fast enough to already take out a few more before they can even adjust their aim. They started turning their backs towards me, and I decided it's time to strike. 'Here it goes. Arceus guide me.' I thought nervously, as I prepared night slash, and left the safety of the barrier, and charged.

I gritted my teeth in fury as I take out one soldier after another. My claws were tearing their armor apart. I saw plates and pieces of that softer stuff that was also in the armor of when we ambushed and captured Marcos and the others. Screams of suprise and pain filled my ears as me and Aigan made short work of this group, with the lucario sweeping them from under, flipping them over, or just knocking them out with one swift punch to the helmet. I kept slashing and hacking my way though, while quickly dodging the occasional bullet at the very last second. The worst was a mere graze that still hurt.

For what it seemed like only a few heartbeats, we finally took most of the group out. The ground around us was littered with a few dozen-or-so groaning, unconscious, and bleeding bodies. The survivors retreated in random directions, saying stuff that I don't know what, nor do I care. Aigan puffed loudly, clearly exhausted from the action, before looking at me with a wide grin of approval.

"Good work, Yusko. Your training has clearly paid off." The lucario said. I only nodded, trying to catch my breath and calm down. The lack of rest really was not helping at all.

"Ye...yeah..." I huffed slowly, feeling myself catching my breath. "Yes indeed... y... you did goo... good... as.. well.."

Before he could reply, a series of explosions rocked our ears, causing me to scream in pain, clenching my ears and landed on my knees. The lucario immediately helped to get me back up. "Shhh... you'll be alright."

Another voice called out shortly after the explosions. Out came a bisharp from behind some rubble behind us , who looked far more exhausted. His metal blades were bent and broken. "BOSS!" He yelled, panic clearly present in his voice. "MORE TANKS! THEY'RE COMMING FROM THE FLAN-" He didn't even finish his sentence as I saw the poor dark-steel type get obliterated from a tank shell. When the dust settled, we saw nothing but a patch of burnt earth, and a small pool of blood where the bisharp was just standing.

I was stunned at what I just saw. 'He's... gone... blown to pieces like stone.' I thought, fighting back a new feeling: a feeling of doubt. I looked back at Aigan, who closed his eyes, and stood still. After a few more heartbeats, he opened them again, and looked back at me, with a face full of defeat. I heard a thud, and turned to see that Thoro was back, this time with Resh, Auros, and Morel. All three looked tired. The garchomp was still bleeding from his wounds.

"I knew this was going to happen..." He growled, aware the new presence. I knew he was not really angry, but more of hurt; seeing pokemon die at his command is the worst he could suffer, or so he told me himself. "Okay... he's what we need to do. It'll be a waste if I let everyone else keep fighting. It's only going to result in more losses. I'm ordering an evacuation. I need every one of you to get all the pokemon out of here, and as far away as you can. We will regroup elsewhere, but we need to get to safety first." He then looked at me once again. "Yusko. I need you to cast an illusion, where it will slow down the progress of the enemy. That way, it'll buy us more time to get everyone out of here."

"Huh? What about me?" I asked. There is no way that they're going to leave me behind. "Where am I supposed to go?"

"Do not worry. I will come back to look for you, using my aura powers. I will be able to see you, even with your illusion active. Once everyone is safe, I'll pick you up." He assured me, before suddenly giving me a short hug, catching me off guard as I yelped. "I promise you that. Remember what I told you before." He finished, releasing his embrace and looked at the others. "You all will be helping me with the evacuation effort. Save as many pokemon as you can. Attack only when necessary. Supplies should be the least of your concern. Are we clear?"

The four pokemon nodded in approval "Yes boss!" they all shouted in unison.

"Good. Now move out! Gogogo!" Aigan shouted, running off to the back of the camp, with the others in pursuit. I sighed nervously, and started thinking of what to make an illusion of.

'Hmmm... yes... perhaps' I spoke internally. 'But I will need a large area to cover evenly with my illusion.. yes! The center of the camp! That'll be the best place.' I ran on all fours as I made my way to the center as fast as possible.

The journey was a mess; burning debris was everywhere, along with dead bodies of pokemon that were far too often to encounter. It was a real struggle trying not to hurl in the middle of my trip. I was almost there, when I came accros a strange sight; the cages where Bill, Marcos, and Paul were living in, were torn to pieces. I stopped to look for any traces. No traces of the humans were there. No pieces of clothing, blood, or anything. Just without a trace. I sniffed hard, trying to catch their scent, but to no avail. The only one I could detect was quite stale. I shook my head, feeling angry at what happened. 'Those damn humans! Aigan must be right after all...'

But there is no time for such things. I need to get to the center. I ignored the negative feelings, and continued my journey. 'I'll deal with them later. Need to worry about my own first.'

But the time I made it to the center, almost everything was burned down. I spotted some kind of tank, but instead of shooting explosives, it shot streams of fire, setting ablaze at anything It touches. From tents, to supplies... to unfortunate pokemon whose screams of agony as they are burning alive filled my ears. I just did my best to ignore them, but it was still clear as the full moon.

I hid behind some containers that reached my shoulders, and started to focus as hard as I could, ignoring the carnage happening around me. I relaxed, and focused on creating my illusion of choice: a dense and deep veil of mist that will cover the majority of the camp. That way, it will be hard for the humans to find any pokemon, and give us more time to save them. 'Mist... the cloak of mystery... the bringer of the unknown... and the result of uncertainty..' I focused on the words in my mind. 'Spawn this mist, and lead the enemy into the unknown, and drive them into a sense of uncertainty and mystery...'

I then took a deep breath, closing my eyes, and breathed out slowly and softly, feeling the energy that creates my illusion course through my body, before disappearing. I opened my eyes to see what happened.

Now, as a zoroark, I can see though my own illusions, so I see no mist, but judging from the enemy's reaction, it's clear that they could not see through it. They were all shouting at one another at random, running in random directions. Some hit a hard object and fall on the ground. Others bumped into each other and started shooting, leaving only one alive. The tanks stopped, and seemed to be trying to scan, but with fruitless results. 'Excellent. This will buy us some time.' I thought smugly.

I now started to look for Aigan or the others, but there was no other surviving pokemon in sight. It's only just me. 'Hmm.. could they have evacuated already?' I heard more shouting coming from the soldiers.

"Hear that!? It's coming from over there." a soldier pointed at my general direction, before shooting that spot. "Fire away, boys! That zoroark or whatever the hell that is will not be running away from us!" They all lined up their guns, and started shooting as well.

I must've lost my nerves, as I felt panic taking over my body, and I ran as fast as I could away from that spot. But the soldiers heard it as well, and moved their aim, sending streams of bullets hitting just behind where I stood a split second ago. 'Arceus, give me strength!' I screamed in my mind, desperate not to get hit.

Suddenly, I felt a strong, sharp pain coming from my left side. "AAHHH!" was all I can scream as I tumbled on the floor, landing on my bottom. I placed a hand on where the pain was coming from, screamed some more from the raw pain, and looked at my hand again. It was covered in blood. I felt faint. The pain, along with the amount of blood and the fact that I was exhausted made me feel faint. Indeed, everything was fading into black. I tried crawling my way out of here, but the pain was too much. I stopped crawling, and cried. I felt hot tears rolling down my face, not only from the pain, but the fact that it's probably all over. "So this is where it ends... where it all... ends..." I whispered, feeling weaker and weaker. I covered my bleeding wound to try to stop the blood from flowing out, but to no avail.

Everything was almost black, before I heard footsteps coming closer and closer... and a rather familiar voice calling out. "Yusko? Oh dear Arceus! Come with me. I'm going to get you out of here!" I felt a pair of hands grab me by the shoulders. I was too weak to resist, and felt myself being dragged on for a few more heartbeats, before everything faded to black.

(Phew. So how was that chapter? Hope it was worth the wait.)

(Apologies to everyone for the late update. I was feeling pretty terrible for the last month. Kept getting sick relatively often, and just unable to write without feeling awful. Thankfully, I was feeling good enough to finish writing this chapter. Again, I hope it was worth the long wait, and no; I am not leaving this fanfic to die.)

(OC's are still being accepted at the moment. Please submit any OCs you guys have! Details are in the previous chapter, as well as in my bio. I look forward to seeing your submissions.)

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(Thanks again, and fly dangerous. Always o7)