Riley O'Brian and the Master of Space Chapter 4: New

"Speech"

"Telepathy"

'Thoughts'

Riley sits in a cockpit of a Mitsubishi A6M5c 'Zero' carrier fighter. He looks out of the cockpit and observes a mixture of Aichi D3A1 'Val' and Doulas SBD Dauntless dive bombers, with some Fairy Fireflies with rockets attached underneath their wings flying in formation with them to remove any flak emplacements. Suddenly, a Firefly erupts into flames and spirals down to earth. "Viper, this Panther Leader. Coming over target and meeting AAA fire," The squad leader of the Dauntless reports to him. "Roger Panther Leader. Bear Flight, break out the red carpet, clear a path." "Roger sir," Bear Leader reports as he leads his flight to take out the rockets. "This is Viper, all fighter groups form up." Almost as one, several hundred fighter rise. A fair amount of them are more Zeros, but there are also some Grumman Wildcats. "Cobra where are you?" He asks. A female voice comes on the intercom. "Right behind you Viper," Riley's wingman, 'Or is it wing woman?' Riley thinks, pulls up to his position. "Viper this is Panther, beginning our bomb run now." A little bit later Riley sees an large amount of explosions as the ordnance of the dive bombers are released. "Ordnance deployed, returning to base." Riley speaks over the radio. "Blue squad, cover the dive bombers back to the fleet and maintain CAP around it. All over formations, prepare for attack," He says calmly. One group of fighters leave as the rest prepare for combat. "Red 5 to Viper. What the hell is that thing?" Riley looks and sees a giant wolf with dried matted blood in its fur and wings flying to attack. His normally emotionless tone is filled with horror and shock. "BREAK, BREAK, BREAK! WEAPONS CLEAR, WEAPONS CLEAR! FIRE AT WILL!" A Zero is destroyed in one lunging bite. Riley opens fire with his two 20-mm wing mounted cannons and two wing mounted 13.7 mm machine guns, along with his two 7.7 mm machine guns.

Riley wakes up. Though he swears he could hear the clatter of guns going off, the thrum of power from a radial engine, and the acidic smell of gun propellant, he is in the woods near the campsite. He must have dozed off for an hour or two, for the sun is starting to come up. "Ugh, why did it have to be my leg that stupid spear had to hit," He mutters, his left thigh aching from his now clearly aggravated injury. He grips his walking stick and limps back to camp. He is still alert, however, from last night's events. 'He is back. How? Wait, why am I asking that? He can turn into a giant bloody wolf, literally! He took down so many of my pilots. Though the thing with their heads being turned into lanterns part is a bit unsettling in and of itself. But the thing that is most bothering me is the look in his eyes, well, eye. I fear he is borderline crazy. And that means only one of us will survive, or both of us will be dead. But who will be left standing? The insane, half-blind blood-crazed warrior or the lamed admiral?' Riley muses to himself as he limps back to camp.

Riley is surprised to see that everyone is already up. He doesn't blame them, though. Seeing a giant wolf/warrior trying to kill their companion and then find out they might be targets now as well would tend to make one rather restless. "Morning, I'll get breakfast ready," He says, limping other to their table only to find that breakfast has already been made. Nothing fancy. Just some plates with eggs, sausages, and bacon. "Or not," He mutters quietly. Everyone sits down and has a quick and quiet breakfast, punctured by the occasional request for another napkin or something else. When everyone finishes eating, Riley gets up. "Well, I'd better get the camp ready. I'd like to put some distance between us and the thing that attacked us." Ash also gets up. "Actually, me and Pikachu will do that. Latias needs to talk to you," He says, glancing at the red Eon Pokémon with a meaningful look.

Riley sits down. "Very well. Well, Latias, what is it?" Latias thinks for a few moments, trying to put what she is thinking into words in a careful way. "Something is bothering you. What is it? And don't say nothing is wrong because I know something is," She says. Riley tightens his jaws briefly. He was cornered and he didn't like that. "Let's just say that old wolf boy and I have some unpleasant history. The thing that is most bothering me is the fact that both of us know that only one of us can live. There, that's what's on my mind," Riley says, a hint of his usual gruffness in his tone. Then he gets up and returns Turtwig to his Poke ball. Latias narrows her eyes at him. 'Is that it? He has been carrying quite a burden. And for how long? But why do I have the feeling he is holding something back?' She shakes her head. Or maybe he has said all that is bothering him.'

After that, the group finishes packing up and moves on. For about an hour, they travel in silence, each traveler having their own thoughts. Ash and Pikachu ponder about what they might see on this trip. Latias wonders what is with Riley. Turtwig wonders when lunch is as he had to give his breakfast to Pikachu as he had lost the bet. Riley meanwhile is in very deep thought, as well as being a bit lost in memories. 'The sub, her crew, most of my air group and landing force, some of my comrades from camp, all gone. Is this all I have to look forward to if I get home? Constant fighting, killing, and witnessing death of friends till I can't fight any more. But fighting is all that I really know.' He sighs quietly. 'This place might be a good place to just become someone else. But I can't, no matter how tempting it is.'

Everyone stops when a snapping noise is heard. "Sounds like a twig was broken," Riley quietly says. He hand slowly reaches for Turtwig when a Pokémon rides out of the forest. It has a horn, a fiery tail and mane, and a creamy body coloring. He takes out his Pokédex. The name of the Pokémon comes up. "Rapidash, huh?" With that, Riley throws Turtwig's Poke ball. "Turtwig, let's see how that practice went," He tells the Tiny Leaf Pokémon, who nods in agreement. With that, he makes the signal for Turtwig to use Razor Leaf. But as the wild Rapidash burns the leafs before they can cause damage, he makes the gesture for absorb. The horse Pokémon does not expect that and takes some damage. Riley notices that and comes up with a plan. "Turtwig, lure it to the forest. Use it as cover!"

The battle goes by quickly. Turtwig ambushes the fire type Pokémon by distracting it with one move then hitting it with an absorb. The Pokémon the use ember and cause significant damage due to Turtwig being a grass type and thus weak to fire moves. "Turtwig, final move! Tackle!" Turtwig charges at the startled Rapidash and deals a punishing blow. Rapidash wobbles then falls over with its eyes swirls. "Okay, let's see if this works," Riley says, throwing a Poke ball that Ash had given him on their way to the Sinnoh Region. Rapidash is absorbed by the Poke ball. The device waggles for a few seconds before it stops. Riley picks it up and clips it to his belt. Ash looks at Riley in slight confusion

"Aren't you going to strike a pose or say what you caught?" Riley looks at him in curiosity. "Why would I do that? You, Pikachu, Latias, and Turtwig already know what I caught. Who else would be watching?" Ash shakes his head. "Never mind," He mutters. "Well, aren't we going to get going to Oreburg City? Time's a wasting, race you there," Riley challenges with a sly smirk in his face as he takes off along the path. The others quickly rush to catch up with their companion, shouting for him to 'slow down' or that 'you're on!"

Meanwhile, in a classified area…

"Well?" A scientist with a large red R on the back of his lab coat asks. Another scientist looks up. "Power levels for B1 prototype are stable. Charge is at maximum capacity," He reports. "And the B2 prototype?" "Same, B2A1 arm weapon is charging, B2A2 arm cannon ready." The head scientist grins. "Let's get the boss to see this." Three forms are seen. One looks like a vaguely humanoid form with a small backpack with an antenna attached, a tan coloring, and it cradles an odd sort of gun. The other two are different. They are big, bulky, and appear to have no necks, the thing resembling a head appearing to be part of the shoulders, and steel blue coloring. One has twin guns mounted on either of its wrist, while the other one has one pair of guns on its left wrist and instead of a hand, the right arm ends with a wicked looking cannon. The small thin one jolts upward. "TK-001 online, awaiting mission assignment," It says in a tinny voice. The head scientist grins even more. "Tell Giovanni Project Doom is ready for evaluation," He tells his subordinate. He nods and heads to get the leaders of the now grouped heads of Teams Rocket, Magma, Aqua, and Galactic.

"Well doctor?" Giovanni asks later as he and the other crime heads stand in the observation deck. The scientist pulls out a remote. "May I introduce, the future." With that the three forms march to the center of the test field. There is quiet for a moment. "Very impressive looking. But what are they?" Cyrus asks. "They are our new soldiers. Allow me to demonstrate." Several target dummies rise up. The scientist presses a button and the small one aims his weapon and fires, a red beam shooting out like a bullet. It goes through the dummy nailing it in the forehead. The one with twin duel wrist weapons fires at several others will a machine gun opens fire on it. The bullets bounce off as the dummies are cut down. The third one aims his arm cannon at the automated machine gun and fires. The projectile blows the weapon to bits. Again there is shocked silence inside the box. Then Giovanni speaks up. "How long till more are ready?" The scientists doesn't miss a beat in answering the question.

"As these are the prototypes, about six months till we can begin mass production. When that starts, I recommend waiting about a year so that we can have both large numbers and the element of shock and awe." Giovanni nods. "Very well. In the mean time, I am devoting all resources to you and Project Doom."

MorgothII: And finish! Same as last chapter, anyone who can guess what the three prototypes are first will be mentioned in the next chapter I publish when said person answers. As always, do leave a review. All feedback, minus flames of course, will be welcomed, whether your feedback is positive, negative, or just plain neutral.