Into Reality

by marcturbo1

A brand new series that will combine both the human dominated world with the mysterious Pokemon world as Marlon and his two new accomplices combat an unknown military force in an effort to restore balance to the war torn world before time's up... with the power of a guerrilla warfare leader, Pokemon meets modern warfare...

18. Into Reality Chp15 - Testing Philosphy

Into Reality Ch. 16 - Testing Philosophy...

Author's Note:

It's been a very long and hard past several weeks. As a college engineering student, finishing my finals meant sacrificing your personal life to giving 100% on each examination. That's why I missed my deadline and activity on this story have remained virtually nonexistant. But, I did not lie when I said I would advance the plot and continue with this story. The characters have been through too much to let this series die so soon so I'm pushing forward and this chapter symbolizes my defiance to quit again!

In an experiment testing an old trick I implemented in an earlier chapter, I am using "integrated" music with this chapter. Below is a link to a song I picked out that seemed to best fit a particular section of the chapter. Feel free to open the link on a separate tab on pause, or feel free not to use the link when it is brought up. The intention is to bring a new element of immersion to the story.

Selection 1: "Keep Alive" watch?v=KHJxyIdzHTU&index=33&list=PLLrug9JZTq63m1OiDdPLdmXhAoMUGmOu5

As always I hope you enjoy!

---

Previously:

Sand, sand, and more sand… Sand was the only thing in sight, and despite neither Raid nor I being able to fully see what we were digging, the only thing we knew for sure was there was sand.

'When this is all over, remind me never to go to the beach again.' Raid joked into the radio with a hint of worry.

'Funny but stay focused.' I replied to Raid.

...

Kevin turned to us seeing the barely visual lights on our visors. "I'm sorry, but you don't have much time," glancing at his watch, "by my guess, the P.L. have a base near here somewhere but if you start moving now you'll still have time. You've got to go now!"

Raid protested that Kevin should come along but I refused to leave him stranded behind especially in the poor mental condition he was in. Scanning the horizon, a Humvee flipped on its side came into view on the H.U.D.

Quickly I flew over to the side of the Humvee and applied a hard psychic pull to flip the truck right side up. With a bit of concentration the Humvee was righted. Then a light push sent the truck rolling towards Kevin.

...

A massive shock wave overcame the whole area and a blinding light overcame the darkness. My attack dissipated instantly while the shock wave alone sent me careening towards the ground. The aerial blast caused the lighting to suddenly change sending my sensitive eyes into shock, but even while I was blind, I managed to force my way into the air once more after picking myself off of the sandy basin.

Grunting, I refused to be knocked down again. Not when it was this important. Immediately before I did anything, on instinct my psychic barriers re-formed around me as my energy grew along with my anger, while my scanners begun searching for Raid.

...

Latias was alive.

...

I looked up once more at the clock and shut my yes, almost in tears, praying. 'Please Latias be okay! We're so close! I don't want to lose you like this. We came so close… not to lose you… stay with us… I promised you we'd keep you safe *sniff* now you keep your side of the bargain and stay with us!'

With one final cry I jumped up from my spot and yelled at the glass overlooking the operating room, 'LATIAS!'

...

---

"Speech" or "Emphasis"

'Telepathy'

(Thoughts/extra information)

*action* or *special cue*

Time: 1:00

Coordinates:

Situation: _ Desert HQ – Emergency Center

"Damnit!" I yelled into the silent air, slamming my paw into the flexy glass window. Shutting my eyes, my head drooped forward, a shadow of doubt crossing over my face.

'Marlon…' Raid paused.

The two of us were mentally broken. So much had happened so quickly and we barely managed. In a matter of hours Raid and I had realized the extent of our sleep, had to fight for our lives, then repeat the same mess to save Latias.

'Marlon,' Raid started, 'You taught us everything we know… and I know there wasn't anything we could have done better.'

At this, I let my paw, still clinging to the glass, fall to my side. Turning, I looked over to Raid, whose saddened and worried face turned away when we made eye contact. Looking at Raid was like looking into a mirror. We both knew the stakes, yet we both failed to take action when it mattered most.

The air tensed and filled with anger, deepening Raid's sense of concern.

Shaking my head, I looked over to Raid. 'There was more I could have done Raid. I haven't learned to control it!'

At this Raid raised his head. 'What do you mean? You and I share a lot of the same tactics. I taught you how to use all the attacks you know and you taught me learn how to apply them better.'

Shaking my head again, I looked directly into Raid's eyes, 'You only taught me a third of what I now know.' I could feel my anger etching its presence across my face, narrowing my eyes, and raising my tone. 'I could do so much more, but I haven't learned to control any of it!'

Raid, a bit scared by what he was hearing flew over and looped his paws around me, grasping me in a deep hug. "Marlon, calm down. Latias will be okay. I can feel her aura growing stronger!"

As I turned to look towards Raid, Raid raised his left paw and placed it atop my head.

Looking into Raid's eyes, I saw a flicker of light gleam through his into mine. I could feel my frustration melt away. Gasping, I could feel Raid's paw slipping from mine, but he hadn't let go. I tried to move, but my body wouldn't respond. Instead I fell forward with Raid holding me in his arms. My vision was going blurry as my eyelids dropped drearily. All sense of reality slipped from my mind as I collapsed into Raid's arms. As a last show of defiance to the unwelcome force, I forced my paw forward towards Latias before completely blacking out.

---

When everything went dark, a mental image of my human-self formed in a bright array of light amongst a sea of darkness. I watched as balls of light compact themselves into human shape before materializing in a brilliant flash of light and heat. Following the flash, mental gravity took over pulling me down several feet to onto a floating black platform.

Checking myself, I was wearing my black sweater with a brown shirt underneath, paired with navy blue jeans, an older pair of Nike running shoes, topped off by my favorite brown hat with a single white stripe running down the length of the peak.

Normally, I would smile, but this time, I looked around in confusion.

Being knocked out is a strange feeling. As a human, after blacking out, for whatever reason, I can only remember fragments of leading up to the event and the throbbing pain of whatever knocked me out in the first place following the event. But, on the other hand, as a psychic, when my mind leaves the "real world", with meditation, the world of my imagination flashes into existence. Here, most ties to the real world are temporarily ignored, if not completely forgotten and reality is whatever I dream it to be!

Even though this was my mind, the air created seemed out of place, invaded.

I stepped forward, taking several steps past my initial point, and raised a hand.

…

Puzzled, I tried again. Normally, in my dream state, I could create objects using my mind and mental gestures with the aid of my hands.

But nothing happened.

Confused, I tried imagining myself being on the Haven. Closing my eyes I tried to think of home. But, oddly enough, when I thought of home, flashes of light and the sound of explosions filled my mind. Catching me off guard, I took a step back.

When my foot made contact with the ground, suddenly, the world around me flashed into light. The darkness rushed behind me as a spec of light formed in the distance ahead of me. But before I could do anything the spec flew towards me expanding into an array of colors rapidly filling the world with a newfound light.

Flinching I shut my throbbing eyes as a powerful gust of wind blew its way past me, forcing me into a head first position with my arms shielding my face, all to stay upright. Quickly the wind died down. Moving my arms slowly out of the way to gather my surroundings, the world of darkness changed to a desert world filled with clay and brick houses. The sun's blistering rays quickly took effect filling the ominously blue sky, while rubble from nearby collapsed buildings materialized.

Dropping my arms to my side, I began looking around in confusion trying to decipher what was going on. I was in the middle of what appeared to be a sandy, middle eastern street, filled with both worn clay and concrete houses – some ravaged by anonymous causes with cars flipped and burning both in front and behind me. Before I could open my mouth gunshots rang out from both sides.

Ducking quickly I ran in-between a passage, barreling the last several feet nearly missing whizzing bullets passing overhead

(What the heck is going on?)

Even though this was all just a dream, any damage sustained here, had the potential to do similar mental fatigue in the real world. As such, sleeping normally equals rest, not brain damage.

I was about to peak my head over the corner of the building when a loud explosion cracked through the air sending a large, searing red, projectile through the air down the street. Grasping my ears, all I could hear was ringing. Pulling myself together, I managed to look up just in time to see the gun barrel of a large sand camouflaged M1 Abrams come into view parking itself in front of my, spitting red hot 50 caliber rounds down range at something.

Somehow, I found myself in the middle of a war zone. Raising my hand once more, I swiped my hand horizontally across the air trying wipe away all the chaos… all to no avail. Instead, I could feel the air shaking above all the violence. Searching for the source, I got a quick glimpse of the burning wreckage of a fighter jet careening towards the ground as it passed overhead between the two buildings I was between.

The ringing that filled my ears slowly subsided into nothing as the ground shook from the impact. The raging firestorm of tracers and cannon shells crossed my plane of view. Utterly shocked to my lack of control, I stared in fear as to what was going on.

Daring to peek my head over corner of the passageway I was in, I caught a white trail of smoke the across my left eye, just as the Abrams that had stopped in front of me erupted into a massive explosion. The shock wave tore through everything nearby, sending me hurling up and back 20 feet, slamming back into the sandy ground before skidding to a stop. Shrapnel and flames spit out in every direction. Instinctively, I rolled off to one side into a small protrusion in one of the building's walls avoiding the shotgun spray of the explosion.

My throbbing body ached. Reaching for my head, I moaned in pain, despite my hearing being completely nonexistent.

Beads of sweat formed around my dirt covered forehead, worried about what to do.

Out of nowhere, from the silence, I could hear a voice calling for help.

Swallowing, I looked around motionless. I recognized that cry.

"Latias?!"

Then, another cry rang out from another direction. Another distinct cry sent my pulse racing.

"R-Raid?!"

My heart pounded in my chest. Struggling, I forced myself up before collapsing against a wall, a poof of sandy dust forming around me. Cursing myself, I muscled my way upright, placing my back against the corner wall of the firefight on the street.

"Marlon! Help!"

Grunting and screaming, I concentrated, trying to shift back into my Lati form. But every time I tried, concentrating my energy into my core while seeing my mirror Lati image reaching out to me in my mind, I opened my eyes to see that nothing had happened.

The cries got more severe, hints of desperation and fear filling the air.

Pounding the wall, behind me, I peeked over the corner of the wall to nearly miss being shot from somewhere. The bullet skimmed the wall, taking off a baseball sized chunk of concrete with it.

"Please! Somebody!"

The unnerving cries continued to fill with terror and sadness.

With every drop of determination I shook my cried back into silence, "I'M COMING! HANG ON!" The wind blew dust into the air, forming a temporary vortex of sand.

Gritting my teeth in determination I ran across the street, skidding the last several feet into solid cover in the form of rubble from a collapsed building. Bullets whizzed by as the searing heat of each shell could be felt across my head.

Timing my sprints, I ran from cover to cover, up the street towards the source of the cries. All the while, the silence slowly faded back into the sound of chaos. After making several rapid changes through cover, I could hear Latias's voice, through a ragged single story concrete straight across the street from me.

"HOLD ON!" I yelled. Sprinting with every ounce of strength, I rolled straight up to the door and used my momentum in a running jump kick to smash through a worn, cracked wooden door into the room Latias's voice emanated from.

Just as I fell into the room, the rushing air went dead silent. At that moment, I could feel my heart drop. Without thinking, I picked myself up, ignoring the pain throbbing across my body, and took a step forward into the room.

…

*step*

…

…

Then another.

…

…

*step*

…

Then another. Looking around, the room was completely empty.

…

*step*

…

*step*

…

*step*

…

Step after step…

…

Developing into a jog…

*step*

*step*

*step*

Then, the jog changed to a run…

*step*…*step*

*step*… *step*

*step*… *step*

Then, the run quickly became to a full sprint.

…

"Latias?" Was all I could muster.

…

"Latios?" My voice grew louder.

…

"Guys?!" My body ached from the immense effort, but nothing mattered more to me now.

Then, a deep voice rang out from the nearby shadows.

"You couldn't protect them…"

Scared I reached back for support, when a nearby glass window shattered and the sound of something striking the floor filled my hearing.

Searching around, I saw a small olive pineapple-shaped object rolling across the floor.

My eyes widened.

"You aren't ready."

All I could do was shield my face when an instant of a red inferno filled my vision, then nothing.

... My body went limp.

---

Then, my eyes sprang open, I reached forward and grasped the sky. Gasping for air, my vision was blurry. I could feel the ground below me moving. Then, I felt something grasp my reaching paw and a large obscure blue object filled my vision.

A familiar voice filled my ears. Slowly, my eyesight adjusted itself and my hearing made out a high pitch cooing sound.

Blinking, I could see Raid grasping my paw – a worried look crossing his face.

"Marlon! It's okay! I'm here!" Raid cooed.

Taking a moment, looking around, I was on my back on a fairly large stretcher being rolled down what appeared to be another large hangar bay.

Raising my spare paw, I grabbed Raid's as he tried pulling me back up into the air. Unfortunately, my mind wasn't having any of it yet, so I collapsed back into the stretcher. My mind was still fuzzy, but it was clearing slowly. At the moment, I felt someone had smashed my head in between two bricks and then proceeded to headbutt me. My head throbbed but my body felt fine.

Looking over towards Raid, I raised a "brow" of concern. 'What happened?'

"You were getting overly frustrated with yourself so tried to calm you down by putting you to sleep."

Scratching my head, I tried to remember what I was dreaming about…

… but nothing came to mind.

"You were breathing heavily in your sleep and I could feel you were in pain! I was worried I didn't do the hypnosis trick right!"

Turning back to Raid, I could see his worry fill his eyes. I patted him on the shoulder and gave a comforting smile. 'I'm okay. No need to worry! And thanks for the sleeping spell. I think it helped.'

At this a faint smile formed under Raid's face, a bit happy that he was able to help. I turned in the direction I could remember Latias being, laying on the operation bed recovering. Raid saw this and was prompt to answer my question.

"Latias is ahead of us. She was put in one of those big planes up ahead." Raid said. Rotating myself on the stretcher, I followed paw to a transport C-130 parked alongside a row of dozens of others along with AC-130s.

But, just before Raid was about start a new conversation the stretcher stopped moving and the guards guiding us down the hangar stepped back, crossed their arms behind their backs, and stood at attention. I turned to Raid, whose sensitive ears had perked up.

'What's wrong?' I asked.

Raid turned his attention down the path in between a column of parked transports. I watched as he narrowed his eyes and leaned forward, assuming an attack position. Concerned I scanned the area for aura, only to find a familiar, and unwelcome aura slowly approaching.

Raid's ears narrowed tracking all too familiar footsteps while I concentrated my attention and located the position of the aura. But, there was reason to. We both already knew who it was.

Resting my head back on the stretcher, I concentrated as best I could. Closing my eyes, my human image appeared on a mirror in a sea of darkness. Turning around he gave me a thumbs up with a smile on his face. Raid remained motionless in the air as light from the surrounding area seemed to rush towards my form, covering me in a blinding light. As the light intensified and peaked, a blast of energy and heat rippled the air forcing the guards surrounding Raid and I to take a step away.

Opening my eyes, I rolled off the now slightly toasted stretcher and quickly came to terms with my human form. I was wearing the same attire I normally adorned in my dreams with the added addition of my backpack - presumably all the way back from Edwards Air Force Base.

Taking my position to the left of Raid lowered my cap ever so slightly and crossed my arms.

The source of our attention soon presented itself to us in the form of a man wearing a wearing aviator glasses and a full attire of black body armor, undershirt, army jeans, and reinforced boots.

"Sam." I said in a low tone. Both Raid and my eyes narrowed on Sam. The stern looks that emanated from our faces were enough to make the two additional bodyguards around Sam uneasy and take a step back. The same could be said for any additional party member that cowered slightly behind Sam.

Getting straight to the point, Sam opened, "You're needed on the flight deck."

A bit confused, I tried to return a question, but Sam continued. "The evacuation is nearly complete, but you and… Raid are needed to secure the airspace before we can launch."

Still puzzled I turned to Raid who had already run a mental scan. Raid nodded.

Letting out a light sigh through my nose, I pondered crossing my arms in front of me, "What's the situation?"

With that Sam side stepped revealing what appeared to be a scientist – presumed based on the stained white lab coat, comically square reading glasses, clipboard with an assortment of paper documents, pencil over ear, ever so slight curved back and physical cues given off by the man (Oh yah, did I mention Latias loved to quiz me on people's backgrounds back when we were still in California… A LOT? Well there's something for you to consider! :) )

"Greetings… uhh… I'm Shaun Aleks, the Lead Scientist of the R&D department here stationed in Niger… uhhh…"

From my perspective, it looked like the man was about to lose his nerves at any moment. Turning my attention, I noticed Raid was still adorning a menacing appearance. A bit taken back I patted Raid on the back, stroking my hand down his soft neck. "Ease up. You're gonna make the man wet himself."

Raid turned to me then back to the man. When Raid was serious, he could look quite menacing. His slit eyes would narrow, the once bright, red eyes seemed to darken into a darker blood-red color, and the feathers on his back would raise slightly. This and his refined attack position created the image of a force best avoided at all costs. Raid slackened up slightly, enough for Aleks to calm down enough to continue.

"Uhh… right. From our ultrasound sonar and limited satellite imaging, we were able to pick up a massive… uhh… object converging on our position. Uhh… in addition, some of our radar dishes spread out away from home base were also clearing up, suggesting that the edge of the dust cloud is uhh… approaching, perfectly coinciding our opportunity to evacuate."

"But why does that concern the object, we'll be out of here before that thing get here right?" I inquired.

"Uhh… originally we thought the same thing, but the object appears to be moving with considerable speed. Enough to arrive over our base before the cloud can clear."

Sam stepped in, "We need you and Raid to identify the object from above the dust cloud and attempt to halt its advance, enough to buy us some time to get everyone out."

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind. "Wait, you don't even know the affiliation?"

Sam was quick to respond. "It appears Kevin was not as clean as we thought."

Confused, I tilted my head slightly.

"Upon arrival he was searched for any trackers and sure enough there was one."

"The helmets didn't pick up anything."

"Not on Kevin. The vehicle you flipped contained a tracker embedded in between the engine block and the transmission shaft. The helmet weren't equipped to identify the tiny tracker we found."

(Wow. They really went to such lengths just to find out the location of this place.) Looking around, seeing all the armored vehicles moving into the transport planes along with the men behind them, it's no wonder the P.L. were trying to secure this place.

Looking down another thought crossed my mind. Shaking my head, I nodded back to Aleks. "Alright. But Raid stays behind."

At this Raid squeaked. Turning rapidly to face me, Raid was cooing harshly with a stern look on his face.

"What?! No! You are not going anywhere by yourself! We need to stick together!"

Smiling. It was good to see that Raid was concerned. But… raising a hand, I patted Raid on the head.

"Someone needs to watch Latias, Raid."

Raid pushed my hand aside, "But Marlon, we can fend that thing off when it gets here! You don't need to go!" Raid argued, cooing with a clear sense of objection.

Drooping my head, I shook my head. "Raid. I taught you how to think." Looking up, I smiled at him. "We both know, I'll be fine."

"No! That's what Latias would have thought, but look at how she is! She's weak! We need to protect her!" Raid's cooing was sounding desperate. Reaching forward, he put his paws on my shoulders trying to make a mental link between us.

Looking into his eyes, I could feel Raid's fears, concerns, and worried emotions fill my mind, the things he feared would happen, were enough to force me to shed a tear.

Raid had learned an important skill. Coordinative rational.

Raising my hands, I slowly lifted Raid's paws of my shoulder, smiling while looking into his eyes. "Raid…" I said in a low voice. "Think, what needs to be done."

Taken back by my determination, Raid shook his head, not willing to accept what might happen, and floated back several feet. Visibly shaking, he shook his head one last time and floating down towards the ground. He head drooped slightly.

I lowered my arms to my side just looking down at Raid. I was going to take try to soothe his concern, but Raid had raced up to me and embraced me in a deep hug. I could feel his claws clinging to my backside as he held me tight. The hangar had gone quiet. After a moment, Raid finally let go.

Back flipping up towards the ceiling, Raid's look of concern had washed away slightly to a more stern appearance. "You BETTER get back here Marlon! I…I-"

"I'll be right here." I said pointing towards my head.

"No! I want YOU here!" Raid retorted.

I couldn't help but smile with confidence. "I know… I know you'll be there for me if something happens."

With that Aleks gestured to me.

"Uhh… you two can stay in touch with these too!" Reaching for his back pocket, Aleks pulled out a pair of black objects. Tossing them from several feet away, I reached out and caught both. It appeared to be some sort of Bluetooth earpiece with an integrated microphone. It looked like a regular Bluetooth earpiece designed for conventional calls but with a much slicker metallic finish adorning the outsides and close fitting ear wrapping piece. Looking up to Raid, I tossed an earpiece to him.

"There you go. Now there's no excuse. So YOU better be there for me!"

Raid nodded.

"Okay. Head down to the end of the hangar. Kevin will be waiting for you." Sam ended the conversation, promptly turning around and making his way down one of the corridors with Aleks giving us a farewell gesture before chasing after Sam into a hallway.

Nodding back to Raid, we both took off down the hangar, passing other soldiers who had resumed their work, either guiding vehicles onto the transports or had their hands full loading the transports with various resources. Weaving in and out of the crowd, Raid flew overhead scanning the path ahead for me.

When we got to Latias's transport. I stopped. Raid noticed this and flew down to my level. Looking Raid in the eyes, I pointed straight into the plane. "Go. Protect Latias. If you need me, just call over the radio. I'm not sure how it will work once I'm outside, but never lose hope … and always have faith!"

Raid smiled weakly and nodded. He floated closer to me and pressed his head against mine.

Back on the Haven, when Latias and Raid were a lot younger, we used to put our heads together as a way of strengthening the bond between us when things were going completely in the wrong direction.

Closing my eyes, I could feel Raid's emotions again. This time, Raid was filled with more hope than concern. Likewise, Raid could feel my confidence and determination to secure a safe future for the three of us.

After a few moments, we both pulled apart, opening our eyes, and simultaneously nodding our heads. Raid flew inside the transport as I took off further down the hangar bay. After passing what must have been 12 more transports, I could see a space in between the last transport and the concrete wall of the end of the hall.

Rounding the last transport, I could see Kevin circling an F-16 Fighting Falcon parked on the ground. Several ground crew members were finishing up their work on the fighter as I approached slowly, inspecting the plane.

Besides the desert brown camouflage, it was a standard F-16 with 6 long spearheaded missiles positioned on triangular racks, 3 per rack with one on each side of the wing. In addition there were large cylindrical tanks under the pylons closes to the central fuselage.

Kevin had turned around and noticed that I was looking over what was potentially, an old relic of a plane. "Ah Marlon! I was just about have search party go out and look for you. Look I'm sorry for what happened. I wasn't thinking straight and I led those killers straight towards us. I-".

"It's fine. I'll deal with that later. So fill me in on what I'm doing." I said brushing past Kevin, approaching the left wing of the plane.

"It's best you get in. I don't have the mission briefing. You're taking off immediately." Kevin replied.

Returning an "okay-that-was-fast" look, Kevin gestured me up a set of stairs alongside the cockpit into the plane.

Jumping in, I took my spot in the cockpit and looked around to get a grasp of the plane's interior. At the same time, Kevin and another technician were flipping quickly flipping switches and in moments the main engine began purring to life.

Kevin turned around as someone from below handed up a helmet. But rather than the expected gray full head helmet with a black visor, this was just a clear, light-blue spherical snoopy cap shaped helmet with what appeared to be a drop down clear visor and a small computer chip clearly visible on the top of the helmet. Carefully, Kevin motioned the helmet over my head until it was snugly wrapped around the top of my head.

A bit confused of what was just put on me, I didn't have the opportunity to ask before Kevin began pointing out the basics. "Okay, you're all set. Just remember, left pedal means left yaw, and right petal means right. The stick controls your pitch and roll. The throttle control is on your left, and any additional flight controls are spread throughout – but it's best you don't touch anything unless you have to.

Once gain I tried to open my mouth to speak, but as I did, Kevin flipped a switch and the cockpit began to close from its open up position.

"Wait! What am I doing?!" I yelled over the engine roaring in the background.

Kevin, who miraculously heard my cry yelled back. "Alecs will keep you up to date!"

As the cockpit sealed, Kevin tapped the cockpit one last time and gave me a thumb's up. I could feel the atmosphere control pressurize the cockpit. Raising my hands from my lap, I took hold of the joystick and throttle as the ladders were taken away and everyone started running away from the airplane. Levering the joystick to both sides, I checked over my shoulders to see the ailerons and flaps pitch around as I moved the stick from side to side. From my point of view, I could see a man run up in front of the left side of my nose raising two guidance lanterns and crossing them above his head. Flipping the visor down, green lines slowly formed across my eyes forming the artificial horizon. Throwing a thumbs up to the guy on the ground, I could hear sirens ringing outside as a nearby emergency lights began glowing a bright red. Immediately following the hangar doors in front of me began to open, producing loud creaking noises they forced their way open. Slowly the doors revealed the black world outside, allowing the hellish winds to blast their way into the hangar. The force was so strong that the room darkened slightly and the man in front lunged forward grasping to the floor in an effort to stay upright. Then, a loud creaking could be heard as the doors stopped moving and jammed themselves in place.

Suddenly, the hangar doors became enveloped in a pink light. Turning around I could see Raid floating above and behind me. His eyes were covered in the same pink light as he extended his paws and cooed into the roaring wind, simultaneously motioning his paws apart as the doors forced themselves apart in several violent jerks. Once the doors were wide enough to fit my wings through, several large bulldozers with their scoops angled to the ground and off to one side, rushed ahead of me shoveling the sand out of the way. Looking down, I could see the flag man waving the lanterns forward. Returning a thumb's up to Raid, I levered the throttle forward and held on as the Falcon lurched forward into pitch black.

'You better be back here soon!' Raid telepathed into my mind as the last bits of light exited my view.

'Right!' I thought back.

At that, my helmet adjusted itself, increasing the contrast of the artificial horizon by increasing the brightness of everything being displayed. At the same time, a set of holographic lights on the ground were picked up in my helmet, forming a path of green lights highlighting the taxi path to the runway.

Looking around, the world was so dark. The bulldozers that rushed ahead were nowhere to be seen. Not wanting to get left behind, I increased the throttle and pushed the plane around several sharp turns before finally making it onto the tarmac. Just as I lined the plane up with the runway, a message appeared on the upper right hand side of my HUD. "TAKE OFF IMMEDIATELY BEARING 170 DEGREES OF NE.

(No need to tell me twice.)

Cranking the throttle to maximum, the plane lunged forward violently and a trail of blazing blue fire blasted out the rear of the tail. On the mid-left of my HUD, I watched as the speedometer began ticking upwards, accelerating with each given second; the green lights marking the runway began to pass by much faster and the wind rocking the plane became more severe.

100 mi/hr.

180

240

340

(Pitch up) Pulling back on the joystick, the plane's nose lifted off the ground. But at the same time as the wheels were just leaving the ground, the wind shifted direction into a direct horizontal crosswind. Grasping the stick, I could feel the right wing trying to flip the plane on its side. Battling for control, over the joystick, I held the plane as close to level as I could while angling the nose up.

Then another message popped up on my HUD: "FLIP THE RED SWITCH ON THE DASHBOARD"

Without even asking, there was a pronounced red switch on the upper left side of the dashboard. When there was a slight let up in the wind, I let one hand go of the joystick, flipped the red cover up and flipped the switch behind it. Immediately, two more blue flames of fire erupted below my left and right wings, hurling me back into my chair as the accelerometer rocketed exponentially past 400 mi/hr.

Pulling the stick back further the plane approached a 70 degree climb angle pushing past a thousand feet without hesitation. The noise was incredible. The presumed rocket boosters were incredibly powerful, putting out an incredible amount of thrust and launching me through the dust cloud. With each passing second, the altitude stacked on. Approaching 10000 ft in no time, the cloud layer was starting to clear. At 9000 ft, the boosters flamed out and I toggled a switch labeled "dump pylons", discarding the two fuel cells from my wings to fall back to earth. With only the main engine powering on, it only took seconds before the thrashing and howling winds of nature's wrath faded into nothing. Suddenly everything calmed and the pitch black world of the world down below gave way to a dark, navy blue world where a bright circular object filled the sky with a hopeful light.

It was all so peaceful, but my attention snapped back to reality as the plane suddenly started creaking and the main engine started to fade. There was a distinct decline in response coming from the engine as the noise it produced seemed to be fading. Thinking quickly, I recalled the switched Kevin and the technician flipped back in the hangar and glanced over labeled functions. At first educated guesses then became slightly more frantic button mashing.

"Come on. Come On!" My airspeed was dropping like a stone. As I tried to level the plane off, the plane went into a stall and for a moment stopped in mid-air. Then weightlessness followed as I fell back to earth strapped to a flying bomb.

"Think! Think!" Running out of options, I kicked the dashboard with what little space I had and the engine spurred back to life.

"Hahah! It worked! Thank the Russians!"

But my celebration seemed short lived as the top layer of the dust storm cloud rapidly approached. Pointing the nose straight down, I forced air to flow over the wings, before pulling back on the stick, fighting the Gs until the main engine sparked to life and the afterburners kicked in.

I was scraping the bottom of the barrel as the engine intake scraped the upper cloud layer. It seemed like I was going in again until the nose pitched up more and the plane lifted itself up and away from the storm.

Grunting the rest of the Gs off, I calmed my nerves and did an in-flight flight-check. Looking around, the dark night sky was soothing, but it made it difficult to see what was going on around me. Almost on cue, my visor switched into a sort of night vision, filling my vision with a clear visual of my surroundings in a form of varying shades of green. My plane was lit up but a bright green and the world around me a much darker if not black color. Twisting the joystick from side to side, the plane rolled responsively, but upon closer inspection the wings were battered from the sand blasting of the storm. In addition, I suspected the engine was running on a limited lifespan after that experience.

Rolling my plane to the left I circled overhead and attempted to make contact with the ground. Slapping my headset, a new message appeared.

CONFIGURING ALEKS…

"What?"

PASSWORD ACCEPTED

"Huh?" I was genuinely confused.

Then my HUD changed colors immediately from green to a red color map. The word ALEKS suddenly popped up in between my field of view before minimizing into the lower right corner out of the way. In addition, a new thicker red borderline formed around my view while maintaining the artificial horizon.

Out of nowhere a male voice popped into the cockpit.

"Hello there. You must be Marlon. My name is ALECS. It's a pleasure to be working with you."

As if automatic, the plane leveled itself off on its own and the display panels on my dashboard were cycling to new windows independently.

"Wait what?! What are you and what are you doing?" I replied watching as this invisible force take over my plane.

"Oh nothing. I'm re-configuring your set-up, it was so out of date so I went through the trouble of updating your software! There, the plane is yours again."

Tilting my head in both confusion and surprise, I tilted the joystick to the left and plane rolled slightly left. Assuming control again, I asked, "Okay ALEKS-"

"Oh yes, I almost forgot, my name is A-L-E-C-S."

"Right… So you're going to help me out through this?" I inquired.

Alecs quickly responded, "Affirmative. As long as you have this helmet or that earpiece, I will be by your side. I'm your personal AI… okay, well not completely personal. Sam instructed me to get you through this mission, but I usually manage a majority of the resistance's defense network. This was just a break from it all."

Yellow circles formed in sequence in front of me, flickering one after the other pointing me in the direction I needed to go.

Rolling the plane to the left and with a bit of rudder and flicked the throttle forward, the plane took off towards the objective marked by a small red X in the distance. Below the X, a distance indicator was counting down the number of miles to the designated target area.

"AIs need breaks?" I asked in curiosity.

"Of course. We think of the long week that awaits us as much as the average human does, if only from a numbers perspective. But it's of no bother. We're programmed so that that doesn't affect our performance." Alecs replied, a hint of pride in his tone.

"Well, we all need to on top of our game nowadays." I said under my breath into the cockpit.

Alecs took a second to respond. "Yes. These times are becoming quite fierce… Well speaking of which, we seem to have company."

Looking down, three green rhomboid-shaped blips formed on my radar. "Copy, unidentified-"

"Confirmed bandits Marlon. You've just been authorization from Sam to engage." Alecs quickly responded.

"Since when did Sam confirm?" I banking left towards the incoming threat

"In short, a high frequency message was sent up, I caught it, deciphered it, and relayed it to you. … It's going to be too dark to identify the targets. Their IDs tag Russian Federation jets. I'm not familiar enough to identify the type for you. But I recommend taking action."

Looking around in an attempt to find an answer, I flipped the switch arming the long range missiles and put my finger of the trigger.

"Radar confirms a hard lock. Fire away." Alecs's voice rang out in the cockpit.

My finger squeezed over the trigger ever so slightly, but not enough to fire the missiles.

Looking out into the darkness, a bead of sweat formed around my forehead. A memory flashed in my head. Then, my finger loosened up and then completely away from the trigger.

"Radar confirms lock. Shoot when ready." Alecs repeated.

"Negative, I don't like it. The damage on the nose is extensive and the data might be faulty." I negotiated, disarming the missiles.

Alecs was quick to respond. "Unlikely, I'm 99.999999999999% sure their enemy aircraft."

Casting a shadow of doubt, I looked ahead into the dark horizon in the direction of the three potential targets. "That's one percent I'm not willing to take. There hasn't been a confirmed missile launch so, I'm not retaliating."

"Your decreasing your chances of coming out of this unscaved severely.

CUE SELECTION 1:

Throwing the throttle all the way forward, the speedometer quickly began to climb as the force of the acceleration threw me back into the chair. In the dark sky there was no indication of how fast we were moving but the sound of the wind rushing outside.

"Bandits closing within 10 miles. They'll be on top of us shortly." Alecs alerted me.

Suddenly, I could see a flicker of light coming from ahead, dropping several hundred feet before climbing back up to my altitude. My eyes widened at this. Thinking quickly, I flicked the joystick to the right and pulled back hard. "Missile fired! *ugh* Heat-seeker!"

Continuing the turn, I rolled the plane through a split S. "Alecs! Flares!"

"Copy. Flares out." With that flashes of bright light exited the rear of the plane lighted up the night sky. Continuing the turn back towards the enemy, I had a short glimpse of a small stream of fire pass several feet above my canopy.

Catching my breath, I refocused my attention on the incoming threat.

"You really like to take risks don't you?" Alecs inquired.

"No! If I did, I would have considered pulling the trigger more strongly." I replied – a stern look casting itself on my face.

After getting the nose level, two thunderous roars screamed overhead leaving behind two distinct contrails. Looking up, I could just make out a faint outline of one of the jets.

My eyes widened.

"A PAK-FA?!" Not wasting any time, I put the plane into hard high yo-yo tracking the faint figure as it turned away from me in the opposite direction.

"Alecs! I need you to manage flaps! Give me maximum turn rate on this thing!" I yelled over the G's that were crushing me in my seat.

"Got it." Alecs replied.

Keeping one eye on the fighter in front of me and another on the radar, I watched as the other smaller trailing plane reversed its turn seeing my attack coming and dove down in a split S in an effort to lose me. I couldn't quite make out the figure's outline, but proceeded to counter the maneuver by pulling up sharply before following it in the dive.

Gritting my teeth, I could hear audible creaking in my plane as it stressed enormously over the wing-tearing forces I was put it through. Pulling through the turn, the pilot ahead of me pulled up and begun rolling vertically through the sky in a vertical spiral climb.

Watching my energy drop like a stone I yelled into the cockpit, "Alecs! Give me a firing solution on the engines NOW!"

At that a dot appeared on my HUD slightly ahead of the fighter in front of me with a marker indicating "Shoot here!"

Flipping the safety off, I pulled the guns trigger. In a bright flash, the right side of my vision filled with rapid flashing of bright lights as searing red bullets flew through dark cold sky up towards the dark figure.

As Alecs had pinpointed, the back of the fighter ahead of me lit up like a Christmas tree in brilliant flashes marking the points of impact.

Not wanting to stick around, and approaching stall speed, I kicked the rudder left, deployed full flaps and looked for my next target. Seeing another similar shadow of a figure passing beneath me, I continued through the hammerhead maneuver but was greeted by bright orange streams of light passing in front and behind my plane, accompanied by the grunting from a Gatling gun. Another pilot was shooting upwards from below me.

With little choice, I pressed the throttle back up and pursued the next plane. This one was much more agile, banking left and right, in and out of turns trying to get me to overshoot. Luckily, with good management of the air brake and throttle I managed to keep myself behind the plane in front of me. But while this was all fancy flying, this gave the plane shooting at me earlier a chance to get back on my six. Soon after, the sky in front of me filled with more bright orange bullets making their way past me. Several made contact and punched large holes across my fuselage.

"Marlon, if it helps you think better, the enemy in front of us is emitting a large amount of data. It's likely there isn't a pilot on board." Alecs pointed out as I followed the plane ahead through a barrel roll.

"Roger." Without hesitating, I flipped the safety on the missile launchers and locked the radar once more.

"Radar confirms hard lock. Fire when ready!" Alecs alerted.

"Chew on this. Fox 3!" Squeezing the missile trigger, an audible clunk could be heard as a missile dropped away from my right wing. Immediately after the engine kicked in and the missile rocketed ahead leading the target ahead through the turn, rapidly closing the distance.

From the cockpit, I followed through the turn and watched the glimmer of light from the rocket fly out in the distance getting smaller with each millisecond before momentarily disappearing. Then, the dark sky lit up with a massive fiery explosion where the fighter last flew.

"Confirmed splash. One to go."

There was little time to think. As soon as the missile made contact, my cockpit began to light up with missile warnings. "Dangit, we're spiked." Going inverted, I pulled through the split S as Alecs adjusted the flaps to help me through the turn. Checking my six as I pulled back on the stick, I could make out the remaining plane following close behind.

Flooring the throttle, the afterburners lit up behind me as I pulled vertical once more. Watching as the PAK-FA follow me up. Quickly thinking, I deployed air brakes, pulling back on the stick, but kept the throttle all the way forward.

Clenching my teeth, bearing gravity's crushing grip, I watched as my airspeed quickly dropped below 150 mi/hr. At the same time, the PAK-FA had countered my maneuver by pulling away from me as he flew straight past me.

Using gravity pull me back down to earth, my plane pitched straight down. "This guy knows what he's doing."

Continuing the dive, a thought popped up in my mind. Looking back, the enemy had re-positioned itself directly behind me. My radar spiked and warnings were going off in the cockpit.

Pulling up and to the right, I popped chaff and evaded started the aerial dance. Flicking the stick left and right, kicking the rudder, the two of us danced, weaving in and out of rolling scissors, knife edges, and any other maneuver each other pulled trying to buy enough time to make the deciding move... With each turn, the PAK-FA got closer and closer, spraying the sky with tracer rounds as the sound of the angry vulcan got louder and lounder.

Gritting my teeth and crossing my fingers, I pulled up one more time and yelled into the cockpit. "Alecs, lock the remaining missiles to their racks and fire all of them!"

Alecs was quick to respond, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I know you can do so do it!" I shouted back.

"I don't know what you've got planned but-" Before Alecs finished, the missiles still stuck the rack ignited.

Flying directly vertical, the added thrust propelled me ahead of the PAK-FA. Looking back the enemy had ignited his afterburners in an attempt to sustain my climb rate. With the added thrust, the gap between us grew, and increased with each passing second. After opening the distance to a mile, the PAK-FA was noticeable slower than before and appeared on the verge of stalling.

As soon as the missile's expended their fuel, I pushed the stick forward cresting the loop and began my fall back down to earth. At the same time, the missile warning system began screaming throughout the cockpit.

"This can't end well." Alecs commented.

"You think you're fast enough. Give me a firing solution on the missiles." I yelled into the cockpit.

"Hah! That's nothing." The sound of fingers cracking rung out. With that several red dots appeared ahead of my HUD.

With my finger on the trigger, my eyes narrowed on each incoming target. Kicking the rudder and rolling the plane slightly, I squeezed the trigger firing short bursts as streaming hot lead exited the Gatling to the right of my cockpit.

With three quick pulls of the trigger, three distinct explosions erupted ahead of me into a cloud of fire separating me and the PAK-FA.

"Impressive shooting! All missiles destroyed." Alecs alerted.

Keeping the trigger pulled down, a long stream of bullets blazed their way through the flames at the same time as the PAK-FA ripped through the flames like Jaws jumping out of water.

My shots struck home and punched holes into the enemy's frame. As I descended and the PAK-FA climbed up to meet me, we both pointed our noses directly at each other. At the moment we were both at the same altitude, I looked up through my cockpit to the enemy pilot in his seat. He looked relaxed, sitting comfortably in his chair despite have a bullet holes riddling his plane. While he could clearly make out my face with the on board lighting from the cockpit, the other pilot was wearing a full face helmet with a black visor. Looking behind the pilot, his plane was releasing a light green fluid from its wings while its left engine was trailing a thick smoke.

Refocusing my attention, I leveled the plane with the dust cloud from the storm down below, watching as the lone PAK-FA peaked its climb then fall back down to earth. Only this time, it didn't attempt to get behind me and instead continued its dive down into the dust storm.

Watching as the plane fell to the ground, Alecs reminded me of his presence. "I think it's safe to take a breath." Pausing I did just that, calming my racing heart. Alecs continued, "I don't think he's pulling out of that one. But, we're still not done here. We are now within the designated target area and our primary target has just revealed itself."

Checking the radar, I large object occupied ¾ of my radar's window with a large green blob of mass. Looking up, I could see the sun beginning to shine its warming rays. Only this time, an incredible scream ran through the morning air as 6 large gaping cyclones formed within the dust storm below, sucking air down like a whirlpool in the ocean.

Rolling the plane on its side, I watched as a massive object pulled its way out from the storm. Little by little, a massive metallic airship revealed itself. The ship overall was very blocky in form. While it was rounded in the front of the ship, the 6 massive turbo jet engines lifting the plane were shielded on all sides with a distinct heat wave exiting the base of each engine. As the behemoth rose from the darkness, an array of red lights surrounding the outsides of the ship revealed an array of defensive armament, giving the monster a full 360 degrees to put bullets down range.

"It's like the one back at Edwards's!" I said out loud.

"Copy, this airship is the model designed to replace the one you encountered at Edwards's." Alecs alerted me.

"Okay. Give me the lowdown before I get anywhere near this thing." I said, flipping switches in the cockpit and checking over the plane's condition and combat effectiveness.

"From the resistance's database, this airship is the BS-04. Classified as a Bomber Super Fortress. The Super Fortresses are a rare kind, but as you can probably guess, a formidable force to be reckoned with. It's likely the P.L. sent this one immediately after tracking Kevin to eliminate one of Sam's remaining choke points in the African Campaign."

"Okay, but what should I be expecting. I'm fresh out of guns, missiles, and about to hit bingo fuel." I returned.

"The BS-04 has an array of anti-air weaponry ranging from long range heat seeking missiles, to on board AAA guns." Alecs replied.

"All stuff designed to shoot down a plane." I returned, partially smirking. "Well, start the music, here we-" But before I could finish, the plane jerked violently, hurling me forward in my seat, and the sound of rushing wind seemed to stop completely. Looking directly ahead, a mysterious black figured in the shape of a dark flame, blowing in the wind outside. Reaching ahead, a dark purple and black hand had caught the front of the nose of my plane and stopped it dead its tracks.

"Uhh…" was all that escaped my mouth. The figure was emanating a very dark energy - one that, at first, caused me to flinch.

Suddenly Alecs' voice filled my helmet. "Keep your head up and pull the lever on your left."

Thinking fast, I pulled the lever and braced. The canopy blasted above me and off to one side. Immediately following, the ejection seat activated, crushing rocketing both me and the chair in a blast of fire up and away from the plane, which detonated soon after ejecting. Still in flight, I grabbed the air pressured scissors strapped to my shoulder and pulled the trigger. Little by little it cut the reinforced harness until both straps snapped loose ejecting me from the seat. Closing my eyes, the world around me flashed.

Reopening them, my body had changed and new familiar sense arose. I was a Lati again.

Cooing, I retracted my paws and concentrated my energy back into flight. At this I leveled off with the horizon and the mysterious figure now several dozen feet away.

Tapping my conveniently fitting helmet, the HUD adjusted itself to my new field of view as I cooed into the morning sky.

The sun was now halfway over the horizon.

The mysterious dark figure had no face yet it seemed to smile some sort of a wicked dark smile at me. Right now it floated halfway between the rising sun on my left, and the rising metallic behemoth on the right. Raising another black purple hand, enveloped in its bodily flame, it extended its arms out to its sides.

In a dark, deep, low voice, the figure spoke over the howling winds.

"Choose."

Floating in place, the question puzzled me. But before I could respond, a stream of orange dots tore through the figure's ghostly appearance as the sound of an engine screaming filled the air. Looking down a familiar silhouette revealed itself in the form of a battered PAK-FA.

Surprised, I could only watch as the plane rose up and tore through the figure using its wing before climbing up and away. I thought it was the end, but the figure reformed its ghostly appearance. This time, something in between the figure's hands sparked with a beacon of light before a dark circular void of energy formed.

My eyes widened as the attack grew. Then, suddenly the figure aimed the attack from his chest and the orb of black energy flew through the sky with incredible speed. Thinking fast, I clenched a claw as my own psychic energy rapidly condensed into an orb of light in front of my maw.

Cooing into the air, I roared in defiance. "Dragon Pulse!"

At that the condense orb of light erupted in a beam of energy, crossing the distance between me and the orb, striking the enemy attack dead center.

The dark energy from the attack exploded in all direction, hurling smaller orbs of dark energy everywhere before vaporizing into nothing shortly afterwards.

The PAK-FA had escaped the area unharmed. But in the time it took me to counter the dark pulse, the figure had teleported directly in front of me.

Turning my attention forward, the dark figure loomed over me, blocking the sun's rays and filling my view with darkness.

"You aren't ready!"

The voice was the same from my nightmares.

The dark hand from before became enveloped in a thick dark purple flame. Out of nowhere, a giant flaming hand phased into existence grabbing me firmly in its grasp.

Immobilized I struggled to get free. Fighting for freedom, I managed to coo out, "Who… ugh… are you!"

I didn't expect the figure to understand, but from its crushing grasp, it spoke once more. This time two small rhombus shaped white lights sparked where one would expect to find eyes and a large toothy grin grew from the side to side of the figure's ghastly, flame-like, appearance.

"I… am the god of this world."

My eyes narrowed at this statement and I began concentrating my energy into my core.

The figure continued, raising a long worn and beaten finger as if to poke my muzzle"…and you are my failed creation."

My eyes widened again, but I remained concentrated. Closing my eyes and gritting my teeth, I released the energy I stored in myself. In a massive force of light, the dark hand crushing me, evaporated in contact with counter shield. But strangely enough, the shadow, well within range of the blast seemed unaffected.

The shadows seemed to chuckle inwardly, "You cannot harm the air you breathe." Once more a dark hand appeared and crushed me in its grasp. Fighting with every ounce of strength to not be crushed, I yelled out into the air.

"RAID!"

…

The figure maintained its smile. "Not even your friend can save you no-"

In a brilliant flash of light, a stream of blue and white light tore through the sky with blinding speed, slashing cleanly through the shadow's position. At that moment, I could feel a slight loosen in the shadow's grasp. Closing my eyes, I curled up as a pink spherical barrier formed around me, spiking in all directions. Roaring, I uncurled rapidly and the spikes detonated, tearing through the ghostly hands and giving me an opening.

The wind blew slowly by my feathers. The sun raised ever so slowly. Letting out a slow deep breath, my eyes became enveloped in a pink energy.

(I can't harm the air…) I thought long and hard … then a light bulb went off in my head (… but I can burn it).

Swinging both of my paws off to each side, I cooed as the air surrounding the shadowy figure and I became filled with hundreds of large, basketball sized, pink orbs of condensed psychic energy, with orbs at least 2 miles in every direction.

The elongated grin seemed to have faded with the wind, and in its place was the lone shadowy figure.

"PROXIMITY BURST!"

In a flash, all the orbs in the surrounding area, exploded simultaneously with tremendous force, igniting the pressurized air from Raid's attack, filling the air with a giant inferno. The shock wave alone forced the dust storm below to dissipate momentarily and the surrounding clouds to clear out entirely.

Raid had finished his Mach Iron-wing run, and had turned around to return to the fight, when he was hit with massive shock wave and then faced with a 4 mile wide blazing fireball in the sky.

"MARLON!"

From the blaze, a brown object ejected from the top of the flame covered in a pink elongated bubble shield.

"MARLON!"

The blast had almost caught me unprepared, but I had strengthened my barrier beforehand to grant me a form of cover from the blast.

"Chew on that one *cough* Ivan!" Turning to see Raid, an image of Latias flashed where Raid floated a distance away. Then, memories of screams and gunshots rang out in my head. A bead of sweat formed under the feathers on my forehead. Shaking my head, I shouted over the helmet mic. "Get to Latias now!"

Raid, who caught my alarmed cooing in his own helmet, looked confused.

Not hesitating, I repeated my message with a much more frantic tone. "GET TO LATIAS NOW!" This time, Raid didn't question and quickly dove down and through the dust cloud, creating a sonic boom as he entered the storm below.

The flames had dissipated, and the figure was nowhere to be seen. In addition, my aura senses weren't picking up the same dark force as before anywhere.

But my attention was taken away from me once again, as a familiar loud metallic cry, pierced the sky. Turning around, the giant behemoth had gotten itself to my altitude and was now floating several hundred feet away from me.

From where I floated, I could clearly make out the faces of hundreds of individuals standing by windows armed with assault rifles and rocket launchers as well as individuals wearing suits standing on what appeared to be a protruding command bridge on the upper section of the front of the ship.

Sighing, I dropped my head, and closed my eyes, using my aura control to sense for living lifeforms in the surrounding area. For a moment we all floated there, staring each other down like a group of individuals in a Mexican standoff.

Then, my ears twitched with the sound of men beginning to yell. I quickly raised head and blasted off in one direction of the flying fortress, dodging a stream of tracers that tore through where I last floated. At the same time the sound of a familiar jet engine roared behind me, thundering past me. The sound of a buzz saw filled the air as a stream of tracers spewed out from the PAK-FA strafing the outside of the airship.

The sound of rushing wind once filled my hearing once more as I scanned the outside of the flying monster, searching for weak points. Ducking and weaving, I rolled through the air, keeping an eye out on the sparks emitted by the rifles and cannons lining the decks of the ship to evade the oncoming fire. "Alecs, give me a sitrep."

"The BS-04 will be a tough nut to crack especially with all its defensive armament and outer armor. Even the engines will be tough to get to, but they will probably be your best bet if you wanted to stop this thing. Everything else is armored up tight in the center of the ship."

Flying around monstrosity was smooth enough. Even with the incoming fire, for the enemy, it was like watching a bird dance in the sky, gracefully rolling in and out of potential threats. But before I could close on the furthest engine, large explosions ripped through the morning air, with large, burning red projectiles rocketing past me.

"They're really throwing everything they've got at me."

"You need to think of something fast. The longer you hang around, the greater the risk your putting yourself in. The P.L. are known for being very adaptive."

"No matter, I'll just keep adapting then." But my thought was cut short as large streams of tracers filled the air right in front of my face. It was like watching a garden hose spray water except this time the harmless clear water was replaced with lethal ammunition that glowed a bright white phosphorus light with every shot fired. Continuing my speed run around the airship, I could only watch as the wall of the fortress lit up with dozens of flashes.

"Okay. Gotta start somewhere." I muttered under my breath as the freezing cold weather began to set itself in. Concentrating while flying around the right end of the airship, a constant wave of bullets sprayed the sky, some becoming more accurate and striking my barrier as I flew around.

My body started to glow an ominous while light.

The PAK-FA had flew another lap around the airship, dancing its way in and out of the wave of anti air being fired through the air.

Cooing, I banked away from the airship, extending my paws and placing them close together in front of my chest. There the light condensed and began to formed a white ball of light. Beginning a wide turn back, the orb began to absorb rays of pink psychic energy, mixing with the white light to form an emanating ball of pink light.

Now facing directly towards the flattest part of the ship, the orb of light grew to the size of 3 basketballs. Just as I was about to hurl my attack, my paws came closer together crushing the orb closer together into the size of a volleyball.

This time, the PAK-FA had come from underneath and just as it passed underneath me, pulled up harshly, stall turning its way level, when the two culcans on each side of the canopy roared to life passing right over me blasting incoming rockets and granting me a clear shot to to ship.

"Luster Purge!" I roared hurling the orb in one full swing, twisting my paw, putting a spin on the attack as the extra energy from being so condensed launched the attack with blinding speed – easily covering the 100 meter gap between me and the face of the engine, but just before making impact, several sets of anti-air guns on-board crisscrossed their aim and struck my attack. With such a large volume of ammunition, the attack detonated mere inches before making contact. While not making a direct impact, the sheer power behind the attack erupted in a massive shock wave coupled with a short fiery explosion, knocking the airship back sideways several hundred feet. The ship listed slightly, but the opposing engines on the opposite side screeched louder in and attempt to stabilize the ship.

"Dangit." Back flipping to avoid an incoming rocket I kept searching for an opening, but the sheer number of guns firing at once meant I'd have to get very close to guarantee a hit, but even so, what better damage would it cause. I increased my speed circling the giant continuing to search for an opening but with each passing second the number of strikes on my barrier increased.

Shrugging off the hits, I began retaliating, using my psychic energy deflect oncoming bullets while spinning in place, combining my iron wings and psychic energy to unleash waves of psychic blades careening towards the airship. Like a rotating cyclone, each chop with my wings sent another wave of psychic energy blasting towards the ship. But as I kept up the attacks, more and more of my attacks were blocked by the defensive guns on board and were beginning to break through my attacks.

The wave of bullets continued and the streams of white tracers riddled the morning sky. It was like watching a war film where anti air guns fired a massive amount of ammunition in the air. The heat they emitted lighted each round as they flew through the sky. Only this time, they were flying at me and I was flying the best I could to evade and block incoming fire. Looking over towards the ship as it continued to close the distance between me and home base, I continued to block oncoming bullets, slapping cannon shells harmlessly off my psychic barrier with my paw, trying to think of a way to bring this behemoth down.

Alecs was scanning the outside as well, searching for an opening for me, but each time I tried approaching the engines, the sheer armor protecting each engine proved much more troublesome than simply managing the oncoming fire. With elongated dragon claws I slashed through AI turrets and tried to detonate the engines, but each of my attacks couldn't get close enough with the sheer number of guns firing.

"You're a psychic aren't you? Why don't you just grab this thing and hurl it into the sunlight?" Alecs inquired, as I barrel rolled out of the way of several more incoming rockets and cannon shells.

"That… would take a lot of energy, but that wouldn't put this thing out of commission. Not without taking a few lives." I said charging a dragon pulse and firing a stream of light from my maw to once again be intercepted by fire.

"So you're holding back then." Alecs pondered. "You're afraid to take a life. Is that it?"

My eyes narrowed at the question. My paws clenched together as I roared into the sky. Throwing my arms up, as massive energy ball rapidly formed. The power emanating off it was enormous. Roaring, I threw my paws forward and the ball of energy flew across striking one of the six engines. This time, the attack forced its way through but only enough to detonate over the intake of the engine. For a moment the engine whined to a lower tone, but quickly caught back up and powered up again.

"I'm setting an example for the next generation." Taking off once again, sparks of light formed underneath me in the dust storm below.

"I'm not the reaper."

An idea sparked in my head. Diving down into the sandstorm, lightning storms arched across the dark world below. Taking a deep breath I dove down into the storm and directly into the lightning field. Extending my paws I clenched them tight and increased the density of my barrier.

"Then what do you consider yourself then?"

Closing my eyes, I could feel the power of each bolt of lightning around me. Just as I increased my speed, a bolt of lightning struck my shield and pierced my barrier, cutting straight through me and burning my chest. But I held strong, as I felt the lightning's energy coursing within me. Soon, more and more lightning strikes struck my position, each arcing all their energy into me, but I gritted my teeth and held strong, containing the energy for as long as I could.

"I..."

The pain was unbearable, but I held strong. My body smoked, but my mind remained clear. After the storm had unleashed itself into me, my eyes opened with a new power in them.

"…am…"

Blasting up, my paws sparked with a new found energy. Blasting through the upper cloud layer, I rocketed as fast I could above the flying behemoth up before pulling back my paw and crying out into the calm morning sky.

Memories flooded in the back of my mind…

---

A young soft voice echoed. I stood on a beach head with two small Latis chewing on apples. My paw was smaller, but I reached forward and petted a young Latias on her soft head. Then a young Latios flew over and nudged me on the side of the head. His voice echoed, "Thanks Marlon, you're the best!"

Another memory flashed into my mind. This time, I floated by a bamboo window overlooking the beach side during a dark gloomy, raining afternoon. Staring out, I remembered how I thought of home, wondering, "Can I could ever go back…" Then something wrapped its arms around my neck. A low coo coming from a matured Latias rested itself on my head before nudging me on the side of my face. Turning, I could see Raid floating alongside her. "We'll follow you wherever you go!" Raid joined in and smiled, "You're our brother and we'll always be there by your side, as you have been for us!" Reaching in they both embraced me in a deep hug as a lightning bolt passed nearby, striking the ocean.

---

In a flash, my eyes adjusted themselves. Roaring in defiance, I threw my paw forward. All the electricity stored inside me released directly upward in one powerful bolt of blue lightning. With a combination of psychic energy, the resulting arc of lightning coursed through the upper atmosphere and released a low frequency explosion. The effort seemed to take everything out of me, as I fell back to earth but somehow I stayed aloft.

Turning back, the 6 engines on the ship whined and seemed to stall and fail. Similarly the amount of returning fire had been cut in half and the ship seemed to be falling forward.

"I am their friend!" My eyes narrowed and a field of energy visibly formed around me emanating a strong red glow.

Raising one paw towards the sky, I then charged straight for the airship. Closing the distance rapidly, the on board AIs failed to operate and the remaining individuals on the top deck couldn't trace their guns on me fast enough as I weaved in and out of fire disappearing at the last second amongst the chaos. Spraying my arms out wide, I charged the top deck, my wings enveloped in a bright light. One by one I rocketed towards everyone exposed on the roof.

In a show of fury, I unleashed a volley of close combat jabs, charges, head-butts, and iron wing slashes. Grabbing one man, he screamed as I threw him above the rest of the ship plummeting towards the ground. Quickly reaching his height, I twisted in air and using the momentum built up behind my wing slammed him straight back down towards another group of men. Simultaneously, I charged several energy balls of psychic energy around my paws and maw. Twisting in place, I faced the next set of soldiers and cooing a deep roar, each pulse rocketed towards their target at blinding speeds detonating in place and sending each man skidding across the top of the shiny, molded deck. Checking around, I spotted my next target and repeated my assault. This time, I lifted him up to my height slamming my paw straight into his chest while front flipping, putting energy behind my spin to form a whip from my tail feathers. This whip struck the man in the center of his back plate and slammed him down into the compartment he came from. Then, a spark came from my right eye. Looking up I could see something coming. Smiling. I took off away from the ship rapidly gaining height as the ship plummeted down into the storm. But just before it could reach the storm, the engines began to whine back to life.

Looking back several large meteor shaped golden objects were falling from the heavens above towards the ship. As they all flew past me, I raced down alongside them. Cooing one last time, my psychic barrier formed around me a similar comet shape. As we rapidly approached the ship, I concentrated on each of the ship's engines and each of the meteors accelerated ahead and broke off as if guided to the targets I had concentrated on.

After only seconds of entering the atmosphere, the meteors struck each of the ships engines with tremendous force. So much so that they punched cleanly through each engine detonating only after punching through each engine. The resulting force alone tore 3 of the forward engines away from the ship with the resulting explosion igniting the fuel in them and exploding only moments after leaving the ship, rocking the air and throwing any suspecting man off their feet.

Still on approach with the top deck of the airship I put my paws together and upon impact smashed both psychic infused paws directly into the solid bulk of steel on the upper deck. Upon impact the ship jerked downwards violently .

The ship plunged down to earth straight through the dust clouds, but rather than simply watch the crew of the ship plunge to their approaching doom, I dove down into the storm. Lowering my helmet Alecs traced the outline of the falling wreck with a green lining. Making my way down to the front of the wreck I positioned myself directly in front of the command window. Extending my left claw, they became enveloped in a purple and blue energy. Proceeding to slash through the windows the blast of sand and howling winds rushed into the compartment. Even as the ship fell, with the darkness shrouding itself behind me, I entered the room with my wings sprayed out to each of my sides.

With the limited lighting, the men on the inside were clinging to anything they could get a hold of screaming in fear as a dark figure, covered in a visible red flame, with patches of its body burned and pink, entered the cabin.

Looking across each of the bodies in the room, I could feel each of their fears. Their minds were all open to me, and I took the moment to look into each of them. Closing my eyes, their minds appeared to me as videos being played back in a dense fog. Each of them had a reason for being here. A family they were fighting to protect. A life they felt were worth fighting for.

They all felt the same.

Shaking my head, a tear escaped one of my eyes and the flame that enveloped me dissipated into nothing.

"No." Opening my eyes, I flew back outside as the wreck rapidly approached the ground.

I dove down and raced to the ground ahead of the falling ship, creating a shock wave through the sandy air as I flew. Rapidly approaching the base, I somersaulted downwards, ending pointed up as the sand underneath me moved out of the way from the pressure wave following me. Looking up at a green outline quickly growing in size, my body became outlined in a familiar pink aura. Raising both paws up, keeping my eyes closed, I felt the battered ship and using every bit of psychic energy and concentration I had left, I grabbed the ship.

Immediately upon securing the ship, the earth below me shook as the energy wave coursing through me rocked the foundation around me. Straining I concentrated. Grabbing onto the ship with as much focus as I could give - thinking to myself of all the training I'd done and applying as much as I had learned. Opening my eyes, and gritting my teeth, the green outline was right on top of me. But with each passing second appeared to slow. Soon enough the wreck was directly on top of me, but my mind had begun to lighten up. The strain disappeared and the ship was firmly in my grasp.

Flying out of the way, I raised myself back up to the shattered command window. My body was still enveloped in the same pink light that enveloped the ship. With one last bit of energy, I curled up and formed one last energy ball formed around me. As the light grew stronger and brighter, it condensed into a bright pink ball of energy. Cooing into the sky, I uncurled and the barrier expanded exponentially.

It grew for several hundred feet straight into the darkness, fading into the darkness as it grew. After a brief moment, in a world filled with darkness, a massive shock wave tore through the sandy air around me before a bright fiery red explosion faded into existence. At the same time a hole was punched through the storm revealing the baby blue sky. The hole expanded until the air surrounding me and the floating wreck cleared out almost completely.

Looking around the sky itself of darkness and the sun showed itself from the darkness, casting its warm rays like before, and seemed to smile down upon me. Turning my attention back to the wreck still firmly in my grasp, I looked through the broken glass and at each of the crew members on board. Concentrating, a wave of psychic energy flowed through the bulk of twisted metal as I opened my telepathy to everyone on board

'I'm sparing you… Not out of kindness… but because you have so much more to offer humanity than this.'

The men in the room shook in fear as they crawled back up against a corner.

'May I never see any of you like this again.'

At that I closed my eyes and turned away. The psychic field that enveloped the ship dissipated, releasing my grip and allowing gravity to make the wreck fall the remaining several feet back to earth.

In a loud clunk as the sound of metal collided with the forgiving sand below, pieces of debris sticking out from the severed section where the engines once were fell away where fires began to grow in certain areas of the ship.

Not looking back, I closed the telepathy channel and flew away from the wreck.

Looking ahead I checked the map and found a village nearby the point of impact.

Alecs was quick to see this and promptly asked. "You're not worried they will destroy the village?"

Keeping my eyes straight ahead as the storm dissipated, I cooed under my breath. "No."

The wind filled the momentary silence as I crested the sand dunes below me racing back to the base. I realigned my feathers and to any unsuspecting individual from the ground, my body disappeared completely from view. I continued flying straight, following a little yellow pointer Alecs had added to my HUD.

The radio waves had cleared and just before I could ask Alecs to contact home base, a loud high pitched cooing rang out in my helmet. It was all so sudden, I cringed at how loud it was. Alecs was quick to adjust the volume as Raid cried my name out trying to get me to respond. It seemed as though none of my earlier communications were getting through. Only this time, Raid was the one sounding concerned.

"Marlon! I need you here now! Where are you! Latias is on rampage and I can't contain her!"

Raid's voice was clearly in distress as he panted in between sentences. He seemed genuinely in trouble, but something didn't see right.

Punching it, I used the remaining bits of energy to rocket through the desert. The shock wave following me tore through the ground below while flattening the dunes beneath me. In seconds I was flying at Mach speed again watching as the distance indicator of home base quickly closed down. After moments of scraping the sand dunes with the tips of my wing while crossing the dessert at blinding speed, the dark concrete structure of Sam's home base quickly came into view. Several C-130s had already begun taking off with dozens more lining the runway.

Straining with the massive expense of energy, my mind felt weak but I gritted my teeth. The thought of the duo brought me enough strength to reach the base.

"Raid… where are you?" Upon speaking, I noticed my voice was quite coarse, but I pressed on.

"We're in the western hangar bay! Hurry! Latias isn't listening to me!" Raid's voice sounded frantic.

I was about to ask Alecs to chart a course, but an explosion to the right of my vision told me everything I needed to know. Raid was using a version of sight sharing to help me see what was going on. Latias really was on a rampage. I could see Raid calling out to her, trying to calm her down, but every time he tried Latias could look up frightened and retaliate with some attack.

Scared by what I saw, I flew straight over the hangar doors and with a blast of psychic energy, the 2 ton hangar doors creaked before being ripped from their hinges and thrown out into the dessert. Immediately after, Raid was flung from the hangar before skidding across the sand covered tarmac to a halt.

"Raid!" I yelled flying straight to him. Upon closer inspection, he looked battered and beaten, with bruises clearly visible underneath his feathers. Reaching out a paw, Raid grabbed with a strong grip and picked himself off the ground.

"Thanks. I don't know why but Latias isn't listening to me. She attacks whenever anyone gets close! Its like she doesn't even recognize me!" Raid said worried.

Thinking quickly I tapped Raid on the shoulder and launched ahead into the hangar. Upon entering, I could hear Latias scream from the opposite side. She look terrified and worn down from her efforts.

"Latias! Snap out of it! It's me Marlon!" I yelled out in the best Lati I'd spoken in a while! Her eyes weren't a focused as they normally would be and I could feel her mind was in distress.

But rather than doing as instructed, Latias cried out in fear, charging what looked like a mist ball and hurled it with extreme force. I tried deflecting it as I normally could with my paw, but this time, the attack fought back and pushed itself into me, hurling me into the wall behind me exploding upon impact.

Screaming in agony, I was running on fumes. I was losing a bit of feeling in my tail feathers, but in defiance, bit my tongue and rose the impact crater Latias's attack created. My corner became filled with a thick mist from Latias's attack, but because of a lack of control, I could still sense through it.

Closing my eyes, I could sense Raid had entered the fight again busting through another closed hangar door and in another attempt to contain our rampaging friend used his own psychic energy to encapsulate Latias in a bubble shield.

Seeing my opportunity, I vaulted through the mist cloud and with my remaining psychic energy, I infused my paw with psychic energy. Clenching, it glowed brightly. But just before I could get close enough. Latias broke Raid's shield, detonating it, sending me careening off to one side, slamming back into the cold concrete floor right up alongside Raid. Latias flew off to the other side of the hangar and was about to exit, but Raid blocked her escape with another psychic barrier. Raid reached down, keeping his eyes ahead of him, tracking Latias and trying to prevent her from doing any more damage.

Cringing in pain, I reached up and grabbed Raid's paw. "Thank for the lift." I joked, my mind in splinters.

"Don't mention it." Raid replied. "What are we going to do?! She's not thinking straight, yet she's handled both of us without too much difficulty!"

Barely off the floor, I collapsed onto Raid. Turning my head and cringing, my body yelled with pain and what I was witnessing. Thinking to myself, I tried to figure things out. Then I looked back at Latias. "She's handled both of us individually, we need to tag team this. Otherwise, I'm fresh out of ideas today."

Raid looked down to me, and nodded.

Grabbing one of my paws, he swung me around before hurling me straight at Latias. At the same time, Raid charged a short Luster Purge and fired a beam of white light at Latias. Burning the remaining cinders of my well of psychic energy, Raid dropped his barrier containing Latias just in time for his luster purge to strike her, blinding her in the resulting blast. Using the momentum I had, I raised my paw once more in attempt to deliver a knockout punch, but Latias flailed at the last minute. She charged an iron wing and this combined with her flail slammed me straight into another hangar door, denting it outwards as I fell back to the ground. I strained to look up, but from across my eye I could see Raid rushing in to deliver his strike, unaware that Latias was still flailing. Scraping the bottom of the barrel of my remaining strength, I rushed up into the air and with one last foul swoop swung my wing in front of Latias's eyes. The sudden change in light forced her to flinch. Immediately following the move up, I used my rotating momentum to throw another uppercut into Latias's lower stomach. The combined force forced her to double over, as Raid tore through the cloud of smoke from the earlier blast with a psychic hammer arm at the ready. Climbing straight to the ceiling of the hangar, Raid spun through air, using gravity and his own psychic energy to slam Latias head first back outside, through an opening in the hangar straight into a sand dune.

Raid immediately flew over to my side and was going to help me up off the ground, but I pointed straight to Latias.

"Go! She needs you more right now!"

Not questioning my request, Raid flew straight outside.

My paw fell to my side where I lay motionless on the floor. Breathing heavily, I could only think of the pain I was in. Gritting my teeth, and withholding a scream, I bit the bullet and shed tears.

Raid had come back in, this time with Latias unconscious on his back. He too was breathing heavily, but much lighter than I was. Floating down to the ground next to me, he gently rested Latias on the cold concrete floor.

"How… *cough* is she?" I managed.

"She's doing fine. We've trained plenty of times before and this wasn't the worst she's faced." Turning to me, he managed smile and nuzzled my head cooing happily in a low tone. "She'll be alright…"

I forced myself to raise my head and give a comforting smile over the pain stinging my mind and my irresponsible body. My world was on the verge of fading to black but I held on with some unknown strength. After smiling, my neck gave way, but Raid caught me, gently resting my head back down.

I wanted to thank him, but before I could the sound of propellers spinning and engines whining could be heard from outside the Hangar. Raid immediately took a position between Latias, me, and the unfamiliar sound. Then from one of the openings on the opposite side of the hangar, Kevin popped into view on the opposite end of the hangar.

"Hey! Over here! We're coming to help you!" Kevin yelled turning around and waving his hands as men with stretchers came into the hangar. Raid still a little tense over what happened, turned his back on the hangars and proceeded to carry Latias and I on his own. On the ground, over the gut-wrenching pain that coursed through me, I watched as a soft pink energy enveloped Latias, lifting her, and placing her body on Raid's backside. Raid then turned to me, and was going to do the same, but I slowly raised a paw instead.

Raid was a little taken back at this, but recognized what I was trying to do. He carefully grasped my paw and lifted me up. Doing so sent a feeling of a million been hornets stining me both inside and outside surging through my mind, and Raid could feel it. Shaking my head, I forced myself up, and somehow, I found myself off the floor again, if only barely. I collapsed on his shoulder, but he held me up off the floor. The men with the stretchers had finally reached us and were gesturing us onto the stretchers, but Raid used his psychic energy to move the stretchers aside.

The men stood on the side lines, dumbfounded by what they were witnessing. Before them floated three mystical creatures, physically battered, beaten, thrashed, with noticeable burns in numerous places. They were all visually in pain, yet they illustrated determination as they flew away from the stretchers and the dark corner they found themselves in, moving towards the light covered hangar opening.

Each of the soldiers exchanged looks but ultimately nodded to each other. They collapsed the stretchers walked along side us, guiding Raid and I as we made our way outside.

It was a slow and grueling process, but… foot by foot… we made it.

Once there, Kevin walked alongside us to the backside of a C-130 with its cargo bay doors opened to us. The burning sun had returned and with the added blast of the four turbofan engines blasting us with hot air, simply making it to the ramp of the plane felt like a major accomplishment. There, Aleks came down to greet us and offered similar help, but Raid pushed his way past him as he muscled Latias on his back and me clinging to his shoulder into the plane. After crossing the ramp and the remaining men had jumped on board, the plane lurched forward as the hydraulic rear bad doors raised and sealed themselves shut.

Inside, there were several mats laid out on the metal floor for us to rest on, with dozens of men an several crates lining the upper part of the plane. Raid was in no shape to complain and as soon as we reached the mats, Raid and I collapsed, hitting the floor decks with an audible "clunk".

Raid immediately blacked out and I could see the beginning of the dark tunnel, but I managed to steer clear momentarily. I strained, slowly raising my head and forcing myself to crawl closer to the duo. The surrounding men, kept their distance and could only watch as I fought my way over to Raid and Latias. Within a paws length, I laid there, my neck craned up, and my eyes barely open. My neck swayed but I managed to keep upright.

I was going to watch over them. I thought to myself. (One of us has to stay up and keep watch… and if that's me then so be it!)

Kevin and Aleks both kept their distance but placed water and food by my side as I stayed up keeping watch.

To Kevin it was a discouraging mental blow. My defiance to knock out illustrated both an unworldly amount of determination, but also my distrust in everyone around me.

This especially became apparent, when I looked directly at Kevin with my beaten, tired, but serious face.

(I'll keep watch…)

---

Dang! What the blazes! The trio definitely needed a rest after all that has happened AND YET STUBBORN MARLON HANGS TIGHT EVEN AFTER ALL HE'S JUST BEEN THROUGH! *sheds a tear*

Now if that isn't the face of defiance and a role model, then Marlon is straight out insane! Or maybe he's both!

One thing's for sure, I sincerely doubt that creepy, mysterious, flaming purple and black figure from earlier is gone forever...

Or is he? And what about that mysterious pilot?! Where'd he go? Didn't you think that was the end for him?! That would make the plot so much simpler if it was, so I'll keep the still confused individuals guessing! :)

This chapter is "exceptionally" long and definitely a step up from the last chapter. There is definitely a lot of things going on, but let me know in the comments section what you thought was interesting and any potential questions about what you think might happen next. Who knows your guess might be right... or it might not be!

Who knows! Do I know? Does Raid know? Does the spooky character from this chapter know how to give a handshake?

Find out next time on Into Reality!

As always...

I DON'T own the idea/theme of Pokémon. I DO HOWEVER own the character Marlon and Raid the Latios and their names I also own the idea and the theme/name of the Eon Squadron. It's all © by me marcturbo1. Have a nice day ;)

Here's a good question to ask yourselves... what's happened to Marlon's family? Does it play any significance to the story? What about his friends? His family? Strangers? What does it all mean?! ...*in a sinister deep voice*...Only time will tell...