Boy, I really should be doing college apps right now... hopefully I'll nail the "M" part of HYPSM (MIT 2015 anyone? ;))
Anyways, enjoy! And another trivia question: find the irl codename for the high-power weapon demonstrated in this chapter.
Chapter 19: Rods from God
The sound of metal ripping apart greeted the squad's ears as the Skarmory expertly aimed an Air Cutter straight down the middle of the factory, strafing the shipping containers they hid behind with deadly wind power. Levina, along with her other three squadmates, scattered from behind their cover before the attack sliced their metal protection cleanly into two. Rifles and pistols of all sorts spilled out, coating the ground with black metal. The Ampharos noticed Shadrach snarling as they retreated away from the weapons; she knew that he knew that trying to grab even one of them would probably result in his untimely death. They moved behind yet another steel container, knowing that there were only so many left in the compound.
"Echos, what's your status?" she heard Din speak on the radio.
The hoarse reply came from Sirius. "Situation normal: all fucked up! We need a plan, and fast!" The blue dragon had an irritated look on his face, tending to his sickly sister. She appeared to be slightly better, but her white face was still paler than usual, the circular band of red running around her forehead colored a faint pink. "And what the hell happened to him?" he added furiously. "How can a 'mon possibly be as powerful as this?"
"No idea!" Shadrach answered. The Ampharos, abjectly sick to her stomach, knew exactly why, but she didn't feel that stating it was particularly important when compared to, for example, avoiding being turned into diced meat.
Levina then snapped her head to the sound of rapid machine gun fire. Shadrach watched the grey metal 'mon flying above them, switching out an empty magazine for a fresh one in his submachine gun. She observed that as he shot upwards, all the Skarmory had to do was block the attacks with a wing, allowing none of the lead to penetrate his body. Choosing to make the attack more effective, she summoned a Thunderbolt and shooting it upwards. To her great surprise, Charlie absorbed the brunt of the blow instead of dodging, letting sparks fly everywhere as the electricity coursed through his body.
Then she realized something was wrong. The Skarmory was still flying, having shrugged off the at least one megavolt's worth of electric current. And he looked pissed.
The two made eye contact for an instant. Levina looked into the crazed, bloodshot, crimson eyes, searching for anything that would remind her of the former shy soul she liked so much. However, she averted her gaze as the steel-type cawed triumphantly, knowing exactly where to aim his next attack.
"Move!" she yelled, watching the other three scatter just before a tremendous gust of wind blew down on their position. She quickly followed, watching as the shipping container that tipped over and slammed on what was once their cover. The Ampharos was certain that she would have been little more than a puddle of blood stained on the ground had she not been more prepared.
Her earpiece continued to crackle with half-broken transmissions. "Echo Two, this is Echo Five," she heard an old yet confident voice ring. "We'll distract him from here; take advantage and fire at will!"
"Roger!" a far younger voice responded. The Latios quickly jumped behind the production conveyer belt and laid flat, trying to gain at least a moment's worth of respite before continuing the assault. The four of them each had their own task then; Siria was attempting to spark a Recover to speed her recovery, but she needed to reach a certain threshold of health before doing so. Shadrach was treating her with even more medicine from his relatively meager medic kit while Sirius and Levina spread out.
The electric-type looked at the Latios. "Thunderbolt doesn't work," she spoke into the microphone, causing a temporary look of panic to grace the latter's face.
"Say what?" the response came. "That can't be possible."
Levina now eyed the Skarmory hovering over the other side of the factory, apparently beginning to direct attacks on the RM element of the squad. "Thunderbolt won't work on him for some reason. Maybe we can status him down with Thunder Wave?" she theorized, wondering if any attacks would work on the Shadow Pokémon. "It's our best shot."
He shook his head in response, making the Ampharos' tail orb glow in frustration. "Stay here and cover me," he warned before leaping out from behind the conveyer belt into the air. Levina dropped her jaw for a moment, not believing that Sirius actually was daring to do one on one combat even after witnessing the steel-type's immense power. Well, maybe close quarter combat would work, a voice nagged at her. She watched the blue figure anxiously, not knowing which side to cheer for. On one hand, if Sirius wasn't successful, then they would probably all end up dead. But if he did end the battle here, then that would mean….
The Latios rocketed towards Charlie, who was busy pinning down the other team with destructive blasts of air. He charged a Hidden Power Fire in one of his claws and rammed it straight into the Skarmory's back, hearing the metallic sheen begin to melt and boil against the high temperature of the fireball. The cherry-red metal than disappeared from below him as the other 'mon snarled, not displaying even a remote sense of pain, and turned to face his new enemy.
Sirius was prepared for the very predictable movement, and swung a Dragon Claw at the steel-type's face in an attempt to deprive him of his more basic senses. His claw met more raw steel, though, as the dragon jerked his arm back from the rearing Skarmory and nearly avoided being dismembered by the blade on the latter's head. The other 'mon saw the hesitance and alarm in the movement, and judged it a wise time to launch an attack of his own. Screaming a shrill caw, Charlie swung the blunt side of one of his wings at the Latios' body.
The Latios raised himself several feet in the air and dodged to avoid the potentially deadly blow. He swung a double roundhouse kick at the Skarmory's face, clipping the steel-type's face with a toed boot on the first but firmly imprinting the sole of his other on the purplish metal on the second shot. Charlie's head snapped back, if only for an instant. Then, the maniacal Skarmory lurched forward and bit at the dragon's leg, extracting a piece of flesh and an intricate string of curse words. Distracted by the sudden taste of blood, he snapped his beak and swallowed, savoring the surprisingly tasty food he had just discovered.
The moment was enough to allow the Latios to sneak up behind him and put several thousand volts' worth of electricity into the small of the steel-type's back. Sirius continued to let the energy flow, knowing that he couldn't let up on his foe for an instant. He knew not what surreal powers possessed the 'mon's body, but he understood that they had to be contained quickly.
However, as the Skarmory began to glow red-hot from all the electricity channeled through him, the dragon hardly noticed the steel-type touch a fiery wing against his grayish, downy face. As he felt the magnitude of the heat eating away rapidly at his features, Sirius yelled and distanced himself from the monster, frantically searching for an explanation for the steel-type's resistance. Using a slight Recover to temporarily heal his wounds, the Latios went in for a second attack, charging a blue-tinged Dragon Claw. If special attacks didn't work, then the only choice left was physical.
He ducked under another bright orange wing and struck Charlie with an uppercut, dragging his claw up the steel-type's body from the stomach on. Sparks flashed as nail met metal, and the Skarmory seemed to rear for a moment. However, he then swung a heavily armored wing at the Latios, nailing him right in the side before the dragon could react.
Sirius felt as though he got hammered by a Mamoswine's Ice Shard as the sheer force of the attack knocked him straight into the ground. He bowled into an arrangement of red and green gas tanks, easily breaking through the chain-link fence that housed them separately from the rest of the factory floor. His body knocked the metal askew and evoked a series of cracks, a postscript to the message that bones were being broken. He swore he heard one of the cylinders begin to hiss madly, but the Latios was a bit more concerned with his broken state as the blackness of his vision began to recede.
Using a claw to navigate his chest, he confirmed that his right ribcage where the Skarmory slammed him was unsurprisingly broken. A quick pass over the rest of his body revealed a dislocated left shoulder and a slight hip fracture, most likely resulting from the unforgiving metal of the canisters. He swore madly as he began to use Recover to treat all of the broken areas. Many 'mon envied the ability to use a healing move, but they hardly knew how painful it was to actually piece the more heavily injured parts back together into a respectable state.
Charlie now came swooping down, planting his ivory talons on the ground and growling at the dragon. Drool dripped down from the bird's beak, leaving Sirius wondering whether the Skarmory was attacking them out of a desire to kill or eat him. Either way, the unhealthy purple dye the steel-type appeared to be bathed in unnerved him quite a bit as he tried to analyze what exactly had happened to Charlie. However, he was not granted the time to think; a nearly-solid air column came rushing down at him. Sirius scrambled to get out of the way, flying outwards and away from the homicidal Skarmory.
Looking behind him, he watched the attack rip open a few gas tanks with a nearly explosive bang, the simple metal not able to withstand the pressure the air put against it. As he began to turn away, he noticed the color of a flying piece out of a corner of his eye. It was a dull maroon red, giving him somewhat of a hint of what the tank contained.
If it's acetylene, then… Sirius rapidly thought, wondering how far the welding gas could disperse in the fraction of a second after its release. But I don't have a spark lighter….
Are you crazy? another voice intrusively butted in. It was unmistakably Siria, who must have been somewhat roused by Sirius' medicine. Why don't you think with your head for once? You don't need a spark lighter to combust it, just fire of any kind! What the hell did they teach you in shop anyways? Seriously. And yes, it's acetylene. Have you seen what kind of facility this is? That's right, it's a car factory. Arceus, why don't you ever….
Paying little attention to the ranting dragon, the Latios charged a particularly unstable Hidden Power Fire in his hand, flicking the tiny sphere outwards at the emerging Skarmory. It sparked and fizzled in its flight.
Sirius knew that the attack was a resounding success when a glaring white light filled his vision. All of the acetylene in the air combusted, sending a giant shock wave pealing through the factory. The Latios tumbled in the air as the compressed air nailed him straight in the face. Windows cracked and shattered under the pressure as the remaining gas tanks began to cook in the flaming remnants of the explosion, heating to a level that any normal 'mon would be very uncomfortable with. One of the gas cylinders, which the Latios later judged to be a defective one, exploded prematurely and rapidly cartwheeled in the air, nestling its giant mass straight into the escaping Skarmory's back.
Even the steel-type couldn't resist the sheer force of two hundred pounds of solid steel slamming into him. The strident sound of metal scratching against metal attracted Sirius' immediate attention as Charlie hit the floor hard, steel gas tank gratuitously rolling over the Skarmory's melted head onto the concrete to finish burning off somewhere else. Very scared about what similar fate he could share with his adversary, Sirius flew back to his original location where he first attacked from. He ducked as another flaming tank narrowly grazed his head, causing him to eye the fire nervously. He summoned another Rain Dance to douse the flames, still not willing to experience the humiliation of looking like a water sprinkler by using a Surf attack instead.
As the remaining fires began to hiss angrily from the suffocating liquid, the Latios looked at the Ampharos beside him. He grinned at her facial expression, what he would be best describe as a cross between "What the hell did I just watch?" and "You stupid son of a bitch."
"Really?" she condescendingly asked, reinforcing Sirius' interpretation. "You chose to ignite the acetylene? You realize that you would've been dead if you waited a second more, right?"
"I do now." Sirius chuckled nervously, now beginning to understand the great risk of the move he had done. Her sister, now able to stand on her own, glared at him for the casual statement. "But it was worth it. It looks like we got him down," he hurriedly rectified, drawing a sigh from the Latias.
"I wish we did, I really do," she responded, gazing out at the Skarmory's body. It appeared to be a completely jumbled mess, with pieces of metal and steel sticking out at odd angles. Gone was the threatening glow from his eyes; the remaining sockets stared lifelessly at the Special Forces 'mon.
Shadrach narrowed his eyes. "Siria, what are you talking about? Look at him. He had a gas canister propel into him at nearly a hundred and fifty miles an hour and mangle his body beyond recognition. How could he not be dead?" he questioned, logically processes running haywire in his mind.
"Long story, as well as a state secret…" the Latias muttered, just aware of the fact that she divulged a supposedly top secret piece of information.
Right as Shadrach was about to ask her even further, a slight whitish radiance attracted their attention. "What's happening?" Nuwai innocently asked over the radio. "We're stuck in a debris field, so we can't give support right now. I'm the only one still with a functional radio," she added.
Sirius, Levina, and Shadrach all watched, transfixed by the transformative developments the Skarmory underwent. His legs, which were seated a couple of feet into his body, retracted into their original positions as his wings unbent themselves from a ninety-degree angle to their original configuration. A stump where his right arm had once been slowly regenerated as small bright particles assembled themselves into a resemblance of the appendage, leaving much about the law of conservation of mass to be questioned. The head, grotesquely deformed with mouth and eyes gouged and steel headfin bent sideways and melted into his scalp, regenerated and reformed themselves into the original devilish visage they had first witnessed. His red-stained eyes flickered to life and stared ominously at the spectators.
"Arceus," the Umbreon among them said, completely at a loss for words. Siria bowed her head sagaciously, already knowing the regenerative features of Shadow on a very intimate and terrifying level.
"So that's Shadow," Levina commented breathlessly, watching as the figure ascend into the air. "Amazing."
Sirius grimaced. "Amazingly bad. And we have to kill this thing?"
"Yeah, we have to. Let's go," the Ampharos replied, hardly believing the words that came out of her mouth. She was talking about killing Charlie, right? Right?
Pragmatism warred with idealism; she knew that the beast had to be killed at all costs, but a small element of her argued that even a tiny smidgen of the 'mon she knew still existed within the purple, hideous being.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the Latias behind them. Siria rubbed the spot between her eyes, trying to concentrate. "It won't be easy to do, though…. He took special attacks and physical attacks without flinching, despite the fact that they would have destroyed a normal 'mon's life ten times over. So that leaves only status," she concluded. And possibly…. Siria shook her head at the thought of a particularly classified weapon. "It'll take a tremendous amount of strength to kill him. That much is certain."
"Right, so status." The Latios nodded warily, charging a faint but conductive electrical pulse in his claws as he closed his eyes in concentration. Levina followed his lead, doing the same and warming up a Thunder Wave.
1, 2… she suddenly heard in her mind. She jerked her head upwards at Sirius, looking for an answer to this rude and… impossible intrusion? It was no small secret that he possessed incredibly subpar psychic abilities, even up the point of not being able to telepathically communicate with anyone but his sister. What, then, could possess him to open communications such as this right now? What enabled him to?
…3! she heard hardly a moment later. Suddenly aware of the bright, sparking mass in her hands, she aimed it at Charlie's back, syncing with with Sirius' similar motion. The dual electric beams merged into a large, warm, yellow charge. However, the Ampharos was more than aware that its seemingly innocent and harmless exterior would cause much nerve damage to anything that happened to be in its trajectory.
The combined Thunder Wave attack washed over the distracted Skarmory, basking him in a bright yellow light. As Levina averted her eyes slightly to avoid getting her retinas burned out, the metal bird began to flap more lightly as the electricity began to overpower whatever nervous control he had. Unlike the previous Thunderbolt, the Thunder Wave made its way into every nerve, every synapse, and every dendrite it could find, completely disabling motor function. It appeared to work, as Charlie slowly stopped flapping and spiraled into the ground once again. A plume of dust and metal arose from between the two isolated fireteams, indicating that the Skarmory had at least temporarily given up in his efforts to murder the members of Alpha Team.
Levina saw a flash of green appear behind a giant wooden crate, widening her eyes as Jul lashed out at the immobilized steel-type with an arm-blade. To her immense astonishment, the crazed Leafeon was actually successful in landing the surgically sharp blade, slicing a clean cut through the Skarmory's thin, striated neck and drawing a gush of blood from the wound. Charlie gave no noticeable resistance, simply lying there and continuing to let the grass-type cut at his body. Jul took this liberty to heart, attacking frenziedly the arms, the wings, the stomach, the chest, the face, the eyes, the mouth, and any other noticeable bodily feature.
As she saw a lifeless beak bounce at her feet, the Ampharos began to feel queasy at the amount of blood being drawn from the body, adding to her quickly piling doubts about whether Jul should have actually been admitted as an indigenous troop in the first place. That emotion was trumped by the greater fear that Skarmory still possessed newfound regenerative abilities.
"Jul? The fuck are you doing? Get back here!" she heard Din scream dimly from behind the debris. "Jul! Jul! Brother!" The Leafeon gave no heed to his Vaporeon sibling, though, and continued hacking away at the limp body. Blood was no longer gushing out in torrents but merely a steady stream, due not to the lack of orifices but rather the fact that there was little more of the oxygenated liquid to be expended. Levina saw him flash a look that was between utter glee and absolute outrage before he turned away, letting a splatter of blood paint his tan cheek as he lanced one of Charlie's elongated claws, disembodying it from the wrist down. The metal clattered loudly on the ground, curiously turning back to a dullish gray.
As the Leafeon cackled and prepared to dole out another strike, he suddenly choked up a bit as a talon sliced a slit in his leafy tail. Pained and angry, Jul stiffened it into a Leaf Blade, swinging it down at the Skarmory's body. It then occurred to him that the only 'mon able to injure him was one in his very close vicinity: namely, Charlie. Jul leaped back and crouched into a fighting stance, far more wary of the enemy's capabilities. He breathed heavily as beads of sweat trailed down the sides of his head, dripping off at the end of his angular jaw.
To his disbelief, the mutated body actually stood, its two profusely bleeding legs supporting the monstrous metal hull sliced and incised by Jul's attacks. Then, in front of his eyes, the same process as before occurred: the cuts sealed themselves seamlessly as the neck, where Charlie's head used to be, gave rise to a whole new head in a bizarre dim white light. Seemingly paralyzed by the spectacle, the Leafeon hesitated in his attack, instead watching with absolute anger and disbelief. As the Skarmory turned and glared at him, Jul unconsciously took a step back, hearing his boot squelch as his foot ushered blood out onto the ground.
Then Charlie attacked, shrilly crying while leaping into the air. He tucked in his arms as his vision zeroed in on the leafy figure below him, subconsciously wondering how good a plant 'mon would taste in comparison to a dragon. As the metal body came screaming down, Jul flattened himself on the ground, narrowly avoiding the Skarmory's razor-sharp maw by mere inches. He then whipped his tail at the underbelly of the beast, watching as the contact of chloroplast blade and steel surface created several arcs of lights and flashes. He pressed his paws to the floor to right himself, and searched the air for where his enemy could have gone.
Sensing a presence behind him, the Leafeon turned around and noticed Charlie's frame behind him. The bladed claws were raised, positioned to come down and shred him into slices. Jul began to stamp his foot on the ground, about to initiate a most-likely futile attempt to escape. As the Skarmory's banded arm continued to descend, the "most-likely" turned into a "definitely." He scowled in defiance, readying an arm-blade in preparation. If he was going to go down, he was going to go swinging, not cowering at the sight of his damnation.
Jul's roar died his mouth, instead subsiding to surprise as the Skarmory's figure appeared to move slowly, as if it were in molasses. A faint orangish glow surrounded the claws as Siria projected as much psychic restraint as she could on the steel-type. MOVE, DAMMIT! she cried in his mind. The Leafeon wisely chose to heed the decision, slipping away to the Halcyian 'mons' location as the Latias released her force. Charlie scored the ground with four inch deep incisions as he raked the concrete with his claws. He then got knocked back and paralyzed by another set of Thunder Waves, courtesy of Sirius and Levina.
The Latias saw the grass-type round the corner behind their shipping container, still looking as stolid as the day he first arrived. This did not please Shadrach, who hardly enjoyed when subordinates flagrantly disobeyed orders. "The FUCK were you doing?" Shadrach exploded at the blood-soaked Jul. "Do you REALIZE what bullshit this is? What is your FUCKING PROBLEM? You could have gotten everybody KILLED, for Arceus' sake!"
Enough, Shadrach, Siria admonished. Later, but not now.
The Umbreon growled, letting his rings glow an ominous yellow. "You will be properly reprimanded later instead of now. Be thankful for Siria."
"I figured something out, but we need to be in full synch with the other group," the aforementioned Latias announced, completely disregarding the tension in the air. "Shadrach, do you remember EON?"
"Yes, I do, but what…" he trailed off. "Are you serious?"
She nodded gravely. "If you analyze it, you'll find that he regenerates because his body still remains in a configurable form. But what if that wasn't so?"
"So we need to vaporize him. With EON," the Umbreon replied with a deadpan expression.
"Can you think of anything else?"
He launched into his explanation. "Do you even realize the political implications of using EON? No one even knows that we have a… 'kinetic bombardment platform.' I'm surprised that you have clearance for it." He avoided using the more colloquial and recognized term, "orbital weapons platform."
"Well, I don't actually, but that's besides the point…."
Sirius' curiosity got the better of him as he watched the two bicker. "EON?" he inquired, wing quivering slightly.
"Energy Ordnance Network," she hurriedly said. "Anyways-"
"Hold up. What?"
The Latias angrily wheeled on her gray-furred brother, a little more than impatient. "Think ballistic launcher. KEW system, tungsten rod, all of that. Anyways-"
"Hold up. What?"
"Arceus-dammit," she muttered. "Levina, care to explain it to him while Shadrach and I get a plan worked out?"
"Right." The Ampharos rolled her eyes, scratching her striped neck. "Ok, Sirius, see, KEW stands for 'kinetic energy weapon,'" she began, eyeing Jul unkindly. She motioned for the Latios to move a bit further away from the grass-type. "I don't know what the 'EON' stuff they're talking about is, but KEW usually uses the mass of the object to destroy stuff instead of an explosive charge." Sirius nodded, absorbing the information. "Think about it like bullets, but bigger. Like, a tank gun is simply a huge rifle shooting bullets out, unless it's an high explosive one. The small explosion at the receiving end is made by the speed the projectile hits the material at."
"Mmm… that makes sense," he responded, holding a blue-tinged hand to his muzzle. "But we don't happen to have anything like that on us?"
"My question too. I'm guessing that from what they've said, it's a prototype rail gun or something."
However, her musings were cut short by an outburst from Siria. "Shadrach, look at that thing!" She jerked her finger at the purple Skarmory. "We don't have a choice!"
"Right, so we'll win, but we'll cost the state enough points in the international forum to become ostracized by others," he countered.
"You don't understand Shadow! Do you even realize the potential that Skarmory has? If we retreat and leave him alive, he'll make short work of whatever Halcyian units come through here and make all of our operations impossible! Look at how much trouble we're having. For Arceus' sake, we're an elite unit!"
"Who cares about what Shadow is! They could be Pokémon steroids, for all I know. Retreating and then attacking at a different instance is the best solution."
"What?" Siria interjected, heating up in anger. "Yes, that works. Because we'll end up using EON to nail our own location instead of right here, killing a lot more of ours than necessary! Do you even- ugh!" She lost her train of thought, the memories of her encounter with the Glaceon in the woods compounding with her top secret compact with Colonel Lynch.
"If you look at it logically, this is nothing compared to the political fallout letting everybody know that we have a space weapon will bring!" His next sentence caught in his throat as he realized the words that he had blurted. His mouth formed a small "o" as he looked at the three observers.
"Space…"
"…weapon?" Levina finished Sirius' question. "We have an orbital weapons platform?"
"Well, fuck." The Umbreon spat, glaring at them with bright red eyes. "Yeah, we have a kinetic bombardment system. Don't look too surprised. But anyways, there has to be another option! There's no need to use such force!"
Time seemed to slow as Siria stood up and slapped Shadrach clean across the face. Even the unemotional Jul seemed to start at the loud sound the action created. "Listen," she whispered as the Umbreon pawed at his slowly reddening cheek. "Hardly a month ago, I almost got raped by a Glaceon. Remember?" He nodded slowly. "You know that it takes a lot to overpower a Special Force's 'mon, especially an above-average species like me. Would you like to know how he was able to do it?" she continued.
"Shadow. That's it. He was a Shadow Pokémon, and overcame me despite my resistance. My ally had to sacrifice himself to save me. He killed the Glaceon, pulverized him to an unrecognizable form so that he couldn't come back. Shadow 'mon have incredibly dangerous potential. You said something about logic earlier. Sadly, logic no longer applies here. I think you know that after you saw Charlie recover so quickly. Someone is improving the formula; this Shadow Pokémon is even more powerful than the Glaceon I fought. We must employ all of our resources, no matter how weak or strong, to defeat him."
"Shadow, as I understand it, transcends all barriers imaginable. Yes, even our precious political norms that we 'have' to abide to. It goes beyond even the laws nature set forth for us to obey. Now, what if all of the Tamsus insurgents were to obtain this formula and use it on themselves? If you approach it from this angle, can you see why I am so quick to suggest EON?" She sighed and ran her hand through her black hair, eyes cast downwards in thought.
Shadrach softened his eyes at the Latias, not knowing what exactly what emotions she was going through but being completely able to sympathize. "I see," he said quietly, humbled by her monlogue. "And I understand, too. Though I demand a fuller explanation when we get back to base." He put extra emphasis in his last sentence, disclosing a small hint of optimism.
"Right," she said, nodding her head. "Shadrach, tell Siria and Levina the plan. I'll try to raise the other team. And Jul," she warned, looking severely at him. "Don't interfere, or you will pay." The grass-type glared at her, but made no movement.
As the Umbreon began to conference with the other too, she began her own communications. "Alright, Echo Four, can you read me?" she queried on her mike.
"Yeah, Echo One. We're taking lots of fire though," a young voice responded. "We need first aid. Some of us are injured."
Siria grimaced at the complication, knowing that her request would make her look even more like a selfish asshole. "We'll get that to your location," she promised. "Are you all mobile?"
"Luckily, yeah."
As she scanned the upper level of the factory for catwalks, she began to watch her plan play out in her mind. "Nuwai, get me Echo Seven, over."
The Latias heard a slight rustling sound before a deep, "Yes?" filled her ears.
"How powerful are your Aura Sphere attacks?" she asked bluntly, watching Jul out of the corner of one eye.
"Depends on what you want me to do," Ward responded.
"Look up and find the first walkway ahead of your position."
She heard a slight pause before he responded. "I see it. What about it?"
"Can you drop it in one shot? I need a slice through one of its main segments."
"Hmm…. If I charge two at once, I can, yes."
Siria inhaled slightly. "Alright. Here's the plan, and don't interrupt until I finish. Sirius is going to draw Charlie out into the open and under the catwalk. When the time is right, Levina is going to plant and detonate explosives on the side of the walkway opposite of yours. Your objective is to break it at the same time she does, effectively trapping the Skarmory under it for a moment. Then, when I say run, run. Don't think about it; just run."
"I understand. But what would this 'right time' you mention be?"
"Classified, sorry. I'll tell you when it's a go."
"Roger." The Latias thought she heard Ward mutter something about confidentiality before closing communications, but thought little of it. She then looked over at Shadrach, who gave her a nod.
"Levina, when is the paralysis going to subside?" she asked of the yellow 'mon.
She replied, "Fifteen more seconds," watching the body somberly as she gave the answer. Siria looked away and sighed, wanting to comfort the Ampharos but not being able to at the moment. She had a far more important task to carry out: actually getting EON online and running. Even though it constantly orbited the planet, it had only been used once in a secretive testing demonstration. The only earthly connection to the system was through an intranet via satellite.
The Latias closed her eyes and focused, trying to reach a single entity far back in the Drake Mountains. She had met him in passing in her first days there, and had later been able to gain some sort of friendship with him.
Sai. SAI! she messaged, yelling as loud as her psychic voice allowed her to.
Thefuckiamsowasted - What the hell was that? the Latias heard him process.
Sai, this is Siria. I need you to do something for me. Think your responses and I'll pick them up.
Who? Oh Siria, hi. Sorry about my state; I'm kinda Zapdos'd right now. She inwardly groaned at his announcement, knowing that what she was about to ask him to do required much precision.
Sai, listen. I need something important of you. Are you in the servers right now?
HDARMYD Listing: fearow.127. Sever time: 03:31. Intranet IP: 2620:0:2d0:200::10, he responded, switching over to an automated script that supplied more than enough information than the Latias needed.
Right. Anyways, I need a certain address accessed and some system files altered. Ready?
She could virtually hear the Porygon click and whir before he said, Yeah, send it my way.
2001:db8:1f70::999:de8:7648:6e8, she recited, using her eidetic memory to recall the string from a particularly sensitive data document. A flurry of moment to her side distracted her for a moment; Siria saw her brother jump on top of the container and fly, blue wings on the lower part of his back fully extended. Levina stole to the left, going for the nearest ladder to the catwalk.
She was pulled back into her conversation with Sai when he queried, I need a password.
Username: dcommand; Password: a3aswa9u3e2abr3br3matefe3.
It's asking for a second one. And that's a pretty random password, even by our standards. Not to mention that dcommand's a login that's only accessible to colonels and higher…?
Username: hdarmysf; Password: be5awemaJuxevepephanaphey.
A third one. Really, what the hell is this? Now we're in general territory. How do you know all of this? Or do I not want to know?
Siria frowned, knowing that she would be in for a lot of questioning and interrogation after she relayed the last password. …username: aalem; password: …iyafibrtbmiv.
Hold on. aalem? The General A. Alem?
Yes.
Yeah, no. You're basically asking me to impersonate one of our highest-ranking generals and do something that's probably volatile as hell. You do know that, right?
Yes.
You're crazy. There's no way in hell I'm doing this.
Listen, the Latias started, snarling in real life. Do you want the truth? Fine. My squad and I are two minutes from being blown away by Tamsus insurgents, and there is no way that we can function without this system online. If you do not comply, I will die, come back as a ghost, take temporary control of Axe's brain, trap you inside a computer, take you outside, put fifty caliber rounds through the computer, and then leave his body as you emerge screaming. Then I will eviscerate you, Dragon Claw you in areas you thought impossible, summon every bad dream you had in your mind since birth, fry every nerve in your body with psychic power, beat you to within an inch of your life, and then use Wish and recover all of your wounds. I will repeat the actions over and over because a dead 'mon has nothing better to do, and stop only when I feel like it. Is that a deal? Siria felt a guilty pleasure run through her as she saw Sai visualizing each step, knowing that few, if any, 'mon could resist her rather empty threat.
Uhh… 'mon that's a tough decision. Do I either spoof my IP and access the protocol or die a hellish death…? I think I'll choose the first, thank you very much.
Good choice. Enter the login information; time is scarce.
Alright, it's going through… whoa, what? Siria, what is this location? I've never seen anything like it before. EON system 53901? There's some sort of dot revolving around a ball…?
Siria tensely replied, Oh, that. It's a new satellite service the military's testing. Anyways, can you compare that satellite's position to [-82.21441, -114.78516]? There's a calculator somewhere on there.
Hmm… says one minute, five seconds, and counting. The Latias blinked at the small number, figuring that Sirius needed to hold off the rampant Skarmory for that amount of time.
Alright. There's another thing I want you to do. At the lower right, do you see a series of boxes marked one to twenty-four? The first one should have an 'X' by it.
…yeah, I see it.
Alright. When that timer reaches zero, mark boxes two to five as 'X' and click 'deploy,' she further instructed.
Sai seemed to comply with her command. Ok, I can do that. But what is this for, anyways? What's being deployed?
Uhh… booster rockets. To realign the satellite in orbit, Siria hastily lied.
Sure. And I'm not doing something completely illicit for you. But whatever. You owe me big time for this later, you know, he added.
Thanks. I'll get you a drink at the bar tomorrow. How about that?
Fuck you.
Siria smirked slightly at the Porygon's response before remembering where she was. The seconds remaining before Sai made the changes seemed to pass by like molasses as she watched Sirius dance on the ground under the catwalk she targeted. Siria, how much longer? the stressed Latios asked, sweat matting the grayish down on his face.
Just a few more seconds… few more seconds… The red dragon mentally counted the time; the metal needed at least seven seconds to fall and entrap the Skarmory underneath it. As the time continued to wind downwards, she heard a cry of pain come from her brother. She saw him stumble and fall as the crazed steel-type towered over him, using a forked tongue to lick his beak.
In a sudden, unbidden act, she jumped upwards and sped into the scene. Ward, NOW! she communicated as she set her vision on the grounded Latios. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw two bright blue spheres flew upwards at the catwalk, daring to disjoint the metal pathway with a one-two strike. Siria put more speed into her flight, knowing that she had only moments to grab her brother out of there before Charlie would have an early breakfast.
She grabbed the Latios at the hips, feeling the rough fabric of the fatigues she grasped at. The Latias simultaneously heard a shredding, melting sound, and concluded that the first of the two Aura Spheres struck the catwalk. Levina, NOW! she additionally relayed as she lifted off more slowly than usual, hampered by her brother's weight adding to her own.
An explosive blast joined the harsh ripping of metal as both Levina's explosives and Ward's second Aura Sphere tore through the opposite sides of the catwalk. As Siria made her narrow escape, the giant strip of metal came crashing down on the Skarmory and trapped him. The steel-type screamed and struggled to get the metal off of him; however, deprived of air power, he would take a little more time in his efforts.
…2, 1, 0! the Latias thought. Sai, confirm the data.
Gotcha, she heard him think.
"Everybody!" Siria yelled on both her mike and in her squads' minds. "Get out! Doesn't matter where. Just get OUT!" The dragon hugged her brother tightly to her body and rocketed out one of the broken windows of the facility, watching as several figures on the ground began to filter out of the factory.
High above the planet's surface, a large satellite twinkled as its metal caught some unfiltered rays of sunlight. Its construction consisted of a main, hexagonal body with a series of exactly twenty-four holes at one flat end and an antennae construction at the tip of the other more focused one. The solar panels were simply attached to the sides of the vessel, as if they were an afterthought rather than an integral part of the design. However, they were the most important aspect of the satellite, supplying power to the communications systems that connected it with the Halycian Defense's network.
The complex machine sighed slightly as several simultaneous bursts of compressed gas shoved four tungsten rods out of their respective holes. The fifteen-foot long lengths slowly (as slowly as objects orbiting at five miles a second could) succumbed to the gravitational pull of the planet, and began to fall from orbit into the atmosphere.
The rods began to fall faster and faster, quickly breaking the sound barrier and entering the highest levels of the navy-hued atmosphere. Several guidance fins popped out from each module, making sure that the weapons would remain as on-target as possible. The coned noses of the rods began to glow red-hot, skipping the normal chemical change from solid to gas and converting right to plasma as the sheer friction heat they encountered rose to a mild three thousand degrees Fahrenheit.
The tungsten rods now screamed downwards, reaching and easily breaking Mach Nine. At their velocity, they easily crossed the distance between them and their target in mere seconds. The clouds wore new holes as the rods that pierced them honed in on the rough steel roof of the factory.
On a hill overlooking the factory, nine Special Forces 'mon watched as four fiery arrows descended from the heavens, illuminating the night sky with a bright white. Levina observed their flight and watched them slice effortlessly through the top of the factory. Then, four giant explosions rocked the entire city as the tungsten transferred their kinetic energy straight into what she presumed to be Charlie's body, impacting him with the force of a meteorite strike four times over. Unable to withstand the sheer brunt of the collisions, the walls of the factory crumbled and caved in. The entire facility collapsed in a giant roar, releasing a giant plume of dust into the air.
Sirius let out a low whistle as the resultant wind whipped through his spiky hair. "So, that's EON, huh? More like rods from God, if you ask me. I would not want to be in the way if Arceus was that pissed." Levina only frowned at his comment, wondering if even an atom of what used to be Charlie remained. As she stared at the roaring fire, her doubts began to pile considerably.
"An amazing show of power," Talal commended. "I hope that Tamsus truly understands what it's now dealing with."
An Umbreon groaned in response, putting a paw to his face. "This is going to be on so many news channels… the last thing we need others to think is that we're a war-crazy nation with a few WMD-ish space weapons."
"But it was necessary." Siria sat down with a leg propped up. "Could you imagine what would have happened if we let Charlie run amuck in here and take Tamsus' agenda up to the Drakes? The casualties would have been enormous."
"What happened to that Skarmory, anyways?" Din asked. "I don't think I've ever seen a Pokémon that powerful before."
"I'll explain later, if I'm allowed to," she responded airily, remembering the forms she signed. The Latias had already broken the contract earlier, but she knew that her squadmates would most likely never reveal the details of what she had said. "But we still need to recover Charlie's body, and the extraction helicopter comes in a few minutes."
"We'll do a quick fly-over. You guys stay put," Sirius complemented.
"Hold on." Levina stood up. "Could either of you take me there…?" She looked down, not knowing what else to say. Her mind was a vortex of thoughts, containing a little bit of What happened to Charlie? mixed in with a healthy dose of Is there a chance he survived? and a sprinkle of What if he's still alive, and pissed?
As the Latias jumped into the air, Sirius held a hand out to her, silently asking her to partake in his flight abilities. Nodding slightly, she took the invitation, and inhaled sharply as the Latios gently but firmly pulled her so that her back laid parallel against him. He then wrapped his arms around the area just under her chest and leaped upwards, sparing no time in transferring her to ground zero.
Levina had to suck in her gut to avoid the feeling of her heart plummeting straight into her stomach. She looked downwards at her body, noticing for the first time that the Latios' arms were strange formations: on an arm where his fatigues had been ripped off, she noted that the upper part was a pale gray, just like the majority of his face, while the blue forearm was a bit widened, small point arising where it lapsed over the forearm. A five-digit hand arose from the end of the unusual forearm, seemingly innocent but able to turn into claws whenever the dragon deemed it necessary.
The Ampharos shook her head at her observations, feeling the wind whip her feathered hair against her face. For Arceus' sake, it was only an arm!
She watched as the buildings passed under her, and exhaled sharply as the Latios gripped her even more tightly to him. Under normal circumstances, she would have reared in anger and given him a punch or five, but she found, much to her dismay, that she didn't have either the energy or the will to follow through on the action. Sirius noticed none of her confusion, though, and continued to concentrate on getting to the factory in one piece.
By then they had arrived at the impact site. Sirius hovered to the ground and let go of the electric-type, fully expecting her to begin whaling on him for doing something that he was completely unaware of. However, he was surprised by an uncharastically meek, "Thank you," from the Ampharos, and cocked his head in confusion as she went and cautiously approached the large, smoldering crater where the middle of the building used to exist. Siria was already there, a little deeper into the giant recess than either of them. The Latias used a mild Surf attack, spraying a jet of water from her mouth to douse the remaining fires and remove some of the smoke obscuring their vision.
A mold of silver metal coating an inlay of concrete was all that remained. All three approached it slowly, each aware of the fact that it could suddenly reform into a Shadow 'mon and kill them all. However, as they continued to eye the former Skarmory, nothing of the sort occurred. The metallic silver simply sat there, inanimate and most definitely dead.
"So." Sirius looked around. "What do we do?"
"I guess…." His sister's voice faltered for a moment. "I guess we'll have to take this back with us." She stooped down to the concrete and breathed a Dragon Pulse on one of the metal's edges, beginning to separate the piece from the rocky surface.
Levina frowned at Charlie's remains, brown eyes glinting as embers passed before her. So. He's dead. In a single night, we torched him, eviscerated him, and drove kinetic energy rods into him from three hundred miles above. So why aren't I kneeling on the ground and weeping? Why don't I feel anything apart from tremendous remorse and some amount of sadness? True, we're conditioned to expect each other's death on a daily basis, but still….
She heard something stand beside her, and turned to look. Sirius stared solemnly at his sister's work as she lifted the foot-long concrete slab out the ground. "Levina, I…" he began, quite unsure of what to say. As he understood it, her tough exterior only hid the tremendous grief she was experiencing. The Ampharos held up a hand in a gesture to silence him, though.
"No, it's fine, Sirius. Words aren't necessary." She turned her head away from the Latios, not wanting him to see the tiny beads beginning to form at the corners of her eyes.
"Sirius," the electric-type heard Siria ask. "What about Mike's remains? Do you think they're still here?"
He looked around the rubble. The only things that remained standing were sticks of half-melted concrete rebar and hollowed-out support pillars, testaments to the sheer power the rods from God, as the Latios affably termed them, possessed. "Probably not," he said. "But you know more about EON's capabilities than I do, so I can't really say."
The Latias was about to form a response when she suddenly snapped her head and crouched. "There are reinforcements coming," she warned softly, eyes watching a small surface street snaking by the impacted structure. "We need to get going." Without ado, she grasped the concrete piece and jumped upwards, turning invisible as she darted away.
"Well," Sirius sighed, looking to the Ampharos. "Let's go." She nodded limply in response as he move behind her and hugged her tightly, extending his azure wings for flight. As they quickly ascended from the factory, Levina thought that she saw a small flash of light from below. Looking away from the hellish hulk, she instead closed her eyes, not wanting to think or care about anything. Her mental faculties had been far exceeded that night, and the faint sound of helicopter rotors was the only thing that assuaged her pained mind.
A black body hiding behind a crumbled support column arose, watching the blue-and-yellow figures retreat from the destroyed building. The Typhlosion wore a tattered white lab coat bearing the stitched lettering "den" where the heat of the tungsten rods didn't eat at through his Protect barrier. He was writing fanatically on a legal pad, tossing the now-inkless ballpoint pen out on the ground and snatching a new one from his breast pocket. Several similar pens littered the rubble below him, signaling just how many notes he had written during his observation.
Grinning, he clicked the pen and slid it back into his pocket, finally done with recording his analyses. The sixty or so pages on the yellow lined paper were all filled with doctor-like cursive, surprisingly neat considering how fast he had written. "Heh. That was an interesting derivative I never expected. Who knew that Halcyia actually had a functioning spacial KEW? But Shadow still didn't perform to our expectations. Charlie didn't undergo a complete transformation, and the power levels are still dearly lacking," he commented with a frown, looking down at his tan underbelly. The rods from the EON system had nearly broke the immensely powerful Protect the fire-type had used, burning through not only his coat but also his undershirt. Fortunately, the weapon had the courtesy of leaving his pants mostly intact; the olive-green mesh only bore scorch marks on the lower half.
Aiden then grinned widely. "But at least I confirmed something. Siria, Siria, Siria. Don't you know that Pokémon can disguise and obfuscate their mental signatures after a bit of practice and discipline? Hopefully you'll figure that out soon."
"Or maybe you won't. It'll work out best for our plans if that is the case."