p class="MsoNormal"strongspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;"Steel (Poke)Ball Run/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;"Chapter 24 – VS F.V. STROHEIM/span/strong/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /p
p class="MsoNormal"strongspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;":/span/strong/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" The second involvement of certain complexities involves two young men who are approximately twenty-five kilometres out from a Unovan landmark known as Tubeline Bridge./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" The Tubeline Bridge connected the westernmost part of Unova to the central part of Unova. It was somewhat famous: beautiful thing, it was. People would often remark on how big and sturdy it was. They would say it was a testament to humanity's ingenuity. Completely unmissable, even from a distance against the blurred blue of sky and sea. It was a complex tangle to steel beams in diamond-like patterns. It didn't usually see a lot of traffic, but it was known for being a part of an important trade route so those who did use it were often hefting all sorts of heavy loads./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Route Nine was on this side of the Tubeline Bridge. It tied onto Opelucid City and as a general rule, Route Nine was a gorgeously mild forested area often swept up in playful breezes and other good weather. On this side of the Tubeline Bridge was Route Eight which was tied to Icirrus City and it could be promised that any day of the week, it would be a horrid place to traverse with all its wet moors and random elevations of the mushy ground./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny and Gyro were currently speeding through marshy, swampy terrain. Route Eight was proving to its reputation by being terrible underfoot. This was both helpful and unhelpful as they were currently the targets of a hot pursuit from an unknown assailant. The way Johnny and Gyro saw it was if they were struggling then surely their mystery attacker would be to. However, all things considered for their strengths, Zebstrika and Mudsdale were fairing excellently against their contender which was a larger than average sized Gogoat./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Their enemy contender seemed to be an unusual man. He had a rectangular head and he sat proudly upon his mount's back with the straightest spine conceivable. He wore a militaristic uniform that was a jade green. Over one eye, which bugged demonically, as a result, was some sort of glass device strapped to it. He had a very grave appearance about him which manifested as a most serious determination to battle. Something Gyro and Johnny would rather avoid with cliffs - and presumably a President's chosen Trainer - somewhere so close by./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" As hooves scraped through unfortunately soft grounds, Gyro looked over his shoulder and called out to Johnny./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'That guy's Gogoat must be on steroids! It's twenty-five kilometres to the goal. He's either got some crazy technique or he's just doping! Otherwise, he wouldn't want to challenge us like this… You know? I've just decided; he must be doping! Who is this guy anyway, do you know him?'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny turned back. He analysed that man's features and tried to work out who he was from that, and from the papers he had picked up on the first day of the race. Of course, he did the latter from memory so there was potential for misinformation./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'F.V Stroheim.' Johnny was quite certain of this statement. 'He's Kalosian and he placed seventh in the First Stage. Let's let him pass, Gyro! We should avoid unnecessary conflict because it won't be good if our mounts get exhausted here. They won't make it to the goal.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'No, Johnny! We shouldn't let him get close; we don't want any strangers near us. If we can make it to the bridge, that'd be fantastic because my Valkyrie here does very well on steel!'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" That sounded all well and good, but Johnny had a bad feeling. He glanced over his shoulder. His eyes widened as Stroheim pulled a gun. The gun the likes of which he had never seen before./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Stroheim supported his forearm with his right hand. His left forearm appeared to have been lopped off once before as some sort of complex mechanization replaced his left hand. This mechanization was akin to a canon but far more complex. The inside of it began to heat up./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Shit, Gyro!' Johnny screeched. 'He's pulled some sort of weapon! He's a terrorist!'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Gyro whipped around whilst Johnny surged forward. Gyro already had two PokeBalls in his palms. They spun but he didn't even get the opportunity to launch them before Stroheim shot at him. From his weaponised gauntlet, a barrage of bullets sprayed out. A plume of orange, an explosion, and smoke burst out and hid the bullets. But the bullets proved faster: like a light infantry of soldiers, they charged in a single line./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" It was mostly the panic, at first, that caused both Gyro and Johnny to fly off their mounts. For Johnny, he was able to keep his hands tight on his reins, so he mostly slipped from his saddle. As for gyro, things were quite a bit more serious for him as the bullets Stroheim had shot found a good target in Gyro's lower midsection; about his waist or below his ribcage, perhaps./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Gyro was completely shaken from his saddle. His Mudsdale surged forward without him, right at the back of Zebstrika's tail. Gyro pounded into the ground. The bullets no doubt making holes of him but strangely enough, there was no blood. The dredges of momentum pushing him into a grey outcropping of rock./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Stroheim kept approaching. He kept shooting. Soon enough, Johnny's hands were too slick with sweat to keep holding on, so he fell with a great thud into the grass and mud. Stroheim pulled up near Gyro. He clinically assessed Gyro before deciding to shoot indiscriminately. Gyro howled in pain but there was something off about how sounded. He did sound like he was in pain but more in vein with the pain a sulky Liepard felt when it wanted its Trainer to know it had a tiny bur in its paw. In other words, Gyro just sounded over dramatic./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Stroheim raised an eyebrow. He noticed such a falsity to Gyro's tone of voice. Gyro began to pull himself up. His face screwed up: the tip of his nose curled back towards his forehead and one eye bulging as his lips pouted horrifically. He glared at Stroheim; met his eyes, unfortunately./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Y...You son of a bitch.' Gyro cursed. 'Gah! That fuckin' hurts!'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He cracked his neck and his face turned fine; no damage at all. Gyro drew in his sprawled-out legs closer to himself. In both palms, his PokeBalls spun and Stroheim came to understand what had just happened. His stern expression not unlike a gash upon his face as he also realised that he was now locked into the race's niceties of Pokémon battle. It made no difference in his opinion, he had already planned to sic his Pokémon on his enemies earlier./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Ze Spin of ze Steel PokeBalls…' he mused, an accent marred his voice - an accent completely unlike Gyro's which was flowery as compared to the iciness Stroheim spoke with. 'It has ze power to carve certain things and control certain body muscles. It looks like it can make ze skin hard enough to bounce even bullets back.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Gyro's arms were strangely gnarled; like the branches of an ancient tree. These bizarre grooves were no doubt proof of Stroheim's theory. Johnny even recognised the grooves as part of lesson number one. Gyro threw the PokeBall in his right hand forward; he allowed the one in his left-hand palm to remain as it was, spinning and keeping him safe from bullet damage. He eyed up Stroheim and was fully expectant of another barrage./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Stroheim's human hand hovered on the shell of a PokeBall. He flicked it off and it was like watching some sort of bomb roll to the ground and await its detonation timer. The PokeBall shook and tilted; the button on it flashing between silver and red as it tried to unleash whatever creature was inside of it. Gyro just hoped it would be a good match against his partner./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Stroheim shot Gyro, perhaps not taking the chance. Better to incapacitate the Trainer before the partner Pokémon can see it and take revenge; as is the way in some cases./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Fuck you!' Gyro shrieked as Stroheim shot at his arms./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" The bullet narrowly missed; perhaps off by a millimetre. It dug into the rock behind him but damn, if it didn't leave hairs on Gyro's arms singed./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Go, go, Jailbreak.' Gyro muttered; now fully pissed off./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" From his green coloured, steel PokeBall, burst a giant and most fearsome creature. His mighty Aggron took to defending him. It tipped its head backwards, its horns gleamed in the sunlight, as it let rip a terrifying growl from its hard-line jaw of steel./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" The PokeBall Stroheim had dropped fully opened. In a silver flash, his chosen Pokémon appeared. A lithe but fragile Pokémon shook free from the silver light; a Houndoom. It met Aggron's battle cry with a petrifying howl of its own as it pawed at the ground./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" This was a match-up that could go either way, but Gyro felt like he had the upper hand. Though fire could melt steel, rock could subjugate fire. His beautiful little darling Aggron also had quite the propensity for attack and defense compared to Houndoom who was like spun glass before the strengths of his Aggron. Gyro grinned, snickered confidently, which is exactly why Stroheim decided to change strategies since he was obviously at the disadvantage./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" With one barrel facing Gyro, Stroheim produced a regular old pistol and aimed it at Johnny. Johnny was covered in mud and half-crawling towards Gyro but now, he had stopped. Coincidentally, as had the mounts having realised something was wrong as their saddles were empty./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Quit with ze battle, Gyro Zeppeli… or I shoot your friend and your Pokémon.' Stroheim warned./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Though Gyro was sick to the stomach over what could go wrong, he didn't even need a second to decide. He would go through with the battle./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Jailbreak…' Gyro sighed, shrugged. 'Use Rock Tomb.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny lifted his head; eyes widened. Even Stroheim couldn't believe Stroheim's decision and it was that moment of disbelief and shock that Gyro was exactly after. After all, his Aggron for all her beauty, she was a little slow and would need the time to process and to attack./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Out of thin air, it began to rain boulders. Aggron's coarse voice filled the air as the beige boulders began to crash down over Stroheim, his mount, and his mongrel Houndoom. The boulders crushed Stroheim and his Pokémon. Their anguished cries skittering over the rough surfaces of the large rocks Aggron had summoned./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Gyro stood up, dusted himself off and flecks of mud dropped from his pants. He chortled to himself, satisfied that for all intents and purposes, he had won this battle. He recalled his Aggron and lavished praise upon his now filled PokeBall. He then whistled and his Mudsdale dopily began to plodder off towards him./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny, meanwhile, glared daggers. 'Hey!' he yelled./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Yes?'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Were you really gonna gamble my life on that?' he asked. 'And Jailbreak's? And Valkyrie's? And Slow Dancer's?'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Yes.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'You're insane.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'No. I was rightfully confident that Jailbreak would win, come on, let's get out of here.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Gyro got on the back of his Mudsdale's back. Johnny heard faint whispers of an apology for doing such a gamble in direct contradiction to what Johnny had just been told. Typical. Johnny dragged himself slightly closer to his Zebstrika and began to call it over when he got thinking too much./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'These terrorists… just what in the world is going on with them? Even if becoming Unova's first champion makes the race a symbol of victory for a nation, these assaults are too intense. Oyecomova, Stroheim, it's only a race! Pokémon aren't meant to battle like this.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Well, we'll just have to get stronger.' Gyro replied, dark and firm./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He jerked his wrist and his reins went flying upwards. Mudsdale began to trot off. Johnny glared but he let it go. He saw that in the mess of things, his canteen had come loose so he went to grab it. It was lying by the base of some nearby trees; all of them were aspens by the look of its skinny, white trunk./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny pulled himself next to it. He got a weird feeling about this place. It was quiet. There were a few reeds fencing off the tree and if he craned his neck, over the reeds, he could see a pond. It was kind of nice here. Johnny picked up his canteen by its straps and tugged it towards him. However, it didn't budge./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He came a little closer and saw that it was caught on something. There was some sort of root that he hadn't noticed earlier. It was deep in the ground so that gave it some leverage and the strap of his canteen. Something caught Johnny's eyes as though as he unlooped his canteen from the root./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" The root was exposed because it appeared to be a part of some Pokémon's den. There was a slightly hidden indent in the ground that was gaping wide. There were claw marks around. Johnny peered into the hole and he swallowed./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'That's nasty… but that's nature.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" For personal reasons, ever since he was a kid, he hated to see the carcasses of dead Pokémon; especially ones like this. It was half a carcass belonging to a Kadabra; they weren't native to the area. Its torso was stringy and most of its head had been gouged out so it's thin skull was showing through slices of pink; muscles. Johnny's stomach wretched. He wondered what sort of carnivore made this its home… and if it was coming back anytime soon./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He was about to turn back but there was something deeper still in the hole and he was a curious guy. He was careful to avoid the Kadabra as he reached into the hole. He rolled something round of it and discovered an Egg. If he had to estimate, judging by the red and charcoal black markings, this wasn't an Egg belonging to Kadabra./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" The Egg was silent and strangely cold. When Johnny inspected the bottom, he found teeth marks. This Egg was likely the owner of this den's next meal. He inhaled sharply and heard his Zebstrika draw ever closer. Still, he was jittery and nervous thanks to being harrowed by Stroheim, consequently by Gyro, and now by the discovery of the Kadabra./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He knew he shouldn't do it, but Johnny decided to take the Egg with him. It deserved a better life than being devoured by some random predator. He didn't know how much of a better life he could give it, but hey, surely seeing the world topped being eaten as a newborn. Even if it was as the subordinate of a selfish and cowardly Trainer like him. Johnny wondered what sort of Pokémon the Egg would hatch into; if it ever hatched at all./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Even with his canteen slung over his neck, hefting himself and the Egg safely towards his Zebstrika was difficult. He still managed. He got to perhaps the halfway mark of his made-up goal before yet another odd thing happened. As Johnny dragged himself through the din of mud and grass, he must have cut himself on something because from his wrist to his forearm, it prickled but not like it did when he had simply overworked the muscles. It prickled like it would if his body were reacting to his skin being opened by a blade or the similar./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny hefted himself up and set his Egg down by his lap. He twisted his arm slightly and never had he seen a more grotesque cut. Blood spurted out. His skin bulged and folded back like pages in a book./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Gyro!' he called out. 'Oi, wait for me!'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He winced at the pain. Gyro turned his head slightly. He saw Johnny writhing in the shorter grass. He clutched his left arm./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'My arm!' Johnny yelled. 'Look, argh, my arm!'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny lifted it up and extended it, but it was gone. No wounds; not even a single scratch. The blood had disappeared also./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Huh? What?' Johnny murmured./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Gyro gave him a moment to collect his thoughts since Johnny tended to not think straight when panicky. Gyro decided to try and change the topic of conversation on the off chance that it helped./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'What do you have there? I thought you just grabbing your canteen.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny turned over his hand and his veins bulged beneath his skin. His palm looked as though it had something spherical embedded inside of it. There was curious pattern inside the indentation though. It was hard to describe. It was akin to fanning leaves but closer to long, thick slats and it was vaguely arm-like. Whatever it was, it pulsed, and it sent pulses of electricity through him. It tingled inside of his nerves and even his blood. It was oddly empowering. Like he could do anything. He blinked, and it was like he could see thunder clouds on the backsides of his eyelids. He couldn't explain it./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'What is this?' Johnny yelped./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Looks like an Egg to me… I thought that might be why you adopted it.' Gyro said; having a completely different conversation to Johnny./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" At least until he got a better look at what Johnny was yelping about; at the way he stared at his own hand as though it did not belong to him./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'You yelling at me or the ground? What's going on?' Gyro asked./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny was sweating now. He was in an absolute tizzy now too, Gyro could see it in his eyes. Johnny seemed to have paled. His lips stuck out oddly like he had words stuck in his throat. He clutched his arm; around those quasi-patriotic armwarmers he wore./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'N-No.' he sputtered. His eyebrow twitched. 'There's something - there's something… it went into my hand!'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Ah, shock, Gyro thought to himself, 'I see, so you hurt yourself, where? I don't see an obvious injury.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny glared at his hand. He was certain the indention was real. The blood had been real. The splitting apart of blood, muscle, and skin had been real. He was certain. It still hurt, after all. But he couldn't work out what it was. He could do nothing but watch as the bulge in his palm flatted. His skin stretched back to normal. There were no patterns; just the wrinkly lines of his palm which had always been there./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" His right hand fell to his palm; his fingertips brushed over the shell of the Egg. It was comfortingly cold. He thought Eggs were supposed to be warm./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'I must be imagining things. I was overreacting.' Johnny both confessed and lied. 'I think it might just be fatigue since I did some weird digging around. That's how I found the Egg. I think some predator Pokémon stole it from its nest and had planned to eat it. I found it with a carcass, after all.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Ah, I see. Well, give your arm a little massage. That might fix it.' Gyro replied./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Yeah.' Johnny said, rubbing at his arm./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Well… As for the Egg, it's your responsibility. You keep it safe in this race. C'mon, let's keep going.' Gyro said./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He tugged at his reins and once more, he was trotting off./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny was about to call for his Zebstrika but it felt like he was hit by a bolt of lightning. Not in a physical sense, but a spiritual sense. He was filled with an unexplainable image. He didn't recognise the location, but he could sense that it had much gravity./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Mentally, he was taken to somewhere afar but close to home. Unova. This was a place in Unova. The image depicted a broken tower; a castle worn down by both man and 'mon. Nature and time. There were hallowed halls and broken floors. Then there was an ear-splitting roar and clouds swirled./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny was enlightened for a mere moment before it faded like clouds. The image turned to a phrase: Dragonspiral Tower./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Dragonspiral Tower was a place he was acquainted with through reputation. It was somewhat closeby. It was on the other side of Icirrus City; a touch north of the city. It was a condemned and eerie place that no one visited; not even as a joke. Now that Johnny thought about it, the Zombie Salamence was basically in that castle's shadow. He recalled now mentioning that to Gyro who had wanted to know yesterday who would build such a foreign looking, read Kalosian-looking, a castle in Unova. Johnny was unsure of why he was thinking of it now./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He shook his head and resolved to catch up with Gyro. The race was far more important than whatever had just messed with him. He had bigger and better things to worry about; like what Gyro had said. How was he going to keep this Egg safe?/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;"Chapter 24 – VS F.V. STROHEIM/span/strong/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /p
p class="MsoNormal"strongspan style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;":/span/strong/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" The second involvement of certain complexities involves two young men who are approximately twenty-five kilometres out from a Unovan landmark known as Tubeline Bridge./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" The Tubeline Bridge connected the westernmost part of Unova to the central part of Unova. It was somewhat famous: beautiful thing, it was. People would often remark on how big and sturdy it was. They would say it was a testament to humanity's ingenuity. Completely unmissable, even from a distance against the blurred blue of sky and sea. It was a complex tangle to steel beams in diamond-like patterns. It didn't usually see a lot of traffic, but it was known for being a part of an important trade route so those who did use it were often hefting all sorts of heavy loads./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Route Nine was on this side of the Tubeline Bridge. It tied onto Opelucid City and as a general rule, Route Nine was a gorgeously mild forested area often swept up in playful breezes and other good weather. On this side of the Tubeline Bridge was Route Eight which was tied to Icirrus City and it could be promised that any day of the week, it would be a horrid place to traverse with all its wet moors and random elevations of the mushy ground./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny and Gyro were currently speeding through marshy, swampy terrain. Route Eight was proving to its reputation by being terrible underfoot. This was both helpful and unhelpful as they were currently the targets of a hot pursuit from an unknown assailant. The way Johnny and Gyro saw it was if they were struggling then surely their mystery attacker would be to. However, all things considered for their strengths, Zebstrika and Mudsdale were fairing excellently against their contender which was a larger than average sized Gogoat./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Their enemy contender seemed to be an unusual man. He had a rectangular head and he sat proudly upon his mount's back with the straightest spine conceivable. He wore a militaristic uniform that was a jade green. Over one eye, which bugged demonically, as a result, was some sort of glass device strapped to it. He had a very grave appearance about him which manifested as a most serious determination to battle. Something Gyro and Johnny would rather avoid with cliffs - and presumably a President's chosen Trainer - somewhere so close by./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" As hooves scraped through unfortunately soft grounds, Gyro looked over his shoulder and called out to Johnny./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'That guy's Gogoat must be on steroids! It's twenty-five kilometres to the goal. He's either got some crazy technique or he's just doping! Otherwise, he wouldn't want to challenge us like this… You know? I've just decided; he must be doping! Who is this guy anyway, do you know him?'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny turned back. He analysed that man's features and tried to work out who he was from that, and from the papers he had picked up on the first day of the race. Of course, he did the latter from memory so there was potential for misinformation./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'F.V Stroheim.' Johnny was quite certain of this statement. 'He's Kalosian and he placed seventh in the First Stage. Let's let him pass, Gyro! We should avoid unnecessary conflict because it won't be good if our mounts get exhausted here. They won't make it to the goal.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'No, Johnny! We shouldn't let him get close; we don't want any strangers near us. If we can make it to the bridge, that'd be fantastic because my Valkyrie here does very well on steel!'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" That sounded all well and good, but Johnny had a bad feeling. He glanced over his shoulder. His eyes widened as Stroheim pulled a gun. The gun the likes of which he had never seen before./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Stroheim supported his forearm with his right hand. His left forearm appeared to have been lopped off once before as some sort of complex mechanization replaced his left hand. This mechanization was akin to a canon but far more complex. The inside of it began to heat up./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Shit, Gyro!' Johnny screeched. 'He's pulled some sort of weapon! He's a terrorist!'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Gyro whipped around whilst Johnny surged forward. Gyro already had two PokeBalls in his palms. They spun but he didn't even get the opportunity to launch them before Stroheim shot at him. From his weaponised gauntlet, a barrage of bullets sprayed out. A plume of orange, an explosion, and smoke burst out and hid the bullets. But the bullets proved faster: like a light infantry of soldiers, they charged in a single line./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" It was mostly the panic, at first, that caused both Gyro and Johnny to fly off their mounts. For Johnny, he was able to keep his hands tight on his reins, so he mostly slipped from his saddle. As for gyro, things were quite a bit more serious for him as the bullets Stroheim had shot found a good target in Gyro's lower midsection; about his waist or below his ribcage, perhaps./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Gyro was completely shaken from his saddle. His Mudsdale surged forward without him, right at the back of Zebstrika's tail. Gyro pounded into the ground. The bullets no doubt making holes of him but strangely enough, there was no blood. The dredges of momentum pushing him into a grey outcropping of rock./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Stroheim kept approaching. He kept shooting. Soon enough, Johnny's hands were too slick with sweat to keep holding on, so he fell with a great thud into the grass and mud. Stroheim pulled up near Gyro. He clinically assessed Gyro before deciding to shoot indiscriminately. Gyro howled in pain but there was something off about how sounded. He did sound like he was in pain but more in vein with the pain a sulky Liepard felt when it wanted its Trainer to know it had a tiny bur in its paw. In other words, Gyro just sounded over dramatic./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Stroheim raised an eyebrow. He noticed such a falsity to Gyro's tone of voice. Gyro began to pull himself up. His face screwed up: the tip of his nose curled back towards his forehead and one eye bulging as his lips pouted horrifically. He glared at Stroheim; met his eyes, unfortunately./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Y...You son of a bitch.' Gyro cursed. 'Gah! That fuckin' hurts!'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He cracked his neck and his face turned fine; no damage at all. Gyro drew in his sprawled-out legs closer to himself. In both palms, his PokeBalls spun and Stroheim came to understand what had just happened. His stern expression not unlike a gash upon his face as he also realised that he was now locked into the race's niceties of Pokémon battle. It made no difference in his opinion, he had already planned to sic his Pokémon on his enemies earlier./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Ze Spin of ze Steel PokeBalls…' he mused, an accent marred his voice - an accent completely unlike Gyro's which was flowery as compared to the iciness Stroheim spoke with. 'It has ze power to carve certain things and control certain body muscles. It looks like it can make ze skin hard enough to bounce even bullets back.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Gyro's arms were strangely gnarled; like the branches of an ancient tree. These bizarre grooves were no doubt proof of Stroheim's theory. Johnny even recognised the grooves as part of lesson number one. Gyro threw the PokeBall in his right hand forward; he allowed the one in his left-hand palm to remain as it was, spinning and keeping him safe from bullet damage. He eyed up Stroheim and was fully expectant of another barrage./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Stroheim's human hand hovered on the shell of a PokeBall. He flicked it off and it was like watching some sort of bomb roll to the ground and await its detonation timer. The PokeBall shook and tilted; the button on it flashing between silver and red as it tried to unleash whatever creature was inside of it. Gyro just hoped it would be a good match against his partner./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Stroheim shot Gyro, perhaps not taking the chance. Better to incapacitate the Trainer before the partner Pokémon can see it and take revenge; as is the way in some cases./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Fuck you!' Gyro shrieked as Stroheim shot at his arms./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" The bullet narrowly missed; perhaps off by a millimetre. It dug into the rock behind him but damn, if it didn't leave hairs on Gyro's arms singed./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Go, go, Jailbreak.' Gyro muttered; now fully pissed off./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" From his green coloured, steel PokeBall, burst a giant and most fearsome creature. His mighty Aggron took to defending him. It tipped its head backwards, its horns gleamed in the sunlight, as it let rip a terrifying growl from its hard-line jaw of steel./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" The PokeBall Stroheim had dropped fully opened. In a silver flash, his chosen Pokémon appeared. A lithe but fragile Pokémon shook free from the silver light; a Houndoom. It met Aggron's battle cry with a petrifying howl of its own as it pawed at the ground./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" This was a match-up that could go either way, but Gyro felt like he had the upper hand. Though fire could melt steel, rock could subjugate fire. His beautiful little darling Aggron also had quite the propensity for attack and defense compared to Houndoom who was like spun glass before the strengths of his Aggron. Gyro grinned, snickered confidently, which is exactly why Stroheim decided to change strategies since he was obviously at the disadvantage./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" With one barrel facing Gyro, Stroheim produced a regular old pistol and aimed it at Johnny. Johnny was covered in mud and half-crawling towards Gyro but now, he had stopped. Coincidentally, as had the mounts having realised something was wrong as their saddles were empty./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Quit with ze battle, Gyro Zeppeli… or I shoot your friend and your Pokémon.' Stroheim warned./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Though Gyro was sick to the stomach over what could go wrong, he didn't even need a second to decide. He would go through with the battle./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Jailbreak…' Gyro sighed, shrugged. 'Use Rock Tomb.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny lifted his head; eyes widened. Even Stroheim couldn't believe Stroheim's decision and it was that moment of disbelief and shock that Gyro was exactly after. After all, his Aggron for all her beauty, she was a little slow and would need the time to process and to attack./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Out of thin air, it began to rain boulders. Aggron's coarse voice filled the air as the beige boulders began to crash down over Stroheim, his mount, and his mongrel Houndoom. The boulders crushed Stroheim and his Pokémon. Their anguished cries skittering over the rough surfaces of the large rocks Aggron had summoned./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Gyro stood up, dusted himself off and flecks of mud dropped from his pants. He chortled to himself, satisfied that for all intents and purposes, he had won this battle. He recalled his Aggron and lavished praise upon his now filled PokeBall. He then whistled and his Mudsdale dopily began to plodder off towards him./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny, meanwhile, glared daggers. 'Hey!' he yelled./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Yes?'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Were you really gonna gamble my life on that?' he asked. 'And Jailbreak's? And Valkyrie's? And Slow Dancer's?'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Yes.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'You're insane.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'No. I was rightfully confident that Jailbreak would win, come on, let's get out of here.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Gyro got on the back of his Mudsdale's back. Johnny heard faint whispers of an apology for doing such a gamble in direct contradiction to what Johnny had just been told. Typical. Johnny dragged himself slightly closer to his Zebstrika and began to call it over when he got thinking too much./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'These terrorists… just what in the world is going on with them? Even if becoming Unova's first champion makes the race a symbol of victory for a nation, these assaults are too intense. Oyecomova, Stroheim, it's only a race! Pokémon aren't meant to battle like this.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Well, we'll just have to get stronger.' Gyro replied, dark and firm./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He jerked his wrist and his reins went flying upwards. Mudsdale began to trot off. Johnny glared but he let it go. He saw that in the mess of things, his canteen had come loose so he went to grab it. It was lying by the base of some nearby trees; all of them were aspens by the look of its skinny, white trunk./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny pulled himself next to it. He got a weird feeling about this place. It was quiet. There were a few reeds fencing off the tree and if he craned his neck, over the reeds, he could see a pond. It was kind of nice here. Johnny picked up his canteen by its straps and tugged it towards him. However, it didn't budge./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He came a little closer and saw that it was caught on something. There was some sort of root that he hadn't noticed earlier. It was deep in the ground so that gave it some leverage and the strap of his canteen. Something caught Johnny's eyes as though as he unlooped his canteen from the root./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" The root was exposed because it appeared to be a part of some Pokémon's den. There was a slightly hidden indent in the ground that was gaping wide. There were claw marks around. Johnny peered into the hole and he swallowed./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'That's nasty… but that's nature.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" For personal reasons, ever since he was a kid, he hated to see the carcasses of dead Pokémon; especially ones like this. It was half a carcass belonging to a Kadabra; they weren't native to the area. Its torso was stringy and most of its head had been gouged out so it's thin skull was showing through slices of pink; muscles. Johnny's stomach wretched. He wondered what sort of carnivore made this its home… and if it was coming back anytime soon./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He was about to turn back but there was something deeper still in the hole and he was a curious guy. He was careful to avoid the Kadabra as he reached into the hole. He rolled something round of it and discovered an Egg. If he had to estimate, judging by the red and charcoal black markings, this wasn't an Egg belonging to Kadabra./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" The Egg was silent and strangely cold. When Johnny inspected the bottom, he found teeth marks. This Egg was likely the owner of this den's next meal. He inhaled sharply and heard his Zebstrika draw ever closer. Still, he was jittery and nervous thanks to being harrowed by Stroheim, consequently by Gyro, and now by the discovery of the Kadabra./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He knew he shouldn't do it, but Johnny decided to take the Egg with him. It deserved a better life than being devoured by some random predator. He didn't know how much of a better life he could give it, but hey, surely seeing the world topped being eaten as a newborn. Even if it was as the subordinate of a selfish and cowardly Trainer like him. Johnny wondered what sort of Pokémon the Egg would hatch into; if it ever hatched at all./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Even with his canteen slung over his neck, hefting himself and the Egg safely towards his Zebstrika was difficult. He still managed. He got to perhaps the halfway mark of his made-up goal before yet another odd thing happened. As Johnny dragged himself through the din of mud and grass, he must have cut himself on something because from his wrist to his forearm, it prickled but not like it did when he had simply overworked the muscles. It prickled like it would if his body were reacting to his skin being opened by a blade or the similar./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny hefted himself up and set his Egg down by his lap. He twisted his arm slightly and never had he seen a more grotesque cut. Blood spurted out. His skin bulged and folded back like pages in a book./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Gyro!' he called out. 'Oi, wait for me!'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He winced at the pain. Gyro turned his head slightly. He saw Johnny writhing in the shorter grass. He clutched his left arm./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'My arm!' Johnny yelled. 'Look, argh, my arm!'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny lifted it up and extended it, but it was gone. No wounds; not even a single scratch. The blood had disappeared also./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Huh? What?' Johnny murmured./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Gyro gave him a moment to collect his thoughts since Johnny tended to not think straight when panicky. Gyro decided to try and change the topic of conversation on the off chance that it helped./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'What do you have there? I thought you just grabbing your canteen.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny turned over his hand and his veins bulged beneath his skin. His palm looked as though it had something spherical embedded inside of it. There was curious pattern inside the indentation though. It was hard to describe. It was akin to fanning leaves but closer to long, thick slats and it was vaguely arm-like. Whatever it was, it pulsed, and it sent pulses of electricity through him. It tingled inside of his nerves and even his blood. It was oddly empowering. Like he could do anything. He blinked, and it was like he could see thunder clouds on the backsides of his eyelids. He couldn't explain it./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'What is this?' Johnny yelped./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Looks like an Egg to me… I thought that might be why you adopted it.' Gyro said; having a completely different conversation to Johnny./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" At least until he got a better look at what Johnny was yelping about; at the way he stared at his own hand as though it did not belong to him./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'You yelling at me or the ground? What's going on?' Gyro asked./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny was sweating now. He was in an absolute tizzy now too, Gyro could see it in his eyes. Johnny seemed to have paled. His lips stuck out oddly like he had words stuck in his throat. He clutched his arm; around those quasi-patriotic armwarmers he wore./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'N-No.' he sputtered. His eyebrow twitched. 'There's something - there's something… it went into my hand!'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Ah, shock, Gyro thought to himself, 'I see, so you hurt yourself, where? I don't see an obvious injury.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny glared at his hand. He was certain the indention was real. The blood had been real. The splitting apart of blood, muscle, and skin had been real. He was certain. It still hurt, after all. But he couldn't work out what it was. He could do nothing but watch as the bulge in his palm flatted. His skin stretched back to normal. There were no patterns; just the wrinkly lines of his palm which had always been there./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" His right hand fell to his palm; his fingertips brushed over the shell of the Egg. It was comfortingly cold. He thought Eggs were supposed to be warm./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'I must be imagining things. I was overreacting.' Johnny both confessed and lied. 'I think it might just be fatigue since I did some weird digging around. That's how I found the Egg. I think some predator Pokémon stole it from its nest and had planned to eat it. I found it with a carcass, after all.'/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Ah, I see. Well, give your arm a little massage. That might fix it.' Gyro replied./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Yeah.' Johnny said, rubbing at his arm./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" 'Well… As for the Egg, it's your responsibility. You keep it safe in this race. C'mon, let's keep going.' Gyro said./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He tugged at his reins and once more, he was trotting off./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny was about to call for his Zebstrika but it felt like he was hit by a bolt of lightning. Not in a physical sense, but a spiritual sense. He was filled with an unexplainable image. He didn't recognise the location, but he could sense that it had much gravity./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Mentally, he was taken to somewhere afar but close to home. Unova. This was a place in Unova. The image depicted a broken tower; a castle worn down by both man and 'mon. Nature and time. There were hallowed halls and broken floors. Then there was an ear-splitting roar and clouds swirled./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Johnny was enlightened for a mere moment before it faded like clouds. The image turned to a phrase: Dragonspiral Tower./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Dragonspiral Tower was a place he was acquainted with through reputation. It was somewhat closeby. It was on the other side of Icirrus City; a touch north of the city. It was a condemned and eerie place that no one visited; not even as a joke. Now that Johnny thought about it, the Zombie Salamence was basically in that castle's shadow. He recalled now mentioning that to Gyro who had wanted to know yesterday who would build such a foreign looking, read Kalosian-looking, a castle in Unova. Johnny was unsure of why he was thinking of it now./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" He shook his head and resolved to catch up with Gyro. The race was far more important than whatever had just messed with him. He had bigger and better things to worry about; like what Gyro had said. How was he going to keep this Egg safe?/p