BLOOD AND GUN WARNING. THESE WILL BE MENTIONED IN THIS CHAPTER. PLEASE READ THE WHOLE AUTHORS NOTE AT THE END AS IT IS VERY IMPORTANT.

Chapter 23

June 21st, 2006

The sound of the glass shattering was nothing but music to Gary's ears. It embedded confidence and hope into both the rescuers and the ones who were captured. He smiled, once the glass shattered Lugia seemed to have energy going through it in waves, it took its eyes off of Gary and focused them on its child on the other side of Ho-Oh. Lugia let out a loud cry and its baby gave one back, equally as loud and ever more excited.

"It's so cute!" He heard Dawn say from behind him. "I love babies!" Serena began to speak with her rapidly, but quietly, on the topic of children. He laughed and shook his head at the younger girl's antics, now wasn't really the time or place.

"Just hold on." He said to Lugia who turned its steely gaze back onto him. "I'll get you out." He promised. "Guys," he turned back to the others, "Can you get out Ash and Lyra?" He asked.

"Do you want us to get the other girl too?" Paul asked.

Gary hesitated. He looked from Lugia, to Leaf and then to Paul, repeating the motion over and over again. "You—" The searing headache came rushing back and his hand instantly reached up to rub his forehead. He stared at Lugia who used one of its free fingers to motion to Leaf. "But I have to help you." He insisted, the pain ebbed away slowly but then flared back up, this time quicker. Lugia motioned to Leaf again. "Are you sure?" He asked tentatively and with one final point Lugia had made its final decision. It let out another cry which made Ho-Oh, Celebi and the child Lugia cry as well.

"Help out your friend." A calming, kind voice insisted.

"You can use telepathy?" He asked

"Yeah!" A second voice said, Gary inspected the other three legendary pokémon and saw Celebi giving him a closed eyed smile. "We can tough it out for a little while longer, we can tell how much those humans mean to you, their lives will help make you improve. Plus Lyra is needed for Ho-Oh right?" Celebi looked up at the large bird-like pokémon.

"That is correct." A third booming voice said, like Celebi and Lugia, there was no clear sound that would depict a gender in the voice.

"If they can wait so can I!" A child said, there was only one who could speak like that. "We're legendary pokémon for a reason right?" Baby Lugia reasoned. "Save them!"

Gary stared at them all and slowly nodded, he fished in his pocket, having an idea. "Nidoking!" He called and released the pokémon. "Can you help get these guys out?" He asked. "They're held by some electrical thing and since you're a ground-type I figured that you'd be fine." Nidoking looked at the four legendries, his eyes widening slightly. He nodded to Gary and approached the pokémon. Gary looked to Blastoise, "I need you to help me with Leaf, you remember her right?"

"Toise!" Blastoise exclaimed, he did remember the brunette, how could he not?

"Great," Gary said and took a deep breath, then began to walk over to her. She stared at him through the glass; he could see her emotions clearly in her hazel eyes, something that didn't happen before she was taken away from him. He clenched his fists as he took in her overall appearance. Her hair was jaggedly cut in some places like Lyra's, but not nearly as short. Bruises and cuts dusted across her body. There were smudges of dried blood all around the cell. She was barely being covered in her torn shirt and pants. He glowered. "I'm really going to kill them all." He said. "Rapid spin Blastoise." He ordered.

Blastoise gingerly touched his trainer's shoulder. "Blastoise." His pokémon said then pulled his body in his shell and began to break away at the glass.

It felt like ages to Gary as he watched her protect herself for when the glass finally broke. More and more cracks appeared on the see-through surface. He glanced over at Nidoking who was still working away at Lugia.

Shards of glass pelted the floor as Blastoise finally broke through. He could see new cuts gracing her pale, bruised skin. Despite wanting to protect himself from the glass, he raced in to her and fell on his knees, immediately pulling her into an embrace. He could feel her body shake as she let out quiet sobs. Gary could never remember a time when Leaf had cried other than at his own parent's funeral. Leaf cried for him because he wouldn't, not until he was by himself at home where he was hidden from everybody around him. Gary held onto her tightly, he didn't even know what to say. Words could not describe the emotions he was experiencing. Everything exploded inside of him. Joy, anger, sadness, love, hate.

There was a sniffle and she pulled an arm off from around him and wiped at her face. "Gary..." She said quietly. She looked up at him, face blotched red from crying but her eyes sparkled and her smile was just as dazzling. "I though just seeing Ash was enough to give me hope, but as soon as I saw you..." She sniffled and lifted a hand to wipe at her eyes again but Gary beat her to it and wiped away the tears that had spilled.

"You're going to be okay." He promised and gently caressed her cheek before pulling his hand away. "I won't let anything happen to you again." He hugged her again briefly before standing up and helping her to her feet. "We need to get out of here now. Can you run?"

There was a loud ear-splitting scream behind him. Gary whipped his hand around and stared at the new person standing, holding a captive Serena. He had blue-green hair and there was an evil sneer on his face. "Why hello," He greeted coolly. "What are you little teenagers doing here? Why are you trying to release these evil beings?" He questioned. "Do you not understand the destruction hat those three creatures caused for the whole region of Johto?" His eyes trailed from Leaf to Ash and then Lyra, "Must you free the evil human beings too? Do you really want the whole world to fall into peril?"

Gary narrowed his eyes. "Let her go." He commanded.

The man smiled and ran his fingers through Serena's bobbed locks. "I rather like her hair." He grinned. "Hair is a woman's best feature, don't you think?" He chuckled. "May I ask why I should let such a lovely young lady go?"

"Because she is not your property!" A new voice bellowed. Gary whipped his head to look at the new person. He didn't recognised them, they were standing in the shadows of the large bookcases that lined the room, all he could see was a gleam coming from where their face should be and light blue baggy pant legs. Thunders of footsteps echoed in his ears. In one swift movement, a new wave of rocket grunts appeared, each holding many pokéballs in their hands. Each pokéball got tossed into the air and the whole room was illuminated by a flash of red.

"I-I don't have any pokémon on me, they were taken..." Gary heard Leaf say. Gary shoved his hand into his pocket roughly and quickly pushed a pokéball into Leaf's hands.

"She'll listen to you, don't hesitate." Gary glanced to Blastoise and gave his pokémon a curt nod. Water barrelled out of Blastoise's cannons and the torrent of strong hydro pumps blasted the surrounding pokémon back. Paul and Dawn had both sprang into action as well. Aagron was throwing various pokémon across the room and rammed some into the ground. Paul also had Tortarra out who was using stone edge. Dawn was right next to him with Piplup, commanding him to send various bubblebeams to different pokémon.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly changed very drastically. Gary could feel sweat begin to form on his forehead and back from the heat that kept growing hotter and hotter. The humidity in the building rose and Gary started to feel exhausted. Gary commanded moves to Blastoise as he was protecting Nidoking who was still relentlessly working on freeing Lugia. While Gary called out moves, he also kept a close eye to see if he could spot the person who had bravely shouted in Serena's defence. She was still being held tightly by the man who Gary knew to be Proton; there was nobody else who it could be but him.

The pressure in the room was almost unbearable. Three large creatures caught Gary's eye and he knew why he felt so uncomfortable. In the room Clemont had appeared with the group that was outside, Cilan, May, and Sammy, along with the four newcomers. The one with long red hair made a mad dash to Gary, a pokéball enlarged as he sent out a Feraligatr. The pokémon's jaws unhinged and stretched wide, snapping at the electric cords constraining the younger Lugia. The Feraligatr was much stronger than Nidoking and after a few seconds of tugging, broke it free. At this point Nidoking had released one wing of the mother Lugia. It let out a loud cry and stared at its child that was free.

Havoc and chaos was breaking out around the large room. Things got shattered, walls were dented and there could be seen, a bright sheen of red blood that dotted the room, on walls, floors and the ceiling.

"Hydro Cannon!" Gary called to his Blastoise again. He took his chance and took a longer look around the room, seeing Paul's Aagron and Torterra working side by side with Piplup. A Charizard had grabbed a hold of flying Crobats, Golbats and Zubats. A Wigglytuff was singing pokémon to sleep as a spiky haired Pikachu attacked them right after. A Blaziken was kicking away various smaller pokémon like Rattata. A flat Stunfisk electrocuted any pokémon that had stepped on it. Gary's Nidoqueen was working spectacularly with Leaf. He could see Ash and Lyra borrowing pokémon too, Lyra was working with another Feraligatr and Ash was working with a very furious looking Slyveon. Gary didn't recognise either of the pokémon.

"Rapid spin!" Gary commanded. His eyes flicking to his battle and to the others happening in the room and then to the legendary pokémon. Celebi was now free too and Gary saw it disappear in midair. Going somewhere Gary couldn't think of.

"Freeze!" A voice ordered and the whole room stopped. Gary looked to where the shout came from and he could feel his body stop working. Proton had a malicious smirk on his face while a gun was being pointed at Serena while the other hand had one pointing at Clemont. The electric type gym leader had a Helioisk at his side and one arm was outstretched in front of him. Gary couldn't see his eyes as the glasses caught the light from a single bulb overhead. Proton laughed. "See how easy it is to follow orders? You young group of people look promising, it's a real shame that I need to kill you all... unless you chose to do what I say or this one here will be killed first." He pressed the barrel of the pistol into Serena's skin.

"What do you want?" Ash asked loudly. Proton was scanning the room with his cold gaze.

"I'm sure you know what I want, but I'll be nice and tell you anyway. Put the legendries back. Then put the protectors in a cell." He shrugged. "Sounds simple right?"

"You're not putting anybody in cells." Serena said quietly. "The protectors will save the regions that you messed up. You're not going to take anybody."

"Serena stop." Lyra said. "If it's us he wants put away, I'll go."

"No!" She shouted this time. "Don't be an idiot! Don't do as he says it's a stupid question for him to ask us! Don't give them what they want!"

"I think you're saying the stupid thing." Proton said. "Clearly you do not understand the terrifying capabilities of these creatures if they are released into the wild."

"And that's why we can't put them in your possession!" Serena growled out. Gary was taken aback. Serena was never this fierce. She was the quiet and kind girl. "We may be young but we're not as stupid as you think we are. Allowing you to handle these legendries is something that we should not do."

"Serena—" Lyra tried again.

"No!" Serena shouted again, a loud bang followed suit. Gary tensed at the sound. Though as he was expecting, Serena wasn't the one who collapsed. Clemont let out a noise as he fell and clutched onto his shin tightly, his light blue pants turned a dark purple as the blood seeped through. In a flash, Gary saw movement from behind Proton and form the front of him. Helioisk let out a loud cry, taking a step forward before sending a large parabolic charge at the Rocket executive. There was another bang and Helioisk let out a cry of pain and collapsed by his trainer.

The distraction was just enough for a person clad in black to grab Proton by the waist and slam him into the ground. It was a Rocket grunt. More Rocket members raced to their executive's aid. Boldly, Serena joined in the fray and Gary could see Ash running forwards to help too. Gary glanced back at Lugia and took the chance. "Rapid spin, brick break!" He hurried and grabbed Leaf who was close by, "Nidoqueen, return!" All three of his released pokémon raced forward and unleashed their attacks. The straps confining Lugia broke free and the super massive pokémon broke free, it screamed and smashed through the wall, causing dust and debris to fall just like the downpour outside. The sky was dark with rumbling clouds in the night sky.

So I've had an idea! I am offically making this a multi-book fanfiction because otherwise, it would be much too long to put all in one. So the first installment (The Carriers of Salvation) is almost over! There's about maybe three more chapters at a maximum and I'm trying to combine the earlier on chapters to make it seem like a lighter read, to trick some other viewers! So in total you should see around 20-30 chapters in total by next week, which means I could possibly be posting a chapter that could be called chapter 20 when it's actually chapter 29.

I hope you all have a lovely week guys and please, please vote and comment!