Misaki's description of what took place while I was battling that woman known as Agatha was in a word, horrifying.
When Misaki got everyone out of the pokemon center, the streets of Eterna were filled with heated battles between trainers and Team Reaper grunts. She joined the battling trainers once everyone else got to a building being used as a safe house for those who didn't have the courage to fight. During the intense fight, the members of Team Reaper slowly began to retreat. They were now in their HQ at the north end of Eterna City.
She heard how the battle started from one of the trainers in the streets. An army of Reaper grunts came marching into the streets telling everyone to hand over their pokemon and join Team Reaper, or suffer the consequences. Once a few trainers rebelled, Eterna City became a war zone.
The total casualties weren't tallied up. Nobody wanted to hear whatever the horrifying number was. One thing was clear: Team Reaper must be taken down. We had their HQ surrounded, ready to move in once everyone was healed. We were recruiting players for a raid party at the moment. Misaki and I decided to sign up. We were taking Team Reaper on on their home turf. We were gonna need all the help we could get. A player named Riley, the player who was the first to defy Team Reaper's orders, was elected leader of the raid team. He had jet black hair, and wore a blue and black coat and hat. His pants were as black as his hair. His main pokemon partner was an Onix.
I was elected as vice-captain of the raid group, since I was the only one who held his own against one of the admins of Team Reaper, Agatha.
"Is there anyone else that will join the raid group?" asked Riley.
"I'm in." a voice called out from the group. He walked up calmly through the crowd. His black hair and white jacket seemed very familiar to me, but I couldn't put my finger on where I had seen him before until I saw his face.
It was Ryota!
"Let's get one thing clear though. I'm not taking orders from anyone. Got it?"
"Now wait a second, you can't just..." Riley started, but I cut him off.
"Understood." I stated. "We won't order you around as long as you don't do anything to endanger the attack."
"I'm glad we understand eachother." said Ryota as he walked into the group of trainers we had assembled.
I know it probably pissed Riley off to just let Ryota do whatever he wanted, but Ryota wouldn't have joined otherwise. I understood how he felt. He didn't want any weaklings getting in his way. Besides, we needed all the skilled trainers we could get, and Ryota's skill was one of the best I've seen in PWO yet.
"Ok everyone, I'd like to thank you all for joining us in this raid." Riley started as he addressed the group of trainers we gathered. "Team Reaper's actions cannot go unpunished. We must attack and show them that they cannot do whatever they please. Now let's go and bring the fight right to the front door of those bastards!"
The crowd cheered with confidence. Well, all except for Ryota of course. Riley then went on to explain the plan.
"Ok, we're splitting up into two teams. Team 1 will include Ren, Misaki, and Ryota. The rest of you and I will be Team 2. Team 2 will go straight in and attack Team Reaper head on, creating a distraction so Team 1 can sneak in, find out who bypassed the safety code for Eterna City, and take them out. Any questions."
Nobody raised their hand so we put the plan straight into motion. Ryota wasn't ecstatic to be in a team, since he preferred going solo, but it was better than having Riley breathing down his neck every five minutes.
Riley's team charged straight in, smashing through the gates, into the courtyard of Team Reaper's five story building. With all the battling going on out there, Misaki, Ryota, and I snuck around the back. There were two guards between us and the small back entrance.
"So what's the plan?" Ryota asked.
"There's only two guards. Let's just take them out and go in." Misaki whispered.
"Attack them straight on and we'll have an army to deal with" Ryota countered.
"He's right Misaki" I agreed. "We'll need to attack and take them out before they can react and call for backup."
"So how do we do that?" Ryota asked impatiently.
"Ok, here's what we'll do. Misaki, you have Roselia use grass whistle on them. It won't have a total sleep effect on players, but it will make them drowsy." I started. "Ryota and I will then attack with our fastest pokemon at full speed. If we're lucky, we can take them out before they know what hit them."
"Got it." Misaki replied as she sent out her Roselia.
Roselia's grass whistle quickly made our two unsuspecting enemies yawn loudly. At that moment, Ryota's Luxio and my Staravia took out the hp of both them and their pokemon in seconds.
"Alright let's move!" I told them and we ran inside the building.
Luckily for us, the majority of the building seemed empty. Riley and everyone else must be putting up one hell of a fight outside. But it was up to us to keep casualties to a minimum by defeating whoever bypassed Eterna's safety net.
We eventually reached a door that had quite a number of guards stationed at it.
"Bet ya that's where we need to go." Misaki smiled.
"Ok. No more sneaking around" I said. "We need to wrap this up as soon as we can. We'll charge through together and burst through that door. Ready guys? One... two... three... GO!"
With that we charged straight out of the frying pan and into the fire. It took us about 2 minutes to defeat all the guards there. Once they surrendered, we tied them up and charged into the guarded room. At first everything was dim. Then blinding lights illuminated the room.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a voice spoke up. Its owner was on a platform above us. It was a man who looked like he was in his late 20s. He wore the same grey uniform as the rest of Team Reaper along with a green tie. A black jacket was also worn by him. His pants were a shade of green, similar to his tie. His hair was a grayish brown and neatly combed to the side.
"Who are you?" I yelled up to him.
"My name is Thoron. You may not believe it, but I was a part of the group of scientists that created this game. Sadly, I was trapped in this game unknowingly, like the rest of you." he replied.
"A scientist? Then what the hell are you doing, trying to PK everyone?" I asked.
"I plan to take revenge on the man who trapped me here. To do that, I will obtain all of the strongest pokemon and be invincible! Team Reaper's interests will help me do that, so I joined them and offered my skills to create a virus that can bypass the Anti-Crime Code of this city. Sadly it has not been perfected and only lasts for a short time."
"That's your reason for killing hundreds of innocent players!" Misaki screamed at the top of her lungs.
"I don't plan on explaining myself any further to inferior minds." Thoron calmly told us. "Instead I'll let this do the talking!" he yelled sending out a pokemon. The pokeball opened up and a Gastrodon appeared.
"Hold it right there Thoron!" a voice cried out, and a figure appeared from the shadows. It was Agatha. At her side was a Misdreavus, not Golbat like before.
"I have a score to settle with that one brat!" she yelled pointing at me.
"Fine, but do you think you can take all three of them at once? Use your head." Thoron replied.
"Do whatever you want with the other two, but that one kid is mine!" Agatha snarled.
"Alright guys, time to fight!" I yelled. It was a 3v2 battle. On our side we had Monferno, Prinplup, and Grottle. Team Reaper had a Gastrodon and a Misdreavus.
Thoron and Agatha immediately called out attacks. Misdreavus used psybeam and Gastrodon used mud shot.
"Dodge!" we all commanded to our pokemon. All three of them barely avoided the assault.
"Prinplup, bubble beam!"
"Grottle, razor leaf!"
"Monferno, mach punch!"
The three let out a flurry of attacks, damaging our opponents.
Constant assaults of long range attacks filled the room for the next few minutes, with no clear winner in sight.
All of the pokemon battling were at about 30% health. It was time to end this once and for all. Every trainer called out a final attack.
"Monferno, fire spin!"
"Prinplup, bubble beam!"
"Grottle, razor leaf!"
"Gastrodon, water pulse!"
"Misdreavus, shadow ball!"
The five attacks collided and a furious explosion. At that moment, for some odd reason, all our pokemon, who should have been hit by the shock wave, had taken no damage at all.
"Damn." Thoron cursed. "The virus was deleted. I hoped for it to last a little longer. It can't be helped. Stunky Squad assemble!"
Several Stunky appeared in the room. "Use explosion! Destroy the building!"
What! They're insane! They'll kill us all! Even if our hp was safe from pokemon attacks, the collapsing building would still be able to hurt our hp. At that moment, I was proven wrong. A roof opened up, revealing the open sky.
"We'll settle this one day! If you survive that is." Agatha laughed as she and Thoron rode out, hanging onto two Golbat.
"We gotta get out of here!" Misaki screamed.
"No shit Sherlock!" Ryota yelled back.
"Keep digging Watson!" Misaki countered.
Ryota and I sent out Staravia. But Misaki lacked a flying type so I let her ride with me on mine.
Barely escaping the explosion, we flew outside and onto the ground. We thought Agatha and Thoron wouldn't get far since they got away using Golbat. We were half right. On top of another building, we saw a helicopter with two people getting inside. No doubt it was those two.
"How'd they get a helicopter?!" one player asked shockingly.
A helicopter was an item that cost a fortune. It was sold here in Eterna for quick travel, since the hm move fly wasn't available till later in the game. No doubt it cost most if not all of the accumulated money Team Reaper got from its members and from the players they killed.
After reporting to Riley that the virus was no longer in effect, he told us how things went on his end. Team Reaper was almost taken out until they used a smokescreen and escaped. While there was some disappointment that Team Reaper wasn't destroyed entirely, there was cheer around the city that our nightmare was over for now. A party was held at the city square that night to celebrate our victory.
As I was toasting with Misaki, we saw Ryota walk towards the hotel.
"Hey, Ryota!" Misaki exclaimed. "Come join us."
"No thanks. I'm not one for parties." Ryota replied in his usual cold tone.
"Come on, don't be a party pooper!" Misaki joked. "Come on, have some fun!"
To my surprise, Ryota actually took her up on her offer.
The party lasted till midnight. Misaki and I didn't wake up till 3 in the afternoon.
"Man that was some party huh Ren?" Misaki giggled.
"Yeah. Sure was." I replied.
To be honest, I was hoping to get to Hearthome City today, but the trip would last too long. To make up for the lost time we would have to make up tomorrow, we battled mobs of wild pokemon. By the end of the day, our pokemon's levels were in the late 20s.
The next day was the best I had seen yet. The sun's warmth seemed to wrap itself around me. Misaki tapped my shoulder.
"Come on Ren let's get going!" she laughed and started running out the gates.
"Alright, alright, wait for me!" I laughed following her. I went through the gates just as she did and went further into my adventure in PWO.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I saw him on the hospital bed. All he could do was lie there. Trapped in that death game, I couldn't even imagine what he was going through in there. It was all I could do not to burst into tears when I saw him nowadays.
His brown hair grew slightly in the past couple of weeks since his imprisonment. His hair couldn't be cut too much, since removing the helmet would lead to instant death. All I could do here was pray for his safe return and hope he didn't show up on the dead list that was increasing every day.
"Please Dan, come home safely." I cried in a soft voice with tears rolling down my eyes.