How is this possible? Why is she here?
Thoughts kept spiraling through my head but I couldn't find an answer. I know Clair didn't log into PWO on the release date. After the incident started, I'm sure all copies of PWO were probably confiscated and destroyed. So how did Clair get here?
"Ren? What's wrong? Who is she?" Misaki asked, walking over towards me.
"Her name is Clair. But more importantly, she's my little sister" I told her in a soft tone.
I had never told Misaki about my sister, or anything related to my life. In PWO, there was an unspoken rule not to ask about someone's life in the real world.
"Your sister! But why is she here?" Misaki exclaimed.
"I don't know. But if she's here, then we should assume that the rest of these unconscious individuals weren't one of the 10,000 players that logged into PWO on day 1." I explained.
"This doesn't make any sense." said Misaki.
She was right. It didn't make even the slightest amount of sense.
"Mmm... What happened?" a soft voice murmured bellow us. We all jerked our heads towards Clair, who was finally coming to.
"Clair! Clair, can you hear me?" I asked.
"Yeah I can hear you Dan." Clair said as she was waking up. Then she opened her eyes wide, "Wait? Dan!?"
She jumped right into my arms and started crying.
"Big brother! I missed you so much!"
"Same here Clair. It's alright. I'm here." I said with tears rolling down my face.
"I'm so glad you're back. Mom and Dad will be ecstatic." Clair said.
"Um Clair... this isn't the real world." I said.
"What!?" she said shocked. As she took a closer look at me, she noticed the odd clothing and the cursor by my head. "Wait. Where are we then?"
"We're still in PWO" I said. "The only new thing is that you and about 40 others are now here too."
Clair took a few moments sinking all this in.
"Clair was it?" Misaki asked. "Do you have any idea how you got here?"
"The last thing I remember was that I was playing a VRMMO and suddenly got sucked into some kind of portal that opened in the sky."
I was surprised to hear that Clair was playing VRMMOs. But that wasn't important right now.
"It's okay Clair." I assured her. "We'll find a way to get all of us back home."
"Yeah, I know we will Dan." Clair nodded.
"Dan?" Misaki asked, wondering why Clair kept calling me that.
"Yeah. That's my real name." I explained. After taking on new names in PWO, we all almost forgot we had other names in the real world.
We were enjoying our reunion time, when a sudden sound of an explosion came from outside.
"What the hell?" Misaki exclaimed.
The woman that lead us here went outside to take a look. After a few seconds she came running back in with an expression of horror drawn across her face.
"Trouble!" she yelled. "It's Team Reaper!"
"What!" Misaki gasped. "What are those bastards doing here?"
"Nothing good I bet." I said. I turned to Clair. "Stay here." I told her. A look if worry was on her face now, but she nodded to me.
Misaki and I ran out the door, where we could get a good view of entrance to Celestic Town. The situation was bad. About 50 Reaper grunts were standing there, ready to attack. Leading them were Thoron and a woman I had never seen before. She wore a yellow shirt and blue pants. Her hair was black and long. I couldn't see too clearly, but I could make out the name on her cursor. It read "Dahlia".
"Great. Two admins and an army of grunts. Just what we need." I sighed.
We ran over and blocked their path before they could reach the main part of town.
"Well, well, I wasn't expecting you two to show up here. As much as I want to settle our score, I'm in a rush. Get out of the way." Thoron told us.
"What are you creeps doing here?" Misaki asked.
"The 45 new players that fell from the sky. They'll be coming with us." Thoron smirked. "After all, we're the reason they're here."
"What!" Misaki exclaimed. "How is that possible?"
"If you would shut up and allow me to explain, you might find out." Thoron started. "As a former developer for this game, I am able to hack into small parts of the PWO system. During a hack, I attempted to open a portal into another VRMMO so I could escape this prison. However, the portal backfired. The polarity changed and instead of being an exit, it became an entrance. The portal sucked the players from other VRMMOs and brought them here. While my original objective failed, I was able to find 45 potential new members for Team Reaper."
"So what, you don't even feel sorry for the 45 people you trapped!?" Misaki yelled.
"No. Should I?" Thoron smirked. "Now get out of my way. Those 45 new players are coming with me."
Misaki was about to say something but I walked forward and cut her off.
"OVER MY DEAD BODY YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
There was no way in hell that I would ever hand over Clair to these guys. I'd die before I'd let that happen.
"May I remind you that your outnumbered?" Thoron confidently told us.
"And may I remind you that we kicked your sorry buts back in Eterna?" I countered.
"Suit yourself kid." Thoron sighed. "All units, prepare to attack."
Misaki and I got ready to fight when a familiar voice came out of nowhere.
"50 against 2? My god, do you ever stop acting like pathetic cowards?"
"Who said that!?" Thoron yelled angrily. He to see the voice's owner standing alongside a Luxray.
It was Ryota!
"How about we even things up?" another voice appeared. The one who spoke up and another player walked up from behind Ryota. The voice's owner had a green dress that matched the color of her hair, and the other one had black hair with an entire blue attire including a hat.
Cheryl and Riley!
"How did they get here?" I wondered.
"I called them." Misaki told me. "You said yourself that Celestic Town needed help, so before we left I messaged them to come. Well not Ryota, but I did call Cheryl and Riley."
"It's so nice to see how much respect you have for my help." Ryota said sarcastically.
"Well maybe if you weren't such a jerk, I'd think of you as a friend." Misaki countered.
"Ummmm hello! Still here you know!" Thoron called out.
"We can reacquaint later." Ryota said. "First, we have some losers to take care of."
"This doesn't change anything! Dahlia, take the grunts and destroy those brats!" Thoron ordered.
"Whatever you say darling." Dahlia winked. "Let's go grunts! Attack!"
"Woah, woah, woah, DARLING!?" Misaki laughed.
"She calls everyone that." Thoron sighed. "She's a pain in the ass, but she's also one of the best trainers in Team Reaper."
"As long as I get to battle tough trainers, I don't care." Dahlia laughed.
Oh great. Another psychopath on Team Reaper.
"I'll deal with you two myself." Thoron said, turning towards us. "Let's go Toxicroak!"
Thoron's Toxicroak was hopping with anticipation.
"I got this." I told Misaki. "Go help Ryota and the others."
"Got it" Misaki nodded. She ran off towards Ryota's group.
It would have helped to have her here right now. However, after hearing the things Thoron just said, I wanted to destroy him. I didn't want Misaki getting caught in the crossfire of that.
"Infernape, take them out!" I yelled throwing out Infernape.
"Thunder punch!"
"Poison jab!"
Both of their moves collided together, with neither one willing to back down. The intensity could almost be seen. The two moves canceled each other out after a few seconds, and both sides jumped back.
"Toxicroak, use sludge bomb!" Thoron commanded. multiple blobs of acid came spewing out of Toxicroak's mouth and flew towards Infernape.
"Infernape, dig!" I yelled. Infernape quickly tunneled underground and avoided the incoming attack. A few seconds later, it came up from bellow Toxicroak and delivered a strong uppercut attack. Toxicroak was sent flying into the air.
"Fire spin!"
A spiraling stream of flames came out of Infernape's palm and surrounded Toxicroak. Toxicroak cried out in pain.
Let it cry. I want to make Thoron pay for what he did.
"Finish it with close combat!" I screamed. Infernape leaped into the air and hit Toxicroak with a barrage of attacks. Its last blow sent Toxicroak into the ground hard. It shattered, signaling its death. I turned my gaze towards Thoron. His face changed to intense fear.
"Now it's your turn, you bastard. Infernape, use..."
"WAIT! STOP, REN!" I heard Misaki scream into my ears. She had her arms wrapped around me, keeping me from moving. She had tears rolling down her eyes.
"Stop. Just please stop this. You're not a murderer. Go back to your old self."
Misaki cried at a barely audible volume.
I began to calm down. Misaki was right. No matter what Team Reaper had done, this wasn't me.
What the heck happened to me?
I gave into my rage, that's what. I let revenge consume me and turn me into that monster that appeared a few moments ago.
Thoron was gasping for air after having his life flash before his eyes.
"This isn't over." Thoron snarled. "I'll make you pay for this you bastard. One day." He ran off with those parting words.
"Thanks Misaki. I owe you one" I said.
"No problem Ren. Let's go see how Ryota's doing." Misaki responded. We walked over towards the area where Ryota was fighting. By the time we got there, the battle seemed to be nearing its end. Luxray and Medicham were each in the red zone for their hp. The next hit would decide it.
"You're... pretty good... kid" said Dahlia, catching her breath.
"You're... not so... bad... yourself" Ryota responded. He was just as exhausted as Dahlia.
Just as both of them were about to call out a move, a helicopter came over. Thoron was at the door. A ladder dropped down.
"We're retreating! Grab the ladder and let's go!" Thoron yelled down.
"Awwwwww I was just starting to have fun." Dahlia frowned. "I guess we'll just have to settle this another time darling." Dahlia winked as she grabbed the ladder. The copter took off, and they were gone. Their 50 grunts had been left behind however.
We rounded up about 2/3 of the defeated grunts. We tied them up, confiscated their pokeballs, and got a group of trainers to watch them till we could figure out what to do with them. The ones we didn't get ran away towards the mountain range nearby. They wouldn't get far though. We already had a large group coming here. The remaining grunts would have no chance against the veteran trainer group once they ran into them.
Misaki, Ryota, Cheryl, Riley, and I went to the pokemon center. When we entered, Clair ran into my arms.
"Big brother!" she cried. "I'm so glad you're ok. I was so worried."
"It's alright Clair. It's all over now." I said. Ryota and the others looked confused, so Misaki explained everything to them while I went over somewhere with Clair to talk privately.
"Clair, how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine now" Clair told me. "So what are you going to do now?"
"Well I'm heading out with Misaki to the next gym once morning arrives." I started. "We need to get all 8 badges if we're gonna escape this game."
"What!? You're leaving? Please don't go Dan!" Clair cried. "We just got reunited."
"Who said I was leaving you behind?" I smiled. "I'm bringing you along for the ride."
"Really!?" Clair exclaimed. "I'm so glad! I was afraid you were leaving me behind."
"Not a chance kiddo. I'm not gonna leave you again."
Once morning came, Clair, Misaki, and I got ready to head out. Even though Clair didn't have a pokemon, by partying with me, she could fly with me on my Starraptor.
The others were starting to regain consciousness by the time we were ready to leave. We left them in the hands of the woman who greeted us at the entrance when we first came.
We flew to Jubelife, went towards Canalave City, and dived further into our adventure.
A/N: Wow this took longer than I thought it would to write. Sorry for the delay. I hope you all like Clair so far.