Chapter 77: Pandemonium
A tumultuous clanging resounded in the fortified castle and pierced through the quiet night. On the top floor of Valora's pagoda, Misty, startled out of her restless sleep, grunted and threw the heavy covers off. She grabbed a kimono, hastily put it on, slid open the paper doors facing the balcony and whistled. A moment later, Suicune bounded out of the moonlight night and alighted next to her, its twin tails rippling unceasingly. The rooms adjacent to hers erupted in a flurry of activity and she knew somehow...Red escaped. Tying the silk sash firmly around her waist, she briefly contemplated on letting things slide and in a split moment, she remembered Warlord Kotaru's words:
"Your report..." he barked, "is not satisfactory." The man pushed his ashen face right next to hers and she spied the tribal tattoos on his face. Under the bright arc lamps, the markings glistened akin to fresh blood. "This will greatly affect you social position once you return to the International Police so I suggest you divulge everything the convict told you. I did not bring you here simply for his entertainment. Now tell me...Where is the location of their base?" Misty told him over and over again that Red kept tight lipped about the location of his co-workers and even if the interrogators threatened him with death, he would smile slyly and refuse to reveal the base. Angrily, Kotaru straightened up and ordered one of his retainers to detain Misty on the top floor of Valora Castle. One week later, they will use her and employ a new method in order to draw more information out of him. This morning, she listlessly stood on the wooden balcony connected to her chamber and watched a procession of visiting nobles enter the castle. Overhearing the whispered conversation between two maids who came to clean her room, she gleaned that a Warlord, all the way from the south, unexpectedly dropped by to visit. From there, her senses tingled. Red declared his friends would rescue him with unshakable conviction and against all odds, the situation actually happened. Misty wondered if he had Victini's luck on his side...No, not Victini's luck, more like Giratina's odds. The renegade legendary managed to slip away from custom made bonds with the help of his off shoot and from there; it claimed a place in the underworld.
A repose for the damned.
She could no longer overlook this. Throwing the doors open, she weaved herself between throngs of soldiers as they scurried around like durant. Due to their utmost reverence for all legendary creatures, the armor clad soldiers meekly made a path for her as she dashed with Suicune following behind her. The head warden managed to utter a warning before his words were swallowed up the siren and other noises. Skidding to a halt, Misty tried to recall what Red told her. A secret passage wound all the way from the basement of the castle right up to the secluded dungeons. A corridor with a bonsai...Something about screens and staraptor in flight? After being holed up in Valora Castle, she asked her personal attendant (who doubly functioned as a spy and a bodyguard) to procure a map of the castle. In her free time, the water gym leader studied and memorized the map. The guardswoman pointed to the chart and showed her series of unfrequented passages and only the servants were allowed to use them since the corridors had to be cleaned periodically, either than that, no guards, advisors or even the retainers could set foot in there. However, the empress consort is permitted to tread those hallways. Signaling to Suicune, the female rushed off, breaking through the portioned space much to the shock of everyone who saw her. Ieyasu was nowhere to be seen and after erecting a barrier over the unsightly wormhole she created, Misty ran forward again.
Late night
Valora
Palace cells
Two males squatted facing each other and traded stories. A third one leaned on the opposite end of the corridor and smiled at them. Even though Green repeatedly warned Gold not to initiate contact with Red, the latter went ahead and shunned his commands yet again. Red, crouched behind bars, listened attentively as Gold animatedly related their experiences since coming to Ransei. Since the younger male started talking, he did not stop once and at one point, subtly wiped the silent tears sluggishly cascading down his cheek. If the crimson eyed man noticed, he failed to say anything and simply smiled and reached out a skeletal hand to ruffle through Gold's hair. No cameras were placed in Red's cell because he repeatedly kept on finding and breaking the devices. Once, the officials placed a camera opposite his cell, the prisoner managed to swipe a short knife from an unsuspecting guard and miraculously flicked the weapon right in the lens, the Kanto native surprised himself; graciously, the authorities opted for not wasting any expensive cameras and other devices on him and agreed to monitor him personally. Every four hours, the guards were rotated in a fixed schedule and each one of them was more or less harassed by the man who steadily grew weaker and deranged as the days slipped by. The ex-champion listened and nodded in all the right places and Green's viricent eyes fixated on his best friend, the black haired male needed medical attention. A few giggles and laughter pulled him out of his ponderation and he jolted to see scarlet irises boring into him.
"What?"
"You dumped dirty water on your head just so you could rescue me?" Red quizzed and shifted on the warm, metallic floor.
Oak deliberately took a moment to answer; he could not see his companion's expression...Perhaps the man felt amused, the things that generally mortified Green, tickled the hell out of Red. "Yeah. So? My hair is a dead giveaway, no one in this castle has gelled, stiff spikes."
Gold kept up his inane snickering.
"...Thanks so much Green." The Johto native's snicker sputtered and died, Green pushed himself off the wall and stood up straight, he savored the heartfelt gratitude in his friend's voice. "I know you like to keep yourself neat and clean...So hearing you did that for me was..." Red scratched the back of his head and gave his friend a toothy grin. "I am really touched. Whoa...I think I'm crying!" And sure enough, the ebony haired man's expression twisted and a volley of tears streamed down his face. His nose started running and Gold frantically cut a piece of his sash and offered the cloth to his senior who accepted it. "Ahahaha...I'm so happy! I'm so happy I could die!" Red laughed and retreated back into the gloomy depths of his cage. He sat with his legs outstretched, head tilted back on the bunk bed at a painful ninety degree angle and the tears streamed away from the corners of his eyes, soaked his temples and vanished into his stringy hair. Green and Gold merely watched, the latter frantically snapping his head between the two commanders whilst the former simply closed his eyes. He did not know how to deal with a sentimental Red. To him, the ideal image of Red is one who is laughing dumbly and possibly burbling about battles and war tactics.
Not the broken down man currently weeping in the depths of a dungeon.
"Right. So does anyone of you have a plan of how you're gonna bust me out? I'm fine Gold, thanks for asking...No I don't need some sleep. I've been alone for so long, I don't think I'll be able to sleep with you two around." Half an hour later, Red recovered from his overly emotional state and the three of them converged on the floor. Green studied the bars, he concluded that they were made from the same, if not similar, material as the ones used for the entrance blast doors, hearing this, the ex-commander shuddered. "Please don't remind me of them...Those things can probably survive Arceus' Judgment and I'm not joking." His tone dropped into a breathless whisper, "the first day...My mons attempted to rescue me and...A single aggron, possibly the Lord's partner, almost killed them." Gold inhaled sharply. "It almost killed, Pika, Saur, Poli and the others. I just watched, unable to believe my eyes; I still don't believe it...Is that thing so powerful?" Red ruminated and Green told him to snap out of his morbid contemplations.
"By the way...we have your poke-"
"What?! Give them to me!" Gold recoiled at Red's enthusiasm and the ex-champion eagerly opened his palms.
"Not now. You pokemon are safe, they are sleeping inside premier balls. Stop getting distracted and focus at the task at hand." Oak exhaled noisily, "we guard you until midnight Red, for Lugia's sake, please participate instead of going on a tangent. And Gold..." The mentioned man whelped, "when we get back to base...the two of us will have a nice...Long...Discussion together. One more wrong move and I'll punt your head off! Understand?"
"Yes sir!" Gold mock saluted.
The corridors reflected the muted tones of three whispering individuals as they talked amongst themselves. To the rescuers' delight, Red mapped out a route they could use to escape, he explained about the unfrequented passages and Green nodded in agreement. No one but the servants could use it. Through these quiet corridors, two masked retainers guided the ebony haired man through passages containing black iron brackets set into wooden panels and beams. Another one had metallic lace lining the decorative trim on the wooden floor. The second last corridor boasted silk screens depicting a staraptor in flight whilst and the last detail he remembered, was a tiny tree in an ornamental flower pot hidden in an alcove. Beyond this point, the passageways were bland and similar looking and they led back to the basement of the castle. The basement contained a huge iron works where they mass produced metallic items. A door lead to an outside shaft concealed within the escarpment and a rickety elevator could carry all of them down where they would stand and stare at Valora's blast gates. Gold whistled softly and Oak nodded, appreciative of how his best friend actually used his brains. Using the tip of his sword, Strategy's team leader scored a crude map of Red's shortcut on the metal plated floor and the end result surprised him. The route mentioned by his best friend proved to be accurate. Grinning triumphantly, the scratched on the tiles to make his diagram unreadable and stood up. Reaching in the crevices of his armor, he retrieved an apricorn ball, released golduck on the floor and commanded his best friend to move back deep in the cell. The creature psyched itself and bent the bars sideways to make a space large enough for the prisoner to squeeze through, cutting the thick bars were out of the question. Red climbed out of the widened space and gleefully guffawed. His throaty laughs bounced against the steel lined corridors and echoed back. Instead of admonishing him, Green clapped him on the back and suggested they hightail from the dungeons.
Three steps later.
The siren sounded.
Exploding out of the closed rice paper doors, Green and Gold flanked Red as they raced across the polished tiles. Golduck scampered in front of them and cleared the way, cutting a swathe through astonished soldiers by firing hyper beams and jets of pressurized water. The Johto native released typholsion and the volcano pokemon brought up the rear, slashing the surroundings with flame cloaked paws in order to make their pursuit difficult. The water pokemon took no detours, using calm mind, it barreled straight through partitions and eventually stumbled upon the route mentioned by Red. Here, it slowed down a bit and the former commander exhaustedly crouched against a wall and wheezed for breath. They heard the sound of metals clanging against each other as soldiers and guards-people approached and ran right past them. Pulling the wheezing male to his legs, the trio resumed their senseless careering down the quiet passages. Behind them, the dead lanterns and brass brackets alighted automatically with a bright orange flame and shadows danced across opaque rice paper doors as the three convicts escaped. Red moaned and gasped for air, his muscles screamed at him to stop but momentum pulled him along and he blindly ran forward. The sound of his bare feet pounding the wooden floor rang loudly in his ears and bit by bit, he slowed down and came to a stumbling stop. The sound of feet still banged his ears and he abruptly turned around to see Exbo hissing and spitting fire at Misty and Suicune. Seeing Red stop, she came to a halt with some distance between them, warily; the fire pokemon crouched low and pressed itself closer to the Kanto native.
The noise of running disappeared altogether; Gold and Green paused and rotated to look at Red. Alarms insistently fired in Oak's brain when he spied Suicune and Misty.
Not good.
Not good at all.
Umbrae flickered on the walls and the orange flames cast a deep shadow on all of their faces. Red could not see her visage but he expected Misty to be very angry with him. Yet, the woman refused to attack and simply studied him with a cerulean gaze. In the darkness surrounding them, her eyes remained clear and limpid, shining like azure gems in the cloying blackness swirling around his life. He wanted those gems, they were so clear and flawless. Taking a deep breath, he reached out a hand and did one of the many insensible things a normal man would certainly not do in this type of situation. "Do you want to come with me?" he asked and let quietness convey his question. Suicune snorted and he repeated his words, "do you want to come with me? Well...You might not be appreciative with how we do things...When all of this is over, I'd like to show you what we've created. Maybe, staying with us won't prove to be such a bad experience. If anything...It'll just teach you that we are all selfish in our own ways. So..." he smiled softly, and she caught a glimpse of his grin, "Mind sharing a bit of your life with m-...Us? We're all crazy but I assure you, there is a certain loyalty and happiness you won't find any-"
"ARE you out of your MIND?" Behind the emotionally prattling Red, Green's clutched his hair exasperatedly and his voice assumed a nasty high pitched tone as he glowered at his best friend. "Mew's sake Red... GET MO-hmmmpfh!" Gold jumped and clamped a hand down over the smoldering individual's mouth whilst Oak grappled with the breeder and tried to shove him off.
"Stop interfering with Red's love life!" Gold screeched, "It's thanks to you he never gets to experience the joys of wooing ladies. Stay outta this, straight laced guy!" Red turned around and cocked an eyebrow on seeing Gold bodily shove his best friend to the floor and clamp a hand over Green's mouth, with his free hand, younger male gave his mentor a thumbs up. "Go ahead, I got this under control."
Crazy...Misty pondered, Red was right about that. Her heart drummed faster in her chest; did he seriously propose that she join them? Despite her mind rebelling against the idea, deep down, the offer brought on a warm flush of happiness and content. Perhaps she might be able to understand why the ex-champion spiraled into crime and did what he did. No...the ginger head admonished herself furiously.
She was not in love with him.
Misty raised her hand and saw a renewed spark in the raven haired man's formerly dulled irises. Eagerly Red stumbled forward to desperately grasp at the hand she offered.
Mid-afternoon
Sinnoh
Base of Mount Coronet
The base was being completely remodeled.
Partitions sliced the previously gigantic main chamber into three smaller spaces. A moderately sized meeting room stood right in the center and connected to three separate chambers via corridors. Three rooms for three departments. Inside the center room, Diamond, Pearl and Blue pored over blue prints. Dia had a constructor's hard hat sitting atop his cropped hair and the highlight yellow clashed with the muted blue of his clothes. He watched Constellate's leader scribble something on the complicated diagram and Pearl pulled away, the blonde punched a few numbers on a digital calculator and frowned at the figures. Looking up, he informed Dia that they were soon going to run out of funds. The indolent leader pushed his hat up and stared at his friend. In the meantime, Crystal came in, deposited a sheaf of papers on the plastic table and collected the scrunched up paper balls littering the floor. No one paid the indigo haired aide any attention as she swept up the litter and left shortly thereafter. Dust, pieces of tiles and waste littered the floors. Bare rock faces were cut apart to make more space and a series of corridors lead from the front entrance and zigzagged across the perimeter of the three rooms. The interiors could only be accessed by the marginally smaller chamber and the main corridor, instead of leading to the center meeting room, lead to the smaller chamber and from there, a keycard was needed to gain access to the tunnels, which ran to the center meeting room. The center chamber had three covered passageways branching off to the individual department rooms. Execution, Strategy and Constellate finally had their own, private chambers, to cook up schemes in. Behind Crystal, the corridor doors shut with a hiss and in the circular second chamber; she observed Silver crouching against a newly painted wall. The silver eyed man fixated his gaze on his phone screen and the noise issuing from the device suggested that he watched his favorite animation. Dumping her waste in the nearest bin, she sat next to him and enquired:
"Did you have lunch?" The man distractedly nodded, mumbled a reply and she frowned disdainfully. "Silver...Cup noodles does not equate to lunch. Just because commander Diamond can't cook your personal favorites because he is so busy, it doesn't mean you can gorge on cup noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner." The red head ignored her and stared rivetedly at the screen. Crystal sat with him and watched, after a few seconds, he shifted the phone in the middle. "Want me to make you lunch?" He nodded and brushed his hair backwards. Tentatively, the capturer reached up and moved all the loose strands away from his face, his eyes briefly snapped upwards and she flushed. What was she doing? "...Do you think Gold is faring okay?" she asked and Silver put his phone away, he hummed a replay and rested his head against the wall. "Well...I suppose it's Gold we are talking about, obviously he will be okay...I just hope he doesn't give senior Green a hard time." Her companion snorted and said that is exactly what their best friend would be doing. His comment enticed a small giggle from Crystal and he shrugged. "True, I sincerely wish my commander doesn't lose his sanity and outright kill him. Gold...Is possibly the most irritating human being under the sun."
"I respect him." Silver intoned and Crystal studied his face. He did not smile playfully and his eyes conveyed his seriousness. "He...Helped me through a lot of things. I will not hesitate to do anything for him...As long as he doesn't command me to get him a date or something." The phantom thief added. "He can be quite an irritant...However; we won't find someone like him." This time, Crystal nodded and sighed. Lately, every time they brought up Gold, she would clamp up and the conversation petered into a different direction. Before, Crystal admonished the ebony haired pervert profusely, now, she simply told him off a few times and slunk off to talk with Yellow or pursue other interests. He wished they could sort out the tension between them; however, she simply refused to talk about her worries. If she did not want to confide in him, she could do so with Gold and he wouldn't mind in the least. Yet, sometimes Silver found the golden eyed man sitting alone at the entrance of their base and conveying that Crystal did not want to join him for a date. Deciding to quell the growing unease between them, he spoke up: "Crys...I've been meaning to ask you, do you have a problem with Gold? Or me? Are we doing something to upset you? Or is Gold doing something that grates on your nerves? Tell me, I'll screw his head on properly for you."
For a moment, a look flitted across her face; it vanished before he could decipher its meaning. She merely laughed and it sounded completely fake. Getting up and dusting her shorts, she answered. "Of course there is nothing wrong between us; you two are my best friends. I…wish Gold could tone down his perverse tendencies a bit, before he left, White told me that she is afraid to go anywhere near him." Grabbing the broom and dust pan she smiled at him and made for the staircase, climbing a few steps, she turned around to see her red headed companion already lost in the world of animation. "Hey Silver..." Crystal called and he looked up, "I think… you'd look handsome if you cut your hair short." Imparting the enigmatic piece of advice, she strode past a confused Ruby and disappeared to the second floor. Ruby came down and the two co-workers shared a bemused look. Suddenly, the fashionista retrieved a pair of scissors from his jeans pocket and held it up in the air. Silver paled, glared at him and bolted out of the room at top speed.
Back in the meeting room, Dia hefted a duffle bag on the table and zipped it open. "Senior Gold left me a hefty sum of money before he dep-arted from Ransei," he informed, "and he told me to use it wisely. It's been almost two months since the Red rescue team first left and in the mean-time, I decided to re-construct the base. I didn't know construction work would be this expensive." Both Pearl and Blue sighed at his anticlimactic speech, however, they both agreed that remodeling the base, hit a huge dent in their otherwise sparse budget. "Pearl...Told me we are out of funds. Tell me Pearl, what should I do?"
The trio stared at the architect plans once more, the construction workers were paid overtime to work on a twenty four hour basis and Pearl secretly felt proud on learning that Diamond proposed the renovation. The blonde arrived from Ransei to see a swarm of strange men laying bricks, hammering and plastering away in the interior and over the course of the next few weeks, the constructors simultaneously worked on the two floors. The Dex Criminals hired them via Platina's connections and the men did not ask any questions. For the few weeks, they slept anywhere, ate anything and fumbled around to get the interior functional. Pearl remembered hashing out piles of money to the foremen and quite suddenly, when the revamping neared its last stages, they ran out of funds. The first floor functioned as the workspace and the second floor contained individual rooms for all the members, a huge bath house separated by gender and a kitchen. The entire base reeked of paint, it also contained central heating and the only thing they had to do was install electronic locks on the doors and the base would be complete. Sparse...But complete. However, the issue of more money could not be solved easily; after all, none of them went on any missions.
"You could siphon money off some rich dude's account and use it for ourselves." Blue advised and Dia faced her. "It is just a suggestion. Yesterday, I looked up on prospective missions and found one. A rich couple living in Sunnyshore is auctioning off a rare sableye jewel. I'm planning to send Crystal and Silver to steal it. But, the auction will take place some weeks later and we need the money now." Constellate's commander tossed her hair backwards and pointed to the plan, "we also need to install backup generators, in case the main ones fail and thus we need even more money. The amount Gold left you...How did you make it last so long? We are paying triple the amount..."
Diamond briefly glanced at Pearl, siphon money off some unsuspecting person's account for their own use? Why didn't he think of that earlier? "Go fetch senior Emerald please," Dia requested his best friend and the latter zoomed off, "well...When I visited the company, they dema-nded a hefty sum as down payment because of the obscure… working conditions. I almost emptied all my savings. A week later they asked for another amount, it was ridic-ulous so I went back in person, with senior Sapphire and Pearl and ordered Lax to use amnesia and recycle on the branch manager. He coughed up a huge amount money from the company's account and I simply re-paid him again...Oh...I made some profit as well." Blue gaped at him in astonishment, despite his devious deeds, the indolent boy lazily munched on a berry and smiled like he'd just done humanity a favor. "They replaced the branch manager with another person; fortunately, I didn't have to mind wipe this one because Pearl had a talk with him and he agreed to our conditions." Blue grinned and sat in a chair whilst waiting for Pearl and Emerald, she asked the young commander if he perhaps wanted to join Constellate, his deceiving skills were on a different level altogether. Hearing this, Diamond gasped indignantly. "I'm not a deceiver!" he slurred and frowned, "I'm a proud member of team Execution and we excel in attacking and defending.
"Of course Commander Diamond." Blue teased and he flushed. "You know...For the past several months, you've done more work than Red ever did. The Kanto native rolled her eyes, "when he comes back and we have to vote for either of you...I'll definitely pick you. Red either sleeps, eats, doodles battle strategies on important documents or hogs the training rooms with his members while they destroy it. If Black and he fought...They left the chamber in tatters."
The two commanders delved in silence and shuffled papers around, some minutes later; Emerald wheeled in a trolley full of sophisticated gadgets, balancing precariously on the pile of machinery, his laptop emitted a beep. Putting the portable computer on the table, he lifted the lid up, grabbed a stool and stood on it.
"What do you want me to do?" Rald queried, his fingers poised over the keyboard like he wanted to play a masterpiece, when Diamond failed to reply, he rotated his head to the Sinnoh native who gazed intently at his high ponytail. "Don't gawk. While I made my way here, Ruby caught me and did this." He pointed to the streaks in his hair. "Stupid idiot ruined my hair and he plucked off my forehead jewel." Diamond and Blue both apologized while vainly stifling their laughter. The midget glared at them and harshly commanded: "Get a move on, I still have to maintain the network, there are places in the base where we don't get any connection and if Green comes back, he'll work me to the bone. You two are lucky you don't work for that slave driver." The Hoenn native vehemently complained and stabbed his keyboard. "Pearl said that you needed to hack into an account?" the two leaders nodded in affirmative, "something about illegally transferring money...I don't recommend that. It will be in your best interest to steal the money ourselves, convert it into cash and then pay the constructors, if I directly wire the money to their account; the bills will end up by the victim's house...Senior Blue, seriously? You are losing your touch." Biting her lower lip, she deflated, nodded meekly and accepted the criticism the junior dished out to her. Diamond noted the defeated look in her eyes and understood that the older female might be battling with internal conflict. After all, her two best friends vanished from the scene, one of her members will not be making a return and she had no idea of the conditions her comrades might be in. He let his senior stew in her thoughts and turned his attention to Emerald, instructing him to do what is best. The blonde nodded and immediately set to work, his fingers typed so fast, they became a hovering blur on top of the black keyboard.
Blue excused herself; she got up and exited the room. In the second chamber, she found Silver sitting on the carpeted floor and wolfing down a steaming lunch. Passing her brother who articulated a grunt, she ascended the stairs and walked past a corridor full of white, electronic sliding doors. At the very end, she stopped before her room and turned around. Most of the rooms contained sparse furniture and personal possessions, the two empty spaces staring at her reflected bare walls and only the color coding on the doors indicated that they waited for inhabitants to move in. Silver and Crystal maintained Gold's room, his pokemon scurried around the small chamber and brought in a sense of warmth. These two bedrooms however, felt cold and devoid of life. Touching the red and green tags respectively, she muttered a small prayer and retreated into the safety of her room
Around mid-night
Ransei
Valora
"Stop!"
Her grating command froze him in his tracks. Gold and Green's background quibbling gave way to silence and the world held its breath. The momentary scintilla of Red's eyes faded only to be replaced by confusion and an emotion she did not want to describe. Elsewhere, the siren blared and the distant screaming of soldiers and retainers reflected from a different dimension altogether.
"I am giving you ten seconds to get out of this place before I command Suicune to blast you all to Giratina's realm." Misty's voice quivered. "Don't make this any more difficult it is Red, so just...leave. Leave and stop getting yourself into trouble." Suicune shifted next to her and gently rubbed its face against hers. Instead of whipping around and getting out of the castle, Red laced his hands behind his head and stared at the flames dancing in their colored rice paper coverings.
"...Hmm, I suppose, if you'd just leave everything behind and come with us...You wouldn't be the person I know." The blood eyed man stated, "Thanks for letting us go...can I come visit your gym when things settle down?"
"NO!" Green viciously growled from the back, he twisted Gold's arms and forced the younger man into a headlock.
Misty laughed when Red jumped. "Professor Green Oak, also known as your best friend, says no. You might want to sort out your issues before trying to visit me. As for me...My records are riddled with so many mishaps when it comes to the Dex Criminals that I hardly care anymore, just...Don't let anyone recognize you and I'd appreciate seeing Gyara again." The gym leader turned to Suicune and ran her fingers through her legendary partners turquoise fur. For some reason, the mention of gyarados brought on a wave of irritation, Misty didn't want to see him, she wanted to see her majestic pseudo water dragon.
Giving Gold a well-deserved kick in the behind, Oak let the breeder crumple to the floor and focused his attention to Red, little by little, the prisoner slithered closer to the female police officer with his hands childishly laced behind his head. Red dropped the topic of asking Misty to join him and instead, struck up a mundane conversation with the ginger haired female. Green's anger spiked, the woman generously offered to let them go, she had a legendary pokemon standing proudly next to her and if that idiot comrade of his did not exploit this opportunity, they will have more trouble on their hands. Stealthily treading in Red's shadow, he wrapped an arm around Red's throat, gave a gratified salute to Misty and violently jerked his friend backwards. The ebony haired male exhaled air as Green yanked him and proceeded to run for their lives. Misty counted down and Green released his murderous grip. Together, the trio careered to the end of the passageway before one of them picked up the imperceptible tones of Misty's voice as she thundered out a command. The dim passage kindled with a bright, hot light and their backs burned. A gurgle of water twisted down the narrow confines of the passage and smacked into them. The three criminals swam along with debris, floating beams of wood poked them in the ribs and they crashed out through a window and flailed when the current deposited them outside the lavishly decorated pagoda.
Three stories was a long way to fall.
Flailing uselessly in the crisp night air, Green hastily commanded his golduck to protect Red with a psychic barrier as gravity pulled them downwards. Gold squealed, his penetrating wail adding to the din cocooning them. Typholsion, devoid of consciousness due to the force of water, smacked heavily into the metal plated ground and the breeder plopped unceremoniously on top of his monster. He heard a bone snap and quickly scurried off his partner and recalled the fire type in an apricorn ball. A second later, Green, torpedoed on the pavement and the Johto native flinched. He hurried to the brown haired individual and saw the man stir and push himself up. Blood gushed from his mouth and nose; he bit on his lips and popped his shoulder back in place with an audible hiss of pain. After pulling off his dented helmet, Gold frantically help Green to stand and the leader punched himself in the lower back and straightened up with an anguished sigh. Red floated safely to the ground and on seeing's Green's condition, implored his friend to hand venusaur over to him.
"Saur will be able to heal you." Red accepted the ball. "None of us have any healing items on us and since Saur is a grass type, he can heal his status ailments and stop all that bleeding. You're hemorrhaging from your nose Green, it's dangerous to go on like this." From beneath his torn armor, he brought out three white capsules, peered into them and tossed one over to Red. The fighter pressed the switch but the ball failed to open, grinding his teeth furiously and spitting expletives under his breath, Red tired various ways to force open the premier ball. He depressed the center switch repeatedly and hurled the glass domed capsule on the floor a few times but the glass failed to shatter. Locating a piece of jagged metal amongst the waste, he stabbed the plastic casing of the sphere and after numerous attempts and cuts on his fingers, managed to dig a point through the tough material. Yanking the silver of metal around the bottom, he serrated the ball and forced the two halves apart. A tiny venusaur tumbled out on the metallic pavement and flashed into its normal size, it slept for several moments till Red nudged it. The tightly shut bud on its back bloomed and released a cloud of healing spores all over itself, Gold caught some of the dust and showered it over Green, immediately, both human and beast recovered from their damaged states and the little band sat in the penumbra of the building and rested before attempting to escape through Valora's gates.
A sun rose and the breeder blinked in astonishment. To his amazement, he beheld miniature suns rising out of the castle and flooding the world with a golden light. The environs brightened like day and the only indication of it being in the middle of the night was the pitch black sky. Machinery whirred; a thin metallic pedestal rose up from the ground bearing with it a blindingly luminous orb. The spire ascended, the ball ignited with a searing light and took on the form of a minuscule sun. A sense of urgency crept in Red's actions and he babbled about search lights. Green and Gold half listened to him as they stared dazedly at the fulgent orbs. The sound of clinking armor and marching grew louder and before the hypnotized duo could process the events, they found themselves surrounded by soldiers. Red cursed horribly and furiously pointed at the army, he shouted that he'd never go back into a cell again, not after what his friends did in order to save him. Vines swelled out of venusaur, the appendages tangled together to form thick ropes and the saurian creature brandished them in all directions. Green jumped up, released charizard and slapped the mega bracelet around his dirt stained wrist, he mega evolved his dragon and the blue black beast spewed fire out of the skies. More reinforcements poured in and the fighter's grin morphed into a sadistic smile as he wordlessly commanded his venusaur to wreak destruction. Armor clad soldiers somersaulted akin to toys; they were blasted into the air where a curt command from Green prompted the fire wrym to douse them with a bolt of vermillion flames. The court's pokemon stood scant chance as well. Blood pumping and passion boiling, Red, along with venusaur displayed a rarely seen brutality and Gold meekly shuffled backwards. His mentor was angry...Wrath seized hold of him and whilst in prison, the ebony haired man nurtured his septic feelings. Arcs of blood and poison danced in the air, amber irises reflected the guard's terrified expressions as they went flying with blood spurting out of several orifices. In a complete contrast to their pained miens, Red sported a grim smile, he calmly sat in front of venusaur and gently pressed his palm against the monster's reptilian skin, a net of vines shielded him from hostile forces and solar beams charred anything which came in close proximity to the human.
A minute of silence.
Red wearily got up from his position and shielded his eyes from the cruel rays of light. Due to their unplanned falling, he had no idea of where they were. Keeping venusaur close to him, the team inched forward cautiously. As they wound their way to the open courtyard, the ex-champion yelled gleefully and pointed to the door set into the rock face. He tried to run, however, his exhausted muscles pulled up short and he planted his face spectacularly to the ground. "I didn't actually think you'd be so happy as to kiss the ground Red." Green snidely commented and savagely watched the older male struggle to pick himself up. "You...Seriously need some exercise." The spiky haired male noted more soldiers coming out of the castle, a mega aggron, wearing a breastplate of gold, lead the entire procession. "Come on Red," he urged, "we need to leave, there are more small fry coming up...Under the leadership of an aggron." His words affected the previous Execution commander profoundly. Red snapped his face up, snuck a peak at the aggron advancing aggressively towards him and wilted to the floor.
"Senior Red? Yo! We have to get a move on!" Gold insisted.
"I can't..." Red whispered, his voice vibrating violently. All the strength drained from his limbs. "I can't do this anymore Green." His breath came in quick gasps and he clutched his abdomen. "That aggron...That aggron is going to kill me." He doubled over, planting his forehead on the metal plated ground. "It's no use, we can't fight that thing...That monster...Is going to annihilate us all."
A/N: Devious Dia is back, and poor, rejected Red. Well, at least they got out of Valora Castle. And the base is being remodeled. Anyway, I'd kill someone for an iced coffee. Much thanks to all those who read and reviewed, and virtual iced-coffee to everyone (just don't kill anybody)
At HeyYouYaYou: Green possibly wants to kill half of the Dex Holders, but he reins his emotions in. Good old Green. At Jack54311: Distortion realm…let's say the Legendary Pokemon are holding a party involving lasers, death threats and punches to the face. Sadly, Misty does not get abducted (although it would've been an interesting twist if she was kidnapped.) At Eevee: Yikes, I apologize for getting mixed up. One year anniversary of Blaec Iustise? Why can't I remember the important things? Thanks for reminding me. Actually, I was very flattered when you described me as Yellow :D And Gold was actually serious when he asked Green about Crystal. At AceTrainerLeaf: I found it difficult to write Red as mentally ill, but eventually pulled it off. (He's been confined and interrogated in less than pleasant ways, so his brain circuitry is whacked.) I'm glad you found their reunion touching.
At Guest: Heh, your reviews is making me itch to read the XY chapters, now only if my internet weren't so crappy. In the Yellow chapters, Green was a surprisingly good (and patient) teacher to Yellow; her rattata evolved? Cue waterworks, but in the end, she manages to overthrow the likes of Lance. Jealous Yellow? Well, Red is an airhead, he'd probably (unknowingly) flirt with others despite being in a relationship. Green, who diffuses a – don't come near me – aura probably won't bring out a jealous side in Yellow. (That, or he is extra careful since he knows firsthand how terrifying she can be when provoked. I think Green does get jealous easily (like you pointed out) but he is too reserved to show it. At Silver: Thanks for the invite, I'll definitely check it out (after my internet stops being mean to me and hey, I'm always up for a good KHR story) Red not completely mad? Heh :D