[RP] Tides of Freelance ~ Nigh Ruin

[strategiser24]

Jared Darnell
Black Market/Other Party
EnDoG Headquarters, Saffron City

"I'm President Jonathan Bishop, leader of the Environmental Neutralization Division of Government task force" a man said to Jared, sitting in a chair across from him in the lobby, "You said you wanted to speak with me? What can I help you with?"

"...You're definitely don't look like the demon my friends have been claiming you were," Jared said, trying to think of an introduction, "...Your organization made a statement saying that they were looking for someone to come forward with negotiations with the Freelancers, so here I am,"

Thinking of what to say without giving out too much information, Jared came up with what thee right words. "I know what your problem is: Unexpected attacks destroy the GWI project, much of the public distrusts you, and now they've convinced the rest of the Government to stop your investigation, and after all this, your not the one who's responsible," Jared explained, "I'm part of a group that has connection to the Freelancers. I'm sure you think that they're the ones who are responsible, and they got lucky with the public accusing you of the attacks...These people who masterminded the attacks are more organized than you think. They've planned the whole thing out: The attacks, the response, and what's to come next. I didn't think much of their plan when they made it, but their plan to bring peace by eliminating you from the picture is no better than you trying to do the same: Its going to lead to more violence and more damage if someone doesn't try to do something about it. It took the reactions from both sides of the public to see that.

You wanted someone to negotiate with you, and that's why I'm here. The truth is, if you try to meet with the Freelancers in this state, they're bound to either shoot or run on sight. The group I represent doesn't want anything else other than for the crisis to end, and the truth is, neither the plans that EnDoG or the Freelancers have come up with will work without heavy costs to both sides. Your plan...well, I think you can see the result of that already; nature is made up of inter-dependencies, with both Humans and 'Mon. The world cant function properly with the ecosystem disrupted in a scale like we've made it; taking away Pokemon's ability to function the way nature had made them creates what you're dealing with now. It was up to them to stop the floods, maintain balance, and fix the mistakkes we've made. The Legendary Pokemon were meant to represent this: When they were removed from nature, the storms came as a sign of the imbalance. Keeping them captive and suppressed stops them from maintaining the balance that even WE need.

But the Freelancers are wrong with their plan as well: They want everything to break out of captivity, but they assume that peace will be restored; in truth, I don't think that will happen as they think it will. If they escape, we're still going to be back in the same hole we were before hand. The Legendaries still may cause the 'roblems' that provoked this response in the first place. The truth is Bishop, EnDoG is just as right and wrong as the Freelancers are...The only way we're going to find a solution to the problem is by figuring out a way to solve both problems. In truth, I think the real problem is trying to find a way to live in harmony with Pokemon. Both Humanity and Pokemon are guilty of crimes preventing this. Both sides have had their self-driven motives that have hurt the other, and even themselves: Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina all fought over their own quarrels, and that has hurt us in return. At the same time, we've fought wars and conflicts over our own interests, and that's, in return, hurt Pokemon,"

Jared paused to let Bishop think about what he'd already said. "Me and my associates are known and are somewhat 'respected' by both EnDoG and the Freelancers," Jared continued, hoping Bishop would see some sense, "We're willing to talk with the Freelancers if you're willing to listen to what we have to say: We don't want absolute control or freedom of Pokemon, and we don't want to start a war over this. The only way we're going to get everyone to be happy, and have both problems solved, is through knowledge and talk...and I'm not just referring to Humans...Look, I came here to give you my help, there's other things we can do other than diplomacy, but that's the main reason I came here...Got anything to say?"

Jared looked out of a window behind Bishop. Outside, the rain was beginning to pick up. EnDoG, and even the Freelancers, knew that their ideas had problems with them, and that both of them could learn much from the other side...Jared just hoped Bishop would at least take Jared's offer for help...

 

[Slipomatic]

Mithal Tales
Mew freelancer
Viridian Forest

It was here that she appreciated nature and pokemon. Although Viridian Forest had become denser and jungle like, it was places like this that truly tested the relationship between pokemon and humans. Although she hated to admit it, with recent news of various attacks by freelancers on ENDoG operations that she read in the papers, things were looking pretty grim. If freelancers kept up their way of operations, they would have another war waiting to happen. Too much bloodshed would come from innocent people and pokemon alike and things would never be the same. Pokemon would never trust a human ever again and the same would happen with humans. She sighed as she watched her pokemon sleeping peacefully near the campfire, with the exception of Snowy who was snoozing inside her tent. Mithal shook her head, trying to dispel the things she was imagining. They had to resolve this diplomatically, but with how things were going, getting to talk to a high official in the ENDoG was very unlikely, not without her being compromised.

She sighed as she climbed into her tent and quietly snuggled into her sleeping bag. She needed some sleep and thinking too much wouldn’t help anything. She slowly fell asleep, smiling softly as the last thing she saw before sleep took over was Snowy’s gentle smile as she slept.



Mithal looked around the landscape to see that the scenery had changed to a beach. Once again she saw ENDoG forces chasing Mew, but what scared her was that Mew seemed to be exhausted. There were several red marks on Mew and she didn’t seem to be in any good condition to be running anymore. Just before the officers shot her with suppressive tranquilizers, Mew teleported again and the scene changed to where she had teleported. The new scenery was very rocky and there were several rock and ground pokemon moving around. The lighting was very dark and soon she saw Mew collapse, too exhausted to continue. A few words escaped from her mouth and it surprised Mithal to the point she thought she misheard it. “Rescue me… Marked human…” The scenery faded, but Mithal could have sworn she felt the pains that laced Mew on herself.



Mithal woke up to the wringing of her pokegear. She grumbled as she heard Snowy wake up and make a complaint. She looked at the time on her pokegear and was irritated that it showed 3:00 AM in the morning. She answered it and said, “Crescent speaking. You have five seconds to explain to me why you called me at three in the morning.”

Her anger soon turned into astonishment as the caller said, “You won’t believe what we just found out. We have learned that the ENDoG have released both Ho-oh and Lugia to fix the weather issues in Hoenn region. We can have someone come pick you up and escort you here so you can help with us rescuing them from ENDoG.”

Her mind was a whirl and she quickly said, “I don’t think we should attempt to rescue them. It could be a trap to lure us freelancers into the open. I’m very sure that there are trackers on them as they wouldn’t release them with no strings attached. I suggest that you tell your comrades to hold on the operations and gather more information on them before attempting anything. Good night.”

She ended the phone call, still slightly irritated that her sleep was interrupted, but also that her dream was abruptly ended. She sighed as she tried to soothe Snowy who was grumpy and tried to go back to sleep. She definitely needed to get rid of her pokegear. It was calls like this that irritated her to no end. She fell into a dreamless sleep after her mind had stopped thinking too much.

 

[Avenger Angel]

Jonathan Bishop
Leader of ENDoG
ENDoG Headquarters Lobby, Saffron City, Kanto

"...You're definitely don't look like the demon my friends have been claiming you were," Jared told me. "...Your organization made a statement saying that they were looking for someone to come forward with negotiations with the Freelancers, so here I am."

"That's correct," I told him, wanting to know more about what exactly we were being targeted for.

"I know what your problem is: Unexpected attacks destroy the GWI project, much of the public distrusts you, and now they've convinced the rest of the Government to stop your investigation, and after all this, you're not the one who's responsible."

I understood that only a few people realized there was no reason for us to destroy our own geoengineering project. We were essentially framed by some third party, although any connection of it being tied to this group known as the Freelancers had not been confirmed. However, we could no longer verify that because of Hoenn sealing off the area from us.

"I'm part of a group that has connection to the Freelancers," He told me, not hesitant to reveal this. "I'm sure you think that they're the ones who are responsible, and they got lucky with the public accusing you of the attacks...These people who masterminded the attacks are more organized than you think. They've planned the whole thing out: The attacks, the response, and what's to come next. I didn't think much of their plan when they made it, but their plan to bring peace by eliminating you from the picture is no better than you trying to do the same: Its going to lead to more violence and more damage if someone doesn't try to do something about it. It took the reactions from both sides of the public to see that."

I couldn't help but shake my head in disbelief. Even if ENDoG was removed from the picture, too much has happened for it to change anything. If ENDoG fell apart, some other group would try to continue the work we started. Even so, there was no way we could go back to the way things used to be. We had lead society to a changed and more civilized way of life.

"You wanted someone to negotiate with you, and that's why I'm here," He told me. "The truth is, if you try to meet with the Freelancers in this state, they're bound to either shoot or run on sight. The group I represent doesn't want anything else other than for the crisis to end, and the truth is, neither the plans that EnDoG or the Freelancers have come up with will work without heavy costs to both sides. Your plan...well, I think you can see the result of that already; nature is made up of inter-dependencies, with both Humans and 'Mon. The world cant function properly with the ecosystem disrupted in a scale like we've made it; taking away Pokemon's ability to function the way nature had made them creates what you're dealing with now. It was up to them to stop the floods, maintain balance, and fix the mistakes we've made. The Legendary Pokemon were meant to represent this: When they were removed from nature, the storms came as a sign of the imbalance. Keeping them captive and suppressed stops them from maintaining the balance that even WE need."

I couldn't help but take a glance outside. Ever since Ho-oh and Lugia were released, nothing had changed. Everything was still the same. The rain was still beating against the windows, the streets were still a wet mess and barely anyone was outside. Was the solution really to release all the legendary Pokémon? With the current state of affairs, it was as if we had no choice. But I found it hard to trust them after what they've done and what they were capable of. To have power that would put mankind at their mercy... at the mercy of creatures that in several cases, could not be reasoned with.

"But the Freelancers are wrong with their plan as well: They want everything to break out of captivity, but they assume that peace will be restored; in truth, I don't think that will happen as they think it will," He told me. "If they escape, we're still going to be back in the same hole we were before hand. The Legendaries still may cause the 'problems' that provoked this response in the first place. The truth is Bishop, EnDoG is just as right and wrong as the Freelancers are...The only way we're going to find a solution to the problem is by figuring out a way to solve both problems. In truth, I think the real problem is trying to find a way to live in harmony with Pokemon. Both Humanity and Pokemon are guilty of crimes preventing this. Both sides have had their self-driven motives that have hurt the other, and even themselves: Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina all fought over their own quarrels, and that has hurt us in return. At the same time, we've fought wars and conflicts over our own interests, and that's, in return, hurt Pokemon."

He was right about this, but there was no real, solid solution. In truth, I thought the solution would have been to keep the legendary Pokémon contained. Alive, but contained. But with the storms, it seemed that unless all legendary Pokémon were free, the world would start to fall apart.

It had seemed they were right when they said "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

"Me and my associates are known and are somewhat 'respected' by both EnDoG and the Freelancers," He told me, trying to find middle ground between us and the Freelancers. "We're willing to talk with the Freelancers if you're willing to listen to what we have to say: We don't want absolute control or freedom of Pokemon, and we don't want to start a war over this. The only way we're going to get everyone to be happy, and have both problems solved, is through knowledge and talk...and I'm not just referring to Humans...Look, I came here to give you my help, there's other things we can do other than diplomacy, but that's the main reason I came here...Got anything to say?"

"I believe the public was made aware that I recently released Lugia and Ho-oh in hopes the weather issues would be resolved," I told him, telling him my thoughts. "It seems, however, that this was not enough. However, if the legendaries are to be released, we need to monitor them. Watch where they are, and be able to suppress them immediately if they get out of control. The legendaries will need to learn they should not use their powers intrusively over humans."

But the question was, would the Freelancers really be satisfied with that? I really did not have a solid way of being able to tell, but it would be a start.

"Lugia and Ho-oh were both released with a NEEM collar and a tracking beacon attached to them," I told the mediator. "Until they can prove to us they're trustworthy, we need to monitor them at all time, especially in this case. We are not sure if they would seek retaliation for this. So far, from what I've been told, Ho-oh and Lugia have been cooperative, and have not flown near human locations. Other legendaries might not be the same. We would need such technology to ensure some legends, like Groudon and Kyogre, do not war with each other and destroy cities in their reckless crossfire. Trying to stop them with anything other than NEEM technology may be borderline impossible and impose serious risk."

Trying to get the legendaries to return to a cooperative state would be difficult, and would be a time-consuming process. However, I was not blind to the amount of damage the storms were doing, and every passing minute was another minute closer toward the moment where we would completely run out of time. In truth, the longer we waited, the greater the possibility that they might not be able to return things to normal.

"However, this would be my limit," I told the mediator. "For the preservation of everything, our only option is to release the legendaries. But I do not trust them enough to go unmonitored and untracked. At least... not yet. And while the Freelancers may harshly disagree with this, things will not return to normal regarding the training and violent battling of Pokémon. We cannot return to that kind of state. That culture is a thing of the past, a blemish of violence on the history of humanity. Things like this... they must remain buried."

With the geoengineering plan having been destroyed, this was the only option. Hamlin had already confirmed the chances of us being able to implement another geoengineering alternative was extremely unlikely. Very soon, entire towns would fall apart, and people would start dying by the millions. The very problems we had tried to prevent would happen regardless.

The Freelancers, however, might not agree to the fact that we would still have the on and off switch at our fingertips to control the legendaries. They would be free, but they would be watched and monitored. Just like Arceus had the ability to monitor us, the same should be in our case in order for trust to be established. This could not be a one-way street we were forced into.

It wasn't long until I had been approached by Patrick Hamlin, who had seen me in the lobby speaking to the mediator. I could tell from the look on his face that things seemed to enrapture him in anxiety. The uncertainty of the situation was stressful, knowing so much was riding on single decisions.

"President Bishop," He told me, standing beside me. "I hate to say it, but we've confirmed there's been absolutely no change in the weather situation. Lugia and Ho-oh seem to be in a kind of weakened and reclusive state, and from the monitoring, don't have the strength to resolve the storms."

"It seems they're part of a linked hierarchy," I told Hamlin, releasing the situation. "Releasing one or two isn't doing to do it. It seems they all need to be released..."

"You... are you absolutely sure you want to do that?" Hamlin asked, surprised that we needed to go all the way with this now.

"Hamlin, look outside," I told him, just watching the windows being pelted with rain. "Tomorrow, this could become hailstones bigger than our fists. Or god-forbid, earthquakes that swallow entire cities whole. The problems we were attempting to prevent are only being caused by our own actions."

Hamlin had a mix of feelings. In truth, I could sense he felt it was his fault. The reason why the geoengineering plan had failed when it might have been able to resolve this. I, however, began to feel that might not be the case anymore.

"Legendary Pokémon are hard to trust, Bishop," He told me. "What's your plan going to be?"

"We do the same thing we did with them as we did with Lugia and Ho-oh," I told him. "We track them, and we make sure that if they start abusing their strengths and powers, they can be taken away. Legendary Pokémon must be made to understand that all life is precious. If they prove they cannot responsibly control their own powers, that control will fall into someone else's hands."

I knew the Freelancers might feel we shouldn't have that kind of power over Pokémon, but in truth, they shouldn't have that kind of power over us either. Things needed to be even, fair, and reasonable for understanding to come to light. Being passive and submissive would result in us becoming thrown aside in time. We had to take a stand in some way.

"The Freelancers must be made aware of this," I told the mediator. "Unfortunately, we do not have the time to debate about this any further. The weather situation is already starting to reach a lethal state, and every passing minute that we don't take action could result in hundreds of people dead and millions of dollars worth of damage being done."

We simply did not have the time and resources to create another solution. This was all we had left...

 

[DVB]

Diego Vendrix
Darkrai Freelancer
Snowpoint City Community Center

Diego had been hanging around and doing an assortment of odd jobs for some money. It was simple if not slightly tedious but the money was good. As he pocketed the money, he noticed something drop out of the sky. Diego subtly left the building and approached it. It was for him. He looked around and saw no one had noticed it. Not a big surprise considering the snow storm starting to kick in. Diego had took it to the outskirts as he listened to the per-recorded messege. It had been hours since he heard from them. He knew they wouldn't respond so soon unless there was a really good reason. Apparently, there was a massive rumor that Ho-Oh and Lugia were released.

Diego nearly dropped the thing. He was in shock. Why would they do that? Was it because of the incident in Mossdeep? Now Diego was thinking about what they could do. He wasn't sure Ho-Oh and Lugia would help with the storm, since it began before the Legendaries were kidnapped. The storm... it was behind all of this... He needed to find out who was... Unless... the ancient legend was true. He paled substantially. He decided to take a gambit. Angel still wasn't completely restored ad he wasn't going to try and fly in a snow storm, so he would bide his time while looking for Uxie. After the storm, he would head to Saffron.

He needed to speak to Bishop. He headed back to the Community Center after destroying the tape recorder. The only other bit of news was that because of Hoemn severing their ties with ENDoG, the NEEM devices were starting to be removed and such, which made his brother's organization grow in strength and technology.

 

[Wile E. Coyote]

OOC: Short post is short, but I couldn't think of much to do for a travel post.

Marleena Feyr
ENDoG Assasin
City Limits, Eterna City, Sinnoh

The unwieldy car braked cleanly to a stop at the hotel. Theoretically, Kendra Burges was going to attend the conference that would be taking place here, some kind of event that always ended up with secretaries walking around on their phones as they relayed the desires of their bosses. But not for me. I was a ship which would be sailing to my own destiny. Sargent Steele and I walked out, walking straight into the hotel. Both of us were still in civilian dress, and made it straight to the bathrooms in the hotel. Personell only looked at us for a second, the glance of the mindless machine that kept society floating. We each walked into each our respective bathrooms, and we suited up. I changed out of my civilian clothes and into my combat suit. The tight suit was zipped up, resting just below my collarbones. I pulled the helmet over my scarred face, and turned on the HUD only to check if any messages had been left for me. Nope, nothing.

Sneaking out the back doors of the hotel establishment, we both climbed into the Armored Personell Carrier waiting behind the hotel. After climbing in, and the vehicle started speeding off, I pulled the helmet off, waiting for the moment that we would arrive in Snowpoint City. The mission was underway now. I looked at my team, who had come in the carrier for a mission introduction and update. I stood up, in the rolling vehicle, and each of them snapped their attention straight to me. I smiled. "Gentlemen, this is a mission that has been given top priority by Jonathan Bishop himself. I don't tolerate slackers or disobedience. You aren't here to think too much, you're muscle. Have I made myself clear?" A loud and responseful, "YES MA'AM" echoed through the vehicle. "Good. Then let me explain what I'm going to do."

 

[gmoyes]

Alex Morgan
Registeel Freelancer
Mt. Silver

Alex and Craig took care to stow the former soldier and his former sargent's rifles behind a pile of rocks. If Craig was supposed to be his 'hostage' it would look odd if he was carrying a weapon, also Alex would have a hard time carrying two rifles. They kept his pistol though after Craig examined it. "A Browning. Not bad, this might work." The both hoped it would work.

They left the cavern leaving Sargent MacIntyre's body for the wild pokemon. Alex took one last look at the *******. All of the bullets he shot hit the man on the left side of his back. His stomach clenched and he turned back to the tunnel. Returning his Masquerain the scientist and the former soldier went up the tunnel. It was time to leave the past behind and help the future.

***

Alex had Glitch send a message back to the soldiers holding his colleagues explaining that it would take a little while for him to get there and that he had Private Sweet captive and that everyone else was dead. He stated that first they would have a a prisoner exchange, then move onto the information and pokemon. He didn't get a reply but he hoped they listened. Glitch also produced proof that Craig's story was true: the footage showed him firing off to the side and also after a little more digging, his arrest notes. Sure enough, they matched his story, being charged with trafficing and distrubuting illeagal goods.

He wasn't lying about that it might take a while to get there. The caves were a maze and the were a fair distance from where they were to meet. They spent the time taken to get there discusing their plan of action. Though after a while it came around to themselves.

"So Alex, you've compeated in the Hoenn league? I must say, those must have been the days."

"They certainly were, though those days are long over. They only thing I have left of those days is Theta and Wind and a bunch of old trainer supplies. All of them are getting battered and scarred." He sighed. "Used to work for Proffessor Elm too. Glitch was from that era. Thoughout that time I furthered my studies of non-biological pokemon. And then, they came. ENDoG."

"What happened?"

"They were just starting to get off the ground and they needed help. I was hired into their Research and Developement sector. Those cursed NEEM machines... I helped create them. Some of the basic coding I wrote myself. But when I realized what they were going to be used for... I had to get out of there. I tried to but... I got caught." He closed his eyes and shuddered. "There were machines that were never put out to the public. Machines that were horrible to pokemon. They tried out a machine that could take away all the powers of a pokemon. Forever, without needing to be attached. They had Wind hooked out to one. Theta's punishment was more personal. They managed to disable its side units."

"Which does... what?"

Alex rolled his eyes. "A Magnezone is formed from fusing the three bodies of a Magneton. The way the species stuctured, there are different varients of Magnemite, A, B and C which go along with their special ablities. C varents are rare so I won't bother with them now. Anyway, B varents produce energy while A varents consume it. This, supported by A types being less common and more of a leader means that there are practically no Magnezone with two or more A's. The A's would fight to be the main unit and wouldn't be able to supply enough power to support itself. So Magnezones usually have three B's or an A and two B's. Theta has an A and that A has been with me from the very beginning of my training."

Craig nodded. "So if the two side units aren't working the A main unit doesn't have enough energy to power itself. Wow, that's harsh."

Alex gave a sad nod back. "Everytime Thata's out of its pokeball, it's like its drowning." He sighed and looked ahead.

After a pause Craig broke the silence. "So how did you escape?"

"From ENDoG?" He gave a little smirk. "Glitch, who else? It can hack into anything and its own pokeball os no exception. It saved all of us but sadly it was too late for my guys. Wind can only pull off the most basic attacks and Theta... you know..."

"Yeah..." They both treked ahead for a little bit before Craig broke the silence. "I remember the Safari in Fuchsia. The wild pokemon there... now it's just a freaking zoo." He sighed. "How did this happen?"

"Technology, fear and a lack of communication. The ENDoG forces have forgotten that pokemon have their own thoughts and feelings and that battling is part of who they are. You don't tell a professional boxer to quit just because he hurting his opponent. Pain is part of the sport no matter what it is. And doesn't the saying go 'no pain, no gain'?"

"Hmmm... yeah, well, they have a point about protecting people from wild pokemon. They could seriously hurt someone."

Alex shook his head. "You'd be surpised at how many clashes between humans and pokemon are the fault of the humans. People need to find troubles before they come back to bite us in the ***."

"Yeah... well I hope we can get this problem sorted out alright."

***

Corporal Conley was waiting patently, keeping his rifle trained on the two bound captives sitting on the ground, while his partner, Corporal Maxwell, found cover behind a stack of steel girders watching the tunnels for the Freelancer and the Private. He was glad they got a few lanterns set lighting the area, it would be a nightmare fighting in the dark. A small duffle bag sat closeby containing a couple of pokemon inside pokeballs they confisated from the kids. It was all done to protcol. They would get what they wanted and leave no witnesses.

He had rolled his eyes when he got the reply from the professor. Of course Sweet would get captured. He bet he practically leaped into the enemy's arms so he wouldn't have to fight. The sucker, he was useless and if it wasn't for the fact that this scientist had information they could use, they would just take what they had and leave. They already lost too many men and they would need to report the base to their superiors. If this didn't get him promoted, nothing would.

"They're taking a while," Maxwell spoke from his post. "Want to threaten these two to get them to hurry up?"

"Just wait and focus, these Freelancers are unpredictable. You heard about the base attack near Celestic. We need to be prepared."

"Yes sir." While they were techically the same rank, Conley was the leader of their pairing. And now that the sargent is dead, it looked like he was the leader of the entire squad. And he wasn't going to sit around, he was going to get this done.

Just then a voice echoed up one of the tunnels. "We're coming, just wait up." Maxwell automatically adjusted his aim to cover the tunnel. Conley smirked to himself, the man didn't abandon his teammates and that was his downfall. He didn't go save his own hide. Now he had to surrender himself and who said they had to release their own captives? They didn't have anywhere to run.

"Ok, we're here," the same voice said as two men emerged from the tunnel. One was obviously Private Sweet, not looking that happy with his hand tied behind his back. The professor looked almost like he imagined, short with glasses and a dirty old lab coat, but there was one main difference: one of their men's assult rifles in his hands with it barrel resting on the private's shoulder pointing at his head. The man seemed determined, not a usual look on a scientist. The man spoke. "You guys can see my gun and I can see your's. Let's get this over with. Liam! Chris! You guys ok?"

"As ok as you can be with a gun to your head," Chris, the one with short hair, spoke up earning a chuckle from the long haired Liam and a glare from his captor.

"Ok then," the professor said, "how do you guys want to do this? May I suggest all of us put down our guns, starting with him." He gestured over to the soldier behind the steel beams.

The soldier looked over to his partner and got a nod in response and dropped it over the pile and went to stand by his partner who silently cursed him for getting too far from his weapon. "Ok," Conley said, "how do you want us to do it then?"

Strangely the man gave a shrug. "Drop at arms lenght and kick at the same time? Is that standard?"

He smirked. He couldn't believe this guy, he must have got all of knowledge of fighting through reading. He seemed exactly that type of person. "Haven't had many negoiations have you?"

"Quite frankly, no, not to this scale. So let's get this over with. Together ok?" He decided to humor the man and held his rifle out. "Now." As one the opposing sides dropped their guns and let them clatter to the ground before kicking them ahead.

"Ok professor, now I believe you have a choice to make," he gestured to the two kids beside him. "Which do you want for the private?"

The man looked around at the soldiers and the captives and made a decision. "Chris."

The kid, dispite the situation, flashed a smirk at his colleague as he was pulled to his feet by Maxwell, just because he was chosen instead of him. The kid sure was cocky but they needed him. At least, until he was no long useful as a barganing tool. "Together again right? Go!" Maxwell gave the boy a shove causing him to stumble forward while the scientist gave Sweet a nudge to get going. The two hostages passed each other at the halfway point and gave each other a nod before going to stand beside their teammates. "I'll deal with you later," Conley muttered to the private. The man looked away, most likely in shame and stood beside him quietly. "Ok, now for your pokemon."

Then he heard an ominous click and felt something metal press against his head. "I don't think so Conley."

It was the private. The kid had betrayed the squad and had a gun to his head. Now that he thought about it, he never actually saw Sweet's hands tied up. Angry, he looked across the cave and saw the professor smirking. They had planned this all along. "Traitor," he hissed.

"Kind of hard to be a traitor if I was never-"

In that instant the soldier made his move.

 

[strategiser24]

OOC: Sorry for the delay again, things are getting busy in school and elsewhere with the end of the year only a few months away.

Jared Darnell
Black Market/Other Party
EnDoG Headquarters, Saffron City, Kanto

"The Freelancers must be made aware of this," Bishop told Jared, still unaware of Jared's name. "Unfortunately, we do not have the time to debate about this any further. The weather situation is already starting to reach a lethal state, and every passing minute that we don't take action could result in hundreds of people dead and millions of dollars worth of damage being done."

"You're right,...by the way, my name is Jared, Jared Darnell. I think we missed the introduction,...But listen, just because of PART of our past with them hasn't been so well, that doesn't mean they can't be trusted. The real truth is that Pokemon aren't just alternate beings that we subjugate; the Freelancers represent all the people who've had Pokemon taken away by our belief that they're inferior. I don't know what's in your past, but the truth is that you're only seeing one side of this whole story...Why can't you see that," Jared continued, standing up, "The question isn't who's superior, but can we let ourselves be equals; there are things you need to learn as much as the rest of us do. You're meant to help people, but all you've done so far is divide people and make 'rebels:' Have you ever considered this side of the story? We're just as much a part of the ecosystem as Pokemon are. The public might've seen your reasoning, and supported you in your endeavour up to this point, but now many of them are convinced that this was wrong; there have been times in history when we've thought our ideas were right, but in action, they've failed: Communism, for example...But you're still right: the tradition of battling was something not even our ancestors did. It was brutal and unnecessary, and its what led to using them for dominance before this happened: All that we want is a compromise: Both you and the Freelancers are right and wrong in your ideas, but we both can learn from the other...Are you so stubborn that you won't even consider this?!"

Jared paused and looked around and saw that the people behind Bishop had begun to whisper in response to Jared...Hopefully not all of them thought Jared was some madman. "Nice speech," someone said, unimpressed, "...Are we don-"

"Shut up!" someone else yelled, "Let the man speak,"

Jared sat back down on the bench and collected himself. "Look, all I'm trying to say is that God is just as unhappy with us as Arceus is for what we're doing; Pokemon are more than just sports or tools or weapons to some people. Forcing people to believe that they're inferior by doing what you're doing is just as much as an inhumanity as battling might be," Jared continued, "You put an end to battling because you thought it was a threat to our safety and it was cruel to Pokemon, but all you've done is make the same problems in another way; the NEEM collars and captivity you've put Pokemon under isn't any better Bishop, and as far as I can see, our safety is now at a greater risk with the terrorist attacks, and now the weather...Is that the fault of Pokemon, or is that OUR fault? Aren't both our past and present with Pokemon OUR fault?...And now you're going to drag us down into the apocalypse because you can't trust the Legendaries enough to save us. WHy? Because they're inferior?...Maybe I'm wrong, but that isn't up to you: Its not up to me, you, EnDoG, the Freelancers, the Pokemon League, the Government, or anyone else: Its up to the people, to everyone. The people want to think they way they want to, so let them. Let them not have Pokemon, or let them be with their friends, and lets trust the Legendaries as much as they may have trusted us, a trust that you destroyed...Lets learn from each other, both EnDoG and the Freelancers, AND Humans and Pokemon,"

Jared went quiet as he thought to himself about what he'd just said; how he managed to come up with such a statement in a matter of minutes, he couldn't know...but all he hoped at this point was that Bishop was willing to do what he proposed: Learn from both sides.

 

[R.I. Saraibre]

OOC: Crap post is crappy.

Shay Miru
Giratina Freelancer
???, Unova

I wasn’t sure how long I had been out, but it felt like I was floating in whatever kind of reality I found myself stuck in that I seemed to be able to enter at will…by some unknown force. I didn’t know how I was able to do this, but for some reason, I felt it had something to do with that weird feeling I was having inside my chest. The only reason I came to was I felt a shaking on my shoulders, and even though I was awake I felt tired again. Somehow Asharas had gotten out of her ball and into this weird space with me. She looked as confused what I did, and as we moved around, all we saw were more mirrors or, reflections of some kind; windows back into the real world, of what I assumed was the real world. My black and red Charizard at my back was half carrying me around everywhere, unsure of what solid ground was or if it even existed. All the ‘windows’ looked like shiny, reflections from the other side of things, like some kind of mirror world in a dark grey. On one side, the reflections were white and showed the world I knew, but the other side, I noticed were a dark, violet purple.

I was drawn to the other side, and whenever I stared into the ominous veil, I knew something behind there, whatever it was, was in bad shape. Whatever or wherever was beyond it, was in chaos. I moved my hand closer to it, trying to see if anything was going to happen, half hoping nothing would but I wasn’t even sure if any of this was real. The closer I moved my hand, I could feel something resonating and shifting. I almost made contact with the mirror when a searing pain shot up my arm, and an unknown force threw me and Asharas backwards.

The next thing I saw was some crumbling, alternate universe, very dark and with energy rifts here and there. Something flew by, and as it did, it seemed behind it looked a little bit better than before, though it didn’t look like much of an improvement. The vision felt so familiar, but so vague, as if I knew where it was coming from. I wanted to help whatever it was, and for a moment I was sure I saw it’s face. My mind faded into a dark and I heard voices in my head, someone’s voice that was strange to me. It wasn’t clear, but it was something about Ho-oh and Lugia being free…?

I wasn’t sure, but I came round and was near another window, seeing the weather outside getting worse. If there was only a way that I could find Rayquaza…even without the other legendaries, he could calm the skies enough to give us some time to release the others. I was going to need to check the facility in what I assumed was the Relic Castle, as the Shadow Triad so easily told me. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get there, but if no one could see or find me in this…reality, there wasn’t really any need to come out yet.

“Right so…we’re still around where we were jumped…I wonder if possibly there is a small ENDoG hub somewhere that I can see from in here…”

My Charizard insisted she fly me around and as much as I objected, she still picked me up, and put me on her back and started to fly in one direction. As we explored this odd world, I checked the windows every so often to have an idea of where we were. This world seemed to be a backwards representation of the one we were just in, and felt like we were in some perpetual space that was reminiscent of a swimming pool.

I knew that I was going to need a plan, of some kind, after all, just trying to find Rayquaza and getting a giant, hundred foot dragon out with a bit of a territorial streak wasn’t going to be easy, never mind anything else with ENDoG and trying not to die or get shot…what a wonderful life I decided to lead. I could try bringing the giant dragon into this place but I seemed to have a hard enough time getting myself in here with my Pokémon, never mind a giant serpentine godly beast. I would have been able to get into the place fine if I used this freaky power I had, and out…it was just the dragon. I could of tried capturing it but knowing my luck ENDoG already had it registered in a Pokeball of some kind. Maybe Rayquaza was kept in there the majority of the time, knowing it being a constant flying being, being grounded and in a cage would make it incredibly agitated, but better suppress his powers.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of muffled speech, again sounding like it was under water. Asharas picked up on it better than I could, and followed it as best she could until we came to a tiny mirror window thing. I looked through it, seeing the inside of a very small, medical vehicle, one with a door open that allowed me to see a bit outside, where chairs and people in uniforms were standing around.

“They look familiar…” I mused to myself, ducking instinctively even though in hindsight, I had no need to.

“They can’t have just vanished.” One of them yelled. “That’s what we’re gonna put on the report? The trainer just, disappeared?”

I felt very smug with myself right now and I knew my Charizard was giving me looks, but I was too busy watching in slight amusement. Some soldiers walked in and out of the vehicle, of what I was assuming was a rather large, all terrain vehicle if it had space for a small medical bench in it. I could barely hear the rest of the conversation beyond the truck, but from what was going on, I could tell they were getting ready to pack up and go. I looked at Asharas and she had the same idea I had: stay with the little window and follow it, and it’ll take us closer to the base they had nearby and we would be able to find some information.

“Rally up, we’re moving out.”

The car packed in quickly and I watched as in moments the vehicle fill itself up. With soldiers sitting with their firearms at rest, the ATV began to move, and furthermore, so did my window. Asharas unfolded her wings once again and started after them, keeping up with the car at a decent pace and keeping close. We were only following the shiny speck of a mirror to go on, and hopefully it was going to pay off.

 

[Avenger Angel]

Jonathan Bishop
Leader of ENDoG
ENDoG Headquarters Lobby, Saffron City, Kanto

Jared Darnell lead a compelling debate, but the problem was he imagined a world, a perfect world, where things that were simply impossible could always come to pass. As much as I would have liked a world that could establish so much trust and honesty, it could never happen. In a sense, he had good ideals and intentions, but in the scope of reality, laws existed for a reason. There were those that would always attempt to disrupt the system. To destroy it, and seize it in their grasp as they bullied the rest of the world into submission. To be so open and liberal would allow the wicked to take advantage of it.

"In essence, I can agree with some of what you said, Jared, but I cannot agree with all of it," I told him, knowing this is how I felt. "You imagine a world were all is peaceful, no laws are necessary because no one harms another, and leadership is unnecessary because everyone agrees with each other. Regrettably so, this is not the kind of world we live in."

Setting that thought aside, I could sense Jared Darnell seemed to side more with the Freelancers, believing everything ENDoG had done was unwarranted and only damaged the situation. I could not honestly say he saw things from our side of the conflict. I could not revoke everything I had put in place simply on Freelancer ideology alone.

"The weather disruption was an unforeseen circumstance," I told Jared, knowing this apocalyptic weather was not my intention at all. "The situation always seems to be a double-edged sword, or as they usually put it, 'damned if we do, damned if we don't.' I wish it did not need to be like this, but the only option is to take the least damaging alternative."

As in releasing the legendaries and hoping on a prayer they did not become unruly. In the meantime, I could sense that Jared Darnell did not believe in the principle of leadership. However, in the mix of people with varying opinions and beliefs, someone had to be the decider and the director, or nothing could be accomplished.

"But the NEEM collars, the regulations, and the ban on battling... this has to remain," I told him, knowing I would not reverse that decision no matter what kind of ideology was presented before me. "The terrorist attacks are the actions of disillusioned madmen, not sane and competent individuals that should be leveraging global decisions. If they discover that they can change the world with violence and death, then that will be the path the new world will head down, and that's simply something I will not allow to happen. But if you feel we truly are in the wrong by using NEEM collars, then the alternative is to not own Pokémon at all. If we really are equals, then no one should be claiming ownership over the other. Is this what you would rather have?"

It would not be an easy question to answer. And there was no "perfect" solution either. The one Jared Darnell imagined simply did not exist, and never would. Conflicting opinions and disagreements turned into arguments, and then... into violence and war. And in a world with so many people and Pokémon, not all decisions and beliefs could be unanimous. It had to come down to what was best for the greater good.

And then, it seemed like everything had gone wrong in such a short amount of time...

Moments later, the alarm had sounded in the building, and then, throughout the entire town as an air raid alarm suddenly echoed throughout the entire city. I looked to one of the other guards, who seemed just as perplexed as I did. But then, I heard a message receive tone on my phone, followed by a second, and then a third. When I pulled it out amongst the panicked employees in the building, I heard Arnold Lomax on the other line, suddenly panicking.

"Jonathan, you've got to get somewhere safe!" He told me, suddenly very stressed. "Underground, if possible! It's Hoenn. They've gone insane, declaring war and using some kind of biological weapon all over the southern seaboard! Everything in Fuchsia, Cinnabar, and Vermillion has gone cold! It's only a matter of time before they hit central Kanto with whatever the hell they're dropping down there!"

"What!?" I exclaimed, wondering why they would do this, "What is the basis of the attack!? Why hasn't the military done anything yet!?"

"I... I don't know, dammit," He replied, very tense. "We lost contact with them only a few minutes ago. Meanwhile, we have no idea what the hell that biological weapon is doing either. Everyone in the ground zero zones isn't responding!"

It could have been they were already dead. Among the panic, I could not help but think... did Hoenn believe we were trying to cause the disruptive weather on purpose? Like this was our method of leveraging control? Or was it something else... some other darker motivation that would likely ravage countless lives and cities? Still, something told me that even if it wasn't related to the storms, this would likely result in a war that would be far more costly than anyone could ever imagine.

"We have no choice but to release the legendaries," I told Lomax. "I do not know if Hoenn is using this attack because they believe we are responsible for the storms. But we have no time either way. Send the order to have every legendary released with the tracking beacon and remote NEEM collar under DEFCON Red Seven authorization. It may not be enough but it is all we have."

"I understand," Lomax replied. "This whole thing... dammit, it never should have been like this."

He hung up a second after, and I knew if Hoenn was that furious and that enraged that they were willing to do something like this, it would not be long before they would hit Saffron City. If they were trying to do the most damage possible, I knew this would be where they would hit...

I was sure that Jared Darnell, seeing all of this now around him, would realize the world he dreamed would never come to pass...

 

[Slipomatic]

OOC: Hope you didn't mind if I threw in the response that Kanto army has.

Mithal Tales
Mew Freelancer
Viridian Forest

Morning had come and Mithal felt very restless. Coupled with the early call, she wasn’t in a good mood. Her pokemon were aware of her crankiness and didn’t do much aside from staring at her cautiously. If she wasn’t so caught up in her thoughts about the nightmare, she would have laughed at her pokemon for being so afraid of her. Then again, last time she let her anger get the better of her, her pokemon ended up with hurt ears due to her shouting almost non-stop. Mithal, preoccupied, started a small fire and started reheating last night soup and brought out some pokemon food. While her pokemon ate food, she absentmindedly flipped through the pokegear functions and accidently went to the radio function. The news that came through it caused her to drop the phone in shock.

“We have received reports that the Hoenn army has begun attacking Kanto in retaliation of the destruction of the Mossdeep shuttles and the damage from the extreme weather conditions. Hoenn has launched some kind of missiles against the southern Kanto borders, causing Cinnabar Island, Fuschia and Vermillion City to experience extreme cold temperatures. The Kanto army is shocked at this invasion and has issued an evacuation. All civilians are asked to evacuate to the nearest war shelter. Kanto’s troops are being deployed right now to Pallet Town, Celadon City, Lavender Town, Vermillion City, and Fuschia City, in an effort to increase the defenses. Word has come that the Hoenn army is after the ENDoG Corporation which is based in Saffron City."

There were some background noises and then a different voice spoke saying, “Attention all citizens of Kanto. We are issuing a region lockdown. All citizens will not be able to leave Kanto for any reason. All boats leaving and coming into the Kanto region will be detained and searched for possible weapons of destruction. Anyone caught attempting to cross the border into the Johto region will be considered a spy working for Hoenn. Also, all news will now be controlled by the Kanto army to better inform you of the situation at hand."

After that, there was static. Mithal numbly turned off the radio and looked at her equally shocked friends and whispered, “This isn’t good. I need to make a few phone calls…”

Mithal walked back into her tent, ignoring the soup and made a few calls to various underground freelancer bases that she had come across during her travels and tried to get them to evacuate to the Johto region using teleport to bypass the security placed. She had mixed responses to her calls, some heeding to the warning and others refusing, saying that it was the perfect moment to strike ENDoG. When she was done with her calls, she walked back out of the tent, packed it up and returned most of her pokemon, leaving only Visor out. She softly asked, “Do you know how Mount Silver looks like?” She got a slight nod from Visor and she said, “I need you to teleport me there. As much as I want to rescue Mew right now, finding Mew will have to wait since if I die, then Mew won’t have a person to help her.” Visor nodded and they glowed softly before disappearing into thin air.

 

[Avenger Angel]

John Larkin
ENDoG Tactics Advisor
Celadon City, Kanto

Hysteria was everywhere. People in panic, cars locked in traffic, screaming, looting, and general idiocy everywhere in Celadon. I had to shove my way through the crowds just to move around. One jackass in particular wouldn't let me through until I shoved my hand in his face and pushed him aside. Another woman screaming for her lost son Daniel, some idiot barking orders with a gun thinking that was actually going to make people move out of the way faster, and another prick shouting something in a megaphone that was only being drowned out by all the screaming. I only managed to make it into the Celadon City department store after throwing a god-forsaken flower pot through one of the windows. People were running out of there in a panic when it was probably one of the safer places to be.

And dammit, region-wide lockdown!? Were these bastards kidding? Damn you, Hoenn, for being nothing but a bunch of accusing, murderous pricks! In the meantime, this sitting duck tactic was suicide. Unfortunately, I wasn't even near the damn border so even if I wanted to screw the lockdown, I wasn't getting out of here any time soon.

Those Hoenn jackasses made Bishop release the legendaries. Damn the Freelancers, I wouldn't put it past them to have influenced Hoenn's high-horse leaders or whatever thing they had going on. And Bishop was too damn much of a softie for this kind of thing. Those bastards got what they wanted, what the hell else were they looking for now? Holy crap, these people would never be satisfied until they had everything.

And damn it, all I could do was just make calls. Just trying to figure out what in god's name just happened. It was nothing but anarchy for a whole solid hour and no answer the entire time. I tried calling Derek, hoping some piece of him was left back in Vermillion. All I heard from the media was that the biological weapon was so strong that they couldn't even film those areas. What the hell was Hoenn even firing at us?

"Come on, Derek, pick up the damn phone," I growled, impatiently waiting through the tone.

"...John? John, is that you?" Derek asked.

"Derek, what the hell's goin' on down there?" I asked him, hoping for a real answer this time.

"John... f*ck man, everything's gone to sh*t over here," Derek spat. "Liquid nitrogen, or some other... I don't know man, everything's frozen dead over here! I was in a parking deck when it happened and next thing I know, everything's frozen over. Like a f*ckin' ice age or something!"

Crap, I've never heard of any weapon doing this before. What kind of sick message what this anyway? "ENDoG, you're guilty just because we say you are, now suck some liquid nitrogen down and go screw yourself?" What the hell was it now?

"But John... jeezus, John, you haven't heard the end of it," Derek told me. "I just got a call from Dave Sanders in Cinnabar. Apparently they weren't hit with the same weapon we were. He mentioned something... something acidic for crissakes. He said he overheard something about people melting or some sh*t."

"Great, just what we freakin' needed," I growled. "Rescue workers aren't gonna to be prepared for a dozen different epidemics all across the region. I bet that was Hoenn's plan all along."

Bastards, the whole lot of them. Were they just going to kill Bishop and leave it at that? It made we wonder why they didn't strike Saffron first, and just slaughter an ungodly amount of people right then and there. I could bet they were sick in the head and just wanted Bishop to see everything fall apart around him before they killed him too. Or even worse, just found a way for him to live through the whole cesspool of insanity.

"Derek, wherever the hell you are, stay there," I told him, not even sure if he had heard about the lockdown. "They ain't lettin' us leave either."

I knew I had to head underground. That was the only way to survive this whole mess.

 

[strategiser24]

OOC: Didn't write full post for Wagner since I don't have time at the moment. I'll write the full conversation in my next post.

Jared Darnell
Other Party/Black Market
EnDoG Headquarters, Saffron City, Kanto

...This wasn't part of the plan...or was it? Did Wagner really intend for war to break out? Did he really foresee this happening? Was the Police Chief aware of this?...Too many questions sprung around in Jared's brain as he tried to think clearly among the panic. Obviously, Harris had really gone and made Hoenn angry, and it seemed there was another vote to declare war shortly after the previous one...Though Jared was involved with the events, it didn't seem like a compromise was going to happen at this point. "Hey! Negotiator man!" someone yelled to Jared, "If you've got a speech to convince everyone out of this, now's the time!"

Jared put his hands to his face as he sat on the bench and tried to think if there was a way through this twist. After a few minutes, Jared suddenly grabbed his forehead as a headache came upon him suddenly. Most people were distracted by what was happening, but the few that weren't looked at Jared and sw what looked like him writhing from a severe headache. After a minute, someone approached Jared, unsure what was wrong. "...Does this mean you don't have anything?" he asked.

Trying to think clearly, Jared stood up and looked out the lobby window at the crazed street. "...I'm fine...I just have a...chronic illness." Jared answered, "...They're coming from the south, and they're bound to shoot any EnDoG vehicle on sight, unless they're ordered not to fire...This is exactly what I was trying to avoid: Do you still think you're going to be able to continue with the NEEM collars the same way now?...Bishop said that he wouldn't do anything unless he sees the collars as a problem...Is this good enough, or do we need to wait until one side drops an atom bomb?"

The guard listening to him just stood there, panicked like everyone else. "...Look, I don't know where you came from, but that side show you put on when you talked with Bishop had a bigger effect than you thought; Bishop says you're bringing only Freelancer ideology, but he's something you're not: Biased," the guard explained, trying to reaffirm Jared's confidence, "I KNOW there's people at EnDoG that disagree with him, and I'm sure that there's people in Hoenn who agree with him too..."

"Doesn't matter much at this point...Frankly, if the world's about to end, I'm content to just let it end at this point," Jared replied, continuing to stare at the madness on the street outside.

The guard paused for a few moments and then walked right in front of Jared's view as he stared outside. "Hoenn decided to go to war on a decision made by a vote there, here its not really a democracy, I'm trying to get you to see that; not that I really want a war to solve this, but knowing Bishop, its going to take something crazy like that to convince him...Something that made his own inner circle doubt-," the guard began to say, causing Jared to turn his head, "...I'm so fired..."

"What did you just say?" Jared asked, seeing a nervous look on the man's face.

Taking a deep breath and looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening, the guard collected his thought. "...Just don't tell anyone I said this," the guard begun, "You didn't hear this from me, but words is that there's a few people on Bishop's own board that thinks he's making a mistake...There was something about the NEEM collars, and something about terrorists. I'm not sure about the former, but I know that they've had other thoughts about why the attacks even happened in the first place; word is, they think we're forcing our laws onto everyone a little harshly if people are willing to attack us...only thing is that they're afraid to speak out about it since they're more afraid of Bishop than they are of the guys who planned the attacks...You know what this means right?"

"...EnDoG isn't necessarily what Bishop makes it," Jared answered, somewhat doubtful of what he was telling him, "...You've been helpful so far...How do you know these rumors aren't false?"

"That's what I thought when I first heard them," the guard replied confidently, "But then I heard one of the Executives talk on the phone to someone about it...I guess this would've been helpful information a little earlier..."

Jared stared at the man for a long minute as the sirens outside continued. "...Not exactly," Jared continued, "I think I know how to get John and the Executive to safety...Here's the plan: I can arrange for a civilian-helicopter to take us out of the city, and send out a message to the army to cease fire. Problem is, we'll need to move fast before they realize there's something wrong. If they find us, I know of an old rail tunnel that runs under Mt. Silver that's been abandoned since the Goldenrod-Saffron Electromagnet Line was built, all we'll have to do is use that...I need you to go tell Bishop and the Executives to get to the roof of 1800 Westley Dr., its nearby...Also, I need you to tell those Executives you mentioned earlier, the ones with doubts, about me and my organization...You think you c-"

"Wait a second!" the guard yelled, "If I tell them that I know about them, I'll be fired! Are you nuts?!?"

"Who's to say you won't be if you don't?" Jared replied, free of emotions, "...You and I both know that you guys won't last a month while they know you're still holed up in your HQ...If Bishop refuses to come along, let him stay. Either way, I'm taking whoever will come at heading to the next EnDoG building in Johto: It'lll at least take some time before they realize the Exec's are gone, let alone where they've gone...I'll wait for one hour before moving out...Whatever they might think, tell them this: I'm still on your side,"

Turning to leave the building, Jared looked back and saw the guard head towards the elevator. Hopefully, they'd take his escape plan and go along with it. Especially since this was the truth...

Dave Wagner
Saffron City, Apartment Building, 15-D

EnDoG Tensions Explode! Hoenn Government Goes to War!

Staring at the headlines in the news, Wagner watched as the reports of bombings and chemical weapons in southern Kanto were coming in by the many. It seemed like Wagner's police friend had fulfilled his purpose, but this was not part of the original plan...Then again, the whole point was to expose how much tension and anger there was towards EnDoG's forced laws. Now, Hoenn is killing a hundred EnDoG supporters for every angry and injured man, woman, and child who had EnDoG's control forced on them...Perhaps, things were going according to plans. Afterall, if they were ready to fight against people who they believed were oppressing them, that says quite a lot about how they feel. "...No way," one of Wagner's crew said, looking at the secuirty cameras outside, "He's coming. He's actually coming...That means I just lost my $500,"

Wagner flipped off the T.V. as he heard the commotion in the back room. "Who? The doctor?" Wagner asked, "...I thought he would've ratted us out after the news came in...Is he alone?"

"Yeah, he's alone," someone else said, overjoyed they won the bet, "Everyone get where they're supposed to go!"

The apartment quickly erupted into motion as everyone tried to remember the plan and hid in the bedroom with weapons ready...just in case. Eventually, a knock sounded from the door. Taking a deep breath, Wagner stepped towards the front door, unlocked it, and pulled it open to reveal a man standing there with a white coat. The man looked surprised to see an old man at the door. "...I'm looking for a guy named 'T'..." he asked.

"Took you long enough to get here," Wagner greeted, "We can talk inside,"

Closing the door behind the professor, Wagner showed him the way to the couch in the small living room. Hopefully, things would go better than the last plan.

 

[Slipomatic]

OOC: I don't want to get involved in the little warfare in Mt Silver.

Mithal Tales
Mew Freelancer
Mt. Silver

The teleportation felt rough and she had landed on the ground a bit roughly. She sighed and thanked Visor for the teleport. The last thing she needed was to be arrested on site as they might blame the Hoenn starting to attack Kanto on freelancer’s doings. She returned Visor and walked towards the top of the mountain. The only reason she warped here was because she knew there was a base here. When she reached the entrance to the cave however, she felt various vibes going through her. She looked around cautiously and gasped at what she saw. Various bits of the natural formation of the caves were marred with bullet craters and some spots had blood. She felt slightly sick in her stomach and pressed deeper into the cave system. Occasionally, she had to backtrack when she came upon dead-ends either due to natural or man-made explosions. It also didn’t help that she couldn’t see much from her flashlight.

What made her nervous was that there was almost next to no sound within the caves. It was like there was no pokemon at all in the caves. Several ideas came to mind, but she brushed it away quickly. The dead silence was starting to unnerve her. She was starting to get second ideas of walking into Mt Silver, but something else seemed to be calling to her. She didn’t know what it was and tried to ignore the feeling as she became more lost in the caves. Occasionally, she had a weird urge to wag her index fingers in a side-to-side motion, but she resisted it, thinking it was just her being tempted by some psychic pokemon. She kept walking, her flashlight starting to slowly lose light as the battery started dying. She cursed silently at her luck as none of her pokemon knew flash.

As she kept wandering around the caves wondering where everyone was, her flashlight became dimmer and dimmer until it flicked off, throwing her into complete darkness. She let out a curse and fumbled briefly and grabbed Flame’s pokeball and released him. He panicked slightly when he couldn’t see anything until he heard her say, “Flames, use will-o-wisp to generate light.”

Flame nodded and focused, producing a small blue wisp that floated in the air. It produced enough light for him to see his trainer and a bit of the surrounding area. He gave a sigh of relief and rubbed against her leg, getting a gentle rub on the head in return. He couldn’t place his paw on it, but he felt a powerful energy being given off somewhere deeper in the cave. If it was dangerous, he’d make sure that his trainer would make it out. Very faintly, he could hear gunfire and that really scared him. He let out a soft whine as several more gunfire shots were heard. He was pretty sure his trainer couldn't hear it.

Mithal looked around with what the wisp gave and moved slowly forwards, looking for something. It seemed familiar, the area. She couldn’t place her finger on it, but the area looked very familiar to her, even though she had never been this deep in the caves. Normally, she had a guide escort her to the base as the cave spelt doom to anyone not prepared for it. She was drawing blanks from her memory of the area and it was giving her a headache. She just couldn’t remember why this area looked so familiar.

 

[Avenger Angel]

Jonathan Bishop
Leader of ENDoG
ENDoG Headquarters Lobby, Saffron City, Kanto

Jared seemed convinced Hoenn's attack was related to the NEEM collars, trying to sway me to believe this was my doing and that disabling the NEEM project here and now might just solve everything. I couldn't help but dismiss that as naive, wrongful assumption. Truly, I was beginning to see it now that he was definitely far more aligned with the Freelancers, trying to use anything they could to leverage influence, even if it wasn't necessarily correct. In disbelief, I couldn't believe it, but there was a far bigger crisis than this at the moment. Disabling NEEM would do nothing but incite more anarchy. I could tell, Jared just wanted things to return to the way they used to be, regardless of the cost. It was not the price I was ever going to pay.

"It is far beyond even my control now, Jared," I told him, knowing Hoenn had become relentless and was looking for some kind of excuse. "This is not about NEEM. They think we are responsible for something we are not. We were framed, and Hoenn never allowed us to have the chance to explain or even reason with them. This is all a mistake..."

But Hoenn would see it as retribution. They valued their ideals far more than even the lives of others. I could not understand what had happened to make them so bitter. When would they realize what they were doing was a mistake? When would they allow someone to speak in our defense, or was the truth simply whatever they said it was?

And then... Barry. He had confirmed the legendaries had been released, and were now being tracked. We didn't know how long this could be kept up, however. Hoenn's strike force had already destroyed several ENDoG control outposts along the coastline, and if we lost too many critical technological resources, we could potentially lose all insight as to where the legendaries were located.

In truth, the whole thing felt like an enforced losing scenario. I moved away from Jared, leaving him to his own. Hoenn did not hate us for the NEEM enforcement. This was not about that. This was about some other darker intention, something I doubted they wanted the rest of the world to truly know...

"Sir, we need to get your somewhere safe," One of the guards advised me. "We haven't heard anything from the Kanto military, but we can't expect them to save us. Hoenn could be attacking here any minute, and with what they've done to the surrounding cities, I don't want to imagine what they plan on using."

"Get me on the phone with the Hoenn president," I told him, knowing I wasn't going to run away from this. "If this attack was authorized by him, then I want to know why. But if not, then why isn't he doing something about it!?"

He nodded and fled the scene. Meanwhile, everything was in panic. Surely Hoenn knew this would bring nothing but fear and strife, and nothing on the account of progress. Even if they won here, what would it prove? What would it really accomplish? That this much death is the only way to get things done? It was insanity.

Moments later, I was handed a phone. I truly did not like where this was going.

"Well, what do you think, Bishop?" Hoenn President Peter Quincy asked me in an amused tone. "Got your attention now, didn't I?"

"Why!?" I asked him, thinking he had gone mad. "Millions could be dead because of this! No one even died in the Mossdeep incident if this is what this is about!"

"Oh, but that's kind of the point, you know," He sneered. "Bishop, get a clue. ENDoG isn't competent enough to handle being in control. You're too much of a pansy and these Freelancers are walking all over you like it's nobody's business. And for the record, we already know it probably wasn't you at Mossdeep. But it did give us a reason to push you out of power. If you can't handle a bunch of idiot eco-terrorists, then get the hell out of the way and let someone smart try a hand at it. As for the attack, that's for causing the planetary storms. We figure if we kill the people responsible, the legendaries might enjoy that and decide to make things right after all. A tribute sacrifice to appease the gods, as they say. You were right Bishop, they probably do enjoy bloodshed."

But he was wrong. Nothing, nothing about any of this would make things right.

 

[R.I. Saraibre]

Shay Miru
Giratina Freelancer
Near Relic Castle, Unova

After following in sub space for hours, I was starting to get used to it. I was listening in as best I could throughout the conversations between ENDoG soldiers, despite the fact I didn’t like them in general, they were still people. Asharas kept a close eye on me, as I noticed I was starting to feel drained the longer we were in here, but not as much as the other time. It was like I was learning how to do this. For some reason though, I wanted to know why I was suddenly able to do this…was it because, possibly of the nightmares-

“Bravo Team one we have a code one; Hoenn has declared war on Kanto and ALL ENDoG operations are to change to battle and navigation stations immediately. All legendary Pokémon have been released with tracking devices, priority is being set on defending Kanto that has gone into region wide lock down. Do you copy?”

What the hell was…no, now things were getting worse-no, they were shot now. Hoenn was at war now? With ENDoG because their satellites were blown up to prevent the control of nature? How STUPID were people going to get? My original plan now screwed over, though we were close to the base where Rayquaza was apparently being held, there was something else I had in mind. If ENDoG thought everything was going to be solved by having NEEM collared Legendaries trying to fix the scarred force of nature, they had another thing coming. It was going to take their full power to even attempt to fix it, and after being restricted for so long they weren’t going to be capable of such things if they had those damned things on.

I looked at Asharas and she looked at me. We had the same idea and the same plan. A giant dragon in the sky, wasn’t going to be too hard to find. Getting out of here, was another story.

The ATV sped off in reality and continued on it’s path back to base. Knowing how vital it was to stay near them, Asharas didn’t veer too far away from her pursuit as I looked carefully for a way out. There wasn’t a lot to go on that could let myself and a Charizard out in one go, and that’s what we needed. I needed to find the Relic Castle, that was rumored to have an oasis near it, and if that held true, we’d be able to get out. Flying in a dark space of something I still wasn’t sure what it was for whoever knew how long I wasn’t sure if I hated it more than wandering through an actual desert but I didn’t have to deal with being spotted by government forces that were probably going to try and kill me now for possibly being a spy. As I continued to wonder how I was going to pull this off, I felt Asharas’s expression change, and I immediately looked in the direction she was in, seeing a small, shimmering mirror far in the distance.

“Thank Arceus…wherever Arceus is…” I whispered. “Asharas, you’re gonna have to bolt out of that thing as fast as you can, no matter what, just keep going.”

I trusted her more than anything and she trusted me, she knew I never would truly lie to her, and as I felt her wings beat faster, I focused whatever feeling I had in my gut on that mirror. I wanted out, out to the sky and the wind and air…I could see the reflection drawing closer and I closed my eyes, concentrating hard. This was either going to work…no it was going to work.

‘Water…it’s all water…outwards and upwards…’

I didn’t have to see to know we were getting closer and closer, I could feel my Charizard’s own emotions racing, wondering just as much as I was if this was real at all.

Then, everything, stopped…

‘So…I’m either dead…or did something really wrong…’

‘Neither…’

Despite there being a feral screech inside my head…or from somewhere, I could make out words…?

‘Who…’
Another demonic screech followed, however I could still understand it as if it were words.

‘You are aware…you see me every night. You know what you must do, the world is losing its strength to live, as it is shown through us…’

‘What…are you talking about?’

‘You are able to stand on my bridge…but one side of that bridge is crumbling because of what plagues the other side. I cannot continue to repair it at this rate…and if one side falls, so does the other. By command of the Creator, we have followed in his footsteps, and put our trust in one of you.’

‘You’re…you-’

Before I got a response I was thrown into blinding light, the feeling of rushing wind on my face and body, such a force that almost made me fall off Asharas. I clung to her, wrapping my arms around her neck as she flew higher and higher. The wind blinded me, however I still managed to pull off my pack and give it to my Charizard, who was accustomed to wearing it on her chest, letting me use the straps to hold on to. I felt her nudge my wrist, prompting me to grab whatever I was being nudged with, and pulling it over my eyes. Keeping a pair of go-goggles on you at all times was a glorious idea, especially when you flew as much as I did. I let my eyes adjust, seeing we were well into the air, looking back to see if any ENDoG was after us yet. Luckily, no one was, but it was only a matter of time.

Asharas and I scanned the sky for anything green and long, and after a few minutes, we spotted something high in the air above us that fit that description. I wasn’t surprised Rayquaza wasn’t higher, knowing his wish of freedom, he was probably sore and ready to give out. Luckily what he was able to do with his abilities was good enough for us to fly in, minus the few dark clouds here and there. I looked at Asharas, patting her side to grab her attention.

“By the time we reach him, you think I’m gonna have breathing troubles?”

Asharas was the Pokémon here, but she didn’t look too sure herself. I knew the dragon was going to be slowly headed for the o-zone, but he hadn’t even breached the first layer of the atmosphere yet and wouldn’t for a good amount of time by the looks of it.

“Let’s just make an assumption I won’t, but we have to get that collar off of him or nothing is going to change.” I told her, looking back again to see if anyone was going to follow us yet.

“I think I see a few specks behind us. Let’s move buddy.”

 

[DVB]

Diego Vendrix
Darkrai Freelancer
Snowpoint City Community Center


EnDoG Tensions Explode! Hoenn Government Goes to War!


"What. The. HELL?!" Diego said as he began looking at the news report. He couldn't believe this. All of this was from Mossdeep!

“We have received reports that the Hoenn army has begun attacking Kanto in retaliation of the destruction of the Mossdeep shuttles and the damage from the extreme weather conditions. Hoenn has launched some kind of missiles against the southern Kanto borders, causing Cinnabar Island, Fuschia and Vermillion City to experience extreme cold temperatures. The Kanto army is shocked at this invasion and has issued an evacuation. All civilians are asked to evacuate to the nearest war shelter. Kanto’s troops are being deployed right now to Pallet Town, Celadon City, Lavender Town, Vermillion City, and Fuschia City, in an effort to increase the defenses. Word has come that the Hoenn army is after the ENDoG Corporation which is based in Saffron City."

There were some background noises and then a different voice spoke saying, “Attention all citizens of Kanto. We are issuing a region lockdown. All citizens will not be able to leave Kanto for any reason. All boats leaving and coming into the Kanto region will be detained and searched for possible weapons of destruction. Anyone caught attempting to cross the border into the Johto region will be considered a spy working for Hoenn. Also, all news will now be controlled by the Kanto army to better inform you of the situation at hand."

Diego just listened to the report in shock. Things were getting much worse. Al right then. No choice. It was time to step out of the shadows. He began dialing a nearby payphone. "Are you listening to this?!" Diego asked the guy on the other voice.

"Yeah. Didn't see this coming." The voice said. Diego was quiet. He sighed as he ran his hand through his hair.

"All right. We need to stop this. First thing is to restore the weather over at Kanto. If ENDoG becomes desperate enough to release all the Legendaries, this will complicate matters. Find Rayquaza and attempt to Air Lock the area to stop the blizzard. If Moltres is released, the fire power will help us," Diego said to his brother.

"What will you do?" His brother asked him.

Diego was quiet. "I'm going to Kanto. I will stay here awhile longer. I need to make a plan to get there. Current plan is to go to Mt. Silver. Meanwhile, anything from the Mythos Department?"

"Yes. We may suspect that could it be what you feared..." he said in an uncharacteristically fearful voice.

Diego dropped the phone and put his face in his hands. Arceus help them all if it was this.

"Well, we can't let that happen. Keep doing the research. Also, I am putting you in charge of the Warrior Protocol. If we have to stop Hoemn's army, we will. The time for the DS Organization to remain underground is running out," Diego said before he said his goodbyes ad hung up. He sunk down as he hugged his knees.

Pikachu went from his hiding spot and hugged his trainer.

 

[strategiser24]

Jared Darnell
Other Party/Black Market
Roof of Building in Saffron City, Kanto

Standing on the roof, the wind picked up as another storm came rolling in. Jared's crew was hard at work at trying to get an encryption on Hoenn's radio network, and for trying to arrange the trip to Johto. With the army moving in, they're bound to shoot anything unless told not to, so it was clearly imperative that the fake cease fire message was sent out in order to get some breathing room. To add to this, the Kanto military was also quickly mobilizing as things began to get more organized. They wouldn't be much of a problem as long as nothing changes...but things never go as well as they're supposed to. "Jared, we got a problem," someone told Jared as he looked into the distance from the roof.

Turning up the volume on a nearby radio, news from the local station could be heard.

We have received reports that the Hoenn army has begun attacking Kanto in retaliation of the destruction of the Mossdeep shuttles and the damage from the extreme weather conditions. Hoenn has launched some kind of missiles against the southern Kanto borders, causing Cinnabar Island, Fuschia and Vermillion City to experience extreme cold temperatures. The Kanto army is shocked at this invasion and has issued an evacuation. All civilians are asked to evacuate to the nearest war shelter. Kanto’s troops are being deployed right now to Pallet Town, Celadon City, Lavender Town, Vermillion City, and Fuschia City, in an effort to increase the defenses. Word has come that the Hoenn army is after the ENDoG Corporation which is based in Saffron City.

As a result, all citizens of Kanto are now under a region lockdown. All citizens will not be able to leave Kanto for any reason. All boats leaving and coming into the Kanto region will be detained and searched for possible weapons of destruction. Anyone caught attempting to cross the border into the Johto region will be considered a spy working for Hoenn. Also, all news will now be controlled by the Kanto army to better inform you of the situation at hand.

"...Just what we need," Jared answered, "They're bound to be watching the skies around Mt. Silver; I don't think doing two fake cease fire mesages will work, and even if it does, that'll draw attention to us,"

"Agreed," the man responded, "What now?"

Before Jared could answer, a nearby door, connected to the stairwell, opened, and three well dressed people and a soldier walked out. Confused, Jared approached them, but then realized who the soldier was. "That's it?" Jared asked, "Only three?...And I see Bishop isn't with you..."

"We couldn't find him," one of them replied, "So you're the guy who 'Eavesdropper' here told our personal life to...I thought you'd have more hair,"

"You're lucky he did, otherwise you'd have a hard time leaving Kanto," one of Jared's crew members said.

"...About that," the guard asked, "How do you plan to get to the office in Johto with Hoenn and Kanto both wanting us to stay here?"

"I had a plan...until the government pulled a fast one and chose to close the borders to Johto," Jared explained, "That railway tunnel I mentioned, it doesn't seem like we'll be able to trick both Hoenn and Kanto not to shoot us, and Kanto's military is no doubt watching Mt. Silver for anyone trying to leave, so we'll have to hike under the mountain,"

"Don't bother," one of the Executives said, "The Goldenrod-Saffron city railines are already closed,"

"Not the one I'm talking about," Jared replied, "Its been condemned since that railine was built ten years ago: I doubt anyone's watching it, especially since I've...heard about it,"

In the background, the helicopter could be heard roaring towards the building. Making the wind speed up even further, it landed and cut the engine as the pilot stepped out. "So what's the rest of the plan?" the third Executive asked.

Looking at the radio Jared's men were fiddling with, Jared quickly came up with the second plan. "We'll fly to the abandoned tunnel; to avoid trouble, I'll send out the cease fire message to get them to ignore us while we get there...I would recommend we drive, but we need to get the four of you to Johto before anyone misses you. Once we're in the tunnel, it should be a straight path to the other side, we could, actually, drive a car through the tunnel until we get to other side...but, I'm not sure if we'll be able to get one there beforehand...Either way, we should emerge on west side of the mountain near Violet city, once we're there, I;;m sure you know the way to the EnDoG building,"

"Yes, I've already had a talk with the managers of our Johto branch," one of the Executives explained, "They've agreed to vouch for us if something comes up, and they've agreed not to call us again until we get there in case Hoenn is tapping the phone lines...We're ready when you are. Lets hope nothing goes wrong,"

"Climb on when you're ready," the pilot said, getting back in the cockpit.

Turning to the guys working on the radio, Jared saw that they had stopped messing with the dials on the transmitter. "I think we've got it," one of them said, "Let's hope we've got Hoenn on the other end and not a few guys playing paintball,"

Turning up the volume, the radio traffic was heard well enough over the helicopter's engine. Delta 5-7, what's your status? a voice called out.

The Labratory at Pallet Town is secure, over. No sign of any EnDoG agents though, another voice answered.

Copy. No new orders from command: Remain on alert and report any unusual behavior. You're cleared to fire on any escape attempts unless specified, over.

Roger. Holding position.

Taking a deep breath, Jared's radio operator made his best commander voice and gave out the orders. "All units on this frequency, this is command: Cease fire on civilian aircraft aircraft immediately, repeat, cease fire on civilian aircraft immediately. How copy? Over,"

The radio went silent for several moments after the message was given out. Uh, I think we may have a poor connection sir. We thought we heard you say for us to cease fire.

"That's no mistake Lieutenant," Jared's radio man replied firmly, "That goes for all other units: Cease fire on civilian aircraft,"

Sir I'm the Lieutenant. You just relayed orders to a- another voice began, confused.

"...Not my problem Lieutenant: You're the one in charge, and I want those orders followed to the letter! Do you read me?!?"

With all due respect commander, Major Groves is the one in charge of the western assault. You could've relayed this to him.

"...That's not my problem: I give my orders to who I want, and now I've given them you," Jared's operator continued, "I'll repeat it once more: How Copy?! Over,"

The radio stayed quiet for another few seconds while everyone tried to process the new orders. Solid copy: Ceasing fire on civilian aircraft immediately.

Putting the transmitter down, the operator turned to Jared as he got into the co-pilot seat of the helicopter. "That could've gone better...Either way, I don't think you guys have much time before they realize I impersonated their commander...Good luck boss,"

Lifting off the ground, Jared, the three executives, and the guard took to the sky in the chopper, charting the course to the old rail tunnel under Mt. Silver. Thankfully, they only needed to fly the chopper once, then they could safely drive back and forth on the ground...or so they hoped.

 

[Agent Tectonic]

Finally sat down and finished this.

Nightshade
Seeker of Reshiram
Undella Town

It was a slow, grueling trip back to Undella. Actually, I needed Kyurem to get me to walk me to just beyond eye-sight of Undella. From there, I limped my way into the city. My wounds were relatively healed, but my leg wound was starting to grow rather nasty. I needed the bullet removed or risk possible problems in the future. I didn't know how I was going to get any help from a human hospital without getting a dog collar put on me and possibly Kyurem discovered, too. I decided to send a text to Patrick if there were any Freelancer groups with medical staff nearby. I was still waiting on a response back.

In my waiting, I entered the market to simply browse around the merchandise. While looking, a salesclerk approached me (I was disguised as Selene) and asked me if I was finding everything alright.

“Actually, do you have anything to heal Pokemon with. My grandmother asked me to find anything as her Growlithe was slightly ill. She asked me to find a Full Restore for her.”

“I think I may have something around here for that. We still stock stuff like that for cases like this. What about yourself? You don't look so good.”

“I'm a biologist. I was out studying Pokemon behavior and made a rash decision that left me in this state.”

“Like what?”

“Getting too close to Giant Chasm.”

“That'll do it. You're lucky to be alive. Especially with the recent happenings in the world.”

“No kidding. I'm fine though. Just need to rest and take some medication. So, about that Full Restore.”

“Right. Follow me to the counter and we'll pay for it there. We stock them but keep them out of reach of any Trainers who think they can steal them. We recently upgraded our service to detect if any credit or debit cards users been established a license to buy such materials.”

This was worrying. I didn't know if Selene had done this, so I had to hope she did. If not, well, this wasn't the first time I stole anything. We walked towards the frond of the store where people were sliding materials through beepers. I didn't know how the system worked as this was all new to me. Others were walking out with whatever they bought in white, flimsy bags that looked like they shouldn't hold anything. The clerk escorted me to one of beeping machines and asked for a card. I was confused for a moment, but I remembered about the plastic card that supposedly held money on it. I handed it over to the guy. It seemed that Selene did have proper documentation, or forged documentation, that she could own Pokemon as there was no questions asked. I got the plastic card back.

Off to my right, a newscaster was relaying current events which lead to the startling discovery of Hoenn's war with ENDoG. I didn't know how to take the event. On one hand, I was glad that ENDoG was now on its knees as someone finally decided to stand against them, but on the other hand, I felt that something was rather off about this as the screen showed numerous areas that were hit with biological attacks: a rather horrifying sight to say the least. I quickly sent a text to Patrick asking to scrounge up any information regarding it and to send it along with answer to my previous question.

My item payed, I went to the beach to enjoy the afternoon sun while I waited. I didn't need to sit for long as a buzz went off in the purse, and I quickly fished the device out. Instead of a text, it was a call.

“Hello there Nightshade. We're all glad to know that you're still alive. Unfortunately, there aren't any known Freelancer bases within the area that could help you. You'll have to find other means for whatever it is you need them for.”

“Great,” I sighed as I was hoping for a quick fix to my bullet problem. “What about Hoenn?”

“We're still reeling from hearing about it. We didn't expect it to happen as there have been numerous reports on how well Hoenn has been doing. We're also deciding to help ENDoG or let Hoenn overrun them. We've seen the damage they're doing, and it's devastating. What's holding us back is that we don't know the motive behind these attacks. If this is an overthrow, then we support it as long as no one else fills ENDoG's shoes, but these attacks seem more like a transfer of power than anything else.”

“I was wondering that myself. Maybe help and hinder both would be the best solution.”

“What do you mean Night?”

“I mean that you guys work your computer skills into stealing anything you can from Hoenn's computer systems and transfer them to ENDoG while I still hit-and-run ENDoG when I can. Along with that, you guys provide me with anything regarding the Legendaries, and I'll see to it that they started losing them.”

“That might work. However, you should know that in our spare time, we've seen that ENDoG has been repeatedly been adding notes in their database that say “Containment ended” and “Trackers online.”

“Meaning?” I inquired.

I'm saying,” replied Patrick, “that ENDoG has apparently released them but are still keeping in eye on them. We've monitored a few of them so far, and right now, we know for certain that the three Unova dogs are back in Unova. Actually, Cobalion is right around White Forest southwest from Unova Town. Maybe it can tell you where to find the others. Also, if you find any of them that happen to have marked a Freelancer, try to get them to relinquish their knowledge on who it is, so we can track them down and find them. As you can tell, we are trying to be more active in helping others out without getting our hands bloody or dirty.”

“A hefty challenge. I accept. A shame that Reshiram wasn't your first find, but that's all right. How's Selene and Ranaras?”

“Worrying about you amongst other things. Also, Selene has been developing some interesting traits, mostly that she seems to be able to control fire through thought. I don't know how she does it, but she's nearly set our Mauville base on fire after realizing she has some kind of pyrokinesis. Ranaras on the other hand as been rather ill lately. We think he is literally getting worried sick with you gone and has been experiencing mild cases of depression and anxiety. At some point, you should consider visiting to reassure him of your well being.”

“I'll try but no promises; at least, not until Reshiram is with me. Good-bye Patrick.”

“Take care Night.”

Hanging up the phone, I left the beach and took the route towards White Forest. In the distance, I could also see that another city, rather black and dusty, was also in that general direction. As soon as I was away from the city, though, I left the path and started searching the nearby vicinity for an Audino who could help me. It took the rest of the afternoon, but I ended up finding one who would lend me assistance. It didn't take long; she provided enough healing to numb the pain while I tore the bullet out. Once finished, she and the Full Restore that I bought healed away the burns I created and the scars that were there. The scars didn't completely go away, but I was happy to finally feel full mobility. I politely thanked my helper and left. I wanted to close as much distance I could before the sun set.

 

[gmoyes]

Jeez, why's everyone headed to Mt. Silver? Don't worry I'll have this mess cleaned up, though my future plans are a little messed up.

Alex Morgan
Registeel Freelancer
Mt. Silver

Alex grinned. The plan had actually worked. He figured that Theta could have recharged enough energy that they could have went on an all out attack, but the others could have easily be injured in the crossfire. They did however have an advantage that the soldiers didn't know that Craig switched sides. It was a simple matter of having Craig keep his hands behind his back and the pistol in his waistband. Negotiations always swung towards the side that had a gun to someone's head. Now all they had to do was restrain the soldiers and free Liam and Chris.

"Kind of hard to a traitor if I was never-"

And in that moment, the plan fell apart.

The soldier, Conley, had made to put his hands up, but quickly grabbed for the gun. Craig was caught off guard and the two struggled for the weapon. Alex lost sight of the gun but jumped when it went off, though it appeared that it didn't hit anything other than the ceiling. "Maxwell, help me!" the soldier shouted.

The man's partner bent over to pick up one of the rifles and without thinking, Alex sprinted across the cavern and tackled him to the ground before he could aim it at anything. As they both fell to the ground Alex realized that this idea was insane. There was no way he could beat a trained soldier in a fight. Doing little more than flailing he ended up lying on his stomach with his hands held behind his back. "Nice try Freelancer scum," the man's voice hissed into his ear.

Alex's stomach sank. The only way out of this was for Craig to get the gun, but this hope was dashed as a sharp cry of pain came to his ear and Conley came into his vision brandishing the pistol. He walked until he was a couple metres away and pointed the gun at the scientist's head. "Well, it looks like you lose professor." He cocked the gun with a click.

"What are you doing Conley?" came the voice of the man pinning him down. "We could get some valuable information from this guy."

"We can get information from the others. He's dangerous, he killed our comrades and turned the private against us. Now then, keep him still." He aimed down the barrel of the gun. "Good-bye professor.

Memories flashed before Alex's eyes. Winning the computer compition and winning his Magnemite, his parent's house in Mauville with Hypno cleaning up, a pokeball pinging shut on a Surskit. The harsh screech of an Aerodactyl, shaking hands with a silver haired man, cursing as a virus entering Elm's lab, only for Glitch to appear chuckling. Sitting in a cell while Glitch hacks open the door, seeing rage in a mother Ursaring's eyes, pulling a trigger can causing a man's death.

This was it. This was the end. There was nothing he could could do except close his eyes and prepare for the end.

Good-bye.






BA-TWWWWAAAANNNNNGG... BBOOOONNN- ONNNG








Alex cautious open an eye to see Conley stunned looking off to the side. Following his vision he spoted a girder that certainly wasn't there before vibrating on the ground. "What the heck?" came Maxwell's voice on his back.

Alex reconized the move. Theta did it all the time before... anyway, it would use its magnetic powers to pick up scrap pieces of metal and use them to sheild itself. But how in the world did that happen when the Magnezone was still resting in its pokeball? He saw the soldier turn to look at him again. "Well that was odd, but we can do this again can't we?" He raised the pistol again.

"Weepinbell, use Razor Leaf to cut these ropes!"

"What?!" Conley whipped around and Alex could see Liam sitting by the bag of pokeballs as a sharp leaf from the grass type cut his bindings. The soldier grimaced and raised his weapon at the former captive. "Why you little-"

"Razor Leaf!" The flycatcher shot a leaf at the soldier causing the man to dive to the ground.

Conley swore. "Well if it's a pokemon fight you want, it's a pokemon fight you'll get. Natu, come on." The small green bird popped out of its pokeball and immediatly took to the air. "Night Shade!" The flying type shot a dark bolt of energy at the grass type a scored a direct hit causing the pokemon to knocked back.

Liam gritted his teeth. "Come on, use Acid!" The pokemon shot a glob of greenish slime at the bird, only for it to easily dodge out of the way.

"Ha ha! Peck it!"

The two pokemon kept on exchanging attacks with the Weepinbell getting battered while the Natu just kept dodging the attacks. Alex felt helpless, still pinned to the ground by Maxwell. If he could get Wind out he would be able to win the battle but that was impossible right now. Suddenly a sharp pain came to his back, then the pressure was relieved. He quickly scrambled to his feet and saw that Chris had somehow managed to release his bonds and attacked the soldier.

The scientist quickly pulled uo his Masquerain's pokeball and sent her out. "Wind, help out Liam!" The bug type bobbed a nod and started strafing the psychic bird with a Bubble attack.

Alex turned his back on the pokemon battle and helped Chris pin down Maxwell. After struggling for a while, Maxwell was stuck with Alex kneeling on his back and Liam holding his legs. "Liam, there's some rope in my backpack. Tie him up." As the younger Freelancer dug through his bag, Alex turned his attention back to the pokemon battle. While the Natu had the advantage against Liam's Weepinbell and Wind's attack were weak, the bird was having a hard time with two against one.

Just then Conley raised the pistol to aim at Liam. Alex shouted a warning. "Wind! Gun!" The flying bug type turned to the soldier and beated his wings and antenna to send a Gust his way. The man was buffeted by the wind and the weapon was blown out of his hand and fell to the ground.

The attack, however gave an opening for the Natu to retreat to its master's side. The soldier grimaced and shouted at the Freelancers. "This isn't over! Natu Tele-"

"No!"

But it was too late. In a flash of light the soldier and his pokemon disappeared.

"Damn it,"Alex swore. Who knows where the man could be? He would immedately report the base to his superiors and this place would crawling with ENDoG soldiers. This place was no longer secret.

He surveyed the scene. Liam returned his pokemon and searched through the bag of pokeballs for his own and Chris's. Chris had finished tying up Maxwell and picked up the soldier's rifle to cover him. Wind had hovered over to Craig who was lying on the ground knocked out with a large gash on his head. Alex stood and tried to reassure the other. "Well guys, that could have turned out worse. Chris, search him. He might have other weapons or pokemon on him. Liam, thanks, good job battling. Leave the bag there, me and Craig hid a stash of rifles." He gave directions to the cavern. "Just warning you, there might be an unsettling sight waiting there."

Liam frowned but grabbed a light and headed off. Alex meanwhile went over to Craig and examined his wound. He pulled a bottle of water and a bandage out of his bag and dressed the room. He hoped the man would come to soon but in the meantime he checked his messages. His eyes widened as he read that Ho-oh and Lugia released with reports that Lugia was held in nearby Indigo Plateau. If there was a legendary pokemon there the must be important information there and if it once held a legendary, who said it wouldn't hold another. They should go check the area out.

Craig suddenly let out a groan and blinked open his eyes. "Wha..."

"Don't worry, we all survived. How are you doing?"

"Like I got between a Snorlax and its food. Or I was its food." He shuddered. "What happened?"

"Captured Maxwell, Conley escaped, Lugia and Ho-oh released, just general **** hitting the fan."

"Hey, Alex," Chris called over. "What should we do with this guy?"

Alex paused to think about it but his pokenav chimed. HOENN DECLARED WAR ON ENDOG. KANTO LOCKED DOWN.

Alex swore. With Kanto locking down its boarder and with Tojoh Falls already under watch, Mt. Silver would be the only way to Johto and ENDoG would be examining it even more. After Conley escaped he hoped to retreat to Blackthorn but now the location was way to vital to abandon.

FREELANCER AGENT MITHAL TALES NEAR EASTERN ENTRANCE.

Alex sighed. Thing were happening much to quickly for comfort. SEND HER A MESSAGE THAT CHRIS WILL BE ENROUTE TO HER. ALSO SEND ONE TO LIAM TO TELL HIM THAT ONCE HE GET THE RIFLES TO COME BACK TO BASE. He looked back to Chris to answer his question. "We'll take him back to base. There's an agent coming from the east entrance. Glitch will guide you to each other."

"Ok, see yah." He slung the rifle across his back and marched off guided by his pokegear.

Another message chimed from his Porygon. HELECOPTER SPOTTED TO THE EAST.

Alex groaned. "Why here, why now?" He turned to Craig. "How are you doing? Can you walk?"

"Yeah, though I have no clue where to go."

"Just follow me." He went over to the soldier and pulled him to his feet. "Just be glad I didn't leave you for the wild pokemon. Though if you piss me off enough I may reconsider." The man grunted, but with no other choice he let himself be led through the caves.

**** was going down and it was going down on Alex's neibourhood.

OOC: (Feel free to bunny Chris)

 

[Slipomatic]

OOC: Did a best 6 out of 10 dice rolls with high meaning Mew being caught in the pokeball and low meaning no. Ended with a 6 highs and 3 lows. I can edit this post if you don't want me catching the pokemon saraibre. This post took too long to think out.....

Mithal Tales
Mew Freelancer
Mt. Silver

Mithal was stumbling slightly as she had a sense of déjà vu. For some odd reason, she could not remember why this place was so familiar. Her sixth sense was all tingling, telling her that something was ahead. What was ahead, she didn’t know, but she felt very drawn towards it. Flame was constantly shivering which didn’t bode well for her, but she had to find out. Eventually she came into a clearing and she looked around until she could vaguely see a small pink patch. She slowly walked towards it, finding it a bit odd that there would be pink in the dreary brown and black rocks. Her eyes widened when she could finally make out the shape and she was sure her mouth had dropped so far that it would fit a pichu in it. Laying on the makeshift rock was Mew, but it was hurt very badly still. She cautiously walked towards it, alerting Mew as it turned and stared at her with scared eyes. She froze in place, making sure her hands were in front of her and splayed out so it would recognize that she wasn’t a threat. Everything made sense now. Her strange sense of déjà vu was from her most recent nightmare of Mew. Flame started to growl at it but Mithal shook her head and said, “Stop Flame. Mew is in no shape to be fighting. Also, I’ve been dreaming about this mew for a while in my nightmares.”

Mew’s eyes focused on Mithal and its eyes glowed a soft blue as it tried to read Mithal, but it shuddered and collapsed unable to maintain psychic. Mew panted as her strength wasn’t where it used to be. Mithal walked close to it, pulling out a full restore and an elixir. She cringed inwardly as the full restores had to be ingested since its effect wouldn’t fully work as a spray. Although the items were extremely expensive to make in the underground labs, it was definitely worth the costs to help a legendary pokemon. Mew glared at her and Mithal cringed at the glare and said, “I’m not trying to harm you. I’m just trying to help you for if you were to die, the balance would become more corrupted. Besides, a pokemon like you shouldn’t be living your life in a dark, cold, and lonely cave.”

Mew continued to glare although it had softened a bit. Mithal sighed and continued on, “This will hurt a bit, given your injuries, but you’ll feel better once the medicine has finished its job. Also, you’ll have to drink these two, one to heal your injuries and one to restore energy for your moves.” She held up the full restore which had bright green fluids and elixir which had a dark blue with a purple tint to it in front of Mew. She stared at Mew’s eyes to convey that she only meant to help it as they said that the eyes were windows to the soul. Eventually Mew broke the stare and looked down and coughed slightly. Mithal took it as acceptance and attached a feeder to the full restore and held the tip in front of Mew’s mouth. Mew reluctantly put opened her mouth and Mithal put it in slightly before pressing the trigger on the bottle. It slowly fed the liquid as it was a precaution as they assumed that most of the time, it would be used on injured pokemon who would have trouble drinking fast normally. After about ten seconds the bottle was empty and she took it out of Mew’s mouth and waited for the medicine to kick in. She doubted that Mew would be able to withstand the short pain that came from its injuries healing at a fast rate and prepared for the screams that would come. Sure enough, Mew screamed in pain as its injuries began to heal at a fast rate. All Mithal could do was cradle Mew and softly stroke the head as she tried to comfort it as its body writhed in pain. Flame had looked away as he knew how degrading it was to experience that kind of pain, having experienced the pain of full restore before.

After a minute, Mew finally stopped screaming and collapsed, panting for breath. Mithal unscrewed the feeder and screwed it on the elixir and held it in front of Mew who glared at it. Mithal smiled slightly and said, “At least drink the elixir, it won’t cause any pain like the full restore. If anything, it should perk you up, like an energy booster.”

Mew bit on the feeder and Mithal quickly pressed the trigger and held it until the bottle was empty. Mew started to levitate a bit once she was done drinking but she couldn’t hold it, being too exhausted physically and mentally to really do much more. Mithal sighed as she cradled Mew in her arms and softly stroked Mew’s ears, getting a soft purr from her. She smiled gently and stopped briefly and asked softly, “Mew, I need to know. Should I capture you so that you can stay safe from ENDoG captures or should I let remain free. Mind you, once the balance is back to normal, I will release you back into the wild as I believe that legendary pokemon shouldn’t be held captive. But for your safety, I think that being caught in one of these balls would keep you safe and at full fighting capacity as you won’t be able to be caught by ENDoG although their collars will still work if they manage to catch you physically.”

Mithal could have sworn that if she was in a house, she could have heard a clock ticking in the background with how quiet things had gotten. She couldn’t tell what Mew was thinking as she had a neutral face. After what felt like an eternity to Mithal, Mew looked up and her eyes glowed blue and a voice spoke to her all around her. When she listened, it was definitely female. “I will go with you on two conditions, the main one being that you release me back to the wild when this is all over. The second one is that you keep me out of the pokeball at all times if I am caught. You only have one chance with the pokeball. If it fails, I will return to the wild, and although you’re my chosen human, I do not feel comfortable at all around humans, after what they did to my home and to the world.”

Mew floated away from Mithal and nodded. Flame took an aggressive stance and Mithal said, “No Flame. It is a battle of wills, for this is between me and Mew.” Flame reluctantly nodded and backed off leaving a space between Mew and Mithal. Mithal took her pokegear out and flipped it upside down and flipped a hidden cover, revealing a transport device. She placed Visor’s pokeball into it and pressed a small red button. The pokeball flashed briefly before disappearing, going to the storage unit that was hidden somewhere she didn’t know. She took out a cherish ball, which was extremely hard to get a hold of since the pokeball companies that made them were long destroyed. Mithal looked up at Mew, analyzing her and gauging where it would be most effective to throw the pokeball at. She was once told by the late Professor Oak that pokemon had a spot or zone where if the pokeball was to hit that spot, it would raise the chance of capture higher. He had admitted that the theory was still being tested and that there was no solid proof. She stared at Mew for a bit longer before throwing the cherish ball at the center of Mew’s body. Mew made no move to dodge it and let the ball make contact with her stomach, letting it pull her into the ball.

As soon as the ball closed, the pokeball started shaking hard, showing a visible sign of the struggle inside the ball. They said that it normally would shake three times before it stopped and pinged, but she could visibly tell that it was more than three shakes. After the sixth shake, she sighed as she expected the pokeball to burst open and release Mew. To her surprise, the ball clicked and pinged, signaling she had caught Mew. She picked the pokeball up and smiled softly. Although her old self would have been happy to have caught a pokemon that was extremely rare, with the balance out of control, even legendary pokemon were becoming desperate to fix the world. She turned around to Flame and was about to open the pokeball when she saw a guy walking towards her. She became nervous as she didn’t know how long he was there. She didn’t know if he was friend or foe and hesitantly asked, “Who are you and how did you find me?” She was already regretting sending Visor away as he was her only way out with teleport should things go bad.

The man chuckled softly and said, “So you’re the agent that I was sent to retrieve. Glitch here lead me to you.” He frowned a bit and asked, “Did you not get the message?”

Mithal frowned and said, “What message?”

She looked at her pokegear and saw a message on it and sighed and opened the message to read, “Chris is on route to you. Do not worry for he is an ally.” Another message popped up and said, “You really are not bright are you?”

She felt her anger rise as she glared at the now giggling porygon. She so wanted to slap the porygon, but it wasn’t her pokemon so she sighed in frustration and looked at Chris and said, “I guess you can take me to Alex as I’m lost out here.”

Chris nodded and motioned for Glitch who was still laughing to lead the way. She followed them, half-relieved that they didn’t see her catching Mew and half-worried that they did and didn’t say anything to her.