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The Trial of Juno Saga [PG-13]

Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
The Trial of Juno Saga


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Foreword

This story's old, but I've been continuously requested to post it in full in one location, and right now the only place where the completed version is hosted is on an inactive forum that constantly experiences technical issues. Also, it's in fragmented parts, which makes it hard to locate and read in full. I've also felt the need to refreshen it by cleaning it up a bit and swapping in some of the newer Pokémon, as this was written just before and during Diamond and Pearl's era.

The Trial of Juno Saga is in four parts, detailing the trials and tribulations of a human schoolyard bully named Jake Kossak entering a world of Pokémon as a Pikachu named Juno, a gifted Pikachu made possible only through the dreams and desires of one of Jake's bullied victims. What starts off as a squabble between classmates and bullies plunges into a dark, twisting rabbit hole where Juno, foreseen as the savior of the tormented Pokémon world of Kivistal, must fight not only through the dark wastelands of this new, ravaged world, but also through the agonizing depths of the Abyss (the Pokémon rendition of Hell) and journey through the high heavens of Utopia (Pokémon rendition of Heaven). Throughout his dark journeys, not only must Juno fight his corrupted fellow Pokémon, but also the sickening horrors of the Abyss, and one of the most intimidating and menacing enemies of all: himself, the selfish, heartless human that he used to be. The question is can Jake/Juno overcome all of these dark obstacles, and what really lies at the final end of it all?

The Trial of Juno Saga is rated PG-13. While there is some harsh language, most of the rating comes from the violence and graphic themes (especially with the Abyss). Also, I plan on posting roughly one chapter every other day, so hopefully that's a manageable amount for people to keep up with it.

So sit back and enjoy the story.

Chapter Directory


THE TRIAL OF JUNO I
THE DAWN OF HOPE


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PART I – THE GRAY BATTLEGROUNDS
Chapter 1: Enemy of the School
Chapter 2: Out of Nowhere
Chapter 3: The Unexpected Challenge
Chapter 4: The Scare
Chapter 5: Foreign Encounters
Chapter 6: Grim Reunion
Chapter 7: Against Odds
Chapter 8: Turning Back
Chapter 9: The Separation
Chapter 10: The New Dawn
Chapter 11: The Alter Ego
Chapter 12: The Arrival
Chapter 13: A Sickening Turn
Chapter 14: Into the Breech
Chapter 15: Restless

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PART II – THE TWISTED FIELDS
Chapter 16: Odd Reoccurrence
Chapter 17: The Meeting
Chapter 18: The Only Solution
Chapter 19: The Midnight Struggle
Chapter 20: The Hostile Conflict
Chapter 21: Crossing the Threshold
Chapter 22: The City of Symarix
Chapter 23: The Last Prison
Chapter 24: Boot Camp
Chapter 25: The Last Call
Chapter 26: A Whisper in the Dark
Chapter 27: Cold Underground
Chapter 28: Eyes of the Enemy
Chapter 29: Loss of Security
Chapter 30: The Jade Sword
Chapter 31: Time Crisis
Chapter 32: The Passage Home
Chapter 33: Allies and Enemies

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PART III – THE BLAZING SKIES
Chapter 34: The Binding
Chapter 35: Breaking the Threshold
Chapter 36: Tattered Trust
Chapter 37: Reconstruction
Chapter 38: Unexpected
Chapter 39: A Call to Arms
Chapter 40: Defiant Stand
Chapter 41: The Longest Walk
Chapter 42: No Answer
Chapter 43: Beyond the Shadow
Chapter 44: The Unknown Blessing
Chapter 45: A Change in Direction
Chapter 46: The Clairvoyance
Chapter 47: The Journey's End

THE TRIAL OF JUNO II
THE SECOND PROMISE

Prologue

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PART I – THE LAST REQUIEM
Chapter 1: The Lost Message
Chapter 2: The Passing
Chapter 3: The New Homecoming
Chapter 4: The Second Departure
Chapter 5: Dark Surroundings
Chapter 6: Harsh Misery
Chapter 7: The Flight of Shame
Chapter 8: A Voice From the Outside
Chapter 9: The Unexpected Act
Chapter 10: Inner City Pursuit
Chapter 11: The Gray Hour
Chapter 12: A Solemn Path
Chapter 13: The Bleeding Shadows

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PART II – THE SHADOWS THAT WALK
Chapter 14: The Call of the Night
Chapter 15: The Search in the Depths
Chapter 16: The Path Revealed
Chapter 17: Shadows of Memory
Chapter 18: Diving Underground
Chapter 19: The Bleeding Depths
Chapter 20: The City of Shattered Souls
Chapter 21: Under the Veil
Chapter 22: The Underworld Search
Chapter 23: The Celestial Transition
Chapter 24: Boundless Jubilation

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PART III – THE BLADE OF RETRIBUTION
Chapter 25: The Reawakening
Chapter 26: Reflections of a Destiny
Chapter 27: Frontline Bound
Chapter 28: Uprising's Dawn
Chapter 29: Infernal Injection
Chapter 30: The Celestial Convergence
Chapter 31: Shadows Revealed
Chapter 32: The Steadfast Commander
Chapter 33: Dead Legacies
Chapter 34: Darkest Sacrifice
Chapter 35: Anarchy Unleashed
Chapter 36: Hour of Shadowfall
Chapter 37: A Promise Kept

THE TRIAL OF JUNO III
THE CRY OF EGATEPT


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PART I – HOLOCAUST OF THE DAMNED
Chapter 1: The Darkest Interrogation
Chapter 2: Living Confirmation
Chapter 3: Dark Insertion
Chapter 4: Proving Grounds
Chapter 5: The Desert Whisper



THE TRIAL OF JUNO I
THE DAWN OF HOPE


TOJGrayBattlegrounds_zpsf3e0b491.png


PART I – THE GRAY BATTLEGROUNDS

Chapter 1
Enemy of the School

Randy was a loser. Not just any ordinary loser, but Randy must have been the king of losers. Plus he was the only reason why I found interest at school. Whenever I got angry or frustrated because of stupid teachers or homework, all I had to do was find Randy Ferguson and release my stress upon him. It always made my day.

Randy’s Pokémon were also losers, and they’d always be that way since they always got beat up badly every time he battled. I must have made Randy’s Pidove and Nidoran kiss dirt at least twenty times, but I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve really beaten him. Randy also had a Growlithe and a Sewaddle, and I had knocked their lights out plenty of times. Obviously, Randy was too stupid to know how to really battle, but the way he kept on trying rather than giving up kept renewing the fun.

Alex and David, two of my best friends, also hated Randy’s guts. While I liked to slowly torture Randy’s Pokémon in a battle, Alex wiped out Randy’s Pokémon so fast it was hilarious. David on the other hand liked to just outright pound the stuffing out of Randy’s Pokémon with his Rhydon and his Zoroark until there was barely anything left to identify them. The amount of overkill was just so funny that it was almost obscene. Randy said he’s been a trainer for nearly two years. To me, he was practically on the same level as a beginner who only just started yesterday. If that’s not pathetic, then I don’t know what is.

We only got caught once picking on Randy, and it was in the hallway between classes. It ended with nothing more than a slap on the wrist by one teacher we didn't even remember the name of. But all the other times, Randy pointed blame at us, but just had nothing to prove it and teachers couldn't give a student detention over a Pokémon battle. One day, Alex put a stink-bomb in Randy’s desk while he was away, and when Randy came back and threw his books in, he broke the glass and the whole classroom smelled like something died in there for the entire day. Of course, we only did it once, just like everything else we did to him. Otherwise he’d begin to catch on, and honestly, I preferred being original.

Another amusement came from my birthday. Normally, whenever someone’s birthday comes up, their mom makes cupcakes for everyone in the class. My mom did the same thing, and I sprinkled them all sorts of colors, red, yellow, blue, and purple. Each cupcake was its own color, but for Randy, I sprinkled his green to indicate to me which one I would hand to him. After I made sure mom wasn’t looking, I slipped a laxative tablet into the green-sprinkled cupcake. When I handed it to Randy the next day, he ate it so fast and it was a struggle not to burst out laughing. After a hilarious series of events, Randy’s new nickname was “poopy-pants” for the rest of the school year. Still, he didn’t have an ounce of proof that I had anything to do with it. Again, it was pure genius.

Since my allowance was small, I needed to rely on Randy’s lunch money as a considerable income. I never felt guilty about taking it either. Heck, I figured I was doing Randy a favor by preventing him from having the disgusting school lunch every day. If I did nothing, he’d become just as fat as Frank Meyers, who we’d always call “shirt-burster” on a regular basis. If we hadn't intervened, his stomach would be subjected to such crappy food loaded with grease and saturated fats that day. I then considered that his lunch money was income for my services. It wasn’t much, but a dollar a day ended up being thirty bucks a month. Then count that all up for each day of the school year… hell, I was making out well.

We got a big surprise May 14th. It wasn’t during school like most of our pranks took place, it was after. And it didn’t start with Randy this time…

Alex, David and I had been walking down the stairs out of the back entrance of Scottville Middle School when we saw it. There he was, Frank Meyers lying down in the mud by the stairs in that little ditch that accumulated water from the rain last night. His short, blonde hair and his pudgy face were soiled with wet filth and his shirt (or what was left of it!) was completely soaked with mud. We didn’t even need to do anything to begin laughing hysterically.

“Hey Frank!” David shouted out over a hard laugh. “What happened to ya!?”

“Chill man,” I told David casually. “The pig just wanted to cool himself down.”

Frank was in a cross between crying and becoming furious. We laughed even further. Someone who’s in the seventh grade really should have learned to stop crying like an infant long ago.

Alex then made the situation more hilarious. He found the backpack that Frank had dropped and opened it up. Alex then threw out Frank’s folders and his books and each of them landed in the mud, effectively soaking the pages full of sludge. Frank was getting even worse. Then I saw something that made me laugh even further. Frank had Pokéballs in his backpack that also landed in the mud after Alex threw them out. I never realized Frank was a Pokémon trainer. I really just couldn’t picture a fat, worthless piece of flesh like Frank being a trainer…

Then, as if it couldn’t even get better, out of nowhere came Randy Ferguson in the flesh. He was standing before us like he was all high and mighty, with his frizzy orange hair blowing in the wind, probably because he still hadn't figured out what a comb was or how to get a haircut. He was just watching everything in disgust, furrowing his brow and squinting those beady brown eyes of his. Alex had dumped everything that was in Frank’s backpack before turning around and seeing our special victim.

“Well, if it isn’t poopy-pants himself in living color,” Alex smiled at Randy, giving him that special glare. “If you’re looking for the bathroom, it’s inside, stupid.”

“The three of you are going to pay for picking on Frank,” Randy told us, trying to sound tough and totally ignoring Alex’s comment.

The three of us laughed even further. Here was Randy, acting like a big hero for shirt-burster. That idiot had no clue what he was getting into. Exactly how was this day going to be any different from all the others?

“Randy,” David told him honestly, “even you should be aware that Frank isn’t worth the dirt he’s laying in.”

“You’re wrong!” Randy wailed, again trying to play the hero here. “And I’ll prove it to you.”

Then, Randy reached for his belt and pulled out one of his Pokéballs. I could see where this was going…

Did that idiot really expect to win a battle against us? I couldn’t believe it. All this time, Frank seemed to become more hopeful now that Randy was here to defend him. Frank was just about to learn that his guardian angel wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.

“Go Nidoran!” Randy shouted, tossing his Pokéball forward.

The Pokéball landed on the asphalt of the parking lot, and a moment later, Randy’s worthless Nidoran emerged from its Pokéball in a flash of white light. The three of us looked at each other to decide how we wanted to beat the stuffing out of Randy’s Pokémon. It was then decided that I should be the one to do it. To us, time plus torture equaled amusement.

I then removed one of my own Pokéballs, pressed the central button to prep it for release, and threw it on to the asphalt as well. Out came my fantastic Raichu. After Raichu set his gaze upon his opponent, he realized it was the same worthless Nidoran he had crushed so many times before. Even Raichu looked like he was tired of Randy’s brainless attempts to beat us.

“Raichu!” I shouted, “Use your Thunder Wave against Nidoran!”

It was getting to the point where Raichu didn’t even need commands to kick the stuffing out of Nidoran. It had become so systematic and routine that Raichu could fight almost completely on his own like we actually rehearsed for this on an everyday basis.

Raichu then sent out his Thunder Wave, and when the bright pulses of electricity hit Randy’s Nidoran, the small, purple poison rabbit Pokémon was rendered helpless, completely paralyzed from the shock and left there, twitching and curled up in a fetal position. All that Nidoran could do now was quiver on his back as sparks of electricity surrounded his body.

“Slam that Nidoran with a Brick Break attack, Raichu.” I told him, knowing this would finish the job with no problem at all.

Raichu then charged at Randy’s Nidoran, and all Nidoran could do was just watch as Raichu rushed up to punish it for existing. When Raichu reached his target, he threw a bone-cracking punch right into his side, sending Nidoran tumbling out of control before lying on his back with his tongue hanging out. Alex and David were snickering again as Randy was effectively slapping yet another epic failure on his already comical losing streak.

“Nidoran, return.” Randy moaned in frustration as a red beam shot out from his Pokéball and landed on the sacked Nidoran. The pathetic Pokémon was then returned to Randy’s Pokéball, leaving Raichu tapping his foot impatiently.

He then threw out a second Pokéball, and it also landed on the parking lot. Then, out came Randy’s Pidove. Randy didn’t even need to lose yet and we already began cracking up hysterically.

“Randy,” David told him, trying to fight the hard laughter for a moment, “don’t you know anything about type-alignments? Flying types don’t do very well against electric types like Raichu…”

“I don’t care,” Randy responded. “My Pidove is faster than Jake’s Raichu.”

You wish. Raichu’s signature attribute was his speed, and it was ten times faster than Pidove’s. This time I showed no mercy.

“Raichu, use your Thunderbolt,” I smiled to Raichu, knowing it would be more than enough to send Randy’s little Pidove screaming into the oblivion.

As if to help Raichu even further, Pidove took flight. Raichu’s cheeks flared up with electricity and just as Pidove realized what was happening, a massive fork of lightning emerged from the shining Raichu and struck Pidove dead-on, blasting him with a bright flash. Pidove was thoroughly cooked for ten seconds as electricity coursed through him before Raichu released his power, and let the hopeless Pidove fall from the sky just before the nice, hard asphalt broke his fall. The only smart move Randy made after that was giving up.

“Fine, Jake,” Randy spat with frustration as he returned the pulverized Pidove to his Pokéball. “I give up. But some day, I’ll become so strong that the three of you combined won’t even beat me!”

“Randy…” Alex said, nearly laughing, “…in your dreams. There’s no way you’ll ever become strong enough to beat us. You can try all you like, but you’ll never do it.”

That normally would have been a very typical day that the three of us tortured Randy. But something else happened that day that we won’t soon forget…
 
Last edited:

Darkened_Kingdra

Whatcha want?
Ah Got your PM. Glad you posted this, dude!
Starts out just like I remember it. I'm really interestd in seeing what Pokemon changes you made besides Sewaddle and Zoroark.
PM list plz!
(P.S. I'm changing my username to Darkened_Kingdra in October, so be ready for that.)
 

Psychic

Really and truly
Heya! First-time reader here – I figure I’ve never read this before, and there’s no time like a repost!

It sounds like an interesting tale from the summary – it’s not often that the main characters of tales like these are the aggressors instead of the victims, so I’m looking forward to seeing where you take this. There’s a lot of potential and many areas to explore with characters who are plain mean who are then put into new situations. That said, one thing from your summary that struck me was your description of Jake as being “intimidating and menacing...selfish, heartless.” School bullies suck, but I wouldn’t call a kid one of the most menacing or heartless people around. If it turned out he abused Pokémon or seriously hurt someone it would be one story, but most school-aged bullies are just insecure people, sometimes from troubled homes, and eventually grow out of it and turn out to be fairly well-rounded adults. I know bullies feel like the worst thing in the world when you’re in grade school, but when you grow up you realize that there are much worse people out there, and saying one’s like the other seems like comparing apples to oranges. I’m sure that considering how far along you are with this fic you’re not looking into changing Jake’s entire character, but just some food for thought.

Anyhow, on to the first chapter, I think you did a pretty good job introducing us to Jake, doing so entirely through his interactions with Randy, which is an interesting choice. You have a decent ratio of telling VS showing events, and some insight into how, well, creative Jake is with his bullying methods. (Hey, I like a bully who doesn’t just do the stereotypical stuff you see in every TV show.) It’s good that you don’t try to focus on introducing too many characters, focusing mainly on Jake, his two friends and their two victims, but don’t be afraid to also mention other characters to help fill up your world. Simply mentioning students passing by and snickering, the crowd gathered around the bully and bullied in different scenes and other passing mentions like that make it feel like your world is comprised of more than just five people, plus it shows that nobody in this school really cares about the bullied kids.

I also really hope we’ll get more insight into Jake’s home life in the later chapters. I can definitely see him growing up in a dysfunctional family, with parents who might be absent or downright abusive. He alludes to not having much of an allowance (though apparently having enough money for a Thunder Stone for his Raichu?), so it also got me thinking about their financial situation. You don’t see these kinds of living situations portrayed very well (if at all) in fan fiction, so I’m definitely curious about this.

One place I think could use some tweaking is also the battle. Jake is described as issuing plenty of commands and being very active, but Randy never issues a single command, so any of the tension you might have had from this scene is unfortunately lost. It would also be nice to see some of his reactions more during the battle to let a bit more of his personality shine through, such as by taking a wide stance, gritting his teeth or balling his hands into fists. This is the first time he’s really standing up to the school bully, after all! Some basic descriptions of the Pokémon aside might also be nice.

I’ve also got some nitpicks for the story. Unfortunately, sometimes your wording seemed somewhat clunky, but there are also a few wrong word choices and misspellings you’ll definitely want to look into.
And Randy’s Pokémon were also losers, and they’d always be that way since they always got beat up badly every time he battled.
I wouldn’t start a sentence off with “and,” especially if there’s another soon after.

Randy also had a Growlithe and a Sewaddle, and I’ve knocked their lights out plenty of times.
Watch your tenses, since it switches mid-sentence. This makes it sound like the Growlithe and Sewaddle are dead or something. XD

But all the other times, Randy pointed blame at us but just had nothing to prove it and teachers couldn't give a student detention over a Pokémon battle.
You always need a comma before a conjunction, so put a comma before “and.”

Heck, I figured that if Randy had the school lunch every day, he’d become just as fat as Frank Meyers, who we’d always call “shirt-burster” on a regular basis. I was doing Randy a favor by making sure he wouldn’t eat such crappy food loaded with grease and saturated fats that day.
The end of the first sentence feels somewhat unnatural – I’d rephrase it as something like “just as fat as Frank Meyers, also known as “shirt-burster.” I might also put the “I was doing him a favour” in the earlier sentence.

Alex, David and I had been walking down the stairs out of the back entrance of Scottville Middle School and then we saw it.
Replace “and then” with “when” to make it flow better.

I never realized Frank was a Pokémon trainer, since before, I really just couldn’t picture a fat, worthless piece of flesh like Frank being a worthwhile trainer…
Take out “since before” and replace the comma after “trainer” with a semi-colon. This joins two independent clauses (aka complete sentences) a little more effectively. The word “worthwhile” also doesn't seem to really fit here, and it seems a little repetitive after “worthless.”

He was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans in a hopeless attempt to fit in with everyone else at the school.
Eh, this is stretching it a bit – this is pretty standard clothing, too normal to be considered “trying too hard.” Describing clothing also generally isn’t all that necessary, so I’d also just take this line out. Focus on the look on his face, his posture, things like that.

Even Raichu looked like he was tried of Randy’s brainless attempts to beat us.
Should be “tired.”

Alex and David were laughing again as Randy was losing like he always was.
You’re doing a fine job of showing us that Randy’s losing, so you don’t also need to tell us he was losing. The laughter is a nice touch, though (however since they do it so often, maybe change it one time to snickering or something?).

And to help Raichu even further, Pidove took flight.
I would change the “and” to “as if.”

But something else happened that day that we won’t long forget about…
The word you’re looking for is “soon,” not “long,” but I'd also remove the last “about.”


Phew, that took a good hour so I'll stop here. I'll also add that updating every day might be a little too fast for new readers - maybe go with weekly or bi-weekly?

Anyhow, this looks like a good beginning! I'd definitely recommend patching up the mistakes I pointed out, as well as fleshing out the battle and adding some details about passers-by to polish up the chapter. I'm very interested in seeing what you do with Jake's character, as well as just getting more insight into his home life and things like that.

Keep it up!
~Psychic
 
Last edited:

Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
Ah Got your PM. Glad you posted this, dude!
Starts out just like I remember it. I'm really interestd in seeing what Pokemon changes you made besides Sewaddle and Zoroark.
PM list plz!
(P.S. I'm changing my username to Darkened_Kingdra in October, so be ready for that.)

Yeah, I haven't decided on all the Pokémon changes yet, but I figured I'd handle that as I go along. Still, thanks for being a reader.

Heya! First-time reader here – I figure I’ve never read this before, and there’s no time like a repost!

Hey there. I figured it's been quite a few years since I first posted this and it didn't feature any of the new Generation 4 or 5 Pokémon (not to mention I figured I could slip in a few of Generations 6's Pokémon now), so I figured now was a good time to repost it with a fresh coat of paint.

It sounds like an interesting tale from the summary – it’s not often that the main characters of tales like these are the aggressors instead of the victims, so I’m looking forward to seeing where you take this. There’s a lot of potential and many areas to explore with characters who are plain mean who are then put into new situations. That said, one thing from your summary that struck me was your description of Jake as being “intimidating and menacing...selfish, heartless.” School bullies suck, but I wouldn’t call a kid one of the most menacing or heartless people around. If it turned out he abused Pokémon or seriously hurt someone it would be one story, but most school-aged bullies are just insecure people, sometimes from troubled homes, and eventually grow out of it and turn out to be fairly well-rounded adults. I know bullies feel like the worst thing in the world when you’re in grade school, but when you grow up you realize that there are much worse people out there, and saying one’s like the other seems like comparing apples to oranges. I’m sure that considering how far along you are with this fic you’re not looking into changing Jake’s entire character, but just some food for thought.

Yeah, I included the summary mainly from the fact that before, a few people seemed to drop the story early due to the fact Jake just seemed like a jerk of a protagonist character and they really didn't feel like reading about someone like that. I needed a heads up to show people things go much deeper.

Jake does eventually "grow out of it," but in an entirely differently way. You'll see.

Anyhow, on to the first chapter, I think you did a pretty good job introducing us to Jake, doing so entirely through his interactions with Randy, which is an interesting choice. You have a decent ratio of telling VS showing events, and some insight into how, well, creative Jake is with his bullying methods. (Hey, I like a bully who doesn’t just do the stereotypical stuff you see in every TV show.) It’s good that you don’t try to focus on introducing too many characters, focusing mainly on Jake, his two friends and their two victims, but don’t be afraid to also mention other characters to help fill up your world. Simply mentioning students passing by and snickering, the crowd gathered around the bully and bullied in different scenes and other passing mentions like that make it feel like your world is comprised of more than just five people, plus it shows that nobody in this school really cares about the bullied kids.

I definitely prefer to introduce characters slowly and carefully. I feel it helps quite a bit with helping people to remember them rather than introduce a lot of characters too quickly. But trust me, quite a few characters board the train later on.

I also really hope we’ll get more insight into Jake’s home life in the later chapters. I can definitely see him growing up in a dysfunctional family, with parents who might be absent or downright abusive. He alludes to not having much of an allowance (though apparently having enough money for a Thunder Stone for his Raichu?), so it also got me thinking about their financial situation. You don’t see these kinds of living situations portrayed very well (if at all) in fan fiction, so I’m definitely curious about this.

Hmm, I'll be honest, I never did reflect too much on Jake's life at home, and that is something that is worthwhile delving into. True, I have written far beyond this, but since I'm refurbishing this whole story anyway, I think I'll consider that addition to a future chapter. It would add an additional dimension to Jake's character.

One place I think could use some tweaking is also the battle. Jake is described as issuing plenty of commands and being very active, but Randy never issues a single command, so any of the tension you might have had from this scene is unfortunately lost. It would also be nice to see some of his reactions more during the battle to let a bit more of his personality shine through, such as by taking a wide stance, gritting his teeth or balling his hands into fists. This is the first time he’s really standing up to the school bully, after all! Some basic descriptions of the Pokémon aside might also be nice.

Yeah, I can honestly say I'm not 100% satisfied with the initial Pokémon battle, and you bring up good points about that. In truth, I did want to make it touch and go and get the rest of the story moving along without drawing it out so much, but I feel details like the one you mentioned are great, so it's a bit like being caught between a rock and a hard place. But I'll see what I can do about that.

I’ve also got some nitpicks for the story. Unfortunately, sometimes your wording seemed somewhat clunky, but there are also a few wrong word choices and misspellings you’ll definitely want to look into.

That's probably the result of me having gone into revising it again and again, so I can see where the original flow was probably derailed a bit and seems a bit choppy now. Again, you brought up good points, I'll try to make those changes when I can get around to it.

Phew, that took a good hour so I'll stop here. I'll also add that updating every day might be a little too fast for new readers - maybe go with weekly or bi-weekly?

Anyhow, this looks like a good beginning! I'd definitely recommend patching up the mistakes I pointed out, as well as fleshing out the battle and adding some details about passers-by to polish up the chapter. I'm very interested in seeing what you do with Jake's character, as well as just getting more insight into his home life and things like that.

Keep it up!
~Psychic

Normally I would agree that updating weekly would be great for people who read at an easy-going, casual level, but there's a massive amount of story that needs to be posted and quite a few people have been begging for the whole story in one place (and it's a bit more important now that the forum where the original full story is posted has become a dead stick on the verge of total erasure). And at weekly rate, it would actually take a few years for me to finally reach the end.

If you really want to see how much we're going here:

Trial of Juno I - 221 MS Word pages
Trial of Juno II - 172 MS Word pages
Trial of Juno III - 163 MS Word pages
Trial of Juno IV - 168 MS Word pages

Which is 724 MS Word pages in total. After doing the math, 724 divided by about 5 pages per update equals 144.8 weeks, which is 2.7 years.

So, with all that said, I hope it's understandable why I'm doing it this way.

Anyway, I value your insight a lot, and I definitely think it will help when it comes to polishing up these chapters. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to give this a great, solid review with lots of great pointers. I appreciate that and hope you'll continue reading.
 

Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
Chapter 2
Out of Nowhere

Out from behind the hill came none other than Jeff Huntington with that annoying brown, combed-back haircut, and overly serious face. I barely knew who he was, other than the fact he was a sports jock. He seemed to have been watching the whole thing from the distance, probably out of boredom. He looked like he was just about to go to a lacrosse practice wearing his green practice jersey and pants until he decided to hang around here instead. Really, that punk should have just minded his own business rather than trying to poke his nose at us.

“The three of you are quite the jackasses,” Jeff told us, giving us an annoyed glare. “Congratulations, you've beaten him for the millionth time. How about leaving the kid alone for once and why not try finding someone more in your own league?”

“Jeff,” Alex said to him, surprised he was willing to even start with us, “why don’t you mind your own business? If you hung around Randy for even just five minutes, you’d realize just how worthless he really is.”

“Right, I've heard all that before from you guys,” Jeff shouted to the three of us, looking irritated at the same time. “You know, since I'm sick of hearing it all the time, try battling me for once. I’ll make this a two on two battle. If I beat you, then you have to promise to leave Randy alone, because I'm tired of seeing you guys harassing him every minute of the day.”

“But if we win…?” David asked Jeff, expecting a response.

“Then you won’t hear from me again,” Jeff told David, feeling confident that wouldn’t happen.

Yeah, what a raw deal. The only reward we would be getting out of beating Jeff’s Pokémon is Jeff’s humiliation, which usually came free with every successful battle. But, even if we did lose, we had no intention of backing down. To me, there was no issue with breaking a promise with a guy I couldn't possibly care less about.

“Jake,” Alex said to me, looking at me from the corner of his eye with a smirk on his mouth, “let me take care of this idiot.”

“Sure thing.” I said to him with a smile and shrug, returning my Raichu to his Pokéball.

Alex was quick as lightning when it came to beating Randy’s Pokémon up. Fighting Jeff was going to be even more interesting. Jeff had pulled out two of his Pokéballs and threw them forward.

“Go, Ampharos and Espeon!” Jeff shouted as he threw forward the two Pokéballs.

Just like Jeff said, out of their Pokéballs came an Ampharos and an Espeon. I got a good look at them and saw they weren't too shabby. Jeff actually made a fairly decent attempt to keep them nicely trained, groomed, and fit. For once, we were going to see what a real battle looked like rather than the shameful excuses that Randy kept handing to us. At least Jeff actually had evolved Pokémon, unlike Randy who couldn't even get his Pokémon trained enough to get to that point. Still, despite all of Jeff's efforts, he was about to see what his adversary was capable of.

“Go, Houndoom and Mightyena!” Alex shouted as he let loose two of his Pokéballs.

Obviously, Alex had picked his nastiest Pokémon for the job. Leave it to Alex to show off two vicious, blacker-than-death hellhounds with glaring eyes and teeth that look like they could kill people they hadn't even met yet. When they appeared in the wake of the flash, I rubbed my hands in sneering anticipation. I couldn’t wait to see Jeff get wasted.

“Ampharos, use your Thunder Wave attack on Mightyena!” Jeff commanded, acting like some hotshot military commando, “Espeon, use your Light Screen.”

Well, at least he acted like he knew what he was doing. Unlike Randy, he actually had a strategy going and seemed to act like he knew what he was doing. But Alex wasn’t through yet. This party was just getting started and I was looking forward to seeing Alex's Pokémon wipe the floor with these clowns.

Ampharos let loose a pulsing Thunder Wave that unfortunately Mightyena had no way of avoiding. Meanwhile, Jeff's Espeon coated himself with a bubble shield of violet, reflective light. He could try all he'd like to shield himself from the wrath Alex was about to unleash upon them. When it failed, it would make it that much more comical.

“Houndoom, use your Crunch attack on Espeon!” Alex commanded pointing his index finger at his intended targets, “Mightyena, use your Howl!”

For now, it looked like Mightyena could fight off the paralyzing effects of Ampharos’s attack. He had let loose a loud howl that echoed throughout the entire parking lot, filling his body with ripe energy and anger. In his fury, he gnashed his sharp teeth, and I knew Jeff’s Pokémon were in for a world of pain.

In the meantime, Houndoom charged right after Espeon, and rendered his sharp teeth to bite down on Espeon. Jeff's Espeon winced in pain as the hellhound’s sharp teeth tore and lacerated his side, sinking his teeth down hard before throwing the Espeon away like a wad of gum down the trashcan.

While the Espeon wasn’t looking so hot in the aftermath of the Crunch attack, Mightyena looked like the Thunder Wave’s paralysis was starting to get to him and slow him down. After growling and struggling to fight back the agony, he found it hard to even move under the strain. I figured it had probably been a while since Alex's Mightyena had to deal with a worthy opponent. Still, Alex had to give Mightyena a moment to recover.

Jeff commanded his Ampharos to attack Mightyena with a Thunder attack, trying to show no hesitation after what happened to his Espeon. I was crossing my fingers hoping it wouldn’t hit, but Jeff got lucky this time. Mightyena was barraged with another harsh amount of electricity that slammed right on him like a sledgehammer from above. The hit was pretty brutal, but thankfully, he wasn’t down and out yet. Still, it did look like he was sincerely getting sick of it. Mightyena snarled at Ampharos, likely thinking Ampharos must have been really stupid to anger him.

Meanwhile, Jeff ordered Espeon to use his Morning Sun. To our dismay, Espeon was coated with light for a brief second, and every bit of pain Houndoom had dealt to Espeon had been recovered as the cuts and tears had been sealed. But Alex knew that Espeon wasn’t too much of a threat because both Houndoom and Mightyena were dark types. While Mightyena needed a brief moment to recover, Alex decided on a new target for Houndoom.

“Houndoom, use your Flamethrower on Ampharos!” Alex shouted.

Houndoom threw his front paws forward, arched back his head and then let loose a red-hot stream of flames upon the unsuspecting Ampharos. Jeff’s Ampharos twitched painfully as he was slowly barbecued under the consuming fire. Then, to our surprise, when the flames cleared, Ampharos had been inflicted with a harsh burn on his side, all while he was wincing and trying to soothe the pain with his floppy, yellow hands.

Then, Jeff commanded his Ampharos to also put a Light Screen shield on himself. Ampharos was also coated by the shield, which was going to make things harder for Alex. Jeff seemed to like being annoying and delay the inevitable. But, he still had a plan. For now, Mightyena was back in action.

“Mightyena, use your Headbutt attack on Ampharos.” Alex commanded.

Mightyena then charged toward Ampharos, thirsty for revenge. Mightyena then put his head down, and then slammed forcefully into Ampharos, completely ignoring the effects of the Light Screen shield. Ampharos was knocked into a back flip before landing face first on the hard asphalt. It was too bad for Jeff, because at that moment, Ampharos didn’t look like it could handle any more.

“Ampharos, return.” Jeff commanded as he summoned Ampharos back to his Pokéball.

Taking down Espeon was Alex’s next objective. Mightyena needed another moment to rest, so Houndoom was up for the fight. Still, Jeff’s Espeon was going to get the first strike.

“Espeon, use your Quick Attack!” Jeff shouted to Espeon.

Espeon then burst into a blur, and slammed right into Houndoom in a flash of fury. However, it was more of a surprise than a really painful attack. Houndoom growled off the pain, and then focused on his target.

“Headbutt attack.” Alex commanded, knowing that too would cut right through the Light Screen.

Houndoom lowered his head, and then charged right into Espeon, again ignoring the effects of the Light Screen. Espeon was hit hard, having very little protection against it. And best of all, Espeon flinched from the attack, hopelessly trying to shield himself with his front paws while wincing from the fury of the assault. Alex was more than ready to attack again while Espeon was in a hopeless trance of trying to fight off the terror.

“One more time, Houndoom.” Alex said with a devilish smile on his face.

Espeon was slammed again after Alex's Houndoom rammed right into him, and after rolling over a few times and lying still on his side, he didn’t get back up from the asphalt. Jeff had been defeated, and he looked far more miserable as he returned Espeon to his Pokéball. After that, Alex returned Houndoom and Mightyena to their respective Pokéballs.

“As long as you bother Frank and Randy every day, you’ll have to deal with me,” Jeff warned us. “Mark my words. I'm sick of seeing you guys pull this crap every day, so I hope you enjoy getting sick of me as well.”

“I thought you said you’d stay out of our way if you lost!” David shouted back, annoyed that even puny little Jeff Huntington couldn’t even keep his own deal. “And right now, Alex just beat the stuffing out of your pathetic Pokémon!”

“Man, you're slow,” Jeff remarked, crossing his arms, “Did you really think I was serious? Because really, even if we had that deal and I won, I knew you guys wouldn't stop harassing Randy.”

I was getting sick of this. Why on earth would Jeff want to defend Randy so much anyway? No one seemed to really care except him. Even the many people that were walking around didn’t seem to care at all. This was just another day and it was really only Jeff who suddenly seemed to undergo a brain fart bad enough to make him want to try and protect Randy for whatever stupid reason.

“Fine, Jeff,” I told him, staring right back at him in the face. “If you really want to lose to us each and every day of the school year, you can go ahead and be my guest.”

“We'll see,” Jeff warned us. “I wouldn't get too comfortable with this setup, Jake. Things are going to change around here, and it's not going to be in a way you like.”

Pathetic moron. He had no idea what he was dealing with. And to even further our amusement, Jeff, Randy, and worthless shirt-burster became friends after that. If that doesn’t make you laugh, I don’t know what will. Those two dimwits suddenly admired Jeff probably because he had more guts than they could ever hope to have. And I figured Jeff liked being the stupid chivalrous type by protecting the weak. It just made me sick.

While we never really bothered Frank and Jeff as much as we did Randy, everything had changed that next day. Worthless Frank and Jeff were going to suffer just as much as Randy was. I really didn't mind adding more morons to the list of clowns I liked to punish for getting into my face.

Now that those three maggots were watching each others' back, it was going to be harder for us to get them one by one. I figured that was the reason pests and insects liked to work in swarms. But, all it took was just twenty-four hours and Randy would make yet another stupid mistake. I just couldn’t believe it until it actually happened.

The next day wasn't really too eventful. Mom always asked how school was going, but I just gave her brief and vague answers. Dad was on a business trip in Johto, and calling him for any excuse of a conversation ended up with his voice mail that he never bothered to return. Life at home was quiet and boring, so I never had the itch to spend a whole lot of time there.

In the morning, classes were the usual bore and I spent most of the time staring at the clock, which I could have sworn had suddenly frozen. I hated math and the books we were forced to read. At least in science class, we occasionally got to burn something or dissect a dead Rattata or Patrat. That sure beats working with stupid numbers or reading about fictional characters I couldn't possibly care less about. That day we learned about viruses and diseases in science class, which caught my interest more than whatever the heck pi was and whatever stupid thing Tom Joad was doing.

Right after school, Alex, David and I headed out the back like we usually do to avoid running into any teachers or noisy faculty members. After stepping out the door, there they were, Frank, Randy and Jeff just waiting for us. Funny, for a brief moment, I had actually forgotten about them and what happened yesterday, but it suddenly all came back to me. Randy was looking incredibly confident of himself, as if he was packing a pistol and ready to just gun down the three of us. It was amusing, really. It really made me wonder how they arranged this and how long they've been waiting out here.

“Well, if it isn’t the three losers.” Frank giggled like a hog, thinking he had already won.

Losers. Really, I was looking forward to seeing exactly where Frank was going with this and what cesspool his sense of logic had tumbled into. While it was a different look for Frank, it was still idiotic.

“Losers?” I asked in some surprise. “Gee, Frank, I seem to recall it was Randy and Jeff that lost yesterday, so I really have no clue what the heck your worthless trap talking about this time.”

Jeff seemed to grow more impatient, looking like he had been waiting a while for something. He looked at the three of us, especially Alex, and seemed to wear a very dark smile.

“Time to turn the tables, guys,” Jeff told us with some kind of idiotic grin. “Randy is going to become more powerful than any of you could ever hope to imagine. Trust me, you've been messing around with people for way too long and now you're going to pay for it…”

We started laughing hysterically. Obviously Jeff had been hanging around Randy’s brain cell-killing aura for just too long. I just didn't think twenty-four hours was enough time to do so much damage. But if Randy really wanted to lose again, I would gladly make his wish come true, but there was no way Randy could become better than us in just a matter of seconds.

Then, out of the blue, Randy pulled out of his pocket what appeared to be a blue, red, and black beaded necklace with a large, red crystal as its pendant. He held it with confidence like it was a detonator to blow up the whole planet.

“Ah, so Randy’s into jewelry,” David snickered. “When did you come up with the idea that raiding mommy's jewelry box was a good way to barter your way out of this? And Jeff, wow, please tell me how some ordinary piece of junk like that going to help Randy become a better Pokémon trainer? Losing with a useless piece of bling still makes you a loser.”

“This is no ordinary piece of jewelry, David Miller.” Jeff told him, “This is a necklace that was worn by Quista, an ancient and powerful sorcerer who imbued it with many powers.”

“Jeff, I don't know what you're smoking, but man, it must be bad,” Alex laughed. “What the heck are you talking about?”

It was really sad to see Jeff go this far into threatening us. To me, that necklace looked like any ordinary piece of junk jewelry he could have gotten from some random pawn shop or as David mentioned, probably his mom's jewelry box, which would have been even more pathetic. I didn’t believe in magic powers or whatever. Frank and Randy couldn’t win at a Pokémon battle to save their lives, and this was their way of trying to bluff us out with some of Jeff's coaching. What a joke.

“Jeff,” I told him straight to his face. “Get a life. You don’t really expect us to believe that, do you? Just where did Randy even get that piece of garbage?”

“I gave it to him, saving it for a rainy day,” Jeff told us. “My father is an archeologist, and he found this in an Kavaskian tomb three years ago. He was supposed to sell it to a museum, but he decided not to. You’re not going to believe what kind of power it has.”

“You’re right, Jeff,” I remarked, really not seeing where he was directing this idiot parade. “I haven't started believing any of that the moment you started talking about it.”

I swore, the three of them could have broken out into musical song and dance, and it wouldn't have seemed any less idiotic, stupid, and unpredictable. At that moment, Randy took the necklace from Jeff, and strung it around his neck over the ugly blue graphic t-shirt he decided to wear today. He then held the red jewel in his hand while the necklace was around his neck. He then started rubbing it, and at that moment, the red jewel began to pulse with light.

“Seriously, are we finished here?” Alex asked with impatience. “Can't you three buzz off for once? I've got some shopping to do at Video Castle, so why don't the three of you get out of my way and go harass someone who actually cares?”

Suddenly, we were instantly blinded by a harsh, irritating, ruby light. I shut my eyes tight, thinking the whole thing must have been some stupid electronic device or something like that. Then, with my eyes shut, I felt a harsh wind blow around us, whipping the fabric of my t-shirt and jeans like I was standing in the middle of a windstorm. That was then that I felt like I was being pulled right off the ground and then thrown into a sinkhole.

When I reopened my eyes, everything had already gone dark.
 

Psychic

Really and truly
Hey, I haven't had a chance to get to the second chapter, but I figured I'd at least respond to you. :>

Hey there. I figured it's been quite a few years since I first posted this and it didn't feature any of the new Generation 4 or 5 Pokémon (not to mention I figured I could slip in a few of Generations 6's Pokémon now), so I figured now was a good time to repost it with a fresh coat of paint.
Sounds good to me! I remember being around PE2K when you were posting this, and considering how long ago that was, well, now's as good a time as ever.

Yeah, I included the summary mainly from the fact that before, a few people seemed to drop the story early due to the fact Jake just seemed like a jerk of a protagonist character and they really didn't feel like reading about someone like that. I needed a heads up to show people things go much deeper.

Jake does eventually "grow out of it," but in an entirely differently way. You'll see.
Huh, I didn't realize some people were so sensitive to that. A protagonist can be fascinating without being a good or nice person, and as long as they're written well most people will be hooked.

I don't doubt for a second that Jake will change, but my point was more that your summary was making it sound like some school bully was one of the worst people in the world, which seems unlikely. When you describe a character as “intimidating and menacing...selfish, heartless” as you did in the intro, readers expect a really horrible person who's committed some great atrocities - not a grade-school bully who's mean to a couple kids. Does that make sense?

I definitely prefer to introduce characters slowly and carefully. I feel it helps quite a bit with helping people to remember them rather than introduce a lot of characters too quickly. But trust me, quite a few characters board the train later on.
That's definitely a good way to start, imo, and I trust that there will be quite a colourful cast as the story progresses. Also to clarify, when I talked about mentioning other passers-by, I don't mean naming them or anything - simply saying "by now, a small crowd had started to form around us, pausing to watch the same spectacle as last week" or something along those lines.

Hmm, I'll be honest, I never did reflect too much on Jake's life at home, and that is something that is worthwhile delving into. True, I have written far beyond this, but since I'm refurbishing this whole story anyway, I think I'll consider that addition to a future chapter. It would add an additional dimension to Jake's character.
I agree that it would definitely add more to Jake's character, so I'm glad I could help brainstorm! I am also a firm believer in using any opportunity to add to and improve a story, so you may as well since you're doing an entire repost. (And of course do the usual proofreading before you post and whatnot.)

Yeah, I can honestly say I'm not 100% satisfied with the initial Pokémon battle, and you bring up good points about that. In truth, I did want to make it touch and go and get the rest of the story moving along without drawing it out so much, but I feel details like the one you mentioned are great, so it's a bit like being caught between a rock and a hard place. But I'll see what I can do about that.
I see what you mean about keeping the battle short. In that case, maybe only have Randy use one Pokémon - either Nidoran or Pidove - and focus on adding the details I mentioned? This way, you can keep it short but still describe the Pokémon, have Randy issue a command or two, and show his reactions during the battle. Raichu can still KO Randy's single Pokémon after an attack or two, thus still ending the battle quickly, but you'll have some details that really help bring the battle to life.

That's probably the result of me having gone into revising it again and again, so I can see where the original flow was probably derailed a bit and seems a bit choppy now. Again, you brought up good points, I'll try to make those changes when I can get around to it.
Yeah, those things tend to happen after lots of revision. In those cases, I'd definitely recommend reading your work out loud. It's a great technique for finding any awkward phrasing, and it's been a huge help to me while proofreading, even if it's a little slow.

Either way, glad I can help, and I'm happy to see you've made most of the changes! (Still need to change the "long" to "soon" in the last sentence, though!)

Normally I would agree that updating weekly would be great for people who read at an easy-going, casual level, but there's a massive amount of story that needs to be posted and quite a few people have been begging for the whole story in one place (and it's a bit more important now that the forum where the original full story is posted has become a dead stick on the verge of total erasure). And at weekly rate, it would actually take a few years for me to finally reach the end.

So, with all that said, I hope it's understandable why I'm doing it this way.
*sucks in breath at the amount of fic and starts choking a little* Well, that is quite the job ahead of you, so I can see why you feel a little rushed. XD

If there are a lot of people who just want to see the entire story in a single place, have you considered getting a website/blog to post it on or something? (For example, Dragonfree has a site for her fic, The Quest for the Legends.) This would be great for your old fans, since you can pretty much upload the entire fic in a matter of weeks/months. I mainly suggested slowing down your update schedule in order to attract new fans, if that interests you. Building up a new fan base happens slowly, so you have to give them time to read and catch up and whatnot. Plus it's much easier to receive feedback on a fic if you only post one chapter at a time since it's much easier to review one chapter than a dozen, and it'll be a bit less overwhelming for you.

These are only suggestions based off observations, but it's your fic so do whatever you think is best. :>

Anyway, I value your insight a lot, and I definitely think it will help when it comes to polishing up these chapters. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to give this a great, solid review with lots of great pointers. I appreciate that and hope you'll continue reading.
Thank you, it's always refreshing to offer feedback that is well-received and really valued and can really help a writer out, so the pleasure's all mine. I hope to continue reading and wish you all the best.

~Psychic
 

Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
@ Psychic

Yeah, PE2K is that site I was talking about, the one that will probably have its lights turned off any day now. With long load times, crashes, a community that has moved to another site, and an admin that gave up years ago, it's a goner. I'd rather give this story get a new home rather than let it sink with the rest of the ship.

Jake definitely does change. The introspection goes pretty deep throughout the saga. I don't want to spoil anything though. As for posting the story in a single spot, putting it on its own website does sound intriguing. Maybe when I get the time, I'll look into that further.

As for posting rate, I figured it would probably be best to post every other day instead. I know it may still seem pretty fast, but I really don't mind if people review and comment on say chapters 2 and 3 even when I'm posting 15 or 16 and so on. Some people read at different speeds and I totally understand that.

Anyway, thanks again for your support and advice. Cheers.
 

Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
Chapter 3
The Unexpected Challenge

After a sick feeling of what seemed to be falling without actually being able to see anything, we woke up in what seemed to be a dark forest. After sitting up off my back, I saw nothing but gnarled, dead trees in every direction, along with a hazy, dark fog surrounding them the more I looked into the distance. I thought that little creep might have caused me to break something, but for his own sake, I was fine. First thing I noticed upon getting off my butt was the sky. It was a freakish mix of light and dark gray clouds, making it pretty much impossible to tell what time of day it was. When I looked around, Jeff, Frank and Randy were completely gone, just like that. The school, the parking lot, everything was just wiped off the face of the planet and replaced by whatever the heck this was supposed to be. Alex and David got up off the ground and looked around, and the end result was all three of us didn’t have a clue as to where we were. Okay, so there was something more to that necklace than we thought, but I was still in major denial that most of what Jeff said was true. Whatever, I figured we could work around it.

Maybe Jeff was right. Maybe Randy felt he could become a better Pokémon trainer by running away from us or by playing some stupid trick. I would have laughed at that thought, but reality told me I still had absolutely no idea where we were, and that certainly wasn’t anything to laugh about. For now, I figured I would prepare myself for this to be some kind of prank. That way, in the end, it would backfire on Randy when it didn't work out the way he wanted it to.

“What the hell is this place?” David asked, looking around and not recognizing anything.

I took a closer look around, and it seemed somewhat familiar, but not completely. I then guessed it was most likely the same place. I was willing to chance it.

“It looks somewhat like the Hollow,” I told the two of them, though I felt that might be a pretty wild assumption. “It’s only about three miles away from the school.”

“Think again,” Alex told me, looking up at the sky. “Why does it look like it’s about to rain?”

Alex was right. It didn’t completely look like the Hollow, and the sunny weather we were experiencing just three minutes ago seemed to have quickly vanished for some weird reason.

“Look,” I told Alex and David, knowing hanging around here was a waste of our time, “let’s just try to get the hell out of here. Even if we’re all the way in Celadon or something, there has to be some way of getting back.”

“How would Randy’s stupid necklace bring us all the way to Celadon?” David asked realistically. “We could be anywhere right now. I have no idea what the hell it just did, but this is seriously screwed up.”

“Just forget about it, David,” Alex told him, putting it past him. “Let’s just try to find some way out of here. Screw the details. Randy would be laughing if he saw we were about to panic.”

Definitely a good point. Things always get ugly when you give a freak like Randy any kind of leverage. Again, it was probably best to play along with the idea that this was just a prank of his.

We then began walking through that dark forest for some time, and the more I looked at it, the more reality kept telling me this sure wasn’t the Hollow like I thought it was. I was sure we had walked at least two miles and nothing had changed. After nearly an hour of walking through dense trees and dark fog, the weird and twisted forest had suddenly ended and we came across a large valley along with a cabin down a long beaten path snaking its way through the valley. I knew for a fact I had never been around here before.

We decided to check out the cabin and hopefully get some directions back to Scottville Middle School, or at least back to our home town of Viridian City. Right now, I was guessing we were someplace out east near Indigo Plateau, but my guess was with a whole lot of doubt. I was in denial I was lost.

When we arrived at the cabin, we saw there wasn’t a single window. It was made of wooden logs and only had one door. We just shrugged it off and opened the door, not really caring what was inside or about being polite by knocking first. We had been walking for over an hour and I didn’t feel like passing up the chance to actually talk to someone. Once we swung the creaky door inward, we saw it was pitch black inside, and just as the three of us entered, the door slammed closed completely by itself, and suddenly, the room was filled with light. Out of shock, I quickly looked around and saw the room was completely empty. Like a walk-in closet, it was simply composed of wooden log walls. And oddly enough, I found no reasonable light source anywhere. None of us were even casting shadows. I then quickly turned around and tried to open the door but it was stuck. We then heard what seemed to be a female giggling, and already I was cursing under my breath, wondering what kind of crap was going on.

“If you think it’s going to be that easy, you’d better think again…”

“What the hell!?” David shouted, looking around.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, we saw a cloud of pink dust appear in the corner of the room. After some time, the dust began to form into a smiling fairy with long, blonde hair, a bright pink dress, and large insect wings. Meanwhile, she held a wand in her right hand. Man, it was so stereotypically cheesy it was almost physically painful to see. When we saw that, we realized we were likely no where even close to Viridian City. This had to be Hell, and maybe Randy and Jeff took the cowardly way out by just outright killing us. Or it was a stupid game that those three idiots must have spent all night trying to arrange, and maybe this was actually Jeff's stupid mom or whatever. But if this really was still a big prank, those three rats definitely went all out.

“Just who the hell are you!?” David asked the fairy, wondering if it was even real for sanity’s sake.

“My name is Caska,” She replied smiling and staring right at David. “And I know who you three are. You’re none other than David Miller, Jake Kossak, and Alex Davidson. You are the three villains who oppose the king!”

“What?” I asked in surprise. “Who the hell is this king you’re talking about!?”

“Why it's none other than his royal highness, Randy Ferguson.” She told us in one quick statement.

We immediately burst out laughing in sheer, utter disbelief. This definitely had to be something Jeff's mom arranged, or something idiotic just like that. There was no freaking way on earth Randy would ever be respected by anyone besides some idiot like Jeff or Frank. Nothing was making sense. King? The only things Randy could be a king of were things that even the stupidest freaking people on the planet wouldn’t respect.

“Randy created this dimension world out of his desperation,” Caska told us, losing that weird smile she had been flashing earlier. “This is his world, created by everything he loves and hates to his happiness and his anger. He is the supreme ruler here, and the three of you are his worst enemies.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Alex snickered at the stupidity. “We’re living in Randy’s mind? If that’s the case, then we’re all about to become brain-dead really soon. Please, for once, wretch, tell me something that makes sense.”

“He created you?” I asked Caska, nearly laughing. “Since when was Randy into fairies and fantasy tales?”

She seemed somewhat insulted by that comment. I was glad at that moment, since if my sanity was really failing me and she was really telling the truth, then everything I would come across was part of Randy's mind and was subject to harassment and destruction. Still, as weird as everything seemed right now, I refused to believe any of this rot.

“I represent a part of Randy’s childhood,” She told us, glaring into our eyes. “Unfortunately for you, I am one of the happier moments of his life. And right now, the two of us are enemies. There is only one way to settle this.”

“You want to fight me?” David asked, turning his hands into fists. “Let’s go. I’ll tear you apart so badly that they’ll have to bury you in a lunch box.”

“No, Miller,” She said to David, growing in confidence. “I want to battle your Pokémon. Your loyal, trusted companions.”

“Even better.” David grinned wickedly.

I couldn’t wait to see David lay waste to a happy moment in Randy’s childhood, if that’s what this fairy thing even was. Still, the thought of we defeating her and then Randy feeling even more miserable in ways that we would never dream possible was just too damn good to ignore. David had this match in the bag.

“We’ll both use two Pokémon,” Caska told him in a firm tone. “If you win, then you get to make Randy feel even worse and more depressed, which I know is what you want the most.”

“You’d better believe it.” David said with a confident grin.

“But if you lose…” Caska replied, giving him that dark evil fairy stare again, “Then you’ll be the one feeling the depression and humiliation.”

Whatever. As far as I knew, there was nothing that could stop David or make him feel depressed. Caska then pulled out a pink and white Pokéball, and threw it towards the center of the cabin. I had no idea what a fairy would use as a Pokémon, but then it became quite clear.

“Go Blissey!” Caska shouted just before her Pokéball hit the floor.

And out of her Pokéball emerged a Blissey, and the three of us slightly cringed just staring at it. We couldn’t stand such a fat, moronic, and cutesy-looking Pokémon. Her stupid face made me feel like smashing glass and breaking furniture while screaming obscenities. I really hated Pokémon like these and the morons who trained them.

“Go Tyranitar!” David shouted as he threw his Pokéball, ready to release raw carnage.

And just a second later after the Pokéball struck the cabin floor, out came David’s beastly and nasty Tyranitar with a tremendous roar. He looked ready to crush Caska’s worthless Blissey into an unrecognizable pulp.

“Blissey, use your Minimize!” Caska commanded, beginning that annoying smiling spree again.

Blissey suddenly then began to decrease in size, making it harder for Tyranitar to even hit it. However, David certainly wasn’t going to give up that early.

“Tyranitar, Earthquake attack.” David said coldly, ready to terrorize the smaller Blissey.

Tyranitar gladly accepted, and slammed his heavy foot into the floor which sent a violent tremor through the ground that shook the entire cabin. Rocks and jagged stones tore up through the ground, ripping apart the wooden floorboards. However, it completely missed Caska’s Blissey. Somehow the stupid thing managed to squeeze itself between the jutting rocks and fissures. There was nothing to explain it but just a case of really crappy luck. To make it worse, Caska’s damned Blissey even giggled.

“Minimize again!” Caska shouted, making things even worse.

“This is getting cheap.” David growled, truly despising this type of strategy.

Blissey grew even smaller, still wearing that stupid smile of hers. Our expressions began to grow grim as Blissey was just laughing at the frustration of David and his Tyranitar.

“Rock Slide!” David commanded Tyranitar.

But that missed as well, as Blissey was so small that the rocks Tyranitar called forward from the ground simply bounced around her and instead buried themselves in the walls. David was becoming quickly frustrated. Again, Caska told Blissey to Minimize again and again, and David missed each and every time. But then, it got even worse by the time Blissey was nearly smaller than a Caterpie...

“Use your Sing attack Blissey!” Caska shouted with glee.

Blissey then began to sing peacefully, and Tyranitar was beginning to lose his consciousness. After stumbling around to try and stay awake, Tyranitar crashed to the ground fast asleep, again making us lose even more hope.

“Blissey, use your Metronome.” Caska commanded, happy that she had one hell of an advantage.

Blissey then seemed to dance for a short while, and then all of a sudden, it lunged toward the sleeping Tyranitar, and performed a wicked Cross-chop attack, one of the worst attacks that Tyranitar could’ve been hit by. Somehow, Blissey struck Tyranitar furiously and made him take a serious beating in an extremely short amount of time, despite the fact she was now only a hundredth of his size. Then, to David’s dismay, he realized Tyranitar was no longer asleep. He had fainted and was passed out completely…

“What!?” David protested. “What the hell are the chances of that!?”

“Bring out your next Pokémon, Miller.” Caska told David in a cold voice.

For once, I was somewhat glad not to be in David’s shoes. I seriously didn’t like where this was going. David returned Tyranitar to his respective Pokéball, and chose his next best Pokémon.

“Go Rhydon!” David shouted, getting angry this time, “Make mincemeat of that Blissey!”

Rhydon had emerged from the Pokéball’s brilliant flash, ready for onslaught. With his gray rock armor and powerful drill mounted on his nose, Rhydon was a beast of death to be reckoned with. We were crossing our fingers in hope that Rhydon would be able to handle an already grim looking situation and make up for Tyranitar's screw up.

“Rhydon, Stomp attack!” David shouted.

Genius. Rhydon charged forward and used his heavy, rocky foot to squash the already shrunken Blissey like a tiny, withering maggot. Blissey took a beating, but she wasn’t out yet for some ridiculous reason. Somehow she just kept on enduring.

“Sing attack.” Caska commanded.

Again, Blissey sang a peaceful song and Rhydon stumbled around just like Tyranitar, and he hit the ground fast asleep. David wasn’t looking too pleased at that moment.

“Metronome, Blissey.” Caska said coldly to her Blissey.

Blissey danced for a moment, and then we watched in horror as Blissey coated herself with a Reflect shield, which was going to be a pain to get past for Rhydon. Fortunately, Rhydon got up from his slumber quickly, but he was going to have a lot more hell to deal with…
 

Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
Chapter 4
The Scare

As I was standing there looking at this whole thing go from bad to worse, I knew Rhydon was going to have to take down Blissey, right here, right now. Only then would it have at least some chance of defeating Caska’s next annoying Pokémon. Still, I couldn’t help but think this was going to hell real fast. An already

“Stomp attack, Rhydon.” David declared with a sick feeling in his throat.

Normally, that attack would have punished Blissey like last time, but the Reflect shield fended off most of the damage. Then, things went into a sickening turn.

“Softboiled, Blissey.” Caska commanded.

Blissey then surrounded herself with three glowing eggs that had suddenly become a pulse of white energy. Suddenly, Blissey has absorbed the energy, and began to heal from all the injuries David's Rhydon had inflicted on it, with David himself looking like he was ready to vomit. Caska’s Blissey had nearly become invincible…

“Focus Energy, Rhydon.” David said nervously.

That was the best move David could have decided on. Rhydon bowed his head down and growled furiously, steaming with anger and rage, ready to tear Blissey to ribbons. He had this one chance to stop Blissey, and he had to get it just right.

“Metronome, Blissey.” Caska told her Blissey.

Blissey began to dance again, and suddenly, a tremendous jet of water had fired from Blissey’s mouth and slammed into Rhydon, dealing a terrible amount of damage as the massive hulking Pokémon was blown back. Rhydon collasped to the floor, completely worn out in ways that shouldn’t have been possible. When Rhydon refused to budge off the floor, we couldn’t believe it. David had just lost to a worthless little Blissey…

“Damn it…” David snapped, “I don’t believe it!”

Caska then began clapping sarcastically for David’s miserable performance. Right at that moment, I had no idea what Caska was about to do to David next, and I really didn’t want to know. Still, the whole time, something about the whole thing really didn't feel right.

“Ready to receive your punishment for losing, Miller?” Caska asked sweetly, looking like she was already enjoying David’s misery.

“You cheat!” David shouted in red-faced fury, “How the hell could you get so lucky with Metronome!?”

Something about the whole thing seemed rigged, but there was no proof. And it seemed like Caska knew you just can't prove bad luck. Or in this case, cheating.

“That’s just the way things go, Miller.” Caska smiled to David, “Now its time for you to feel some misery, justice for what you’ve done to King Randy.”

“You better not, you stupid...!” David shouted, but never finished.

At that sick moment, Caska had looked toward the shouting David, and she snapped her fingers. She became a cloud of pink dust, and seemed to have disappeared, leaving David wondering what just happened. We were hoping by some miraculous chance that she just left us alone, but then, Alex and I looked at David, and David had swallowed hard.

Alex and I watched in freakish horror as David slowly began to change into a shiny and ridiculous-looking fairy just like Caska. His blue jeans suddenly became a sparking bright pink dress, and two fairy wings had emerged right out his back. It was a pretty sick thing to do to a guy in the seventh grade. He looked totally idiotic.

“What the hell is this!?” David said as he looked at himself, softly fluttering his wings, “What did she just do to me!?”

We couldn’t help but turn away at that moment. David tried to yank off the dress and the wings, only they seemed to be super-glued to his body. Of course, only then did we hear the door unlock. Still, I didn’t care about anything else. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. As I threw the door open, Alex and David just followed, and again we were outside…

“That does it!” David shouted as we walked out of that nightmare cabin, “If this really is Randy’s world, then I want to get the hell out of here!”

I figured that much was obvious, though I didn't have a clue as to how we were going to do that. Right now, if Randy could see David, he would be laughing hysterically, probably setting this whole charade up intentionally. The last thing I wanted was for the three of us to fight Randy while David ended up looking like a giant Tinkerbell. That would only make matters fifty times worse. I didn’t want to see Jeff acting all high and mighty again and Frank snorting while he had his finger way up his nose. It was enough to make me go ballistic and wish I had taken a combat shotgun before coming here.

“How the hell do we get out of stupid, moronic world for crying out loud!?” Alex demanded. "I'm sick of this place, nothing is making any sense!"

“We probably need to take down Randy, but first we need to find him.” I told Alex, knowing he had to be the source of all this idiocy. "Once we find him, we'll make him pay for this, I swear."

"Yeah, how are you going to do that when he cheats?" David asked me, still sickened over his new fairy features.

Frustrated, we just continued our way down the path, and day quickly turned to night, and everything went pitch black incredibly quickly. We had nothing to sleep on except the grass. All I could hope for was that maybe this whole thing was a dream, but it seemed far too real for that to be true. Still, I wasn’t going to dwell on it. We then quickly went to sleep, hoping we would be getting out of here soon.

When morning came, we headed down the path through the valley again. Then, for some strange reason, the grass slowly turned brighter in color. And just like that, ahead of us was another forest, except this one seemed to be more of a tropical one instead. This couldn’t be real. The more I saw it, the more insane I knew it all was. How the hell did we end up with this idiocy to deal with?

“We don’t have much of a choice except to continue.” David said grimly, “Hopefully this forest isn’t too big.”

We then continued our way through the dense foliage without a single path to go by, as if this couldn’t possibly get any worse. This was just making me sick. All we could do was push forward into nowhere, and then suddenly, we came to a clearing. When we emerged from the forest, we saw what seemed to be some sort of gathering. There were several shady figures moving about, dressed in hooded, violet cloaks like a bunch of creepy cultists. Then, in the distance, we saw a large, brown, sac-like object hanging from a post. If this really was Randy's dimension, I had no clue what this was supposed to resemble. It looked like it was supposed to be some kind of ritual or something.

“Yeah...” Alex muttered, watching them closely, “Now where is Randy's mind going with this one?”

“You!” One of them shouted, pointing at Alex, “You must be the one!”

Him? What exactly did these guys want with Alex? I tried to get a good look at their faces, but I couldn't see much. Their hoods covered most of their faces except for their chins and mouths.

“I bet you want to battle, don’t you?” Alex asked as his fingers were ready to clutch one of his Pokéballs, looking like he was honestly hoping the answer was no after what had happened to David.

But they didn’t say anything. Instead, the group of them jumped us, and pinned us to the ground. The guy on top of me was way stronger than I was. I could see a slight silhouette of his face, and I could almost swear it wasn't completely human. Still, even though I struggled, I realized it wasn’t me they wanted, it was Alex. But what the hell for?

“Let me go, you stupid maggots!” Alex shouted as he was being pulled away from us.

I struggled with the cultist that was on top of me, hoping to get up and help Alex escape, but for some reason, he seemed so much stronger than me, easily keeping me pinned down with seemingly superhuman strength. I then saw Alex being dragged closer and closer to the hanging brown sac by three other cultists. From the looks of it, he didn't have a chance of bailing out of this one. I was crossing my fingers hoping that sac thing wasn’t actually some living creature ready to devour Alex, but I could only barely just get my head off the ground to see what was happening.

“Get your hands off of me you deranged psychos!” Alex shouted as he struggled to break free before reaching the sac, “I don’t have anything you freaks want!”

They had inevitably arrived at the sac, the last thing Alex wanted to find out what it was. Seconds later, they lifted the screaming Alex upward, and dumped him right in like a piece of trash being thrown into a dumpster. Suddenly, the open sac closed up with Alex still inside, and immediately trapped him. After they started chanting, I saw Alex trying to struggle to get out, but there was no escape. And then, after some time, my fear began to escalate.

Alex had completely stopped moving…

David and I both thought that Alex could have suddenly died at that moment. But then again, I thought better. I then realized that Randy didn’t necessarily want us to croak while we were here, he wanted us to suffer in humiliation. He made David suffer, and now he was going to make Alex suffer. And then to make matters worse, he was probably going to make me suffer somewhere along the line.

“What the hell are you doing to him!?” David demanded, “Let him out of there!”

“Shouldn't be long now...” One of the cloaked figures muttered.

I stopped struggling after some time, since I was getting exhausted and wasn’t getting anywhere. I was still pinned down and this guy had no intention of letting go. I only wished I had a handgun to blast open the heads of all these maniacs, but there wasn’t crap I could do about it. I continued to look at the sac, and then I suddenly realized what the hell it was. It was some sort of weird cocoon. I needed to get Alex out of there as soon as possible.

I had only one choice. I struggled to reach for one of my Pokéballs while the freak was still on top of me. Then, I managed to grab one, and I hurled it into the air. When it landed, I saw I had released my Ariados. Now was my chance.

“Ariados, use your Poison Sting to get this guy off of me!” I shouted.

The cultist turned around in shock just to be greeted with a barrage of sharp, poison spikes. He immediately let go of me, and I got up off the ground. I then looked at the cocoon and saw the group of cultists that had dragged Alex guarding it.

“Ariados, Sludge Bomb attack on those guys.” I commanded Ariados.

Ariados then blasted the running cultists with a hearty helping of sludge, sending them running in all directions. They ran right for the forest and quickly vanished in the dense foliage. Still, I didn't care about pursuing them as much as I wanted Alex to get out of there. I quickly ran to the cocoon and tried to open it up with my hands, but it seemed impossible. The thing seemed to be glued shut and was way too tough for my bare hands to try and pry it open. And Alex didn’t seem to be moving at all.

“See if you can use your pincers to rip that thing open, Ariados.” I quickly commanded the spider Pokémon, hoping he’d be able to tear it open before something stupid happened.

Ariados approached the sac, and tried to tear away at the cocoon, but it seemed like invincible rubber. After several minutes of trying to tear it open, it seemed hopeless. I then had only one tool left that could possibly help Alex.

I had a small Swiss Army knife that I usually kept in my pocket. I pulled it out, flipped out its sharpest blade, and tried to cut the sac open. I couldn’t believe it. It was like trying to cut through thick rubber with a wooden stick. If that knife couldn’t rip that thing open, then what could? I was beginning to grow frantic.

And then, another horrifying moment arose. Suddenly, I saw the cocoon begin to crack open from the middle, but it wasn’t from anything we did. All I could do was back away and just look away. I didn’t even want to watch what was to come out of the second round of idiocy we had to deal with, and it was a good thing I didn’t. However, David had been watching in horror while I grimaced and looked away.

“Oh no…” David moaned with utter depression.

“Don’t tell me…” I warned David, “I don’t want to hear it.”

And then, David slapped his right hand against his eyes. I bet at that moment he had regretted watching the whole thing.

“Jake, don’t look.” David warned me, “Don’t look, whatever you do.”

“I guess you might as well tell me, David.” I told him honestly, knowing there was no point in delaying this any further, “Just tell me in words what happened.”

I could tell there was some hesitation in David’s speech. And then, he let it loose.

“Those sick maniacs just turned Alex into a human butterfly…” David said softly in dismay.
 

Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
Chapter 5
Foreign Encounters

Only then did I look at Alex, and then I really wished I hadn’t been so fast in doing so. His body from head to toe had been completely black like he landed in an oil slick. On his head were two long antennae with bulbs on the ends. And to make matters even worse, on his back were two enormous butterfly wings splashed with a rainbow of colors. Damn, if I had been in Alex’s place at that moment, I swear I would have gone postal. As sad and pathetic as David’s sad and humiliating fate had been, it wasn’t nearly as bad as this.

“THAT LITTLE FREAK RANDY FERGUSON IS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!,” Alex shouted loudly, sending his screaming echo throughout the clearing.

“You said it, man.” I supported Alex, trying to calm his rage by letting him vent and just agreeing to everything he said, “All three of us are going to slaughter those little freaks. I’ll even let you be the one who whacks Randy’s head as I pin him down.”

“Jake…” Alex said softly, trying to calm down all of a sudden.

“What?” I asked him, looking up into his eyes.

There was silence for a dark moment.

“Just shut up.” Alex told me with a bit of frustration in his eyes.

Fine. I was going to let Alex have his way for now, just like David. Since I too, would have been infuriated to the extreme if I was in their position, so I could understand why they’d both be moody all of a sudden. He needed to rant and I could get that. Still, one way or another, Randy was going to make sure we were humiliated and depressed even before we battled his Pokémon. And since this was his freakish world, we had to expect anything. I swore, he was not going to do to me what he did to Alex and David.

Before we had the chance to do anything, we saw what seemed to be a dark figure emerge from behind us. As we turned around, he got closer, and we realized he was wearing a black fedora and trench coat, looking like a mafia gangster pulled right out of the Italian mob. When he approached us, he shook his head in disgust.

“You three didn’t deserve this kind of misery.” The mobster told us.

“And who the hell are you?” I asked him, still with justified paranoia creeping all over me.

“Name’s Black.” He told us, “I’m Randy’s frustration. I owe you one.”

We were surprised for a moment to think that this guy actually existed. But then again, could we really even trust this guy? I figured I’d at least hear him out.

“You three made me strong by making Randy feel weak.” Black told us with a bit of a sinister smile, “I’ll let you in on some of Randy’s darkest secrets.”

“And what’s this?” David asked Black, still on his guard.

“Believe it or not, Randy’s world really was created from that necklace.” Black told us, “I know, I know, you thought it was a lie, but it's not. He created this whole new world and dimension just because of his inability to train Pokémon. Talk about frustration. There was nothing more he wanted than to beat the three of you.”

I couldn’t understand why worthless little Randy would go through so much trouble to beat us. Couldn’t he just accept the fact he was a natural loser at Pokémon and there was no hope for him in the world?

“But, if you try to battle him now, you’ll most surely lose.” Black warned us, “That necklace gives him enough power to give him any Pokémon he wants, as well as use any attack, even ones that don’t even exist.”

“Are you kidding!?” David shouted in shock.

“In Randy’s world, if he can think it, it becomes real.” Black informed us, still trying to keep a low profile, “His new, super-powered Pokémon are nearly invincible. It’s a good thing I found you three, because if I didn’t, there’s no way you would’ve won…”

I had a feeling this might just be one person in all of Randy’s world that we could trust. What he said was certainly making sense. The last time we saw Randy, he seemed ready to do anything, even something like this. We pushed him too far, but even then we didn’t regret it…

“How do we stop Randy and get out of here?” Alex asked Black.

“You need to defeat Randy, and well as Jeff an’ Frank.” Black said to the three of us, “You have to make Randy feel defeated enough to the point where even in his own dream world, he still can’t beat you. Only then will that little schmuck give up this pointless crusade of his. And thankfully, when it's over, this place of his... poof. All gone.”

Heh, that was worth chuckling for. Randy would NEVER be able to say he was better than us, because it would be a cold-blooded lie. It then became clear what we had to do.

In order to get out of this place, we had to find Randy as well as those little morons Jeff and Frank and kick their butts. I certainly didn’t want to stay here any longer, after seeing what had happened to Alex and David. I had to be extra careful to make sure I didn’t end up like them, which was exactly what Randy wanted to happen…

“There’s only one way to at least put yourself on the same level as Randy.” Black told us, “You'll need these.”

Then, out of his coat, he pulled out three golden chain necklaces. He handed one to each of us, and we wore them around our necks.

“While those are nothing compared to the necklace Randy has, they have a similar power while you use them here.” Black said to us, “Heck, I should know. I know everything that just presses that little boy’s buttons.

And then, he reached back into his trench coat. It seemed he had one more thing to give to us.

“Here,” Black said, also handing a Pokéball to each of us. “These Pokémon will at least put you on the same level as Randy, since they’re also made from that little boy’s dreams. Once he throws his Pokéballs and his desired Pokémon comes out, he has no way of changing it. But be careful. Make sure he’s the one to send out his Pokémon first, or he’ll always have a type advantage over ya, usually in the worst kind of way.”

“Thanks, Black.” I said to him.

“It’s the least I can do for the three of you.” Black responded, “See you around.”

And then he turned around and left. I looked over the Pokéball that Black had handed me, just wondering what was inside. Still, now wasn’t the time to play guessing games. I was going to save this for a moment I really needed it. Last thing I wanted was for Randy to find out we acquired secret weapons against him.

After that, we headed back into the tropical forest, hoping we would find Randy soon and get out of Randy’s retarded dream world as soon as possible. I was already beginning to hate it here, and I was sure Alex and David were too.

Again, we made our way through the dense foliage, this time I was in the front. I constantly had to lift my feet and swing them over the dense shrubs on the ground, and it was wet everywhere. My jeans were soaked and my t-shirt was damp from the dew and the humidity everywhere. I picked up the pace, just wanting to get out of this miserable forest as soon as possible. I could put up with the heat and the sweat as long as it got me out of here faster. After some time, I turned around to see how Alex and David were doing.

And then I realized they weren’t there…

I looked back frantically, but I didn’t see them anywhere. Where the hell did they go? I shouted out several times, calling their names and hoping they were nearby, but there was no sight of them at all and no response. I was just pissed. I really didn't need this right now. And I top of that, I felt like I was starving. I hadn’t eaten in nearly a day and a half. But like hell I was going to trust eating or drinking anything while I was here.

All I could do was keep moving, but after some time, it became night again and I couldn’t even see the path ahead. I had no choice but to wait until dark. Stupid Randy and his imaginary world. Just who the hell did he think he was anyway? By now, I had no idea where Alex and David were, and this was just making everything fifty times worse. Again, I had to make a bunch of wet plants and leaves my bed for the night. That whole night, I kept thinking how much I really wanted to make Randy's face a gnarled mess with my fists.

Surprisingly, I fell asleep and when I awoke, I could see again. I got up and kept moving, hoping to leave this stupid forest, but it seemed to keep going on forever. After just a few hours, I heard a noise to my right. I thought by some miraculous chance it might have been Alex or David, so I decided to track it down. And then I came across an interesting sight. I came across a small fountain spring, and there were tiny little pixies surrounding it. They all seemed to look at me in shock for one moment, and then they calmed down, almost as if they already knew me.

“Oh, it’s only you.” One of them said in relief, speaking with a calm and quiet voice, “For a minute you had us scared.”

“Who are you?” I asked them, wondering who they were.

“We’re Randy’s mischievous side.” A different pixie told me, “But, unfortunately, Randy doesn’t get into mischief very often, so we’re always put on the back burner. He's just not a naughty guy... unfortunately.”

Sure as heck wasn't. He didn't have the guts to stand up to anyone or get even. That's what his problem was. He just didn't see it. What was the point of creativity if it wasn’t put to good use? Randy was just loaded with disappointments.

“Well, I plan on taking Randy down.” I told them, “Just like I always have.”

“Heh, yeah, go figure.” One of them replied casually, “We knew you would. I don’t know how you’re able to tolerate it being in the mind of the one person you despise.”

I didn’t know either, and my patience was growing short because of that. Hell, she was right about that one. After some of them got up and flew away, only about three of them remained. After they flew to a nearby branch, I suddenly felt my hunger arise again. I couldn’t help but ask if they had anything to eat. It became the only thing I was really thinking about.

“I’m starving.” I told the three of them, “You… wouldn’t have anything around here to eat, would you?

They suddenly became surprised, and looked at me like I was crazy. One of them giggled a bit, whispered something to the others, and then they looked at me.

“You… still need to eat?” One of them asked, “That’s silly. Obviously you’ve never heard of Sun Water before, have you?”

“Not a chance.” I told them.

“It comes from that spring.” The pixie told me, pointing to the fountain, “If you drink a few cups of Sun Water, you’ll never need to eat again. Drink, once in a while yes, but eat, never again.”

That sounded ridiculous. But then again, after I stole Randy’s lunch money a countless number of times, maybe this was an element of him that had put up with never having lunch again. Who knows, because in Randy’s world, it seemed like anything was fair game. I wasn’t about to give a damn where that came from though.

I walked over to the fountain and bent down. Honestly, the water didn’t appear to be any different that normal water, so I just shrugged it off. And since these pixies seemed to be another part of Randy’s naughty side, maybe I could trust them. Black already helped us out, so I figured they could be the same. They already looked like they trusted me. Hell, it was like we had already met for crying out loud.

And as my hunger grew stronger, I wasn’t about to argue or start asking stupid questions. I found a pewter cup nearby, and I dipped it into the fountain. I then gathered some water in the cup, held it to my lips, and then decided to drink it. While it looked like water, it tasted super-sweet like sugar. It tasted great, and after I drank down the first cup, I decided to go for seconds.

My hunger melted away immediately, but the Sun Water was so tasty I couldn’t help but keep drinking it. It was addicting as hell. I must have had twelve cups of the stuff before I felt like I had enough of it. There was no soft drink on Earth that had a better taste than Sun Water. I swore, I would have bottled the stuff up if I could have.

And then, I heard a slight giggling in the distance. I turned around and saw it had come from one of the pixies. I looked up at one of them and she looked at me.

“Boy, you’re going to look awfully cute…” She said before flying away with the other two.
 

Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
Chapter 6
Grim Reunion

No. No. No. I couldn’t believe what I just did. Randy was going to have me just where he wanted me. I was right, boy, was I right. I couldn’t understand why the hell I had just done that. He was going to screw all three of us, and I just walked into one of his sick traps. He just turned David into a fairy and Alex into a butterfly. Now what the hell was going to happen to me?

Those blasted little pixies were gone. Right now I wanted to wring their little necks and twist their little heads off, but I couldn’t do anything. I even said myself we couldn’t trust anyone while we were here. What the hell was I just doing!? All because of hunger? That was idiotic of me, I could have sucked it up and kept on going.

I dropped the pewter cup, and watched it as it fell on the ground. I felt a weird tingling sensation in my hand. After I looked at the palm of my hand, it had turned a soft light green color, along with the rest of my arm. All of my skin turned a soft green color and became this weird, smooth texture. Then my fingernails vanished. I swore under my breath. Damn Randy and his stupid dream world.

And then, in less than a single second, my jeans were torn to shreds as a gigantic dress of rainbow-colored flower petals surrounded my waist and reached down to ground, all in the shape of a giant bell. And then a belt of bright and colorful lily flowers blossomed around my waist. I shook my head and must have cursed a dozen times…

“Randy Ferguson, I’m going to make you cry blood…” I growled angrily.

But it certainly didn’t end there. I felt the back of my t-shirt tear open as another giant lily suddenly emerged from my back, and when it bloomed, it become a giant, rainbow eighteen-petal lily that covered my entire back. My t-shirt was instantly reduced to ribbons, which fell to the ground like a rag. Out of feral instinct I tried to put my hands on my back, only to feel the massive lily flower itself. The thing was a freaking monster…

And then to further my misery, a headband of colorful lily flowers circled around my head. Only seconds later, it felt like someone had just opened up an umbrella over my head, only instead it was another sickening giant lily flower. I nearly screamed.

And then to finish it all off, large bracelets of lily flowers blossomed on my arms, right near my wrists. After that had happened, I stood there for nearly five minutes just hoping it was all over with. I wanted to wake up so, so badly but I knew it wasn't going to happen.

“Somebody please tell me this isn’t real…” I muttered to myself, looking over the giant flowers that were coming out of my body.

But it was hopeless. My jeans lay completely ruined on the ground, and I was wearing nothing except this stupid flower petal dress. Like David, trying to rip any of this off resulted in utter failure, so when it failed at first, I wasn’t going to try it again. All that I could do was take the belt with my Pokéballs on it, attach the wallet that was in my pocket to it, and put it on. Now all I had to do was find David and Alex to show and tell them what happened. I was freaking furious in ways I never thought were possible. Now Jeff, Frank and that little freak Randy were going to have a laugh and a half just looking at us. I was certain as hell that it couldn’t possibly get even worse than this.

I only needed to walk for fifteen minutes before leaving that tropical forest of nightmares. Then, I saw them. I didn’t expect to encounter them so soon, but I figured this had been planned from the start. They had already left the forest, and were waiting for me.

“That…” Alex said softly with sad compassion, “That... isn’t you, Jake, is it?”

“Randy Ferguson’s going to have a hard time laughing once I punch his face so hard that his brain ends up in his throat.” I told them both with my feral rage,

Then they knew it was me. Alex looked miserable, and David looked even worse.

“Oh man, Jake.” Alex said with complete depression, “You look like an overgrown Bellossom. What the hell happened, man?”

I certainly didn’t need to hear that. I felt like a complete idiot, and it was growing even worse by the moment. I felt ready to crush Randy’s skull with my own hands, that’s how angry I was. Randy should have been praising the skies above there weren’t any nuclear weapons of mass destruction in his world, because if there were, Randy was going to need a whole lot more than Pokémon to stop my incredible rage.

“I’ve never hated Randy as much as I do now.” I told Alex and David, “Never before. I don't want to talk about it, let's just nail this freak and go home. Seriously.”

“Sounds good to me,” Alex responded.

Part of me felt like staying away from Randy and his two stupid, moronic friends as much as possible. There was still this small bit of hope in me that Randy didn’t actually know what happened to us yet. And then again, there was this small bit of reality telling me that if we didn’t fight Randy for better or for worse, we might just be spending the rest of our lives here.

Regardless, Alex and David wanted to get the hell out of Randy’s world as soon as possible, and I certainly couldn’t blame them. We had already stayed here longer than we should have.

And on top of it all, I didn’t know who to believe anymore. Black seemed like he was trustworthy, and he seemed to have helped us big time. And then again, I thought I could trust those blasted little pixies, and they completely screwed me over. I certainly didn’t want to walk into a trap like that again, but I didn’t want to turn down someone who was only trying to bring us one step closer to defeating Randy.

As we kept walking through that valley, hoping we’d find Randy or at least someone worthy enough to bring us to him, I could only think of one thing. Exactly how were we going to stop Randy? And even if we really did beat him, would we wake up in the real world again? I was certainly hoping this hideous and humiliating transformation wasn’t permanent, because I was quickly getting sick of it.

And after nearly an hour, we encountered another shady figure. When he drew closer, we saw he was wearing a gray cloak with a hood over his head. He moved toward us very quickly, almost running. When he reached us, he stopped, and stood still. I couldn’t even see his face from the shadow of his hood, despite how bright and how close we were to him. He kind of looked and sounded like the Grim Reaper, just not as dark as usual.

“He… didn’t….” The figure groaned.

“And who the hell are you?” Alex asked in paranoia, looking at the hooded figure strangely.

He stopped, and then slowly turned toward Alex. This guy was really freaking me out.

“Depression.” He mumbled, “That’s right, I’m King Randy’s depression. His worst nightmare. He fears me.”

“Great.” I told him, still unsure about this guy considering the last episode I had, “We’re trying to find him so we can make him feel even more depressed. Do you know how we might find him?”

Depression then started laughing hysterically. He quickly threw off his hood to reveal a gaunt, scarred face with frizzy, gray hair. We were instantly shocked.

“Oh yes.” Depression smiled, still snickering, “Now I know who you three are. I didn’t recognize you at first. Obviously King Randy has gotten to you first, but there’s still time. Yes, time to do lots and lots of damage to King Randy…”

“Where do we find him?” I asked again, hoping he could help us get out of this hideous mess.

He mumbled a bit, and then looked up again.

“He… likes to spend his time in Victory City Stadium.” Depression told us, “It almost seems like… he’s waiting for you…”

“Can you take us there?” David asked, hoping to speed up the process, “We want to make him lose.”

Depression stopped moving, and then he looked at David.

“I can bring you to the city in no time at all.” He told David, “But be warned. He’s knows more about Pokémon and battling than anyone else now. No one has ever beaten him. If you really plan on battling him, you should take these, for the protection of you and your Pokémon…”

He then took his shriveled hand and reached into the pocket of his cloak. Then, he handed us three ordinary-looking silver rings. We slipped them on, and then looked back to Depression.

“I will take you there now.” He said, slightly grinning, “Make him lose miserably. Make me happy…”

Depression snapped his fingers, and instantly we saw everything around us swirl into a blur. Not even three seconds later, we found ourselves standing amongst a gigantic city, with buildings towering hundreds of stories above us. The streets were like any ordinary city. But, there was only one difference…

There wasn’t a single person around. We didn’t even see Depression anymore, it was just the three of us in a ghost town metropolis. In a place that should have been brimming with people, there was nothing. Far in the distance, we saw a massive stadium. That was where we had to go. I had a feeling that was where we would find Randy and hopefully what we needed to end this stupid charade already.

And this time, he wasn’t going to cheat. Black and Depression had at least given us some sort of power and protection against Randy’s Quista necklace. At least we would have some sort of fighting chance against him.

Closer and closer we drew toward the stadium, and there still wasn’t anyone around. There were no lights on in the buildings, no nothing as if everyone just got up and left only an hour ago. Behind the stadium, the sun had begun to set, and by the time we had arrived at the stadium, it was night and the stars were out.

The silver stadium was huge. When we entered the field, there were probably enough chairs to seat a million people, and there’s no exaggeration about that. In the center of it all was a gray battle area for Pokémon with the white outline of a Pokéball as the playing field. And then, we saw him. We had suddenly laid eyes on Randy, who was seated on a metal throne on a platform at least fifteen feet high, and he was still wearing his stupid necklace. Besides him were Jeff and Frank, seated on similar thrones on platforms ten feet in the air. And to even further our anger, they were all dressed in black leather and wearing shades, as if they thought they were actually cool. When we approached them in the big, empty stadium, I could hear the snickering. I could feel that feral rage coming right back again.

“Well, hello ladies.” Randy snickered.

“Listen here, you schmuck!” Alex shouted to Randy, “I don’t know what your problem is, but if you don’t unplug this stupid world of yours right now and get us the hell out of here, you’re going to have a hell of a lot of crap coming your way!”

Then, Randy took off his shades, and looked at us cynically. After that, he crossed his arms. Now he was starting to act pompous and arrogant, and I swear I was ready to murder him.

“Well, how does it feel?” Randy asked with a sick smile, “Has the utter shame begun to set in alright for you? Let me just tell you this. If you’re here to battle me with your pathetic Pokémon, you’re about to experience a new revelation in losing. It is impossible to beat me. I'm not sure anyone's told you that already, but it's the new reality. Game over, chumps.”

“That’s what you think.” I told Randy, “Two can play at your game, Randy Ferguson.”

“Oh really?” He asked, almost laughing.

Suddenly, I heard a snap, and I heard what sounded like metal links hitting the ground. When I looked down, I saw the gold necklace Black had given us, only it was in pieces. Alongside it was Depression’s ring, reduced to a twisted lump. When I looked to my left, I saw Alex and David were without protection either.

“Not good.” Alex said coldly as he looked down at the shattered necklace, “Not good at all…”

“You might as well get used to living here, ladies.” Randy said, sitting back in relaxation, “You can spend the rest of eternity in my world, and you’ll always be under my power, under my rules, and don’t forget, you’ll always be weaker than me.”

“Rest of eternity, Randy?” Alex asked, nearly laughing, “I don’t think so. No one lives forever, remember?”

“Well, my little butterfly friend, everything is different here.” Randy said with another smile, “In my world, time doesn’t weaken the body, so everyone lives forever. It’s the perfect place… for me anyway.”

I was getting more furious by the moment. I didn’t want to lose to an overconfident jerk like Randy. Then I saw Frank, who just kept giggling constantly by looking at us. I was ready to slaughter him like the swine he was. And there was Jeff, just sitting there like he was a freaking celebrity. It was making me sick.

“Frank,” Randy said, looking to his right to face Frank, “I would really enjoy watching you beat the stuffing out of Jake’s Pokémon after what he did to me back in the school parking lot. Could you do that for me? Thanks.”

And then, Frank’s metal platform was lowered, and when it reached the bottom, he approached me. I couldn’t stand his fat face with his stupid shades on. I didn't care what he wore, you just can't fix ugly.

“Hell…o Jake Kossak.” Frank giggled, “Ready to lose right now, or would you like to do a little curtsy first before we begin?”

“Suck it, Frank.” I told him, pulling out one of my Pokéballs. "When I'm through with you, you'll finally learn to keep your pie-hole shut."

I couldn't help but feel this was not going to be as easy as touch and go this time. Hopefully Frank was so bad at battling that even when he cheated, he still couldn't pull it off.
 

Darkened_Kingdra

Whatcha want?
OHMIGAWD
My hands down favorite banner EVAH!!! How' you DO that?
Your chapters are nice to read over again and again, and I see no mistakes. Psychic might, but not me!
Will you post a chappie on the 13th? It' s my 12th b-day then!! (does the Chansey dance)

Edit: Rank up!
 

Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
OHMIGAWD
My hands down favorite banner EVAH!!! How' you DO that?
Your chapters are nice to read over again and again, and I see no mistakes. Psychic might, but not me!
Will you post a chappie on the 13th? It' s my 12th b-day then!! (does the Chansey dance)

Edit: Rank up!

Hey, glad you like it, that's all Photoshop CS6 right there, and I made it myself.

And sure, I'll get a chapter up on the 13th.
 

Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
Chapter 7
Against Odds

Frank was a fat pig freak, and there was no way I was going to lose to him. I had much better Pokémon than he did. Randy could brag all he wanted to, it wasn’t going to help Frank’s situation. Losing was habitual for Frank, so this should have been a walk in the park.

“I want this to be a two-on-two match.” Randy told us both, “It should be rather interesting…”

“It most certainly shall.” Frank agreed with a giggle.

I knew exactly who to send out. I already had my fingers on the Pokéballs I was going to use. There would be no chance little Franky would stand a chance against my Weavile and Jolteon. They might not have fought Frank’s Pokémon before, but they’ve annihilated Randy’s time and time again and I figured with Frank, the situation wouldn’t change a bit. I grasped both of their Pokéballs firmly, and tossed them into the field.

And when their Pokéballs hit the ground and opened up, I already got an extremely sickening taste of what Randy could do with his stupid necklace. He made two completely different Pokémon come out, a Bellossom and a Lilligant. Not only was he putting me at a disadvantage, but he was mocking me in a really nasty way.

“What the hell!?” I shouted in disbelief, “What happened to my Jolteon and Weavile!?”

Frank began snorting in humor uncontrollably.

“I’m sorry, Jake.” Randy said casually, looking away for a moment, “Were you saying something?”

That freaking maggot. I had never raised a grass-type Pokémon in my life, and now I was going to have to handle two of them while fighting one of my worst enemies. Frank just sat there and laughed.

“Prepare to suffer, flower boy.” Frank laughed, as he threw his two Pokéballs, “Go, Moltres and Articuno!”

And there they were. After Frank proudly launched both of his Pokéballs into the arena and they both struck the ground and opened with a flash of light, I lay eyes on the legendary birds of fire and ice. Moltres was literally a blazing fire in the shape of a bird while Articuno was a light blue colored bird that glimmered like ice. I was ready to shoot myself, knowing I was probably at the greatest type disadvantage of all time and all this would just lead to more humiliation when Frank would just make a massacre of my Pokémon. Frank could slaughter me in no time with this kind of power. All he had to do now was decide how he was going to do it. I had no idea how I was going to handle this. I already knew grass-type attacks were going to do nothing.

“Heh, heh, heh.” Randy snickered, “Let the battle begin!”

I knew at the moment the only way I was going to win was to take out them out one by one. I was starting to get a faint idea of one small, yet possible way to at least get my foot in the door on this battle. Still, this was going to be incredibly hard.

“Moltres, protect yourself and Articuno with Light Screen,” Frank commanded, “Articuno, attack that Lilligant with your Ice Beam!”

I don’t know how Moltres was able to use Light Screen on both himself and Articuno, but it certainly worked. Grass moves were going to do absolutely nothing now, as if this situation couldn’t possibly get any worse. In the meantime, I grimaced as I watched helpless Lilligant get barraged by a wickedly cold Ice Beam. I could feel the chill myself, and I was twenty feet away.

“Man, this is going to be a piece of cake.” Frank smiled, thinking he had it in the bag.

“This isn’t over yet, you idiot.” I shouted back at Frank.

And then, an incredibly brilliant idea came to my mind. I had to do it now, or there was no way I was going to win…

Lilligant had been badly hit, but she wasn’t about to call it quits right now. And now that Moltres and Articuno were protected by Light Screen, Special attacks were completely out of the question. At that moment, I had come up with an idea, and I was going to need to take out Moltres first if I wanted it to work right…

“Bellossom, use your Sleep Powder attack!” I declared.

Bellossom then immediately sprayed both of Frank’s Pokémon with a cloud of pink-colored Sleep Powder. Frank’s face changed from excited to panicky the moment both Moltres and Articuno landed on the gray battlefield fast asleep. I knew it wasn’t going to last forever, so I had to act quickly. This was a moment I was going to need to take advantage of to its maximum potential.

“Lilligant, Giga Impact attack on Moltres, now!” I shouted.

And a moment later, Lilligant looked to Moltres and rammed right into him with a blazing slam that definitely looked painful. Moltres’s type-alignments and Light Screen weren’t going to help him here.

“Come on you fools, wake up!” Frank shouted, “We don’t have time for this!”

I needed to have Moltres taken out, and now. I wasn’t going to wait any longer. Lilligant needed a moment to take a breath, but once she was back in action, I didn't show this swine any mercy.

“Bellossom, use your Hyper Beam on Moltres, Lilligant, use Sunny Day.” I commanded the both of them.

Suddenly, the night sky that was above us quickly faded, and almost a second later, it looked like it was in the middle of the afternoon. The bright sun had returned, and its light poured into the stadium. Meanwhile, Bellossom focused her attention on Moltres, and a moment later, Moltres was hit directly with a devastating Hyper Beam. When the massive, glowing beam had made contact, it exploded violently, and Moltres took a serious beating. But to my dismay, he wasn’t out yet. Couldn't believe it. After that and a Giga Impact, that blasted bird was still in action?

“Sunny Day?” Frank laughed, “What, do you want Moltres to roast your precious flower Pokémon even faster now!?”

True, Sunny Day was going to make Moltres’s fire attacks even worse, but that wasn’t going to help Frank with Moltres still sleeping. However, things were about to change. While Moltres was still sleeping, Articuno had woken up. Frank wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to screw up with this opportunity at his fingertips.

“Articuno, Arial Ace attack on Lilligant.” Frank commanded and pointed at his target with a smile on his face. "Heh, heh, try to peck her flower off."

And Articuno didn’t even need to blink before taking flight and blasting at Lilligant at mach speed. I heard a very nasty slash sound, and only a second later, Articuno had returned to his position. Lilligant was hanging on a string, practically on the verge of weeping.

“Lilligant, use another Giga Impact attack against Moltres!” I shouted, clenching my hand in anticipation.

While Bellossom was trying to recover from the Hyper Beam attack, Lilligant was using her last bit of strength to attack Moltres with another powerful attack. The already beat up Moltres had received another vicious smash to the face, and then, it was all over for Moltres. He had fainted, totally out of it. Two Giga Impacts and one Hyper Beam later, Moltres just couldn’t handle it any more. Figured Frank would lose even with legendary Pokémon.

“WHAT!?” Frank shouted in fury, “I DON’T BELIEVE THIS!!!”

“Now that’s an epic fail.” I told him, “What have we learned today, Frank?”

Frank returned Moltres to his Pokéball, and Frank was in an intense rage. I thought he was going to explode, which actually would have been kind of funny if he did.

“Blizzard attack, Articuno.” Frank growled, his face turning a furious red, “NOW!!!”

And not a second too soon, the entire stadium was frost-blasted with icy, chilling snow. Even I had felt the barrage of icy snow and wind, but I quickly shook it off. However, both Bellossom and Lilligant took a serious beating. After the harsh blizzard had passed away, Lilligant had dropped on the ground, beaten to a pulp. However, Bellossom still managed to hang in there. I couldn’t have expected Lilligant to last through that attack, that was no surprise. Frank began to snicker now that Lilligant had been taken out. Without getting angry, I simply returned Lilligant to her Pokéball, knowing I hadn’t lost yet.

“You are so going to suffer.” Frank sneered, “If you think your pathetic Bellossom is going to win against an Articuno, you’re so dead wrong.”

“Believe whatever you want.” I told him, “I have no intention of losing to you.”

I needed more time. Another attack like that and Bellossom wasn’t going to make it. And if I lost to Franky, he was never going to let it shut up.

“Sleep Powder on Articuno, now, Bellossom!” I shouted.

Articuno was sprayed with another helping of Sleep Powder, but to my dismay, it didn’t work this time. Somehow, he managed to resist the attack, and I cursed under my breath.

“Let’s finish this Articuno.” Frank said with glee after my attack had missed, “Aerial Ace on Bellossom for the win…”

Before I could say another word, Bellossom was slashed with Articuno’s Arial Ace attack. I shut my eyes, thinking Bellossom wasn’t going to make it. But, to my surprise, Bellossom managed to survive, but she just barely had enough energy to continue the fight, hardly able to get off the ground. And worst of all, I hadn’t even manage to inflict one attack on Articuno yet. But, I still had on resource left I could rely on.

“Use your Moonlight, Bellossom.” I told her, “We aren’t about to lose now.”

And then, Bellossom summoned the moon in the sky, and the light from both the moon and the sun completely restored her energy, as if Articuno hadn’t done a thing to her. Bellossom was back in action for now. Every cut, scrape, and bruise was now wiped away, just like that. Heh, I couldn't help but get a kick out of how she smiled at him after that.

“You’re only delaying the inevitable, Jake.” Frank sneered, “There is no way for you to win! Don’t you realize that by now!?”

“Man, shut up, Frank.” I told him, “One of these days you need to realize that whining isn’t a strategy.”

Frank was now going for an all or nothing attack. He looked at Articuno, and begun to smile.

“Let’s crush Jake’s pathetic Pokémon with another Blizzard attack!” Frank shouted, “Turn that Bellossom into a popsicle!”

And again, Articuno let loose a devastating Blizzard attack, and I was blinded by the snow for a short time. But when I looked back up, Frank’s reckless attack had actually completely missed Bellossom, somehow able to evade the full brunt of the attack. Frank wasn’t too happy about that. But right now, I had to give Sleep Powder one more try.

“Sleep Powder attack, Bellossom!” I shouted, still testing my luck.

And this time, when Articuno was engulfed by the powder, he immediately fell asleep. It was about freaking time. Now was my chance to do some serious damage.

“Sludge Bomb attack on Articuno!” I commanded Bellossom.

And then, Articuno was blasted by a vicious helping of poisonous sludge. Articuno couldn’t stop the attack, but unfortunately, the attack had woken him up. Articuno was back in action, sooner than I would have liked, unfortunately.

“Ice Beam, Articuno!” Frank commanded, pointing right at Bellossom.

And at that moment, Bellossom took the nastiest Ice Beam ever, right in her weak spot. Bellossom tumbled on her side, but she still managed to survive it. By now, the sunlight from the Sunny Day had worn off, and Moonlight alone wasn’t going to heal Bellossom enough. I had almost run out of choices for one last final attack, but then, worthless little Randy interrupted my concentration.

“You know Jake, Bellossom has only one chance left to attack.” Randy sneered, “And Articuno still has plenty of health left. Your Sleep Powder isn’t going to work anymore. Articuno’s already gotten used to it.”

“Shut up, Randy.” I growled at him, “I haven’t lost yet.”

“But you’re about to.” Randy continued with a sneer, “But I hope when you finally lose, you won’t have any hard feelings. I hope you’ll just see the truth and realize that you just naturally suck at Pokémon training.”

Now I was getting pissed. How could Randy feel I had already lost? And worst of all, how could he possibly think I suck at Pokémon training when he had to go through all this trouble just to finally beat us? Still, on the other hand, it was getting desperate. Another Sludge Bomb wasn’t going to do enough damage.

“And after you lose,” Randy said to me with a snicker, “You’ll see that there will be no escape from my world. There will be no hope for you to return to normal, but that’s alright. Bellossom still really loves you anyway. You’re… let’s say… perfect for each other.”

And Frank started snickering uncontrollably. He thought it was actually seriously funny that Bellossom and I actually looked somewhat alike.

“Well you know what, Randy…” I told him, now finding a way to finish this, “As much as I hate your guts, I certainly hope you’re right.”

I then looked to Bellossom, who had this one chance to finish off Articuno.

“Return attack, Bellossom!” I shouted.

And at that last moment, Bellossom got up and charged right after Articuno. Frank looked in horror as Bellossom violently slammed into Articuno, dealing a serious amount of damage, way more than he had expected. When the dust had cleared, Articuno was on the gray battleground with its wings spread out and face planted in the ground. He had been defeated…
 
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Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
Chapter 8
Turning Back

Frank looked at Articuno like the whole thing hadn’t happened. He shook his head in disbelief, still unable to figure out why he lost.

“NOOOO!!!!” Frank shouted in horrible anger, “This isn’t possible!!! Come on, get up you worthless birdbrain!”

“Man, do you suck, Frank.” I told him, nearly laughing, “You couldn’t even beat me while you were cheating. You couldn’t even beat me when you had the greatest advantage possible. How pathetic is that!?”

Frank’s face turned bright red. He looked ready to explode.

“I hate you!” Frank shouted loudly, “You should have lost!”

“Should have?” I asked Frank, nearly laughing, “Man, you just get more amusing by the minute. You really are a sad sack of crap, Frank.”

“Nobody wants to hear stupid comments from your face, Jake!” Frank squealed.

And then, Randy stood up like he thought he was a hero. He looked down at the two of us like we were his subjects. Just the look at his face with his phony shades was driving me insane.

“Shut up, both of you!” Randy shouted, “Frank, that was... highly disappointing. But in the end, Jake, you won on luck alone.”

“I don't get it!” Frank shouted in disbelief, “Randy, you could helped back me up there!”

“I could have,” Randy replied casually. “But I wanted to have things play out... naturally. Next time, try to beat them without relying on me to intervene, Frank. That was supposed to be our little secret.”

Yeah, some secret. It was incredibly obvious Randy could just rig every moment of the battle, and the fact he didn't just have my Bellossom and Lilligant get shredded into ribbons on the opening move was a surprise, but then I guess it wouldn't have been so interesting then.

“Moving on...” Randy spoke casually, “Right now, I want to see our best friend Alex in complete shame. Jeff, you're up. I want to see their shame, and NOW!”

“Don’t worry Randy.” Jeff responded with confidence, “We’re taking Alex out for good.”

“That’s what you think.” Alex responded, “I’ve only just begun to fight!”

And then, on that gray field, the two of them stood ready for the very nasty battle that was about to unfold. I was hoping Alex was already prepared to deal with Randy’s nasty and unexpected cheating. I only managed to beat Frank by a miracle’s chance, and only because Randy decided to let the battle play out naturally. I figured he was only doing this for Frank and Jeff. Against him, forget it, he'd bend and rig everything in his favor.

It was on those gray battlegrounds that Alex and Jeff had exchanged stares. Alex had beaten Jeff before, and now the only thing Jeff wanted was to win and seek revenge. Even with all that had happened to us, Alex wasn’t about to lose because of humiliation. It wasn’t like Alex to feel humiliated, even as a giant butterfly. I could even bet that Alex could lose to Jeff, and he still wouldn’t care. After all, Randy certainly wasn’t playing according to the rules.

“I will be savoring the moment you finally lose, Alex.” Jeff told him, “Jake might have gotten past Frank, but then again, how much of an accomplishment is that!?”

“That doesn’t matter to me, Jeff.” Alex told him, “This is between you and me, and you and me only. Hear that Randy? Don't go pulling crap this time!”

But Randy looked away like he didn’t hear anything. I could just smell another trick in the air, and it was making me sick.

“Get ready for your worst nightmare, Alex.” Jeff said, pulling out two of his Pokéballs, “Go, Ho-oh and Entei!”

Ugh. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Ho-oh, the rainbow bird of complete fiery destruction and Entei, the lion-like legendary Pokémon of fire. They both glared menacingly at Alex, but Alex wasn’t going to let a scary face stop him.

But then again, when he pulled out two of his Pokéballs, I could already see the hesitation. Alex’s Pokémon were going to have no defense under the power Randy’s Quista necklace. Now, it was up to Randy to decide what Pokémon were going to come out of Alex’s Pokéballs. And as sad as it sounded, I could already guess which two…

Alex threw his two Pokéballs, not even declaring who he had selected, not like it would have even mattered. And then to his disgust and Jeff’s delight, once the two Pokéballs struck the ground and opened with a flash of light, the two Pokémon Alex was going to be stuck using were a Butterfree and a Beautifly. Still, I could have seen that coming from a million miles away. As if the situation I had just experienced couldn’t get any worse, Alex’s example clearly showed it could.

“What the hell is the matter with you, Randy!?” Alex shouted back to him, knowing he was the one responsible, “Can’t you keep out of this for once!?”

“Keep going, Alex.” Randy laughed, “I love to watch you squirm.”

The three of us were furious. How could Jeff even see this as a true Pokémon battle? Butterfree and Beautifly were NOT Alex’s Pokémon, and I knew for sure he wouldn’t use either of them in a million years. But now he had no choice. It was either going to be a severe struggle to win fighting with the two of them, or just plain losing altogether. This truly was Pokémon battling at its worst.

“As always…” Randy said, nearly laughing as he brushed his hair, “Let the mayhem begin…”

“Thank you, your highness.” Jeff remarked, “This is for Ampharos and Espeon. Ho-oh, Sacred Fire attack on Butterfree. Entei, burn Beautifly to a crisp with your Flamethrower attack!”

Merciless little freak. He was going to go as far as seeing that Alex wouldn’t even get a single turn before it was all over with. Butterfree could only wait as an enormous rush of flames nearly consumed it alive, leaving it on the verge of death. Beautifly took a similar beating, even though it still was in better condition than his half-barbecued Butterfree. Now, Alex was reduced to all or nothing attacks even on his first round.

“The two of you are cowards.” Alex told them both, “You can’t even battle for real, that’s how pathetic you are!”

“Alex,” Randy said, snickering again, “This IS for real. My world is real now, and you have to accept it or you have to accept losing. There is no other way around.”

There was nothing Alex could do but continue. If he really was going to lose, at least he would lose honorably. To the three of us, none of this was real. And the only thing that needed to be done to return Randy to the worthless little punk he was before was to swipe that necklace right off his neck. Unfortunately, we couldn’t even get near it.

Alex’s two butterfly Pokémon were badly bruised, but they didn’t give up yet, and neither did Alex. The last thing Alex wanted to do was give Jeff the satisfaction of winning when he clearly didn’t deserve it. However, he was going to need a little luck.

“Butterfree, use your Stun Spore attack,” Alex said firmly, “Beautifly, use Sleep Powder.”

Alex left no holes in the system. Both of them were going to be inflicted with at least something to slow them down. Once both of Alex's butterfly Pokémon sprayed all sorts of powder and spores around, Ho-oh had fallen asleep and Entei was paralyzed. Now was Alex’s chance. Entei had gotten sluggish and Ho-oh was left snoozing.

Then, Alex ordered both of his Pokémon to use Morning Sun to recover the damage that had been done. Ho-oh was still asleep, but Entei was going to get another chance to strike.

“Flamethrower on Butterfree!” Jeff shouted loudly.

And after a violent rush of flames had blown from Entei’s mouth and smothered Butterfree, the damage had gotten worse. I would have hated to say it, but Alex was going to have to go kamikaze if he wanted a chance to win. He was just going to have to forget about the damage that had been done.

“Butterfree, Psychic attack on Entei!” Alex shouted.

Entei was hit dead on as a blue and white flash had covered his body and attempted to crush and warp it from all directions. However, it certainly wasn’t enough to slow him down at all. Butterfree wasn’t even a psychic Pokémon, so that could only do so much.

And then, Ho-oh had woken up, and Jeff couldn’t have been happier. After rubbing his hands and snickering, he prepared to strike.

“Ho-oh, Sacred Fire on Butterfree.” Jeff ordered, “Entei, use Fire Blast on Beautifly.”

And then, the unimaginable happened. Butterfree had been stormed with flames, and I just couldn’t watch. Butterfree had been burned to oblivion, and it couldn’t handle anymore. Meanwhile, Beautifly had been struck with the flaming asterisk symbol, and embers were thrown in all directions upon the explosive impact. When the fire had cleared, both of Alex’s Pokémon had been eliminated. He didn’t have a chance…

As bad as it was, I wasn’t surprised. Alex had an even worse disadvantage than I did. Butterfree and Beautifly just didn’t compare to the power of Ho-oh and Entei. I don’t think he could have possibly won that disgusting and dishonorable match no matter how many times he could have tried.

“Well, that certainly was fun.” Jeff smiled, “Now get out of here. We don’t have patience for losers like you.”

“There’s no way anyone could have won that!” Alex shouted at Jeff, “That wasn’t a real match!”

But, then a wave of silence had kept them both quiet. Randy had stood up and looked at the three of us. I was really getting tired of these antics.

“That certainly was a real match.” Randy told Alex, acting like he knew everything on the planet, “And you lost.”

“Randy, I’m tired as hell of this stupid world of yours!” Alex shouted angrily, “I’m tried of you and your pathetic cheating. Is this the only possible way you can win a Pokémon match!? How incredibly pitiful is that!?”

Randy found that rather insulting. He looked at Alex, and couldn’t even feel pity for him.

“Jeff, thank you for your time.” Randy told him, “But now I’d like you to move aside.”

“Are you kidding?” Jeff asked in shock, “The rules are that if they don’t win against me, they have to turn around and get out of here. Losers don’t belong here.”

“I want to battle the three of them myself.” Randy told Jeff, “I’ve been waiting to beat them for a long time…”

I was getting sick of this trash. How could Randy feel like he was a hero when the only thing that was keeping us bound here and keeping Randy in power was a single, stupid necklace? Plus on top of everything else, I hated being tossed around like a piece of dirt when it was really us who were more powerful than Randy.

“I want to crush you.” Randy said with a smile, “Your efforts will be so hopeless here.”

And out of all the sickness I was feeling, I couldn’t help but protest against it.

“You know what Randy?” I called back to him, “You’re probably right. We don’t stand a chance against your necklace.”

“It’s me who you’re going to lose against Kossak.” Randy smiled.

“No.” I told Randy firmly, “It’s your necklace. If we fail to beat your Pokémon, then we lose to your necklace, but not to you.”

Randy was getting furious, but the truth was getting to him. I didn’t want him to start a battle thinking it was through his own power that he was going to win against us. I was on a roll, and it was really pissing him off.

“Battle me, you fools!” Randy shouted.

“No, Randy, I don’t feel like losing to Quista's little trinket today.” I told him, “Can’t you see you’re just a hopeless case without your stupid necklace!?”

He looked at me with a dark stare. He knew the truth, he just didn’t want to accept it. But one thing was for sure, he wasn’t going to take it off. That was the last thing he was going to do.

“If you’re not going to fight me, then I want you out of my face.” Randy told us, quickly growing angry.

Even though we had come here with a strong urge to defeat Randy and get out of here, I was getting a feeling that unless we found some way to block Randy’s power, or swipe his necklace while he wasn't looking, there was no way we were going to win. He already screwed up my Weavile and my Jolteon. I didn’t feel like making the damage any worse.

“Fine, Randy.” I said to him, turned away, “Then we’re leaving.”

Immediately, Alex and David looked at me like I had lost it. They didn’t see that we didn’t stand a chance against Randy at the moment.

“Jake, are you nuts?” Alex asked me, “We have to beat him so we can get out of here!”

“Remember what Black and Depression told us?” I whispered to him, “There’s no way we can beat him. And it’s better if we turn down his offer than lose to him. If we lose to him, then he’ll want to stay here forever.”

“Ugh, I didn’t think of that.” David said with disgust.

Alex was annoyed, thinking we would only need to stay here for only a few more moments. In truth, so was I, but I didn’t want to risk losing to Randy. Giving him any kind of satisfaction out of this was a bad idea. We would have to find a way to block his power so he couldn’t cheat against us. It was the only way.

And as much as it pained us, we then turned around and began to walk out of that giant stadium. Randy was truly furious, but we couldn’t afford for him to be in absolute glee. We would lose everything and I didn’t want to blow the only chance we had.
 

Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
Chapter 9
The Separation

It was a long walk to get out of that giant stadium. Longer than it should have been. I had no idea how long we were going to have to wait now until we could fight him on his level, but it already began to feel like ages. We were all losing our patience. Some of us more than others…

“Well, that went swell.” David said sarcastically, looking at me with annoyance, “Just what do you expect to do now, Jake?”

I was silent. I really didn’t know. I wanted a solution as much as David did but there wasn’t one to be found. Still, David was looking at me like I made the worst choice possible.

“Look, maybe we’ll come across a solution.” I told him, “Randy can’t be invincible, not even in his own world. What Black and Depression gave us didn’t work, but there has to be something out there that can.”

“Well, hotshot,” David said to me, looking at me with a cold stare, “Why didn’t we battle him? At least we could have given a try, you know. He's on a power trip, he might let his guard down at some point or another.”

“David,” I said honestly to him, “If we lost to Randy, we might just be suffering a blow we might never recover from, understand? It could mean being stuck here forever. You saw what he did to our Pokémon! How the hell are we supposed to deal with that!?”

David still looked at me like I was crazy. He just wasn’t understanding anything about this. He was letting his desire to get out of here blind him, and I knew for sure that was going to ruin us.

“Maybe not.” David said in a hopeful tone, “Look, it’s not for certain Randy would want to stay here even if we do lose to him. Sooner or later he’s going to get sick of his own world.”

“Yeah, David,” Alex said to him, “Not soon enough for me. Randy won’t ever want to leave this place. If he gets bored with it, all he has to do is change anything and everything to fit his desires. I really don’t feel like living in a place where he's in control all the time.”

David still didn’t care. Obviously he wasn’t heeding the warnings that Black and Depression had given to him. Still, he felt there was some hope. I wanted to believe there was something I could do about it myself, but there was nothing. He just couldn’t see the reality of the situation…

“I’m not going to sit here hoping we just happen to bump into a solution.” David said with annoyance, “I’ll battle Randy right now, and I don’t care if it’s all or nothing.”

“Go ahead then, David.” Alex told him, “We’ll see you later.”

And not a second later, David turned right back around and headed back into the stadium. I knew there was no way he could win. If he couldn’t beat Caska, he sure wasn’t going to beat Randy. I didn’t want to stick around to find out he lost.

“Come on.” I told Alex, “Let’s get out of here.”

“Where?” Alex asked me, getting annoyed himself, “You sure don’t seem to have a plan here, Jake. We’re not going to find a way out of here by wandering around mindlessly.”

“Yeah,” I told Alex seriously, “But we’re not going to find anything by staying around here either. There’s nothing for us here.”

Alex really didn’t seem to agree. He just looked away and turned back at the stadium.

“Look,” Alex told me, “I know you’re right about us not being able to win against Randy and all, but I think we could sure do better than just walking around. Maybe we can find something here instead. We can just…”

“Fine, Alex.” I told him, “You can stay here and see what you can find, but I think our solution lies elsewhere. To me, this place seems like nothing but emptiness.”

And that was where we split up. I didn’t feel right by leaving Alex and David behind, but I didn’t feel right about staying in this deserted city. After I said goodbye to Alex, I left them all behind, still having a sliver of hope in me that I would at least draw closer to finding the solution to all our problems.

I had hoped to find a way out of this forsaken place, even while I was walking away from the very source that could bring me back home. But even then, maybe Alex and David were right. How was I supposed to find the key to our escape by aimless walking? Where would I be going after all?

I felt like I was slowing going insane. After heading out of Victory City and going out into the wilderness, I was left alone with my thoughts as I tried to think all of options and alternatives over. I had been walking for nearly three days now, which seemed so much longer when I was constantly burdened by these same, endless thoughts. Not only that, but the only thing I could consume was water. What a nightmare. I wasn’t even human anymore…

Those endless plains seemed like a desert. By now I was too far away to turn back, and even if I could, what was the point? Could I possibly hope to accomplish the impossible? Nothing would have changed from before, only my morale would be diminished. At the moment, it seemed like nothing could be done about it, and this is how it was all supposed to end…

But on the evening of the third day, everything had changed.

Long and behold, I had come across a two-story brick building within the shadow of a nearby, grassy hill. I didn’t care if death itself was inside, I was ready to cope with anything right now, even that. I approached the small brick building, opened the door, and stepped inside the dimly lit room. At this point, I had nothing to lose, so I figured even if there was nothing in here, well, at least I freaking tried.

Inside seemed to be what appeared to be a small office, with a large desk, shelves with books and a carpeted floor. I shut the door and the lights became brighter, revealing a middle-aged man in a business suit sitting in the squishy, wheeled chair behind the desk. He looked up at me and crossed his arms. He had a serious look on his face and dark black hair. It made me feel like it was a job interview with an executive from one of the biggest corporations in the world.

“I’ve been expecting you, Jake Kossak.” He told me, looking at me like this was some kind of job interview.

“How do you know me?” I asked him, wondering who this guy really was.

He crossed his legs and sat back in his chair as he fiddled with a pen in his hand. I can already tell he knew exactly who I was.

“I’m Randy’s hatred, Jake.” He had told me, “The name is Coldblood. I am one of the strongest forces of Randy’s mind. Because of me, his anger, sorrow, and depression exist in their fullest form. And you, Jake Kossak, are my most valuable ally.”

I was silent. I sure didn’t feel like it at the time. I felt more like a loser that was a waste of space.

“Don’t feel that way.” He told me, reading my expression, “I know how you feel. For the last few days you have been feeling nothing but misery. I can easily take that away.”

“How?” I asked him.

But, he never answered my question, and I never figured it out on my own. He snapped his fingers, and then I felt amazing relief spread all over me like comforting water. When I looked down, the flowers were gone. Everything was gone, and I was back in my normal clothing again as a human, something I suddenly appreciated more than I had ever before. But before I could even thank him, he spoke again.

“Jake, someone needs to take Randy out of business, and that someone is you.” Coldblood stated to me firmly.

“Not while he still has his stupid necklace.” I told him, hoping I didn’t sound like a whiner.

“That’s all about to change…” He said to me.

I had heard this before, and it didn’t work in the past. Black and Depression had attempted to help us before, and it still didn’t work. What could Coldblood do that they couldn’t?

“Coldblood, Randy destroyed our protection, and he changed my Jolteon and my Weavile into a Bellossom and a Lilligant.” I informed him, “What the hell am I supposed to do about that?”

Coldblood was silent. It almost seemed like… he had been waiting for me to bring this up.

“Give me your Pokémon.” He told me, not giving me a clue as to what he was going to do with them.

What could I have done? I had nothing to lose anymore. I had no choice now but to trust him, even if it was dealing with a very dark side of Randy.

He laid out my Pokéballs on the desk, one by one. He placed his hand on one of them, and the whole Pokéball began to glow white. When the white glow died down, he moved to the next. He had done it to all of them, and I just stood there just wondering what he was doing to my Pokémon. All of them, even the mysterious, unknown Pokémon that Black have given to me, had been blessed with something…

“What did you just do to them?” I asked Coldblood.

“There.” He told me, “Now they’re the same level as Randy’s, the highest level possible. Your Jolteon and Weavile are completely back to normal.”

While that certainly made things easier, I had remembered Black telling me Randy’s Quista necklace would allow him to use any attack Randy’s whacked imagination could come up with. And I knew the necklace Black had given us had done nothing.

“What I’m about to offer you is something completely different.” Coldblood told me.

I could swear this guy was reading my mind…

“How so?” I asked him.

“Randy can’t destroy something he can’t see.” He said to me, “You need to have an innate power that Randy can’t touch. I’m just the person who can give you that, so you can attack Randy’s Pokémon with whatever you can think of. Only then will you be put on the same level as him.”

I was sure hoping this wasn’t anything like intensive surgery. But even if it was, I had no other choice. I didn’t want to lose to Randy now.

“It only takes about a day.” Coldblood told me, “You go to sleep, and a day later, you’ll have all the power you’ll need to fight Randy. But be warned, it isn’t half as powerful as Randy’s necklace, which can do much more than make Randy’s imagined attacks a reality. There are some powers that the necklace has that Randy doesn’t even know of yet.”

And so, he took me to a back room where the only thing in the blank, white room was a single, plain bed. He told me to simply go to sleep, and everything would be done as soon as I woke up. I just quickly went to bed, and I knew at that moment I was ready to do anything.
 
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Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
Chapter 10
The New Dawn

Contrary to my first belief, I woke up feeling absolutely no different from before. At that moment, I had already begun to believe that perhaps Coldblood had decided not to go through with this. It was possible. Maybe he had decided he liked his new physical form and by giving me the power to fight Randy evenly might result in his dissatisfaction.

“Very painless, wasn’t it?” He asked me as he stepped into the room.

“I don’t even feel anything.” I told him.

“That’s good, because you shouldn’t.” Coldblood told me, “If you did, then something would have been wrong.”

Outstanding. Now all he needed to do was tell me how I needed to get it to work. At first, I could visualize just thinking up an attack, ordering which Pokémon to attack with, and that would be it. But, it wasn’t as easy as I thought.

“First off,” Coldblood told me, “Randy makes it look easy. He comes up with an attack in his head, sends it to one of his Pokémon in a psychic decoded message from his imagination, and because he wants to, the Pokémon he sends it to understands it, and immediately attacks with Randy’s desired move.”

“It can’t be that easy…” I remarked in disbelief.

“But it is.” Coldblood said firmly with a confident smile, “Or to him it is, at least. You’ll definitely need to focus more on what your Pokémon are thinking. You need to make them realize that in Randy’s world, your imagination is probably the most powerful weapon you can wield, and as long as they can listen to you, you and they can make it possible. You need to believe you can break the rules, Jake.”

This was crazy. I couldn’t believe Randy had even come up with such a thing. Making up your own Pokémon attacks seemed like a pretty difficult task, and I didn’t even know where to get started. It seemed like the biggest cheating tool of all time in the history of Pokémon battling, as if what he was doing wasn’t bad enough already. And yet, despite all this, everyone acted like it was perfectly okay. Another reason why I hated this place.

And I was already certain that Randy had done this numerous times. Right now, his simple imagination had become a god-like power. No wonder he was so keen into wanting to battle us. He would wipe the floor with us in no time and get giddy in ways that would just make me sick. It was probably what he was itching to do all this time. All he had to do was see my face, and he would let out his absolute worst. He must have slaughtered David's team if he really battled him…

Obviously, he was expecting me to show up again to battle him. He would probably be enraged that I was no longer the flower princess precious that he expected me to be. I was thinking it would probably be a far better idea to go in disguise than show my face to his. He wanted to crush me more than anything else, but I had to try and fight him looking like someone or something else…

“You're absolutely right.” Coldblood told me, reading my mind again, “Randy can't be allowed to recognize you as you are. And I already have something in mind.”

Coldblood had already helped me out immensely. Right now, I was all ears for another good idea of his. Unlike the others, this guy was trustworthy. He could have screwed me over if he really wanted to, but he didn't.

“I have seen what Randy has done to you.” Coldblood said, “He wants you to feel demoralized and pathetic the moment you step up to battle him. And he would do it again easily given another opportunity.”

Definitely sounded familiar. I felt embarrassed as hell when I was in that stadium, and I’m sure that wouldn’t have changed one bit if I were to do it again. I had a feeling Coldblood knew exactly how to turn the tables around in my favor.

“I know of a way you can make Randy feel demoralized, effectively disguise yourself, and encode your commands to your Pokémon, leaving Randy without any idea of what you just said.” Coldblood said with a hint of delight in his tone.

PERFECT!!! I loved that idea! As if Randy didn’t have enough to worry about now, he was just about to see something that was going to wet his pants even more. If Randy couldn’t understand the commands I was giving to my Pokémon, and they were going to be made-up attacks just like his, he was going to be in deep trouble. Now this was a much better chance, although I could tell it was going to be quite a lot of insanity. Two battlers that could make up their own attacks? Things could get quite ugly.

“So what is it already!?” I shouted, eagerly waiting for Coldblood to reveal his outstanding plan.

“I want you to disguise yourself as the one Pokémon Randy has hungrily thirsted for all the years of his life, but has been unable to capture. Seeing this Pokémon will surely bring back some rather bitter memories that Randy will not want to be reminded of. On top of that, Randy will not know it’s really you. Not even with his powers will he be able to deduce your true identity. And third, your Pokémon will understand your commands as you talk to them in their own language, but Randy will have no clue as to what you have told them.”

Well, that certainly fit the criteria but it certainly wasn’t what I expected. I had never once remembered Randy so desperately wanting a single Pokémon that he couldn’t get. I tried to imagine what Pokémon it would be, but nothing came to mind. My guess was he kept it a pretty hard secret. Good thing too, because I'm sure Alex, David and I would have taunted him like crazy over it.

And then, I knew that Coldblood had figured out what I was thinking. He was just about to tell me everything…

It was then that Coldblood had told me about Randy’s childhood, and how even as a little kid there was nothing more he wanted than this one Pokémon. Coldblood told me he asked for it every single birthday and Christmas of his entire life but was left disappointed every time. He also told me how he had failed to capture it three times. At that point, I think I would have been pretty frustrated myself.

“For the longest time, Randy had desperately desired a Pikachu above all other Pokémon. Even at this time, deep inside, Randy still wants a Pikachu, but his mind is possessed by power and his own idea of what his personal image should be, and therefore he only has the best Pokémon possible rather than having the one Pokémon he really wants.”

Fantastic. Now Coldblood wanted me to square off against Randy as a Pikachu? Things were really starting to get loony now. I had only been normal for a few hours. Couldn’t I at least have a few moments to spend as myself? Why was Randy so enticed by an electric mouse anyway?

“Randy always loved giving his Pokémon nicknames.” Coldblood recalled, “He called his Growlithe ‘Striker,’ his Nidoran ‘Spike,’ his Pidove ‘Storm Wind’ and his Sewaddle ‘Enigma’. He never called his Pokémon by their nicknames while you three were around because he was afraid you would make fun of them.”

Yeah, we probably would, even though for once I personally didn’t feel they were that bad, though his Pokémon were truly weak and probably undeserving of such names.

“If he had caught a Pikachu, he would have named him ‘Juno.’” Coldblood told me, informing me of this mysterious Pikachu, “Of course in Randy’s world, there is such a Pikachu already in existence, but he lives too far underground and too far away in the caverns of what is forgotten and neglected to make any use of. Instead, you will inherit Juno’s place and confront Randy. You will become the one Pokémon in this world that Randy craves so desperately, born from Randy’s imagination and fondest dreams.”

It was a bold and sneaky move to fight Randy as something he truly wanted and desired. Randy would surely hold back some of his power, but I certainly wouldn’t. It would certainly make my day if Randy lost to me just because he didn’t want to hurt the feelings of a Pikachu he really wanted. I loved Coldblood’s whole plan. It was cleverly delicious and sinister, just the way I liked things.

“Very well then, Coldblood.” I told him, “I’ll take Juno’s position and confront Randy.”

“It isn’t that easy.” Coldblood warned me, “Once you become Juno, the real Juno will become a part of you, and you’ll be stuck as him until you find a way to break Randy's dream world dimension. Unless Randy forgets about Juno, you’ll have to take his role from here on in, and don’t expect Randy to just completely forget about something he’s been desiring his entire life once he sees you finally exist.”

Good point, but I really didn’t care. The plan was too good to let go, and I had to act upon it. It was definitely worth the risk, even if it meant staying as a Pikachu for the rest of my life. I wanted to be free of Randy’s mind, and I wanted it at any cost.

“Let’s go then.” I told Coldblood firmly, “I’ve made up my mind.”

“Very well.” Coldblood said as he snapped his fingers.

At first, nothing seemed to happen, but I felt something was being drawn to me. Slowly, I was enveloped with a glow that was white, and I suddenly began to change. Instantly, I felt like I was falling but I never hit the ground. Everything in the room became huge, as if I was lying on the floor. Meanwhile, the energy around me was affecting me in ways that I never thought it would. There was something far more powerful behind this than becoming a simple Pikachu. Juno… without a doubt… was definitely born from dreams, and there was something about him that was even affecting me deep inside.

Even after I had totally become this Pikachu named Juno that Coldblood had described, I clenched my chest with my now tiny, yellow paws, feeling some kind of light and warmth that was so strong that it felt like it was connecting with my soul. I even began to tremble as the connection was made, and then suddenly, what was a simple unity at first was turned into a full assimilation, made just as a bright, blinding white light came over me. When it finally settled down, I was left with a feeling of being overwhelmed for a moment… suddenly as if I became more of Juno than I thought I did…

“You okay?” Coldblood asked me, looking at my overwhelmed expression, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I’m… alright, I guess…” I told him with my new slightly lighter-pitched Pikachu voice as I slowly got up off the floor, “But what… was that? That was a really weird feeling.”

“Ah, you’ll be fine.” Coldblood assured me, “Now come on, you’ve got a king to slay.”

Coldblood handed me the belt with my Pokéballs, only now they were huge due to my smaller size. It was like using a treadmill track to tie basketballs around my waist. And I couldn’t help but think that when I pressed the button the prep the Pokéball for use, it would grow to the size of a giant beach ball. I quickly realized why Pokémon trainers that were Pokémon themselves were extremely few in number…

“You must be careful.” Coldblood warned me, “Anyone that loses to Randy immediately becomes his servant. That’s exactly why happened to Alex and David. David had lost badly against Randy, and after Alex heard the news, he immediately challenged Randy only to fail. If you lose as well, there will be nothing to help bring the three of you back to the real world. Most likely, if you lose to Randy, you’ll be stuck as his favorite Pokémon to train and care for. I’m sure that’s not what you want.”

That was probably the last thing I wanted. This was truly all or nothing, and there was no other way about it. I had to win, I had no choice. It hurt to know that now, David and Alex were Randy’s slaves, the one thing in the world they didn’t want. Heck, it made me shudder thinking what else Randy probably did to them. As if turning them into a fairy princess and giant butterfly wasn't bad and stupid enough.

“Normally, you can’t fight Randy whenever you want to.” Coldblood told me, “There will be a tournament held in only a few days, and the winner of the final round will challenge Randy with the promise of a large cash prize if they win. If you were still were Jake Kossak, you could challenge Randy whenever you wanted to because there’s nothing he wants more than to beat you, but now is different. You don’t want to give Randy any hint that you’re Jake in disguise.”

I didn’t care about the cash. I just wanted to get out of here.

“Obviously, no one has ever won this tournament other than Randy.” Coldblood said, “That’s why Randy now has at least fifty slaves. You have to be the one to fight Randy in the final round, and you have to be the one who wins. I can only wish you the best of luck from here on in.”

There was only one thing I could think of as I walked out that door and bid him farewell. Thank God for Coldblood. I have no idea what I would have done without him. But in the meantime, I was still feeling that strange feeling from being Juno deep inside…
 

Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
Chapter 11
The Alter Ego

It was a long march back to Victory City, but it was far more hopeful than when I had left. The three day trek wasn't so bad this time, even though the distance felt greater now that I was much smaller. I felt like I could march even in the middle of the night, but I didn’t want to exhaust myself. Surprisingly, when I had arrived back in Victory City, the place was extremely active, totally unlike before. I didn’t understand why the place seemed so empty before, and now it seemed like an oasis of excitement in this desert of pure boredom. It was strange how Randy's mind worked.

The strange feelings that had hit me when I became Juno were suddenly starting to feel completely natural now. It made me begin to wonder how much thought Randy put into this one Pikachu that I had become. On the outside, not too much seemed to have changed, but in the inside… something had to be going on. To everyone else, I was simply a stray Pikachu, nothing special. Oddly enough, inside, I was feeling sensations that I'm sure regular Pikachus never feel. I just didn't know how to explain it other than having the sense Juno was dreamed to have powers and abilities a typical Pikachu could only dream of.

It wasn’t hard to find the stadium again, since it loomed over the rest of the city and easily became a permanent part of the city’s skyline. All I could do was just keep walking toward the giant stadium. As the streets were filled with cars and people, all I kept wondering was why they were here now, and not before. Despite that, I passed the wonder aside and kept moving.

Once I had arrived at the stadium, all I had to do was register at a small desk, but it was quite a shock. Only a tiny handful of names had been on the list, which made me immediately hesitate. But nonetheless, I registered my name as “Juno” on the list. The young blond-haired, blue-eyed lady there just looked at me in wonder, blinked twice, and just shrugged. I figured this must have been the first time a Pikachu signed up for this thing.

“It begins tomorrow at 6.” She told me, “You’ll be against Sigon in the Quarter-finals. Remember, you have to be here at 6 or you’re disqualified. Got it?”

She was acting like I was already not going to show up. Was this a usual thing around here? I wanted to get out of here, and now, and if doing all this was the only way, then so be it. Maybe Randy felt making himself look so powerful that few decided to challenge him was a way to feed his overconfidence.

I simply walked away and spent the rest of my day preparing. Other than everything else that was going on, the only trouble I had was finding a place to sleep.

I couldn’t believe I would already be in the quarter-finals. On the other hand, Randy had defeated so many people that probably no one wanted to join. I figured it would only be a matter of time before Randy created his own doomed contestants in this world just to destined lose against him. Nonetheless, I told myself not to use any imaginary attacks until I got to Randy. I didn’t want to cause suspicion, blow my cover, and reveal my secret weapon.

That next day at 6, Sigon, a disheveled, dirty, and likely destitute trainer who probably had high hopes, just couldn’t deal with me. The battles were all two Pokémon each, and he did pretty poorly. He seemed pretty surprised to be battling with a Pikachu named Juno, but it wasn’t the surprise that made him lose, it was my sheer power. And we didn’t battle inside the stadium like I thought we would. Instead, it looked just like some run of the mill training room with a wooden floor and glass mirrors on the walls. However, I made short work of his Meowstic, which seemed like it hadn't battled and trained for a long time, and his Swanna, which just seemed to be really unlucky. Made me wonder... did Randy dream of this guy to be like this?

“I don’t know who you are, but you’ve made me angry!” Was the last thing Sigon had said to me. In truth, from what I saw, these other contestants were in no way prepared to deal with Randy. It seemed like this whole tournament was just for Randy's own imagined people to battle among each other only to become Randy's servant in the final round. Truthfully, it did seem like after living a life where he couldn't defeat anyone, he turned the tables around so much so that the total opposite was true now.

When Sigon was beaten, that was that. The referee just told me to come back at 7 and that’s when I would be fighting some person by the name of Storm. I just shrugged and walked away. It just seemed like no one really cared about these battles, they only wanted to see Randy whip people’s butts in the final rounds. Despite all the activity in the city now, these preliminary rounds were empty and devoid of spectators.

The next battle was no different. Storm ended up being a tough, punk female trainer with a pink Mohawk haircut who had actually bothered to raise her Pokémon diligently, but not enough. She ended up sending out a Clefable that looked like it had been in a bad bar fight and a Skuntank from the inner city slums. I was glad that was over when it was. Still, I said nothing and she walked away.

“Your final match will take place at 10 in the evening tomorrow.” The referee told me, “There you will be fighting against the one they call ‘The Immortal Stuyvesant.’”

I could easily tell no one was actually using their real name, or at least a name that was anywhere close to reality. Already, I had faced people who clearly didn’t have any chance against Randy, and I was already thinking this guy really didn’t have a chance either. It was likely Randy saved the better contestants for when they fought him. I was sure Randy's ego would be pretty encouraged if he was easily defeating people with names like these.

And when we finally meet that next day, I got a whole lot of surprise. The guy looked like he stepped out a child’s nightmare, but then again I thought, “Hey, I really am in a person’s dream after all, living as a Pikachu that was created by dreams!” I never figured out where Stuyvesant was from, but he looked like a walking nightmare. He was clad in a dark black outfit with a cape on his back, and his skin was a dark, pale blue. His eyes were a furious red and his hair was slick and black like oil. Meanwhile, his face was extremely menacing and looked like he had only pure evil intent. I would have never expected this guy to be a Pokémon trainer, I expected him to be more of a murderer. Again, if Randy could easily beat a guy like this, it made him look that much more powerful. I could see where he was going with this.

And here I was, just a lone Pikachu. He must have been the one laughing when he saw me, and probably figured I was the most worthless opponent he could have run into. I was just about to prove to him he was dead wrong.

He wanted to begin right away. He was blood-thirsty for a win and he wanted it now. Of course, there was no way I was ever going to give it to him. Not at all. I was sick of being here and I wasn’t about to let him get my way.

“Go Absol!” Stuyvesant shouted as he furiously threw a black Pokéball into the field. Man was his voice was cold and harsh. Where the hell did Randy ever think up this guy?

And out of the black Pokéball came a vicious Absol with the worst attitude ever rubbed off on a Pokémon. I was just hoping he didn’t think I was his opponent. He looked pretty well-trained, with an sharper horn and fierce, white fur. I didn't like looking into his red eyes, either.

I didn’t have any fighting-type Pokémon, so I grabbed the next best thing. I looked over to my left side, grabbed Raichu’s giant Pokéball, and hurled it into the arena.

“Go Raichu!” I shouted, using both paws to launch his Pokéball into the arena like I was shooting for a 3-pointer in basketball.

But of course, Stuyvesant didn’t understand a word I said, and he really didn’t know what Pokémon I was bringing out. It almost made me laugh knowing all he could hear was “Pi-Pikachu.” I tried to hold in the laughter. It was quite comical.

When Raichu came out of his Pokéball, he felt something felt oddly strange and he looked behind to see me. He saw I was the one who sent him out, which caused him to look at me with a very peculiar look in his eyes.

“What the heck happened?” Raichu asked me, “Where’s Jake?”

“It’s me in disguise!” I told him, “But don’t go telling anyone.”

“How the…?” Raichu asked, still wondering how it was even possible.

It was funny how here I was actually speaking to one of my favorite Pokémon, and he had absolutely no idea what was going on. Despite that, I had a battle to win.

“Use a Brick-Break attack on that Absol.” I told Raichu, “It’s one of his top weaknesses.”

“You don’t think I know that by now, Jake?” Raichu asked, looking at me with a bit of humor.

“Call me Juno.” I told him, “I have to keep it a secret.”

And then, Raichu turned around and had advanced on Absol, and Stuyvesant had no idea what attack I had just declared. He watched Raichu carefully trying to make the determination, and by the time he realized what was happening, it was too late. Absol was hit with a bone-cracking punch. Despite that attack, Absol got back on its feet and prepared to strike. I knew Pokémon trained like that sure don't go down easy.

“Bite attack, Absol.” Stuyvesant declared in his hard voice.

“Dodge it!” I shouted to Raichu.

And this is where things really got funny. Stuyvesant thought I had declared another attack using the language of Pokémon. Absol rushed toward Raichu, and Raichu barely jumped out of the way from Absol’s vicious bite. Absol’s teeth clamped down, meanwhile Raichu landed back on his feet.

“Use your Thunderbolt!” I shouted to Raichu.

“Heh, you got it!” Raichu agreed.

The tip of Raichu’s tail had struck the ground, he clenched his fists, and he had charged up an intense Thunderbolt. Just when Absol turned around, he saw a massive wave of electricity rip and tear its way to him. Absol was struck painfully, and he cried loudly. Absol fell to the ground, moaning from the exhaustion.

“I can’t… take it anymore…” Absol moaned in pain.

It was so weird understanding everything they were saying. I would never look at Pokémon battling the same way again. Despite that, Stuyvesant wasn’t very happy learning my Raichu had Brick Break and he didn’t expect it. He only had one more Pokémon to use, and he wanted to make sure he wasn’t the one to lose here. Nonetheless, I was ready for anything.

Stuyvesant had already realized he didn’t know what attack his Pokémon were going to get struck by until it was already too late. I could already imagine the same thing would happen with Randy.

Despite that, Stuyvesant prepared his next Pokémon to enter the battle. He wasn’t looking very pleased anymore…

Stuyvesant launched his next night-black Pokéball into the arena. Now he was gritting his teeth, and clearly had enough of the games. I didn’t care. He should have been more prepared.

“Go Haxorus!” Stuyvesant shouted as he threw the Pokéball into the arena.

The black Pokéball stuck the ground fiercely, and moments later and after a flash of light, Stuyvesant’s Haxorus had emerged ready for combat. I hadn't seen a Haxorus before, and it wasn't pretty. Nearly six feet high, clad in jade and black scales with crimson claws and bladed scythe blades on both sides of his face. And he sure didn't have a nice attitude either. He looked at the two of us and gave us a dark stare.

“Which one of you two will be my next victim?” He growled in a low tone, bearing rows and rows of shark-like teeth.

Raichu looked to me, and he really didn’t look too happy.

“Maybe YOU should try fighting this guy for once,” Raichu complained. “You’ll get a first hand experience seeing how hard it is. Wouldn't be such a bad learning experience, you know.”

“Hey, man,” I told him honestly, “I never once said this was easy, okay? Just give it your best shot.”

Well, that certainly wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear. “Just give it your best shot” meant he had the odds against him and he was going to feel pain because of it. Of course, I never really thought he would complain to me about it.

“Go on.” Raichu urged me, “How about you give it a try? Maybe for once you’ll see what it’s really like. Who knows, you might like it!”

And then, Raichu moved far aside leaving me and this burly Haxorus alone on the field. The ultra violent Haxorus just looked at me with a dark snicker, and then made his advancement. As much as I hated to say it, I was going to have to finish this myself.

“Earthquake on that worthless Pikachu…” Stuyvesant declared.

This was certainly a rare instance where the trainer himself had become the Pokémon he would fight with. As Haxorus lifted up his clawed foot to rip apart the floor, I just had to embrace the hard reality that it was me who was going to fight this guy.

Haxorus’s foot came thrashing down, and the floor began to crack open. All I could think of at the moment was to jump, and jump high. I sprung off the ground, and for a strange moment, I felt like I was flying, and everything suddenly went into slow motion. The arena was slashed apart into pieces, and I remained above the chaos untouched. Strangely enough, I had just done something I’ve never seen a Pikachu pull off.

I then focused my energy and burst into flames, literally. I then flew toward Haxorus at mach speed, but it was actually much faster since it felt like we were fighting underwater. I slammed into Haxorus, and embers were thrown everywhere, and I landed back on the ground. I didn't think Juno would know such a powerful rendition of Volt Tackle like it was a walk in the park. I saw for an instant Haxorus was slowly stumbling, trying to get back on its feet. I then began to move much faster, while Haxorus was moving slow like molasses. I must have appeared to be a blur to the others, unable to be seen. I jumped off the ground, advanced toward Haxorus, jumped right above him, and targeted his head with a vicious Thunder attack, letting it charge forward from my flaring cheeks right into his face. He was still letting loose a loud howl from the last attack, which honestly felt like it was half a minute ago to me but only a split second in actual real time.

I must have been breaking every law of physics I could think of. Obviously Coldblood’s power was working, but I never thought it would be to this extreme degree. I could dance around Haxorus at this speed and he wouldn’t even know I was there. But then I began to wonder… was this really Coldblood’s power…

…or really Juno’s own innate potential…?

I stood there suspended in the air just watching Haxorus get his butt whipped by me. I put my foot forward, and I flew down toward his head, and slammed down with a thunderous force. Haxorus took a vicious blow to the head, and felt a shock now being thrown in two completely different directions in split seconds. Once I landed on the broken ground, Haxorus was falling, but before I even let him crash to the ground, I then gathered all the electrical power I could, and I could feel an intense energy gather. A storm of electricity flared from my cheeks, and I looked up and directed the intense electrical carnage at the hopeless Haxorus that was seemingly floating in the air. The blazing thunder struck him violently in ways I had never seen before. At first it didn’t do anything much because of a dragon's resistance to electric attacks, but only half a second later the power was too intense for that to even matter. Haxorus was roasted thoroughly, and as he slowly came and fell back toward the ground, I simply back flipped out of the way. Haxorus had crashed down, never expecting to get so wasted in so little time. Only then did everything come back to normal speed. Stuyvesant looked like he was ready to lose it.

“How the heck did you do that!?” Raichu shouted in complete shock, looking at me strangely.

“I can show you how…” I told him, looking at the defeated Haxorus.
 

Darkened_Kingdra

Whatcha want?
Mwahahaha! Attack of Juno! That Pikachu is the best Pokemon ever!
No mistakes again. You know, I never see any, so I'm not going to mentipn it.
I just can't wait untilall the other readers see what Juno and his Pokemon's full potential is....
 

Avenger Angel

Warrior of Heaven
Mwahahaha! Attack of Juno! That Pikachu is the best Pokemon ever!
No mistakes again. You know, I never see any, so I'm not going to mentipn it.
I just can't wait untilall the other readers see what Juno and his Pokemon's full potential is....

Heh heh, yeah, you can tell I had fun writing this. Glad I haven't been making too many mistakes, especially after all the proofreading I've been giving this over the years. But I think the real surprise is not what Juno's up against now, but what he ends up having to fight later on. It gets... crazy.

Again, thanks for the support, amigo. :D
 
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