Avenger Angel
Warrior of Heaven
Chapter 3
Dark Insertion
Dark Insertion
I knew I was getting into something deep and despite what that might entail, Blazewing would follow me the whole way. Heck, she even seemed excited at the opportunity to possibly save another world on the brink of destruction. I knew we were against the odds, but I wasn’t backing down from this. None of what I had or what I didn’t have mattered. All that mattered when it all came down to it was choice and resolve. But if we failed this, I doubted Acreus would give Egatept another chance.
<Is this your final decision, Juno? No one is forcing you do this. The charges against you set by Yveltal are cleared forever. No one may object to you living out the rest of eternity in Utopia, where you may dwell forever without concern over how you created.>
I didn't like the whole thing about Yveltal dragging my butt here to trial when it was totally uncalled for, but it was leading to something bigger. I knew I could easily say "screw it" and just head back home to be with Sita and my fellow soldiers, but it would feel so wrong if I did that and didn't try to find a way to save this place. I knew next to nothing about Egatept in the end, but I felt there still had to be some good to it. Something worth saving down there.
But if this is something you truly want to do, I will make it possible. Many of us have given up hope on that horrifically sinful world and now it stands on the verge of apocalypse, but unlike Yveltal, you have no duties here, and may go if you wish. But if you fail or are killed, we will have to carry through as planned. We cannot allow such a dark and twisted world to worsen, or it may affect the entire universe in time.
I've seen the Abyss itself and Kivistal on the verge of destruction. In other words, there wasn't really too much else that could go beyond what I had seen already. Or at least that's what I felt at the time. Still, I would be nothing more than a biased, selfish jackass if I decided to let Egatept rot.
"We're going, final answer," I told Arceus, knowing there really wasn't anything else to discuss here. "But in the meantime, Yveltal, pass the message along to Sita and the others about what Blazewing and I are doing."
“Consider it done,” Yveltal told me, giving me a firm stare. “Prepare yourself, Juno. Where you are going… one’s heart and mind cannot be weak, or they will surely crumble…”
It was then that Blazewing had quickly sped forward and joined me, looking at me for a moment and then looking back to Arceus.
"He ain't going alone," Blazewing told Arceus. "You're sending both of us, I don't care how beat up this place looks. Bring it on!"
<Then I will take you there. I sense the hopes in both of your hearts, and I know of what both of you are capable of. If it will be enough to change Egatept… only time will tell. Farewell, Juno and Blazewing.>
And then, before him at his feet appeared another flaring, white light. Around the two of us appeared a glowing circle, with many ancient runes and symbols. I watched as the circle of celestial energy grew brighter and brighter, eventually turning into an entire pillar of glowing light that enveloped the two of us. At that moment, we could only see pure white.
I could feel myself slowly turn into light, and for a few moments, we could see in all directions, and we sped with furious and incredible velocity toward Egatept. We soared across galaxies with a force and power I never thought I'd experience, but nonetheless, they were awesome. In the meantime, I knew anyone I met on Egatept wouldn’t know who we were, they wouldn’t know what we were there to do, and none of them would know where we came from. Regardless, I prepared myself for the endeavors I was about to face.
…Synthesis…
As I speed with light, flash of an eye
Two living stars with the gift to fly
To bypass the veils and cross the seams
Warmth of souls created by dreams
Having been blessed with longevity
And now above the will of gravity
With an iron will and a directed pact
Only a breath away from present contact
Nothing stops our timeless grace
Across the infinite reaches of outer space
Beyond the reaches of the starry slope
Come two stars with boundless hope
As I speed with light, flash of an eye
Two living stars with the gift to fly
To bypass the veils and cross the seams
Warmth of souls created by dreams
Having been blessed with longevity
And now above the will of gravity
With an iron will and a directed pact
Only a breath away from present contact
Nothing stops our timeless grace
Across the infinite reaches of outer space
Beyond the reaches of the starry slope
Come two stars with boundless hope
I had seen Egatept from space, and strangely enough, even through we were speeding toward it with unbound speed and ability, I could sense there was something wrong with it. The oceans were dark blue, and the land was grey and black. The clouds that were in the air above Egatept were black and red, thick with musty pollution. It wasn't too hard to see the Pokémon living here weren't taking good care of the place.
Regardless, it wasn’t long before everything had become white when we were close enough to the world to see the grounds below. It was then that we were finally materialized in Egatept, a new world to us that was only still intact because the two of us decided to go on a suicide mission to try and save whatever was corrupting it.
…
Within time, I had opened my eyes, now in the physical realm once again. Lying on my stomach, I saw the black, rocky ground I was on, and then looked up. Most of the land before us was a black desert wasteland with deadened plants and stony hills. Ahead, I saw what appeared to be a city, but when I took a closer look...
…I really wish I hadn’t.
Just from looking at the outside, I could already tell what kind of place this way. Flashing, malicious neon signs was the main feature, advertising everything disgusting and perverse from gambling with lives, senseless whoring, excessive alcoholic drinking, and heavy narcotics use, all gloried with every blazing light of the rainbow to sting the eyes and sicken the mind. It almost seemed like this place had taken a page out of the City of Dis's book.
Blazewing had already woken up, and was looking around. I could tell she definitely wasn't too impressed with this place. Right behind her, I had actually seen a whole haphazard cluster of twisted metal, and upon a closer look, I had seen that they were actually cages with bones in them. Seemed like whoever was in charge just decided to cage up these Pokémon and then never feed them.
I figured one of the only perks that this place had over the Abyss was the fact no one was out for my head... at least not yet. In Kivistal, we were well-renown heroes of prophecy. Here, we were nobodies. Blending in and disappearing could be very easily accomplished.
"Huh, well now ain't this place beautiful," Blazewing remarked sarcastically. "We haven’t even spent thirty seconds here and it looks like we have our work cut out for us.”
"And... we're clueless about who is actually responsible for all this mess," I replied to her, a bit worried about that part. "Can't say I'm all that eager to go out and meet them either."
We had to get to it though, and we were going to have to not only meet whoever did all this, but probably fight them as well. I highly doubted whoever was profiting from all this was going to stop if we just asked them kindly.
"Well, better get going," Blazewing muttered as she shrugged. "While we're in there, we'd better start looking and acting exactly like the locals... as bad as that probably sounds. They don't even know we're undercover here and their whole world is just a flick away from destruction."
"Yeah, you're right about that one," I told her, having that weird feeling that we were now somehow tied together as a last-living lifeline to this entire world.
Recommended Listening: Fallout 2 Soundtrack - Biggest Little City in the World (New Reno)
As we took the asphalt road toward the looming and twisted neon city before us, I saw many motorized vehicles moving around, many of them looking like metallic monsters assembled in some demonic assembly plant. I looked off to the left as we entered into the vicious metropolis to see a glowing sign “Welcome to Deject City” with two skewed neon martini glasses. It really made me wonder if the city had always been named that.
Many of the streets were filled with both foot and motorized traffic, while many of the buildings consisted of businesses on the first floors and apartments on the upper levels. Occasionally, there were looming skyscrapers that were single corporations only, all too proud to glorify their name and purpose in bright, blazing neon signs.
Meanwhile, the Pokémon living here were total scum. Many of them totally drunk and homeless, several with a mean streak on their faces, and others were totally lost in their own world, rambling random words that didn’t make sense. As the two of us made our way through the streets, the sight of a Jynx and a Medicham giving themselves up for prostitution burned a mental scar in my mind I really didn’t want to hold on to. Honestly, it wasn’t hard at all to see why Arceus wanted to be rid of this place, and I had only seen just a fragment of Egatept. However, one the major differences was that many of them were clothed, something that wasn’t common in Kivistal. It seemed only the extremely poor were totally naked.
And at the moment, that included us.
I had totally forgotten we were totally penniless here. In truth, there wasn't much separating us from the rest of the homeless Pokémon of this place, unable to do anything for food or shelter. It made me wonder just how we were going to go about saving this whole world when we were totally at the rock bottom.
One of the things that did seem strange were flashing ads for some organization called the “Normal Operation Specialists,” using NOS as a commonly spread acronym. There were posters and signs everywhere glorifying the organization, as well as showing their insignia, a diamond-shaped symbol with a cross in the middle, inlaid over a rifle bullet and a sword in an X formation. Meanwhile, their slogan was “The future survives with us alive.”
Upon looking at their campaign closer, I suddenly saw what their purpose was, and for a brief moment, I looked at the others around me and quickly realized the connection.
It was far worse than I even thought…
Genocide.
Looking at the flyers and the posters at one of their recruiting bureaus, I saw the NOS existed for one sole purpose. All they wanted to do was totally exterminate all Normal type Pokémon. I looked around me, and saw there were no Normal type Pokémon to be found anywhere. I hadn't even thought about it until just now. Meanwhile, I looked through the headlines and the taglines they had everywhere. “Filthy meat-puppet Normies” was just one of them. And there were many others, all of them just propaganda attacking Normal-type Pokémon for the most stupidest reasons ever. But then, I read on, and saw that all of those that opposed the NOS would be exterminated as well, along with anyone else that protected or sheltered any Normal type Pokémon from being executed by NOS authorities.
It was sheer anarchy and there wasn't even a logical explanation for it.
All I had to do was look around me, and I saw how much support the NOS had. Among the ads for booze chugging and gambling, NOS support and campaign billboards, neon signs, and video displays were everywhere. It was like there was no stopping these guys. And then there was the two of us, naked, alone, and unarmed.
"Man, this place is a special kind of screwed up," Blazewing muttered, taking in all the sights around here. "Kill all Normal types? What the heck for?"
"You know it's always about control," I told her, knowing the usual truth about this stuff. "Whenever propaganda is involved, it's just someone out to become a puppet master."
That, and a whole lot more. I was about to look away when suddenly I was interrupted.
“What the hell do you want, vagrant!?” A booming voice shouted in front of me.
I looked up and saw a really hasty Floatzel standing behind the desk, just looking down on me with an intimidating stare. His orange and beige fur was also pretty well kept and he definitely looked like he had been working out with those muscles. I also saw he was wearing a NOS uniform, and considering the fancy appearance of his rank badge and his medal indicators, I could tell he was pretty high in rank. Also, I could tell he didn’t like us hanging around here… that was definitely very obvious.
"Uhh, nothing, dude," Blazewing smiled sheepishly. "Be chill, we were just passing by."
We didn't continue hanging around there shortly after that. I wasn't too crazy about looking at the Floatzel again either. I wasn't exactly up for turning these guys into enemies already. I simply followed Blazewing away and we headed back toward a neglected, trashy alley that was a good enough distance from the rest of the local populace. The place was a slum, as there were trashcans and a rusted dumpster were right nearby, along with graffiti all over the walls. Meanwhile, it seemed no one was around in either of the two brick buildings next to us, so we were safe here. But considering we weren’t wearing anything, we probably looked like we were completely homeless and broke.
And the problem was… that was also the truth. There was no Silver Apex to shelter us here, we were completely on our own. No one knew who we were, and no one would help us either. But, it could have been worse. Thankfully enough, I was an electric type and Blazewing was psychic and dragon. Had either one of us be normal, and we probably would have been killed the split second we came here. Egatept would have been lost before we even had a chance.
"Wow, these guys are pricks," Blazewing told me, really taking a disliking toward the NOS. "Normal Operation Specialists? What's up with these clowns? I mean look at them, they’ve everywhere here. And hey, did you read what I read about what these creeps do?”
"Take a look around, I haven't seen a Normal type Pokémon ever since we got here," I replied to her, knowing only just a slice of how bad the situation had gotten around here. "Really no better than the Black Onyx."
We were still left without a solution. And at the moment, we were still missing a major part of the big picture. What else was going on in Egatept? To me, it seemed like there should have been at least some kind of group that was against these fascists. But then again, I easily reminded myself that hope for this world of Egatept was incredibly low. Around here, it seemed that either everyone conformed to being evil and disgusting, or died trying to make things right. Arceus was more than ready to pull the plug on this place. And a little voice in the back of my mind was thinking I was wasting time and should have just aborted this whole mission. Still, most of me wanted to believe something could be done.
"I hate the NOS already," I told Blazewing, knowing that was pretty much agreed on, "but to tell the truth, the more we know about them, the stronger we'll be when it comes to taking them out. Let's face it, we just don't have support or any kind of following to back us up. There's not a whole lot of choice here.
“Ew, don't tell me you're thinking of joining these douchebags,” Blazewing replied, looking a little disgusted by that.
"We definitely can't fight the NOS by ourselves," I told her, knowing I didn't like the sound of it either, but was willing to cope with it for now. "Look at this place. Propaganda and public support is their weapon, and they know it's working. I wouldn’t be surprised if every Normal type Pokémon that’s still surviving in this chaotic mess is hiding and clinging on for dear life or simply waiting to be executed. There is no war here, it's totally a massacre. There only way we're going to find weaknesses in the NOS and to find ways to contact Normal type Pokémon is by seeing the NOS from the inside. Since they aren’t going to open the doors to us the way we are…”
Blazewing then looked down and shook her head.
“Ugh, you have just got to be kidding me,” She asked, looking at me like that was a downright horrible idea. "Remember, the guys upstairs are watching us. They might just pop this place if they feel we're losing it too.
I was silent. I knew it obviously didn't look good. And Blazewing was right, Arceus and the other legendaries might not approve of this idea either, but I wasn't exactly in the position to ask them. Truthfully, I hated the sound of it too, but what choice did we have?
“There's gotta be another way,” Blazewing told me, trying to think of a better option, “Anything's got to be better than this. Maybe a fundraiser or something?”
“We would need enough money to fund an entire campaign…” I told her, seeing how that would be nearly impossible with just the two of us, “You know that would take forever. And even if by some chance we were able to get it, by the time we collected enough… it would probably be too late. Remember, we needed a lot of stuff to save Kivistal. All those things we just don't have here.”
Blazewing was pale, and I was sure I didn’t look so hot myself. But we were in no position to fight NOS or even begin to think of taking them down at the current moment. And the only way we were going to learn more about them was to act like them for a little while. We had to trick them into thinking we were a part of this chaos when we were just waiting for the best moment to screw them over. We needed to become infiltrators. It was the only way.
"Juno, we join these guys and they're going to expect us to be as much of a bunch of jackasses as they are," Blazewing told me, trying to think of some alternative. "I'm sure even the new kids have to get blood on their hands. Otherwise they're not going to trust them with anything."
“Trust me, I’ll find a way out of getting our hands dirty,” I told her, putting my hand on her side to comfort her, “And Blazewing, the two of us will never become like they are. We just need to act like it. All for show. We did it for Skepter, we can fool these guys as well.”
She looked down for a moment, but then slowly, she was looking a little better and more comfortable with the idea.
"Ugh, I just want to forget about that whole jester thing," Blazewing replied, reliving that awful memory for a moment. "But yeah, I guess it would be like that. I suppose... we could try it again."
“Thanks.” I told her, “I know it’s not easy, but the two of us can do this. I know it.”
I then gave her a smile and a nod, and then we headed back to the recruitment office. I normally didn’t like the idea of lying and being deceitful, but considering the power our enemy had, this was the only way to do it. The more we learned about NOS from the inside, the easier it would be to take them down when the time came.
I still looked around, and like before, no Normal types to be seen at all. While walking through those dirty asphalt streets while hulking motor vehicles sped throughout the city, I came to realize that there was no chance of them surviving unless they managed to form a league of their own. But likely, none of them had any money, were taboo to other Pokémon, and probably received so little support that the only thing left for them was to be hunted down slowly… all the way to extinction.
When we finally made it back to the recruitment office, to no surprise of my own, the Floatzel that had barked at us earlier was still there, but he hadn’t noticed us the second time until we stepped up to the desk again. He then looked down, and his neutral expression turned into a disgusted one yet again.
“You again?” He asked, looking baffled, “I swear, if you’re just here to annoy the hell out of me, I’ll lug your fat, yellow carcass into the streets and beat the stuffing out of you.”
"Shut your trap and listen to me for a minute," I told him, acting to show I could put on as much of attitude as he could. "We're here to join the NOS. And no, it's not because I particularly care to see your face again."
Still, he wasn’t convinced, but I was kind of expecting this.
“Juno, huh?” He asked, speaking in a very condescending tone, “Well, Juno, you obviously don’t know this, but the NOS will only recruit those that actually have worth to this organization. And you, being butt-naked, having no experience, and having no idea what you’re doing here doesn’t look any better for us than it does for you.”
“You don't know crap about me,” I told him, still looking into his eyes and definitely not afraid of him. “Now, are you an actual recruiter, a soldier, or just some stupid, irate bastard to stand watch?”
He didn't like that one bit, but if I wanted to pretend to be like these maniacs, I needed to talk and act like their kind of material.
“Oh really?” He asked, getting up close and looking even angrier about my presence here. “And there’s a lot about me that you don’t wanna know. Now get the hell out of here before I change my mind. I’m behind on my beating quota, and the fact that punching the lights out on an oblivious Pikachu and Latias would make up for that does make for an awfully convincing temptation.”
It was true. He didn’t know who I was, no one here did. Truthfully, I liked it better this way. We could put this to good use.
"Sure you want to waste your time with these dicks?" Blazewing asked me, shrugging. "Look at this scrub. There's a reason why they don't put asshats like him on the frontline."
"Wow, great job on pissing me off, you bitch," the Floatzel spat at Blazewing before looking behind him to shout at the other NOS officers. "Guys, we’ve got a pair of anal clowns here!”
Out from behind the office came three more NOS officers that looked no better in attitude than the Floatzel that had absolutely nothing for patience. Along with him came one aggressive Toxicroak, a bitterly enraged Mawile, and a sadistic Primeape.
And the day was just getting started.