Desperate Gamble

Authors Notes: One review > No reviews! Thanks for the positive results so far, and I hope this is as much fun to read as it is to write. Inspiration is hitting me hard these days, so expect chapter three in another few days.

Chapter 2: Last One Out, Hit the Lights...

Bursting forth from nothingness once again, the young man, chosen by forces greater than himself, found himself in a cold and dimly lit environment. Soft humming and the smell of ozone became recognizable moments later. Looking about him, the impromptu hero pieced together that he was ina large interior chamber of a building. The floor felt like tile beneath his bare feet, and the small points of light that provided the barest amount of light possible seemed distant.

Squinting through the darkness large shapes could be distinguished in a clumped mass. The only logical conclusion to be made about the mass was that it was a bundle of machinery. Many points of light were scattered about its surface in a seemingly random way that seemed only to conceal the true scope of the concealed shapes.

A single footstep taken by the youth echoed lightly throughout the chamber, yet nothing happened. The floor did not sudden upend itself, an alarm did not sound, nor did the lights switch on. Encouraged by the lack of reaction the youth again took a step. Putting one foot in front of the other he crept towards the bundle of machines until suddenly the floor dropped away before him. The poor lighting had concealed the sheer drop-off that surrounded his current destination, and the youth had almost fallen clean off the edge.

Gasping in surprise, the youth took an instinctive step back before regaining his composure. Breathing in deeply and holding it for a moment, the youth thought carefully about his next course of action. Clearly this was his intended destination, otherwise Giratina would not have set him so close to the device, and clearly the destruction of such a device would stir up a proverbial hornets nest of activity.

Touching a finger to his right wrist, the youth drew upon the arcane nature of the tattoo and suddenly a small orb of light the same color as Giratina's sprang forth in his palm. Holding his arm before him and using the light for illumination the youth looked for any potential points of vulnerability. Minutes of walking about the machine yielded nothing from the distance he was forced to remain at, and the lack of bridges or ladders leading to the machine greatly disturbed him. Questions began floating through his head such as: “How does the maintenance crew work on this?” “What am I missing?” and most importantly, “Isn't there any sort of security in this place?”

Wishing he had brought his watch the youth began to wonder how long he had been in this cavern looking at the device. Had it been minutes or had it been hours? Shaking his head and steeling himself, the youth made the decision to finally act. Pressing a finger to another portion of his arm, the sphere of energy disappeared and was instead replaced with potentially searing flames. Dancing across his fingertips, the flames felt as natural in his hands as the hair on his head did. Balling his fingers into a near fist, the youth strained and focused until the tongues of flame formed a semi consistent orb.

What happened next was beyond infuriating for the man. Attempting to lob the orb of flames at the machine had seemed like a feasible idea at the time, but about mid flight the orb lost all form and simply dispersed in the still air. Now panting heavily, the young man looked on with disdain as his “brilliant” plan fell flat on its' face. Now he was forced to rest for a moment before he could attempt another course of action. Having not slept since the previous evening he was beginning to tire at a rate that not even his determination could slow.

Sitting down on the edge and hanging his feet over, the young man began to wonder what exactly Giratina had expected of this hastily thrown together plan. Had the machine not had the crater like indent surrounding it he could have simply walked up and begun tearing huge chunks out of it, and gone about melting whatever other machines were within reach. Had the source been natural he might have not even gotten this far, but he still would have had to try nonetheless.

Almost without warning the lights came on. A near pure white torrent of artificial light began to blind the young man who had thought himself alone for the time being. Footsteps began to thunder from some distant point as a door sprang open to the room. Turning around and shielding his eyes with one hand, the youth tried to count the figures who began to pour into the room. With the glare rebounding off of the light colored tiling such a task was impossible.

A single strong female voice boomed forth from the group. It held no anger, but a calm and commanding tone about it that commanded respect from experience. These were not simple security guards for a lab, nor where they soldiers as the man might use the term. These were a new breed of organized combatants.

“Form up! Pokemon at the ready!”

Pokemon. One word that should have struck fear into the heart young man, but instead a quizzical stare was all he gave. What was a Pokemon? Was it a firearm of some sort? Finally adjusted to the bright light he stood and saw that he was mistaken to a very large degree. Each of the nearly twenty men and women who stood before him held a small red and white ball in each of their palms. The tense expressions on their faces meant that the balls were indeed some form of offensively capable weapon.

The female form at the head of the group stepped forward with a glare on her face that would have stripped the paint off of a speeding car before stopping it dead. Her posture was reminiscent of the rigid and aggressive stance of a practiced drill sergeant. Hands behind her back, she spoke again, this time directing her speech to the now standing proxy savior.

“I doubt you have the authorization to be here, so I will give you one warning. Surrender yourself now, or you will be killed. There is no negotiating regarding these terms.”

The young man was torn now. To stay would mean imprisonment and interrogation. Most likely he would die before getting another chance to attack the device behind him, and that would defeat the purpose of him coming here. The only alternative was to fight, and that would be just as risky. He would be killed if he lost, and even if he won here he would have to fight his way out of the compound. Once out of the compound he would have to find somewhere to hide and build up his strength, but his thoughts were interrupted by the woman speaking again. A hint of slight resignation was laced into her voice as she gave the order that would spur everything into action.

“You should have given up when you had the chance. Kill him!”

Having not been given a chance to speak one way or the other, the young man was flabbergasted at the sudden nature of the order. Her lackeys, however, were not quite as uncertain as he was. Their hands shot forward and threw the small spheres toward the trapped man. Instead of aiming to hit him, the troops had thrown short of him. The devices might have been grenades for all the man knew, but he was entirely caught off guard when the balls sprang open and out popped a myriad of small and moderately sized creatures. Had he been a local he would have been able to identify the un-evolved and relatively weak Pokemon now appearing, but the outsider had no such knowledge and thus recoiled in surprise at the alien like creatures before him.

Holding no reservation about their actions, the little creatures sprang towards the startled human. Several were snake like in nature, some resembled breeds of dog that would never be considered normal in any other plane of existence than this one, and lastly were the truly bizarre ones. A few of the creatures were floating orbs that emitted putrid gases every so often. Reflexively the human assumed a defensive posture and slapped at his wrist. The symbol in question very clearly resembled a shield and upon activation his body was coated with thick gleaming metal that seemed to flow slightly before settling into a plated look.

With adrenaline coursing through his body, and the metal body now protecting him the man grinned with newfound hope. Everyone of the little creatures immediately backed away from the tall and now armored figure. Their human owners had yet to collect their jaws from the floor save for the female in charge who hadn't even bothered to release a creature of her own.

Taking the initiative the college student turned tank began to lumber forward with an uneven gate. Thundering footsteps filled the room as he charged his assailants. Some of the smaller creatures fled in terror choosing to face the consequences of their cowardice later than be crushed beneath the aggressive iron coated human. A tenacious snake looking creature sprang forward and attempted to bury two sickeningly long, blood red fangs into his armored hide. The fangs skipped off of the thick coating and left the snake momentarily dazed.

Barreling onward towards the human figures in the distance the inter-dimensional hero ignored the failed attempt on his life. If these creatures belonged to a human master, then the human master was to be his first target. This train of thought was slow to reach the now wide eye grunts whose feet refused to carry them from where they stood.

A wide swipe of his fist was enough to shatter the arm of his first victim, the woman in charge of everyone else in the room. The sickening crunch was enough of a distraction for the young man as he refused to break stride. Running past the rest of the immobilized figures around him, he had just reached the door as the plating retracted back into he body. Now free of the excess weight his pace picked up further and he ran blindly toward what he hoped was an exit.

Now the sirens began. Screeching voices filling the corridors with the sounds of panic as an entire building full of people had their bubble of a world popped. Winding metal and ceramic passages snaked in every direction and still the young failed hero was still trapped within the labyrinth. Never once had he found a window or a door that might lead outside, and so he ran onward. Finally after what seemed like an eternity of endless and painful running, the young man stooped in a small storage room.

Panting heavily the once college student sat on the cold floor and clutch his chest as his lungs burned. So far he had been lucky and avoided most every patrol that he had heard coming. The atmosphere of the building had an oppressive nature about it. Every corridor had the stifling sameness that drained the mind of creativity. Adding in the wail of the sirens, the constant threat of discovery, and the lack of fresh air that didn't sting the nostrils with its' acrid plastic like smell.

Collecting himself as best he could and letting his heart rate fall, a moment of clarity came over him. Looking back down at his wrist he located one of the symbols that was reminiscent of a featureless face. Tentatively pressing it brought about a sudden feeling of weightlessness as his body became transparent. Standing again, and hesitantly reaching a hand towards the wall, the young man was quite satisfied with himself when his hand passed through the once solid surface. Now emboldened he stepped through the wall and back into the hallway. The siren was still wailing its' horrid tone, but nothing mattered anymore as the weary un-hero pushed his way through wall after wall.

Working quickly, Girachi's chosen began to force his way throughout he compound rather than simply follow the corridors. Now and then with increasing frequency he would stumble through an office for some sort of noncombatant staff. What stood out most in these offices was the use of a language identical to English. Slowing to a stop in front of a white board in one office, the proxy hero analyzed what was written and was startled to find that not only was it in a language he understood, but looking back every human he had encountered had spoken the same language as him.

That revelation would have to wait; however, as a figure poked into the room only intending to give it a cursory glance. Completely surprised the figure momentarily forgot to speak and instead game something akin to a gurgle. Hearing this and snapping out of his revelry, the almost hero sprang back into action. Touching a marking on his wrist that resembled an upraised fist his muscles suddenly tensed and every movement he made was more fluid than normal.

Springing onto the slack-jawed lackey, the former college student soundly pummeled his face with blurred fists. Before he could truly comprehend the extent of the damage he was causing, the man beneath him expired with one last bone crunching punch to the face. A cruel way to die, but necessary for escape to be possible.

Standing from the lifeless lump of flesh, he looked down at the still figure and finally began to analyze the uniform he wore. The pants and boots he wore were black, as well as the flack jacket he wore. His undershirt would have been completely black as well if not for the red R emblazoned brightly on the chest. Had it not been for the R the figure might have resembled some sort of night operations commando. Shrugging these thoughts away, the failed hero again pressed a finger to the distorted face upon his wrist and continued phasing through walls.

Minutes later and just as his focus wavered yet again, the burst forth into a spacious room. Before him was not the cold gray of the near endless hallways that had stretched in a seemingly endless manor, but a relatively warm and inviting office of sorts. Wood paneled walls and soft carpet greeted the exhausted near hero. Nearby were windows with drawn curtains that let forth dim rays of light. The artificial lights in the room were dimmer than in the rest of the facility, and no guards could be heard thundering around the corner. Close to the center of the room sat a large desk of unknown wood, with a large chair behind it. The chair; however, was occupied.

The occupant of the chair and the fatigued youth stayed still for a moment before either of them acted. The once strong female voice that had commanded the actions of lesser soldiers spoke softly, and with great surprise, but with only one door into the office such a reaction was predictable.

“You? How did you get in here?”

Taking a weary step forward, the youth eyed the injured woman before him. Her arm was in a sling, and her eyes held n extensive amount of exhaustion in them. Blond, mid length hair hung messily across her head, and her once proud posture was slumped. She was moving to stand slowly and was almost out of her chair before the failed hero made his move. With the last of his strength he lunged at her. Tripping in his dazed state he knocked her from her chair but failed to land anything more than a light shove on her.

The door must have been locked from the inside, for as soon as the chair toppled over a set of booming voices began to shout through the door. Hammering fists and rasping noises of something clawing could be heard, but were ignored as the two occupants of the room eyed each other closely. The strong willed woman's hand shot to her belt suddenly and in a flash of light a burly gray skinned, human like figure appeared. It flexed its' powerful arms and grunted something that only it could understand.

“-choke.”

The owner of the fearsome creature pulled a tired grin onto her face as she slumped against the wall to watch them fight. Her job was done for the moment, but the impressive creatures had only just begun. Taking powerful, running strides it closed the distance between it and the young man quickly and threw a rock shattering punch. With only a fraction of a moment to spare the weary traveler pressed the shield symbol on his arm and once again metal coated his body. The blow was resounding and sent him tumbling across the room as the gleaming surface almost immediately retracted back into his body. Standing shakily again, he knew that there was no fighting this monster before him.

The windows came to mind. Windows meant that there was something on the other side that was not an enclosed space. To shatter the windows was to find freedom, and so that is what the barely conscious man did.

Pulling himself into a staggering run he once again pulled for his armored hide and impacted the glass with everything her could muster. The results were not exactly pretty. After exploding cleanly through the transparent solid, he now found himself on a stone balcony jutting from the side of a cliff that hung dozens of feet above a rapidly flowing stream. The image of this stream might have been majestic had the aggressive demon of an aggressor emerged behind him through the hole he had created. Standing to face the beast once more, the human of similar height backed towards the edge as his protective shell once again retracted. Further use of the abilities at that moment would be so limited in nature that they might be potentially harmful, and so he found himself in a relatively difficult situation. Death lurked on either side of him.

The creature stopped just outside of arms reach as it heard something from within the darkened room. Moments later the woman emerged several yards away from a pair of elegant doors that he had failed to notice. She cradled her arm in its sling and looked thoughtfully at it before stopping near her subordinate creature. Her voice was again tired, but now carried an inquisitive air about it.

“Before you die, I really want to know how it is you found this place, and why you were in a chamber as heavily guarded as the one you somehow managed to enter.”

Leaning against the stone railing to support his rapidly failing body, the hero from another time and place gave her a pair of answers that none save for a mind reader would have guessed.

“I didn't find this place, I was brought here by something far greater than you or I, and as for why I was were I was... you need to get rid of that machine before you kill all of us.”

Without another word the exhausted man hauled himself over the edge of the balcony and fell unceremoniously into the swiftly running river below. The fall lasted mere moments, and as he impacted the water below the young man's body finally gave in. Without the energy to fight the current he was rapidly carried downstream and out of sight.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Back at the balcony a now solitary woman looked down the river with turmoil in her eyes. The words she had heard were weighing heavily on her as well as the abilities she had witnessed. He obviously was not normal, and because of that she was sure he would survive and continue to be a threat.

The door to her office finally gave in as her body guards and a pair of angered geodudes burst through. Amid the shouting and confusion the fine desk and several more of the windows were shattered before the lackeys stumbled upon their leader.

“Ma'am, what happened?”

She wanted to pummel them until they coughed blood, or to throw them into the river, but instead settled for a deft slap across each of their facces.

“You failed to capture the intruder, wrecked my office, and failed to address me properly. THAT is what happened!”

Her temper simmered a bit before she turned back to the river. Lapsing into another bout of thought, she completely forgot about the pair of subordinates standing at rigid attention behind her. That is, she forgot about them until one of their temperamental stone faced pokemon spoke out. As if pulled form a trance, the head of operations at the base quickly wheeled about and walked out of the room without a word. She had to rest now, and her arm needed rest from the violent day it had experienced. It was nearly noon and she already felt ready for bed again.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

More than a mile downriver, a nearly drowned man drifted through now calm waters. The small lake he drifted across would have been pleasant to him had he been conscious and not close to death. Passing aquatic pokemon with years of ingrained fear of humans stayed away from the yet to be lifeless being. What little current there was pushed the nearly dead figure onward toward a small peninsula. Once in the shallow waters it was only a matter of time before the young man ground to a halt in the soft sands.

There he would have remained until consciousness or death took him, bobbing gently in the waves, had a small feminine pokemon not stumbled upon him during its aquatic play. With skin the color of pearls and eyes more red than a ruby, the green haired, skirt wearing humanoid stumbled upon the still figure lying face up in the water. Her initial reaction was what one might expect from a child. She screamed.

The high voice was piercing in nature and those nearby would constantly state that her shriek truly could have awoken the dead. The scream;however, accomplished a goal that was, despite unintended, desirable. Fast paced splashing and a hurricane of psychic energy brought help to the startled creature.

Hovering rapidly over the water came an aggressive fox faced pokemon who threw a telekinetic barrier around the startled female form until it could secure her frame against its' own. Next, and from along the shore instead, came a flurry of read and white feathers attached to a humanoid frame. Keen eyes and a quick mind allowed the bird faced, combat ready, pokemon to assess the situation even before leaping into the water; though, instead of comforting the squirming girl it immediately grasped hold of the unconscious body and dragged it ashore through sheer strength.

Shortly after, a lumbering tan skinned lizard and its' smaller human associate approached with all due haste they could muster. The scene that greeted them wasn't ideal, but it was better than they had hoped it would be. Gathering the wits of everyone present, the human set her pokemon to work carrying away the waterlogged hero. Her destination wasn't very far away, but ultimately that was not what she was focused on at the moment. The damaged mass of human in the hands of her pokemon was.

End chapter notes; Pokemon mentioned with more than cursory detail: Seviper, Machoke, Geodude, Gardevoir, Alakazam, Blazekin, Tyranitar.