Fretin heard a slight buzzing sound over his headset, then another,
then another. He smiled. Long-short-long. The signal to go. He glanced over at the Jynx
that had been assigned to him and nodded.
The basic precepts of Pokemon warfare, as every
military man knew, were not that different than normal battling without Pokemon, with one very major difference. Psychics.
Psychis were what made battling with Pokemon so very, very tricky.
You always wanted at least one Psychic on your side to protect the minds of
your troops, and to coordinate efforts, as well as provide a Barrier to protect
your men from physical attack. As a general rule of thumb, you needed one
Psychic for every seven hundred men. If you had more than one Psychic, you
could engage in Psionic warfare. That was, of course,
engaging the opposing “Guardian” Psychic, trying to disrupt the other Pokemon’s coordination of the opposing army. The more powerful the Psychic, the better. Alakazams were ideal for this role, due to the fact that
while they couldn’t take very much physical damage before they fainted, they
could take quite a beating mentally. Of course, if you had enough Alakazams to cover your men, you would want to utilize your
OTHER Psychics in roles more fitting to their species.
Fretin had two Alakazams,
five Hypnos, and more than thirty Jynx.
This meant that he would have one Guardian Alakazam,
and one offensive Alakazam. Hypnos,
due to their ability to take a beating both mentally and physically, were ideal for the front lines. As the enemy approached or
the enemy was being approached, they could use their Psybeams
at long range, and their more powerful Psychics at close range before closing
to point-blank range. Jynx, on the other hand, were
more fragile, in both body and mind.
The four ranges used in Pokemon combat were generally
Long-range, Medium-range, Short-range, and Point Blank-range. Each of the
ranges corresponded with various attacks.
Long-range attacks, while small in number, were very powerful, and consisted
mainly of the various beams—Solar Beam, Hyper Beam, Psybeam,
Auroura Beam, Ice Beam, and other beams; well as
cannon attacks such as Zap Cannon, Spike Cannon, and Octazooka;
Tri-Attack; the most powerful elemental attacks such as Fire Blast, Hydro Pump,
and Thunderbolt; and Pin Missile. Medium-range attacks consisted of attacks
such as Swift; medium-powered elemental attacks such as Dragon Rage, Twineedle, Thunder, Flamewheel,
Fire Spin, Nightmare, Psychic, Razor Leaf, Toxic, and many others. Short-range
attacks were generally attacks that damaged the opponent while not being
directly touched by the attacker. Point Blank attacks, of course, were such
attacks such as Tackle, Fighting-type moves, Dark-type moves, and any moves
that caused damage by direct contact of Pokemon.
There was also a fifth type of move, the Status Alterers;
such as healing types or status raising techniques. Of course, there were many
other moves, such as Teleport.
Fretin looked down at the Verin
Retreat. The four buildings formed a square, and in the center was a small
building beside the retreat’s airstrip. It was the main Verin
Retreat base, and was where Gertal was most likely
held. Anyone that wanted to reach the base, however, would first have to fight
past the strongest defenses of any Resort in Nuschantz.
This was, in fact, why the Verin Retreat had been
chosen as the capitol of the country. No force had ever broken through the
Retreat’s walls. Until today.
Fretin narrowed his eyes. He knew that this was the
tourist off season, and that meant that there wouldn’t be as much of a defense,
and would fight him to a stalemate if he were trying to take the resort over.
However, he wasn’t trying to take the resort over. He wanted Gertal.
He glanced to his left, and nodded. Immediately, the Alakazam
that shielded his group from psionic detection raised
its psionic defenses. Because of this, any Psychic
inside the base would see his force as easily as a Snorlax
would see a garbage dump from thirty yards away. In seconds, he knew, the
base’s own defenses would be raised, buth e had just enough time to launch one quick volley
before it was too late.
The Psybeams, Solar Beams, Hyper Beams, Ice Beams,
and Auroura Beams ripped into the nearest of the
buildings of the Verin Retreat just before the bubble
of a Barrier flickered into existence over the Retreat itself. Milliseconds
later, a Barrier appeared over Fretin’s men in time
to block the scattered Psybeams that returned.
As per his orders, none of his men or Pokemon
returned fire after the opening volley as the Guardian Alakazam
linked their minds one by one. Fretin felt the touch
of the Psychic, and, moments later, he was connected to every one of his men
and Pokemon. Ordinarily, they would have been linked
beforehand, but there was no way that he could have done so without revealing
himself to the Resorters at the same time.
“All right,” Fretin said out loud, and knew that
every one of his men could hear him, “Bring up the RPGs.”
Rocket-Propelled Grenades, or “bazookas” as they had been nicknamed, were the
weapon of choice for bringing down Barriers. Pokemon
attacks simply didn’t have the sheer power to focus on a certain point at a
certain time as the RPGs did. Without Psionic assistance, RPGs would be
almost useless. With Psionic assistance, they were
one of the most deadly weapons there were. They were slow, but they were
powerful.
Fretin watched as the scattered Psybeams
began to from into a more cohesive pattern, and Ice Beams began to join them.
Obviously, Lefar Verin was
recovering, and getting his men ready. He had to know that a crushing blow was
about to fall, but Fretin knew that he didn’t know
where it was from.
“Aim for the highest concentration of fire,” he said, and mentally shifted his
mental focus to the snipers, “Be ready,” he said, feeling the Alakazam direct his thoughts to them.
Then, suddenly, over forty RPGs were fired, and the
origins of their smoke trails immediately attracted the fire of the Ice Beams.
Suddenly, a Flamethrower reached out and struck the shield. Then
a Fire Blast. Fretin grinned. They were
bringing out the big guns.
Seconds before the missiles struck, in a precisely concerted effort, Pokemon up and down his line fired. Psybeams,
Ice Beams, Solar Beams Hyper Beams, as well as a stray Fire Blast and a
Thunderbolt from somewhere were flung against the opposing Psychic’s Defense
Shield at the exact same moment the RPGs struck it.
“Fire at will,” Fretin said, and the beams struck out
again, once again nearly in unity, and then again, more haphazardly.
The opposing Barrier flickered for a moment, then
dropped completely. The withering barrage laid waste to the two closest
buildings, and the return fire declined before peteringed
out altogether. Fretin frowned. “Cease Fire,” he
said. Something wasn’t right. This was too easy.
And then he realized exactly what was happening. Somehow, the Resorters had discovered his second task force. He only had
thirty-five men at his position. They were meant to be a diversionary tactic,
to lure out the main bulk of the Verin Retreat’s men.
Then, when the battle was fully joined, his second force would sweep in from
the opposite direction, and take Gertal.
There was no way that that Barrier had been put up by an Alakazam.
It was definitely the work of Jynx. Many Jynx working in tandem, most
assuredly, but Jynx nonetheless. That meant
that the resorts main force wasn’t inside the Retreat, but was in the mountains
surrounding the Retreat. Fretin swallowed, and felt
his skin grow cold. “Jynx, scan for a Psionic blocking field.” He said.
If Psychics worked hard enough, they could find Psychics that were preventing
themselves and others from being seen. But it took a lot more work to find them
than it did to make the field. The search lasted only a second, but it seemed
to take an eternity. And then there it was. “Pincer!” Fretin yelled, “Darks and Fighters to the rear!” He whirled
around, searching the top of the hill for the force that would appear there in
seconds, “We’re being flanked! Down into the Retreat, now!”
Then there was confusion in his ranks as the Drak
types and Fighting types moved to the rear to protect
the retreat/charge, and the humans and other more fragile Pokemon
began their march down to the Retreat. “Contact the Secondary Force,” He said,
grateful for the link that the Alakazam provided to
all of his men, “Activate them, and have them meet us in the Retreat.” He
glanced over his shoulder, and there he saw them. The first
ranks of the Verin Retreat’s finest. Their
silver and blue uniforms shone in the sun, and the ranks of men and Pokemon stood menacingly. And then the first Fire Blast hit
the center of a bunched formation, and men flew everywhere. Fretin
whipped his head around to see his men charging down the hill that they had
been hiding behind, and the Pokemon that had been
assigned to them firing at the Retreat’s men. Within seconds, both forces had
their Barriers up, but the retreating Resorters had
been confused for a few critical seconds.
Seconds which Fretin and his men
and Pokemon used to charge down into the Retreat.
“Dark, Fighting, begin pulling back,” he said, pulling
out his assault rifle, “Snipers, do your jobs.” He said. The snipers weren’t in
his formation at all. He had considered it, but thankfully had decided against
it. Now, they could take potshots at the Verin
forces. Not that that would do a lot of good, but every little bit helped.
As Fretin ran down with his men into the Retreat, and
watched the short-range attacks flying every which way, he wondered how long it
would take Lefar to bring his equines into the
battle. Once he did that, the battle would be largely over.
Fretin caught a mental warning and threw himself
behind a rock, and an Ice Beam barely missed him. He popped up over the top of
the rock and let loose three short bursts with his assault rifle. He saw the Pokemon fall to the ground, and he continued his run into
the Retreat. Without the Fighting and Dark types, the assault was much more
difficult, but the fighting and dark types on the opposite side of the base
were doing an admirable job of forcing the Verins
back.
Fretinn knew that now his men would be a diversion
that kept the Retreaters at bay long enough so the
Secondary Force could get Gertal. His men were
already at the top of the base. He raised his rifle again and fired several
more bursts. He glanced behind him, and saw that the Verin
charge was already underway.
Suddenly, something around him changed, and he heard one of his men saying that
the field that had prevented their teleportation directly to Gertal was down. Several Psychics immediately teleported
down to the prison, and spirited their leader away. Fretin
grinned, and called for the retreat. It was a great day for Nuschantz.
Team Blizzard had their leader once more, and soon, Nuschantz
would be theirs.
Fretin began pulling away from the Retreat, and
watched as the Psychics began teleporting his men away, and knew that he would
be among the last to leave the battleground. He had chosen the honor, and he
would serve it. He wouldn’t have his men stay behind to fight just so that he
could get away. What kind of general would he be then?
No, he would be the very last person to be teleported away. If he died, then he
died defending Team Blizzard, not the other way around.
All around him his men were disappearing, but they were also dying much faster.
Without their comrades to protect them, the Verinners
were moving that much more easily through their ranks. He knew that retreating
in this fashion would have a higher casualty rate, but he didn’t see any other
choice. The Base was hidden, and it needed to remain hidden.
This was the only way to get back there without giving away the base’s
location.
Fretin was finally away from the retreat, and a good
distance up a hill. He dove in among a pile of rocks, and began firing his
rifle nonstop at the approaching force of Retreaters.
By now, there was nearly no one left on the battlefield BUT Lefar’s
men. He swept his rifle back and forth, and flinched slightly as attacks of all
shapes and sizes exploded all around him, but he wouldn’t stop firing until he
was away from the battle.
He saw a horse rushing for him, and he shifted his aim. The horse stumbled and
fell, but the rider leaped from his horse to cover behind a
fallen rocks, and fired at Fretin. Fretin cursed and ducked down behind the rock, knowing that
within seconds, his position would be overrun and he would be dead.
He braced himself for one last surge before he died, and suddenly felt the
world around him melting away. He relaxed as the familiar sensations of the
Teleport technique enveloped him. He was safe. He was away. He had won.
+++++
Eltan looked down at the unconscious girl, then at the Alakazam that had gotten onto the plane in a Pokeball along with about thirty other Pokemon
and the heavy weapons down in the cargo hold. The Alakazam
had been keeping the unconscious girl unconscious simply because she had proven
herself to be quite a fighter. If there were just three of her, and they had
all done what she had done, Eltan doubted that he
would have been able to take over the plane.
He pulled out his pistol and looked at it. It was a family heirloom. It had a
trigger, a barrel, a worn grip, a revolving case that supplied up to six
bullets to the barrel, and the arming device. He had once heard it called a “six shooter,’ but he just called it “my gun.” Kantans and Johtans failed to
realize that even his small gun was more deadly in the hands of an expert
marksman than an entire magazine of Snorlax-killing
bullets in the hands of a novice. He pulled the hammer back and took several
steps back from the girl. “Wake her up,” he said quietly, aiming the gun
directly at her head.
With this girl, he didn’t exactly trust the Alakazam
to keep the girl in one place. It was, after all, better safe than sorry. The Alakazam slowly began to stimulate the neurons in the young
woman’s brain, and suddenly Lorelei was awake. She lurched towards him, but Eltan was able to keep from reflexively pulling the
trigger. He smiled, “Well, Lorelei Belle Winters,” he said, “I’ve told Lefar Verin that I’m going to
kill someone because he refused to let our leader go, and, since you gave us so
much trouble, I’ve chosen you.”
Lorelei glared at him. “What, you going to shoot me?” she demanded, staring at
him.
Eltan smiled. “Sorry,” he grinned at her. “But that
won’t show our resolve. We’re willing to do anything to get what we want. And
that means that you’re going to die.” He nodded to the Alakazam
and lowered his gun. Instantly, a translucent barrier appeared between the two.
Lorelei frowned. “What are you going to do?” she asked, “Deprive me of air?”
Eltan smiled faintly. “Not quite.” He said, “you’ll have plenty of it. In fact, that’s all you’ll have.”
Lorelei frowned, trying to decipher what he had said. Suddenly, the door behind
her swung open, and she was sucked out of the plane, and into the open air. Eltan smiled. It was done. “Close the door,” he said
quietly. “And lower the Barrier. I need to get to the cockpit.”
++++++
Lorelei was falling. She was going to die, she knew. “You’ll have lots of air,”
she mimicked the Blizzard as she watched the ground rushing up to meet her.
Faster and faster it came. And all she could think of
was how stupid the Blizzard was. “There were so many more chilling things to
say,” she muttered to herself, feeling her lips pulling back as she continued
to accelerate. “Why couldn’t he have picked something that would have sounded
scarier?”
She consoled herself by knowing that she’d make a spectacular landing. Snow
flying everywhere, a large crater…She felt giddy. This was all that was left to
her, so she might as well do it to the best of her ability. She curled herself
into a ball, and felt herself accelerate even faster. She began to roll, and
she grinned. She’d make the best landing there ever was.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of something silver, she turned
her head, but either it was already gone, or she was starting to roll on all
three axes now. She put the streak out of her mind, and watched as the ground
rushed up to meet her. Any second now, and all she’d be was a big smear on the
ground.
A big smear on the ground that made a GREAT landing.
Too bad no one would be there to see it.
+++++
Bugsy stared up at the Blizzard, stunned. He hadn’t
been close enough to hear the words that the Blizzard and Lorelei shared, but
he had seen her ejected from the plane, and knew that there was no way that she
would be able to survive. It made him feel sick. It made him want to rush the
Blizzard too, but the time for that was past. The Blizzards were now firmly in
control of the plane, and any attack on them now would be suicide.
He was pretty sure that there would be no way out of this for him. He glowered
at the hulking man who’d knocked Lorelei unconscious, and the man, carrying a
very impressive gun, grinned back at him. The man was missing several teeth,
and Bugsy looked away.
There was a way out of any situation, he knew. He just had to find the way out
of this one. One of his most valuable allies was gone, with the money he’d won off
of her, he remembered with a wry smile. Sure, he had his university friends,
but they weren’t really fighters. Neither was he, without his Pokemon. And they’d been confiscated by the Jynx that the Blizzards had gotten from somewhere.
Everyone’s Pokemon had been.
He’d heard rumors that the Pokemon that had been
released by trainers in the Business class had been heartlessly gunned down
before they could attack anything, and Bugsy was glad
that he’d decided not to release his Pokemon.
Bugsy swallowed. He didn’t see any way out of this
one. In fact, he couldn’t even see where they were. Several of the Psychics on
the plane were apparently holding the window shades down, and they had also
relieved everyone of any tracking device that could show their location.
He sighed and leaned his back against the back of his seat, and felt
hopelessness pervade his senses. There was nothing he could do right now. Maybe
later would be the time for action, but not just yet.
+++++
Eltan put the headset back on, and nodded to the Machamp and the Abra that stood
guard over the pilots. Yes, it made the cockpit cramped, but it was the best
use of resources. The Machamp could face the door and
cover it with two pistols in his top two hands, and still keep the pilots
cooperating with his lower two arms, thanks to the Abra
keeping mental tabs on the pilots and telling the Machamp
what to do.
Eltan smiled and turned back to the radio, for once
relieved that he didn’t have to worry about anyone trying to kill him. “Lefar Verin,” he said, “This is
Team Blizzard aboard Flight 5671 from
Eltan waited for a minute. It would probably take Lefar a while to get to the communications array, if Fretin had carried out his attack on schedule. He repeated
his message, and waited. This time, Lefar came back
to him. “You know the answer to that,” the resorter
responded, sounding mad enough to spit nails. “Your men have attacked my
resort, and they took him. My forces drove them off and forced them to use a
teleportation retreat. They took heavy losses.”
Eltan chuckled, “Lefar, Lefar…” he shook his head, “They were under orders to
utilize a Teleportation retreat. You didn’t force them into anything. And they
all volunteered. They all expected to die. They were willing to die to retrieve
our glorious leader. That we managed to inflict damage upon you is simply a
bonus.”
Lefar’s voice came back, and the tone was deadly
serious, “Blizzard, with that attack, you have sealed your doom. I’ve asked for
help from a great deal of countries, and many have already said that they will
stand with us. The Indigo League Elite Four have agreed to help us, as has the Johto League. The Altans are
sending their elite forces to help us, and Silph
Corporation is sending its men to assist us. You are doomed.”
Eltan smiled faintly, and wished that Lefar could see his smirking face, “Do you really think I
hadn’t considered that? We’ve got help. Your underestimating us will be YOUR
doom.”
+++++
Bruno watched the Johto News Network coverage of the
rapidly unfolding events happening in the tourist trap of a country that was
known as Nuschantz. He could only stare at the
devastation that Team Blizzard had caused in their attack on the Verin Retreat. They had all but razed one building, leaving
it hanging, and looking like it would collapse at any moment; and had
demolished an entire half of another. The other two were untouched from the
third floor up to the top of the building at the twentieth floor, but had heavy
damage on the bottom two floors.
He shook his head, and realized that he was among a knot of trainers gawking at
the television in
His eyes glittered. “I can take ‘em all on!” he
boasted, “If any of you want to help me, then you can
follow me to Goldenrod. We’ll fly from there!” a cheer rose up from the crowd,
and Bruno grinned. He would take on the Blizzard murderers, and whoever got in
his way would be dead.
He was pretty popular, and he was sure that he could get a good-sized force
together to go challenge the—“This just in,” the reporter on the television
said, catching everyone’s attention. “It appears that the hijacked plane we
told you about earlier has—“ the woman stopped, and
stared at the piece of paper that had been put in front of her. She swallowed.
“Ladies and gentlemen, they’ve killed one of their hostages. A
young woman who has dropped out of the public eye in recent years. Her
name is Lorelei Belle Winters. We’ll continue to—“ whatever
she would say next was drowned out by an angry roar that filled the
Bruno stared at the screen. He didn’t doubt that it was true. He just couldn’t
believe that it had happened. The girl that had beaten him in the Allnian National Tournament all those years ago was dead.
His eyes narrowed. He had been looking forward to a rematch. He would kill
whoever killed her.
That was his guarantee.
+++++
Steven glared at the television screen as he threw clothes into his suitcase.
His Aggron watched him from the door. He had just
announced that he was shutting down the
He shook his head. The response had been overwhelming. Everyone was willing to
help him. Even some beginner trainers had volunteered. He’d refused to let them
go, however, in favor of only letting the more experienced trainers come.
He’d left a young woman named Clair in charge of the defense of Blackthorne, in case any wild Pokemon
decided to attack Blackthorne or trainers outside of Blackthorne in the absence of so many powerful trainers.
Even though she specialized in dragon types, and he in Steel types, he was
confident that she’d do a good job, though she seemed to be overly aggressive
in her battles.
He closed the suitcase and turned to the door. “Well, Aggron,”
he said, “This is it. You ready to go to war?” he asked, already knowing the
answer.
His Pokemon grinned and roared out an affirmative.
Steven smiled. “All right then, let’s go.” He said,
hurrying out the door towards the airport where nearly thirty trainers waited
for him. He knew that all over the country, and in Kanto and Hoenn, the scene was being repeated. Gym Leaders and
trainers alike had pledged their support to the Nuschantians.
He knew that before the conflict was over, more than two hundred trainers from Johto alone would descend upon the frozen country. There
was no way that the Blizzards would win any way that they fought. Sheer numbers
would defeat them, if nothing else.
There was simply no way that they could have a force that could best both
native Nuschantian armies and the forces that were
coming in from all over the world.
Or was there, Steven wondered. He doubted the leaders of Team Blizzard were
stupid, and they surely must have taken this very thing into consideration.
With an uneasy stomach, Steven wondered how exactly the Blizzards were planning
on countering their coming. There was no way that they’d be able to hijack any
more planes going into the country, there would be simply too many trainers
going into the country.
What, then, were the Blizzards going to do?