In The Army Now
Sometimes survival is the force that drives some men to do the things they do. Sometimes it's an adrenaline rush that drives them. Some would go as far to say that some men are driven just to fight. Other things drive men as well. Loyalty to one's country, the love of a woman, or even one's family. Whatever it is that makes men work, or soldiers fight, the drive never stops. Not even when a man is dead in the ground. Whatever it was that drove a man lives on in his friends and his family. This could be the basis of vengeance.
Surge and the other soldiers walked along the corridors of the massive complex inside the mountain. According to a map they found, they were heading to a security checkpoint. Surge had everything planned out. Take the checkpoint and use it as a base of operations. It should have some sort of console that would give them information about the complex. They would then go from the checkpoint to key locations inside the complex, up to the command center and eliminate whoever is in charge.
Soon they came upon a door that opened up to an open room. Computer consoles lined the walls. Surge peeked in. He did a quick count and counted five soldiers and a few engineers. The engineers wouldn't give them any trouble, but those soldiers were armed to the teeth, and looked ready to pounce. Surge didn't see any Pokéballs on them though. That gave him the advantage. With the Pokémon that his soldiers had, he outnumbered them almost three to one. Surge quickly relayed his findings to the rest of them. Each soldier slipped a pokéball into his hand, and a gun in the other. He motioned for them to hide. There were several columns in the wide hallway they were in, so the other soldiers hid behind them. Surge banged loudly on the door and quickly ducked behind a column. The door slowly crept open. A rocket soldier, gun at ready, walked into the hallway. A Pokéball suddenly slammed into his face. There was a quick blast of gunfire and the Rocket fell. The Pokéball popped open and Raichu materialized. He turned to the door and saw the other Rocket soldiers coming at him. He let loose with a thunderbolt attack and dodged away as bullets rained on the spot he just vacated. The sound of crackling electricity, some screams, and gunfire filled the air. Surge let out a cry and the other soldiers let out their Pokémon. The Pokémon charged the Rockets, while Surge's soldiers provided cover fire for their Pokémon. Within moments all the soldiers were dead, and the engineers either fainted dead away or dead altogether.
Surge quicky called for a security perimeter. There were three doors leading out of the room besides the one they had entered. Some soldiers took positions at these doors. A technician sat at one of the computers and began to bang at the keyboard furiously. Within moments he called out to Surge.
"Sir. You'll never believe what I found!" The tech said.
"What is it?" Surge asked.
"There's all kinds of information about Pokémon physiology and even human physiology! This is some deep stuff. It goes all the way down to the cellular, and... damn... even the molecular level!" The tech said excitedly.
"So what? Just some biology on humans and Pokémon. Anything else?" Surge asked.
"There's a secured folder. It'll take me a minute to get into it." The tech said.
"Do it." Surge ordered.
"Security perimeter set up sir." Gentleman announced.
"Good. We're going to use this as our base of operations. We'll take out key points in this complex, using this as our main hub." Surge said.
"Sir. I've got the file open. You're not going to believe this. It's straight out of a science fiction novel!" The tech said.
"What is it?" Surge asked.
"There's all kinds of information about genetics, mutations, and even cloning. This is some heavy stuff." The tech said.
"Cloning was outlawed only last year, when they cloned that Mareep." Gentleman said.
"You think they could be doing some cloning? Here?" Surge asked.
"No doubt. There's records of experiments. But I can't access them from here." The tech said.
"Find out who's in charge here." Surge said.
"Yes sir." The tech said as he continued typing.
"With the right kind of genetic therapy, you can make all kinds of things happen." Gentleman said.
"Like what?" Surge asked.
"Well, you could develop certain traits, like strength and intelligence, and even improve on them. You could, in theory, make the perfect soldier. Or even the perfect Pokémon. Sounds like someone's playing God." Gentleman said.
"Sir. You are really not going to believe this. But it's Ricardo Giovanni." The tech said.
"What? Head of Giovanni Industries!?" Surge asked.
"The very same." The tech said.
Surge stood in thought for a moment.
"Burn all that data to three CD's. Then destroy that hard drive." Surge said.
"But this data is on the central network. We'd have to destroy the network to erase this data." The tech said.
"Then that's one of our objectives." Surge said.
"To shut it down, we first have to get there." Gentleman said.
"What do you mean?" Surge asked.
"There's a security grid around the network core. To shut down the grid, we have to shut down the power to the grid." Gentleman lifted the map and pointed to a large section on the map. "We have to go here, to this power generator. This generator powers the security grid. Once that is down, we can take out that network."
"It just doesn't get any easier." Surge said. "Alright. We'll move out to the generator, and then to the network. From there, we move on to Command Central. Unless somebody has something else better to do."
"Sir. Here's the CD's." The tech handed him the three CD's.
"Good. I'll take one. Gentleman you take one. And you take one." Surge handed a CD to the tech. "One of us has to make it back to Kanto and get this back to HQ."
No one said anything for a few moments. The tech got back on the computer.
"Sir. There's a weapons and ammunition cache not far from here. It's on the way to the generator." The tech said.
"Good. Let's move out. A few men should stay here and keep in contact with us should anything happen." Surge said.
Surge and some soldiers moved along the corridors, picking off the odd soldier or two that happened to come their way. Soon they found the weapons cache. And what a cache it was. It was a large closet, lined with rifles and boxes of ammunition.
"It's truly a thing of beauty." Gentleman remarked.
"Dispense with the jokes and grab what you can carry." Surge said.
Surge rummaged through a box, grabbing clips he could use, when he spotted a different type of clip. It was a clip with small arrow-bolts sticking out of it. He pulled the crossbow of his back and pushed the clip into it. The clip snapped into place. Surge pulled a lever on top of the crossbow back, loading a bolt into place. Surge grinned from ear to ear. He picked up a few more crossbow clips and some more rifle clips and stashed them away. Once the others were locked and loaded, he barked the order to move out. They moved quickly down the corridor, quickly taking down any resistance they encountered. They came upon another security checkpoint. There were only a few guards in it, and they were quickly dispatched. One of them carried a shotgun, which gentleman quickly scooped up, along with a box of shells. They went through another door and found themselves in the midst of the power generator.
"Okay, now here's the million dollar question. How do we turn this thing off?" Surge asked.
"Easy. We go in and smash anything that looks important." Gentleman said.
"Sounds good to me." Surge said.
They approached the generator, but as they got closer, Rocket soldiers began to pour out from the generator. Surge cursed as he opened fire. The other soldiers followed suit. Some ducked behind cover, others stood and fired. They all had already released their Pokémon, as had the Rockets. The Pokémon were fighting freely as the soldiers battled it out in a fierce fire fight. Surge looked around for anything that he could use. He chanced a look up at the generator. He could barely make out two large nodes that were giving off electricity.
"Those nodes must keep the power in equilibrium in the generator. If only we could get up there and take it out." Surge said to himself.
Then it came to him. He quickly called for Raichu and ordered his Pokémon to clear a path to the generator. Raichu did as he was told and let loose with a tremendous thunderbolt into the group of Rockets. Some of the Rockets dodged out of the way, others got hit by the blast and were thrown like rag dolls to the side. Surge called out for cover fire as he and Raichu charged into the hole that Raichu had just made. They ran quickly, bullets passing by them, by just inches. They entered the generator, unharmed. They found a set of stairs and quickly ran up them, with the barrel of Surge's rifle taking point. He surprised several Rocket soldiers. They fell before they could get a shot off. Soon Surge and Raichu emerged onto the roof of the generator. There were two huge electric nodes, sharing electricity between them.
"The only way to shut this thing down is to take these two bad boys out." Surge said.
Raichu nodded. Surge went over to the edge of the roof and looked down. He could plainly see that his soldiers were winning. Surge looked back at the nodes. There would be no way he could destroy them and then run down the stairs. Destroying these, would destroy the entire generator. He looked around and found a small closet, hoping to find some explosives. But he found the next best thing.
"A grappling hook." Surge smiled as he wrapped his hands around the rifle-like grappling hook.
He went over to the roof and shot the grappling hook to the far wall. He then turned to Raichu.
"Okay Raichu! Give it everything you got!" Surge shouted.
Raichu nodded and turned to the nodes. He jumped backwards into Surge's waiting arms, and shot off a humongous thunder attack at the nodes. The nodes began to discharge electricity. Surge took that as his cue to exit. He jumped up on the edge of the roof, silently said a quick prayer for the rope to hold out, then jumped. As he flew downward, with Raichu in his arm, he could hear the deafening sound as the generator exploded. The force of the explosion threw Surge forward. Surge screamed as he was thrown towards the wall by the force of the explosion. But the grappling hook had been unwinding the whole time, and he missed the wall by inches as he hit the ground, rolling. He rolled for a few moments, and then stopped. He could feel the heat of the exploding generator sweep over him as he lay there, the sounds of the explosions making his ears ring. After a few moments of deafening explosions, the explosions stopped and there was a deathly silence. Surge groaned as he opened his eyes. Raichu was sitting on him. Raichu was okay. Surge felt relieved. Then he saw Gentleman's face. He saw him turn and shout at someone. He couldn't tell what Gentleman had said or to whom. He couldn't hear, nor move. Then he saw the face of a medic. His hearing came back slowly and the numbness went away. But other than that, Surge was unharmed. When Surge had completely recovered, Gentleman approached him.
"Sir? Permission to speak freely." Gentleman said.
"Granted." Surge said hoarsely.
"If I may say so, sir. That kicked ass." Gentleman said. "In fact, that kicked so much ass, the ass is gonna stay kicked."