To Michael's right flew Cameron atop her own Salamence named
Azure. Though Michael was far closer to her brother than her, she
was the one Michael seemed to be grooming to succeed him one
day as Champion. While intent to one day succeed her cousin,
Cameron seemed to enjoy learning whatever she could from him in
their quest to protect all of Arcana. The complete antithesis of her
brother, she can often take herself and her training far too seriously
and uses any spare and free time she has to drill herself and her
Pokémon to keep them in fighting shape for whatever lied ahead.
Chris flew beside his sister atop a Charizard of his own named
Spyro. Despite having a natural gift for training and bonding with
Pokémon, Chris loved to take things easy, usually shirking off tasks
and duties to the last minute and not really worrying about much. But
his close bond with Michael makes sure he is always there to fight by
his side whenever he needs it. As the two are closer than brothers,
Chris is usually the one Michael trains. While he does have a knack
for Pokémon Battles and serves on one of the most prestigious
teams in the land, he can usually be found either in his own quarters
playing the latest video game or flirting with woman who seek him
out for his autograph. His lackadaisical approach to battling usually
leads him to make tactical errors in battle, but the sheer power his
Pokémon have usually wins him out in the end.
"This is it, guys" Michael remarked, steering his Dragonite ahead
towards the research lab.
"Uncle Byron is in place below" Chris called in, "ready to begin the
raid as needed."
"Do you think it's safe to rely on our soon to be retired Uncle to lead
the attack?" Cameron questioned.
"He volunteered to lead it" Mark chimed in. "What were we supposed
to do, tell him no?"
"I guess" the young woman responded.
"What kind of security do we have, Lizzie?" Michael asked, turning to
the flying ace to his left.
Lizzie tuned into her glasses, which began to analyze and study the
entire research facility Cassius had built in the mountains. "There's
some kind of electrical energy field around the main building. It's
gonna make flying into the building all but impossible."
"Good thing our suits are made of rubber, right?" Chris joked.
"Not funny, Chris" Cameron snapped.
"I guess we gotta go down to ground level" Mark wondered.
"Hey Mike?" Lizzie called to her friend. "You're gonna want to take a
look at this. There's a lot more Syndicate Goons here than we
thought there'd be. Your uncle and the police might need some
backup." Lizzie's glasses pointed to over a hundred heat signatures
approaching the gates on the opposite side of Captain Byron and the
Arcana Police Force. The heat signatures soon doubled as the
trainers called out their Pokémon.
"Alright, let's split up from here" Michael reasoned. "Lizzie and Mark
will stay in the air and try to find the source point for the Electrical
Field. We Kingstons gotta go bail out our Uncle. Let's go!" Michael,
Chris and Cameron began to descend down into the primary
courtyard for the lab, while Lizzie and Mark sought out a way to
break through the electric barrier protecting the base. The three
Kingston heroes flew their dragons down into the courtyard as if they
were going to divebomb the entire Syndicate battalion. As the
Syndicate guards frantically scattered, Michael let go of his
Dragonite and fell down towards the ground. As he did, he called out
his Blastoise, who's shell he landed on, while Rhaegar continued to
blast away the attacking forces. Blastoise fired his immense cannons
with pressurized water, launching several Mightyenas and their
trainers backwards. Cameron herself had already called out her
Lucario, who moved at almost the speed of light to knock over and
take down any of their opponents with it's Extreme Speed. Chris
tapped the Keystone he had in his wristlet and transformed his
Charizard into Mega Charizard-Y, who launched a rain of fireballs
down on the attacking Syndicate goons.
Cameron's Lucario used an Aura Sphere to blast the lock off the
gate and ushered in Captain Byron's police force. With the
reinforcements brought in and their numbers dwindling, the
Syndicate defenders quickly retreated. Byron rallied the officers to
round up as many of the Syndicate peons as possible, while
Cameron and her Lucario climbed up to the outer walls and took
down a few of the soldiers. Lucario defended his trainer from the
coming attacks of two Raticates by firing an Aura Sphere at one and
using Force Palm on the other. With their Pokémon defeated, the
Peons fled for their lives. Chris, seeing the fun his sister was having,
turned to Spyro.
"Hey Spyro? Keep torching the bad guys, okay? I'm gonna go down
to the ground level."
Spyro growled in approval and rolled through the air to let Chris drop
from his back. As he landed, his fall speed was rapidly decreased by
his Alakazam, who had called itself out of his Poke Ball and used it's
powers to catch him. Then, as the two were being beset by a horde
of Zubat, the Alakazam fired a Psybeam at the two and easily
knocked the Poison Pokémon out of the skies.
"WOO HOO!" he exclaimed. "I haven't had this much fun since that
stampede of Sawsbucks a few years back."
"This isn't a game, Chris" Cameron warned her brother, as Lucario
once more leaped in front of his trainer and used Force Palm to
knock a Houndour into the courtyard below them.
"What, you're not having fun?" Chris chided.
"Where's your sense of excitement, Cam?" Michael jokingly asked,
as his Blastoise continually launched pulses of water at the
scattering Syndicate Goons.
"You should be having fun, like us" Chris added.
Lucario fires another Aura Sphere, knocking a Mightyena into his
trainer, over the wall and down the slopes of the mountain. "The day
I start acting like you bums is the day I'll die." She looked around at
the outer walls and found them now completely empty of Syndicate
grunts. "The outer walls are secured. We need to break into the main
building, though. Lizzie, any updates?"
"I'm looking, Cam" she replied hastily over her communication
device. "These things take time."
"Liz?" Mark chimed in. "What about that satellite dish on the roof?"
Michael turned from his battle to look atop Cassius's base of
operations. Atop the slanted roof was a satellite dish spinning rapidly
and emitting some kind of electrical energy. "The dish is inside the
shield, though. Any ideas how we can get in without that?"
"There's a sewage drain on the side of the mountain" Mark again
pointed out. "It's a bit to the side of the mountain, but I think we can
get in from there. Want us to head in there?"
"Negative" Michael told his friend. "I need you two to stay in the skies
and keep an eye out for any other problems we might have." He then
looked to his cousins, as Cameron and her Lucario slid beside Chris
and his Alakazam. "Chris, stay out here with Uncle Byron and round
up as many of these thugs as you can. Cam, let's go catch Cassius."
"Oh sure, give Cam all the fun parts" Chris grumbled.
"Well, I'm sure you can have more fun rounding up the rabble"
Cameron teased, calling out her Salamence and climbing up to
follow Michael, who had already climbed atop his Dragonite's back
and was flying towards where Mark had said to.
Cassius slammed the door to his private study shut and locked the
door tightly, before frantically pushing a bookcase in front to give him
enough time to contact Elezar. Though he had once been collected,
knowing that Michael and the Elite Four were leading this raid had
made him far more frightened than he cared to admit. Elezar will
know what to do. If I can just have enough time to reach out to him.
He knew his defenses were strong, but they wouldn't last long if the
enemy found his generators. He quickly woke his computer from
sleep and punched in a secret code to access a direct channel to
contact Elezar. When there was no initial response, Cassius
continued to type in the access codes.
"