EPISODE 50: The WILL-power to Win!*

"And so, for our Master, Master Cyrus! Start the operations!" Commander Jupiter gave the order and the grunts saluted. With their tech-savvy laptops, they turned on the driller as it bashed through the seabeds of the dry lake. The drillers produced minor quakes here and there, making it a little shaky for the officers and my team members who were in their cages.

"Power control to a hundred!" Pluto commanded.

"Yes sir, leave it to me." said, a feminine grunt who twisted a switch clockwise to boost the power of the drillers.

Because of this additional boost, the quakes severed into brutal ones, somewhere within a 4.5 magnitude if you were to look it up in the Richter's Scale. By this point, it was impossible for anyone to stand on their feet without clinging to something like the bars of the cage. Even the grunts and the commander alongside the operative stumbled down but they immediately halted the operation of the driller once the Pokemon they wanted to see showed its appearance.

From the seabed, emerged a Pokemon. And of course, this was no other than the being of Willpower, Azelf. Azelf is a small, gray-blue, fairy-like Pokémon. It has two tails that each have a red jewel on them. These are, presumably, two of the jewels which complement the Red Chain. Azelf has a partially cyan face with another red gem encrusted into its forehead.

Azelf has a cone-shaped head with elf ear-like protrusions on each side. Its spirit can leave its body without dying, and can return to the body at will. It can control an individual's will or enter the body of an individual. Legends say that if Azelf is harmed, it can cause humans to lose all will inside of them, making them completely immobile for all eternity.

"Hurry, before it retaliates..." Commander Jupiter felt sleepy all of a sudden. She lacked energy, strength, and the will to do things. Alongside her was the squadron who was feeling the same lackluster energy of drowsiness.

"Go... just go." uttered, Pluto who like an angst, commanded his grunts.

"Yes sir." the grunts submitted in a lazy manner, pressing buttons in a lazy manner as if they were teens who believe life is meaningless. Then from the bottom emerged a cube, a strong formidable cube in which Azelf was trapped in. Inside the cube, a chemical was sprayed to the Pokemon which made it fall asleep, and in return, the willpower of Team Galactic returned.

The cube, upon trapping the said Pokemon, fell to the ground.

"Yes! The operation is a success, Master Cyrus will definitely be proud once we know we've acquired Azelf. Pluto, you and your squadron are to remain here as a diversion. Alright Team Galactic, our operation here is finished!" Jupiter proclaimed loudly, holding the formidable cube with the sleeping Azelf inside of it.

"Of course, commander." Pluto nodded.

Then came an ATV, an all-terrain vehicle with a few grunts, Jupiter rode to escape the large muddy puddle and return to headquarters with the officers and my team members as the witnesses.

Three minutes after Jupiter's escape, came me, Dawn, Crasher Wake, Logan, and the champion, Cynthia. The three of them attacked the grunts while I headed to the cage to unleash my team members. I was happy to at least see they were doing alright inside the cage, just sitting around because of boredom.

"There you guys are! I'll get you out with my Pokemon." I sighed with relief, clinging to the metal bars while Charlotte looked at me with a sarcastic face. She uttered in a way that matches her current expression, "Oh? Look who decided to show up?"

"Sorry, no signal. Plus, my radar was destroyed." I excused.

"Yeah, um.. Pokemon won't do justice on those bars. We would've escaped this cage since earlier if I was wrong." Zeal, also sarcastic, was both glad to see help has arrived and annoyed that it happened only now.

The twins were in ecstasy, even saying, "Ms.Luna! Ms.Luna! Save us! Save us please!"

"I will, don't you worry the two of you." I rubbed their hair one by one.

Meanwhile, dealing with the grunts were Dawn and Logan, while Crasher Wake and Champion Cynthia dealt with Pluto.

"Pluto! Stop those machines now!" Cynthia was angered by Pluto's demeanor.

"Hah! Can't you see they're off? You know, I once believed in you Cynthia but now? I am loyal to one man, Cyrus!"

"It's sad to lose a fan."

"I know, and I'm not afraid to challenge you! Rampardos, action time!" Pluto tossed out his Pokemon.

Rampardos. Rampardos is a large, dark-gray dinosaur-like Pokémon resembling a Pachycephalosaurus. It has a dome head, which obstructs its red eyes. It has blue stripes, one on its tail, and one on each of its knees and wrists. It has various spikes: one on each knee, two on its blue-collar on its neck, two short ones on its nose, and four on its head. Two of these head spikes are bigger than the other two.

Its strength lies within its fierce head-butting attacks. A charging Rampardos can knock down virtually anything with one hit. 100 million years ago, it lived in jungles, where it tore down jungle trees while catching prey. It enjoys barging into objects with its head to train its strength and reflexes.

This resulted in its skull becoming harder than steel and a foot thick, which prevents it from fainting if it crashes into anything, even another charging Rampardos. In ancient times, people would dig up its well-developed skull fossil and use it as a helmet. However, because its skull became so thick, its brain also became even smaller than that of Cranidos, leading to theories that it went extinct because of its stupidity.

"Garchomp, Slash!" Cynthia asked her Pokemon to launch a Pokemon without hesitation.

"Rampardos, dodge the attack!"

<Ram! Ram!>Rampardos was turning left to dodge when suddenly, <Ram!!!>Garchomp was too fast ant its sharp claws pierced the foe, not giving it a chance to dodge the attack.

"Now, Dragon Pulse!"

<Garch! Garchomp!>Garchomp went for two attacks in a row. A beam of dragon energy flowed from its mouth to the foe's body.

"Tck! Rampardos, Head Smash!"

"Alright Garchomp, fly up!"

<Garchomp! Gar!> Garchomp flew; thus it dodged the attack.

"Now go hit it with Dragon Rush on your way down!" another set of moves in a row, it severely fainted Rampardos. I was awed while watching the match and even if my team members tried their best to snap me back on focusing on setting them free, I couldn't focus. Cynthia's Garchomp and style of battling totally lulled me.

Then came Logan who ran to me. The officers were busy watching the battle between Cynthia and Pluto so there were no witnesses aside from the two of us and my team members. In his hands, he handed me a key, the key to letting my team members escape.

"Here take it, use it to unlock the cage. I found it from defeating one of the grunts. Go now while no one is looking." Logan bade.

"Th-thanks." I stuttered. He was the only trainer I met who would help me. I took the keys from his hand and smiled at him. I then unlocked the cage slowly but steadily, in a manner it won't attract the Police officers.

Back with Pluto and Cynthia...

"You're too late Ms. Champion, Azelf is ours, and you'll never find our headquarters. Our commander Jupiter had held it captive already. Bwahaha- Ouch." in the middle of his evil laughter, a hand chops his neck which made him unconscious and fall to the muddy floor.

"Yay detective! I did it!" Emma beamed with joy after successfully putting a man to sleep with the detective's tactics.

"Great work, I know I could count on you." Detective Looker rubbed Emma's hair. Behind him were a whole galore of Pokemon International Police vehicles. Luckily, I and my friends were able to escape just in time before the PIP arrived and shrouded the remaining Team Galactic grunts.

"Too late Detective, they've been able to capture Azelf." Crasher Wake reported.

"Sigh, I'll think of what I can do about it." Detective Looker then looked to his officers, "Arrest every single one of the grunts!"

"Yes sir!" the officers saluted and took out their Pokemon. It was a "bloody" war between Team Galactic and the Pokemon International Police. But if someone would ask me, I'd say the detective and his men have an upper advantage for in their side were trainers, a gym leader, and THE champion.

"Logan, where's Luna?!" Dawn asked while helping him face off a grunt.

"I am completely clueless like you." he excused, though he knows the truth.

"She must've escaped with her friends and dumped us."

"Dump? I don't think that would be the right word." Logan chuckled since it was him who told me to do so.

As for the eight of us, we ran as far as we could from the lake and stopped somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Nothing in sight except for pine trees and fog-- thick, thick fog. In this "middle of nowhere" we rested, thinking of what we should do next.

"Let's head back to headquarters, this plan was totally a flaw," Vizion suggested.

"I agree, we can't handle Team Galactic just like that, we need to work smart not hard." Charlotte concurred. As for Oliver, he was just chilling by a tree. He wasn't tired or whatsoever since he's used to running.

"Did someone said smart?" Faith and Grace, both their eyes were glimmering.

"Okay, I regret going to a cave. We need a better plan than what we've thought of before. They're in the lead and so that leaves us with two Lake Guardians left." I lied out my opinion. There, the majority of us wanted to return to Snowpoint City and so we agreed to plan something far profound than before rather than swimming and bla bla here and there, it's worthless to explain it because of how dumb it is.

But first before returning to Snowpoint, we should probably find our way out of this forest.