'The days... weeks. ..Months?
'They bleed together now.
'I get in my spitfire, I run a mission. I come home. Home. I eat, I sleep. I feel like shit.
'I feel like I'm just another one of the moving parts of my plane.
'I feel like a machine.
'I kind of like it that way.
'I feel sore and aching and tired all the time, but focused. Uncluttered. I don't worry about anything anymore.
I still keep up a good public front. I smile, I talk. I play pool, my violin, I train with others.
'So it's fine.
'Doing this day after day, I failed to notice we were actually accomplishing something really big.
'Today, for the first time in a while, I felt something.
'Fear.'
One by one the airmen filed in through the door and took their seats. General Hitchins stood at the front of the room like a professor about to give a lecture. Behind her on the wall sprawled a map of Johto. Flags and pins pierced it all over. The attention for today was on the Bay of Olivine and the Goldenrod coast. Those two cities were marked in red.
"Today is the eve of the war's end soldiers," she started. "We've come a long way and now we're on the doorstep of victory.
"Tomorrow we move out for the final strike on Johto's port cities Olivine and Goldenrod. We will destroy the harbors to cut off their primary supply lines and choke them out. Squadrons 17, 42 and 147 will move out first to lead the attack and strike Goldenrod first. The rest will follow and continue onward to Olivine."
She continued explaining the course of action, which Xander mindlessly absorbed as he followed her hands skating across the map.
"Olivine's destruction will be led by Captain Kalili wielding Ho-oh."
Xander came back to his senses as an all-too-familiar figure joined Hitchins at the front of the room.
"After the bombing of Olivine all squadrons will proceed south."
Amelia said nothing as she stood there next to Hitchins. She held the master ball containing Ho-oh in one hand. At that moment Xander felt a little less like a robot and a little more like himself. His anxiety-riddled, fear-fueled self.
'Amelia.... I can't believe it. ....shit.'
The next day came fast, and in the cold pre-dawn air the fleet started to move out.
Lady, Czinka and Isa at his side, Xander was giving his plane the final once-over before climbing inside. Lady shuffled uncomfortably close alongside him, and he could feel her apprehension. Czinka and Isa just quietly waited nearby keeping their mental conversation private.
Alina had never returned.
Xander met the static eye of the sawsbuck skull painted on the nose of his plane. He stared at it a long time, but nothing happened. He sighed.
Ducking under the wing of the plane, he climbed up and started to get in when something caught his eye. Someone. It was Amelia. He stared.
'Amelia's alive. ..and... looking pretty good. Wow...' She looked remarkably healthier than ever.
Suddenly her eyes snapped up and she glared straight at him. He turned away immediately.
That said more than words could have.
He got into the spitfire, put on his eyepatch, strapped in and donned his headset. There was already chatter on the airwaves. He went through the motions of pre-flight prep and let the noise in his headset drown out all other thought.
And then they were in the air.
Goldenrod was already in flames by the time the second wave was approaching. They stayed high over the water with the coast to their side. Radio chatter died down as everyone watched one of Johto's biggest cities turn to ash. Resistance was minimal, obvious even from the distance they were at. It was unlikely Kanto would lose any planes on this run.
They continued north over the water.
"ETA five minutes," Amelia's voice pierced Xander's ears over the radio. It was taken over by more talking, but he continued to hear her voice coming through.
He knew the plan, he didn't need to listen. With the flick of a switch he killed his radio. It was silent.
'Keep me tuned in if there's anything important Lady. Otherwise... I don't want to hear anyone. Just you. Let me stay focused...' The pokeball beside his hand let out a pulse of mental waves, affirmative.
"Isa, Czinka. It's time to get out. Lady, teleport."
With a flash of pink, a beast appeared on either wing. The only protection they had was goggles and their psychic network. They both leapt out into the open air.
"Defend the bombers if Johto manages to retaliate, and don't hold back. We're here to wipe Olivine off the map."
The coastal city grew rapidly before the fleet as they approached. On the ground they were already mobilizing. Nobody had expected to catch them by surprise after Goldenrod. The harbors below were roiling with monsters and anti-aircraft guns were already starting to open fire. Bursts of smoke started appearing in the air below them, lightning strikes, and water spouts from the wailords they'd deployed.
But it meant nothing, the bombers dropped their payloads as easily as if it were a training mission. In neat rows warehouses, piers, and ships blew apart in flames.
"Mission accomplished, now all we gotta do is survive the ret-"
/Six 'o clock. Engaged/
Suddenly Lady opened up her mental channels with Xander, and he could see through her five pairs of eyes what was happening around him. A plane and its Yanmega were on his tail.
A hard right, and the aircraft banked as a beam of energy flashed past where they'd been moments before. The Yanmega powered ahead to close the space between itself and its prey.
"Looks like we got a dogfight. Lady, shake him up, teleport him!"
Xander could dodge with skill, but the Yanmega kept coming and nothing was happening to it.
"Lady!"
A dark emotion emanated from her ball.
/bug bug Bug BugBUGBUG/ It was panic and terror.
The Yanmega arced over the spitfire, when suddenly sharp stones tore through it and Isa landed hard on the wing of the plane. Czinka landed on the other side, evening out the impact. She leapt over the cockpit and bellowed, unleashing a flood of fire on the torn body of the Yanmega.
"Isa! Czinka! Damn, thank God for you two, tha-"
'Idiot!' Isa shouted over his thoughts. Her nose was to the glass, her mouth open squealing at him even though he couldn't hear it.
'Don't order Lady against bugs, she's terrified of them!'
Xander scoffed.
"How was I supposed to know that?"
Isa leapt back into the open air with one parting thought.
'How indeed.'
Xander furrowed his brow at her as she vanished below the plane. A sudden shadow eclipsed the cockpit, Czinka was sprawled overhead.
'Don't worry too much about it sir. You're not a psychic after all.'
"...Thanks..." Xander wasn't sure if that made him feel better or worse. Czinka pushed off and was back into the air as well.
Another monster approached.
/Alexander/
"I see it. Four 'o clock. Take him down with confusion."
They were back in the action.
As were Isa and Czinka.
'There's a couple stragglers to the southeast, advancing to cover a retreat,' Czinka said while she drifted toward Isa on psychic wings. The pig built herself platforms - psychic energy, moving planes, debris - to spring off of with her tail.
'Let's split then.' Isa replied. 'I'll go that way, you stay by Lady and keep them covered.'
'Roger, stay safe.'
They gave each other a boost, pushing off one another with psychic energy to propel them on their ways.
'You too.'
Czinka returned to the plane just in time to snap a Swellow with Psychic.
"Good work," Xander said, "Another at two 'o clock, from below."
'Roger.' Czinka leapt off her perch at the wing of the plane to blast a Flareon off a Fearow's back with Water Pulse.
Xander banked and watched her below entangled with the giant bird. Then they disappeared out of sight.
"Lost visual contact, Lady keep us-"
There was a sudden pulse of panic Lady let in to Xander's mind. It was the rest of the squad.
/Critical danger/
Something had gone wrong, Xander turned to make his way back to the group, but they were dropping like flies.
"What happened?!"
Perfectly intact planes flew on their own to eventually meet the ground.
"Shit..! I shouldn't have broken off, I should have left the radio on-"
/No. Alexander. This was out of your control. There was nothing you could do./
"Don't say that! We're joining back up. Look there's at least one plane still flying!"
They approached, and Xander could make out the paintjob of the sole plane still in control. He felt the bottom fall out of his stomach.
'Amelia.'
They gained on her, as her Chandelure Willow cast Night Shade that engulfed the airspace.
The ghostly dark clouds billowed up and Xander's plane plunged in. Visibility was down to zero, he could easily crash into Amelia herself like this.
/Night Shade./ Lady's mental voice was weaker, as were the images of their surroundings she tried her best to project into Xander's mind. At least it raised visibility a few dozen yards.
/Long-range psychic communication cut off./
"Shit, the girls then... We're on our own..."
Xander flew wingtip to wingtip with Amelia. Their props cleared the air somewhat, and as they moved in and out of pockets of clear air he could see her. She knew he was at her side, and she wasn't happy about it.
Xander sighed and tried the radio.
"Captain, come in."
He was met with static.
"...Amelia?"
Nothing.
"The radio's out. Lady?"
/Broadcast difficult beyond plane./
"You can do it Lady.."
There was silence. He could feel her trying. But it didn't work.
"It's all right.. Focus on our surroundings instead, we're flying blind. Are you picking anything up?"
/No./ There was a heavy pause. /Wait./
Lady's mental map of their surroundings increased to the best of her ability, and something flickered at its edges.
/Enemy! Cannot track-/
"Ah hell, all right, just watch my six Lady. They might not know we're-"
An enemy plane thundered through the ghostly clouds immediately before them, and it was already firing Icicle Spears from the Shellder mounted on the underside of each wing.
"Ah shit they've got Shellders!"
Xander pulled up, and suddenly the canopy shattered and wind was howling into the cockpit at hurricane force. He yelled, and his voice was stolen by the gale.
/Alexander! Alexander!/
Lady filled his head with panic and flashes of warning.
/Serious bodily injury! Alexander!/
It was all he could hear, her emotion, the wind, the pain in his right breast. He could hardly breathe. He couldn't see.
It went dark.
