Chapter - 3

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.

"