Chapter Two

System Ground looked like a toy town from Wildcard Gamma's exit hatch. Macro held on to one of the neon rails as he watched Wave City slowly move beneath them. From this height he could clearly make out the froth of the ocean as it lapped at the docks and cliff faces. Windmills turned in the wind miles out from the coast, and in the center of Wave City blinked the data antennae, flashing red and green and red and green as it received and sent out its signal across the whole of System.

"You ready?" Matrix's voice rang loud and clear in his ear piece.

"Ready when you are," Macro replied.

"All right. Then I'm gonna slow down enough for you to jump. I'll have to keep the ship moving though, otherwise they might open fire at us."

"Roger."

"Open fire, eh?" Anchor clutched tightly to his own rail, causing the spikes on his gauntlets to poke out. "Bring it on. We'll see who's left laughin'."

Macro chuckled drily and readjusted his goggles over his eyes.

The ground slowed and Macro waited a few moments until he spotted a wide enough space to drop into. It wasn't impossible to see in the dark. Lights dotted the city, casting a dramatic array of shadows across the artificial grass. When the City Square appeared beneath them, Macro dropped. Wind whisked past his ears and whipped his scarf up around his face, drowning out the repetitive 'chink' as each rail flashed into place above them.

Within seconds, his feet were on solid ground. Anchor dropped down beside him into a crouch and the pair of them looked up as the neon ladder flashed back up to the hatch.

The granbull let out a long whistle as he diverted his attention to the tall, white and platinum buildings around them.

"Been a while since I've seen a city this clean," he said.

Macro made a grunt of agreement. "I still wouldn't drink the ocean water, though."

He quickly checked the map on his optical display and motioned for Anchor to follow him. The narrow streets were lifeless save for the bright, animated billboards that filled huge sections of wall on every building they passed. Each one was an advertisement for bands, clubs, drinks and the latest games. Many of them came with audio - a catchy, electronic tune or a catch-phrase to further drum the advert home.

What made Wave City radically different from the poorer, toxic towns of System Ground wasn't just the clean and tidy buildings and artificial grass. It was the lack of toxins in the air. Standing like silent sentries between the street lights were artificial trees. Structures of iron with flat, metal plates to serve as leaves. Operated solely on solar power, they drew in the contaminated air and blasted it back out again through filters. A hidden mechanism stored up electricity to keep them running during the night and overcast days, but the idea of solar powered air filters had left pokemon feeling uncertain about the trees' efficiency. Despite the skepticism, they'd certainly held up for the past century or two. The air was breathable and as such allowed berry plants to be grown, but they were never as healthy as those grown in System Sky.

"Here it is." Macro stopped beside a large factory sporting a billboard for the next Assassin Strike VR game.

The building looked no more out of place than the school or apartment blocks. The only difference was the water wheel turning slowly as water was gathered from the ocean and cascaded down on top of it from a neatly hidden pipe. Situated by the docs, the factory generated all the power it needed from the ocean. The clean energy promotion in Wave City went strongly in its favour to clean up the air, but not every city was so inclined to make that step. In most cases it was too late, anyway. Proxy alone would take many years to clean up.

The water wheel creaked and groaned as it rotated, and water splashed back down from it, forcing it under the shallow tide.

"I doubt this factory is empty," Macro said quietly. "Otherwise they wouldn't have the wheel running."

"Night staff?" Anchor grunted.

Macro nodded and moved slowly around the factory's perimeter. Long windows protected by heavy iron bars rose up for three floors and not one of them appeared to have a light on. If there were any night staff, then they were probably just guards sat in a security room somewhere. That meant they probably knew he was there, but he couldn't see a security camera anywhere.

He paused and craned his neck up towards the roof. No camera. At least not a visible one. A high profile place like a weapons factory would be using a stealth. One that recorded not only video but audio as well. Full colour, high definition...

He rejoined Anchor from the other side and stared up at the iron doors. He wanted to say it wouldn't be easy, but once they were inside, it would be fun and games. Grab the loot, foil the guards and run. It's not as if they didn't know him. Wildcard Gamma and its captain were known everywhere. He could already picture the guards reaching for their lasers to fend them off, maybe even calculating the bounty they'd receive for turning him in to the authorities.

A smirk spread across his muzzle and he chuckled. He wasn't about to give them that pleasure.

"All right." He reached into his pouch and pulled out a long, black metal needle. "Let's get this over with."

"Front entrance, eh?" Anchor nodded as he watched the mawile jiggle the needle in the lock. "I like it."

"Well, the windows are all barred up and I have no patience to saw through them." The lock snapped and he stuffed the needle back into his pouch. "Would make way too much noise anyway."

With a hefty kick, the door swung inwards and Macro reached for his laser. They were immediately met by three large pokemon rushing straight at them. The first was a machoke followed closely by a swampert. Macro let out a small laugh as he readied his laser and ducked beneath the machoke's flailing fist. He brought his horn up beneath the fighting pokemon's chin where it struck him with a sick crack and sent him soaring over his head. He set his laser to grass and fired at the swampert, blasting him backwards into the wall where he lay, dazed.

Macro turned back to Anchor who was stood over the machoke and a floatzel. Both were sparking dangerously, as were the gauntlets on his fists. He looked back up at Macro and nodded, stepping over the two fallen guards.

"I doubt that's all of them," said Macro. "Be on the look out."

He flashed his optical display on and brought up a map of the interior, conveniently provided by Matrix. Three floors. The first was mostly factory and staff facilities. The second floor was all factory and the third and final, admin and storage. Macro tutted loudly and scouted out the nearest elevator.

"We need to go up to the top," he said.

"Seriously?" Anchor called the elevator. Twice. Three times. "Not workin'."

Macro tutted again and made for the stairs. Each one almost came up to his chin. A silent insult hidden away under the stature of the factory's chosen employee criteria. He scrambled over each one as Anchor plodded effortlessly up them beside him. After the first half-flight, the mawile was practically gasping for breath. He flinched as a loud siren blared from a speaker above his head, followed by an ear-splitting ring that competed with the siren and almost shook the very foundations.

"Come on, Cap'n." Anchor sighed and shook his head. "Don't take this the wrong way, now."

The granbull stooped and picked him up, hoisting him onto his shoulder. Macro bit back a snide remark and resigned himself to being lugged up the next flight and a half. The third floor sported a set of double doors with an alarm bar across them. It was kind of redundant with the noise the building was already making.

Anchor set Macro back down and flexed his knuckles, pushing the lethal spikes out from his gauntlets. Macro quickly brushed himself down and readied his laser. There was someone on the other side of those doors, he could smell it.

The granbull smashed the door open, adding to the crescendo of alarms as the bar shattered beneath his fists. Two lombre leapt out from the splintered wood and landed between them, each of them raising their claws as they braced themselves to attack. During a time where the fire, grass and water type pokemon were constantly at each other's necks, lombre had a hard time fitting in, being forced to choose between grass or water as their primary element. These two had decided to blend in with the water types of Wave City as a pair of limber grass/water guards for the very factory Macro and his team planned to raid. How convenient.

"Great," Macro snarled. "My weapon can't do nothin' to these two."

"Snap," said Anchor as he flexed his gauntlets. "Gonna have to use force, Cap'n."

Macro span, swinging his horn at the nearest one. The lombre leapt into the air and kicked himself back from the ceiling. The lily pad on his head lit up with a purple light and he spiraled back down towards Macro for a nasty zen headbutt.

The mawile narrowly dodged it and caught him in the back with his horn, sending the lombre rolling down the stairs. He turned to grab the other lombre in his jaws but a torrent of steaming water shot up the stairs and nipped his foot and fur.

"Yowch!" He leapt backwards, swatting at his singed toes to remove the burning water.

The lombre zipped in front of him, cutting him off from the twin as it backed Anchor into a corner. The granbull's sparking gauntlets collided with his assailant's jaw but it only caused the grass/water pokemon to frown and nut him with a zen headbutt. Anchor grunted and slumped to the floor. Now free from the gauntlet-wielding granbull, the lombre rounded on Macro.

"Great," said Macro. "Got you both now, have I?"

He felt the wall against his horn and he faltered as both leering lombre advanced towards him. He raised his gun, turning the dial from grass to water then to ground. The only three in his arsenal. He'd never considered he might need a flying laser before. He filed a mental note to upgrade just before the gun was violently swatted from his paws. It clattered to the floor, releasing its catch and sending a shockwave into the ceiling. Plaster tore free and rained down upon them, crashing onto the head of the closest lombre. Macro coughed as the dust filled his throat and he placed a paw over his muzzle, raising the other to shield his head from the debris.

The remaining lombre was lifted from his vision and tossed aside like a pokedoll. Anchor's face loomed over him, sporting a black eye and a crooked tooth. He thrust Macro's laser back into his paws.

"We weren't meant to bring the whole place down!" He grabbed Macro's arm and dragged him through the splintered doors.

"I'm not the one who dropped it!" Macro retorted.

"But you took the flippin' safety off though, right?"

"I was trying to defend myself!"

The granbull skidded to a halt half way down the corridor and eyed a heavy, cast-iron door. "Think this is it."

It wasn't the only room in the corridor. It had about five or six before it ended at another set of double doors that led to some unseen, hidden location Macro couldn't be bothered fussing over.

Now well and truly fed up, he aimed his ground laser at the heavy door. If it worked on steel type pokemon, it would have no problem against an iron door. His suspicions were rewarded as the laser tore a hefty hole through the structure, shredding the iron into jagged points that curled inwards around a perfectly formed circle hole.

Beyond it lay stacks of wooden boxes, each one named with the component they contained in nice, red letters.

Macro grinned from ear to ear. "Bingo!"

He leapt through the hole and scurried over to the crates, eying up their contents. Barrels, fibre amplifiers, filters, lasers of varying type concentrations. Ice types wanted enough to counter their many weaknesses. That meant they wanted water, ground, fire, psychic and flying lasers. He pulled a thick, leather bag from his pouch and began throwing them in by the pawful. Anchor stood by the door, waiting as the mawile scurried about in the storage room adding filters, barrels and other bits and pieces to his bag. It wasn't long until he needed to fill a second bag which Anchor threw at him in exchange for the first.

Once both were loaded up, they eyed the doors to the stairs warily. That ceiling had finished caving in, but it had left quite the obstacle course. The alarms were still blaring away and voices could be heard over them from either side as what he could only describe as an army clambered over the rubble on the stairs.

"Drat," Anchor muttered. "Didn't hear them coming over all this kerfuffle."

"Well we've got what we need," said Macro. "Let's head to the roof and call Matrix."

Easier said than done when the main stairs were out of action. He quickly checked the map and confirmed the double doors behind them led to the emergency exit. A narrow flight of stairs running down to the back door and up to the roof.

He nodded to Anchor, tossed the bag over his shoulder and bolted for the emergency exit. The granbull fell in step behind him, effortlessly carrying the second bag. The stairs were quickly flooding with various water type pokemon led by a blastoise. The hulking tortoise sent two jets of water at them from the cannons protruding from his shell. Macro let out a squeak as he dodged between them and sped for the stairs heading up. A cracking sound followed by a grunt told him Anchor had given the blastoise a nasty crack before making a bid for freedom.

"Ready your gun, Cap'n!"

The granbull relieved him of his bag and hoisted him onto his shoulder before leaping up the stairs two at a time. Having no free arms to message Wildcard Gamma, he instead barked into his wrist computer. Hopefully the chaos wouldn't drown it all out and leave them stranded.

Macro swiveled so he was facing the army and fired off grass lasers at their feet. Not striking to stun or to kill. Just to hold back. The blastoise leered up at them from the head of his water army, his left eye squinting as his cheek swelled in a ruby red bruise. Wartortle, marshstomp and prinplup gathered behind him and the blastoise flashed his sharp teeth in a snarl.

"Follow them!" he roared.

The smaller pokemon raced over the stairs but one or two were caught in Macro's firing line and sent rolling backwards down the narrow stairwell.

Anchor fired his fists at the lone door atop the stairs, shattering the alarm bar. It was useless. There was enough noise going on in the factory as it was.

Macro dropped from his shoulder and skittered across the roof, searching the dark sky for any sign of his ship.

"Try again!" he told Anchor.

Alarms still blared from the building, filling the entire city. Below them, pokemon had gathered in the streets to watch the spectacle, and the ocean behind them was filled with tiny lights from chinchou and lanturn. That ruled out escaping into the water.

The army flooded out onto the roof, followed closely by the blastoise captain. The hulking tortoise leered at them and aimed his water cannons.

"You're cornered," he snarled. "Give it up, Hunter, and drop those stolen weapons."

Macro snorted and raised his paws. "I ain't holdin' them."

The blastoise's lips curled back from his teeth. "Is this some kind of joke to you?!"

"A joke?" Macro laughed. "What do you take me for? Some performing mankey? This is simply a job, pal."

"It's theft!" The blastoise shook his head but his snarl never fell. "You're wanted all across System, Hunter, now turn yourself in or we'll have to take you by force! And I mean by force."

The water army braced themselves behind him, several of them moving in to the blastoise's flanks.

"Oh, you can try," said Macro. "You always try, but you never catch me."

A heavy shadow fell over the building and all eyes looked up at the large belly of the schooling wishiwashi ship. Neon bars flew down in the pink light ladder right above Anchor's head. The blastoise roared and fired his hydro cannons at the two pokemon. Anchor leapt for the ladder, taking hold of one of the higher bars and beginning is ascent towards the ship. Macro dodged the water and ran backwards, throwing himself over the edge of the building with a maniacal laugh.

"Whoa whoa!" Anchor barked. "Reverse!"

The ladder shot down from the ship in a repeated flash of pink, competing with the yellow flash from the ocean as the water dwellers prepared their electrical attacks. The granbull's gauntleted paw flailed feebly until the ladder was close enough to Macro for him to grab the bottom rung. It immediately began to ascend back up and Anchor let out a long sigh.

"You moron!" he roared. "What do you think you're playin' at?!"

Macro was still laughing as he looked back out at the factory. The ocean below was still flickering yellow as static electricity bounced across it amongst the chinchou and lanturns' lights. Many more were still gathering, but it was too little too late. Try as they may, the water army's attacks fell short of the ladder, carrying the electricity from the ocean only to have it fizzle out mere feet away from their targets. Each torrent lit up with a rhythmic red as the alarm light blared from the factory's roof. Red had always meant danger, and they'd narrowly escaped it. It was one of the closest calls he'd ever had and his heart was racing.

He ran a paw over the base of his horn and shook his head, his body still shaking with laughter. When they were safely inside the hatch he propped himself up against the wall as he tried to steady his breathing.

Anchor stared down at him and dropped the bags onto the floor.

"Anyone would think that blastoise were right," he said. "That this is some kind of joke to you."

Macro took a couple of deep breaths and looked out through the hatch window. Wave City rapidly shrank beneath them as the ship re-entered System Sky.

"You taunted him, Macro." Anchor's reflection folded his arms. "You always taunt them then you go and do something stupid! He's right, ain't he? It's just a massive joke!"

"The only joke is this pathetic world and its ruler." Macro turned from the window and waved a paw behind him. "Grab those bags, Anchor. We've got a job to finish."