"The dice has been rolled! Jason will be going first!" Christine yelled. But then the radio next to Christine came on, super loud.
"Attention to all people in the continent of Lianin. This is a message from the government. The border has fallen and a group of rebellious soldiers are coming this way. Everyone at the northern park should evacuate to the inner city. This is not a drill. I repeat. This is not a drill."
As if on cue, a loud rumbling was heard in the distance. Eliza quickly shut down the simulation battle. "We'd best be going."
"Cynthia, what's going on?" Kiara asked.
"I'm not really sure myself. Eliza?" Cynthia directed the question to Eliza. She knew it was somewhat familiar, but she didn't want to answer it right now.
"Just follow me, and I'll explain it later." Eliza began running. Cynthia shrugged, packed the discs in her bag, grabbed Kiara's hand, and took off.
In the stadium, the silence descended upon everyone as the reality of what they just heard sank in. Then, panic. People were running through the stands towards the boats. Carson ran out of the stand and stopped. He could make out some blurred shapes in the distance. However, he couldn't make out what the shapes were.
"Tyrantrum and Seismitoad." A voice said behind him.
"Oh, hey Illana. Should we get out of here?" Carson asked, trivially, as though they were discussing the weather.
"Sure. Let's go." The two of them ran for the boats. On their way, they found Hayden, who had tripped over a tree root. Illana sighed a little, picked him up, and kept running. On the southern end, Mandy and Constantine were also running for a boat. Amara had a boat ready with about 10 other people in it, and a swimmer girl in the water. "Let's go! Hurry!" Everyone climbed in the boat. By now, the army was at the stadium. "Paddle!" someone yelled, nobody was quite sure who, but everyone
complied, paddling in a randomized way that wasn't working. "We're not getting anywhere!" "We're doomed!" "Keep paddling!" The swimmer in the water began to point the boat in the direction of the other shore. "Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!" Slowly, the boat righted itself and moved forwards. The army was approaching quickly, but the boat was finally moving forward amidst a pod of other boats doing the same thing to varying degrees of success. Once they hit the other bank, the swimmer got out of the water, grabbed her bag, and everyone was running around, panicking. Hayden looked around and saw a familiar van...
"Dad!" Hayden yelled. "Over here!"
"Hayden!" Hayden's Dad yelled. "Get some people and get into the van!"
Hayden complied, and pulled as many people into his Dad's van as would fit. The two people nearest the door closed it, and the Dad took off.
On the road, Hayden looked up. He looked around and decided that most of the people were somehow familiar. He was about to ask about it when his Dad spoke.
"Alright, I've been listening to the radio. My house is on what they call the 'defence line', so it's going to need defence. That's where you all come in. You'd be as good as dead without my van taking you, so you guys are going to help defend my house. It's a pretty big and old house with lots of room for all of you. Now, let's start with introductions. My name is Angora."
"Nice to meet you, Angora." said the orange-robed priestess. "I am Amara. By any chance, are you a soldier?"
There was a charged tension in the air. "...No." Angora finally said. Amara could tell the conversation wasn't one he wanted to have, so she dropped it. "Illana! Oh good, you're here! I was so worried!" Amara threw her arms around her daughter.
"Yes, Mom. I'm alright." Illana rolled her eyes at her mother's affection, but found it understandable. "ANYWAYS, I'm Illana. This here is my Mom."
The girl in the tye-dye answered next. "I'm Mandy, man. This whole gig is like, totally not groovy, man."
The naming continued" "I'm Darin. I like bugs." "Bugs? Ick. Whatever, I'm Ariel." "I am Constantine." "...Carson." "The name's Harrisan." "Omarro. énchanté." "My name is Hayden." "My name's Cynthia. This is my Sister, Kiara." "Eliza. Pleasure to meet you." There were a few more, but Carson was looking out the window and had lost focus. He'd just find out later.
Amara was also thinking, though more thinking about how her life would change now that she was on guard. As a priestess, she was required to go to mass prayer every day, though it might be important now as the defensive chants from the mage priests and priestesses could usually keep things like this at bay. She decided that she might end up skipping some to defend the big city. She was also nervous for Illana's safety, though Illana was a competent battler. Her thoughts were interrupted by Illana, of all people.
"Okay, what decks are we going to play? I saw a lot of Seismitoad and Tyrantrum decks, so ideally we'd like to pilot decks that don't lose to them."
"That's a good idea. We should probably use our collective pool of cards to our advantage." Carson said. He patted himself down and pulled out his deck box... only to find that half his cards had fallen out. "No!" he scanned through the deck. "Okay, looks like most of my staples are here, thankfully. Unfortunately, looks like I'm going to need to retool my deck. Hmm..."
The Van pulled over at the house. "Everyone in!" Angora yelled. Everyone complied, grabbing their bags and running into the large house. Angora locked the door behind them. "Alright, we've got a bit of time. There's a meeting room upstairs, let's meet and get ready." Everyone took their bags upstairs and got out their binders. "Dad, can I watch?" Hayden said.
"Fine, son, but don't go near those disks or anything. Got it?" Angora was stern about this.
"Fine..." Hayden knew when to not argue. He went to sit down next to Carson, who was sitting at a table with almost everyone else, arranging and trading cards to build their decks. Mandy was walking around, asking people about their decks.
"So, what deck are you playing, man?" She asked Darin. "Is that like, Durant with Mew, man?"
"Yes, it is." Said Darin, slightly jaded. "Do you have a problem with that?"
"Well man, we're facing Seismitoad, man. Can you deck handle item lock, man? Because it's like, such a bummer if it can't, man."
"Just please, leave me alone so I can concentrate." Mandy walked down to Carson's area.
"Is that like, Virizion with Genesect, man?"
"Yep. It doesn't really like Tyrantrum, but oh well. What deck are you playing, Mandy?"
"I'm like, playing this groovy card called Meganium, man. It like, totally wins against Seismitoad, man."
"Well, how do you beat Tyrantrum?" At this, Mandy paused. "Well like, I guess I could fight the seismitoads off, man."
At this point, Angora and Amara came out from a back room. "Okay. Mr. Angora and I have come up with a plan. There's about 24 of us here, not counting Angora, who -" Amara said before being cut off by Angora.
"Won't battle for personal reasons. I also refuse to let my son, Hayden, battle for the same reasons I won't. I also don't want the little girl to battle, but I can't stop her from doing so." Most people figured out that he was referring to Kiara.
"So. We're going to split ourselves into two even groups. After which -" Before Amara could finish, she was interrupted by everyone moving at once to split themselves off. Amara could see Angora becoming more visibly frustrated. After they had some semblance of groups, someone had a question.
"Hey, there's 12 of us on one team and 11 things on the other team!" He called out.
"What's your name?" Amara asked.
"My name? Oh, it's Kyle." Kyle said. "And the other group is short a person."
"Well, I guess I'll have to join that group. You!" She pointed to another person, a girl with wavy blonde hair that came down to her shoulders, wearing a pink puffy dress, as though she were a princess.
"Eek! Y-yes?" The girl said. "I'm Rayanne, by the way."
"Hello, Rayanne. I think I see some chart paper by your feet. Could you pass it here?" Amara said. Rayanne picked up the chart paper and passed it to Amara, who proceeded to write down the groups for when someone inevitably forgot:
Group A: Group B:
Amara Illana
Mastielle Carson
Lucy Terry
Constantine Darin
Ingrid Ariel
Emile Mandy
Rayanne Miguel
Hilda Eliza
Jesse Kyle
Herbert Ricky
Harrisan Cynthia
Omarro Kiara
"So each of these groups is going to battle non-stop for 8 hours, then switch with the other group. Got it?" Angora continued. Everyone nodded. "Now that that's out of the way, we have about 48 hours until they get to us. The army reports that they've set up some camp at the river bed. Now -" Angora was interrupted by Eliza.
"How do you know this?" She asked. "I've been trying to create a radio that could pick up military frequencies for years now."
"Not important. We've got a few tasks to do. First, Eliza. You look like a mechanics student, so we're going to need your help. We need to design a ring around the house that will stop people from entering or activating a battle with people in the house. Okay?"
"Got it. I'm going to need some parts and perhaps two assistants." Eliza said. "Rayanne and Lucy, could you help?"
"Sure." Said Lucy. Lucy was a girl who was around 15, moderately tall, and had blonde hair going down to her shoulders with a blue streak in it. She was also holding a guitar. "We're going to need parts, aren't we?"
"Well, we only have one car." Said Rayanne "And a lot of stuff to do. How will this work?"
"The junkyard connects to the underground tunnels." Cynthia said. Following this, there was a stunned silence. "What? I know about the tunnels. Don't most of you? It's much faster than just walking around above ground, provided you don't get lost!"
"No. We have a network of tunnels?" Ariel said.
"Fascinating." Eliza said.
"ANYWAYS, who does know about these tunnels?" Illana said. most of them raised their hands, including herself, Carson, Amara, Kiara, Eliza, Ariel, a man who looked like an Archeologist, Miguel, and most of the others. "Okay, that's a lot of you. Who does know about these tunnels?" Angora, Mandy, Hayden, Cynthia, and a jogging woman raised their hand. "Okay, that's easier."
"Well then. I'll take the build team to the junkyard." Cynthia said.
"Wait! Go down to the ground floor in the pantry on the right of the kitchen. There's a door that leads to a staircase that leads to a tunnel in the back." Angora called out.
"Got it." Cynthia turned and ran out the door. Eliza, Rayanne, and Lucy followed her. A device on Amara's arm began ringing. She sighed. "Do the tunnels go to the chapel?"
"No, they don't." Said a woman in a jogging outfit. "I've ran all over those tunnels, and I haven't found an exit that leads to the Chapel. I'm Hilda, by the way."
"Alright, Hilda." Amara said. "I can't miss this, so could I take the car?"
"Sure." Said Angora. "Actually, you! Geologist!"
"It's Archeologist." Said the Archeologist. "The name's Terry. Terry Dactyl. I'll drive the priestess down and bring the car back so we can use it later in case we need to use it later." And with that, Terry and Amara ran out of the room.
"Everyone under the age of 18, I'd recommend you call your parents and inform them of what you're doing, but if you don't want to, that's fine. Now, we're going to need groceries. Let's go. Hayden, can you take us to where the grocery store is?"
"Sure." Hayden said. He waved to Carson, and Hayden, Angora, Kyle, and Constantine left to get groceries, with a word from Angora to help the build team when they came back. Everyone else continued building decks. Carson was staring at his deck and wondering how he was supposed to beat a Tyrantrum deck he encountered without a really good start. "Hmm..."
"What's up, Carson?" Illana said. She looked at his deck. "Tyrantrum problems?"
"You know it." Carson replied. "I'm not sure how to beat it."
"Well, one idea is to tech in some faaaaaaaaaaaaaabulous fairies!" Illana posed, doing a three-quarter turn and putting out her right hand in front of her; Carson saw she was now wearing white gloves on each hand. She reached into her duel disk and pulled out two cards. "Presenting the amaaaaaaaaaaazing Sylveon-EX!" Carson looked at the card. "Even with a muscle band, it's still 10 damage short of a knockout, Illana..." Carson replied. At this, Illana put her hand to her forehead and staggered around for a few seconds.
"Though, Illana, you have given me an idea." Carson said. Just like that, Illana ran over to Carson. "Ooh, what is it?"
"Well, Steam Siege just dropped, right? So what if I use - hey, can I borrow these - these Ho-oh EX and a toolbox of attackers with that new supporter, Ninja boy, to switch out the Ho-oh for something from my deck?"
"Carson, that's GENIUS!" Illana cried. "Wait, when did Steam Siege come out? Today?"
"Yep, today. I haven't even gotten a pack yet."
"Well, that's a problem." Illana mused. "Mom's got the van, and it would take hours to walk to the inner city."
"I know! Let's ask that Hilda lady to take us through the tunnels!" Carson exclaimed.
"Hey, could you get some Pokémon Rangers for the rest of us?" Ariel called out.
"Sure!" Illana said.
"It's the fastest way through the town, according to Cynthia. Let's GO!!" Illana dropped her duel disk on her seat, and ran out the door. Carson heard a crash. He opened the door and saw that Illana was lying in a heap on the third floor landing. "There's stairs here... lots of stairs..."
"This, Illana, is why I always let someone else go first." Carson laughed, and they continued down the stairs to the first floor, where they found Hilda cleaning out the pantry with the help of Ricky and Mastielle. "Hey Hilda, could you take us through the tunnels?"
"Not now, we're cleaning out the pantry. Mandy and some others headed down there." Hilda said. "Take the Pantry on the right." She gestured to a pantry towards the right, which was now empty, but all the boxes and spices and everything else were scattered around the room, which Hilda, Mastielle, and Ricky were placing into various cupboards and cabinets. "Mr. Angora isn't a very good housekeeper..."
Carson and Illana ran through the door and took a left turn. "I wonder if people just randomly enter other people's houses through the tunnels?" Carson mused.
"I don't know. Honours system, maybe?" They kept walking. It was eerie in the tunnels, though the tunnels were vast. "Carson, did you ever think that this is a sewage pipe?"
"It looks way too clean to be a sewage pipe. I'm more concerned about the lack of any sort of signs pointing to where we're going, really." It was true. There was spot where the path too a sharp right, a gentle left, or kept going straight. "Now what?"
"Left?" Illana asked.
"Right." Carson said. Then he went left and Illana went right. "No, I meant left."
"Well, you said right!" Illana accused him. After a few seconds of staring at eachother in silence, Illana noticed something in the left tunnel. "Is that Miss Saylla?"
Carson turned around. He vaguely saw a while shape moving in their direction. "Her or a ghost."
"Well, should we ask her for directions?" Illana asked. "And maybe why she's here instead of at the prayer service?"
"Well, I can't blame her for ditching the prayer service. If I were her, I wouldn't want to go sitting in a stuffy cathedral all day." Carson said.
"Hey, it's more than that!" Illana yelled. "I'll have you -" she was interrupted. "Hey! Carson! Illana!"
"Oh, hello, Cynthia." Carson said. Cynthia was coming down the right side with Lucy, Rayanne, and Eliza, who were carrying a wagon of parts.
"Hi! What are you two doing down here?" Cynthia asked. 'And why were you arguing?"
"Not important. Could you point us in the general direction of the card store?" Carson asked. "These tunnels are so confusing."
"Well, I have to lead the build team back and help them out, but if you keep going straight you'll find the PlayUnderGround." Cynthia said. "The PlayUnderGround is the main area of the underground. there's a playground, some stands that change daily, a small battle arena, a river, and it connects to everything. Heck, there's even housing!"
"Really? Cool!" Carson exclaimed. "So we just keep going straight, right?"
"Yep! There's a directory you can follow there! See you!" And with that, the build team ran off towards the house.
"ANYWAYS, let's keep going before the store closes." Illana said, and the two of them broke out into a run. After they had left, Saylla stepped out into the corridor they were just in and went through the right passage.
"Hellooo! We're home!!" Rayanne announced as they carried the wagon up the stairs and into the kitchen... to find a huge mess. Boxes and Pans were everywhere, and the kitchen was a mess. "Whoah, did a Tornadus come through here or something?"
Ricky looked up. "No, we're cleaning the kitchen. It was a huge mess. If you need people to help you build your contraption, there's still a lot of people upstairs."
"Cool. I'll go get them." And with that, Rayanne took off upstairs. While Lucy and Eliza moved the wagon full of parts outside, Cynthia took a minute to revel in what she could see of the house. The first floor of the house was very open, with a small mudroom by the front door, and most of the space being taken up by the Kitchen and dining area, though the table was small. To the left of the kitchen, there was a small living room with a TV in it and a couch. To the right, there was an office where Angora presumably worked in. There was two washrooms on the ground floor, and the kitchen had a lot of storage space and two pantries, one of which was in the process of being dismantled and repacked into the rest of the kitchen. In the corner of the kitchen, there was a staircase. The second floor was mostly open, just a balcony with a few rooms on it. Cynthia couldn't see the third floor from where she was standing, and knew that the whole fourth floor was one small room with some tables in it with another small room she hadn't seen in yet. Her desire to explore was quickly removed and replaced with surprise by a loud crash. Mastielle was standing amidst a field of pots which she had just knocked over.
"You know, for a family of two, Mr. Angora sure has a lot of stuff and a really big house." She mused. Rayanne had come downstairs with Herbert, Omarro, Ingrid, Emile, Terry, who had gotten back while she was out, and Jesse, so Cynthia joined the build team outside.
Carson and Illana were jogging when they came out into a large, surprisingly well-lit area. "Wow..." they both said in awe. Cynthia's small description of the PlayUnderGround didn't do it justice. It was a massive underground chamber with a river flowing through the middle, full of clean water. In the river, there were people splashing and playing, and Miguel was even fishing to no apparent luck. There was a boat at the southern end. A bridge crossed the river to a raised-ish platform with small booths, where people were selling foods and crafts. To the left, there was the namesake playground, on which lots of children were playing. Behind the playground, there was a large hallway with the sign that said "Housing", where the people who lived here took residence. And near the playground was a map, presumably of the tunnels.
"Goodness..." Carson said. "I never imagined that there would be a place like this under the city!"
"Yeah, for sure!" Illana said. "This is a-maaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing!" she ran over to the map. "Alright! So we need to get on the boat and sail down to the second stop, afterwards we take the third tunnel on the right, then the first ladder we come across. Got that?"
"Yep, let's get going." The two of them ran across the bridge to the boat on the far side, which was attached to the wall and rowed down the wall to the side it was on. Illana jumped in, followed by Carson, and the boat took them to the stop. They got out, and it pushed itself back. "This is really cool."
"Definitely. Now, first ladder on the left..." Illana said, and they climbed out into the sunlight. Or, they would have, if it wasn't in a small, dilapidated building. "Whoah. So this is how they don't get found out? I'm guessing the government doesn't know about these tunnels."
"Probably not. Now keep cool." Carson said, and they walked out the door and into the light. They were met by Hayden, who was running ahead of Angora, Kyle, and Constantine. "Hey, Hayden!"
"Hi Carson! We just got groceries!" Hayden said, pointing to the groceries that the other three were carrying. "What are you two doing out here?"
"Well, we're on a run to get cards. You see, a new set has been released." Illana explained. "And we're on the run to get some staples for everyone."
"There's a new set?" Hayden exclaimed. "Dad, can I go with them? You know the tunnels as well as I do."
"Alright, sure. But don't be gone more than an hour!" Angora exclaimed, then the three of them quickly vanished into the shed.
"I wonder how Mr. Angora will react to the organization going on." Carson remarked. To clear Hayden's confusion, he continued: "Rayanne, Hilda, and Ricky are organizing the kitchen."
"Oh. Dad wasn't good at organizing. That was Mom's job." Hayden explained. "You should see Dad's office."
"Is that the one on the first floor? It looked so clean." Illana mused.
"No, that was Mom's. Dad's is on the third floor." Hayden continued his explanation. "Oh hey, we're here!"
They were in fact at the card store. It looked like the other buildings on the street, except it had a large poster of Volcanion and Magearna on the front. Inside, the store was very open, with shelves of singles and packs lining the walls, a desk at the far end, and tables in the middle, on which people were playing and trading, as though the world wasn't slowly crumbling around outside the city. The air was so familiar that Carson was tempted to sit down in the nearest chair and ask Illana for a battle. But they had a job to do, so they went looking for singles. Hayden found a pack and pulled out some money from his pocket, presumably his allowance.
"Here's the Ninja Boy! How many do you need?" Illana called out. "Two? Three?"
"Two, I'd say. I can fish it out with Stellar Guidance." Carson replied. "Ranger, Ranger, Ranger...."
"They can't seriously be out of rangers already!" Illana complained. "Oh! Found them! How many of us are there?"
"In terms of actual battling, I think there's 24 of us?" Carson replied. "One, two, three..." He began counting through the cards. "Drat. 20."
"Well..." Illana produced a bag and pulled out hers and Carson's binder. "Time to haggle?"
"You had that on you the whole time and I didn't notice?" Carson was shocked. "How?"
"A lady NEVER reveals her secrets, Carson." She handed him his binder. "Let's get to it."
And with that, the two of them began asking around.
Meanwhile, at the Chapel, Amara had just finished service. Normally, she would stay longer and focus on her magic abilities, but she knew she would be needed at Angora's house. The chapel was a large, beautifully built building on an island to the southwest of the town. The building was made of quartz with three spires at the top and a square-like base with water flowing off of it at certain intervals. There were several walkways around the outside and the entire area hummed with a certain energy like the magic Amara was somewhat capable of controlling. The first floor of the building was a service floor, built for the general public. It was high-celinged with painted windows and benches for sitting, with a mural of the ancient queen Ahrohr in the back. Off to the side, there was a small funeral area in case a priest or priestess were to die, they would have a funeral there. Their body would be placed into a coffin, and then after the funeral service, the bottom would open up and place the body in a cleansing river, which would float downstream to a graveyard. The second floor was reserved for the priests and priestesses, where they attended daily prayer to restore their magical energy. It was built like the first floor, but with bigger stained-glass windows to allow a rainbow light to seep into the room, creating a beautiful vision. There was also a third floor where the six reigning Archpriests and Archpriestesses lived and guarded the three treasures. Amara turned into an entranceway and found a staircase, to which she went down and found...
"Milady Saylla!" Amara said. "Oh, thank goodness you're safe!"
"Just Saylla, please." Saylla said. "And yes, I managed to get out before the accident at the border. Shame, really. I loved that park..."
"Hopefully they'll be err... removed soon." Amara said. "Are you on the outer line?"
"No, though I can't help but wish I was. It'd be a good excuse to get out of this stuffy cathedral." Saylla replied. Amara could sense some bitterness in her voice, though she didn't ask. "Are you on the outer line?"
"Yep. I'm defending a house owned by Mr. Angora near the park. There's about... twenty-six of us there."
"Wow! What a large place! Got room for one more?" Saylla asked. From there, Marran, the head priest, heard and began to scold Saylla. "You are the most important person in this chapel and I will not allow you to risk your life!" It continued. Amara sighed and, remembering she had forgotten a phone, set out to walk back to the house. She found a Taxi on the way and decided to take that home.
Carson, Hayden and Illana has just bought the cards and were starting to walk home, with the Pokémon Rangers and Ninja boys. Illana had also found a few Karens, though with a lack of Night March Illana wasn't sure what use they would be. Hayden had opened his pack and gotten a Volcanion, but no Ultra Rares, though he was still quite happy. They ducked into the tunnels and got on a boat, which barely had room for four people.
"School field trips down here must be a mess." Illana remarked.
"Schools don't go down here." Hayden explained, sounding somewhat like a tour guide. "The first rule of the underground: Don't talk about the underground."
"I feel like I've heard that somewhere before..." Carson thought. Afterwards, they continued talking happily as they walked back to the house. On their way, they ran into Mandy and Constantine arguing over wether commercialization was good or not.
Hilda was showing everyone the new organization system. She had made it much easier to find things and her and Angora were now organizing the new groceries when Carson, Illana, and Hayden came in. "Special delivery!" Illana called out. "Presenting the amaaaaaaaaaaaazing Pokémon Ranger!" she held out the cards. Realizing everyone was busy, she ran to put the cards on top of everyone's deck boxes, while Hayden took Carson upstairs to show him around. Behind them, Miguel came in, disappointed that he hadn't caught a single fish. A few minutes later, Amara came in and began to cook dinner.
Up on the second floor, Hayden was pulling Carson by the hand to his room. "Ow! Hayden, I'm not as fast as you are!." Hayden turned quickly into a bedroom. It was somewhat small, with pale orange coloured walls that were decorated with posters from various sets. There was a bed in the corner with some drawers on the bottom and a bedside table with more drawers. The room itself was surprisingly tidy, and there was no closet. The only other visible thing in the room was a bookshelf, with two shelves full of books and the third full of bins containing cards and a few binders. "Wow, this room sure is clean."
"Yep! I try to keep it that way. Dad's messy, so he needs a good example to follow." Hayden said. He was bouncing slightly. "So, do you want to see my collection?"
"Sure!"
Welcome to One Last Battle, a TCG Story that's pretty much made out of a random dream I had! 
