The transfer had neared completion, but it was slowing down as it copied the larger files last. It was only 90% complete, but every percentage seemed to take hours to complete. Right as it started the copy on the last file, an alarm sounded along with a robotic voice.

"Alert; all scientific personnel evacuate the premises. Code Black 9. Alert; all scientific personnel evacuate the premises. Code Black 9. All available guard and soldier presence required on level 10."

"Damn, someone tripped the alarm!" I quickly unplugged the wire from the computer, not caring about the information and more about getting out as quickly as possible. The Queen bared her teeth and hissed, and as I headed over to it, I quickly drew the rifle. Looking around the corner, I saw a group of soldiers heading towards us, and I aimed down the sights of the rifle. After shooting twice and killing one with each, they raised their own rifles and started to fire. I quickly went back into the room while the Queen charged down the hallway. Bullets were whizzing by the door, but they eventually started to hit the walls as the soldiers focused their fire on the Queen. I leaned back out to see that the Queen had wrapped up about 2 of them, and the remaining one was trying to pull a pin on a flashbang. I quickly put the sights on his head and pulled the trigger, after which he fell to the ground, lifeless. I saw the Queen impale the two men's heads with its tongue, after which it just let them drop to the floor. I swiftly ran to it, and looking down the corridor, I saw that there was another group leaning out from behind the door, aiming their guns at us. The Queen positioned its body in front of me as they opened fire, and I waited for the sounds of gunfire to fade before leaning out and firing back, during which time they pull back into cover to reload their guns. The Queen stayed where she was, as she knew that the soldiers might have flashbangs ready if she got close to them. One of the soldiers peeked around the corner, barely exposing his head, which I was expecting as my sights lined up with the small portion of his head that was sticking out. I pulled the trigger, and a mist of blood floated in the air as he fell into the doorway. The other one was a little more creative, as he put just his gun into the doorway and blind fired it, spraying bullets everywhere. I took cover anyway, as one of the bullets may get lucky and find its way to me. After the gunfire had subsided, I took a chance after grabbing the flashbang off of a soldier's corpse. When I got close enough to the corridor, I pulled the pin and threw it into the doorway and looked away. I heard an exclamation right before the flashbang went off, and when I turned around, the soldier was on the ground covering his eyes and shaking his head. I went up to him, grabbed his face and the back of his head before quickly moving them in opposite directions, hearing a snap shortly afterward. The Queen came up to me as I looked up the long stairwell, hearing multiple footsteps coming from above. As I ascended the stairwell with rifle in hand, I remembered that Sublevel 8 had another experiment on it, and although the contact never said what it was, it could possibly help me. At Sublevel 9, I had to engage another group of soldiers, which had a few close shots that tore small holes in my jacket before they dropped from my own rifle. The Queen was following close behind, and as we got to Sub-level 8, killing another group of soldiers, I opened the door and ran down to the two doors that were opposite one another. Quickly checking the map, I forced open the correct one, and what greeted me was an empty room with that same armor set I had seen before. I was only able to take the boots before I heard gunfire in the hallway mixed with the Queen's hissing. I quickly took off my shoes and slipped on the boots, which hummed with energy and began to form itself comfortably around my foot. Once it was done, it was almost like I wasn't wearing anything on my feet, and when I peeked out into the hallway, I saw that the Queen had already taken care of the new group that had arrived. I quickly ran over to the stairwell and continued to climb. The only time I experienced another group was between Sublevel 6 and 5, and even then, it was just a fistfight since we practically ran into each other. I smashed one's head against the wall as the Queen quickly picked one up, pinning him against the wall. The other one looked at me, then at the Queen, before trying to fire at me. I kicked his knees in, grabbed his hand to twist the rifle out of it, and then kneeing him in the stomach. I then lifted him over the railing, making sure to not put too much of his weight on my left side, and listened as he screamed the entire way down. When I got to Sublevel 5, right as I was about to climb up the stairs, I felt a stair give way, and then half the staircase just fell as I grabbed the ledge. Pain shot through my body since I had grabbed with my left hand, so I quickly switched to my right hand. Because of my near-dislocated limb, I could not pull myself up fast, but the dark form of the Queen appeared over me, and she grabbed me underneath the shoulders, lifting me up. I had no way of ascending any further, so I had to think of something. I pulled up the map, but put it away as something was distorting the image. I felt a strange energy coming from the nearby hallway, and as I entered it, I heard a very odd sound, almost like a tornado with electricity flowing through it.

"What is on this level?" Suddenly, I felt a grip on my mind, and was compelled to move through the hallway. The Queen hissed questioningly since my movements were being forced, but it followed me anyway. I tried to reach for my rifle, but I could not get my body to respond. The sound got louder as I approached one of the doors in the hallway, and when I got to it, it slid open to reveal a large room with an opening floating right in the middle. It looked almost like a portal of some sort, but I couldn't do anything as I continued to walk towards it. I fought with all my might, and as I did, orbs of light began to surround my body. I stopped moving as the lights began to get more intense, and eventually they dispelled, and I had full control over my body again.

"What the hell? This thing is supposed to be infallible!" I turned to the source of the voice, and recognized him as the man of whom I had fought on Sublevel 10. The Queen sharply hissed and charged at him, but he pointed the oddly shaped gun in his hand at it, and it stopped moving. The Queen backed away from the man as he faced me with a scowl.

"I knew you were tenacious, but getting the Queen here to work with you? Extraordinary. But I'm afraid that little charade is coming to an end. Queen? If you would..." The Queen approached me quickly, and as I backed up, I thought just as fast. She was blocking the way to the man, but her arms and head were perfect platforms. I slowly pulled out my pistol as her towering form approached, and as she reached out to grab me, I took my chance. Using her claw-like hand, I jumped to her shoulder joint, and while she hissed in surprise, I jumped onto her head and pushed off, landing right in front of the man. His face registered complete surprise as I pulled the trigger. Suddenly, the gun exploded and sent a wave of yellow energy throughout the room, sending me flying past the Queen and into the portal. As I endlessly fell in the portal, all I could see was a euphoria of many bright, dazzling colors. The gun in my hand started to turn blue before dissolving into goo. The goo floated out of my hand, and the same goo came from inside my jacket and from the rifle on my back as everything met the same fate. A few seconds later, the dazzling colors were replaced by the dark gray of storm clouds, and the temperature dropped immediately. I began to free-fall as gravity began its work on me, and there was nothing I could do as the winds pushed me to and fro while the sound of thunder reverberated through the clouds. The clouds suddenly cleared away, and all I could see below was the blue of the ocean as it rapidly approached. Intense pain shot through my body as the water enveloped me, and the chilling water coupled with the fierce waves was enough to make me lose consciousness.

---

After I flew back to the wall, both arms broken from the force of the energy wave, I couldn't do much but look up to see that the mercenary had fallen into the portal. I sighed in relief before remembering the Queen, who had not been pushed back much from the energy released from the gun. I couldn't do much except back up against the wall and into a corner as she slowly approached me, hissing menacingly all the while. I could do nothing as she wrapped her hand around my throat, lifting me up to her face and squeezing my throat to cut off my air supply. As I slowly lost consciousness from lack of air, the world turned black just like the Queen's dome, and right before I completely lost consciousness, I saw her black lips curl up as if she was smiling.

---

The first time I woke up, I was faintly aware of a pressure coming and going on my chest. I suddenly exhaled, expelling a cold liquid from my lungs and taking a deep breath afterwards. I was far too tired to do anything else, so I just fell asleep afterward.

---

<i>I remembered the time when I was serving at a bar, in the middle of an enemy-controlled city. The soldiers had made this place boom, since many of them came to drink in their victory celebrations or to ease the loss of a comrade. This particular day, a large group of elite soldiers had chased out all the common grunts before taking the place themselves. Everybody knew who they were, the patch on their sleeve being of the air force. I had to help the bartender give service, so I was standing behind the counter filling up quite a few glasses of beer. As I did so, I listened to the conversations that they had. Many were high-spirited conversations of their many victories, but they were all silenced when a loud-mouthed man began to speak. He began drawing on the back wall, making stick figures of planes, tanks, and ships beside a name on the board. If one of them had downed 5 planes, killed 10 tanks, or sunk 3 ships, he was considered an "ace pilot" and a thorough toasting followed. One man in particular had about 40 planes, over a hundred tanks, and 20 ships marked down. I instantly knew who he was when everyone turned to him. The number on his sleeve marked the same one, the same one who had... </i>

---

I opened my eyes quickly before shutting them again. I had that same dream again, of the war the world was involved in that had gone on for far too many years. I focused on other things in order to clear my head, and I slowly opened my eyes. The room I was in was filled with sunlight, and the temperature was much warmer than the ocean. My eyes adjusted to the sunlight, and I could see that it was a pale yellow, with a dresser, which had my sword resting upon it. Looking down at my body, the blue blanket that had kept me warm hid the fact that I was shirtless. Listening closely, I heard soft footsteps come to the doorway, and the girl that came through had brown hair and an odd dress that I had seen before. She also had a white beret, and in her arms she was carrying my folded shirt as well as my coat on a hangar. She set them down next to my sword before turning to me.

"Oh! You're awake! Are you feeling all right?"

"Never felt better."

"Okay, phew. You looked pretty bad when we picked you up on the beach. Did you get caught in that storm?" I vaguely remembered the storm.

"I remember the storm and falling, but that's about it." Although I remembered more, I dared not share it because not many people would believe that portal technology even exists, let alone one putting me in the middle of a storm.

"Well, consider yourself lucky, cause that storm has pretty much taken a lot of lives of seafarers." She paused for a moment. "Oh, where are my manners? My name's Kristine, what's yours?"

"Drake." I started to push myself up out of the bed, and she came over to me and made sure I was steady before I got out and stood up. I was a little unsteady, but I was still able to stand.

"All right, let me get you something to eat. You were out for two days, you should definitely be hungry." As she left the room, I was vaguely aware of the sound of flowing water. I went ahead and put on my shirt before looking out the window. Down below, I could see a canal with a few boats tied up to some docks, and a great plaza filled with stalls and browsing customers. However, what made me jump back in surprise was that there were creatures walking next to most of them, and there were some flying through the air. They looked very familiar, and then I remembered it.

"No way... Pokemon are real? And I have been teleported to their world?"