Mira's escape route was perfectly clear. She moved swiftly through one of the few forests near the mining area without the slightest hesitation, never stopping to check her bearings or the terrain. Even the torrential rain didn't slow her down.
She had been planning this escape for a long time, and every step of it was etched into her memory. As long as she got what she came for, she'd finally be free.
She had never truly belonged to the Hodgepodge Organization. Evergreen's appearance had forced her life down a dead-end path, and she had spent years waiting for the right opportunity. It had finally come when Evergreen completely fell out with the other Leaders and tried to seize control.
Mira didn't care whether Evergreen's coup succeeded or failed. The grudge between them had only grown over the years, especially as she grew older and learned the truth about how he had framed and manipulated her from the very beginning.
She didn't care how many members of the Hodgepodge Organization died, as long as there was enough chaos.
Originally, Evergreen had kept her around to balance out the other Leaders. Then everything changed. Out of nowhere, another group of fully armed organization members had appeared and blown up the underground base.
"What a shame. Evergreen actually survived," Mira muttered. Running through the forest without the help of her Pokémon, she was breathing hard.
She stopped briefly to brush her rain-soaked bangs out of her eyes. The timing of the storm couldn't have been worse. After days of heavy downpours, mud had washed down from the nearby mountains, turning the forest beside the mine into a swamp of slippery sludge.
Mira couldn't run at full speed anymore, so she had Gengar use Psychic to help pull her forward instead.
Soon, the dense forest opened into a clearing. Looking up, she stared at the gloomy sky as rain poured down like a waterfall. Mira came to a stop and looked around, quickly spotting the only recognizable landmark in the area, a massive boulder standing alone in the grass.
"Nidoqueen, dig it up. Gengar, give her a hand. Scizor, keep watch."
Nidoqueen crouched down and began digging furiously while Gengar used Psychic to toss the excavated mud aside. After digging around the boulder, Nidoqueen let out a delighted cry and carefully lifted a tightly sealed package out of the ground.
Mira tore open the outer wrapping to find a large hiking backpack. Inside were dozens of Poké Balls, several changes of clothes... and forged identity documents prepared by the organization in case they were ever needed.
Mira dumped the pile of Poké Balls onto the ground, and Gengar, Nidoqueen, and Slowking helped open every single one. Dozens of flashes lit up the clearing at once. Before Mira stood a crowd of frightened, confused Pokémon. They stared at her with fear in their eyes, clearly expecting her to do something terrible.
Then, they realized something, the devices that had been attached to their bodies were gone. Their bodies suddenly felt lighter than they had in a very long time.
Mira looked at them, then clapped her hands loudly to get their attention. "What are you standing around for? You're free now! Run!"
The Pokémon flinched, looking at her uncertainly. An Arbok was the first to slowly turn around. Without looking back, it slithered into the forest and disappeared. Realizing that Mira truly meant them no harm and wasn't going to stop them, the rest of the Pokémon scattered in every direction.
Mira wasn't a saint; there were only so many Pokémon she could save. Every time she left the base, she had secretly smuggled out one or two Poké Balls and hid them away. That was the most she could manage without attracting suspicion.
She hadn't dared release them near the base, terrified they'd simply be recaptured. So she kept saving them, one by one, until she had an entire backpack full.
She had given Gengar a standing order long ago: if anything ever happened to her, Gengar was to ignore her, dig up the backpack, and escape with it. Fortunately, things had gone even better than she'd hoped. Everything had gone according to plan, and she had made it here safely.
As the sound of the retreating Pokémon's footsteps gradually faded beneath the heavy rain, Mira suddenly felt... as if she had finally been forgiven.
---
Scizor abruptly snapped into a fighting stance, and Gengar floated in front of Mira protectively. With the hiking backpack slung over her shoulders, Mira watched six figures emerge through the curtain of rain and let out a mocking laugh.
"You people are seriously dedicated," she called out. "You're like ghosts that won't leave me alone. No matter how far I run, you keep chasing me. Don't you ever get tired of it?"
She happened to recognize their leader. He was one of the students she had personally trained, known only by his codename, 'Yunshanmu'. Yunshanmu had been one of Evergreen's most trusted subordinates. If he was here now, there was only one explanation: the one who had betrayed Evergreen was him.
Mira laughed. Evergreen had climbed to power by stepping on Oleander, and now his own subordinate wanted to use him as a stepping stone. The irony was almost poetic.
"Leader Zero gave us our orders," Yunshanmu said calmly. "He wants you to disappear, Teacher."
"No problem," Mira shrugged. "I'll disappear right now. I'll go somewhere no one can ever find me and die of old age."
"Old age takes too long. We can't wait that long."
Mira looked at him with amusement. "I may be younger than all of you... but I trained every single one of you myself. When exactly did you start believing you could stop me?"
A smile spread across Yunshanmu's face. "We know exactly how capable you are, Teacher. That's why Dr. Zishan didn't send anyone else. He sent us."
Six Trainers. Twenty-two Pokémon. A mix of Type-1 and Type-2 Amplification Devices. Yunshanmu's Machamp and Hariyama were even equipped with the new Type-3 Amplifiers.
"I know none of this impresses you," Yunshanmu continued. "After all, your Pokémon don't even need enhancement devices to crush Dr. Zishan's forces. If you wanted to leave, we couldn't stop you." He smiled coldly. "But... what if you don't want to leave?"
Lightning split the sky, briefly illuminating both sides.
"And why wouldn't I want to leave?" Mira smiled as she turned around and started walking away, completely ignoring the aggressive Pokémon behind her. "You can try stopping me if you want."
Yunshanmu spoke quietly behind her. "We dealt with the two people you let go."
Just as Mira knew Yunshanmu inside and out, Yunshanmu knew her just as well.
Mira stopped. Slowly, she raised her head and looked up as the rain poured endlessly from the dark sky, the muscles in her face twitching uncontrollably.
If she just kept walking, with her Pokémon covering her retreat, there was no way Yunshanmu and the others could ever catch her. Freedom was right in front of her. A new life. All she had to do was keep walking.
The rain was heavy, and the night was pitch black. If she disappeared into that darkness, no one would ever know who Mira was. When morning came, she could stand beneath the sunlight as someone else.
Her mind told her to keep moving, but her body turned around on its own. In that instant, she realized something. Right now, there was only one thing she wanted. She wanted to send Yunshanmu and every last one of them straight to hell.
"You all deserve to die!"
Like a sword drawn from its sheath, radiating overwhelming killing intent, Mira charged back into the storm with her Pokémon.
(End of Chapter)
You can read ahead up to 30 chapters on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395