• I saw it. I was there when it all went down. Heavy fighting had caused the bulk of the Axis forces to push east, further in. I led a squad of Squirtle against their Blitzkreig of Rhydon and Panzer tanks. Fearow were flying overhead, fighting for air supremacy against the Allied Pidgeot. I could only get short glances at the bloodshed in the air, my fight was down here.

    My Squirtle had just finished off another Golem as the rest of my company regrouped. Blissey and Chansey were scurrying about, tending to the fallen as best they could. I ran over to my Squirtle myself, handed him a Sitrus berry from out of my rations, congratulated him.

    "You did great, Speedy. I'm proud of you, buddy."

    Speedy. I'd had him for quite some time now, brought him from home. It was supposed to be against regulation to do that, but the unwritten rule was that if you could sneak the pokeball past the inspections and made it past boot, you were home free. Plus with resources so scarce, we would take what we could get.

    The lull in combat was quickly broken, as more enemy troops were deployed, this time with fire-breathing Houndoom and roaring Mightyena. This assault force was larger than we expected. I stood there on the front lines, ordering my Squirtle to water gun their trenches. I'd drown those bastards with my bare hands if I could. I kept firing into the oncoming force, tried to push them back. The rest of our platoon was braced. I saw Commander Crasher charge headfirst into the fray with the rest of our cavalry. He was mounted on his Blastoise, which moved surprisingly fast. I was in the trenches when I saw them charge.

    "Take a look at that, Speedy. That'll be us someday."

    Both forces met with a resounding crash as I dove into the trenches to reload. Cheers were heard as we knew we were going to break through this armada. We were going to take Berlin! I didn't want to get my hopes up, but I wanted to believe it so hard.

    "Look! From the building!" a Brit next to me shouted.

    I turned to see what he was pointing at so intently. From the building the Nazis had been using as their HQ, I saw a fine dressed man emerge with a pokemon I had never seen before. Pulling the binoculars from my pack, I focused to get a closer look. The mystery pokemon was tall, about 7 feet. Looked like a big ugly cat. I focused to try and see the commander next to it, and when his face was clear enough, I dropped my binoculars, a wave of terror churning my guts.

    "It's him! It's Hitler! Hitler is here!!!"

    No sooner did I manage to spit that out of my lips did that pokemon standing next to the Fuhrer raise his hand/paw analogue, and a purple blast of energy shot, decomating a huge chunk of our force. They struggled to recover, units being scattered by the blast. Overcome with fear, I tried to steady my rifle. The screaming of the Mightyena was starting to get to me. I fired a shot at this....thing. But to no avail. I watched my bullet bounce harmlessly off of some invisible barrier.

    Commander Crasher wouldn't be daunted. He kept charging, on the back of his legendary Blastoise. I watched on as he trudged through the thick of it. He kept firing, kept fighting, even outnumbered as he was. I watched on as he made his way to the Fuhrer. I watched on as the Fuhrer's pokemon bombard Commander Crash with blasts of purple energy. I watched on as his blastoise was lifted into the air by psychic force, and thrown a good 100 feet into the air. I watched as our Commander was treated to the same fate.

    I sat down in the trenches, huddled. What chance did we stand here? I'd heard the rumors, that the Hun bastards were doing sick things to pokemon and people. I'd heard about their sick experiments. Never once did I think it was real. As I watched another blast of shadowy energy decimate more of our force, I knew that this was no nightmare. This was real. And I knew how important this battle was. We had to win. We had to take Berlin. It was all or nothing now. He had to be stopped. And right now, I was the only one who could stop him.

    I turned to my side. There was my Squirtle. I could tell by the look in his eyes he was scared. I was scared too. But I wouldn't let him see that. I mustered up every ounce of courage in my body, and set my hand on his shell. He looked at me, and said what I knew was "What are your orders, sir?". I stood from the trenches, looked down at my Squirtle, and uttered words that until my dying breath, I will never, ever, EVER forget.

    "Speedy! I choose you!"