Ch. 2 – Reunion

It was his brother. There was no mistaking it. But, there was something…different.

Zam was still speechless. Two words screamed and echoed in his mind. How? And why?

Gardevoir looked at the faces of the two on the field. She turned to her brother, who was also in disbelief. "This is crazy! Everyone said he was dead!"

"Unless that's some kind of fake, apparently not," Gallade said darkly.

"Should we do anything?" Gardevoir asked.

"Let's let Zam take care of this for now. But get ready just in case…" The twins moved closer to the field, sensing danger.

"What's the matter, brother?" Kadabra asked with a sadistic smile. "Not happy to see me?"

"…You're dead," Alakazam managed to get out gravely. His grips tightened around his spoons and he had to control it so they would not break.

Kadabra wagged his finger as he chuckled. "That's where you're mistaken, dear brother! I've never been more alive!"

"How?"

"Where's the fun in just telling you?" Kadabra said. "You're a smart one. Figure it out yourself!"

Alakazam looked over his brother once more. There. Something that was noticeably different. Where used to be a star on his forehead was now an engraving of an eye. And slightly above that. The number 12.

"…Mewtwo," Zam breathed.

"Bingo."

"So that's it? You're a common criminal now?"

"Common criminal? No brother, I am much more than that. It appears though that there will be no convincing you. So let's not waste time talking," Kadabra said as his left fist started to crackle with fire.

"How do you know? Try me. Maybe I can make sense of all this!"

"You forget." Kadabra teleported in front of Zam's face and attacked with a Fire Punch, sending his body flying. "We're Psychics," he spat.

"I suppose he's how you learned the elemental punches too?" Zam said, now picking himself off the ground.

"No more questions," Kadabra said, firing a Psybeam.

Zam quickly teleported to dodge it and hurled a Shadow Ball. "Why are you here?!"

"The same reason as everyone else! I thought you were supposed to be the smart one," Kadabra said casually, putting up a Light Screen to deflect the attack.

A scream came up from the crowd. The twins who had been watching the battle turned around to see three Pokemon float into the stands as the fight between the brothers continued.

"Who is that?" Gallade asked. The rest of the crowd seemed to know and began to flee in terror.

"Look, an eye!" Gardevoir said, pointing to what appeared to be the leader of the gang. It was true. The ghost Pokemon that just appeared had a white eye marking on his forehead that stood out against his purple body. There was a number above it. Four.

The intruder moved closer to the twins with two other ghosts closely following him. All three of them were smiling, as if having just heard a hilarious joke.

"Hello sweetie," number four said to Gardevoir, the grin never leaving his face. "Name's Gengar. Now what's a pretty lady like you doing in a dangerous competition like this?"

"Dangerous? Who said it was dangerous?" Gardevoir replied cautiously.

"I'll give you a warning, pretty. Get out of here before it gets ugly," Gengar said. "It's going to be wonderful fun, but more for us than for you." The other two ghosts laughed.

"Hey man, I don't know who you are but you and your cronies better back off!" Gallade said, assuming a fighting stance.

"Easy, boy. You wouldn't want to get your blood all over the pretty lady now would you?" Gengar said, his eyes flashing mischievously.

"You better stop with this 'pretty lady' talk," Gardevoir said to Gengar. "I'm more dangerous than I look." She glanced back to the fight in the arena. Zam did not seem to notice this new unwelcome party.

"Ooh, she's got a mouth on her!" Gengar said, clapping his hands and jumping around excitedly. He looked back at the other two ghosts. "Well we love that, don't we boys?" They all laughed again.

"Is that all they do?" Gallade asked with a frown. "Just laugh? Doesn't that get kind of old?"

"Find out for yourself," Gengar said. "Gastly, Haunter, let's give the big mouth a show."

The ghosts immediately surrounded the twins. "Let's start with the lady," Gengar said, flicking his tongue. Without warning, it extended and wrapped around Gardevoir's body as she screamed.

Gallade's eyes widened. "What the…"

The scream of his friend distracted Zam from the battle with Kadabra. He glanced into the stands to see ghosts attacking his friends. He prepared to teleport to their side to help them but was stopped with a blast. It seemed Kadabra had read his mind.

"You're not going anywhere! This is a reunion, right brother?"

Zam growled, frustrated knowing he couldn't help his friends now. He could barely defend himself against this constant barrage of attacks.

Gallade couldn't move. Visions flooded his mind, blinding him and leaving him open to continuous attacks from the ghosts. Gardevoir was simply paralyzed. No matter how much she tried, she could not escape Gengar's hold.

"Wasting time on inferior Pokemon instead of doing your job? Pathetic even for you, Gengar," a new voice said.

The ghosts stopped their assault and turned to the source of the voice. The twins fell to the floor. Gardevoir attempted to get up but found she was still paralyzed. She glanced at her fallen brother. Unconscious.

Another trio of ghosts floated in front of them. She looked at the new ghost that had unintentionally saved her from further damage.

"Dusknoir, I suppose if you're here it really does mean I'm playing around too much," Gengar sneered. "I see you've seen it necessary to bring the lieutenant along with you as well." He motioned to the one to the right of Dusknoir where there was a one-eyed ghost.

"What are you implying?" Dusknoir said. Dusclops the lieutenant and Duskull next to him grew anxious.

"You are beneath me!" Gengar hissed. The two groups glared at each other as Gardevoir watched. Who were these Pokemon? And why were they both familiar and hostile with each other?

"As much as I would enjoy killing you now," Dusknoir said to Gengar. "I have a job to do. Come," he commanded to his underlings as they swiftly moved toward the host's box in the stands. Gengar and his ghosts did the same.

Slowking had been watching the chaos unfold calmly from the elevated host's box in the arena. "I suppose the time has come a little earlier than I predicted," he said to himself. He made his way down to confront the intruders.

Dusclops noticed Slowking coming down. "Captain, it appears that he is coming to us."

"Well, it will save us some time, I suppose," Dusknoir said. They stopped and waited. He glanced back to see that Gengar and his underlings had followed him as well.

It was now Kadabra who glanced toward the growing scene. "This has been touching, but duty calls," he said to Zam. He summoned a burst of psychic energy that flung Zam into the wall and teleported away.

Zam breathed heavily. Either he was out of practice or working for Mewtwo had given his brother a significant power boost. He weakly stood up, trying to gather himself before giving into exhaustion and collapsing.

Slowking stood fearlessly in front of the six ghosts looking hungrily at him. "I know what you came for."

"It appears so. Are you going to make this easy?" Dusknoir asked.

"I'm afraid not," Slowking said, his hands behind his back. The TwistedSpoon took the form of a jewel on the shell on his head.

"What a shame," Dusknoir said, beginning to charge up a ball of energy as Dusclops and Duskull did the same.

A blast made Dusknoir stop momentarily and quickly look back. Duskull was dead. Dusclops had narrowly dodged it and was looking around for the attacker.

"Sorry, did I interrupt something?" Kadabra asked, innocently twirling his spoon.

Dusknoir charged towards Kadabra with a growl, ready to crush this newfound nuisance. Something stopped him as he reached for Kadabra's face. He couldn't move.

"Ugh," he grunted as he looked around for what impeded him. Gengar was focusing his energy on restraining him while Gastly and Haunter did the same to Dusclops. "Too easy. I can't believe a so-called Captain made such a mistake," Gengar cackled. "A moment was all we needed and you generously provided many."

"Sorry, but I've got a job to finish. We'll play later," Kadabra said to Dusknoir as he teleported to Slowking's side.

"All right, old man. You know what we want, and we could make this a lot easier."

Slowking sighed. "My answer remains unchanged."

Kadabra shrugged. "All right." He aimed a Thunderpunch at the Keeper. Slowking expertly dodged out of the way and struck back with an Ice Beam.

"Still got some left in you, huh?" Kadabra said, after easily dodging it.

"You have no idea," Slowking said, calm as ever. His eyes began to glow as he gathered psychic energy, magnified from the TwistedSpoon. It had been long since he was last in a battle but the old instincts were still there.

"No. I think you don't," Kadabra said, equally as calm as him. He thrust his fist at Slowking once more with astonishing speed. This time, it connected.

For the first time in a while of his long life, Slowking's face showed shock. His mouth opened as he slowly looked into the face of his killer and was greeted with an evil gaze and a smile.

He fell to the floor. "We'll be taking this," he heard before he heard no more.

Alakazam stood by the twins, who were both still on the ground. Gallade was still knocked out.

Gardevoir opened her eyes. "I can't move," she said weakly.

"I'll find a healer," Zam said reassuringly, despite the dark expression on his face. "After that, we need to find someone who has information about these guys."