A/N: We're back after that little cliffhanger that I left you guys on. This chapter will be what you can consider the "first boss battle" of the story so I hope you all enjoy it and that it flows well. As for the SYOC, I wanted to thank everyone who's submitted a character so far. For those of you who are afraid that you're too late not to worry! I've still got some room for characters though I do have more male students compared to female students. Feel free to submit boys still but make sure to make them unique unless you want to submit a redundant character. I've also added a few more courses to choose from to make the cast as varied as possible. Lastly I just wanted to let you guys know that I've selected Shu's rivals for this story so if you were thinking of making a character like that, he/she would have a more minor or supportive role in my cast.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. I only own Shu and the rest of my OCs.
Chapter 4: The Basement
The torches cracked as they danced along the cement pillars, providing the only sound in the great chamber. There were spaces inside that were left untouched by the flames. The top of the room was devoid of light appearing like a black hole in the sky.
Shu, Sakumo, Ayemi, and Fukaze refused to take another step forward but the ghosts continued towards the giant - no, colossal - pokemon sitting on the other side of the room. The monster was a large bipedal pokemon covered in yellow fur. Its eyes appeared like a pair of crescent moons behind its long curved nose. The pointed ears atop its head resembled horns. They might as well have been horns given its already demonic appearance. The fur around its neck was darkened by dirt. Only small remnants of its once white color remained. The most peculiar thing about it was that it held a pendulum in its hand that swung at the same pace that the silver irises did in the phantoms' eyes.
The pokemon sat on a poorly crafted throne opposing the exit with dozens of skeletons and bones scattered at its feet. It gazed down at the humans with eerie eyes as its jagged teeth peaked through a dark grin. Ayemi shivered at the sight.
'What happened to these people?' she thought. 'What's going to happen to us?'
Ayemi's shaking came to a stop when she felt Sakumo's hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn towards him. He was not looking at her though. His dark eyes were locked onto the monster in front of them that looked directly back at him. She could feel the intensity coming from him but something about his determination eased her.
Sakumo stepped forward and asked, "So what now? Why have you brought us here?"
The others looked at him and then at the pokemon to see how he would respond. Its eyes glowed blue and so did the old man's.
He spoke for the monster, "You humans are merely food for me. I have survived here for years by luring in your kind, most of them were idiot adolescents looking to explore this mansion. I see you've brought me yesterday's lunch. I have been looking for him all day."
Fukaze shuddered and fled behind Shu who had regained the empty look from before.
"You eat awfully neatly. There's no blood on your fur or anywhere else in this place."
With a menacing grin, it forced the ghost to say, "I will take that as a compliment. Let's just say that I eat differently than humans and most pokemon."
"I was beginning to think that the old man and the little girl were just illusions but they're real spirits aren't they?"
It let out a bit of a huff, almost as if chuckling.
"Yes, lost souls that I have used to do my bidding. They lead my food to me."
They heard a quick noise behind them to find a two-layered barrier form at the exit just like the one that prevented them from leaving the mansion on the first floor.
Sakumo turned to the monster and said, "I see. Well I don't think you'll be letting us out of here so I'll let you know right now that we're not just going to let you eat us."
Sakumo grabbed two poke balls from his waist and called out his golbat and eevee. Echo hovered in front of him while the brown fox-like pokemon crouched down into an offensive stance. Both awaited orders.
It chuckled again, "You bring out a poison type against a psychic type? And neither of your pokemon are fully evolved. You are not a competitive trainer, are you?"
Sakumo tensed up, having been exposed. The truth was that he only owned two pokemon, his Golbat, Echo, and another that his parents had gifted him. Sakumo did not notice Ayemi walk up to his side.
"Sakumo-san, let me use your eevee. We can take this thing on together!"
Sakumo looked at Ayemi for a moment and then turned back to find Shu completely frozen as he stared into nothingness. His brother's face had blanched. Fukaze was shaking behind the statue of a boy so he was of no help either. Whether Ayemi had experience with battling or not was of no consequence. Sakumo could not expertly command both of his pokemon on his own.
Sakumo whispered to Ayemi, "Okay but understand that, Kibo and Echo aren't much of fighters so we really need to be careful with this thing. Kibo's long range attack is Shadow Ball."
"Got it!"
"Kibo! Use Shadow Ball!"
The eevee continued to growl at the monster, barking a little to add to its attempt at intimidation.
"Kibo, listen to Ayemi-san, okay?"
The tiny pokemon's ears dropped as he turned to his trainer and nodded before facing forward again. He opened his mouth and began concentrating dark energy into a sphere. He tilted his head and shot it at the monster. The attack connected with its chest, causing the dark energy to disperse on contact. When the energy cleared, they noticed that the monster had no scratches on it. It simply grinned at them.
"This thing…" Ayemi started. "It must be really strong."
Noticing her figure tense up again, Shu grabbed Ayemi by the shoulder and said,"Ayemi-san, look at me. We need to fight it or else we won't get out of here."
"Right!"
Sakumo ordered Echo to fly up high and unleash a barrage of stars from its wings which like the Shadow Ball failed to make a mark. The monster simply sat still, not even budging at their attacks. After a couple more attempts to harm it, the monster lifted its pendulum and forced it to glow blue as both Echo and Kibo were enveloped in the same light. Their movements were halted leaving them both confused. Suddenly, Kibo could no longer feel the ground beneath his paws. Both pokemon were flung away - the golbat sustained more damage due to type effectiveness.
Unwilling to submit, Kibo struggled to his feet and began barking again at the giant yellow beast. He unleashed another Shadow Ball without receiving any commands which connected with the monster's eye. Having been hit in a soft spot, it titled its head up and held its eye. When it dropped its head, the sclera was clearly irritated as it turned a bright pink color.
The monster snarled at Kibo, causing him to reel back with his ears drooped. The monster used another Psychic attack, lifting the small pokemon up and flinging it down repeatedly. Desperate to protect his pokemon, Sakumo ran to him and caught him on one of his descents, clinging to him as they were both lifted by the Psychic.
Fukaze shook Shu by the shoulders and whispered into his ear, "Dude...I think your brother is going to get hurt…"
His remark fell on deaf ears.
Having been so focused on Sakumo and Kibo, the monster failed to realize that Echo had crept up on it and buried its fangs into its shoulder with a glowing purple energy surrounding it. The Psychic broke, dropping Sakumo on his back with Kibo cradled in his arms. The little pokemon looked up at him, shivering from the tormenting experience.
"It's alright, little guy. I've got you."
Having had enough of the nuisances, the monster held his pendulum forward to envelope the two pokemon in blue energy again. This time, the energy rippled and both pokemon were put to sleep. Next, the pokemon continued glowing blue only for small bits of their energy to be pulled from their bodies and absorbed into the monster's mouth.
Sakumo's pokemon writhed in pain - Kibo whimpered and pawed at the air while Echo began lifting his body only to drop it over and over. It was painful just watching them so Sakumo set Kibo down and charged forward with every intent on digging his knuckles into the monster. Noticing this, it used Psychic to lift the young man into the air.
Fukaze walked around Shu and shook him violently. He held Shu by the face, forcing eye contact, as he yelled, "Your brother is going to die!"
Shu's irises expanded and color returned to his blanched face as he took notice of his brother's situation. Before Sakumo could get too high, Shu pushed past Fukaze and sprinted to a torch which he flung at the monster with all of his might.
Time froze as the burning stick spun in the air, closing the distance between itself and the monster. Taking notice, it stopped lifting Sakumo but never once dropped him. Mere inches away from itself, the monster stopped the torch with a Psychic before tossing it back at Shu. The boy was stuck. He failed to realize just how close the torch was to him when a lightning bolt shot through the ceiling and knocked it away.
The torch simply rolled onto the ground, slightly shifting the lighting of the room with every movement. When Shu opened his eyes, he saw a small orange creature covered in an electric aura. It looked at him with innocent eyes and a gentle smile.
"Denki…" Both the old man and the little girl spoke in unison.
Shu and the orange creature turned to the monster and its phantom slaves.
"So you finally decide to stop running," they spoke again.
Having lost interest in Sakumo, the monster released his hold of him, making him plummet to the ground.
"Sakumo!" Shu yelled
He was about to join his brother's side but before he could, the monster released a ferocious growl as it stood up from its chair and walked to the center of the room. It pointed the pendulum at Shu and Denki with a Hypnosis attack but they both moved out of the way. Shu rolled and picked himself off the ground to run around the monster while Denki hovered high above him and shot out a ball of concentrated electricity at it. The ball connected against the giant's neck and exploded into sparks causing it to stumble.
"Alright Denki!" Shu cheered.
The monster attempted to capture Denki with a Psychic but the plasma pokemon flew too quickly around it, launching Electro Balls as it did. While his new ally kept the towering hypnosis pokemon busy, Shu went to Sakumo's side to find that his brother's arm had been dislocated.
"Can you move it?"
"No, Shu. That's what it means when it's dislocated. The bone isn't in its socket."
Shu held his hands up in defense, "It was just a question."
Ayemi and Fukaze who had been hiding behind a pillar rushed to the brothers.
"What are we going to do?" Fukaze asked.
"Denki's keeping him busy," Shu responded.
"What does that mean for us? We still can't leave!" Fukaze shouted.
"Hey I'm just saying that it's helping us out!"
"We're still stuck here!"
"Can you two shut up?!" Sakumo growled. "I'm trying to think of a way for us to get out of here. That pokemon might be keeping it busy but it doesn't look like that barrier is coming down any time soon so we've got to help it somehow."
"Well you're not much help the way you are," Ayemi commented.
Sakumo glared at her as he forced himself onto his feet, clutching his arm tightly with his free hand.
"I think I'll sit this one out," Fukaze said as he walked towards a pillar.
He was stopped in his tracks and lifted into the air. All of them were as the monster had finally formed a dual layered cage of Light Screen and Reflect around itself, severely weakening Denki's attacks. Unable to break through, Denki flew high up into the room and began shouting as loud as possible. At first it was just a little noise but as it continued, it became clamor that disrupted the monster's concentration and made it clasp its ears with its hands. That was not enough though so Denki began flying in and out of the chamber, phasing through the walls and ceiling before calming itself in the center. The monster let go of its ears with slight hesitation in case Denki began screaming again but the plasma pokemon simply hovered above it.
There was complete silence but the chamber gained an eerie atmosphere as small dark spheres surrounded by gas began entering from all around. Soon there was a cloud of darkness hovering above the humans and the monster with Denki in the middle of it. It looked like a lightning storm had just rolled in.
The old man scoffed, "You think that these pests can defeat me, Denki? I will send them all back into the hiding from whence they came!"
The Gastly all opened their mouths and released a cloud of pure darkness which began covering the monster's barrier, eclipsing it in the process. There was an audible cracking noise, most likely the barrier beginning to break. The monster retaliated with a roar as it cracked its own barriers with Psychic, turning them pieces into jagged shards which he flung outward with Psyshock. The psychic energy shards began piercing through the Gastly, vastly reducing their numbers. Luckily, Shu and Ayemi had already taken Sakumo, Fukaze, Kibo, and Echo behind a couple pillars, storing the latter two into their respective poke balls.
Denki and the handful of Gastly left began flying all over the room to make it difficult for the monster to target them with Psychic while attacking it with Electro Ball and Night Shade, respectively. Deciding not to just sit around, Shu rose to his feet and tossed the torches that he found around the room, both offering another distraction for the monster to focus on and eliminating its main source of light at the same time.
Shu found a Gastly that was staying relatively low to the ground so he shouted out to her, "Hey you!" The Gastly stopped her Night Shade attack to hear him out. "Want to see what happens when we use one of your attacks and a torch?"
The boy had a mischievous grin on his face and the Gastly matched it as she continued shooting her Night Shade. Shu tossed the torch for the ghost type attack to connect with it and explode into a blaze of violet flames on the monster's back. The combination attack had left a huge burn mark on its back, singing its golden fur.
Growing ever more frustrated the monster looked directly at Shu and the Gastly only to aim its pendulum at Shu. Acting quickly the Gastly flew in between them and took the brunt of the Psychic attack as it was flung across the room. Denki shot another Electro Ball at the monster to redirect its attention. Meanwhile, Shu ran to the Gastly's side as the battle progressed behind them.
"A-are you alright?"
He had knelt beside the pokemon wanting to hold her but could not physically touch her. She was a cloud of poisonous gas after all.
"Gas...tly…" she moaned in pain.
"You took that hit for me...why?"
"Gas, gastly…"
Shu could not understand her noises but felt like she had defended her because she liked something about him. He could not think too much about it as she began calling out for him to turn around. The monster was aiming its next Psychic attack at Shu, having defeated the rest of the Gastly and trapped Denki in a Light Screen cage.
Shu could feel the monster's invisible hand wrap its fingers around him tightly as it began lifting him off the ground. It was squeezing him much harder than it had been before with as much force as it could muster. The veil of blue light sent chills down the boy's spine as he simply closed his eyes and awaited the vicious thrashing that he knew the monster would unleash on him.
Suddenly there was a loud pounding noise coming from above followed by the sound of wood splintering. Another powerful pound was all the Sudowoodo needed to break through the chamber's roof and come crashing down from above.
"Underwood, use Wood Hammer again!"
The pokemon's left hand began glowing green as it closed its three balled fingers into a fist and slammed it into the monster's head, causing it to collapse under the force and send a shockwave through the entire chamber. Shu was not too high off the ground when the monster dropped him onto the ground.
A trainer began descending from above on a leafy dinosaur with bananas hanging from her long neck.
Sakumo sighed of relief. Shu looked up with eyes of excitement.
"Dad," they both said.
The bulky man stood atop his Tropius' back with his arms crossed and a stern look on his face as he looked down at the monster in front of them. When the Tropius landed, Shu and Sakumo ran to their dad with hopeful eyes. He took a good look at his children noticing the dirt and scratches on his youngest and the dislocated shoulder that his eldest suffered before turning around to glare at the monster as it struggled to get back on its feet.
"Boys, get your friends on Shinrin's back so he can take them up to safety and come back for you two."
Fukaze wasted no time hoping on the dinosaur's back. Ayemi followed suite but looked down at Shu and Sakumo.
"We'll be right behind you," Sakumo assured her.
With that, Shinrin flew up as quickly as possible while Underwood rushed the monster with another Wood Hammer to its shin, causing it to topple over again. Shinrin immediately returned for the boys, lowering her neck for Sakumo to get on easier. Still, he needed Shu's help getting on. When it was Shu's turn, the boy hesitated.
"Hurry, Shu," his father said without turning around. The man kept gazing forward as the monster began fighting Underwood back with Psychic attacks.
Shu walked around to Shinrin's head and held her by the chin.
"Go on, girl. Me and pops got this covered."
"I do. You need to get out of here. You don't even have a pokemon to battle with and none of mine will take battle commands from you."
"Gasssstly…"
The Gastly that had saved Shu floated over to them slowly, still hurt from before. Shu looked at his father with his head tucked into his shoulders and a small grin. Shu's father simply smirked and shook his head before reaching into his pocket and handing the boy a potion.
"Use that to heal the Gastly and I'll see you in battle. Shinrin, take Sakumo up."
Shinrin nodded but before she could fly up, Sakumo asked her to wait. He had stopped Shu on his way to heal Gastly by grabbing his arm.
As the elder brother lay across the Tropius' back, he told Shu, "Be careful, okay? If dad says leave you get out of here. Don't try to be a hero."
Shu's excited face fell into a more serious one when he realized that his brother was very serious himself. He gave his brother a determined nod. With that, Sakumo let go of his arm and allowed Shinrin to take him up.
After quickly spraying the potion all over Gastly, Shu gave the pokemon some space to float about freely and she did not just float. She began flying all around the room before stopping in front of Shu and the two joined his father and Underwood - or rather just his father since the monster had just knocked the Sudowoodo out with a powerful Psychic.
Shu's father quickly withdrew Underwood into his poke ball and tossed another one out. From it emerged a fox-like creature with pale yellow fur around her head, torso, and parts of her legs while her ears and tail were green with leaf-like features, and her paws were light brown. She had large dark gold eyes and a small black nose.
Shu had seen his father's Leafeon, Sage, in an offensive stance before - usually against the boy himself - but he had never seen her with this much intensity. She bared her fangs and let out very low but aggressive growls while preparing her legs for a powerful pounce.
"Follow my lead, Shu."
"Right!"
Having forgotten about the plasma pokemon, Shu was surprised when Denki appeared next to Sage, ready to assist them. When the monster prepared another Psychic, Sage sprang forward with incredible speed and began climbing her opponent by gripping its fur with her claws. Once her momentum began falling, she charged her tail with a green light and flipped in the air. Her tail had been sharpened to cut into the monster's leg, making it groan in pain.
"Gastly use 'Dark Cloud Attack!'"
Shu's father looked at him with an eyebrow raised.
"'Dark Cloud Attack?'" He thought to himself aloud.
Luckily for Shu, the Gastly knew exactly what he was talking about as she flew forward and released a dark cloud from her mouth just as Shu had instructed her to. Shu's father chuckled at the sight and told the boy the actual name of the move.
"Night Shade! Got it! Keep using Night Shade, Gastly!"
"Gas!" she mumbled through the darkness spewing from her mouth.
The Gastly's attack managed to take the monster's focus away from Sage as she released a fireball from her mouth into the air that expanded into a fiery ball. It emitted an intense heat and illuminated the majority of the room. The monster had to cover his eyes from the sun-like fireball, giving Sage an opening to assault it with a barrage of sharpened leaves. Shu had Gastly fly up under the Sunny Day which created an eclipse on the monster. She unleashed another Night Shade that completely shrouded the golden giant in darkness. Denki began flying around while using Ominous Wind to turn the Night Shade into a tornado of pure darkness. Finally Sage leapt high into the air came down with a Leaf Blade, slicing the black tornado in half and causing the winds to peeter out. As she landed, the monster collapsed behind her with a thud. The beast had been slain.
"We did it dad!" Shu yelled and cheered excitedly. "Gastly! You were awesome!"
"Gas?" the ghost type blushed and shook her head at the compliment.
Sage walked to her trainer's side and let out a yawn of annoyance.
Shu's father chuckled and said, "I know we did most of the work but let him enjoy this victory."
"Denki?"
Shu and his father turned around to find the little girl and the old man shining brightly as small orbs of white light began to break off from them and fade into the air. The little girl was reaching out to touch Denki who simply looked at her with a saddened expression. The plasma pokemon began to whimper at the sight of the little girl fading.
"Don't be sad, Denki…I know we'll be together again on the other side."
Despite being on the verge of tears the girl managed to smile at the electric and ghost pokemon in front of her. As the two said their goodbyes to each other, the old man approached Shu and his father.
"I do have to thank you for freeing us of that darned hypno's spell. Excuse my language."
Shu's father yelled and jumped back with his hands in the air making the old man chuckle.
"G-g-g-ghost!"
Shu sighed, "You just noticed them?"
"Many apologies, sir. I did not mean to startle you."
"Don't mind him," Shu responded. "You aren't all scary anymore, gramps. And you have your eyes back!"
The old man chuckled.
"Yes, indeed I do. We don't have much time left in this world so I believe explanations are in order so please listen well. For starters, I will formally introduce myself. I am Kawazu Eneki, the personal butler to Jonsei Koto's youngest daughter, Mina-san - the young girl over there. Denki, the rotom that assisted you in battle, appeared one day before out deaths and would play around the manor with young Mina-san. I believe that is why after our deaths, her spirit lingered. She had not said her goodbye to Denki."
"What about yourself?" Shu's father asked. "Why did you stay?"
"It is my job to always look after young Mina-san. Not even in death will I abandon my duty to her."
"How did you die?" Shu asked.
"The hypno that you two faced, Furiko, murdered everyone in the mansion one evening. Koto-dono had imported it from Kanto claiming to have found him to be an exotic encounter but now I believe that Furiko manipulated Koto-dono with his psychic powers. For seven years after he murdered us, by placing us in a slumber and draining our life energy, Furiko has been at war with the many ghost pokemon that began inhabiting this manor, including Denki, though he grew more powerful with every human that wandered inside."
"Wait, why didn't he just trap me inside the first time I was in here?"
"I cannot be certain for sure but I believe that Mina-san and I have something to do with that as I have encountered every human that he captured."
Shu's father held his chin in thought as he said aloud, "What an amazingly powerful and intelligent pokemon to survive all of those years in a house full of pokemon that held type advantage over it. It's frightening just how close it was to us this whole time. How did it go so many years down here without the authorities defeating it?"
Eneki was barely visible now and he knew it. Mina was also on the verge of disappearing.
"I believe that is all the time we have left. I will forever be grateful for what you've done for us."
"Thank you!" the little girl said with a wave.
In mere seconds, both of them had faded leaving Shu, his father, Sage, Denki, and the lone Gastly alone in the dimly lit chamber with Furiko's limp body sprawled in the center.
After defeating the giant hypno, Denki returned to Shu's watch and the gastly fled elsewhere in the manor. All but one. It followed Shu and his father up to the first floor through the hole that Underwood made and lingered around the group while they collected themselves and waited for first responders to arrive.
As they waited, Shu noticed that the gastly had stayed which made him question why outloud. The pokemon kept close to him and even followed him around wherever he walked.
His father responded, "I think she wants to stay with you a little bit longer."
Shu looked over at her and asked, "Is that true?"
The gastly nodded happily.
"Shu."
The boy turned to find his father holding a poke ball for him. Shu looked down at it, slightly confused.
When he realized what his father was saying, the boy asked, "A-are you sure?"
"Yeah, who am I to stop a bond from forming between a trainer and pokemon."
"A...a trainer?"
Sakumo answered, "Well yeah, as soon as you capture that gastly, you'll be considered her trainer, Shu."
Shu turned back to the gastly and asked, "Are you sure this is what you want?"
The gastly nodded excitedly, "Gas! Gastly!"
Shu shared that excitement as he snatched the poke ball from his father's hand and took a few steps away from Gastly. This left her confused so instinctually she began following.
"No, no! Stay there!" Shu called.
This confused the gastly even more.
"I want it to look all cool like in the movies," Shu explained.
Sakumo covered his face with his good hand and shook his head while his father let out a hearty laugh at the boy's over-the-top request.
The gastly was unsure about what he was talking about but she gladly obliged.
"Do you think you could look a little mean like I just defeated you?"
"Gas!"
She nodded and then began glaring daggers into Shu's eyes which made him laugh. The boy spread his feet apart, pulled back his arm and tossed the poke ball at the Gastly which upon connecting, opened up and sucked the pokemon in as a flash of blue energy. Once the Gastly was inside, the poke ball dropped to the ground and began shaking. The small button flashed on and off leaving Shu in suspense until the ball stopped moving and made a clicking sound.
Shu looked at his dad and asked, "Did I catch it?"
The man nodded, "You sure did, son."
Shu sprinted to the ball and lifted it high into the air shouting, "I just caught a gastly! Alright!"
"So what are you going to name it?"
"A name?"
"Yeah. You have a name. I don't call you boy."
"True. Hmmm. What to name this little gal? Oh! Oh! I got it! What about Emigna?!"
"Emigna?" his father asked.
"Yeah Emigna, I heard Sakumo use it once."
"You mean enigma?" the older boy asked.
"Yeah that!"
Fukaze muttered under his breath, "Idiot." It was quiet enough to slip past the Ishikawa's but Ayemi glared at him. The boy pretended to look elsewhere to avoid eye contact.
Their father chuckled as he put a hand on Shu's shoulder.
"I think you should call her Emigna."
"Wait but isn't that wrong?" Shu asked.
"Yeah but it's unique. You came up with it yourself."
"Huh, that makes sense," Sakumo said. "You should try to name your pokemon something only you could come up with."
"Oh. Well then Emigna it is!"
Ayemi asked, "Doesn't Shu technically have two pokemon including Denki?"
Shu's father shook his head, "Well Denki seems a little too strong for Shu right now so we'll have to see what we do with it but for now it looks like it wants to stay with Shu."
"Professor Rowan wants to study it since it's a species he hasn't encountered yet," Sakumo added.
"Well we'll just see where we go from here," his father said.
A/N: And we have reached the falling action of this multiple chapter introduction arc. For those of you who are dying to get to the academy rest assured because I'm only going to take one more chapter to tie up loose ends which means that I will make a small time skip to fast forward to how Shu gets sent to Soleil Academy in Kalos so the pacing might be a bit weird. Leave a review about what you liked or disliked about this chapter. Was the pacing good or bad? How were the details? Did the interactions feel organic? I welcome all constructive criticism! Until next time!
