Ah, that was a long vacation. But I'm back, and I'm feeling confident. With this chapter, we have a lot of action and a bit of love blossoming. I hope you like it, because I don't feel like changing it. The rating may change, but you'll be surprised why. More or less I hope this does well, because I'm trying to keep this one on track instead of turning it in a direction I didn't intend.
Disclaimer: I, Lord Genesis Shadow, do not own the rights to Pokémon or Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. Have a nice day.
…
Four months passed quickly and Jess was moving as fast as me. She had quickly earned Liz's and Alex's trust and she was very happy with our team. Her training consisted of long runs through the nearby forests each morning and hand to claw training in the afternoons every other day. She had told me that she'd made the decision to never evolve into a Weavile. She liked her current form so much she wanted to stay that way.
I woke up early and sat in my coals thinking about how long we had left. I looked at Liz and Alex. They were both still asleep and the sun had yet to rise. I looked to Jess to see her looking at the ceiling. I was having problems with her and Liz. They both loved me and I didn't know what to do. I sat up and the coals fell off of me. I looked over at Jess and she was looking at me.
"Good morning Goku." She said. I nodded.
"Good morning Jess." I said quietly. "Rough night?" She shook her head.
"I'm just thinking." She said. "I hope Alice and Arthur are okay." I nodded and Liz yawned. I turned my head as she opened her eyes.
"Good morning Goku." She said. She sat up and stretched. "Good morning Jess."
"Good morning Liz." I said.
"Good morning Liz." Jess said. "Did you sleep well?" Liz nodded.
"Good morning everyone." Alex said groggily. "Now let's keep it down so I can meditate to finish the sleep I'm missing." She yawned as we all laughed quietly. "Go outside if you want to talk."
"Okay Alex." I said. I stood up and stretched. "I could use some air anyway."
"I'll go with you." Liz said. "I want to watch the sun come up." She stood up and put on her beret. I used triple agility and donned my normal attire. Jess had stood up and began brushing the snow off of herself.
"That sounds like a good idea." She said. I stretched again and moved over to the door. Liz giggled and floated next to Jess. They walked out the door together and I looked at my coals.
"I'll catch up." I said. "I think something fell out of my pack."
"Hurry up Goku." Liz said.
"Yeah, the sunrise won't wait." Jess added. They walked away and I slowly shut the door.
"What do you want to talk about chief?" Alex asked. I chuckled.
"Am I that transparent?" I asked. Alex chuckled.
"Like a diamond." She said.
"I guess I won't keep you up for long." I said with another chuckle. I sighed. "You know about their feelings for me." She nodded. "Well, I'm starting to feel the same for both of them." I leaned against the wall. "It's causing problems for me. I used to protect you all because I made a promise. Now that reason extends only to you." I looked at the wall to my right. "I protect them because I'm falling in love with them."
"I fail to see the problem." She said. I chuckled. "Many Pokémon take multiple mates. One as the Alpha mate and several as Beta mates." I sighed.
"Does that apply to me?" I asked. "I used to be a human, then a humanoid machine." I shrugged. "Would these rules apply to me?"
"You said that you'd rather be a Pokémon to the rest of your life." She said calmly. I looked at her and then at my body. "You have become a Pokémon, so I would say that if you love them both, you should tell them. If it's okay with them, and if you don't mind having two mates, then you shouldn't worry." I smiled. She was right. I said that even if I was presented with a way, I would never go back to being human, or a human cyborg.
"You always have the answer Alex." I said. She smiled and closed her eyes. "I think we should take the day off." I stood up and opened the door. "See you at the meeting."
'Will do Goku.' She sent.
…
I walked up to the girls and sensed two Pokémon walking our way. Liz and Jess were staring intently at them.
"Who are they?" Liz asked. I looked at the forms and zoomed in.
"How far away are they?" Jess asked. I set the focus and smiled.
"Well, this is a surprise." I said. I zoomed back and smiled wider. "I see two known Pokémon, one tall and red with wings and one yellow with brown body armor and two spoons." Jess gasped.
"Alice and Arthur?" She asked. I nodded. "Wow, I can't believe they're back." I chuckled.
"It's going to be a little violent when she arrives if I'm still here." I said. "She'll want to prove herself right away." I flexed my right hand several times. "I hope she's up to it." They both nodded.
"We've still got a while before the disaster though." Jess said. "And I don't know if she knows about it yet." I shook my head.
"Xatu would have told me if she knew." I said. "He told me that he'd keep me in the loop so I could keep pushing her." I smiled wider. "This day is looking up."
"How will you fight her?" Liz asked. I shrugged.
"If she's learned the value of teamwork, I may have a challenge on my hands." I said. "But she wants the pleasure of beating me on her own." I cracked my knuckles. "Her Aura is much stronger than before. But has she gotten faster? Or has she devoted herself to raw power?" Jess looked out at the two shapes coming into view.
"I can almost see her Aura." She said. She had been having trouble with sensing Aura. I shook my head.
"Don't try to see it." I said. "Try to see her, and try to feel it. Close your eyes and it becomes easier." She nodded and closed her eyes. Team Order would take another ten minutes to arrive and I pondered about if I should tell them about how I felt. I decided to tell them later, regardless of the outcome of the unavoidable fight. "Can you feel the Aura?"
"Almost." Jess said. "It's faint, but I can just feel it." I nodded.
"You're learning fast." I said. She had started training to sense Aura only two weeks prior. Liz and Alex had picked up the technique in two days while I had spent the better part of a month training in my spare time while staring at them. "You're doing much better than I did." She giggled.
We spent the next ten minutes watching the sun come up. Alice and Arthur walked up the steps and she immediately growled at me. I turned my head and smiled. She had her gold bandanna folded into a headband.
"Hello." I said. I had mentally told the girls to pretend we didn't recognize them at first. "Welcome to the Recue Team training guild." I held out my right hand. "I'm Jack 'Goku' of Team Chaos, and I'm glad to be your greeter."
"Don't be an idiot Infernape." Alice said. I withdrew my hand.
"Okay, so much for turnabout." I said. "And here I thought that joke was good for both of us." I pointed at her and wagged my right index finger and leaned back slightly. "You could have at least played along with us."
"You know how to sense Aura." She snapped. "You knew who we were as we approached the guild. You should not treat our return so lightly Infernape." I winced.
"Jeeze, suck the energy right out of the air." I said. "You look so different on the outside but you're that angry Charmander on the inside." She narrowed her eyes, growled, and opened her mouth and the girls jumped aside as she fired a large Flamethrower while Arthur teleported to the top of the guild gate. I stood right in the fire and deflected it with my Aura. When the flames ended she seemed surprised.
"How are you still standing?" She asked. I smiled and held up my right hand with the palm facing her and charged an Aura Sphere. She flapped her wings and ran at me as fast as she could. I had used the time to ready five Agility attacks. I left a Double team double and made the sphere hover as I moved behind her while she charged at it. She stopped suddenly and turned to launch another Flamethrower and I moved the sphere into her back. She leaned forward and fired her attack at the ground which forced her rapidly onto her back. "You bastard!" She stood up and I taunted her by turning around and slapping my right butt cheek with my right hand. She growled and charged a new attack; Fire Blast. I dashed away, leaving some of my Aura energy with the double so she wouldn't track me if she knew how to sense the energy. The attack hit the double as I maneuvered half a foot behind her. I readied two Aura sphere and left a double with one and I held the other in my left palm. She turned and used a powerful Flamethrower on the double, causing the sphere to explode and her to get pushed back.
"You're getting better Alice." I said as I circled her. "You've actually managed to make me hit you twice. But it seems like those attacks are either stronger than I mean them to be, or you're not as strong as you promised you'd be." She roared and started tossing Flamethrowers around randomly where she thought I was. When she stopped I appeared in front of her and launched the sphere from my left hand into her stomach. She flew several feet and landed at the top of the stairs on her stomach. "I'm still holding back and the only attack you launched that hit me was deflected harmlessly. You promised to come back stronger than I was four months ago." I sighed. "You've really disappointed me." She growled and slammed her right fist into the ground and stood up with an angry roar. I smiled and used Bulk up and Calm mind. I wasn't about to let her win without a large battle that would summon everyone in the guild if I could help it. "There we go, that's the fiery Alice I remember!" She fired another Flamethrower and I rushed behind her. She started to turn when I shoved her into the center of the plateau. She stopped her attack and turned as I created dozens of doubles to surround her, each with enough Aura to confuse even Liz and Alex, and perhaps even Xatu.
"Show yourself you coward!" Alice roared. I smiled as each copy had a different expression and pose. I had my pipe in my mouth and was standing on my cloud above her. I looked at Arthur and he was watching me.
'I see through your trickery Infernape.' He sent. I smiled. 'I admired you once, but now I see that you were a false hero.'
'I don't know about that Arthur.' I returned. 'I help others for no reward, I protect them out of the goodness of my heart, and I take the jobs that others cannot.' I looked down to see Alice working out which copy was possibly me. I went down and refreshed them with new poses and created another ring of them closer to her before returning to my cloud. 'I'm just testing to see how mad I can get her before she tries to kill me in my sleep.' He looked like he was going to say something so I held up my hands. 'It's a metaphor.' He nodded. I looked down as Alice went to work on the copies. She had flapped her wings and was floating above the ground while spinning and using Flamethrower to destroy all of the doubles at once. Liz had used Light Screen and Barrier to deflect the flames. When Alice landed she shook her head and looked around before roaring and looking up to see me.
"Hello Flamethrower." I said quietly. I was proven right and she let the flames fly at me while I dashed away after sending the cloud north. I moved in front of her as she lowered her head. I stayed out of her vision and turned off my head flames.
"He truly was a coward." She muttered. "Running away when I was just getting started." I tapped her stomach and she gasped. She looked down as I gave her my Mach Punch with all four limbs to her torso. I counted off three hundred punches per limb before slamming all four limbs into her stomach. She went flying back and into the left post of the gate.
"Why does that combination always push them to the left?" I asked while looking at my fists. I looked up as Alice flew straight at me, actually taking me by surprise. She was dragging her arms along the ground when she suddenly stopped in front of me. With my eyes as wide as dinner plates she slammed both of her white glowing fists into my jaw, sending me flying over to the stairs before I grabbed the ground with my feet. I spat out a small amount of blood and wiped my lip. I looked up to see her hands glowing again. The right was ready in a Focus punch and the other was a Dynamic Punch. "Combining those attacks aren't going to win. And two Sky uppercuts won't stop me." She smiled and flapped her wings. I felt the world nearly stop as she flew at me at half speed. I spotted a seed shell on the ground. She had taken several Agility seeds while I was flying away from her. I focused further and used ten consecutive Agilities and she slowed to a near halt several yards away from me. Her roar sounded muffled while the girls looked at me with their hands over their mouths. Arthur had a large grin that seemed plastered on his face. I looked at Alice and walked over to her calmly. The world was nearly stopped to me as I picked up my pipe. It had fallen out of my mouth during the flight across the plateau and I dusted it off and returned it and let out a puff of smoke that stopped as soon as it left my lips. I did this for what felt like two minutes. There was a massive cloud around Alice and me so I stepped over to her and readied my Thunder Fang attack. "I'm sorry about this, but you made me drop my pipe. And you need to learn something from this encounter." I bit her arms and her tail three times each, renewing the electricity each bite. I then used two Aura sphere in front of her, but they too stopped as soon as I used them. She had moved forward three millimeters and I felt the strain of the speed catching up to me. My muscles were getting sore and I was losing my focus slowly so I finished my time frozen assault with a fully charged Aura sphere to the ground in front of her. "You'll learn that physical power is not the only way to fight. Or you'll be getting some help from me come that fateful day whether you want it or not." I groaned and stepped out of the cloud of smoke and some of it grabbed at me and pulled away from the mass. I sat in front of the cloud and let go of my focus.
"Goku!" The girls screamed together. A nearly deafening explosion threw Alice end over end right past me, missing by mere inches. I recoiled, having figured she'd either stop cold or be flung out of the other side.
"Holy geeze!" I yelled. Arthur suddenly teleported beside me and watched Alice skid to a halt partly down the stairs, her head and long neck just barely resting at the top. "That was not what I figured would happen." I stood up and felt my muscles tightening. I released the Bulk up and it eased somewhat, but it still hurt slightly.
"Alice!" Arthur yelled. He ran over to her and knelt on the stairs to look her over. "Are you okay Alice?"
"She'll be fine." I said. The girls ran over to me and began looking all over me, making me blush. "I'm fine girls, just a bit sore."
"But she hit you so hard." Jess said. I chuckled, partly for their concern and partly because nobody from the guild had been awakened by the blast. "Are you okay?" I nodded.
"I'm more worried about her." I said, pointing at Alice. "I may have used too much power on that last attack."
"What happened?" Liz asked. "You vanish and reappear here; Alice comes flying out of a gigantic Smokescreen, and the smoke itself. What happened?" I shrugged.
"I used Agility ten times." I explained. "The world came to a grinding halt and I created the screen for dramatic flair." I put the pipe in my pack. "I used nine Thunder Fangs, three on each arm, three on her tail, and then two weak Aura spheres and one fully charged Aura sphere on the ground five feet in front of her." I looked at the clearing smoke. "In retrospect, I should have quit at the Thunder Fangs."
"Yes, you should have." Arthur said angrily. "She's out cold, and she looks like you dropped the entire guild on her." I shrugged.
"What would you have me have done?" I asked. "Stand there and let her break every one of my ribs with her attacks? Let her crush my skull or rip my head off?" He looked surprised. "She aimed to do more than knock me out there Arthur, and you know it. She aimed to make sure that I could never fight again." He looked back at Alice. "Put yourself in my shoes. You could use all of my attacks and you see any other Charizard coming at you with those attacks with that intent and you see it. You use the Agility just like me. What would you do? Move behind her and wait for her to spot you again?"
"You didn't have to hit her so hard." He argued. I nodded.
"Yes, but she didn't need to try to kill me." I said.
"You wanted her to get stronger." He challenged. I shook my head.
"Let it go Arthur." Jess said. We all looked at her. "She hates him, you hate him, and she took the fight way too far." I nodded as a warm coppery taste filled my mouth. I spat some blood onto the ground away from the girls. "See? She was really trying to hurt him."
"He goaded her into that fight." He argued. "He taunted her." I moved in front of him and pressed my right index finger into his chest as his eyes went wide.
"I tried to greet her." I said. "I just wanted to make her feel welcome. She took it the wrong way and she let her anger get the better of her." I moved back two feet. "She needs to learn how to calm down. Xatu should have taught you both that, but she probably didn't care about that lesson."
"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked. I turned.
"If you need to ask, I'm afraid you're not welcome in our room." I said coldly. "I'll tell Chatot you're moving into another room until she isn't a threat to my team's well being." I felt an energy grabbing me and I used my Aura to disperse it. I turned to see Arthur looking surprised. "Try to attack me again and I'll do more than repel you." I held up my right hand to show him his spoons. He looked at his hands. "I'm not in one of my well known good moods." I tossed his spoons and he caught them.
"What are you?" He asked. I sighed.
"I'm someone with a lot of emotional baggage." I said. I turned to see Liz and Jess looking concernedly at me. "And we're taking the day off for emotional stress reasons."
…
I sat on a rock on Xatu's mountain. Liz and Jess were on either side of me. Xatu was ten feet to my left, staring at the sky.
"So she is angrier than ever." Xatu said suddenly.
"Yes." I replied.
"She attacked Goku with no provocation." Liz said.
"She tried to hurt him real bad." Jess added.
"I tried to soothe her anger, but she pushed herself too hard." Xatu said. "She wanted to prove that she could beat you. She wants you to know that she is greater than you."
"She wants me to know that she loves me." I said. Liz and Jess looked away. "She hates me because she loves me and I haven't returned her feelings." I chuckled. "There's an old human saying that I think I can adapt to this." They all looked at me. "'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.' That's what a human would say about a woman angry at something like this. Of course here it would be 'The impending disaster hath no fury like the chosen scorned.'" Xatu nodded.
"I have foreseen this possibility." He said. "You must find a way to calm her fury." He looked at the lake. "She is powerful enough to save this world. It is not about speed, it is not about strength, it is about her fire and her Aura." I nodded. "She has that in amounts more than what she needs. She has the power, but she now needs something else." I sighed.
"She needs someone to tell her that they love her." I said. Xatu nodded. "I'm not sure that's me though." He looked at me and I looked at the lake.
"I know Goku." He said. "It is Arthur." I nodded while the girls gasped.
"I had a feeling." I said. "She wants me, he wants her, and this makes him hate me." Xatu nodded. "He's grown much stronger, but he needs a different strength to say those three little words." I chuckled. "The three words most males have a problem saying."
"What words?" The girls asked. I chuckled and stood up. I turned to them and held out my hands.
"The words I should say to you both." I said. "I love you." They blushed for a moment before Jess put her left claw on my left palm. Liz blushed deeper and looked away. "Both of you." She looked at me and I smiled.
"I don't mind being a Beta Liz." Jess said. "I know he loved you first." She giggled and smiled as Liz put her right hand in mine. I closed my hands and they stood up.
"Your love may inspire Arthur to express his own." Xatu said. We looked at him. "I have a gift for you all." He hopped off of the rock he was standing on and let out a loud screech and it split in half. Inside was the rusty hilt of a sword. "This is the Aura Blade. In the hands of the chosen one, it will create a blade strong enough to protect the world." He pointed his right wing at it. "Give this to Alice after Arthur tells her of his love." The girls nodded and I let go of their hands. I walked over and knelt down. "It will work for you as well, so use it until the moment you must give it to her." I nodded and grabbed it. I pulled but it wouldn't budge. "Use your Aura Goku. This weapon is a powerful artifact that I cannot lift. Alice will not have this problem, but you must focus your soul to so much as lift it." I nodded and concentrated on my Aura.
"You can do it Goku." Jess said. Liz nodded and held her hands in front of her. I grabbed the hilt with my right hand and pulled gently and it came out of the ground. I held it in front of me and looked at it. It looked like the hilt of a Katana, but with a slot that looked like it could hold a blade. I felt a hand on my right shoulder and a claw on my left hand. I looked to see the girls looking at me with smiles. "How does it feel?" I looked at it and pointed the slot away from me.
"The blade will form in the color of your true Aura." Xatu said. "Yours is silver, but I do not know of Alice." I nodded. "Focus your Aura to the handle. The blade will form based on your spirit." I closed my eyes and focused. I saw the bright silver light flow down my arm and into the hilt. I opened my eyes and silver sparks flitted out of the slot. I focused a little more and the blade shot out so fast that the girls gasped. It had formed a twenty foot long Katana blade. "Magnificent." I nodded and let my focus drop slightly and it shrank to six feet. "You have great control." I felt my focus slipping slowly and the blade began flickering.
"But even the best could only maintain this for a few moments." I said. I let the focus drop almost completely and the blade vanished. "I could only make the blade during the swing in a fight." Xatu nodded.
"Only the Chosen can use this blade for long periods of time." He said. "Her Aura is so powerful that it makes the blade on its own, without her focus. When the time comes, she will use that blade to save the world." His eyes glowed and the rock fused. "Combusken has evolved." The girls gasped and I sighed. "He is now Blaziken. You have the power to beat him, but if you do it will prove futile. Someone stronger will take his place." He hopped onto the rock. "He is not evil, but he is misguided and he is adamant about collecting the artifacts." He looked at me. "He has the power to defeat the legendary guardians, and now he must. The disaster will come about, there is no stopping it, but if it is he that summons it, it will be easier for Alice to stop it."
"How does that come about?" I asked.
"He will realize his error and he will protect the Chosen and those helping her." He said. "He does not yet know about the sword, nor will he if he does not fight you or Alice. I have sent word to Chatot that when Blaziken starts stealing the artifacts to send Alice to incorrect locations." I pulled the mask out of my pack. "I shall take the mask." I nodded and let it go as he used his powers to grab it. "Blaziken will come here to fight me. I will let him win, and I will warn him so that he does not get suspicious." He set the mask in front of his rock. "Do not worry about my well being. I am much sturdier than you would believe." He looked at me and then at the lake. "Alice defeated me with single hits, as did Arthur. You fight differently, but even you can defeat me." He inhaled and exhaled deeply. "Blaziken will hit me three times, and they will hurt. I will warn him and the third hit will knock me unconscious." We nodded. "As he hits me, I will send you all an image of his face. Warn the Legendary Pokémon of his features. He must not realize our plans." I nodded. "You will fight him Goku. You will fight to a draw with your speed against his. In the last seconds, you will both fall to an unseen fighter. He will see his error and you will all be healed by another Pokémon that will join Team Chaos." I nodded again.
"We should be going Xatu." Liz said.
"Before you leave, I have one last gift for you all." He said. He turned and let out a loud squawk. A red staff with gold tips shot out of the ground in front of me, a blue ring floated out of the lake and hovered in front of Liz, and a stone cracked open to reveal a pair of necklaces, one gold and one onyx. "The staff is the staff of the Infernape king. Goku, you are his successor." I placed the hilt in my pack and grabbed the staff. "It can grow to the size of a thousand year old tree or shrink to the size of a toothpick." I nodded. "If you lose it, call to it with your mind and it will come to you from anywhere in the world."
"This should let me keep some distance between me and this disaster." I said. Xatu nodded.
"It is unbreakable and only you can wield it." He said. Liz grabbed the ring. "The ring will create a shield that only the strongest of attacks can break through." She slid it on her right index finger and smiled while Jess picked up the two necklaces. "The black necklace is yours Jessica." She looked at him for a moment before putting on her necklace. It shrank to fit perfectly around her neck. "It allows you to hide in shadows, even the faintest will do. The gold goes to Alex. It will allow her to see others' souls." I nodded.
"We'll pass along the news." I said. Xatu nodded and looked like he wanted to smile.
"I do hope you will come visit again sometime." He said. I nodded with a smile.
"If you ever want to talk to someone, I'll fly by." I said. "And when Blaziken beats you, I'll come and get you." He nodded.