Pokemon: Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky: Team RenegadesEpisode 25: Darkness Strikes (Part 1: The Calm Before the Storm)
As Cameron finished his explanation for what he thought on Jordan's relic, everyone stared at him with an intense look. Even Jordan looked at him with pure concentration, much like the way he operated in battle.
"So, this piece could be just exactly what we need to find this place. But... where do we even start looking?" asked Jordan.
"Well, I had an idea. There's a cave not too far from here, we could start our search there..." replied Cameron, pointing towards Brine Cave about 10 miles to the left of Sharpedo Bluff.
"It may only be a hunch, but it's all we've got. Let's give it a shot!" exclaimed Grovyle.
"I'M IN!" yelled Tom with fierce determination.
"Sounds good! Let's do it!" remarked David.
"Good a place to start as any, I guess..." whispered Grovyle.
However, Lyla had wandered off towards the edge of Sharpedo's Bluff and started to look outwards, as if something was bothering her. Suddenly, she called for Cameron and Grovyle to come to her... just Cameron and Grovyle.
The 2 Pokemon looked at eachother, then started to slowly stroll over to Lyla. Before leaving to talk to her, however, Cameron told everyone else, "Probably something stupid, shouldn't be long."
Grovyle had already made it over to Lyla by then, so Cameron used a variation of Quick Attack to flash over in the timing of a moment.
"You said that it would be something stupid, didn't you?" asked Lyla.
"...you heard that, huh?" muttered Cameron, his already red cheeks getting even redder.
"No, just wanted to make sure they don't know. Your story matches up with a story I heard from Grovyle here, but we need to head out NOW to make sure. Dusknoir's gonna do everything he can to track us down and kill us, so we need to-" Lyla started.
Cameron, however, interrupted with, "Wait, KILL!? I thought this guy was just gonna try to stop us!"
"Ehehe... the 'kill' part? Yeaaaaaaah... that miiiiiiight be my fault. I said a TEENSY little statement that might've pissed Dusknoir off... aaaaah, what was that-" started Lyla again.
Once again, she was cut off, but Grovyle was the one to do it this time, saying, "You said you'd never stop trying to fix the future unless he killed you."
Lyla immediately followed up with, "Yeah, that's the one."
"Well, I would say that you pulled a stupid, but I'm not sure if Grovyle here- " Cameron started...
...but all Grovyle said in response was, "Go right ahead."
"Awesome. Lyla, you pulled a stupid." finished Cameron, pointing at Lyla.
"HEY!" exclaimed Lyla, completely embarassed.
"What? You did!" said Cameron, still looking at Lyla. Then, he turned to Grovyle and said at a lower volume, "She did..."
"Anywaaaaaayys... about that little theory you had, Cameron. I think you might be right, but I need to make sure of something. Grovyle, Dusknoir hunting us down might not end up being a bad thing..." said Lyla, formulating a plan.
"I assume this means we have to let him capture us without a fight?" asked Cameron.
"With her? Yeah, not possible." remarked Grovyle.
"Oh, actually, we're doing a bit of both. We'll let him capture us HERE in the present so everyone knows that something's up, then we can get revenge after a little road trip in the future. Sound good to you guys?" asked Lyla.
"...well, I ain't got nothin' better to say, so why not? Jordan and David can explore that cave over there here while you, me, Grovyle here and Tom go to the future on your road trip. Any objections?" responded Cameron.
"None from me! Let's give them the good news, shall we?" remarked Lyla.
Looking to their sides, Lyla to her left and Cameron to his right, they noticed that Grovyle was gone. Looking to the other side, Grovyle had already begun to tell the rest of the team the good news.
"Uhh... I think Grovyle's... got it... cov... errrrrrrrrrrred... aah..." stuttered Cameron, somewhat embarassed.
"...you've got a crush on me, don't you..." muttered Lyla.
Shocked by what Lyla had just said, Cameron immediately started flipping out while saying random gibberish, but recovers by calming down and answering, "Was it really that obvious?"
"Nope, I'm just a natural detective." answered Lyla with a smirk on her face.
An akward silence passed between the 2 teammates. After what seemed like an eternity for both of them, Cameron had finally built up enough courage to ask, "Soooooo... do you... uhh... like... me, too?"
Equally as shocked by what Cameron had said, Lyla, too, started flipping out. After her recovery, she weakly replied, "U-uhh... maybe just a little..."
"Okay, y'know what? This is too akward... can we just forget it ever happened?" asked Cameron.
"...uhh... okay?" answered Lyla, confused beyond belief.
"Thanks, I just really hate-" started Cameron, but a sudden headache and dizzy spell combo cut him off as he began to groan with pain.
"C-C-Cameron! Are you alright?" asked Lyla, stunned.
To Cameron, however, it sounded as if Lyla was distant, rather than right next to him. Everyone rushed over to see what all of the commotion was all about, but in an instant, every color was inverted. Then, it all faded to black...
A bright flash brought Cameron back to his senses. He could tell, however, that was instantly somewhere... different. The entirety of Sharpedo's Bluff was nothing more than a barren cliffside, devoid of life. Even the color had disappeared, the entirety of the ground a depressing shade of gray with black trim. The sky itself was just a long expanse of black with no end in sight.
Getting up from being on the ground proved to be a difficult task as Cameron asked himself, "Wha... what is all of this? Where am I?"
Much to his suprise, however, his voice produced an echo that seemed to go on forever into the frozen expanse. Confused by all of this, he didn't even know that his friends were missing, but a quick 360 proved that he was all alone.
"The Dimensional Scream... it's been awhile since this happened, huh? Wonder what caused it..." whispered Cameron.
His energy didn't seem to be diminished at all. In fact, Cameron felt much stronger than before he entered this strange realm, as a quick check to see if his powers were still working proved to be somewhat of a mistake and sure as heck to be LOUD.
One Thunderbolt from Cameron was all it took to make a giant crater in the middle of what used to be Treasure Town.
"Holy crrrrrrrrrrrrrap... that was AWESOME!" exclaimed Cameron, excited about his newfound strength. However, he felt a bit bad for obliterating Treasure Town, even if it was frozen. Somehow, though, the entire town itself and even the ground seemed to rebuild itself. Even the frozen residents came back bit by bit, but their frozen state remained unchanged.
"It's as if they're all just... trapped in one place, like statues. Immobilized in... time..." muttered Cameron, putting two and two together. Suddenly, it occured to him:
"Oh, s***, am I trapped in my own temporal plane?"
In a moment's notice, he could hear thunderous footsteps. Turning around, Cameron saw a giant dinosaur-like Pokemon, one which reminded him somewhat of a sauropod dinosaur, with various stripes running all across its body, all interconnected by the giant chestpiece the Pokemon had on it. The Pokemon also sported a fin-like structure on its back and a crest on its head, further assuring Cameron of this Pokemon's dinosaur-like structure. Topping it off, the creature had two horns on top of its head, as well as two fang-like horns on its mouth, three spines on the back of its neck, long claws and a short tail.
Cameron knew this Pokemon all too well. However, the stripes were all orange and the gem lodged in the chestpiece was a cherry-colored red, along with the Pokemon's skin being a navy blue. Normally, its stripes were a light blue along with its skin being a lighter shade of blue, not what Cameron was seeing right now.
"That... doesn't look right." said Cameron quietly.
In a moment's notice, the Pokemon bellowed a large roar. To Cameron's mostly selfless heart, however, it wasn't a cry of rage; it was a plead for help.
A message played over and over inside of Cameron's head, a strong message that kept a strong echo:
"Please help! The destruction of time has made me lose all control. Hidden within my bellows of rage is this message for anyone with a pure heart. I urge you to repair the flow of time! HURRY!"
Silently to himself, Cameron whispered, "Looks like me and the guys aren't the only ones wanting to prevent a disaster. The thing trying to stop us from doing it also wants what we want... crazy twist of plans."
However, the message clearly didn't play in the enraged Pokemon's head as well as it went to attack Cameron by stepping on him. In one swift move, Cameron used Quick-Port to transport himself onto the Pokemon's head.
'Waaaaaaait for iiiiiiit...' thought Cameron.
Suddenly, he was being propelled in the air at the speed of Mach 1. By having control of time, this Pokemon was able to locate and attack Cameron without ever pausing himself.
Cameron, however, was unprepared for the attack and had no time to recover as his head impacted to the ground. Much to his suprise, the impact did no damage to him. He immediately recovered from the landing and was on his feet running at the speed of Mach 3 to try and escape his pursuer.
The increased speed didn't help at all as his large pursuer materialized in a mere moment to block his path.
Using all of the power he had gained in this state, Cameron tried to launch Thunderbolt at the tower of power blocking his path, but the attack was proven to be ineffective as the giant Pokemon simply materialized to the right of the attack.
"S***. This isn't gonna end well..." hissed Cameron under his breath.
Before the giant creature could move to attack, a bright pink flash appeared in front of Cameron.
"You don't have much time! Get out of here, GO!" said the flash.
"Wait, time for WHAT?" asked Cameron, worried about everything.
"Your friends are in danger and so is this world! You have to get back. NOW!" bellowed the flash before all Cameron could see again was darkness...
Back at Sharpedo Bluff...
As soon as Cameron went into shock, Lyla immediately held onto him and didn't let go.
"Lyla, he'll be fine. I've seen this happen before." said Grovyle.
"I DON'T CARE! ...I don't..." shrieked, then whispered, Lyla, crying.
"Hey, Lyla? It'll be alright, he's just experiencing a Dimensional Scream." said Daivd.
"A... a what?" asked Lyla, still holding onto Cameron, but not as much.
"It's an ability we all managed to pick up during our travel here. So far, we've only been allowed to see events in the past and future, but this doesn't look like it usually does. I think someone who knows us specifically triggered it on Cameron. What's going on in his head, who knows..." explained Jordan.
"I can see what's going on. He's in the middle of a battle withl... DIALGA!?" exclaimed Tom, losing his focus on Cameron's Dimensional Scream.
"WHAT!?" bellowed Grovyle.
"I saw him. Dialga, only he looked mad. His skin was navy blue and his streamers on his body were orange. His chest jewel was also a cherry red and he wasn't very happy to see Cameron..." answered Tom.
"H-he's gonna be alright.. right, Tom?" begged Lyla.
"I'm not too sure, but I saw some sort of pink flash before I lost focus and broke the connection. My guess is that it's gonna help Cameron out." replied Tom.
With a sigh, Lyla said, "Yeah... everything's gonna be OK..."
"I wouldn't say that just yet..." said an all too familiar voice.
A dark shadow passed through Jordan, Grovyle and Tom, putting all three of them to sleep instantly. Then, out of thin air, the 6 Sableye that were hunting them attacked David, KO'ing him. The only one that was left standing was Lyla, who was still holding Cameron and was refusing to let go.
"It's over. Your little rebellion will end, along with this world. It's over." declared Dusknoir, his resolve unshaken.
"Do what you want with me and them, just... let him be. Please..." begged Lyla, still protecting Cameron.
"... n... nobody... messes with my friends..." stuttered Cameron, now conscious again, but still struggling to get back up; Lyla was still holding onto him, but he didn't even notice. He even pushed her closer to the cliff.
"Cameron, NO! You're too weak, he'll kill you!" screamed Lyla.
"Go. NOW." demanded Cameron.
"Not withou-" started Lyla, but Cameron raised his hand and made a Chidori.
"I'm right behind you, i've just got something to take care of. Just jump, i'll be fine." said Cameron, hoping to reassure Lyla.
"...alright. If you leave me, I won't forgive you..." said Lyla before jumping.
"Oh NO YOU DO-" started Dusknoir, but his words were cut short as Cameron slammed his Chidori on the ground from behind Dusknoir while he had put his focus on Lyla.
Everyone was thrown off the cliff into the water, but Cameron had other plans for his team. In one swift move, he used Quick-Port to get inside his Team's new base, grab that mysterious orb powering the Recharger and use the orb to pluck all of his friends out of the air and hide them, along with himself, inside the Bluff.
However, Cameron's energy had been severely drained from being in the Dimensional Scream state for too long and his quick thinking knocked him out cold on the spot.
Lyla, who had been the only one to survive the assault conscious, put her hand on the orb and used what power she could to transport the entire team, along with any equipment, out of the Bluff.
Chatot and the Guild arrived too late. After hearing the explosion, they had rushed over to see if anyone needed help, but everything seemed alright. If it hadn't've been for Chatot's amazing hearing, Dusknoir might've been swept away, but one cry for help sent Chatot over the cliffside, only to find him dragging Dusknoir back up from the sea. The Guildmaster then sent Croagunk after the Sableye, only to see that, as soon as Croagunk jumped in, the Sableye appeared right next to the Guildmaster, completely dry.
"Which way did they go? Did you see them!?" demanded Chatot.
"No, they've disappeared without a trace. It seems one of them had obtained the Lustrous Orb and is using it to move between the spacial dimensions..." hissed Dusknoir, angered at his own failiure but being careful not to reveal his true nature to Chatot.
"Well, I'll be... how'd they end up getting ahold of that object, I'll never know." hissed Chatot before turning to the rest of the Guild, yelling, "ATTENTION!" and finishing with, "We've got to keep an eye out, these renegades are crafty! The whole world may be hanging in the balance, and the success of this mission will determine its fate!"
'Yes...'., thought Dusknoir to himself, '...it certainly will. Master Dialga will be pleased at this!'
At the entrance to Dark Crater on an island far from the mainland...
Far off on a secluded piece of the island, but close enough to Dark Crater to be within walking distance, the entirety of Team Renegades's equipment appeared in a bright flash of pink off in an empty cave. Using the last of her power to do so, Lyla fainted immediately upon rematerializing with everything else.
Suprisingly, the first one up was Jordan. After a blow like that to the head, most other Pokemon would be out for days, but Jordan shrugged it off as if it was nothing. Getting up wasn't as easy as he thought it would be, as we was still in pain from Dusknoir's sneak attack. Still, he managed to get onto his feet with a little effort. With what little strength he had regained, he started to slowly heal the team back into consciousness using a variation of Water Pulse, which he called Life Pulse.
As soon as the Life Pulse touched David, he immediately awoke. Once David was awake and knew what Jordan was doing, he leapt to his feet and helped Jordan by giving him as much power as he could spare.
Next to awaken was Grovyle. His scratches and cuts from some of the more recent battles were healed almost immediately, along with some of his battle scars. Strangely, the cut on his face grew slightly from the healing. Once up, he also assisted in helping Jordan much like David before had done, but he drew what little power he could from Mother Nature rather than use his own power, which he also used to slowly heal Jordan and David while they were busy with the others.
Lyla and Tom both awoke at the same time, but an hour had passed, meaning their injuries had severely drained them. Tom's arua abilities were somehow damaged, meaning he couldn't use most of his attacks and his "sixth sense" was pretty much useless; although it slowly began to come back, he couldn't use it for more than seconds at a time, and repeated attempts slowly drained him of what little energy still remained in his body. Still, along with Lyla, he managed to get up and the two of them added their power to Jordan's while Grovyle boosted the strength of his healing to support all four of them.
Cameron, however, was an absolute mess. His injuries, physical and mental, were extremely extensive and almost fatal. His left hand was paralyzed from using the Chidori excessively, his spine had suffered multiple major blows, with his tailbone almost being snapped in two, he had extreme head trauma from too many close calls and, to top it all off, his heart rate was skyrocketing. Even with his issues with his aura, Tom clocked in Cameron's BPM at over 130 per minute. To be alive right now, Cameron was in a deep coma. In fact, once Jordan woke up, his first objective was to put Cameron on stasis. Now, all of the efforts of his team went to saving his life, something he had done for all of them at least once.
"...how he's still alive baffles me completely. Any Pikachu subjected to this kind of abuse would've died before even reaching this point. What's giving him this large amount of strength?" asked Grovyle to nobody in particular.
"Something must be taking the pressure off, that's for sure. I've been sensing a large amount of shadow energy anytime he prepared for battle, but I didn't say anything. I kinda know what it's like-" Tom started...
...but he was cut off by Lyla, who finished with, "-to have someone control you. We all know, Palkia used you for his own needs. That was different, I'm gonna guess, because I can sense it, too. He's letting this energy control him willingly."
"...yeah, exactly. Something's been giving him extra power and he seems to be wanting it. But what?" asked Tom.
"I might have an idea. If both of the world's controlling deity's powers are out of balance, someone else must be giving him this power, someone who could only benefit from something like this." suggested Grovyle.
"It's not Darkrai if that's what you're thinking." muttered Lyla.
At the mention of the Pitch Black Pokemon, everyone except Jordan stopped what they were doing and looked directly at Lyla and stared at her with anger.
"WHAT!?" Lyla yelled defensively, then lowered her voice while putting more anger into it and said, "It's all I've got. Any of you coming up with someone else?"
"It's not Darkrai." said Jordan matter-of-factly.
"What do you mean? It makes perfect sense!" argued Tom.
"Not only have none of us - Lyla and Grovyle excluded, of course - even formally met Darkrai, it wouldn't make sense. Even if Darkrai was benefiting from this mess, which wouldn't surprise me, Cameron would never align himself with darkness. Someone else benefiting from all of this is giving him this power. I'm suprised that neither Tom nor David put two and two together and figured it out by now. I knew something was off with Cameron when he got serious; he's always been the nice guy except when he's mad, and even then, it's just blind fury. Someone's controlling his fury and molding it into a controlled seriousness. There's only one Pokemon with that kind of power..." responded Jordan.
In unison, David and Tom both said, "GIRATINA!?" (David added a "Doy!" and facepalmed himself immediately afterwards while Tom just punched himself in the head slightly.)
"Well, that'd make sense, but how did... wait, you guys said you each had a Seven Treasure, right?" asked Lyla.
"Yeah. I... got this one!" answered Tom, proudly pulling out the Terra Cymbal from the Shimmer Desert.
"Oh, right! I almost forgot... I still had this." answered Daving, unceremoniously pulling out the Sky Melodica.
"Lyla, I'm a bit busy. Can you get mine out of my Bag?" asked Jordan.
"Sure, I know what all Seven Treasures look like without color. Shouldn't be too hard to spot." said Lyla, strolling over to Jordan and reaching into his bag for his Seven Treasure. Upon finding the Grass Cornet, Lyla did a double take, recovered and pulled it out.
"But... HOW!?" demanded Lyla.
"None of us know. As soon as we all had regained consciousness in the Guild, we were each given boxes with one of the Seven Treasures in it. Tom had the Terra Cymbal, David got the Sky Melodica, I was given the Grass Cornet and Cameron here had the Rock Horn." answered Jordan.
"WHAT!?" exclaimed Grovyle, losing his air of cool.
Upon mentioning of the Rock Horn, Grovyle leapt towards Cameron and started digging into his Bag, looking for it. Turns out that the digging was pointless as it was the first thing Grovyle laid his hands on.
"So... all the pieces of the puzzle fit. It all connects with this..." muttered Grovyle.
"Yeah, looks like this is the start of the end. But how the heck are we gonna figure out where to go from here?" asked Lyla.
"... I... might have... the answer... to... that..." was what was grunted out of Cameron's destroyed body.
"Guys, did you forget that our leader was INJURED!? I still need help here!" demanded Jordan, visibly annoyed.
"He's right. We'll put this on hold for now and tend to Cameron here." said Grovyle, returning his attention to healing Cameron.
Tom immediately followed suit with Lyla not far behind him and David immediately following. Together, the entirety of Team Renegades went to work healing Cameron...
Back at the Guild...
Dusknoir had been given the space left by Team Renegades once they had been branded as... well, renegades. (What else?)
"They're crafty, but they can't hide forever..." whispered Dusknoir to himself.
His 6 Sableye Agents of Darkness appeared before him at that moment and said in unison as a unit, "Master, may we service you more?"
"Find them. Team Renegades is not allowed to discover the truth." demanded Dusknoir.
"Yes, my liege." said the leader Sableye, then departed with his soldiers.
Dusknoir did his best to try not to destroy anything, but his rage was building. Does Team Renegades have the power to stop this mad Pokemon...?
Alright! As I said, Episode 25 was gonna be long like the next 4 Episodes after it, but that just means more for you guys to read! :D Happy face! :D
I've been working hard since last week to get this finished and I finally managed to get it done! (Procrastination struck again, however, as I put it off for quite some time... :P)
Hope you guys enjoyed it and I can't wait to get out Episode 26! CiNos out! (Before I leave, however, I will keep calling myself CiNos in the Author's Note for consistency. Either name will do when leaving a Review or sending a PM; however, I'd prefer being called Pikachu. :3)