Pokémon Darkness
Part 2: Kanto
Chapter 24: A Call to Arms
Frenzied was how Claire felt as she engaged the Cipher agents, which was further amplified by the incredible speed with which Accelgor attacked. While her attacks weren't a whole lot stronger, especially compared to the higher peons, the sheer number of them allowed Claire to actually have a substantial impact on the battle.
And having an impact like that felt amazing. She had, for the most part, just defended herself in the battle at Fuchsia, and not really gone out of her way to take out any bad guys. And it was no secret to her that she had only even survived the Battle of Opelucid with her small size and sheer luck. This fight, though, was something else. It was the first time she really felt like she was actually directly fighting Cipher. And she loved it. Every peon she took out was one less bad guy who could later go hurt someone. It felt so good to help.
And help she certainly did. After fortifying her soft new body with several Acid Armors, Accelgor was able to take a decent amount of damage, and her speed meant that she wasn't an easy target anyway. Claire found her surprisingly easy to keep up with, and gave out orders fluidly. She and her friends were able to fend the wave of Cipher peons off with little difficulty, especially as they were clearly not Cipher's top agents, and barely half of their Pokémon were even Shadow.
The problem, however, was that they just kept coming. The instant one lost and faded back, another would take their place. Claire's friends were constantly surrounded by a ring of peons fully ready to battle. Their Pokémon were just gradually worn down, while Cipher's numbers seemed to have no end. Claire was eventually forced to withdraw Accelgor for fear of her safety. Zweilous fought just as well, making full use of her new Crunch and Dragon Pulse attacks. She saw at that point, by glancing at the auras in the periphery of her vision, that White's Samurott was the only Pokémon first sent out still fighting, and she was uneasily certain that Bianca was on her third Pokémon and her mom, never much of a fighter, was on her fourth. And there was still no apparent end to what was now clearly a small army.
A while later, once Zweilous had fallen, Claire made a horrible mistake that made her fear for both her life and her soul. She sent out Reinigen in Zweilous's place, and was seized with what sounded like an idea so logical that she could hardly believe she hadn't thought of it before. They could simply purify Cipher's Shadow Pokémon mid-battle, as they had done with the Shadow Haunter they had purified first. As a Februa, she allowed herself, it might have been too difficult to do when the enemies were actively attacking them, but he had evolved. As they hadn't acquired any Shadow Pokémon since his evolution, she wasn't sure how exactly purification would be different, but reasoned that it had to have improved enough to be feasible in a fight.
As for how it had changed, it turned out that it really hadn't. When Claire ordered Reinigen to purify a nearby Shadow Kadabra, he floated motionlessly and focused on the Pokémon as usual, his pink aura creeping over the Kadabra's black one. The process was just as slow, and made Reinigen a very easy target. When a Banette and Glalie ganged up him, Claire hastily ordered Reinigen to stop, just a second after the Kadabra had begun screaming. Reinigen twitched, but took a moment to respond, in which he sustained quite a bit of damage from the Ghost and Ice-types. When he did jerk away, however, Claire deeply regretted it.
The Kadabra's dark aura had only been half-enveloped with Reinigen's purifying glow, and, when Reinigen abruptly stopped, he was left with half a writhing black aura. The darkness stretched and disfigured itself oddly, as the Kadabra shook and shuddered, until it finally dissipated into nothing, and the Kadabra collapsed into a broke heap. Claire's wide, staring eyes filled with horrified tears. She had killed him, in possibly the most terrible way imaginable.
Claire was left in a shaking stupor for an indefinite amount of time, until she heard Reinigen cry out. She snapped out of it just in time to see the Banette knock him unconscious, and, wracked with another wave of guilt, she hastily withdrew him.
She suddenly felt very small. She had tapped into some undiscovered strength at the beginning of the battle, but it was completely gone now. The rush of being able to fight left, leaving her wondering how she had ever managed it. She sent out Graveler, but only reluctantly, and had to stop herself from running to her parents. She just tried to keep from getting hurt while she simmered with guilt, desperately hoping this battle would show some signs of ending.
The end of the battle, however, came incredibly abruptly. Their formation was broken when Ardos decided to send out the legendary Kyurem. White immediately met him with Reshiram, but the two gargantuan Tao dragons filled much of the clearing, forcing everyone to back out. All other fighting stopped for a few moments, as everyone stood mesmerized by the terror and majesty of the savagely battling dragons. Claire herself was unfazed by them in her general unhappiness, especially as a fight between them was nothing new to her. She greatly appreciated being able to shrink back as everyone else was distracted while the dragons dueled.
And then, in those few moments, Cipher's Pokémon began dropping rapidly. This quickly caused confusion amongst them, and the fighting quickly resumed, but the unseen assailant gave Claire's friends the advantage. By the time Reshiram had been defeated but Kyurem had been finished off by White's Excadrill, the number of active peons seemed to have actually declined. This gave Claire the tiniest boost, and she attempted to participate in the battle to some degree. However, as they were no longer in a nice ring formation, they were fairly vulnerable, and still would likely have lost were it not for a voice that pierced the tumult of the battle through every peon's communicator and each of Claire's friend's Pokégears.
"Attention people of Kanto!" cried a voice that Claire recognized as Janine's. Her mouth fell open with astounded joy as Janine proceeded to detail the crimes and corruption of Cipher to the entire Kanto region. Ardos shrieked with rage, and many peons cried out angrily or nervously. This provided Claire with the confidence to strike, and her friends didn't waste the moment of distraction to take out the majority of the remaining peons.
"Ha ha ha! Fuck all of you!" White cackled as Janine's speech finished. Ardos spat several more incoherent yells before giving the angriest retreat order Claire had ever heard. Then, just as quickly as they had appeared, the massive mob of Cipher agents vanished from the clearing. In less than three seconds, none were in sight. Their celebration, however, was dampened, as Koga of the Elite Four (who, Claire was pretty sure, was one of the one's with Cipher) announced that Janine was lying.
"Ah. That fight went well," a calm, happy voice from Claire's right said, and Claire turned quickly in surprise to see Will, the Psychic Elite Four who had helped them at Cinnabar.
"The hell?" White yelled. "Where did you come from?"
"Directly behind you," Will responded. "I thought you would be headed to Pallet Town, but, alas, I missed you. I suspected that you were on your way to Viridian City, but I missed you there as well. I can confirm that the Gym Leader Blue did in fact give an accurate, if concise, description of Cipher which matches up with Janine's. I finally caught up with you while you were preoccupied with those ruffians, and helped you from the shadows. You are quite welcome."
"Uh… Okay," White said uncertainly, as Bianca exclaimed "Thank you Will!"
"No need to thank me. It was my pleasure. You heard the Gym Leader Janine's message, I take it?"
"Well yeah," White chuckled. "Cipher's dead now."
"I wouldn't be so sure," Will said. "But I do hope the announcement was a good thing."
"Why the hell wouldn't it be?" White asked, glaring suspiciously.
"Oh, I don't know," was Will's answer.
"Uh, how do you guys know the Elite Four?" Claire's dad spoke up.
"Ohhh. Right," White said, wincing. "Well, we met Will before we went to Cinnabar Island, but got separated from him there. More importantly, though, two of them are with Cipher. They're, uhh, K… Ko…"
"Koga and Karen," Will finished for her. "Most unfortunately. That would explain his message, if you were perplexed."
"You really didn't think to tell us that, I dunno, first?" Claire's dad said irritably. "That's kind of important."
"Well, whatever," White said defensively. "Let's just get out of this forest. We can, erm, I dunno, tell everyone in the city ahead that Janine's right and that Koga's lying. Lead the way, Claire."
"Oh, right!" Claire said, taking off towards Pewter City.
"Oh, I feel that it is worth informing you," Will said after a short while, "that the Gym Leader Blaine is missing. I went to his gym on the Seafoam Islands before following you, but found the place boarded up."
"Oh. Well that sucks," White said. "You think he's with Cipher? Or that they killed him?"
"More likely they kidnapped him," Claire's dad answered. "He's a nice guy, and crazy smart. Former scientist, or something. They probably wanted him to work on something."
"Huh. Well, we can't worry about that now," White insisted. "Let's just focus on supporting Janine."
It didn't take very long to reach Pewter City after that. The streets were quite crowded with confused and nervous people. Claire fell back next to her mother, as she had always done in crowds. White then took the lead impatiently, despite never having been to the city before. The approach she seemed to think was best was to shout that Janine wasn't lying and not to trust Koga. Bianca joined in after a little, while Will approached individuals and spoke more directly to them. Claire's dad shrugged and went for something somewhere in between White and Will's approaches. Claire followed behind them between her mother and Triton, not saying much of anything. She thought, optimistically, that people seemed more inclined to believe Janine, especially with the spreading accusation that Koga was in league with Cipher. Will's word in particular was persuasive. This created tension with the police, who had actively avoided Claire and her friends, though fights did not yet break out. Many seemed to think it was a better idea to just run.
"Oh, there's Brock," Claire's dad said, pointing. "Gym Leader here. I don't know him as well as Blue, but he'll probably listen to me."
With that, he took off towards the crowd around Brock outside the gym. Claire flinched towards him, not really wanting him to leave. She was worried that something drastic could happen very quickly while he was gone and she wouldn't see him for a long time. She'd missed her parents so much…
Then, as she looked over at Triton, who was standing as silent and deadpan as usual, something crossed her mind. Triton had mentioned his dad in passing a few times (though less frequently in the past few days), and had seemed to think highly of him. But she had no idea who he was, or where he was, and, in retrospect, got the impression that Triton hadn't seen him in a while.
"Hey, Triton?" she said, as White, Bianca, and Will took off in various directions, leaving her with only her mom and Triton. "I-I was just wondering… Who's your dad? And, like, where is he? I mean, you talked about him, but you never said a lot about him, so…"
She trailed off as Triton said nothing, and inched closer to her mom. After a few seconds, however, he spoke, so quietly that Claire had to stand almost directly next to him to hear.
"…Tell me, Claire, was it nice seeing your dad again? After, what, three months? You missed him, right? And it was nice to see him?"
"I… Well, yeah," Claire said, a bit confused.
"Hmm. Good. You have some idea of what it's like, being away for a long time. Three months."
He paused here, sighing bitterly.
"I haven't seen my dad in four years. Some… things didn't go the way he thought they would. Because of that, he's trapped. I've been looking for a way to get him out. I might have found one, but… Well, we'll just have to see how it turns out."
Claire almost found herself wanting to hug Triton. She had thought it was terrible not to see her dad for three months; four years was simply unimaginable. He kept a straight face and an even voice, but she knew that it made him sadder than he was willing to let on.
"T-Triton, I… I'm so sorry…" she whispered back.
"Don't be," he said, sounding angry. "Why should you be?"
"I don't-" Claire began, but her mom spoke up, apparently not having heard much of their hushed conversation.
"Claire, Dad's heading this way with the others. They look excited about something."
She had barely finished when the four reached them. Indeed, both Claire's dad and White were smirking triumphantly.
"There's been a huge breakout in the Celadon Prison," her dad announced.
"And that's gotta be where N and Cheren and all of Cipher's enemies were being held," White added.
"So they're probably doing what we're doing, telling everyone that Janine's not lying," her dad reasoned.
"But what's even better is that a lot the fake police here ran off to the north not too long after Janine's message. I bet they're all meeting up in that base in the northern mountains, since it's more out-of-the-way than the others," White said with rushed excitement.
"Which means this is our chance to drive them out. A lot of people here have already volunteered to help, and more from Viridian and Pallet are pouring in," her dad said, with quite the same tone of eagerness. "Oh, I forgot how much fun this used to be. Right, Rui?"
"I'm not sure I would've called it fun," Claire's mom said. "Exciting, I guess. Claire being in danger makes this more frightening than anything, though."
"Claire's gonna be fine, Rui," her dad insisted. "She's with us, and she at least knows how to look after herself. Don't worry about her."
"I don't see how you can not worry about her," her mom sighed, making Claire feel like something of an inconvenience. She understood what her mom meant, though, and didn't let it make her feel bad. That was the last thing her mom wanted to do.
"Right, so let's just heal our Pokémon, and then we'll head to their base with anyone willing to fight," White announced.
Claire felt a rush of excitement, not unlike the one she had felt as she flew to the Unovan Pokémon League to kick Cipher out of that region. But this moment had been building up for far longer, and the rush was thus far stronger. This was it; she was about to take a major step towards saving everyone. She was going to help free Kanto. At last.
Janine's mind remained numb for what felt like an extended period of time after her… dad spoke, vaguely aware of tears streaming down her cheeks and her body shaking in Muk's grip. She bounced rapidly back and forth between denial and depression, until she simply lacked feeling. Her… dad didn't leave the room, but she wasn't really sure why. She honestly had no idea what was going to happen to her, but this was only a vague, distant concern. The tiny bit of consciousness she managed to maintain was utterly consumed by the trauma of her dad's betrayal.
This ended abruptly with the door crashing open. "Crashing" really was the only word for it. Surge tore through the doorway with his Raichu, his sheer rage radiating across the room. Janine blinked, trying to make sense of this, until she recalled that he had fought with her to the tower. She fell back to reality, but was still stuck in a confusing maelstrom of emotion. She could tell what was about to happen, and honestly didn't know how she wanted it to turn out.
"Koga!" Surge bellowed, his voice making the Muk tremble. "You… You fuckin' traitor! You sold out your region to those psychos!"
"Heh heh, Surge," Koga simpered, his mouth stretching into the grin that preceded battles. "I've been looking forward to this. Your blind national pride makes these matters go even farther over your head than Janine's. But no matter. I have no problems with crushing you!"
"Just try it, you psychopath!" Surge cried. "Raichu, now!"
Raichu's Thunderbolt collided with Weezing's Sludge Bomb directly between the two Pokémon, sending sparks and bits of gunk all over the room. Raichu got a hit in with another Thunderbolt before Weezing filled the room with smoke and Janine lost track of the battle. Based on the shouts and orders, she gathered that Raichu was taken out, not being able to see, and was replaced by an Electrode, who fared little better. It wasn't until the electric ball Pokémon violently blew up with an Explosion attack that the smoke cleared enough for Janine to see.
Weezing had been taken out, which meant that her… dad had the lead by one Pokémon. Janine found logic contradicting instinct on how she should feel about this. She knew that Surge needed to win, or things would go badly for Kanto. But her brain seemed to be rejecting the idea of supporting her father's defeat, clinging to the hope that there was some misunderstanding, that he wasn't really one of them. She even, for just a moment, found herself thoroughly convinced that Surge was the Cipher Admin and her dad was the good guy, and a moment later was terrified that she could lie to herself so convincingly. She was just so horribly confused, and, instinctively, she looked at her dad's face for reassurance.
She wished she hadn't almost immediately. His face shone with the same pleasure of battle as it always did, but, knowing he ranked high amongst cruel sociopaths, it looked quite different. Janine had always thought of it as the same thrill of the fight that all professional trainers felt. But now… there was clearly a malicious gleam in his eyes, a desire to make his opponent suffer. How could she have never seen it before?
Worse, if that was possible, were his words. Janine realized that she had never given them much thought, or assumed that they weren't unusual. But if his expression left any doubt of his patent sadism, his words dispelled it completely. He relished orders that were often crueler than necessary. She suddenly realized, with a jolt of horror, that she must have been mimicking his fighting style in normal battles for years. He had, after all, taught her to fight. Everyone in Fuchsia knew she was fairly friendly in person, but did their respect for her in spite of her age stem from her unconscious cruelty in battle?
She tried, with limited success, to blink these thoughts away, and saw Surge's Jolteon faint from poison that seemed to have been inflicted by the Toxic Spike Forretress had scattered. His Electivire then was sent out and, stubbornly ignoring the various spikes, smashed Forretress with a powerful Fire Punch. Janine feared that he would then be soundly taken out by Forretress's Explosion, but the flaming fist was enough to finish her dad's sole non-Poison-type.
Swalot then took on Surge's Electivire, immediately capitalizing on his bad poisoning with several Venoshocks. Electivire countered with a barrage of Fire and Ice Punches, but soon was clearly suffering from the venom. Finally, in a seemingly ever-mounting rage, Surge ordered a suicidal Wild Charge attack that managed to take out Swalot as well.
Surge sent out his Pachirisu next, and it was perhaps a sign of her current emotional instability that Janine broke down into an uncontrollable fit of laughter that was muffled by Muk's arm at the sight of the tiny electric squirrel being sent out by someone as huge and angry as Surge. She quickly ran out of air, and, although she wasn't really bothered by Muk's fumes, they still made it difficult to catch her breath again. It wasn't until she had nearly passed out from lack of air that she finally managed to stop cracking up.
By the time she did, Pachirisu was giving Venomoth a surprisingly tough time. She kept assuring that the moth stayed paralyzed with Thunder Wave, while using Double Team to avoid the various toxins Venomoth kept trying to use. When Pachirisu's repeated Shock Wave attacks finally took out Venomoth, Janine had to force herself not to burst into laughter again. She was almost glad, even, when Skuntank made short work of the squirrel with Dig.
By her count, Magnezone was Surge's final Pokémon, while her… her dad still had Skuntank and Muk. She realized, with surprise and excitement, that if Skuntank was taken out, Muk would have to release her if her… dad wanted to keep fighting. She'd be able to… to… do something…
Magnezone had the major advantage of being immune to poison. Unfortunately, it was also even weaker to Skuntank's Dig, but it rose high into the air with Magnet Rise to avoid this. This left Skuntank with nothing better to do than repeatedly use Night Slash, while Magnezone blasted several Flash Cannons. However, on its last turn of levitation, it used Lock-On to ready for Zap Cannon, while Skuntank burrowed through the floor. The instant it descended, Skuntank lunged up beneath it, and Janine was certain that Surge was finished. However, still laying on the ground, it launched a great blast of electric power that was more than enough to take out Skuntank. Barely conscious, it floated slowly, barely an inch off the ground.
"It's still alive and awake… Good…" Janine's dad simpered, and something snapped in Janine's mind. This wasn't the father she thought she knew. This was a monster, a savage, sadistic monster, that had betrayed her trust. As Muk slid off of her to finish the Magnezone off, her rage flared up far beyond even Surge's, and with a mangled shriek she leapt at Koga with a violent strike at his throat.
Koga dodged her easily, and used her momentum to smash her against the wall. He kept her pinned there, as she saw Muk pick up the weaken Magnezone and smash it repeatedly against the ground before Surge could recall it. Janine attempted to thrash out of his grip, but he knew exactly how she would normally get out of a pin like this, and easily stopped her.
"Stop, Janine. Please," he said, and the trace of genuine concern in his voice only complicated her feelings further. "I really didn't want to have to do this to you. I never wanted to hurt you. Just ignore whatever you've been told, and come with me. We can work together. We don't have to fight. Please."
Janine considered it. For several seconds, she really, honestly considered it. She could just go with him. They didn't have to fight. It would be so much easier, to just follow him, to allow herself to believe that he was as perfect a trainer as she always had thought him, to still be a family. It wasn't too late. She could do it. It would be so easy.
But she couldn't, and she knew she couldn't. Cipher did so many horrible things, and, even if he did care about her, she knew her dad was a horrible person. He didn't care who he hurt, and, in fact, enjoyed hurting people, but Janine hadn't allowed herself to see that for all these years. But now, it had been forced in front of her face, and she had to accept, as terribly painful as it was, that the father she'd seen had been a mask.
"I hate you," she whispered, feeling tears falling again. The venom in her voice actually loosened Koga's grip, as she had hoped it would, and she used the moment to reach down and click open the only Pokéball she had not yet used.
If the ceiling had been an inch shorter, Zekrom probably would've torn it off. He knocked Koga back as he appeared, who quickly began calling his Muk to attack until Surge punched him in the face. Zekrom narrowly avoided smashing the radio transmitters as he turned around to observe the room. As he faced Janine and the Muk made to attack, Janine called out a command, her voice ringing with anger.
"Zekrom, Bolt Strike!"
Zekrom glared at her for a moment, looking somewhat resentful to Janine, before he turned and charged at the Muk with incredible speed and a huge mass of electricity. He tore straight through the spot where the Muk stood, smashing clear through the wall. A few bits of the Muk were left in the room, and rest presumably dropped five stories after being torn through a wall by a Bolt Strike attack. Janine doubted that it was still alive, but found that she didn't care very much at the moment. It was Koga's, after all.
"Get back here, you-" Surge shouted, as Koga rushed past Janine and leapt out of the hole Zekrom had blown in the wall. Janine hurried to the edge, but by the time she looked down he was nowhere in sight. As Zekrom hovered outside, she gazed down for several seconds, still a bit unsure of what to feel. A few more tears fell, but she quickly swept them away. More than anything, she was angry.
"Surge," she called back, without turning away from the hole in the wall. "Get back on the radio. Tell everyone what happened. Tell them to do something."
"Right, yeah," he said. "They're all going to the 'Mountain Base', just so you know. That's what some old guy told Koga to do, anyway. Sounded like a general order. But where're you headed?"
"That's by Mount Moon, I think. But I gotta give these Pokémon back," she answered, grateful for something of a lead, just before leaping out onto Zekrom's back. The black dragon was clearly less than happy about this, but, having heard what she said, he allowed it.
"Hey Janine!" Surge shouted, halting their takeoff. "It's gonna be all right. You take care of yourself, though, wherever you end up. All right?"
Janine was left a bit dazed. Surge had always been a great friend and mentor to her, something between a father and an older brother. She wouldn't have chosen anyone else to go on this mission with her. While Koga's betrayal still hurt, she was glad that she still had Surge.
"…All right," she replied, and she and Zekrom took off into the air. Just as Lavender Town became a circle beneath them, a sudden bellow interrupted their flight.
"To all the people of this great region!" Surge's voice rang out, far more powerful, motivating, and inspirational than Janine could hope to be. "This is Gym Leader and former Lieutenant Matt Surge. Listen to me! Your Elite Four Koga has betrayed you all! Janine Doku was right! There are evil terrorists among us, who even have taken over the police force! At this very moment they are threatening the safety of our region! They want to steal your Pokémon and corrupt them! They want to conquer Kanto and crush anyone who stands in their way! Are we gonna just sit by and let them take away our liberty? I'm sure as hell not! The time to fight back is now! Drive these monsters from our land! Pursue them to Mount Moon! Defend your home from these invaders! Do your duty to our region! Fight back!"
Janine herself couldn't help but be moved by his speech. Wiping a single tear of raw emotion from her cheek, she leaned forward and whispered to Zekrom.
"Go find N."
And with that, they were off to the north.
Despite the unmasking of Cipher, N was worried as he and Petrel followed Cheren's crowd onto Route 5. The region seemed to be on the verge of anarchy. After all, banishing Cipher would mean dismantling the police force. But he knew he had to trust the people of Kanto to rebuild themselves. Surely they could do it.
The great, booming shout that broke the last strands of order in Kanto came just as they reached the outskirts of Cerulean City. It identified itself as Lt. Matt Surge, the Vermilion Gym Leader, whom N knew only by Janine's descriptions of him. From these he was not surprised that Janine had chosen him to accompany her.
The power of his voice, however, was something that simply had to be experienced. The effect on the people crowding the streets was staggering. Their anger became palpable, and so convincing was Surge's speech that fights rapidly began breaking out with the Cipher agents trying to diffuse the mounting tension. Even N, who was already aware of everything Surge had said and would not call Kanto his home, felt stirred and moved to act. However, he had to remind himself that the Pokémon he held were Janine's, not his, and he couldn't ask them to fight for him.
As such, he and Petrel wound up standing at a distance from what had effectively become a riot. N merely stood, trying to decide the best action to take, while Petrel glanced between him and the chaos ahead. N was starting to lean towards going to Lavender Town to give Janine her Pokémon and hopefully regain his own when Petrel spoke up.
"So, we gonna fight, too?" he asked.
"I can't," N said solemnly. "These are not my Pokémon. I can't ask them to fight for me."
"…Wow, man…" Petrel said, shaking his head. "That's real noble of ya. Me, I'd be fightin' with any Pokémon I could get my hands on. I mean, what're ya gonna do if someone attacks you?"
"Run," was all N could say.
"Damn, man," he half-laughed. "You're crazy dedicated to your morals, I'll give ya that. But if it comes to that, me and Weezin' here'll fend 'em off for ya. So what's next?"
"I appreciate that," N said, nodding. "As for what's next… I'm not sure. I thought I should go to Lavender Town and exchange Pokémon with Janine…"
"…But what?" Petrel said, picking up on N's uncertainty.
"I do not know," N sighed. "Something tells me not to. I can't imagine what, but… I feel like we should stay with Cheren's crowd."
"Well, I'm gonna go with that, then," Petrel said. "Besides, Surge made it sound like Janine left. Maybe that's why you're thinking not to go there?"
"Maybe," N said, but was still unsure.
"Hey! Looks like we're winning! Cipher's backing out!"
N looked back at the mob ahead, and saw that Petrel was right. The sheer number of the population would have most likely been enough to defeat Cipher's on-hand agents. But something seemed off. Cipher's forces could clearly have held up for longer, at least until more soldiers could arrive. But they were retreating rapidly. Perhaps, N hoped, they had decided that Kanto was lost and were prepared to back out without a fight that would result in many casualties on both sides.
"Well, looks like what's-his-face, Cheren, is chasin' after 'em onto Route 4. We gonna follow?"
"Yes," N said, with a flash of clarity. "That's where Zekrom will be."
"Eh? Well, all right then," Petrel said, and they hurried off to catch up with Cheren so N could tell him where the base was. N noticed that they seemed to have picked up quite a few people, which made progressing toward the front of the crowd more difficult. Adding to the challenge was that they soon began climbing the mountains nearby, heading along the general path that N and Claire had used to get from the caverns of Mount Moon to Cerulean City. N and Petrel pulled ahead faster, though, once they reached the large cliff on the north side of Mount Moon. Just before they reached the front, however, the mob came to a sudden halt, and, hurrying to Cheren's side, N soon saw why.
Another huge crowd had just made their way around from the other side of the mountain. White Shirkuro herself stood at the front, with Bianca at her side much as N was at Cheren's. Claire mirrored Petrel next to Bianca. N's mouth fell open, and he took two steps forward, as did Cheren and White. Before they could walk any farther, however, a familiar fearsome roar split the air, warming N's heart even further, and in the next moment the great black mass of Zekrom was landing in the space between the two crowds.
"Hey, N! N! You in there somewhere, N?" Janine shouted as she slid off of Zekrom's back. "Uh… Sorry everyone! I just need to find N!"
She looked somewhat embarrassed as she turned to glance around White's group. N hurried out of his crowd and approached Janine. He made to say something, but Janine began shouting again.
"Uhh, N? You here? Come out, quick! I've got all your Pokémon! N?"
At that point, she turned back around, leaping back upon finding N so close. She recovered quickly, and began yelling again.
"Oh, N! Um, hey! So, yeah, I've got your Pokémon! They're all kinda hurt except Zekrom, sorry! We had to fight for a while and stuff and I guess I don't really need to be yelling anymore, do I…"
She trailed off for a moment and glanced around awkwardly, but again picked back up quickly, and spoke more quietly.
"So, yeah… Really sorry about getting them hurt, but there were a lot of Cipher people, and things were kinda seriously not good for a while. They're all alive, though, I'm pretty sure."
"Thank you…" N breathed, giving Janine a brief but thankful hug. "Your Pokémon are in here. They haven't fought."
"Yes! Thanks, I hoped you'd have them," Janine said quickly as she took the bag from N.
N then turned to Zekrom, and placed a hand softly on his friend's side. He vaguely heard Janine say something, and was equally vaguely aware of Cheren talking to White and Bianca, but was otherwise completely focused on his black Yin dragon.
"You found me here…" N whispered.
"As you did me," Zekrom replied, and N knew that neither of them could help but marvel at their innate understanding. They, the Hero and Dragon of Ideals, were bound in an impossibly deep way. They did not even need to be near each other to understand.
"The others are hurt," Zekrom said sadly. "Is it… true, about Carracosta?"
A horrible sinking feeling overwhelmed N as he recalled his fallen friend, and he nodded sadly. Zekrom let out a low growl of misery before speaking.
"I… did not want to believe it…" Zekrom murmured, before falling silent. N sighed, and made to say some sort of apology, but felt a tap on his shoulder. He had only turned about two-thirds of the way around when White threw her arms around him in an almost painful embrace.
"Gah… You big idiot… You're okay…" she said softly. N almost thought she was crying, and was rather taken off guard, but if she was, she had wiped them away by the time she pulled back. At this, N remembered how much stress he had caused her, and knew he needed to apologize.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered, just as White said the exact same thing. N saw his own surprise reflected on White's face, which melted into sadness exactly as his did.
"No, don't be," he said, right as she did. White stared at him for a moment, with mingled surprise and sadness, before starting to chuckle. N wasn't sure what was funny, but White's perfectly imperfect smile was contagious, as was her laughter. Shortly, they were both laughing quite loudly and foolishly.
"No, but really…" White said as they trailed off. "I'm sorry about… well, a lot of stuff. Most of what I said. I know that's a pretty crappy apology, but we've gotta hurry after Cipher right now."
N understood, and, while he did not think she needed to apologize, he nodded. He turned to Zekrom and met his eyes for a moment before recalling him to his Pokéball.
"Uh, guys?" Janine spoke up. "Listen… As much as I'd like to help you beat up Cipher Admins… Well, Fuchsia kinda needs a leader right now. Everywhere does. Sorry, but… I just… I kinda need to be… I need go."
"Of course," N responded. "Thank you so much for everything you've done."
"Heh, no problem," Janine said as she sent out her Crobat, rubbing her head affectionately. "Just, try not to die out there. Like, take care of yourself. You too, Claire."
With that, she departed the scene. N felt that he hadn't thanked her properly for all the help she had been, but couldn't think of a better way. However, as his attention was directed to Claire, he walked over to her. She gazed up at him, smiling, and he dropped to his knees to hug her properly.
"You're N?" he heard someone ask as he stood up. He barely had time to say "yes" before he was having the wind crushed out of him by a copper-haired woman more than a head shorter than him.
"Thank you… Thank you so much…" the woman gasped.
Once she was done and he had caught his breath, a man with hair the color of wet sand approached him with his arm extended. N stood confused for a moment before realizing the man wanted to shake hands and hastening to do so.
"Thank you…" the woman repeated.
"…You are welcome?" N said uncertainly.
"We're Claire's parents," the man explained. "My name's Wes, and she's Rui. Just… I can't thank you enough for keeping her safe."
"Oh!" N exclaimed. "Yes. Well, you are welcome. She can take care of herself well, though. She kept me safe just as much as I did her."
"Erm, N?" White interrupted. "We really need to go. You ready?"
"Oh, right," he said. "First, do you still have potions?"
"Yeah, sure," White said, reaching into her bag and pulling several hyper potions out. "You need, what, five?"
"…Four," N said glumly. White looked worriedly at him as she handed him the potions. After healing Zoroark, Breloom, Altaria, and Camerupt, he walked toward the cliff's edge and faced the crowds, which had merged together and begun conversing. N caught White's eye briefly, and was filled with confidence, before speaking in the voice of a king.
"Would you all please listen briefly to what I have to say?"
This phrase had quite the opposite effect of what it had had in Unova. Indeed, everyone stopped talking long enough to turn to him, but several quickly shouted out, with surprising anger.
"Wait, is that N Harmonia?"
"It is!"
"He's a terrorist!"
"Is he with those Cipher people?"
"He must be!"
"Shut up you idiots!"
This last one was shouted by White, Petrel, and, to N's surprise, Claire's father Wes, approximately simultaneously. To N's even further surprise, Wes then proceeded to march to a spot between N and the crowd, and yelled further.
"Think, for one second!" he bellowed at them all. "Who said he was a terrorist? The police! Who have just been confirmed to be part of a real terrorist group? The police! Put two and two together, and this man is obviously one of their greatest enemies!"
A brief silence followed, as this gradually dawned on each member of the crowd. After a while, once he had decided it was safe to, N spoke up again.
"Listen, please…" he began, and, when no one called out again, he went on. "See that peak over there? Just shorter than Mount Moon? Cipher's Mountain Base is just on the other side of it, where they subject Pokémon to the dreadful process that turns them into Shadow Pokémon. As of now, it is their last base in Kanto."
"Is it true that they have hundreds of Carien and Verborden there, and extract their venom for the Shadow process?" a familiar voice suddenly interrupted. N scanned the crowd and was somewhat surprised to identify the speaker as Triton. As he was standing next Claire, however, N reasoned that he had finally specified his stance to be against Cipher.
"I'm not certain," N answered. "But probably. When I was last in there, I saw many unfamiliar black, spiderlike Pokémon in cages. With knowledge of the ancient Carien and Verborden species, I can conclude that it was most likely them. However-"
"Why were you in there?" someone else called out, whom N did not recognize.
"I was attempting to destroy the laboratory, or at least damage it. I was lucky to just get out alive. However, if everyone present is certain they wish to fight, fully aware that you stand a good chance of dying at Cipher's ruthlessness…"
Here he paused, giving people the opportunity to back out. Instead, after a moment, several proud shouts rang out, insisting that they were ready.
"…Then we will certainly be more than a match for them. The base is simple enough that we need merely break in and fight our way forward. Free any caged Pokémon you come across, and defeat any Cipher agents. It should be simple. In a short time, Kanto will be free of these monsters. Is everyone ready?"
A roar of agreement and eagerness to fight rose up. N reveled in the cheers for a moment, in the shadows of the storm clouds left from Kyogre's presence, before calling out again.
"Then let our endeavors be prosperous!" he cried, and he turned and, with his friends soon at his side, led the charge through the mountain pass that lead to Cipher's final stronghold in Kanto.