Chapter 37 - The Fate of the World
Team Annihilation HQ – The White Room - Isaac Anderson's POV
With one last strike from... hmm, I guess I never asked which one of my Pokemon dealt the finishing blow to the thing that used to be Juliet, her body disintegrated leaving only a large pile of ash.
The more I looked at the remains of that monster, the more I believed that Juliet was in there somewhere, before my Pokemon defeated it. I mean, what if Juliet could've been saved? What if that my false mindset I created that she; Juliet, was still alive looking for a way to be saved by that heart condition she had before death... what if this was a way she could've been saved from any heart condition? If I had prevented this corpse from attacking, we could've looked for a way to undo what had been done.
But what if there wasn't a way to undo all of this? Would it have been harder to do it later? Then letting her go... it would've been difficult.
"Isaac, Are you alright?" Growlithe asked, looking up at him, and my Pokemon standing with me.
"We have to escape from here and find the others," Ampharos took a step closer to me resting her paw on top of my head, "Please Isaac, we need you."
"Uh... y-yeah but, how can we get out of this cage?" I asked any one of them as i took one last glance at the ash piled behind the Pokemon.
"Don't sweat about it," Yamask smiled before removing its mask. "All i can do to overcome a row of metal bars is to just levitate right thought them and pilfer the keys the guards will probably most likely have... maybe."
Yamask's form slowly faded as he levitated over towards the entrance of this white room we were trapped inside. After a few short moments of silence and waiting, Yamask reappeared beside me with a set of keys.
After trying one key after the other, (26 keys... that's how many.) I finally reached the 14th key and unlocked the cage... now to do the same for the white room's door unless it's already unlocked.
Running to the white door i begged not to have to shuffle through the set of keys, "Please don't make me do it again. C'mon man."
Did I have to try with the white door like i did with the cages? You got that right... and it was the last key to use out of the set. *Sighs*... I hated those set of keys, wonder why they didn't use a key card or something?
With the door now unlocked and opened by me, i glanced out to find that the guards had already been defeated, knocked out by Yamask with broken shards of a pot, a flower pot to be precise.
"Where does he get these pots from? Whatever, I'll save that for later," The coast was clear, but we weren't out of the woods just yet. We needed to find the others and get the hell out of this joint.
"Alright," I turned to the others standing close by me ready to defend from the enemy or to fight. "Let's go."
Out of the two ways I could've gone down this corridor, I wondered where it would take us. Would it lead us away from our friends, towards them, or maybe towards the enemy? It was risky, but for some reason I wasn't afraid of them, Team Annihilation or those corpses anymore. Was I just filled with determination on finding my friends, a way out? Did I just not care anymore about the dangers; I was used to it in a way? Or did I not care about my life anymore?
Team Annihilation HQ - The White Room 02/03 - Sakura's POV
Zack's and my Pokemon were brought into a large white room with me for about 10 minutes now just waiting for whatever reason they brought us in for. As they were shoving us into this white room, i think i overheard one of the guards standing guard beside one set of doors talking about some kind of machine that was just 'finished' or 'fixed' not sure which word was said, but they quickly hushed as we approached.
"Greetings Miss Sakura Kanai, i am glad you could make it here." The speakers had activated, a man's voice echoed throughout the entire room, I didn't recognize it. "Your case is... interesting in a way. Not the kind of thing you'd bring up in a conversation."
"My name is Juro, i am the leader of Team Annihilation. You see, your friend Zack Raines during his career within the Saviors has caused a lot of damage to my group... n-no, not just him, but you and that blonde delusional idiot boy who claims his girlfriend is still alive."
"W-what? I-Isaac's- but Juliet is alive, Isaac said-"
"Oh, he 'Said' did he? There was never a Juliet within Black city Hospital this week or last month, she had been dead a year before you met up with the boy." I didn't respond to that, it was a lot to take in; I didn't know if i believed it. He was a member of Annihilation- their leader that is.
"And that's not all about your friends, *chuckles* it would seem that your friend Zack Raines died when he was 4 years old. He was revived by us by mistake during the reanimated corpses program. And right about now, he is bleeding to death by non-other than his precious Latias controlled by me ever since it escaped from us when it was young." He continued...
"And what about you Sakura Kanai? Why the counselling at a young age? Why did you hate that man known as your father? He abused you and your mother right?"
Remembering how my mother was harmed during the attack in Castelia city...i hated them, i hated how they hurt those people and my mother that day. I stood up and shouted. "You! You hurt my mother during that attack in the city! She could've died because of you! Show yourself!" Gritting my teeth at the silence that slowly followed, i waited for Juro to either laugh or make some snide comment.
"Interesting anger my dear, but which person on this planet do you harbor the most anger for?" Without warning, a small section of the center of the room opened up and out came a man knelt down, hands tied behind his back with what looked like he had a sack over his head with a small piece of string attached to it.
"Me, who has done nothing but attempt at altering this filthy world? Or is it that man with a sack over his head? Jacob Carter, the very same man who you and your mother were beaten day in and day out." The string pulled and the sack revealed like Juro Said; Jacob Carter, but he wasn't in a way himself, he was a reanimated corpse.
Still in his same appearance as he looked from when i last saw him, when i was young. He still wore the same outfit he wore whenever he had to go to 'work' or so he called it. I'm not sure what he did for a living besides hurting us, i never saw him around my hometown whenever he left. Perhaps i thought that he went to another town or city to either earn money in some illegal way, or maybe he had a normal career... who knows.
"He wasn't exactly easy to find within a month. It took some time and a lot of our intelligence agents to go out and find this man, holed up surrounded by empty bottles and trash in a rundown apartment in some petty corrupted city."
"Now, i am afraid our conversation will have to be put on hold. I am a little busy for the moment. Happy reunions… Sakura." The speakers shut off. The corpse once Jacob Carter stood effortlessly up despite its broken shins. Maybe Team Annihilation built in some kind of protective armor in their bodies; most reanimated corpses we have encountered on our journey, their bodies were either hanging by a bone or torn to shreds.
All of my Pokemon stood with Zack's Pokemon in front of me ready to fight the reanimated corpse standing there growling as it twitched its head back and forth, until it ran right towards us.
If it were Jacob Carter as he was still alive running at us like this corpse was, could i give the command to kill him after what he did to us? N-no... i couldn't. After everything he did to me and my mother, i would rather see him locked up than give him a quick death, but since he was a corpse now, a being far from returning to its original state, far from being the man he once was, I'd gladly end its life.
12 Minutes later
Jacob Carter's reanimated corpse was defeated, dead. His body turned to ash leaving a huge pile on the white tile floor. It wasn't a long battle, a few strikes from the Pokemon and it was down within seconds. A little part of me... almost, kind of wanted the battle to last longer than a few seconds. The other part of me was glad it was over. It left me feeling unsatisfied about it all.
But a thought came at seeing the pile of ash on the floor; 'Jacob Carter would never harm us again. The constant fear of his return was now gone. Mom... it's over, w-we're free...'
Suddenly, the door of the white room burst open as Isaac and his Pokemon entered the room with other people and Pokemon following closely behind. Yamask however was carrying a flower pot looking as if he was about to strike someone with, then again; Isaac did mention on a few occasions that Yamask did attack people who threatened Isaac and his friends with a flower pot he obtains from Arceus knows where.
"Sakura, hey, are you alright?" He asked gasping for breath after running that short distance from the door of the room to the center where we were. "Man, after 7 other cells we finally managed to find you."
Looking over Isaac's shoulder, i saw the people that Isaac had rescued; an elderly man and woman stood crying as they embraced one another. 3 young children age 8-12, 2 men covered in cuts across their faces and chest area, had Team Annihilation hurt them or did the two had a fight prior to Isaac finding them, the two didn't seem to get close to one another, in fact one of the men was frowning slightly. And finally was a middle aged woman holding a young girl in her arms crying.
"Isaac, what about Zack, did you find him?" I asked as he looked up at me shaking his head slightly.
"We looked, *huff* b-but we didn't find him. Luckily we evaded all of the soldiers guarding the freakin' place, room and corridor... nothing."
"Since there are more of us, we have a better chance at finding him plus defending ourselves from the enemy." At that, Minccino cheered as she stood carefully on my head. Isaac glanced over at the ash pile near the corner of the room.
"W-was that... another one of those corpses?" Isaac asked not sure if he wanted to even ask that.
"Yes... some I- he was my s-stepfather..." I stared at pile of ash again.
"I uh... I'm sorry for your lose..."
"Don't be, he was a horrible man. He put both me and my mom through hell for years..." Isaac quickly scratched his head and shifted his eyes away from the pile of ash.
"He always hurt my mom frequently... but me, he always hurt me on rainy days, i don't know why he did it..." I was tearing up, but Isaac walked close to me and hugged me, then i let my emotions overcome me.
"I was lying the whole time, to you, to Zack... even myself." He pushed away slightly, but still held me. "Juliet was... she was dead long before we met up. *sniff* man, i must look like some kind of idiot, huh?"
Shaking my head I pulled him closer, "No, you're not. You didn't want Juliet to die, you loved her."
"I di- I mean, I still do... but, i have to accept the fact that she can rest in peace now..." Isaac looked up sadly at the white ceiling, and then he looked down at me and smiled, "Let's find Zack and get the heck outta here!"
Team Annihilation HQ - The White Room - Normal POV
I regained consciousness still that white room with Dewott sitting beside me. My attempts to speak were unsuccessful as i felt a painful burning sensation inside and on my throat. I forgot about that; Latias had struck me with her claws against my neck. I thought at that attack that this was it, the final attack that would kill me, but luckily the cut wasn't too deep otherwise i wouldn't be waking up in that room again.
The rest of my body, my arms, my legs, and my chest were covered in cuts, not anything fatal... they just hurt badly.
I was surprised that i didn't die, maybe while Latias was being controlled by Juro, she held back or something, trying to resist maybe. After struggling to stand up, Dewott noticed me trying to stop me from moving since small amounts of blood began to drip from my open wounds. The pain suddenly kicked in again, this time more extreme to the point where I cried out in pain halting my movement slightly.
"D-De-w-w... Do-door... gah!" My throat hurt, it felt like i had a sore throat, the worst ever. I was trying to tell Dewott to get to the door of this room and try to escape if could. Dewott gave a slight nod seeming to understand me. He walked close to me and helped me walk/crawl to the door.
It was a painful attempt to reach the door of the room, but we made it in the end as Dewott activated his Razor Shell move and began slashing at the door.
With each slash dealt to the door, no damage was visible, not a small scratch or even a dent, but Dewott continued trying with every strike to damage the door freeing us from this room.
About a couple of more minutes now, Dewott was tiring out still continuously striking the door still undamaged. The pain throughout my body fell, but my throat still hurt the most.
"Maybe Latias did strike my throat worst than i thought." Lightly touching my throat on which i regret on touching as i felt a massive bolt of pain in my neck that i almost choked. Dewott stopped striking at the door and ran up to me.
"Dewott, Dew!" Before i could look up at him, the door of the room opened with an alarm echoing beyond the room. The speakers from outside i could pick up were;
"Prisoners have escaped! All security personnel sweep areas through E, D, E, and F. Shoot to kill permission granted." This played another few times until the alarm was the only thing that echoed in that white room. Standing up slightly and limping towards the corridor with Dewott to defend me, we walked hoping to find Juro so we could end this.
Team Annihilation HQ - The Machine - Control Room
It wasn't long until we found this room, a large room full of computers, machines with different colored lights and monitors all displaying some kind of coding and text. Peeking a lot closer there was a loud roaring from countless corpses over the railing overlooking a large opened cage from below. There were so many of them, hundreds maybe, humanoid, bipedal corpses of human and Pokemon variants of so many kind, some had been formed into some kind of hybrid or human/Pokemon.
But the room wasn't just the hundred of corpses, there were about 6 Annihilation Soldiers all armed, 4 others in lab coats all gathered around a lone man wearing a black suit standing before a large machine with one monitor in the center and a keyboard in front, it was like looking at a giant computer screen. Latias or her sister weren't there, with or without them Dewott wouldn't stand a chance against all of the soldiers here.
"Hey!" One of the guards had spotted me and all soliders aiming their weapons in our direction as we hid behind the wall. The scientists turned hiding behind the soliders for protection, all except the man wearing the suit typing onto the board as he spoke.
"I have spent countless resources and manpower just to create this machine, a machine so powerful, so great, so wonderful, only a god could achieve something like this people once told me long ago…" Juro stopped typing and glanced over his shoulder, "Today is the day the world's corruption ends."
"Gah!" One of the soldiers, a female soldier was shot with a large sphere of electricity from the other side of the railings leading to another room on the opposite side. Sakura and Isaac where there with their Pokemon as they let them use their moves to defend and attack against the soldiers on my side using their own initiative.
"Zack, we're over here. We'll keep 'em busy." Isaac shouted over the loud roaring of the corpses. "Growlithe, light them up with ember! End them." Growlithe charged up a large attack from its muzzle and shot multiple shots at the corpses below setting most of the crowd to ignite causing the volume of the roaring to rise.
"Soldiers, fire at those kids. Allow me some time to finish imputing the codes! I will not allow a bunch of children and their brainless pests to prevent me from my goal!" Juro began typing faster, his forehead began to sweat.
One of the scientists looked out from behind the solider, only to be struck with a flower pot obviously from Yamask after hearing him shout out a 'Yaaa' before the scientist fell unconscious. A large storm of or countless leaves rushed towards the soldiers damaging their armor and their weapons slightly. The soldiers retaliated by throwing grenades after pulling the pins, but all of the grenades that were thrown were immediately pushed downward by Totodile and Marill's Watergun moves, exploding a few moments after.
One by one the soldiers fell followed by the scientists trying to run away or to fight back. Juro being the only one left except the one unconscious female soldier continued to type the commands into the keyboard trying with each button to get closer to reaching the end.
Walking with Dewott to stop Juro, Sakura and Isaac were attacked by a small amount of soldiers and small drones shooting at the Pokemon. Lugia, Yamask and Salamance focused their attacks on the drones, and the rest focused all of their attacks on the soldiers.
Almost halfway now and Dewott began to run with his scalchop in paw at Juro still focused on typing into the keyboard. I was grabbed from behind as the female solider had grabbed me by the neck trying to throw me over the railings.
"Die, you corrupted Savior!" the soldier screamed attempting to lift me up and throw me off down towards the corpses reaching out with their arms attempting to grab me. Dewott looked back and ran at the soldier trying to throw me off, but the solider kicked him in his stomach making him gasp out in pain.
As I was almost lift up above her shoulders, I managed to reach out with my free hand and grabbed onto the handrail and held onto her arm with the other, but that didn't stop her from trying to throw me off. Dewott shook off the pain in his stomach and attacked the soldier by striking at her calves with razor shell as she screamed letting go off me as I fell back onto the ground. Quickly standing up before the soldier could attack again, me and Dewott both pushed her off over the railing as she fell down on top of the reanimated corpses softening the impact.
"Wait! N-no, NO! *Screams*" The soldier struggled to escape the large crowd of the corpses, but they overwhelmed easily. That was what the Reanimated corpses did whenever they attack an enemy, to kill them however they wanted.
"Corruption," Juro began glaring at me, "This world is full of it. It is everywhere and in most people and regions. Hatred, I am trying to get rid of it, the act of hatred, the meaning of it, it all must go!"
Suddenly, Juro ran up to us with a wrench and hit Dewott across the face pushing him to the floor. Juro then rushed at me trying to strangle me with the wrench pushing me over the railing.
"You miserable FREAK! Years, and I mean years have I built this machine and for what? For some snotty nosed little brat and his friends to get in my way of a new world? NO damn it! NO! This machine will allow me to recreate this corrupt world and change it for the better! No more war, no indifference, no hatred or corruption! All of that will be a story for future generations, and no fucking kid will deny me of that! AGH!" Dewott had stabbed Juro in his leg deeply, yet he refused to let go of the wrench. He pushed me further hoping that I would fall off, but I didn't as I held onto the wrench refusing to give in.
"G-get off, damn it! Die!" Juro screamed furiously trying to angle the wrench so that I couldn't grasp it anymore, but with that final push, one of the railings broke off the wall and dangled leaving us to hang over the corpses screaming and biting with their rotting teeth to kill anything they could find. Holding onto the railing still with my hand, Juro was holding onto my leg as the corpses below managed to grab onto Juro's legs, pulling him, it was either Juro let go, or if he held on any longer I would fall to.
Juro looked up at me with one final look, it was a furious glare before he let go into the corpses knocking a few of them to fall back. Juro managed to quickly stand up and strike at the reanimated corpses that got too close to him. "S-stay back! I created you, obey me damn it!" But they didn't. Each corpse approached and struck at him with their hands, paws or claws and sharp teeth digging into his flesh. Struggle all he could, Juro was finally killed by the corpses as the flame from Growlithe's ember had grown into a fiery inferno below burning all.
Only a handful of the corpses remained, that was when Dewott stared out into the fire engulfed corpses tearing at their former master that he saw something or better yet someone he hadn't seen ever since he was an Oshawott.
There near the other corpses still alive were two Oshawott-like corpses with their bodies slowly disintegrating due to the flames. Dewott watched the two as they burnt, on the male corpse was a large scar across its chest area… his father had the same exact scar, and his mother had the same scars on its arm and forehead from a bite wound from a Houndoom that killed the two whilst protecting him. Dewott teared up at this sight. He believed it were his parents standing in the flames, he hated seeing them like that, what they had become.
Climbing back, Dewott helped me across and stood a little longer watching the flame engulfing the last of the corpses. Sakura and Isaac had finished off fighting the remaining soldiers and drones as they fled. All we needed to do was escape.
Dewott and I began to run out towards the exit of the room to reunite with the others and escape the building, but I was thrown back onto one of the computers stationed near the machine, Latias had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and tried to strike at me again with one of her claws. Thankfully the keyboard was the only thing I could use in a means of defense, but only for a little while as with one powerful strike with Latias' claw shattered it a pieces. Latias raised her paw up high and struck down towards my head.
I evaded the attack, and so Latias' paw broke through the computer monitor electrifying her before it exploded with small shards stabbing into my back. Latias fell unconsciously to the ground hitting her head on one of the dropped guns left by the soldiers during the fight. The machine behind me began to shut off.
From where Sakura and Isaac where, the two looked up and saw Shiny Latias shaking as she watched her masters death and Latias' defeat. Shiny Latias glared at us before looking up at the ceiling causing it to collapse and levitating up above to escape the base. She had escaped the base and the area, fleeing north of Unova crying only slightly, but narrowed her eyes after hearing a loud explosion from the base.
She then flew faster towards her destination, screaming in rage.
Her home was destroyed…
…and so was Team Annihilation.
To be continued...
Trivia
The first plan for the story had the Reanimated Corpses actually speaking, but they only spoke backwards and only one word or two. These words they spoke were often the last words they said before their death. This idea however was dropped for a future idea.
AN: 3 more chapters to go until the end of 01. Thanks for reading the story so far, feel free to leave a review and whatnot, until next time.