Hey, all! If this chapter took a while, my apologies, it required a lot of time to write and school intervened, as always. Enjoy pt. 2 of the Hero mini-arc!
Mimic12355, Tyranitar and the other Chosen are on the way to Ever Grande on a boat with Ash's mom and Professor Oak. They'll arrive the next morning.
Astoundingly Anonymous, I named Duke Nukem after the yellow rocky guy with the red Mohawk and radioactive powers. I assumed that was his name on the show. I guess I was wrong. I haven't seen Stream, so I'm afraid I'm not sure what you're talking about. Is the anime that bad? It's not just Lance's ego that's doing this, but a combination of other things as well, such as adherence to his beliefs (no matter where they take him), and a desperate desire for redemption. But like so many other things in life, that path can take you the wrong way…anyway, if I vaporize him, how will he ever feel the crushing guilt for what he's done? Your idea about crystal radiation is correct, as this chapter and possibly the next will demonstrate. Has Lance been affected, though? Well…I don't think so. You might be reading too much into it. Your speculation about the security system is correct as well. Nice job!
In any case, I'm glad to hear from you again, HVK my old friend. The lessons you've learned are wise ones indeed. If only more people remembered them. If the crystal were used on Mandy… OO Dear sweet heavens, the only thing that could possibly be worse is if it were used on Gaz. What horrors would that unleash! And you're right, corruption isn't so easy to smell. Ford himself has been corrupted partly by pride, belief that he's doing the right thing, and his 'destroy crime and evil' values. I wouldn't want Lance's soul either if I were the bad guy, it's such a piddling and insignificant bit of quintessence.
Palestine, Pakistan…eh, both are in the Middle East. No matter, Gladdecease. The Soldier Scouts will reappear shortly. Thank you for the T-shirt statement Ash made. And as always, I agree with you on Ford's ideals and other issues. If you thought the last chapter's ending was great, well…heh…wait'll you see this one.
The stakes can always get higher, Ring of Fire. The big battle for the fate of the world will begin in just a few chapters, my friends. I've never played HALO, but I know of it. Charizard won't try to commit suicide, don't worry. His self-confidence has soared thanks to Charla's reappearance. And as for Saunders…of course he'll influence the fight! It's in his best interest, after all.
Trust me Eaglefox, the story is ending, but when I mean 'soon' I mean it'll probably take me another few months. So you can relax. Rayquaza and Latias will meet soon.
MichaelDJ54, I'm afraid you'll have to wait just a little bit longer for that war. But it'll start soon, I promise you that.
Disclaimer: All concepts and characters in this chapter not owned by me belong to various companies in Japan whose names I'm having trouble recalling. I'd also like to give a big thank-you to DiamondLatias3000 for helping me make Latias not look like a power-mad whiny bitch this chapter, along with putting up with me and other things.
…
The party at Battle Pavilion was winding down in the aftermath of the Pokerockers performance of Simple and Clean. Tired, full, and happy, many guests (including young Carrie Hawkins, who had been up way past her bedtime) were leaving for home, causing the number of people on the dance floor to gradually decrease. This did not bode well for Misty Waterflower, for even with the reduced numbers she still couldn't find Ash.
"ASH!" she called, pushing her way past an overweight and overdressed couple, looking desperately for any sign of her boyfriend. "Ash, where are you!"
"Misty!" May came running over.
"May, have you found him?" Misty asked anxiously.
May shook her head. "I've asked all over the place, but nobody's seen him."
"Seen who?" Latias asked, floating over with a cup of juice in one claw. Gardevoir was walking alongside her; empty-handed because she did not like the taste of the juice (it stung her taste buds).
"Ash," Bayleef explained, coming over from her own failed search. "He disappeared at some point during the dance when Wes escaped from the party and went riding off into the wilderness on Zoro's horse, chased by Zoro and Rui. We haven't been able to find any sign of him at all."
Latias blinked. "Huh," she said. "That's funny. Gardevoir and I saw him just a little while ago, didn't we Gardevoir?" The Embrace Pokemon nodded in agreement. "We saw him and Harrison when they passed us on the bridge. They joined some guys in costumes and Mr. Ford and headed off somewhere."
Misty was instantly on full alert at this. "And you didn't think there was anything suspicious!"
Latias winced. "Not until right now…I thought they were just trying to get away from the party. We all know Ash didn't want to be here that badly." She looked down at the ground sadly. "I should have stopped him…"
"No, it's okay," Misty said quickly, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "You couldn't possibly have known something was up."
"We don't even know if anything is up," Bayleef pointed out. "We might all just be blowing a simple party escape into something worse."
"Well, I think I know who we can ask to know for sure," May said, a smirk on her face. "I saw Harrison get back, by himself, just a little while ago. He's been chatting with some friends of his ever since."
"Well then, why don't we chat with him?" Misty said, narrowing her eyes. "Take us to him, May."
The brown-haired girl nodded. "Okay. Last I saw him, he was over here…"
May started to lead the group through the thinning crowd towards Harrison. Along the way, they picked up Brock, who was still wearing a Venus costume and had a face red from crying, and Togetic, who was somewhat concerned Phanphy hadn't come back from the bathroom yet and hoped he hadn't fallen in the toilet again.
Harrison was laughing at something the girl he was talking to said when he saw the approaching group of friends out of the corner of his eye. Certain they were going to ask where Ash was, he quickly told his friend he had business to attend to and turned to face the group, already phrasing a response to any questions they might have for him in his mind. That response disintegrated when he saw the determined look on Misty Waterflower's face that told him that if he did not have the answers she sought or tried to deceive her in any way, she'd either smash his head in with her mallet, feed him to her Gyarados, or do both. Swallowing and trying to ignore the cold sweat running down his spine, he forced a smile as they reached him. "H-hey guys, what's going on?" he asked, cursing himself for the tremor in his voice.
Misty grabbed Harrison by his tie and yanked him down to her height so their noses almost touched. "You're the last person who was with Ash. Where is he?"
"She doesn't need to be this…hands-on, does she?" May asked in concern.
"Better this than some of the other methods she has of making people talk," Brock said with a shudder, remembering how she had mercilessly tortured him one time until he finally admitted that he had been the one who had been stealing her underwear in her sleep. "If anything, Harrison should be thankful he's getting something as physically painless (though psychologically scarring) as her infamous stare."
Harrison swallowed, nearly choking due to the tightening of his tie which had resulted from Misty grabbing it. "I-I don't know-" Misty hefted her mallet, and Harrison went pale, any pretense at calmness and deception he had mustered fading. Yes, he wanted to keep his promise to his father, but he was more frightened of Misty than breaking his father's trust. "M-my dad wanted to see him!" he blurted out, praying she'd put that giant hammer of hers away.
"His dad? As in, his dad Mr. Ford, who owns this place?" Togetic wondered in surprise, voicing everyone's confused reaction to this knowledge. "What would he want to see Dad for?"
Misty nodded slowly. "That's a very good question, Togetic. Harrison! Why did Ford want to see Ash?"
"Just to congratulate him on getting so far, and give him advice for tomorrow," Harrison said quickly, a meager portion of his courage coming back to him.
Her eyes narrowed. "You're lying."
"I'm not, honest!" Harrison protested.
"He is, I can tell!" Latias said triumphantly.
Her friends stared at her. "You can?" Bayleef asked in disbelief.
"Well, of course I-" She stopped, confused. "Wait. I actually could. Since when have I been able to tell when people were telling the truth or not just like that?"
"Tell the truth, Harrison," Misty growled,
jerking on the tie and nearly strangling the teen. "Where. Is.
Ash?"
"My dad took him to Battle Tower," Harrison gasped,
deciding that breathing was more important than helping his father at
the moment. After all, if he died, who would his father choose to
inherit his business? "He's going to give him a gift…make him
the greatest hero in the world!"
"What?" May said, confused. "What are you talking about?"
"He's talking about HERO," said Tuxedo Masquerain, materializing out of the crowd with a rose in hand. "It's a machine Ford Industries invented to grant normal kids superpowers so they can fight crime and save the world and stuff. That's how he made the Poke Rangers, me, the Soldier Scouts, and a bunch of others you probably haven't heard of. It doesn't work well on Pokemon, for some reason. I volunteered to be changed by it after I was almost killed by the thugs in Lilycove, and I think I turned out marvelously, don't you?" he asked with a wink at May.
Everyone instantly flashed back to how Drew had behaved recently, especially during Ash's battle in that very Pavilion. "I have a bad feeling about this," Latias moaned.
"What?" Tuxedo Masquerain asked, puzzled by the worried looks on their faces. "He'll turn out fine! Better than me even! Heck, I have to go through the thing every couple of weeks or so to keep from devolving into that arrogant jerk you were familiar with these last few days. I'm sure Ash won't even come close to becoming a jerk, semi-evil, power-mad, or out-of-control like almost everyone else who's been through HERO!"
Their hearts almost stopped at this revelation. "That bad feeling's getting worse," Latias groaned.
"You IDIOT!" Misty snarled, eyes burning. "What have you done!"
"It's nothing to worry about, honest!" Harrison protested. "Ash's character is perfect for this! The only reason the heroes created by HERO haven't been working so well is due to certain character flaws, we're sure of it! Ash's pure heart and noble soul will transform him into the greatest champion Earth has ever known, someone who will unite us all against the evil which is causing all these global catastrophes!"
"Saving the world? But that's our job!" Togetic protested. "The Unown chose us for that! Which isn't to say we wouldn't accept help if we were offered it, but I wouldn't want that help to come this way, not if there's a chance that it'll turn Dad into something like…well, like him!" she said, pointing at Tuxedo Masquerain.
"Apparently this Ford character didn't get the memo," Bayleef grumbled. "So now he's going to try to save the world himself using some weird, dangerous, and no doubt illegal method and probably get himself--and Ash--killed. Great."
Latias nodded. "Well, we have to do something about that, don't we?"
"Right," Misty agreed. "You're taking us to Battle Tower, Harrison."
"Wh-what!" he cried, startled. "I can't do that! You'll ruin everything!"
"That's the plan," May said with a glower.
"But-but Ash has to do this!" Harrison protested. "We need him to save the world!"
"Exactly," Misty snapped. "Which is why we're putting a stop to this. If Ash goes through with this, he might not be Ash anymore. We'd rather have him as a regular human than something like the Poke Rangers or…well, him," she said, gesturing to Tuxedo Masquerain.
He blinked. "What's wrong with being me?" he asked, looking insulted.
"You run around in tights with a Masquerain mask on all the time," May said flatly. "Need we say more?"
Tuxedo Masquerain sweatdropped. "Good point."
"B-but you'll doom the world if you do this!" Harrison cried. "How can you be so selfish!"
"SELFISH!" Misty roared, and Harrison realized he had made a fatal mistake when he saw the furious expressions on all their faces. "Is it selfish to want to have a boyfriend who doesn't have to go risk his life every other day for some reason or another! Selfish to want him to stay safe and sound by our (and my) sides! Selfish for my children to want a father!"
"You can still have those things!" Harrison protested. "Him being a superhero won't change anything, honest!"
"You really believe that, don't you?" Misty asked pityingly, shaking her head. "Ash is enough of a hero as it is. Yes, he has a good heart and all, but it's his head that's the problem! The boy has enough issues dealing with his ego as it is, what do you think something like this, getting super powers and being told repeatedly he's the greatest hero Earth has ever seen, will do to it!"
"And he's been making a lot of progress, too," Bayleef said sadly. "Something like this could put him back at square one. Or even further back."
"It's not that the concept of superheroes are bad or anything," Brock explained. "It's just that so far, the ones we've seen who are the result of this HERO thing aren't the best examples of real heroes."
"I'm right here, you know," Tuxedo Masquerain said flatly. "I can hear every disparaging statement you make about me." Nobody paid attention to his complaints.
"Is it so wrong for us to be concerned Ash will become like Drew was, or even worse?" May asked sadly. "We're his friends, and we care about him. Which is why we can't let him go through with this!"
"But you might lose the world!" Harrison protested.
Misty shook his head. "No, we won't. Somehow, I think the world will find a way to protect itself," she said, glancing at Togetic and her friends, well aware that they and others had specifically been Chosen to save the Earth. Admittedly, Ash had too, but they had all agreed a while back it was either so he could fulfill some sort of caretaker role, seeing as how no other human had been Chosen to help out, or because if he hadn't been summoned by the Unown he'd have been killed by the Ghost King, and who knows how big a mess that would have made for everyone?
And besides, the Unown had mentioned there WAS a small chance Ash might be the one who might instigate the end of the world…perhaps not consciously or willingly, but still be a part of the great cataclysm. Could they possibly have been hinting at this moment in time?
And besides, the mental image of Ash running around in a cape and spandex was just too weird for anyone to contemplate without feeling nauseous. This HERO thing definitely had to be stopped!
"So you're going to take us to Ash, now," Bayleef warned, growing vines as she advanced on the helpless teen.
"Or else," agreed Togetic, her eyes starting to glow.
"Well Harrison?" Misty asked coldly. "What's it going to be?"
The terrified young man never got a chance to answer as just then an injured Charizard came flying through one of the archways around the room, smashing into the table the Elite 4, Frontier Brains, and high-ranking executives had been sitting at just a little while ago (they had all gotten up to join in the dancing during Simple and Clean), causing it to collapse under her weight. She groaned and struggled to push herself back up while startled partygoers screamed, fainted, or moved away from her as a cold-eyed Dragonite swooped in through the same archway, landing only a few feet away. Lance hopped off his partner's back. "End of the line."
…
"Blaziken, Aerial Ace!" Ford commanded.
The shaded Blaze Pokemon leaped into the air and vanished abruptly. Charizard and Ash looked around in confusion. "Huh? Where'd he-"
Blaziken reappeared in the air behind Charizard and shot towards him with a Blaze Kick. "Charizard, watch out!" Ash cried.
Charizard leaned to the side on one foot, throwing the bulk of his body out of the way so Blaziken's kick could miss. As the fire chicken flew past Charizard, the dragon swung his flaming tail up, pivoting on his foot so the ember on the end would strike Blaziken in the back. However, the poultry Pokemon twisted in the air, ducking under the tail sweep, and grabbed the non-burning end of the tail as he landed on the platform Charizard was standing on. Before Charizard could regain his balance, Blaziken grunted and yanked the dragon off his feet, swinging him in the air by his tail and flinging him away, straight towards the electrified cage wall. "AHHHHH!" he cried, startled.
"Charizard, use Flamethrower to slow down!" Ash cried frantically.
Charizard quickly spat out a powerful burst of flames from his mouth, pushing against the cage wall. He spread his wings as he did so, the heat reflected back from the wall pushing at his membranes and causing enough drag to slow him down and allow him to flip away from the wall, only inches from touching it. "Okay you big bucket of KFC, let's try that agai-"
"No talking." The Blaziken leaped into the air towards Charizard, both fists burning with a Fire Punch. "Fight."
"Whoa!" Charizard managed to swerve out of the way of the charge. He spun as the Blaziken flew past, smashing into him with his tail. This time his attack worked, and it knocked the Blaze Pokemon straight into the cage wall. "Yeah! Take-"
Blaziken somersaulted so his feet would touch the wall and he kicked off the bars even as the electricity ran into his body from the brief contact, not looking as if it had hurt him in the least. He rocketed back towards Charizard, his fists clenched over his head into a flaming ball. "Heh." He brought the flaming smash down on Charizard.
The dragon gripped the clenched fists in his own claws, flinching slightly from the surprising intensity of the fire. It almost felt hotter than the lava below them! "Jeez! What do you eat for breakfast?" he wondered as the force from Blaziken's attack sent the two grapplers falling back towards the arena.
"Bricks," Blaziken commented as he drove his feet into Charizard's chest and kicked off, flipping in the air as he landed on a platform and Charizard slammed down on a lower one. He grunted in pain.
"Come on Charizard, get up! We both know you can take more than this!" Ash said encouragingly.
Ford shook his head. "Yes, but how much more? Blaziken, Meteor Strike!"
"Huh! Never heard of that attack before…" Ash said in confusion as Charizard got back up, and Blaziken leaped into the air.
The Blaze Pokemon curled into a ball and started spinning rapidly. There was a flash of heat as the air around him burst into flame, turning him into a huge ball of fire. Charizard's eyes bulged as the balled-up Blaziken rocketed down towards him, looking for all the world like an actual meteor. "Ah, crud."
He quickly held his claws out, catching the fireball and shuddering at the force of the impact, shoving him a few feet back. He grimaced and pushed against the meteor with all his might as it continued spinning against his hands and generated wave after wave of heat, washing over his tough hide. With a mighty thrust of his arms, he managed to shove the fireball away, sending it careening into the side of a higher platform. It smashed into the side of the pillar and exploded, causing the upper part of the structure to crumble and collapse into the lava with a weary groan, splashing into the pit and sending up globules and waves of the scalding magma.
"Jeez!" Charizard said, shaking his head in disbelief.
And that's when Blaziken reappeared behind him using Aerial Ace and lashed out at his back with a Dynamic Punch. It would have connected if Ash hadn't shouted a cry of warning just in time, alerting Charizard to the attack and allowing him to block it with his arm. Undeterred, Blaziken leaned back and launched a barrage of Mach Kicks at Charizard's face, stomach, and groin, with the dragon only just managing to block and deflect each rapid kick with his arms, leaving him unable to retaliate.
"Come on Charizard, hang in there! He can't kick forever!" Ash shouted encouragingly.
"That's true…" Ford agreed. "But there's a lot more he can do than just that! Boy, you don't know what you've gotten yourself into! This fight's only barely begun!"
…
"Lance! What are you doing here?" Steven Stone cried in surprise, the champion trainer and young adventurer the first to speak in reaction to Lance's entrance.
"Sorry to interrupt the party," Lance apologized, noticing Ash's friends and a confused Harrison, who knew Lance was Ford's new bodyguard, out of the corner of his eye. "I found this crazed Charizard trying to attack some civilians and attempted to defeat and neutralize it. Unfortunately, it managed to lead me on a long chase until my Dragonite managed to connect with a lucky Water Pulse and knock it out of the sky, sadly causing it to crash land here. I had no intention of putting you in any danger, I assure you. Now," he said, turning back to his Pokemon as Charla managed to get back to her feet, stumbling slightly and glaring at the duo with pure hatred. "Finish her! She will harm no one else ever again!"
"Wait!" Lucy yelled, stepping forward. "Something don't seem right about this. That Charizard doesn't have the look of a crazed Pokemon…even if she does seem like she wants to rip them to pieces, possibly for good reason."
"Yarr, I agree," Drake growled, squinting to get a better look at Charla. "In fact, something looks very familiar about her…"
"Crazed or not, this Pokemon tried to harm innocent people!" Lance said quickly, hoping he could end this before anyone started thinking too hard about what was going on. "Dragonite, finish it off!" The dragon nodded and started charging up a Hyper Beam.
"Stop!" Misty stormed forward and jabbed a finger at Lance's chest. "That's no wild Pokemon, she belongs to a trainer! Liza of Charicific Valley, to be precise!"
Drake gasped, noticing Charla's ribbon and realizing the truth. "Arrgh, I thought she looked familiar! That be Charla!"
"But Charicific Valley? That's all the way in Johto, isn't it?" asked a confused Glacia. "What would a Pokemon from there be doing all the way on this side of the sea, not to mention attacking civilians?"
Spenser frowned. "Something doesn't feel right…"
"My Centennial Rod will reveal the truth!" Brandon announced, marching forward and thrusting a yellow plastic stick with a lightbulb at the end of it in Lance's face. The dragon trainer flinched as the bulb switched on. "Your mind is an open book to me! I can see every thought of yours with the power of my Rod!"
Everyone sweatdropped. "Does he always act like this?" Sidney asked incredulously.
Noland sighed. "Unfortunately, yes."
"We've got to stop letting him watch Lu-Gi-Oh…" Greta muttered.
Tucker nodded in agreement. "For one thing, those priestly outfits he's taken to wearing are a fashion no-no!"
Realizing they were in really big trouble, Dragonite quickly came to the decision to just attack Charla, grab Lance, and get the hell out of there before the elite trainers over there started getting any more suspicious. While they were still distracted by Brandon, Dragonite roared and spat his Hyper Beam right at the weakened yet still defiant Charla.
The beam never reached her. A pair of white Pokemon, one big with large red sections and the other small and covered in red and blue triangles, moved in front of Charla, eyes glowing. The blue screen of a Safeguard formed in front of them, blocking the attack before it could strike. The beam slammed into the screen, causing it to buckle and forcing Latias and Togetic to exert themselves more to deflect it, but things were made much easier when the masked Gardevoir joined their side and lent her own psychic powers to the barrier, making it strong enough to repel the beam and slam it back right into the startled Dragonite's chest, causing him to topple over and land on top of Brandon, pinning him to the ground and sending the 'Centennial Rod' flying away where it smashed on the ground.
"Shit!" Lance swore. He quickly recalled Dragonite and made to run…only to find his way blocked by Misty, May, Bayleef, Brock (still dressed as Venus) and Misty's Gyarados, whom had been summoned to the party with a single whistle from his red-haired trainer, sending the select few who had stuck around after Dragonite and Charla came crashing in running for their lives in fear. Tuxedo Masquerain and his Roselia, Masquerain, and Flygon stood beside them, not quite sure what was going on, but their 'hero instincts' telling them that Lance was definitely up to No Good. "Going somewhere?" Misty asked coldly, hefting her mallet threateningly.
Lance whirled around to run in the other direction, only to find his way blocked by the Elite and Frontier Brains, (aside from Brandon, who had gotten up and was weeping over the shattered remnant of his Centennial Rod) Pokeballs in hand. "Crud."
"Lance, me boy," Drake said, glaring at his son. "What be going on here? Why are ye attacking a member of our own family?" he asked, gesturing at Charla, who was undergoing healing from Gardevoir and Togetic. Latias, on the other hand, was focusing her yellow eyes on Lance. The look in them was not the gentle, playful Latias Lance had seen among her friends…it was cold, pitiless, and commanding. He didn't doubt that anyone would obey her if she glared at them like that. Perhaps it was her true nature as Queen of Dragons coming out, he thought to himself. A shame the fury of that aspect would probably be directed at him.
"Yes Lance, what's going on?" asked the confused Harrison. "You're supposed to be protecting my dad, not attacking other trainer's Pokemon like that!"
Lance felt the myriad eyes focused on him, all prying at him and demanding the truth.
He clenched his fists and set his mouth in a hard line. Well, he wasn't going to give it to them. Mr. Ford had trusted him to keep the HERO a secret, and he refused to divulge what was transpiring this night. He knew that Ash's friends, and possibly even these elite trainers, would foolishly rush to the tower to try and stop Ash's transformation to 'save' the boy from the 'horrible' fate of becoming a superhero and saving the world. He would not do it. His father and Queen may damn him, but he would not betray the world for the life of one person.
"Lance, explain yourself," Steven demanded. "What is going on here? Why did you attack that Charizard?"
"I already told you," Lance said coolly. "She was attacking innocent trainers and had to be put down."
"That's a filthy lie!" Charla snarled.
Latias did not spare a glance at her. "Then what did happen?" she asked, her voice unnaturally frosty as she continued staring at Lance. Togetic blinked in surprise, not expecting that tone from her sweet aunt.
If Charla noticed the frost, she didn't show it. "Charizard and I were flying about. We were celebrating how we'd gotten back together and how I was pregnant again. We went past Battle Tower and saw Lance restraining Ash in this big arena at the top, and that Mr. Ford person and his Blaziken were operating the controls for some big machine on the ceiling with a crystal in it. We figured that something bad was going on, so we smashed in to try and save Ash. Charizard got occupied fighting Ford's Blaziken, while Lance sicced his Dragonite on me. Charizard told me to go and get you—his friends, I presume?—to help him. Dragonite managed to do a fair bit of damage to me, but I got here anyway. And if it weren't for you, that last Hyper Beam might have finished me. Thank you."
Latias' eyes narrowed. "I am only doing my duty to my people."
Charla blinked in confusion. "Hmm?"
Ignoring the confused Charizard, Latias quickly relayed Charla's message to her human friends, emphasizing the part about the crystal and making sure they understood just how dangerous such a thing was. After all, a shard of the same object was what had made Mariah Susanson and Missingno so powerful. They in turn told the high-ranking officials what Latias had just learned, along with what Harrison and Tuxedo Masquerain had told them about HERO, and almost gave Lance a heart attack in the process and shocked Harrison, who had not known any of those things involving the crystal or Charla. How could they have possibly known about those events in the Tower if they hadn't been there! Lance wondered. But what they were saying about the possibility of that crystal in HERO being evil had to be preposterous. There was no way it was that dangerous. No way…that's what he (and Harrison) kept telling themselves, in any event. Lance redirected his shock into anger at Harrison for betraying his own father, and that kept him from thinking too much about the possibility of the HERO being dangerous. Harrison, in the meantime, continually denied everything he was hearing mentally, swearing it couldn't possible be true. But in his heart, he began to develop some doubt.
The officials looked somewhat shocked and skeptical about the possibility of something like HERO being hidden in Battle Tower, right under their noses, all along. Annabel was especially displeased. "You mean all this time, in my own Tower, there was something Ford's been using to make all those weird heroes of his? No way! I would have noticed!" she protested.
Feeling somewhat relieved, Lance quickly moved to take advantage of their skepticism. "They're just kids, esteemed trainers. They don't know what they're talking about. I was not in Battle Tower helping my new boss hold Ash Ketchum against his will for some fiendish experiment. I did pursue and try to neutralize Charla, yes, but only because she was attacking innocents! I swear, I have no idea what she's doing on this side of the sea away from her trainer, but I had to do my duty! Father, surely you don't believe all this!" he appealed to Drake.
The seaman looked skeptical. "I…don't know, me boy. Not sure who to believe here."
"We're the ones who are telling the truth!" May insisted. "He's the one who's lying! He didn't even mention who Charla was or who trained her until Misty recognized her!"
"I didn't mention them because it was not relevant!" Lance snapped. "I saw a Pokemon attacking humans. Trained or not, that meant she had to be stopped!" Charla growled and would have incinerated the lying bastard had Togetic and Gardevoir not still been healing her.
The Frontier Brains seemed divided. "Mr. Ford wouldn't do something like this, would he?" asked an uncertain Greta. "He would never force a kid into doing something like this, right?"
"Mr. Ford is rather zealous when it comes to the fight against crime…" Spenser mused. "And those heroes of his had to come from somewhere, didn't they?"
"But something like that couldn't possibly have gone on without us noticing, could it?" Noland pointed out.
"Especially me, since it would be inside my tower!" Annabel pointed out.
"In a room you almost never go to, seeing as how it's closed off from everyone else most of the year," Tucker pointed out.
Annabel sweatdropped. "Well, uh, yes, but…"
"I believe the kids," Lucy interjected. "They're trustworthy. I can tell that sorta thing. And it doesn't surprise me one bit that Ford was doing this behind our backs. I knew there was a reason we get such large paychecks…to buy us off in case for some reason we figured anything out, I bet, or to convince us to look the other way if we ever got the least bit suspicious."
"This is still all conjecture," Phoebe said with a frown. "We don't know yet who's telling the truth. But perhaps…if we went to the tower, we could find out for ourselves?"
"Yes, that's an excellent idea," agreed Glacia.
Steven nodded. "All right. We'll go take a look at this tower, and see for ourselves what the truth is. As official representatives of the Hoenn League—and Battle Frontier," he added, nodding to the seven other high-ranking trainers. "It's our duty to investigate something like this."
Lance started sweating, realizing he was losing here. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Ash's friends were grinning predatorily, Harrison looked torn and disbelieving, and Tuxedo Masquerain was…well, just combing his hair. He couldn't let them win, he would be letting down the entire planet! "Esteemed trainers, surely there's no reason to give credence to these youth's claims! They probably just drank too much punch during the party and got this wild idea to play a prank by tricking you respected officials into going all the way out to Battle Tower to check up on some so-called 'hero' device! They've probably collaborated with other kids their age and have a trap set up for you all consisting of silly string, pies, paint balloons, or whatever else it is kids these days use for pranks!"
"We're not that much younger than he is, are we?" Brock grumbled under his breath.
Drake frowned. "Son, it seems to me that ye be protesting a little too much."
"And laying it on a little thick," agreed Steven, his suspicions growing.
Lance realized he might have made a mistake, and quickly tried to correct it. "What I mean to say is…you won't see anything there! Just look outside!" He pointed through the nearest archway in the direction of the Battle Tower. "Do you see anything suspicious?"
They looked. "All the lights are out," Tucker commented.
"As they should be!" Lance said triumphantly. "If the off-limits Aerie were being used for some diabolical purpose, the lights would be on! But the entire building is dark! Therefore, nothing is going on!"
"But ALL the lights are out," Annabel pointed out, looking perplexed. "That's never the case. There are always some executives or workers doing overtime or janitors cleaning up or that sort of thing. The Tower's never completely dark." Her earlier skepticism was starting to turn into worry. "The only reason all the lights would be out is if the windows were blocked over by the metal sheets we installed for security…and they would only go down if the building was in lockdown. And if the building were in lockdown, we'd have all been informed by an automatic signal picked up on our special arena badges, which can only be blocked off by the master control unit in the tower itself…."
"Oh, I can explain that too," Lance said quickly, causing Lucy, Ash's friends, and those of the elite trainers who were starting to believe something was up to get exasperated. "The rogue Charizard attacked some partygoers at the plaza in front of the building. Some lazy guard inside must have panicked and activated lockdown, spilling coffee or whatever alcoholic/carbonated beverage he was drinking on the automated alarm system by accident, and didn't have the sense to call you manually to let you know."
"Oh for the love of-" Misty growled. "Let me at him!"
"Misty, no!" May hissed, grabbing her arm. "You'll only prove his point and ruin ours!"
Steven narrowed his eyes. "So the building went into lockdown as you left? Then why didn't you volunteer this information right away as an explanation for why all the tower's lights are off?"
Lance froze. "I…er…"
"It looks as if we have caught you in the middle of a fabrication," Glacia said, folding her arms and glaring at Lance.
"And I doubt it is the only one you've been telling us…" Spenser murmured, stroking his long beard.
Drake looked heartbroken and disappointed. "Me boy…please, say this ain't so!"
Lance stammered. "I…Father, I can explain!"
Harrison was startled by Lance's inability to come up with an answer, which seemed to indicate that the accusations made against him were nothing but the truth. "Wh-what? Lance…really did those things you said he did!" he cried, crestfallen.
"I'm afraid so," Brock said with a nod.
Tuxedo Masquerain sighed. "A shame how far heroes can fall, isn't it?" They stared at him. "What?"
"But then that means…my father…" Harrison blinked back tears. "He's actually…he's actually forcing Ash, and who knows how many others, into this! I almost can't believe it, but…somehow…I know that it's the truth. I can see him doing something like this." He shook his head bitterly. "Why father, why?"
"Well, we'll know soon enough," Bayleef said menacingly. "When we go to meet him ourselves."
"And if he's done anything to Ash…" Misty growled in agreement, already picturing Ford's head splattering like a ripe melon when she smashed it open with her mallet.
In the meantime, Lance was failing to clear the suspicions now facing him from all twelve powerful trainers (discounting Brandon, who was screwing a new lightbulb into his Rod). "I…please, you have to understand!" he said anxiously. "This had to be done!"
"Did it now?" a voice as cold as dry ice whispered, piercing the dragon trainer's mind like a jagged icicle and causing him to gasp and nearly fall to his knees from the shock.
Latias glided over to him, her eyes frozen chips of yellow fire. "Tell me, Lance. Tell me what was so necessary that you were willing to force one of my dearest friends into a position which may very well lose him his soul."
Lance stammered. "I…m-my lady-"
She glared at him, causing him to shut his mouth. "Tell me, Lance."
Lance swallowed, and reluctantly began. "My lady, surely you've been paying attention to the news! Disasters of great magnitude have been striking all over the Earth in the last several days! Ford's private group of superheroes has been unable to stand up to a threat like this, he believed that by giving them a strong, trustworthy leader they would mobilize and be able to save the Earth!"
"Why is he talking to that Pokemon?" asked the confused Noland.
"Hush!" Drake hissed. "That be Latias, a legendary Pokemon! She be speaking to Lance telepathically!"
"For what reason?" asked a puzzled Tucker.
"She belongs to the trainer who has allegedly been taken to and is being held at Battle Tower," speculated Steven. "Perhaps she is attempting to obtain further details?"
"But then why's he acting like she's royalty or something?" asked an annoyed Sidney. "She's just a Pokemon!"
"Shut yer mouth!" snapped Drake, smacking Sidney on the head. "Ye don't know nothing about this! Stay out of it! And that goes fer the rest of ye, too!" Startled by the old man's sudden ferocity, they all quieted—though Lucy looked somewhat curious about why Drake was having such a violent reaction. As for himself, the old man lamented, both cursing his son for getting himself into this mess and praying that whatever Latias' judgment was, it would not be too harsh.
"My lady, please, I was only doing what I thought was right!" Lance begged pitiably.
"Just as you thought it was right to throw Ash and myself into an icy tunnel full of Glalie whom your family purposefully starved for training purposes?" Latias asked, her voice as cold as that very same tunnel.
Lance swallowed. "M-my lady, as I already told both you and Ash…we were watching you every second you were in the tunnel! Had you truly been on the brink of death, we would have saved you!"
Latias' eyes flashed with anger. "Do not lie to me, Lance. I would have expected better from you."
Lance's eyes were wide and frightened. "My lady?"
"Neither you nor Dragonite watched us while we were in the tunnel. Your father I can excuse, because he went to get himself some grog, trusting you would handle things in his absence. You did not. Instead, you and Dragonite watched and waited as I was frozen into a stupor by the cold. You watched as the Glalie pursued us down the tunnel, and neither Ash or myself were able to stop them. You watched as they caught us, and nearly killed us with Sheer Cold, if I hadn't mustered the energy to melt them. We would have died due to your negligence."
"But you didn't die!" he pointed out desperately. "You survived, which proved our faith was in the right place!"
Her eyes narrowed. "Faith?"
"Yes! We were certain that, as the future Queen of Dragons and mate of Rayquaza, no matter what happened to you in the tunnel you would not die because it was not your destiny to! We knew that no matter what happened, you would live! So we saw no reason to intervene because we were sure that you would pull through, and we were right! We had faith in you, and it was proven to be true!" His eyes took on a fanatical gleam as he continued talking. "This is why I helped Ford force Ash into HERO, because that is his destiny, to become the world's greatest hero and help save the Earth and secure it for you and Rayquaza to rule in harmony! Don't you see, lady? I did all this for you!"
Latias stared at him for a long moment. As did everyone else, very disturbed.
"Jeez…" whispered Bayleef, shaking her head. "I had no idea he was this messed up."
Misty shrugged. "It's your typical zealot deal, I suppose. Kind of sad, really." She glanced at Brock. "You'd better not think of going to lengths like this to bring your 'loved one' or object of worship back to power."
Brock blinked. "Huh? Oh no, I wasn't thinking of sacrificing your soul to the gods of death so they would place Venus' in your body so she would live again." They stared at him and slowly took several steps away from him. "What? I was joking!" he lied.
Drake shook his head sadly. "Lance…me boy…" His heart felt heavy. How much of this was his fault? How much of this was because of how he had raised his son since childhood? He felt guilt, and a good deal of weariness, from too many years and hardships as this image of his son, not as a hero but as a half-crazed traitor and fanatic etched itself into his mind.
Latias' eyes did not soften as Lance made the reasons for his actions clear. Instead, she simply glared at him. "You disgust me, Lance."
He blinked. "Wh-what?"
"Your faith is touching, and I am honored (and slightly embarrassed) that you believe so much in me…but it crosses the line from simple belief into blind devotion. And you truly have become blind, Lance. Faith is well and good when it is backed up by good reason and proof to have that faith. Blindly trusting completely in someone you have never met before, whom you have only heard about from stories and thus cannot gauge their true capacity and strength as an individual, only by your own preconceptions and hopes. Yes, I survived the tunnel, as you believed I would. But not because of your faith, or because I was 'fated' to live. The only reason I made it was because Ash's words managed to sink through the torpor that had formed in reaction to the cold and enabled me to trigger my power just in time. Had I taken half a second longer, I would have died, and so would he, and destiny be damned. Your faith in us would have gotten us killed." A growl rose up from deep in her chest. "And now look what your faith has caused. You and your Dragonite almost killed the mate of one of my best friends, someone who is a part of your own great extended Dragon-training family in a sense. And you have all but doomed the soul of Ash Ketchum, who is also one of my best friends. Did you think this would not anger me, Lance?"
"I-I thought that you would react badly," he admitted. "But I was certain that in time you would see the necessity of this!"
"You thought wrong." She coolly turned away, wanting nothing more to do with him. She glanced at Drake, making eye contact. "He is your son. He is your responsibility," she informed him. "Take him far from here. I do not wish to lay eyes on him again." She paused. "Be sure to tell his Dragonite that I wish to talk to him later about how he nearly killed Charla and aided and abetted Lance in all this. I would do it now, but I do not believe we have the time."
Drake nodded. "Of course." He walked past her, careful not to touch her, and bent down to take his son's hand and pull him up. "Come on, lad. We'd best be getting out of here."
"But father-" Lance started.
"No arguments, boy," Drake said with a tone of finality that Lance could not help but obey.
"Drake, are you sure you should-" Steven started.
Drake shook his head. "He be my son, Steven. He be my responsibility. Don't worry; I'll take care of him. I'll…I'll try to make him see what he's done." He tipped his hat off to Latias. "Farewell, lady."
"Farewell, Drake," she said, actually smiling. "If we should meet again, I hope it will be in better circumstances."
"As do I," the old seaman said, walking away, pulling his confused son with him. "As do I."
Latias' friends, the Frontier Brains, and the Elite stared after Drake for a moment as he left the Pavilion with Lance in hand, uncertain how to react to what had just transpired. "All right," Steven said finally. "Ah…I believe that confession was all we needed to hear. We should probably go to Battle Tower and stop Ford's insane plan, then, right?"
There was a near unanimous agreement from his companions. Lucy didn't say anything because she was looking at Latias with interest, intrigued by how much steel Latias had just revealed she possessed. "Dang, girl…not bad."
Brandon, who had put the pieces of the lightbulb back together and wrapped duct tape around the fragmented glass, thrust his 'Centennial Rod' into Latias' face. "Away, evil shadow creature! Back to the darkness with you!" She just stared at him. He blinked. "Why aren't you vanishing or being imprisoned in a giant stone slab? Nothing can defy my Centennial Rod!" Latias stared at him while everyone else sweatdropped. Then she tapped the dimly glowing lightbulb with a claw, causing the fragile glass to shatter and reducing Brandon to a sobbing heap on the floor once again.
"We really need to do something about him…" muttered Spenser.
"Um…Aunt Latias?" Togetic asked tentatively, hovering over. "What was that?"
Latias blinked. Her usual demeanor came rushing back to her while the cold, regal presence she had exuded moment ago retreated back to the furthest corners of her mind. "I…don't know."
"Whatever it was, it was kind of cool," Bayleef commented, putting a vine on her friend's shoulder. "A little freaky too, but a little cool. Like how you were able to just talk at them like that psychically even though they weren't friends of yours so lacked the bond you share with the rest of us."
Latias blinked in surprise, realizing Bayleef was right. She had communicated directly to Lance and Drake. "What's happening to me?" she whispered to herself, somewhat unnerved. Was this another side effect of adding Mariah's power to her own? If so, how many more would reveal themselves?
Misty put a hand on her other shoulder. "Whatever it is, let's hope it continues to be useful…because I bet we'll need it in the Tower!"
Phoebe blinked. "Wait, you can't mean to say you're coming to the tower too?"
Misty shrugged. "Why not? It's my boyfriend's life that's in jeopardy."
"And he's our good friend," added May. Brock nodded in agreement.
"And our trainer," pointed out Bayleef, standing beside Latias.
"And my father," included Togetic.
"And my best friend," added Pikachu, walking over from who-knows-where to join the group.
"And I could use a good fight," agreed Sadic, sharpening her claws.
"Hey guys, where have you been?" Bayleef asked.
"And Uncle Brother Pikachu, why is Sadic wearing your cape and mask?" asked Togetic.
Pikachu and Sadic blinked and looked at each other. The Manyula was indeed wearing Pikachu's mask and cape. The yellow mouse laughed nervously and quickly snatched them from the amused black predator, blushing severely as he tied them back on.
"Don't forget this," Sadic said, also handing Pikachu his sword. "This thing's a little big, I can't go around carrying it with me all the time, especially since there's only one place it would fit and I don't feel like sticking it in there right now."
"Uh, right." Blushing furiously from Sadic's
little innuendo, Pikachu took the sword.
The other Pokemon
sweatdropped. "Did something go on between them?" wondered
Latias.
"And if it did, do we want to know the details?" Togetic said, looking grossed-out. She had been educated as to the nature of the birds and the Beedrill after returning home from the Mirage Kingdom, and it had been a lot less scarring than Brock's own explanation of the same subject to Ash.
"And I have to come too," said Charla, grunting as she got up, her healing finished. "Like the red-head, my boyfriend's up there too and he needs me! I'm going up too!"
"…I will as well," Gardevoir said quietly after a moment, glancing at Latias. "It is…what friends do…right?" Latias smiled and nodded, pleased with the Embrace Pokemon's social progress.
"And don't forget about us!" Crawdaunt interjected, scurrying over. Golduck, Delcatty, Corsola, and Phanphy were with him. "Don't actually know what's going on, but I heard something about a good fight and you know I'm there!"
"We're storming Battle Tower. Ford's kidnapped Ash (sort of) and is holding him and Charizard up there. He's trying to turn him into the ultimate hero or something," Bayleef explained.
Crawdaunt frowned. "Well, we can't have that, now can we?" His companions shook their heads. "So we're in on this too!"
"Where have you been all this time, anyway?" Pikachu asked, raising an eyebrow.
Crawdaunt chuckled and winked. "Doing the same thing as you, of course. Heh heh."
"Cleaning the bathrooms?" Phanphy asked naively. His scarring memories of Pikachu and Sadic's intercourse had been erased as well and replaced with far more benign images.
Crawdaunt, Pikachu, and Corsola sweatdropped. Sadic snickered, Golduck was oblivious, Delcatty was sitting on top of him, and everyone else was just disturbed. "Er, yes Phanphy, cleaning the bathroom. That's exactly right," he said, patting his nephew on the head with a pincer.
The humans sweatdropped. "Do we want to know any more?" Brock asked rhetorically.
"You don't think that…that he and Delcatty actually-" May managed to gasp out, shocked by the very idea.
"I don't know, and I don't want to know," Misty said flatly. "But whatever happened, at least Corsola looks happy again so now she'll stop sulking and ranting about what an awful Pokemon Crawdaunt is."
"Hmm…now I need to find a girlfriend…" Gyarados muttered to himself. "Seeing as how everyone else seems to be finding someone. Eh, I'm in no hurry."
"So…ALL of them want to come?" Greta asked in disbelief.
"Why not?" Lucy asked with a shrug. "They can stand up for themselves. I'll vouch for them."
"I don't know…" said Glacia with a frown. "This seems highly irregular."
"And this rescue mission itself isn't?" Tucker pointed out.
"Hmm…very well," Steven said, deciding it. "I've met Ash before, and I trust in his friends. If they believe they can assist us, then we'll let them."
"Good," Lucy said, pleased. "Because if you didn't, I'd shove this here boot of mine up you're a until you did."
Steven blinked. "Did she just-"
"Yes," Noland said flatly. "And she's not bluffing either. She'd actually do it." He glanced at Lucy's boots. "And it's a very painful experience, I can tell you that. Especially with those spikes on the bottom." Steven swallowed and decided to stay as far away from Lucy as he could in the near future.
"So we're all going, then? Great!" Misty said enthusiastically, pleased they were finally going to head out. "Let's go save Ash!"
"And Charizard," Charla reminded them.
"And my father is involved in this, so I have to go too," Harrison said, a determined look on his face. "I helped him maneuver Ash into this. If what I've done has caused anything to happen…I have to come along to see this for myself."
Tuxedo Masquerain sighed. "I suppose I'll come too…"
"Really, Drew?" May asked in surprise.
Tuxedo Masquerain flinched. "I…Mr. Ford is my employer, and the one who made me what I am, but…if he's forcing an innocent into something he doesn't want to do…my hero instincts are clear on this. I have to put a stop to this! Even if it means destroying the very thing which turned me into what I am now."
Brock was impressed. "You've changed, Drew."
Tuxedo Masquerain shrugged. "It's the HERO that did it. I'm sure sooner or later I'll devolve back into the arrogant jerk you've been familiar with for the last week or so, so we'd better make the most of my current noble state while it lasts."
"Okay then, if we're all ready, let's go," Steven said with a nod. "We've dallied long enough as it is. For all we know, it may already be too late."
…
Fortunately, it was not too late just yet. The fight at the top of the tower continued as Ash's friends plotted his rescue.
"Ugh!" Charizard slid back on his heels, grimacing and clutching his chest. Blaziken, on the opposite side of the platform, slid back and grimaced as well, but it didn't look as if he had felt the impact quite as much as Charizard had. They had both just fired simultaneous Fire Blasts at each other which had exploded on impact and affected the both of them.
"Come on Charizard, hang in there! Don't let a little explosion get you down!" Ash encouraged his dragon.
"I don't intend to! Raahhh!" Charizard belched a Fire Spin at Blaziken. The constricting tongue of flame wrapped itself around the chicken, pinning his arms and legs together. Blaziken grunted and started struggling against the fire, actually looking surprised that he was having difficulty getting out of the bind.
"Great job, Charizard! Now, use Submission and Seismic Toss!" Ash commanded.
The dragon charged forward, slamming into the trapped Blaziken, and pushed both of them off the platform, spreading his wings and using the heat rising from the lava to lift him into the air. He started looping in the air, spinning as he did so to pummel his passenger with buffeting winds.
However, Ford seemed to be prepared for this. "Blaziken, Rapid Spin!"
"Huh!" To both Ash and Charizard's astonishment, the Blaze Pokemon started spinning rapidly, twisting his way out of Charizard's grip and causing the startled dragon to nearly crash into the electrified cage wall out of surprise. Blaziken twirled rapidly as he fell from the dragon's claws, shedding the flame rope that had been wrapped around him and landing neatly on one foot on a platform, not looking even remotely the worse for wear.
"But that's impossible!" Ash protested. "Blaziken can't learn Rapid Spin!"
"You can learn all sorts of things when you put your mind to it, boy…" Ford said with a shrug. "Such as this stupid stubbornness of yours! Maybe when you go through HERO, you'll understand what I'm trying to do here!"
"That's not gonna happen!" Ash snapped back.
"What's the big deal, anyway? Why are you so dead set on not becoming a hero!" Ford asked, getting frustrated by Ash's repeated refusal.
"I've already told you, it's because I'm worried that crystal of yours is evil…and from the way you're acting, I'm starting to think more and more that it might be!"
"What's that supposed to mean!" Ford bellowed. "I'm not evil! I'm trying to FIGHT evil!"
"By forcing kids who don't want to to be transformed, and by creating heroes who turn into cocky, arrogant jerks who don't feel like helping people?" Ash retorted. "That alone is bad enough, but the main reason I don't want to join your group of heroes is because…in the end, they're totally useless!"
Ford's eyes widened. "WHAAAAT!"
"You heard me!" Ash yelled. "You said they're supposed to protect the world! Then how come I've never seen them on my adventures? Where were they every time Team Rocket, Aqua, or Magma tried to steal something, like my Pikachu? Where were they when Lawrence III tried to capture the legendary birds and almost destroyed the world? Where were they when Molly and the Unown almost crystallized the planet, or when the Iron Masked Marauder tried to control Celebi, or when Alto Mare was held hostage by two demented women and one of the city's guardians died?" His face was turning red, both from perspiration and from the anger fueling his accusations. "Where were they when an artificial Groudon was unleashed which could have absorbed all life on Earth? Where were they when my friends and I were trapped in the Dark World by one of my Pokemon's mother and an evil demon using a piece of the same crystal that you have? Where were they when General Hanson captured Wallace, impersonated Ardan, and nearly killed me and my girlfriend in Sootopolis?"
"I…well…" Ford stammered. "The world's a big place, you know! They can't be everywhere at once!"
"That's true," Ash agreed. "And yet from what I've seen so far, when they are where they need to be, they're all but useless. Neither your Poke Rangers or Soldier Scouts were able to defeat the Tyranitron. Neither were we, but at least we might have had a chance given a little more time (and if Lance hadn't been overly cautious when the Tyranitron was shut down the first time). The Poke Rangers also were unable to beat Miror B, and while the Soldier Scouts were helpful with the rest of Team Snagem, the only consistently useful one was Soldier Wisdom. And then there's Tuxedo Masquerain, of course."
"He's better now!" Ford insisted.
"Yeah, until he becomes a jerk again! How long does he have? A week? Two?"
"Well…" Ford fidgeted uneasily.
"And here's another thing. I can accept that they might not be able to take out really powerful guys like Neo Team Snagem or the Tyranitron. I can accept them never being there during any of my adventures. But what I cannot accept is how, if they're supposed to be protecting the world and its people like you said they are, they've let not only Lilycove but the Mirage Kingdom as well turn into awful, AWFUL places after Team Aqua, Magma, or Hanson took over! Where were your heroes then, Ford, when they were really needed? Why did none of them even try to liberate Lilycove or the Mirage Kingdom after they had been taken over? Can you tell me that?"
"I…" Ford cringed. How could he explain this to Ash? How could he tell him that, to be honest, he COULDN'T think of a reason why his heroes hadn't intervened, even when told to. "I…no…no, I can't." he said weakly. "But…but that's because they're weak! Disorganized! With a leader like you at their head, they-"
"Will be no better than before!" Ash interrupted. "If anything, they'll be worse! It's not them or their flaws that's the problem, although I'm sure that's part of it…it's the crystal itself, HERO, that's the reason they're all but useless! It's because of that that they degenerate and become lazy, arrogant jerks! Your entire project is a failure!"
"IT IS NOT!" Ford bellowed, slamming his palms on his console.
"It is! And until you realize that, you'll keep on doing this, trying to find new heroes to shore up the rest and make them what they're supposed to be! But it doesn't work like that, Ford. You can't make someone a hero by giving them superpowers, no matter how 'pure of heart' you think they are. It takes more than that, a lot more!"
"And you have it!" Ford protested. "You have all of that stuff! Which is why you're perfect, why you're the one! Because you were the one to solve all those catastrophes you've listed, by yourself! That's why you'll be the one to save us all!"
Ash shook his head in frustration. "No Ford, you don't get it! I DIDN'T stop all those problems by myself! Every step of the way, I had the support and help of my friends! Even if I have qualities which you seem to think would make me a perfect hero, I'd be nothing, none of that, without them!"
Charizard looked at Ash in surprise. "Ash…you mean that?"
Ash nodded at the Pokemon. "Of course I do! Would I have been able to help Molly, or get the treasures to Shamouti Island, without you Charizard? How many of the adventures we've had together, ever since we first met up until this point, would have flopped without you? How many times would I have died if you hadn't been there?" He shook his head. "Me? I'm just a dumb kid lucky enough to have great friends. YOU guys are the real heroes, not me."
Charizard blinked, touched. "I…Ash…"
Blaziken snorted, finding this whole display cheesy and boring. He wanted to fight some more. Ford, on the other hand, looked ecstatic. "You see! You see! That's what I'm talking about!"
Ash blinked in confusion. "Huh?"
"You have the humility to deny your own worth to keep it from going to your head! You're the one! No matter how much you say otherwise, you're the one! Hahaha!" he laughed madly.
Ash sighed in disgust. "You just don't get it."
"This guy's nuts," grunted Charizard. He glanced at Blaziken. "And you, you're just freaky, you know that?" The Blaze Pokemon smirked in response. "Come on, Ash. Let's get this over with."
Ash nodded. "Right…Ford, no matter what you say, I'm not giving in! This fight's not over yet!"
"It will be," Ford promised, as Blaziken leaped into action. "It will be."
…
"Hey Absol," Jirachi said suddenly. "Do you get the feeling we're missing some dangerous adventure where we could really come in handy?"
"No," Absol said dully, entranced by the beautiful Ninetales on the television screen.
"Okay, me neither," said Jirachi, levitating some more popcorn into his mouth.
"Mmph mmph mph MMMPPPH!" Max yelled, the duct tape still over his mouth. Both of his friends ignored him and kept watching the movie.
…
The plaza before Battle Tower was dark. Any lamps which normally lit it were out, and no illumination came from the tower itself thanks to the metal sheets covering it. However, the dozen or so guards patrolling the tower perimeter had little trouble seeing in the dark thanks to extensive training in night conditions.
Two of the guards, following separate patrols, stopped in front of each other. "All's clear in the southwest."
"Same with the northwest."
"Good. Carry on."
They kept going. And then….
There was a burst of light as several concealed Pokemon out in the trees surrounding the plaza used Flash, lighting up the plaza. The guards didn't let the sudden shift from dark to light hinder them in the least and immediately whipped out their Pokeballs. "Who's there?" shouted one of them. "Leave this vicinity at once!"
"No, I don't think I will." Noland leaped out from behind a flagpole and tackled one of the guards to the ground, wrestling the Pokeball from his grip. He looked up and saw that all the other security guards had already loosed their Pokemon, and he was faced with several dozen very powerful-looking Pokemon of the Fighting, Flying, Poison, and Ground types.
"You have assaulted a paid security enforcer for Ford Industries. You will not be asked again. Leave now, or suffer the consequences!" barked one of the guards.
Noland smirked and whistled. Out of the trees emerged a Mawile, Golem, Glalie, Venusaur, Machamp, Rhyhorn, Breloom, Rhydon, Lairon, Camerupt, Pinsir, Sandslash, Golduck, Manectric, and a Trapinch, all of whom looked ready for some action. "I would, but I promised my friends a good time. They were so looking forward to a good fight!"
"Even if you are a Frontier Brain, your Pokemon still aren't strong enough to handle all of us!" one of the guards insisted. "Leave immediately and your intrusion will not be reported to Mr. Ford!"
"If it were just me here, I might leave," Noland admitted. "But as it turns out, I have some reinforcements on my side!"
As he said this, Greta, with a Heracross, Medicham, Shedinja, Umbreon, Breloom, and Hariyama as her vanguard charged into the guard trainers from behind, bowling them over. A Salamence carrying Tucker swooped down from the sky, roaring as it unleashed Dragonbreath on the startled security Pokemon. Misty's Gyarados, a Charizard, an Arcanine, and a Swampert followed in the air and on the ground respectively, joining the battle. Spenser stood from the sidelines and pointed his walking stick at the guards, shouting for his Pokemon, a Crobat, Slaking, Arcanine, and Lapras to attack. Noland's Pokemon joined the fray at his command, and a huge chaotic melee broke out across the field. Some frightened guards and Pokemon tried to escape, only to run into Glacia and her Sealeo, Walrein, and Glalie, who were more than eager to freeze the escapees in solid ice.
"You're not the only one who's got friends!" the guard commander shouted, punching in a sequence on his radio. "We're calling for backup!"
"Bring it on!" Noland's Machamp roared, smashing two weaker Machoke's heads into each other. "I'll take em' all!"
While the huge and confusing battle went on, a somewhat smaller and unnoticeable group crept past the battlers, sneaking over to the sealed front doors of the building. Once there, the air rippled, and Latias, Bayleef, Phanphy, Crawdaunt, Charla, Corsola, Pikachu, Sadic, Gardevoir, Togetic, Brock, Misty, May, Harrison, Tuxedo Masquerain, Steven, Lucy, Annabel, Sidney, and Phoebe appeared, seemingly from nowhere. All the humans were still wearing their formal outfits from the party. "I must say, that invisibility trick of yours is very useful, Latias," Steven complimented the dragon.
She blushed. "Thanks. I didn't even know I could do it to a whole bunch of people until now."
"Can you get this thing open?" Phoebe asked as Annabel ran her fingers over the frame of the door, outside the metal sheet.
"Of course I can," she remarked. "Even if this building is Ford Industries corporate headquarters, it's still my domain, and I know how to get around a little thing such as a security lockdown. Ah-ha!" She pried open a concealed panel, revealing a keypad. "One moment." Her fingers flew across the keys as she tapped in what looked to be a very complicated sequence and Brock, who had been watching out of curiosity, soon found himself getting dizzy trying to string the keystrokes together. Annabel stopped typing, and the keypad split apart, revealing a retinal scanner and fingerprint pad. She peered into the scanner and pressed her thumb on the pad, then stuck her tongue open so another, hidden sensor could scan her taste buds and see that it was really her. A green light blinked, and the sheets over the doors retracted.
"Wow. Not bad," said the impressed May.
Annabel shrugged. "Like I said, this Tower is my domain. There's nothing about it I don't know!"
"Except for the hero-creating device in the top," Sidney pointed out.
She sweatdropped. "Uh, yeah…"
"Ah, leave her alone," Lucy remarked, slugging Sidney lightly on the shoulder and nearly breaking his arm. "The tower's a big place. Not even I know all the twists and turns of the Pike, just as Brandon needs a map to find his way through his own pyramid."
"Brandon's crazy," Phoebe pointed out. "But we get it."
"It's a good thing we told him to stay behind and 'find the palace guards' or he'd have tried to take the lot of those guys on with his 'Centennial Rod' and 'Ancient God Monsters'," Annabel said, pushing the door open. "Shall we?"
The group entered the tower. The doors closed behind them, blocking out the sound of the massive struggle outside as reinforcements for the guards arrived.
The lobby was as dark as it had been when Ash and Ford had arrived earlier, and the receptionist still wasn't back at her desk. "Where do we go from here?" Steven asked Annabel. Seeing as how she knew the Tower best, she was the logical choice to guide them to the top.
Annabel pointed to the elevator banks along the
walls. "We can take those. Most of them go up to the hundredth
floor. There are a lot of us, so we can probably split up and take
each one in small groups. Then, once we emerge in the arena, we can
surprise Ford from all sides and put a stop to this!"
"The
HERO's in the top arena, right?" May asked Tuxedo Masquerain,
just to check.
He nodded. "Yeah, the entertainment system is the main housing for it. I think the system itself is almost indestructible, but the supports holding it to the ceiling aren't. And I think the room's spotlights are part of it somehow…not sure how, but every time I've used HERO all the lights focused on me."
"That should be no problem, then," Pikachu said, fiddling with the tie of his cape. "One good shock and I can probably short the whole thing out."
"Or we could smash them," Crawdaunt suggested. "Smashing things usually helps in these situations."
"It always does on TV," Phanphy agreed.
"Well, we have to get up there first, so don't get too eager," Sadic advised, sharpening her claws. "No telling what's waiting for us up there."
"A crazy human, a very powerful Blaziken, Ash, and the Pokemon I love," Charla informed her.
"Ah. Well, if that's all that's waiting for us then, we have nothing to worry about," Sadic said with a smirk.
"If you're worried, you can just stick with me," Pikachu told her.
She snorted and rubbed his head affectionately, slicing off a few hairs. "It's you I'm worried about, little mouse. Wouldn't want my kids to grow up knowing their father got himself killed doing something stupid."
Pikachu sweatdropped. "You really don't have much faith in me, do you?"
"I have plenty. Doesn't mean I can't care for your safety, does it?"
Bayleef frowned. "What was that about children?"
"Ah, nothing, nothing!" Pikachu said quickly, covering Sadic's mouth with a paw before she could reply. "She's just talking. You know she does that."
"Does she?" Bayleef asked, looking doubtful. "Hmm."
Phanphy's eye twitched, one of his repressed memories stirring…before thankfully rolling over and going back to sleep, leaving his mind unscarred. Togetic grimaced. "I really don't want to know what you were up to by yourselves."
Corsola glanced at Crawdaunt. "Er, Crawdaunt, will I-"
"Nope. Not that time yet," he told her gruffly.
Togetic and Latias blanched. "I don't want to know what they were doing even more," the dragon confided to her niece.
In the meantime, Annabel was typing at the computer at the receptionist's desk. "What are you doing?" Misty asked, leaning over the counter to take a look.
"I opened the doors, but the rest of the building is still on lockdown," Annabel explained. "I'm trying to undo the locks on the elevators so we can ride them to the hundredth floor. Shouldn't take more than a second." She punched one last button. "There! That should do it."
All of the lights in the lobby came on…and suddenly dulled to a glaring red, flashing as sirens went off. Metal bars slammed down in front of the sheets already covering the elevators, and sheets and bars sealed the exit doors again. A huge, yet thin metal wall dropped abruptly from the ceiling, bisecting the room diagonally and splitting the group in half, leaving most of the humans on one side of the new barrier and most of the Pokemon on the other.
Annabel sweatdropped and laughed nervously. "Whoops," she said meekly. "They must have changed the password." The group on her side of the wall facefaulted in disbelief.
"Hey, what just happened!" Brock shouted, his voice carrying through the wall with only a slight muffling.
"Uh, sorry!" Annabel shouted through the wall in reply. "The codes must have been changed, and I either didn't get or forgot to open the memo about the new ones. Now we're kind of stuck again. The doors are sealed and the elevators are even more closed off than before."
"No worries!" Crawdaunt said confidently, flexing his claws. "One good hammer will knock this thing down!" He smashed his claw into the wall with a Crabhammer…and howled in pain, hopping back and clenching his throbbing pincer. "Ow! Ow! That's one damn strong wall!"
"Crawdaunt, no cursing around the kids!" Bayleef scolded, smacking him with a vine.
"What's damn mean?" Phanphy said innocently.
"The same thing as darn, dear," Corsola told him through the wall.
"Here, let me try," Charla offered. The other Pokemon got out of the way as she inhaled deeply, then spat out the incredibly powerful flame of a Blast Burn. It exploded against the wall, burned fiercely, and went out, revealing…that she hadn't even scorched it. The Charizard blinked. "That's a very strong wall."
There were some yelps and cries of pain from the other side of the wall, indicating that the trainers had tried using some of their Pokemon to knock down the wall only for their attacks to be either repelled or totally ineffective. "Jeez! My ghosts can't pass through this thing! What's it made of?" wondered Phoebe.
"Some powerful metal…all of the security seals in the building are made of it, and I think some of the walls are reinforced by it," Annabel told them. "As corporate headquarters for Ford Industries, Ford wanted this tower to be very secure in case of something like a Team invasion or terrorist bombing."
"Can't you just undo the locks like you did for the doors earlier?" Steven asked.
Annabel shook her head, realized Steven couldn't see here, and said, "No, the computer's shut down. Security measures, you know. Nothing like this has ever happened before; I always thought I'd be able to have total control of my Tower no matter where I was in it. But now that I've set off that alarm, the only computer that can end the lockdown is the one that started it in the first place…and I'm not sure where that is."
"Ford's probably got it," Lucy suggested. "So our mission's still the same as before. Get to the top of the building, beat him up for using us as a cover for this, and save that Ash kid."
"But how do we do that?" asked the confused
May. "The doors and elevators are all locked!"
"Don't
worry, there's still a way for you guys to reach the top,"
Annabel reassured them. "The central area of the tower, from top to
bottom, is one hundred battlefields stacked on top of each other, one
for each floor. The battlefields are ringed by flights of service
stairways used for maintenance to repair the fields and for trainers
to enter without getting mobbed by crowds eager to see a fight. The
door to the battlefield on this floor is right on your side of the
lobby. The metal seal on that door, for some reason or other, is
unable to lock properly; we've been meaning to get it fixed. If a
strong enough Pokemon can push up on it from the bottom edge, it
should be able to retract so you can get inside and climb the service
stairway up to the top. For structural reasons each flight of stairs
only goes up a few floors, then you have to leave it and cross the
battlefield to reach the next flight and keep on climbing. Go up
enough stairs and you'll reach the top."
"How come those stairs aren't sealed too?" asked Misty.
"They are, from the outside, to keep terrorists or whoever from getting into the battlefields and using the stairs to get up and down the building. But the stairways are open from the battlefield itself, and if you get to the top and the door, either to the arena or the outer hallways, is sealed, it should be easy to undo the locks from the inside, just type…let's see…I believe the password for this week is NEW FRONTIER…into the keypad next to the door. I could be wrong though," she said sheepishly. "I did mess up on the elevator password."
"No worries," Lucy said confidently. "If the password doesn't work, a solid boot from yours truly should get it to cooperate."
"I don't doubt that," Sidney muttered to himself, cowed by Lucy's aggressiveness.
"I like this girl!" Sadic said approvingly. "She'd make a great Sneasel or Manyula!"
"Just what we need," Bayleef muttered. "Two of them."
Pikachu glared at her warningly. "You say that like it's a bad thing."
"Depends on your preference for company, I suppose," Latias said quickly, trying to keep any conflict from breaking out. "Right, Gardevoir?" The psychic, who was herself somewhat fond of Sadic from the travel time they had spent together, nodded silently.
May moaned. "Ohhh…it took us forever to climb all those stairs back at the hotel…and now we have to go up one hundred stories!"
"If you don't want to do it, you can stay behind," Misty told her flatly. "But I'm going all the way to the top! Ash needs us, and I'm not going to abandon him!"
"I'm with you, mom!" Togetic chirped, landing on her mother's shoulder. (She had been on Misty's side of the lobby when the wall came down.)
"But what about you guys?" Brock wondered. "How'll you get to the top? Is there a door on your side to the battlefield too?"
Annabel sighed. "Yes, but the lock on that one is in working order. I'm not sure what we can do…"
"If I may interject?" Tuxedo Masquerain asked. "I'm not sure if you're aware of this, Annabel, but…HERO isn't the only part of his hero project Ford hides in this building. There are a couple of labs on the R+D floors of the tower, and some training rooms, but if I recall correctly there's a secret passage in this very lobby which leads to an obstacle course of sorts that winds all the way to the top of the building. Ford built it to help us superheroes get used to our new abilities and the like."
"Really?" Annabel asked, both surprised and somewhat dismayed. "How many more parts of this tower do I know nothing of…? How do I open it?"
"Simple, rotate the picture of the cowboy boots on the wall 45 degrees counter-clockwise and press the button that appears."
"You mean this one?" Latias asked, spotting the described painting on the wall. She floated over to it and twisted it as instructed.
A big, shiny red button popped out of the floor in front of Phanphy. "Oooh, pretty!" He happily stamped on the button.
There was a hiss of pneumatic pressure and a portion of floor tiles rose into the air on thin metal pistons, revealing a large hole with ladder rungs leading down into a tunnel a few meters beneath the floor. "Wow, just like on TV!" the little elephant squealed.
Annabel shook her head in disbelief. "I walked through here every day and never once noticed this!"
"Well, that's secret passages for you," Bayleef said, patting her on the shoulder with a vine sympathetically. "You're not supposed to notice them."
"Well then, it looks like we all have a way to get to the top," Phoebe said cheerfully.
"Yeeessss…" Brock said, a frown on his face. "How convenient that we'd get split up, then each of us finds an entrance to a passage up to the top of the tower while, due to bad luck, the one person best qualified to navigate said passage is trapped on the other side of the split. It's almost as if some omnipotent being, like an author of some sorts, was trying to find a convenient plot device to split us up so he, she, or it wouldn't have to try writing for all of us at once."
Lucy pounded him on the back of the head and slammed her foot into his back, pushing him to the ground. "Be quiet, you idjit!" She hissed. "You'll break the fourth wall and destroy the fabric of space-time, killing us all!"
"Sorry," he wheezed apologetically.
"Hmm…" Misty turned to May. "Do you think I should get spiked boots?"
May's eyes widened. "Ah-ha, no. Nonononono. I don't think you're at quite that level yet."
Misty nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah…don't know why I'm complaining really. I still have my mallet, anyway."
"Just don't add spikes to it," Togetic recommended. "Otherwise, you might actually hurt Dad when you pound him with it."
Steven clapped his hands, getting everyone's attention. "Well, now that that's settled…shall we head on to the top? I believe we have a young trainer to save, and goodness knows we've dallied long enough as it is."
Harrison nodded. "Right, let's go. My father is waiting for us." He paused. "Ahhh…" He sweatdropped. "Anyone got a Pokemon strong enough to open the door? I'm not sure my Blaziken's up to it." Everyone on his side of the lobby facefaulted. Then Steven took out his Aggron, who kindly lifted the metal sheet, and they were on their way.
On the other side of the divide, Pikachu and Sadic hopped down the hole and landed neatly in the tunnel. They glanced around for a moment, all of their finely-tuned senses on alert for any hint of trouble. After a moment, they glanced up. "All's clear!" they shouted to the others.
"Okay then. If I may go first?" Annabel asked, walking over to the edge where the ladder was.
"Go right ahead," Bayleef said graciously. "I don't know how I'm going to fit down that thing. Looks a little too small for me," she muttered.
"Don't worry," Crawdaunt said cheerfully. "If you get stuck, I'll pound you in!"
"Like a hammer hitting a nail!" Phanphy added happily.
Bayleef grimaced, the unpleasant thought of Crawdaunt driving her head into the ground with a hammer flashing through her mind. "Ah, actually, I don't suppose you could just push me through psychically, Latias or Gardevoir? I can't imagine it'll hurt as much…"
…
Ford noticed a blinking light on his console. Hmm? What's this? He pressed a button, and a small screen lit up, showing a split image of the two groups, one climbing the stairs and the other working their way through the booby-trapped training passage. He noticed, to his horror, that among the rescuers were two of his Frontier Brains and three of the Hoenn Elite trainers, including his own son! WHAT! WHAT'RE THEY DOING HERE! He didn't look up as Blaziken ricocheted off the cage wall before him and nearly flew back towards Charizard, ramming him in the gut with a double Dynamic Punch. Lance must have failed…and now some of the strongest trainers in Hoenn are coming for me! And if they came this far, with my son as well, that probably means they won't be willing to listen to me either…and Harrison must have been coerced into losing sight of our dream! He growled in frustration, ignoring the battle for a moment. Damn it, I didn't want it to come to this! I was hoping you of all people would understand what I was doing, son! And that the League would understand as well, once they saw the necessity of it all! But those idiots are so blinded by their own sense of what's right and what's not that they're missing the bigger picture! He sighed unhappily. It looks as if I have no choice…Resigned; he pressed another button, sending a signal to a few select individuals inside the building, none of which were trapped employees or rescuers. THEY will take care of things…in any way necessary… He grimaced and glared down into the cage at Ash, who was shouting orders to Charizard just in time for the dragon to dodge another Meteor Strike, grab Blaziken by the leg, and fling him into the lava. Dammit, boy, why'd you have to be so stubborn! Then things wouldn't have gotten this far! He scowled. Oh well…I've set things in motion, and I must see them carried out…no matter what the consequences! He gave one last glance at the screen as Blaziken erupted from the lava pit, streaming magma, which he flung at Charizard like darts. I'm sorry; Harrison…but you've left me with no choice. If you choose to stand against the world and choose your friends over the planet…then there is nothing more I can do for you.
…
"Are…we…there…yet?" May gasped, almost collapsing on the steps.
Misty glanced at an arrow painted on the wall. "Yep, we're almost to the twentieth floor and the end of the first flight. Wow, that was fast, wasn't it?"
Lucy shrugged. "Eh, that's what happens when you run up stairs; you pass the floors pretty quickly. Now come on and get up, May, we still have a little way to go." May moaned and got back to her feet, practically dragging her way up the stairs.
Steven reached the landing at the top of the stairs and glanced around. The landing was narrow, much like the stairwell itself, and had two doors on opposite walls. One was sealed by a metal shutter; the other was open and allowed access to a large Pokemon arena. "Come on, we're a fifth of the way there. This is no time to lose momentum; we still have so much further to go!" There was a very loud moan from May at this, which everybody ignored.
"I don't know why you're complaining so much," Brock grumbled. "You're not the only one wearing a dress and high heels, but you don't hear me saying anything."
"About that…why haven't you changed into something more comfortable?" asked Misty.
"Just like you guys, there wasn't any time. Plus, I'm not wearing anything under this," Brock told her.
They all stopped and shuddered in horror. "We did NOT need to know that!" Lucy snapped, pounding him on the head.
They entered the arena. It was a large, circular pit with a sand-covered floor and white lines designating the usual boundaries of a Pokemon battlefield. Glass walls rose from the top of the pit walls, forming protection for the viewers who would normally be sitting in the rows of seats ringing the arena. Across the pit from them was another open door, leading to the next flight of stairs. It was to this door that they hurried towards; knowing time was of the essence.
However, before they made it halfway across, somebody cried, "HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" A flash of pink and black fell down from the ceiling, landing in front of them and revealing itself to be the pink Poke Ranger. However, her attire seemed different. The sides of her helmet had popped open, allowing an antenna and comm. microphone to stick out. Her torso was covered in a thick black Kevlar vest with a pink and silver number five emblazoned on the left side, with a pocket which held her badge/morpher on the right. Black braces and straps ran up her legs. She was carrying a large laser gun with two barrels, which she pointed at the group. "You are trespassing on Ford Industries property and are attempting to disrupt the vital functions of Project HERO! You are all under arrest! Surrender now or I will be forced to take action!"
They sweatdropped. "Who is she kidding?" Misty muttered. "Like she can take on all of us and our Pokemon when she couldn't even beat that Miror B guy."
"We couldn't either," Togetic pointed out.
"Well, yes but…oh, never mind."
The elite instantly reached for their Pokeballs, but Tuxedo Masquerain stopped them. "Wait! Let me handle this!" He stepped forward. "Pink Ranger, stand down, they're with me!"
"Orders are for me to apprehend you as well, Tuxedo," Pink Ranger told him, pointing her gun at him.
This startled Tuxedo Masquerain. "What? Why!"
"Your mind has been corrupted by these interlopers! You are against the project and Mr. Ford! Therefore you are a criminal, and all criminals must be contained!"
Tuxedo Masquerain sputtered. "But…but…I'm a hero!" he protested weakly. "Just like you!"
"Not anymore you aren't." She pointed her gun at his feet and fired, causing him to yelp and stumble backwards as the blasts exploded in front of him. "By siding with these criminals, you have become one of them! How very disappointing that one of our best would turn to the forces of evil," she said, disgust evident in her voice.
Tuxedo Masquerain's face managed to convey shock, disbelief, horror, anger, and finally depression in rapid succession. "I…I don't believe this…" he said, sagging. "I'm not the evil one here! I'm just trying to do the right thing by saving that Ash kid from…well…becoming like us!"
"And that's a bad thing?" Pink Ranger asked, pointing her gun at him.
"I…well…I'm not sure," he admitted uneasily. "But my hero instincts are telling me to put a stop to this, so that's what I'm going to do!"
Pink Ranger shrugged. "Okay." She fired her laser blaster right at Tuxedo Masquerain's head.
A blue Safeguard aura flickered into being before the group, deflecting the laser shots. "That wasn't very nice," Togetic said, frowning at the Ranger.
"I think I've had enough of this gal," Lucy said, cracking her knuckles. "What do you say we take her down a notch?"
Tuxedo Masquerain nodded, his eyes cold. "Yes…I think that's exactly what we should do." He grabbed his Pokeballs and threw them out. "Go, Roselia, Masquerain, Flygon!" The rose, insect, and dragon Pokemon all appeared before him. Misty yelped at the sight of Masquerain, a bug, and scurried to hide behind May, her insectophobia kicking in.
Pink Ranger fired her blaster at them, but Togetic's Safeguard deflected it again. "Masquerain, draw her fire!" Tuxedo Masquerain ordered. The insect darted around the room, irritating Pink Ranger (who was not fond of bugs either) and caused her to fire her laser rapidly at the bug to try and hit it. "Flygon, SIT!" The bug-eyed dragon flapped his wings, rose into the air…then dropped right onto Pink Ranger, flattening her and pinning her to the ground.
"OW! HEY!" The Ranger struggled. "GET OFF OF ME!" She pointed her gun upwards, targeting the dragon's head…
But Roselia showered her with Sleep Powder, getting through her helmet filters and putting her to sleep.
Harrison blinked. "That was kind of anticlimactic."
Misty snorted and rolled her eyes. "Some superhero she was."
"I'm one too, you know," Tuxedo Masquerain pointed out.
"My statement stands," she said flatly.
"So…what do we do with her?" Steven asked. "She may be out now, but she might wake up and try to come after us again."
"I'll stay and watch her," Tuxedo Masquerain volunteered. "That way she'll have to go through me and my Pokemon before reaching you guys."
"You sure about this?" Brock asked.
Tuxedo Masquerain nodded. "Yes. It's the…heroic thing to do, isn't it?"
"Well, not exactly…" Lucy murmured. "But hey, whatever floats your boat."
"Be careful, okay?" May said anxiously.
Drew laughed and brushed back his hair. "Ha! What's to be careful about? I'm Tuxedo Masquerain!" He paused. "But…eh…yeah, I'll be careful."
She smiled. "Well, good then."
"Are they going to kiss yet?" Corsola asked, annoyed.
"I don't know. I'm not sure there's anything between them yet," Togetic said with a shrug. "Speaking of which, I see you and Crawdaunt got back together. How'd that happen?"
Corsola shrugged. "He can be very persuasive when he puts his mind to it."
"You crawled back to him begging and crying, didn't you?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
After saying their farewells to the masked coordinator, the group continued on their way to the top of the tower. Tuxedo Masquerain smiled faintly and leaned against the side of his Flygon. "You know, I think it's a good thing we never put you on that diet," he said, glancing down at the trapped Pink Ranger.
"Can I get off her yet?" the dragon whined. "The metal on her vest is chafing my hindquarters." He whimpered. "I swear that she's going to leave a permanent 5-shaped imprint scar on my rear. How'm I going to mate with any females then?"
"I wouldn't mind the scar," Roselia hinted, winking at him.
He stared at her. "Huh? You're too small for me. I mean really, you'd probably fall into it."
Roselia's eye twitched. She huffed and turned around. "Men," she grumbled.
…
"What the heck are these things!" Pikachu cried, charging up his sword with some electricity and slashing out with it, sending a thunder wave coursing down the hallway and bisecting several of the bizarre creatures attacking them.
"Nothing but trouble. Though they do have nice blades," Sadic admitted as she froze half a dozen before her with an Icy Wind and smashed them to pieces with her claws.
The monsters, or whatever they were, looked a lot like Scythers, except that they were a little slower and not quite as adept with their blades. Their green exoskeletons had turned black and hardened into spiky chitinous armor. A second set of arms sporting massive claws grew from their midsections. Purple feathery spikes sprouted from their eye ridges, hanging over mindless red eyes. Their scythe blades had become long organic sword-like growths with which they hacked and slashed indiscriminately at friend and foe alike. The heroes had no way of knowing, but these Scythers were some of the failed experiments which resulted from testing HERO on Pokemon. Since they were of no use to the 'forces of good', they were relegated to training areas for Ford's heroes to practice their skills on. When the group of Pokemon (and Annabel) had entered this area by crossing a wildly tilting bridge, climbing up a series of stairs and passing through several doors which would only fall when Charla and Latias blasted them with their fire, they had triggered an alarm which closed the doors and unleashed this endless horde of monsters on them.
The beasts weren't very resilient, it only took a Blast Burn or Fire Blast from Charla and crushing Psychic waves from Latias or Gardevoir to knock whole bunches of them down and permanently eliminate them from the fight. However, there were always more monsters to replace them, pouring in endlessly from the walls.
"Ahhh! Help!" Phanphy screamed as one of the monsters pinned him with a clawed foot and prepared to run him through with a sword.
"Hang on!" Crawdaunt leaped onto the beast from behind and started pummeling its head with his Crabhammers. "Leave the kid alone, you freak!"
The monster hissed and twisted its arms so that the swords would point towards Crawdaunt and thrusted them backwards, trying to skewer the crustacean. This ploy was foiled when a Hyper Beam from Annabel's Alakazam slammed into the creature's head, causing it to explode and shower Crawdaunt in gore before the monster fell to its knees and hit the ground, throwing Crawdaunt off. He blinked while Phanphy made a grossed-out face and licked some of it off his claws. "Hey, this stuff's not bad!"
Phanphy stared at him in disgust. "Uncle Crawdaunt, you're not actually going to eat that stuff on you, are you?"
"Kid, you should know by now there's very little I won't eat."
Latias forced a wave of the monsters back with a combined Psychic crush from her and Gardevoir, and glanced over her shoulder at Annabel, who was frantically working at the keypad next to the locked exit door. "Annabel, are you done yet?"
"Just a little longer!" the purple-haired maiden replied to Latias' psychic probe. "Almost…there!" With a beep and a hiss, the shutter door opened, revealing the next passage, which was most definitely not full of murderous beasts. "Come on, let's go!" Annabel recalled her Pokemon, and then she and Phanphy went through the door. Sadic and Pikachu followed after slicing up a few more monsters, followed by Crawdaunt, Annabel's Pokemon, and finally Gardevoir, Latias, and Charla, who had been using their wide-range attacks to hold the beasts at bay while their friends made it through the door. Once everyone else was through, the trio quickly ran through the exit. "Close the door!"
Annabel reached for a keypad…only to see there was nothing on this side of the door that would close it. "I can't! The controls are on the other side, with THEM!" she cried, pointing at the horde coming down the hall towards them.
Sadic glanced at Pikachu. He met her gaze. For a moment, they did nothing, but finally nodded and ran back through the door. "Hey! What are you guys doing?" Bayleef cried in alarm. Crawdaunt quickly understood and followed after the blade-wielding duo, leaving the others behind.
Once they were through the door, Pikachu
released a Thundershock at the control panel, causing it to explode
in a burst of sparks and smoke. The shutter door came slamming back
down, leaving them (and the monsters) trapped in the room!
The
rest of the group, on the other side of the shutter, gasped in
horror. "UNCLE BROTHER PIKACHU!" Phanphy cried.
"They've doomed themselves!" Latias gasped.
"No!" Charla launched a Fire Blast at the door, trying to either melt it or knock it down. Neither happened, and the shutter held firm. Growling, she pounded at it, trying to knock it down. Latias tried to push it up with her psychic abilities, and Bayleef tried pummeling it with her vines, but nothing seemed to work. Phanphy didn't do anything productive, he just sat down and started crying.
"Wh-why?" Gardevoir wondered, shocked that those three would have done such a thing.
Annabel didn't understand Gardevoir, but could tell what she was thinking by the tremor in her voice and the look in her eye. "They did it to save us," she said weakly. "They realized the only way to close the door and keep those things at bay was to sacrifice themselves…those brave fools!" she cried.
"Guys, what are you doing?" Pikachu shouted from the other side of the door, over the roars of the monsters, Crawdaunt's raucous laughter, and the sounds of explosions and electric blasts. "Get going! We'll hold them off here, hurry!"
"But we can't leave you behind!" Bayleef protested.
"There's no time, you guys know that!" Sadic replied, decapitating one of the monsters with her claws. "You have to save that Ash kid! You're the only ones who can do it now!"
"But we can't leave you!" Phanphy screamed. "We need you!"
"Don't worry," Crawdaunt grunted as he fired Bubblebeams at the monsters. "We'll be okay! We're just buying you time to get to the top; we'll find a way out of this!"
Charla growled and stopped pounding on the door, realizing how futile it was. "Dammit…" She shut her eyes, remembering how she had been forced to leave Charizard behind much like this, and prayed that he was still all right. "Please…don't die."
"Yes," Latias agreed, her eyes watering. "I don't want to lose any more friends," she said, sorrowfully thinking of Bianca. "So…so don't die, you hear me?"
"Heh…when you put it like that, what choice do we have?" joked Sadic, flinging an Ice Ball at her foes. "Guess I'll have to put off joining my ma in the big hunting grounds in the sky a little longer. Take care of Gardevoir until I get out of here, okay?"
"I…" Latias swallowed and nodded. "Yeah. Okay."
"Guys…" Bayleef whispered.
"Hey, don't get all weepy on us!" Crawdaunt snapped. "You don't have time for that! Get going already!"
"Save Ash, or my ghost is coming back to haunt you, okay? And his too, maybe," Pikachu said.
Latias couldn't help smiling at that. "If you haunt us, I'll get my boyfriend to scare you away."
Pikachu chuckled. "Yeah…you do that…now get going!"
Latias nodded. "Come on. We have to go."
They did not want to go. They did not want to leave their friends behind. But they had no choice…and so, regretfully, they departed.
Pikachu panted, shaking his sword off to get rid of some of the chunks of insect innards on it. "You really think we're going to get out of this alive?"
Sadic gave him a look that said she couldn't believe he had asked such a foolish question. "Of course we are. It's going to take more than these guys to bring us down!" she said, gesturing with a bloody claw at the dozens and dozens of hideous black sword-armed monsters lumbering towards them.
"And if we do die…at least we'll have given em' one hell of a fight!" agreed Crawdaunt, snapping his pincers. "But come on…no more talk of death…we promised we'd live to see them again, and I intend to do that!"
"And if we die…so what?" said Sadic with a shrug. "It's not like death is something to be feared, anyway. I've never understood why so many people are terrified of dying."
"Were this any other time, I'd be delighted to learn why you or your people have no fear of death," Pikachu said, charging up his sword. "But right now we have a fight to win!" He pointed his blade at the monsters. "Okay, in the words of a famous swordsman, 'You shall not pass!'"
"That wasn't a swordsman," Crawdaunt corrected him. "It was a wizard."
Pikachu sweatdropped. "Oh, right."
"Eh, swordsman, wizard, who cares? Either way, we're not letting these things get by us!" said Sadic, slashing at the air with her claws.
Pikachu nodded. "Right…ready, you guys?"
"Ready!" they chorused.
"Okay…here we go! YAAHHHH!"
"YAHHHH!" Together, they charged down the hallway. The monsters bellowed and ran to meet them, swords flying.
The two forces clashed in the middle of the chamber, and the battle began anew.
…
"Charizard, Dragon Rage!" called Ash.
"Blaziken, dodge them!" Ford retaliated.
Charizard circled in the air above the lava field, spitting flaming energy balls down on the arena. Blaziken utilized his rapid speed and high jumping ability to hop from platform to platform, dodging the attacks with ease. He paused for one moment on the tallest platform, pivoted on one foot, and caught one of the energy balls in his hand. He used the momentum from the shot to spin around and throw the Dragon Rage right back at Charizard, adding a little fire to it with a Flamethrower to make it stronger.
"Charizard, deflect it!" Ash called out.
Charizard grunted and spun around, using his tail to knock the energy ball right back at Blaziken at a higher speed. The Blaze Pokemon scowled and punched it before it could strike him, sending it back at Charizard again faster than before. The dragon deflected again, and the ball's speed increased. Blaziken made to punch it…but misjudged his timing and missed, causing the orb to strike him in the chest and explode, knocking him off the platform!
"Great job, Charizard!" Ash cried.
"Hang on, we're not done yet!" Charizard replied. Blaziken had dug his claws into the wall of the arena as he fell, slowing his descent and stopping him before he could fall into the lava. He kicked off the wall, soaring towards the nearest platform, kicked off the side of it, and bounced back and forth between the wall and the platform, going higher with each jump until he rose over the edge of the platform…
"NOW, CHARIZARD!" yelled Ash.
…And ran right into Charizard's fist.
POW!
Blaziken's head spun back, his sunglasses cracked. Growling, he immediately launched a Blaze Kick at Charizard's face. The dragon moved his head to the side and grabbed the chicken's leg, not bothered by the flames, and spun around, flinging Blaziken at the electrified cage wall.
"Fire Twister!" ordered Ford.
"Fire what?" Ash asked in confusion. He hadn't heard of that attack before. He took out his Pokedex and looked through it to see if such an attack was listed.
Blaziken started spinning in the air as he hurtled towards the cage wall. He opened his mouth and spat out a tongue of flame which wrapped around him much like a Fire Spin. However, instead of constricting him, the fire swelled and enveloped him in a twirling column of fire which reached to the ceiling and touched the ground, stirring up the lava and licking the platforms, incidentally halting Blaziken's flight in its tracks.
Charizard sweatdropped. "Ah, hell."
"That's not an official attack!" Ash realized, looking up from his Pokedex. "And neither was that meteor thing, for that matter!"
"This isn't an official match, boy…so all the rules are off!" Ford told him. "Here, anything goes…and both of us will do whatever it takes to win!"
The fire tornado swirled towards Charizard, its intense heat causing Ash to cringe and back away to the edge of his platform, for fear of getting burnt. "Charizard, try flying around it in the opposite direction it's spinning! Maybe you can generate enough wind to negate it!"
Charizard nodded. "Right!" With a flap of the wings, he took to the air and started flying around the tornado, dodging the tendrils of flame which burst out from its surface to try and engulf him. Faster and faster he flew in circles around the great conflagration, trying to generate enough wind from displaced air to counter the tornado's rotation and bring it to a halt. Slowly but surely, the flaming column started to shrink on itself, growing thinner as Charizard's counter-spin tore bits of fire off of it which quickly burned themselves out, unable to go against the current generated by Charizard's flight.
"Yeah, good job, Charizard!" Ash cheered his Pokemon.
"Not bad," Ford admitted, impressed as the tornado started to collapse on itself. "Not bad…but not good enough!"
Just as the fire column was about to extinguish itself, Blaziken erupted from the center of it and spin-kicked Charizard in the chest with a Blaze Kick HARD. Charizard's mouth gaped open, the breath forcefully leaving his lungs.
Ash gasped as the dragon started to fall. "CHARIZARD!"
"Ugh…don't count me out yet!" Charizard managed to flap his wings, slowing his descent and allowing him to land clumsily on a platform, nearly falling to his knees as his feet absorbed the impact. Ash sighed in relief.
Blaziken landed on an adjacent one, smirking. "Heh."
"Oh, think you're such a wise guy, huh?" Charizard asked, annoyed as he pulled himself back up. "Hmmph!"
"That was a pretty fancy trick you pulled back there…" Ash said to Ford. "But it'll take more than that to keep us down!"
"That it's a good thing that wasn't our only fancy trick…" said Ford with an eerie smile. "Because there's more where that came from!"
…
The group of trainers exited the stairwell and stepped onto the sandy floor of the 40th floor arena. "How much further?" May gasped, panting for breath.
"We're two-fifths of the way up!" Steven said cheerfully, stretching his arms out. "Ah, haven't had a good workout like this in a long time! Too bad it has to be in such dire circumstances, or I'd enjoy this more."
"Well, if you want to enjoy it that badly, you can walk all the way back downstairs once we're through here," Lucy cracked with a smirk.
"I for one am taking the elevator," Brock wheezed.
"No time for talking!" Misty snapped. "More walking! We have to get to Ash!"
"You'll have to get through me first!" Yellow Ranger, clad in the same black vest and gear as Pink Ranger, dropped down from the ceiling. "Yah! Yellow Ranger reporting for duty! You are all under arrest!"
"Another one?" asked the annoyed Phoebe. "Okay, who's taking this one on?"
"None of you are!" Yellow Ranger said, pointing her gun at them. "On Mr. Ford's orders, all of you are to be apprehended immediately! Even you, Harrison," she told the businessman's son. "How very disappointing! The son of the HERO project's founder is attempting to derail it! I can't let you do that!"
Harrison winced, feeling a deep hurt at his father's seemingly casual casting off of him. "Dad…"
"We don't have time for these delays," Sidney grumbled, pulling out two Pokeballs. "Go, Absol and Mightyena!" A pair of four-legged bestial Pokemon appeared, growling at the yellow and black Poke Ranger.
"Count me in, too! Go, Pokeball!" Phoebe released her Dusclops and Sableye.
"Four against one? Hardly fair. Then again, what else could I expect from criminals?" taunted Yellow Ranger.
"Well, seeing as we're in a bit of a rush, we don't have time to play fair," Sidney said with a smirk.
"We have a young trainer to save, and you're in our way!" Phoebe told the Ranger.
"Heh…guess I'd better make things even then!" Yellow Ranger glowed yellow…and suddenly split into four, leaving the group faced with four Yellow Rangers. "Ha! How's this for fighting fair?" all four taunted at once.
"Did you know she could do that!" an incredulous Misty asked Harrison.
He shook his head in surprise. "No, never! I didn't know she could do this!"
"I just got a power boost from HERO the other day which gave me this ability! Now I have the power to clone myself! Beat that!" the Yellow Rangers mocked in stereo.
"Wait, if she got a boost from HERO a few days ago, shouldn't she have been…um…re-hero-ified behavior-wise?" a confused May asked Harrison.
He shook his head. "Not necessarily. The more times one of the heroes has had to go through HERO, the shorter the personality change lasts until they degenerate. The Rangers have used it so many times they need to go back every couple of days to keep from becoming truly dangerous. It's probably almost time for Yellow to go back in again…too bad we caught her before then!"
"Don't worry, they're probably just illusions, like Double Team," Steven asserted.
"Ha! Wrong! All four of us are real!" the Yellow Rangers said in unison. "If you don't believe us, just see for yourself!"
Sidney and Phoebe glanced at each other and shrugged. "Okay. Mightyena, Take Down! Absol, Aerial Ace!"
"Dusclops, Sableye, Shadow Ball!" commanded Phoebe.
Mightyena barked and charged towards his target, while Absol growled and dashed towards his. At the same time, both of Phoebe's ghost Pokemon formed Shadow Balls and hurled them at the two Yellow Rangers they were facing.
Mightyena's Ranger ran towards the charging hyena and leaped over him before he could hit her, firing lasers at the black mane of fur on his back. The hyena yelped in pain and skidded to a halt, smoke rising from the burns on his back. Absol had better luck, though. He vanished right before the lasers fired from the Ranger he was charging at could strike him, reappearing behind Yellow Ranger and slamming into her hard, slashing at her back with the blade on the side of his head. She cried out in pain as, for some reason, sparks flew from where the blade hit, somersaulted into a crouch, and fired lasers at the Disaster Pokemon.
In the meantime, both Yellow Rangers Phoebe's ghosts were facing fired their laser guns at the Shadow Balls, causing them to explode. They leaped through the smoke cloud that resulted, emerging above the startled ghosts and raining lasers down on them. Of course, since they were ghosts, Sableye and Dusclops just phased out of the way, but the two Rangers did not look too worried as they landed on the ground and started dashing over to the ghosts' new locations, firing more laser blasts.
Steven sweatdropped. "My mistake, I guess they are real after all."
"Mightyena, Sand Attack! Absol, Snatch!" Sidney called to his Pokemon.
Mightyena turned around and kicked up a great load of sand into Yellow Ranger's visor, blocking her vision for a moment. "Ahh! I can't see!" The hyena crouched and lunged at her with Take Down, slamming into her chest and knocking her to the ground. Her gun flew away, clattering to the dirt. He pinned her to the dirt with his paws, growling into her visor…and was surprised when, in a flash of yellow sparkles, she disappeared. His ears folded and he whimpered in confusion. Where had she gone?
Absol, crackling with Dark energy, lunged at Yellow Ranger as she fired her lasers at him. He somersaulted through the air and bit down on her gun, tearing it from her surprised hands and flying over her shoulder, landing on the ground behind her. She turned around in time to see the Absol crush the gun in his jaws and spit it away. He growled and advanced on her, thinking her helpless without her weapon. Unfortunately for the doom hound, this turned out not to be the case, for the Ranger still had a large number of flashy martial arts moves in her repertoire to use on him.
As for Phoebe… "Dusclops, use Confuse Ray then Earthquake and Ice Beam! Sableye, get rid of her gun with Psychic and hit her with Faint Attack!"
The Beckon Pokemon's single eye glowed, and a purplish ray shot from it and went right through Yellow Ranger's visor, affecting her brain. She staggered for a moment, then roared mindlessly and started firing her laser gun wildly in all directions, coming close to hitting the humans watching from the sidelines. "Hey, watch it!" Lucy snapped as one laser bolt came close to hitting May. Togetic's eyes glowed and a protective Safeguard formed around them to shield them from the battle.
"Sorry," the Dusclops muttered. She slammed her palms onto the ground, shaking the arena. The already off-kilter Yellow Ranger cried out and fell to the ground, where she was promptly frozen by an Ice Beam from Dusclops. "There. Looks like you're the one on ice instead of us," the ghost joked. Everyone who understood her groaned at the bad joke as the ice block shattered and the Ranger inside vanished.
At the same time, Sableye was taking care of the last Yellow Ranger. Her jewel eyes glowed as a blue aura appeared around Yellow Ranger's laser gun. She gasped in surprise at the weapon was wrenched out of her hand and crumpled into a little hunk of metal. Then Sableye grinned and vanished in a burst of Dark energy, reappearing right in Yellow Ranger's face and slamming her forehead into the Ranger's visor, cracking it as well as (for some reason) giving off lots of sparks. The Ranger cried out as she fell over backwards, vanishing in a shower of yellow sparkles.
The Ranger Absol had been fighting backflipped away from the Disaster Pokemon, kicking him in the jaw as she did so, glowed, and suddenly split into four fresh Yellow Rangers, each with a new laser blaster. "It'll take more than that to defeat me!" the Rangers chorused.
Sidney sweatdropped. "Now we have to fight her all over again!"
"That's annoying…" Phoebe muttered.
"And the longer it takes to beat her, the less time we have to save Ash!" Misty growled, getting frustrated.
"Hey, I just had an idea. Why don't we just sneak past them while they're fighting and go to the stairs?" Harrison asked, pointing to the unguarded entryway as the four Pokemon and Rangers started fighting again.
"…Why didn't I think of that!" Steven asked in disbelief.
"What about those two?" Brock asked, pointing to Sidney and Phoebe.
"Don't worry about us," Sidney assured them in a whisper so Yellow Ranger wouldn't hear. "We'll stay here to take care of her and keep her from going after you."
"Once we're sure she's beaten, we'll catch up," Phoebe told them. "Go on. Get going!"
Lucy nodded. "All right, you heard them. Let's go!"
The group moved around the perimeter of the battlefield as stealthily as they could, the sand cushioning their footsteps as they crept along the walls. Togetic's Safeguard deflected any stray laser shots or other attacks that came their way as they made their way to the exit. Yellow Ranger and her clones were too busy fighting to notice their absence, so the group had little trouble entering the stairwell and proceeding on their way to the top of the tower.
…
After climbing a long spiral ramp, and crossing a bridge guarded by a giant mutant Venusaur, the Pokemon and Annabel found their way blocked by another large, unbreakable shutter door. And there was no visible console or control panel visible that could open the door, though they looked as hard as they could to find one. "How do we get past this?" Latias asked, getting a little anxious. She was worried that the sacrifice Pikachu, Sadic, and Crawdaunt had made would be for nothing, all because they couldn't figure out how to open the door.
"Hey, what about this?" Phanphy asked, trotting over to a large air duct opening high on the wall. "Maybe one of us can climb through that and open the door from the other side! That's how it always works on television and in movies!"
Bayleef was about to remind him yet again that real life wasn't the same as stuff on television until she realized that, seeing as how this was a superhero training course of sorts; the little elephant just might be on to something. "You might be right, Phanphy."
Charla peered into the duct opening to take a look. "It's too small for any of us to get in, though."
Latias glanced at her 'nephew'. "Except for you, Phanphy."
"Is it safe to send the little one in?" Charla asked uncomfortable, the thought of the tiny elephant in danger making her think all too much about the child in her stomach and how it might not have a father if they weren't fast enough.
"I can do it!" Phanphy asserted. "Just send me through and I'll open the door!"
"Is there anything in particular Phanphy should look for?" Latias asked Annabel.
The purple-haired woman shrugged. "Probably any conspicuous-looking button or switch should do the trick."
"What's conspicuous?" Phanphy asked.
"Easily visible," Gardevoir said, picking up Phanphy and pushing him into the shaft.
"Okay, I'll try to find something like that. See you in a minute!" he said, scurrying down the small duct, his tiny stomps causing echoes to ring through the metal as he went.
The duct was dark, which caused Phanphy to get frightened and almost wet himself, but it was short and he soon emerged into the light of a large rectangular room, with his duct on one of the short walls and the sealed door blocking the way for his friends on the longer wall perpendicular to his right. The long wall on the left featured another door, this one open. Almost directly beneath Phanphy was a large square floor switch that glowed an inviting yellow. That must be the cons-cons-easily visible thing! Phanphy thought to himself as he dropped down from the vent. He trod over to the switch and hopped on it, his weight pushing the button down until it was flush with the ground. There was a beep, and the door on the right slid upward. "Yay, I did it!" Phanphy cheered, hopping off the switch and running towards his friends as they started through the opened door…
Only to yelp as mechanical tentacles emerged from holes in the wall behind him, grabbed him by the legs, and started to drag him backwards. "Ahhh! Help!" he screamed.
The rest of the group asked. "Oh no! Phanphy!" They started to run towards the little elephant…
Only for a clear sheet made of some kind of glass or plastic to slide down from the ceiling, blocking them off from Phanphy's side of the room. Charla had been at the front of the group when the sheet fell, and now found herself cut off from the others. Surprised, she breathed fire at the sheet, trying to burn or melt through it…but like every other barrier in the infernal place, it didn't react at all to her fire.
"Ahhh! Now the ceiling's falling!" Phanphy cried in fear as the tentacles held him prostrate against the wall, noticing that the ceiling above him and Charla was dropping very rapidly towards them.
The mighty Charizard noticed and quickly thrusted her arms upwards, catching the surface of the falling mass in her claws and stopping its descent. She sweated and gritted her teeth as the ceiling, propelled by powerful pneumatics, continued to push down on her, applying a great deal of pressure to the fire dragon, possibly more than even her beyond-average strength could sustain.
"We have to help them!" Bayleef cried. She opened her mouth and started gathering what ambient light there was in the room into the leaf fronds around her neck, which slowly started glowing white.
Latias nodded and started blasting the wall with the white fire of her Dragonbreath, while Gardevoir's eyes glowed and she slammed the awesome Psychic power of her mind against the barrier. Annabel, a determined look on her face, cast out her Alakazam and Snorlax. "Alakazam, Snorlax, Hyper Beam!"
The two Pokemon fired golden lasers from the mouth at the same time that Bayleef finished charging her Solar Beam and fired it at the barrier. The three powerful beams struck the wall…and bounced right back into them, slamming into the Pokemon which had fired them and smashing them into the back wall of the room. "Ow…" Bayleef moaned.
Latias growled in frustration. "Why does this thing have to be so strong!" she ranted, her fear for Charla and Phanphy's life channeled into anger as she lashed at the wall with a Dragonclaw and nearly broke her nails on the barrier.
Snorlax groaned and slumped down from its position on the wall, its enormous weight pressing down on a concealed pressure switch and activating it. Abruptly, the door they had entered through slammed shut, the ceiling above them started to lower, and a metal shutter slowly started to close off the only remaining door. "Ahhh! Snorlax, look what you did!" Annabel cried.
The fat cat sweatdropped. "Oops."
"We must get out of here!" said the Alakazam. "Or we'll get flattened!"
"But what about Charla and Phanphy?" Latias asked anxiously.
"Get…going…" Charla said through gritted teeth, still pushing against the ceiling above her. "I…lift rocks heavier than this…for hours at a time…go on. I'll catch up. This thing's gotta give out sooner or later, right?"
"But Charla…" Bayleef started.
"Go!" she snapped. "Don't worry, I'm not going to die! I have too much to live for…a wonderful mate, a child-to-be, and a promise of new adventures! I'm not going down!" She nodded, almost losing her grip for a second. "Get out of here! I'll get Phanphy out and meet you at the top. You don't have much time left, so you have to hurry."
"I…" Latias squeezed her eyes shut and nodded. "All right. Don't die, Charla. I've just met you…and like I told the others, I don't want to lose any more friends. Or friends of friends."
Charla smirked. "Relax, I'll be fine. If I could fly all the way from Charicific Valley to here in less than a week, than I can handle myself a little longer. Now get going!"
Annabel quickly recalled her Pokemon and ran over to the door, bending over to fit under the slowly lowering shutter. Bayleef ran after her and pulled her legs up, landing on her belly and squeezing underneath. Gardevoir gracefully managed to slide under as the door got lower and lower, with the ceiling not far behind, and Latias started flying as fast as she could towards the door, dropping to her belly at the last second and sliding through the opening just before the door got too low for her to fit through. As she made it to the other side, she looked back through, making eye contact with Phanphy on the other side of the barrier.
"Don't worry Aunt Latias, we'll be okay!" Phanphy said cheerfully as the lowering door took him out of Latias' sight. "Things always work out on television!" The door shut, and the ceiling not held up by Charla hit the ground, and he was gone.
Latias stifled a sob and turned away, seeing Bayleef was trying to hide tears as well. Annabel and Gardevoir looked more distressed than upset, but that could be excused; seeing as neither of them knew Phanphy or Charla very well. "Dammit, Phanphy," Bayleef whispered. "This time, I hope you're right. Because…" She didn't finish her sentence.
Because in real life, things didn't always work out like they did on television.
…
"Charizard, Aerial Ace!" Ash ordered.
"You too, Blaziken!" Ford ordered.
The two Pokemon dashed towards each other, one swooping down from the sky, the other leaping to meet him from a platform jutting from the lava. As they shot towards each other, the two of them seemed to vanish for a split second before reappearing in midair with a resounding crash as the two collided, a kick from Blaziken connecting with Charizard's chest at the same time that a punch from the dragon smashed into Blaziken's hard beak. Grunting in pain, both of them tumbled away from each other, managing to right themselves just before they could crash and landed on the platforms neatly.
"I'm impressed, Ash…I hadn't expected you and your Charizard to last thing long!" said the amazed Ford.
Ash smirked. "Yeah, well, if you really knew anything about me or my Pokemon, you'd know we don't give up eas-" He broke off, coughing hoarsely.
"Ash?" Charizard asked, concerned. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Ash said quickly, a slight rasp to his voice. "Kick that Blaziken's tail feathers!"
"Yeah…all right," said Charizard, not certain Ash was telling him the truth.
"Hmm…" Ford frowned in thought. "You've done well to last this long…but we're kicking it up a notch now! Blaziken, Phoenix Punch!"
Blaziken grinned, his eyes gleaming behind his cracked sunglasses, and he drew back his fist, which started glowing as the flames on his wrists crackled excitedly.
"Charizard, watch out!" Ash warned. "No telling what he has in mind!"
"Right!" Charizard started to move, preparing to jump towards the next platform…
And was utterly surprised when, with a roar, Blaziken stepped forward and thrust his glowing fist out, projecting a HUGE phoenix-shaped blast of fire at Charizard. "Waahhh!" Startled, he quickly enclosed his wings around himself to shield himself from the blast.
"CHARIZARD!" Ash cried out in alarm.
"GRAAAAHHHH!" Even with his meager protection, Charizard's body trembled in pain as the flames roared over him. So hot…hotter than any of the magma pools he had ever bathed in! Too hot, even for him! He crashed onto a nearby platform, rolling over as the fire blast continued on and exploded against the side of a higher platform, crumbling it to pieces. "Ouch…" He grunted, uncurled his wings, and started getting to his feet…only for Ash to cry out in warning as Blaziken drove a Blaze Kick right towards his face. Charizard yelped and rolled out of the way of the kick, leaping to his feet and spitting a Dragon Rage at the fire chicken. Blaziken shifted his head to the side to avoid the attack and thrusted both fists forward in a double Phoenix Punch attack, blasting Charizard in the chest and sending him hurtling across the arena, crashing into the side of a taller platform and causing it to collapse on top of him.
"It's over!" Ford cried triumphantly.
"Don't count us out yet!" Ash said with a smirk, knowing that Charizard had more than enough left in him to keep on fighting.
His faith was proven to be well-chosen as a Fire Blast exploded out of the pile of rubble and shot towards Blaziken. The chicken reared back and struck the fire star with his Phoenix Punch, shattering it in a burst of flame. "Grr…"
Charizard pushed his way out of the rubble on the now much-shorter platform. He was battered and bruised, but still not ready to give in. "Okay, asshole, that was a good hit…but it's the last one you're getting in!" He clenched up his fists before him in a fighter's pose. "Come on, big guy…show me what else you got! It'll take more than that powered-up Fire Punch to impress me!"
Blaziken snorted. "Idiot."
"You're going to let this keep on going?" Ford asked Ash mockingly. "You know your Charizard can't keep fighting like this forever!" And neither can you, for that matter, if my guess is correct.
Ash glared at Ford. "Both of us will keep fighting as long as-" He broke off, coughing slightly. "As long as it takes to win!"
"If that's the way you want it…" Ford said with a shrug. "Blaziken! Crush that orange lizard!"
Blaziken chuckled and leaped into the air, curling into a ball and launching himself at Charizard with his Meteor Strike. Charizard swung his tail at the chicken fireball before it could strike him, knocking him away in a home-run hit. Neither he nor Ash were going to give up easily, and Charizard intended to pound it into these idiots heads until they figured that out!
…
"The sixtieth floor! The halfway point! And I'm still not the least bit winded!" Steven said cheerfully.
"How…do...you…do it?" May wheezed, on her knees on the sandy floor of the arena.
"Lots of exercise and hiking up mountains and through caves!" Steven said with a smile. "Plus, my father encourages me to take the stairs in Devon Corporation headquarters instead of using the elevator; it keeps both of us more fit."
Harrison flinched, Steven's brief anecdote about his father the president of Devon Corporation, reminding the sandy-haired teen of his own parent. "Dad…" He clenched his fist, determined not to get anymore broken up about it. "What else do you have in store for us?"
"At this rate, probably another Poke Ranger," Togetic said to Misty.
"And it'll probably be the green one, seeing as how he had a big 3 on his chest last time we saw him and the Yellow one was 4 and the Pink was 5," agreed Corsola.
After May eventually recovered (Brock had finally asked for someone to cut off the heels of his shoes halfway up this latest flight so he could actually walk around with his soles flat against the ground, so wasn't quite as exhausted) they hurried across the arena floor towards the next stairway, at any moment expecting an attack from above.
They were not disappointed. A quarter of the way across the field, there was a cry of panic and alarm, and then the screaming figure of Green Ranger, clad in the same black vest and leg armor as the last two Rangers, fell down from the spotlight apparatus on the ceiling and landed on his helmeted head, hard. "Ow…that's the last time I try dangling upside-down from the ceiling to make the blood rush to my head and make my brain think better."
They all sweatdropped. "Nice entrance," Lucy said sarcastically.
"Er, are you all right?" Steven called to the Green Ranger.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, I'm okay," he said, getting to his feet. "Why is it called 'all right' anyway? Why not all left? Or forward? Or backwards? Why right? How does that make left-handed people feel? Or people who are ambidextrous? Or have hooks instead of hands? Or have flippers, like some Pokemon?"
They sweatdropped again. "I'm sure we don't know," Misty said, backing away slowly.
"Harrison, is he supposed to be like this?" Brock whispered to the teenager.
Harrison sighed. "Yes, unfortunately. He's always been rather weird, even after his degeneration periods increased. We're not sure if his brain had an adverse effect to HERO, or if he's just somewhat nuts."
"Why is 'nuts' synonymous with crazy, anyway?" Green Ranger asked aloud. "I mean, nuts also mean the nether regions in guys, which makes sense since those kind of look like nuts. But what do nuts have to do with being crazy?"
"Er…" they said, sweatdropping again.
"I mean, when I think of nuts, I get the hankering for a peanut butter sandwich. Because it's made with peanut butter. Which is made from peanuts. I think. Isn't it?" There was a long pause. "Was I supposed to be doing something? I can't remember."
"Oh, ah, you were just going to let us through so we could get to the top of the tower," Brock said quickly.
"Huh? Oh, right…or left…go ahead." They started forward when suddenly he pointed his gun at them. "Wait a minute, I remember now! Mr. Ford gave me orders to stop any intruders from reaching the top, and if I'm not mistaken…and I hope I'm not…you all are intruders! You are under arrest for trespassing and attempting to disrupt the private business of Ford Industries!"
"Guess he hasn't degenerated as far enough as I had thought," Harrison said apologetically to the others.
"You bet I haven't!" Green Ranger paused. "'Degenerative'. Such a funny word, isn't it? I mean, we have generators, which make stuff like electricity to keep this building running, so what would a degenerator do? Absorb electricity? Warp the fabric of space and time? Destroy the universe? Hmm…" He started avidly talking to himself, losing interest in the intruders.
They sweatdropped again. "Think we could sneak past him now?" May whispered.
Lucy shook her head. "Nah, he's still attentive enough…sort of…to shoot us if we try. I have a better idea…" She quickly explained it to the others.
As Green Ranger continued babbling to himself, Misty stepped forward, holding Corsola in her arms while Togetic fluttered on her shoulder. "Um, Green Ranger?"
He abruptly stopped his babble. "Huh? Yes, what is it, miss criminal?"
"Are you going to shoot us with that gun?" she asked, pointing to his laser.
He held it up. "What, my Sigma Enforcer? Yeah, I get to shoot you if you attempt to escape or try to get past me."
"Okay then…Togetic, Metronome!" Misty ordered. The Happiness Pokemon rose into the air and started waving her little arm nubs back and forth.
"Oh no you don't! Fire!" Green Ranger cried, shooting his laser at the little Pokemon.
Misty quickly held up Corsola in front of Togetic. "Mirror Coat!" Corsola shimmered right as the laser bolt hit her, and it was deflected up towards the ceiling, where it struck the support holding up one of the spotlights directly over Green Ranger, causing it to fall.
The Ranger looked up to see it plummeting right towards his head. "Oh, crud." It smashed down on his helmet, shattering the light bulb inside and covering his head completely. "Ow, that hurt," he said, wobbling about. "Who turned the lights out?"
They sweatdropped. "Shouldn't that have knocked him out?"
"Guess his head's harder than I thought," Harrison said in embarrassment.
"Oh, I'll handle this," said the annoyed Misty, putting Corsola on the ground. She took out her mallet and slammed it down on the spotlight-covered Green Ranger's head.
He dropped his gun and staggered backwards, the spotlight vibrating and making a ringing sound of sorts. "WhoOoOoOahH, that can't be good. Do I hear bells? I like bells. They remind me of church…"
Everyone sweatdropped again. "Oh for the love of-" Lucy tore off one of her spiked boots and hurled it at Green Ranger's head.
It nailed him right in the spotlight and caused him to topple over. "Ow!" he moaned. "Why do I keep hitting my head today?" He tried to get up, only to find the spotlight was too heavy for him to lift. "Um…a little help here?"
"Sorry, we're in a bit of a hurry," Steven said, running past Green Ranger.
"Yeah, we have a friend to save," agreed Misty, rushing past him.
"If we remember, we'll help you up on our way back down," May told him as she went past.
"But don't count on it," Lucy warned him as she ran after May.
"Huff…huff…so glad I got rid of those heels," Brock panted as he followed Lucy, hitching his skirt up.
"Really sorry about this," Harrison added as he followed the others into the stairway. "Bye!"
"Wait! Come back!" Green Ranger cried. They did not. He sighed miserably, struggled to get up, failed, and gave up. "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen…" he started singing piteously.
…
Their numbers greatly reduced, the small party continued on their way to the top of the tower, climbing stairs, riding elevators, and fending off booby traps and monsters as they kept going, only to find their way blocked by yet another indestructible shutter.
"Open up!" Latias cried in frustration, clawing at the door angrily and once more nearly breaking up her nails. "We don't have time for another puzzle; we have to get to the top!"
"Calm down, Latias!" Bayleef told her friend. "Yes, I know we're running out of time, but getting angry won't help anyone, be it Ash and Charizard, or…or everyone else!"
Latias sighed, relenting. Actually, she had been trying to get angry, so she could kindle that fire in her heart and summon the power she needed to simply blast the door down and continue unopposed to the top. However, her previous anger (and strange behavior) towards Lance had faded after her banishment of the failed dragon trainer, and the sacrifices her friends had made so far more depressed her than made her truly mad. The anger she had gathered so far just wasn't enough, it seemed.
Annabel noticed a control panel on a podium across the room from the door. "Hey, maybe this opens it." She walked over to the panel and examined it. There were quite a few buttons. "Hmm…let's see here…" She started pressing a sequence of buttons. "I think this should open-" As she pressed the last button, a clear barrier made of plastic or glass lowered from the ceiling, cutting Annabel off from Latias, Bayleef, and Gardevoir. At the same time, the shutter door rose up, revealing…another shutter just a few feet down a narrow passageway.
"Oh no, not again!" Bayleef cried, running over to the barrier.
"Annabel, are you all right?" Latias asked in concern.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," she said, startled…then gasped as a floor panel behind her collapsed, leaving a small, but very deep hole in the ground. "Oh dear."
"Annabel, don't move! We'll get you out of there!" Latias cried.
"No, no, don't worry, I think that was supposed to happen…" she said anxiously. "And I have to get the next door open! Let's see…" Despite Latias and Bayleef's vehement protests, Annabel walked back up to the console and input another sequence.
The shutter door opened…releasing a pair of hideous plant Pokemon monsters too mutated to tell what species they had originally been, looking like nothing more than a couple of very large flowers with toothed petals, an eyeball in the center, and a pair of claws formed from leaves. "Yikes!" Bayleef cried, stumbling back from the monsters as one lunged at her, snapping with its petals.
Latias immediately immolated it with her white Dragonbreath, causing it to screech in agony as it was burnt into nothingness. The other monster found itself at the wrong end of Gardevoir's formidable Psychic attack, which crumpled its body into a tiny, compact mass, rupturing whatever kind of circulation system flowed through the creature's body and killing it rather quickly.
The floor shook, and more panels fell away on Annabel's side of the barrier, leaving her with less room to stand on. She gulped. "Oh dear...what an intricate trap!"
"Annabel, stop!" Latias ordered her. "You're only putting yourself at risk!"
"I have no choice," Annabel told her, pointing over Latias' shoulder down the small passageway. "Do you see? There's another door. I'm going to have to open it."
"But-" the dragon started. But before she could be stopped, Annabel turned back to console and pressed in another sequence.
The next shutter slid open, releasing another pair of grotesque plant monsters. Both of them were immediately destroyed by Latias' Dragonbreath, which did nothing to stop still more floor panels from collapsing around Annabel, leaving her standing on a small platform in the midst of a chasm with numerous single panels standing here and there.
"What is she doing!" Bayleef screamed. "She's going to get herself killed!"
"Annabel, stop!" Latias cried. "There has to be another way-"
"Do you really think so?" Annabel replied. "This whole place seems to be designed to split large groups up. It makes sense really; a lot of superhero teams rely on teamwork, so this would force them to split up and try to solve problems on their own. Even if it means making a sacrifice."
"But we don't need to make any sacrifices!" Latias protested.
"Sometimes, you have no choice." Annabel turned back to the console and pressed another sequence of buttons before Latias could argue any further.
The door slid open, releasing another pair of flower monsters. Both were destroyed by a combined blast of Dragonbreath, Psychic, and some Razor Leaves courtesy of Bayleef (who had been feeling rather left out). Once the beasts were dispatched, the floor shook again and all the remaining floor panels, save for the one Annabel was standing on and the one the podium was on, collapsed into the pit. She smiled sadly. "Just as I thought…"
"Why did you do that!" Bayleef asked in disbelief.
Annabel shrugged. "I had to…it was the only way to get the doors open. Like I said, this place seems to be designed for sacrifice." She pointed towards the now-completely open passageway. "Now get going. You still have a ways to go to the top. You still have some friends to save."
"But what about you?" Latias asked.
Annabel smiled. "Relax, I have an Alakazam remember? He can just Teleport me out of here!"
Gardevoir frowned under her mask. "Then why…did you not Teleport us up to the top of the tower in the first place?"
Annabel grimaced. "He's allergic to teleportation."
They stared. "Allergic?"
She nodded. "Yeah, teleporting causes him to bloat up, vomit profusely, and leaves him unable to fight for weeks, so we don't do it often, except in emergencies."
Latias frowned. "And saving a young trainer and his Charizard from an unknown fate isn't an emergency?"
Annabel hesitated. "I-"
"You're lying, aren't you?" the dragon asked coldly.
Annabel sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, I am. My Alakazam doesn't know Teleport." She looked at her feet sadly. "I didn't want you to get caught up worrying about me and lose the time you need to get to the top." She sighed again. "Look, I know I'm stuck here. But look on the bright side; at least I'm not in imminent danger like the others were. Are. See?" She patted her platform. "Solid as a rock! It's not falling anytime soon."
"Annabel…" Latias started.
"Go," the maiden said shortly. "We don't have time for arguments. Ford is using something he's hidden in my tower to do something horrible to one of the trainers who come out here all year round to prove themselves. I don't want anything to happen to that trainer…" She shook her head. "Go. Stop Ford. Give him a good one for me. I'll be all right here." She shrugged. "I'm not going anywhere."
"…" Latias closed her eyes. "Annabel…we'll be back for you."
"I should hope so," said the purple-haired woman. "I don't want to fall asleep from waiting too long. I might roll over and fall off." Although she smiled as if she were joking, they all knew it wasn't that funny.
The three females sadly said their goodbyes and filed down the passage, their hearts heavy at the sacrifice another friend had made to allow them to get further in their quest. How much more would they have to give before they made it to the tower's top? How much more would be asked of them?
And would the price for saving Ash and Charizard become too high?
…
The two Fire Pokemon were still at it.
Any other Charizard, save maybe Charla, would have collapsed a while ago. But Charizard had not. Yes, he was hurt. Yes, he was being beaten. Yes, the blows he landed on Blaziken weren't doing enough damage. But he was determined to keep on fighting, no matter what the cost.
That determination was about to be put to the test.
Blaziken launched a flurry of punches, kicks, and occasional bursts of fire at Charizard. The fire dragon blocked, deflected, and returned every one, despite the slight reduction in speed which was occurring as his reflexes got tired. As Blaziken hopped back and drove his foot upward in an arcing kick, Charizard bent backwards to dodge the blow, and spun around, lashing out at Blaziken's other leg with his tail. Blaziken's reaction time had slowed from the long battle as well, not as much as Charizard's but still just enough for him to fail to clear the tail swing in time. The burning appendage connected with the fire chicken's ankle, knocking him off balance and throwing him to the floor. Charizard immediately pressed the opportunity he had been given, body-checking Blaziken to keep him from getting up. He grabbed the chicken by his wrists, not minding the flames, and struggled to keep Blaziken pinned down, despite the Blaze Pokemon's struggling.
"That's it, Charizard! Keep him pinned down!" Ash rasped, breaking into a cough. He had been looking worse and worse as the fight continued…Charizard pushed that thought to the back of his mind. The only thing that mattered now was the fight, and winning it to save Ash. He could worry about the boy's health later, when it wouldn't inconvenience him.
Blaziken opened his beak and spat a Fire Blast in Charizard's face. The dragon immediately shut his eyes closed as the fire star exploded at point-blank range, engulfing both of them in fire. Charizard was thrown off from the blast, his face burnt and smoking, and he landed roughly on his side, causing him to grimace in pain as his weight fell on top of his left arm, which was starting to feel a little strained and worn out from all the very strong blows it had deflected.
As he got up, Blaziken walked out of the diminishing ball of fire which had resulted from the Fire Blast, his feathers and plumage burnt and damaged. His beak was cracked, and his sunglasses had disintegrated, allowing the fire dragon to stare into the eyes of his foe for the first time. They were cold, malicious, and filled with delight to see him in pain. They were also purple, which was odd since most Blaziken had blue eyes. "Heh…looks like you're not so tough after all, huh? Can't take a Fire Blast right in the face, can you?"
Blaziken smirked and said nothing. Even damaged and tired out, his well-toned muscles were still tense and ready for action. Then again, so was Charizard. "Okay…let's finish this, right Ash?" There was no response other than a gasp and a choking cough. "Ash?" Concerned, Charizard glanced over his shoulder, keeping one eye on Blaziken to make sure the dirty chicken didn't try any sneak attacks.
He forgot all about Blaziken when he saw that Ash had fallen to his knees and was clutching his chest, gasping for breath. "ASH!"
Blaziken grinned and was about to attack, when Ford shook his head at him. The fire chicken frowned and gave his trainer a pleading look, but Ford simply glared at him, letting his Pokemon know not to interfere. Grumbling, the Blaziken stood down.
"cough Charizard…don't worry, keep fighting. I'm…" Ash broke off, his voice degenerating into a coughing fit.
"Hmm…seems like the boy's been in the pit for too long," Ford said, his voice half genuinely sympathetic, the other mocking. "All that heat and the fumes from the lava have plum dehydrated him. Can't say I didn't warn him, though…I told him there would be consequences to keeping on fighting his destiny!"
Charizard gasped in horror, remembering how Ash had come close to dieing from dehydration back in the desert. "No! Ash!" He quickly flapped his sore wings, gliding over to the platform on which Ash was kneeling. "Ash! Please, speak to me!" Ash opened his mouth, but whatever he was going to say was lost in a painful cough. "Er, on second thought, don't speak, you'll lose whatever moisture you've got left."
"You have a choice now, dragon," said Ford. Charizard glanced up at the man. "If you forfeit the match now, Ash need suffer no longer. He'll receive the water he requires, then go through HERO. If you keep fighting stubbornly and foolishly against fate for the sake of your own pride, then Ash will dehydrate and die here in the cage." He was bluffing, to be honest. He had no intention of letting Ash die, if the boy passed out he'd call the match and immediately use HERO on him. But Charizard had no way of knowing that. He crossed his arms, fixing Charizard with a cool glare. "The choice is yours."
Charizard's shoulders sagged. There was nothing else he could do, and he knew it. This went far beyond his pride and determination, and his desire to erase the stain of defeat he had gained from losing to Blaziken in the Silver Conference. His trainer's life was at stake. Yes, he had been in this position many times before, trying to save Ash, but rarely had it ever seemed as dire as it did now. In almost every other fight Charizard could remember, Ash had been healthy and full of energy, supporting him and driving both of them to victory, even when they were in the depths of the hellish Dark World. But this time…the boy hadn't looked as weak as he did now since their sojourn through the desert almost a month ago. This time, he was already half dead.
Charizard knew he had to do this. Yes, Ash might be lost, but at least he would still be alive. Taking a deep breath, he said, "I-"
"N-cough, cough n-no!"
Charizard looked down in surprise to see Ash, struggling to stand up. "Ash, don't get up, please-" Charizard gently pushed him back to the ground. "I have to do this, it's for your own-"
"That's what-cough, cough-Ford says about HERO too!" Ash protested angrily. "It's-cough-my life, dammit, and I should decide what happens to it!" he rasped. He shuddered, mustering what energy he still had in him. "Charizard, as your trainer, I order…no, I beg of you…don't stop. Keep fighting."
Charizard's eyes widened. "Ash?"
"This goes beyond just you and me. Ford thinks he can dictate who saves the world and who can't. He thinks he knows what's best for the Earth. We have to-cough, cough-show him he's wrong! We have to show him that the world doesn't need his cheap brand of superheroes to survive!" He managed to smirk, his dried lips cracked and bleeding, but his eyes still burned with a fire as hot as the one on Charizard's tail. "Besides…cough…what would Charla say if she saw you giving up now? After she's gone to all the effort of escaping to find our friends and bring them here? How do you think she'd feel to know she did all that, only for you to throw it all away by giving up?"
Charizard blinked. He hadn't thought of that. He had forgotten his friends were on their way. Yes, they hadn't arrived, yes, he had no way of knowing they were here…but somehow, he just knew that they were climbing the Tower at that instant, working their way up to save Ash. To save himself. He managed to grin at his dehydrated trainer. "The same thing Misty would do if you ever decided to give up: shout at you then pound your head in."
Ash nodded. "Exactly." They both shared a knowing smile, the already-strong bond of friendship between them growing tighter. "Go on. You-hack-have a fight to win."
Charizard nodded, turning back to face his nemesis. To face Blaziken. "I won't let you down."
Ash smiled. "I know."
Charizard smirked, and with a flap of his wings, took off, landing on the platform he had started from. "Okay, rooster…I'm still in this game! If you thought I was tough before, wait'll you see me now, when I really got something to fight for!"
Blaziken chuckled. "Good."
"If that's how you want to play…" said Ford, looking disappointed. "Then this fight continues!"
At that, Blaziken leaped at Charizard, but the dragon was more than ready.
He was not, under any circumstances, going to let his trainer down.
…
"Can somebody…please…carry me?" May gasped, stretched out on the ground.
"I had no idea you were so out of shape," Brock said in surprise, which resulted in him getting slammed to the ground by Lucy.
"Hate to say it, but he's right May," Lucy said apologetically. "You need to work out a little more. It's what the best trainers do; anyway…exercise alongside their Pokemon so both of them get more fit."
"But it's so hard!" May whined unhappily.
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Of COURSE it's hard, girl. Haven't we been over this? Anything worth doing is hard. We're going to need to have a long talk after this, missy, about what exactly you're trying to do to yourself with your life."
Togetic sweatdropped. "Wow, now it looks like May has two moms, her regular one and Lucy. I much prefer having only one mother though," she said, glancing at Misty and smiling.
"No time to slow down everyone, we're almost there!" Steven announced, mounting the landing. "The eightieth floor! Only twenty more stories to the top!"
"And whatever waits for us there," agreed Lucy, helping May to her feet.
"And if the current pattern continues, Blue Ranger will be waiting for us," Harrison warned them. "So be careful, everyone. He used to be an actual police cadet before joining HERO, so he may not be as…well…lame as the last three."
Cautiously, the entered the eightieth floor arena. They glanced at the ceiling warily, only to see no signs of the fourth Poke Ranger anywhere. "I don't see him up there," Misty commented. "Harrison, can he turn invisible or something?"
Harrison shook his head. "No…one of the members on our last team of Rangers could but he was…retired…" He fidgeted, not wanting to go into details on how the ex-White Ranger had gone berserk and tried to destroy an entire city before he was stopped, permanently.
They reached the center of the battlefield without any opposition. The Blue Ranger still failed to appear. "I don't like this," Steven muttered, grabbing a Pokeball from his belt. "This is too easy."
Lucy scanned the seats surrounding the arena. All were empty. "Hmmph. Don't see him up there, either."
"I don't suppose he chickened out?" May asked hopefully.
Harrison shook his head. "No way, not Blue Ranger!"
"Then where is he?" asked the annoyed Misty, taking a step forward.
The ground in front of her exploded in a cloud of sand as a figure in blue spandex and black armor erupted from beneath the battlefield floor, howling a battle cry and firing laser blasts at the group. Had Togetic not quickly thrown up her Safeguard, the gun shots might have connected and killed them.
They stared at the Blue Ranger in shock as he dusted off his suit and pointed his gun at them. "A.S.S. Blue Ranger! You are all under arrest! Surrender immediately or I will be forced to take dangerous measures!"
"You…you almost KILLED us, you jerk!" Misty shrieked, feeling as if her heart had skipped a beat.
"Nonsense, those were warning shots," Blue
Ranger said, still pointing his weapon at them. "The next ones
won't miss. Surrender at once!"
"I'm afraid we can't do
that," Steven said, releasing his Metagross, who hovered in front
of him ominously. "We have a young trainer to rescue, and you're
the latest obstacle to stand in our way."
"I'm not like the others," Blue Ranger promised them. "For one thing, I'm not nearly as weak."
"Maybe you're not," Lucy commented, releasing her Gyarados, who surprisingly enough looked only marginally stronger than Misty's. "But are you strong enough to handle all of us?"
"Of course I am!" Blue Ranger snapped.
Lucy smirked. "Heh. Why don't we see about that? Gyarados, Thunderbolt the lights!"
"Hey!" Blue Ranger aimed his gun at the Atrocious Pokemon's head and fired as the sea serpent fired a blast of electricity from its horns at the spotlights on the ceiling. Togetic intercepted the laser bolts with her Safeguard, deflecting them as the electric burst hit the lights and caused them to overload in an explosion of sparks and smoke, sending the room into darkness.
"Ha! You think that bothers me?" Blue Ranger boasted, his visor glowing a pale green. "I can see in the dark!"
"Good, that's what we were hoping for," Lucy said from somewhere in the dark with a smirk.
Understanding at once, Misty commanded, "Togetic, Flash!"
The Happiness Pokemon immediately lit up with a blinding white glow, overloading the night vision sensors in Blue Ranger's helmet and effectively blinding him. "Ahhh! My eyes!" He tightened his hold on his gun and backed away, shielding his eyes. "My other senses can compensate…I can hear you moving all around me! Ha!" He fired a laser shot off in the direction of a loud metallic skittering.
"Metagross, Iron Defense!" Steven called out from somewhere in the darkness, Togetic's light allowing him to see where Blue Ranger was aiming. Metagross folded up its legs on top of its shell and hardened its metal skin, causing it to take no damage as the laser shot hit it.
However, Steven's outburst had allowed Blue Ranger to pinpoint him, and the corrupt hero pointed his gun, squeezing the trigger…
Only for his ears to explode in pain as a powerful Supersonic scream from Brock's Crobat washed over him, shorting out his helmet's auditory sensors as well. "Ahhhhh!" Crying in agony, he dropped to his knees, letting go of his gun so he could cover his ears.
"It wasn't very nice of you, popping out of the ground like that and scaring us," Lucy commented, walking up behind the paralyzed Blue Ranger. "You acted like a real HEEL!" She kicked him hard in the rump with her spiked boots, sending him hurtling across the room…
And right into Misty's mallet. BAM!
Misty slammed on the Ranger's helmet repeatedly until he fell to the ground, moaning in pain, his visor cracked. "That's for scaring us all, you jerk!"
"Delcatty, Blizzard!" May commanded, pointing at the Blue Ranger.
"Yellow?" Delcatty asked in confusion, looking around in the dark.
May sighed. "No Delcatty, not right-"
One of Misty's Pokeballs popped open, releasing Golduck. "Huh?" he said obliviously.
"Yellow!" Delcatty squealed happily, pouncing on him.
"No, Delcatty!" May snapped. "We don't have time for that right now!"
Scowling, Delcatty sniffed, climbed off of Golduck, hissed at May, and then blew a gust of freezing wind at Blue Ranger, causing the air around him to solidify into a chunk of ice. Her job done, she turned back to her yellow duck, only to see him get returned to his Pokeball by Misty. Enraged, the pink cat snarled and pounced at Misty…
Only to get caught by the recall beam from May's Pokeball and get sucked back into containment. May sighed in exasperation, stowing the ball away. "I'm really going to have to talk to her about this…"
"Maybe later, but not right now," Lucy said. "With blue boy out of the way, we have a straight shot to the top!"
"Right!" Harrison released his Blaziken. "Blaziken, use Flash so we can see better and find the exit!" The Blaze Pokemon nodded and with a grunt caused the flames around his wrists to grow in luminosity (and, subsequently, heat) lessening the darkness around them and allowing them to see the door.
"Just keep him away from Blue Ranger," Steven advised, glancing at the chunk of ice to see if it was melting. "We don't accidentally want to release him."
"Oh, right, sorry," Harrison said, his face flushing in embarrassment. How could he have not thought of that?
"We should get going," Misty said. Togetic landed on her head, still glowing brightly, and Corsola hopped onto her shoulder. "Up those stairs are Ash, Charizard, and Mr. Ford." She clutched her mallet grip tightly. "We have to reach them."
"Don't worry," Brock said reassuringly as Crobat flapped in circles above him, glad to be out of his Pokeball. "I'm sure we still have time."
"We won't if we keep standing here talking," Lucy informed them, recalling her Gyarados and switching it for her Seviper. "We'd better be prepared for whatever's up there," Lucy said in response to the unanswered question. "We might be in for a fight."
"Good point," agreed May, sending out her Combusken, who stretched her arms out and looked around, somewhat confused to be in such a dark place. "Don't worry, I'll explain on the way up," she told to the Young Fowl Pokemon.
Harrison and his Blaziken walked over to the door, the Blaze Pokemon's flames lighting the way. "Come on…" he said, half-dreading the encounter with his father waiting for him at the tower's top. "Let's go. Only twenty stories left."
To her credit, May did not once complain as they started up the long, final stretch to their destiny. That changed, though, when Crobat for some reason or another decided to land on her head and scared her so much she almost fell down the stairs and knocked over Brock, who was behind her (and still in a dress, in case you were wondering). The poor girl.
…
They were almost there.
Latias wasn't sure how she knew, she just did. They had traversed many challenges since reluctantly leaving Annabel in behind, and she somehow felt they were coming down the home stretch. They couldn't possibly be very far from the top now!
"It's strange…" Bayleef commented.
"What?" Latias asked.
"We haven't run into a trap yet since that one with the spikes a couple of floors ago. I'd have thought we'd have run into another one by now," the plant Pokemon explained.
Right on cue, the wide hallway they were in trembled, and four all-encompassing force field walls sprung up on each side of them, trapping them in an energy box.
Gardevoir and Latias glared at Bayleef, who sweatdropped. "Eh heh, guess I should've kept my mouth shut."
Gardevoir shook her head and looked away. Her eye widened. "They're moving."
"What?" Latias asked in confusion.
"The walls. They're moving!"
Latias and Bayleef looked for themselves and gasped, seeing that this was true. The four force fields were contracting, shrinking towards them without losing contact with the ceiling, floor, or each other, leaving the trio stuck in a box which was quickly getting smaller.
"We'll be crushed if those things close in too much!" Bayleef cried.
"We have to get out of here!" Latias exhaled a blast of Dragonbreath at the wall in front of her. It rippled for a moment, but then steadied out and continued moving towards her. "It wasn't strong enough!"
Gardevoir's eyes flashed, and a spear of psychic force shot forth from her, striking the center of the wall she was facing. That one vibrated, but still did not break. "Neither was mine."
"Maybe I can do it. Latias, give me some more light!" Bayleef told her friend.
Latias nodded. "Sure." She started glowing.
Bayleef opened her mouth as her leaves started gathering ambient light from both Latias and the strip lamps on the ceiling above them. When she had gathered enough power, she fired the mighty white Solar Beam at one of the walls.
When the beam struck, it actually managed to push the wall outward, for a moment looking like it was going to break…until the power behind the beam ran out and it dissipated, causing the force field to snap back in place.
And the box just kept shrinking.
Bayleef sighed miserably. "Guess I'm not strong enough either."
Gardevoir's eye lit up. "Perhaps…if we combined our powers?"
"Yes, that could work!" Latias said enthusiastically. "Okay…everyone, attack the center of this wall!" she said, pointing a claw towards one of the barriers.
"Right!" Her friends got on either side of her. Bayleef started gathering light energy, Gardevoir concentrated her mind, and Latias gathered white fire in her chest. In unison, they fired at the encroaching wall. A beam of white light, a stream of white fire, and a wave of invisible psychic force converged at the center of the wall.
The entire force field shuddered as the powerful
attacks struck it, rippling and fluctuating as the girls applied more
force to their techniques. The force field trembled…and then, where
their attacks converged, a hole opened in the field, allowing their
attacks to pass through to the other side!
"Yes! We did it!"
Bayleef cried gleefully, cutting off her attack.
The hole instantly shut.
"Oops," she said, her leaf drooping.
Gardevoir frowned, noticing the walls were now closer to them. "We're running out of time…"
"Our attacks were strong enough to open a hole…" Latias said, thinking out loud. "But it closed the instant one of us stopped firing…but we can't possibly jump through the hole while we're all firing at once…" Her eyes widened. "Unless…guys, I have an idea."
"Oh?" Gardevoir asked.
Latias nodded. "Gardevoir, get on my back. Bayleef, I'll carry you in my claws. I'll float up and we can all fire at once. Since I'll be airborne and mobile, I can fly us through the hole while we're still training our attacks on it. What do you think?"
Bayleef sweatdropped. "You can carry me with those?" she asked, glancing at Latias' puny claws.
The dragon shrugged. "My arms have been feeling a lot stronger since I absorbed Mariah's crystal." Among other things… "I'm pretty sure they can do it."
Bayleef sighed. "Well, all right…seeing as how I have no other choice."
Latias floated low to the ground, allowing Gardevoir to climb onto her back. The dragon felt almost no burden from Gardevoir's weight. Either the Embrace Pokemon was very light, or more than her arms had strengthened. Latias was betting it was a little of both of those possibilities.
She then floated into the air, once more noticing how little a burden Gardevoir was, levitated over to Bayleef, and pressed her claws against her friend's sides. Bracing herself, she floated higher into the air…and was surprised to find that Bayleef felt no heavier in her arms than Ash ever had on her back. This is to say, that Bayleef wasn't exactly light, but she could probably carry her friend for a while before she got tired and had to put her down.
"Don't drop me, okay?" Bayleef asked nervously.
"Relax, I've got you," Latias said reassuringly. She floated a little higher. They were running out of room, but there was still a comfortable distance remaining between them and the target wall. "Okay…everyone on 3! 1…"
Gardevoir started powering up her psychic abilities.
"2…"
Bayleef's mouth yawned, gathering light energy.
"3! Fire!"
All at once, the trio fired their attacks at the wall. Just as before, it rippled, wobbled, and finally tore open, leaving a hole for the powerful moves to escape from.
Latias shot towards the hole at top speed, keeping the Dragonbreath pouring so the hole would stay open, aiming right for the spot where their attacks converged and tore through. She knew she'd have to cut off her own attack at the last minute though, lest she fly straight into the combined energies and hurt herself. So just micrometers away from the point of convergence, she cut off her Dragonbreath.
Instantly, the hole started to close. Latias sailed through it before it could shut, Gardevoir ducking to keep from hitting her head on the hole's rim…
But Bayleef was not so lucky.
The bottom rim had shrunk too fast for her to fit through, so when Latias passed through the hole Bayleef slammed head-first into the force field wall and was wrenched from her friend's claws, crying out as she fell back to the floor in the middle of the cage.
Realizing she was missing one passenger, Latias whirled around and saw her friend still stuck inside the shrinking force field cage. "Oh no…BAYLEEF!"
"Ugh…you said you wouldn't drop me…" Bayleef said with a wince, recovering from her collision with the wall.
"Oh no…" Latias quickly lowered to the ground in front of the force field, Gardevoir hopping off. "Bayleef, please, I'm so sorry…quick, let's converge our attacks again, that'll-"
"Do nothing," Bayleef said miserably. "We're on opposite sides of the wall now. Our attacks will just cancel each other out if they collide from such differing angles."
Latias paled. "Oh no. But…but then how will we get you out?"
Bayleef squeezed her eyes shut. "You…you can't…" she said softly. "You'll just have to go on without me, I guess."
"But…but you'll die!" Latias protested. "The walls will crush you!"
"Yeah, those are the breaks," Bayleef said bitterly. "Oh well…I guess I knew it had to happen sooner or later…Pikachu, Sadic, Crawdaunt, Charla, Phanphy and Annabel have practically given their lives for us…should have known I was next."
"Bayleef, don't say that!" Latias gasped, horrified that Bayleef was so certain their friends were dead…and alarmed that a part of her was close to agreeing with the Grass-type. "Hold on, I'll…I'll find a way to get you out!"
"Like we found a way to get the others out?" Bayleef asked, her voice toned with anger, bitterness, and despair. "No. This is my turn to make a sacrifice. Maybe it'll be the last one. Maybe you or Gardevoir will have to make the next. Either way, Ash is still waiting. You have to keep going. You have to save him…and Charizard. Don't look back…for my sake, please don't!"
"Bayleef, no!" Latias protested, slamming
her claws futilely against the force field before falling to the
ground, sobbing. "Please…Bayleef, you're my best friend, I
can't lose you…I don't want to lose any more friends…"
Gardevoir started to step forward, to put her hand on Latias'
shoulder, but she hesitated. Shaking her head, knowing she had no
place in this, she remained where she was.
Bayleef looked away so
Latias wouldn't see her own tears. "Yeah…well…like Annabel
said…sometimes you have to make sacrifices." The walls were now
only a few feet away from her on all sides, and that space was
diminishing rapidly.
Latias squeezed her eyes shut. "N-no…"
Images flashed through her mind.
Latios falling away from her, crystallizing and turning into a single mass of brilliant light.
Bianca's corpse lying in bed, her dead eyes staring at nothing until the city was flooded and her body was eaten by hungry Sharpedo.
And then…
More images, more memories, familiar and yet unfamiliar.
A pair of Dragonite getting sadistically slaughtered by an evil too horrific to define, only to get up and begin to devour their Dratini young.
Too many dear friends dying, some of age, some from war, either way always leaving her.
But all of those times, which she both did and did not remember, she had someone to fall back on, whether she had been aware of it or not. Someone dear. Someone special. Someone…someone who was not here now…
She needed him. But he was elsewhere. And she missed him more deeply than she could imagine.
She wanted him, just as she wanted Bayleef and Ash and Charizard and everyone else, for she did not want to lose any more friends.
Her eyes opened, the yellow in them flashing. "No." Bayleef looked up in surprise and Gardevoir took a step back in amazement at the almost otherworldly tone in her voice.
Latias turned her neck, glaring at a point on the hallway wall only she could seem to see…and a portion of that wall exploded without warning.
The force field box hesitated in its reduction, flickering.
She turned her head to the other wall, and a portion of that exploded as well.
The force field fluctuated, flickered, and abruptly shattered in a shower of sparks and light, leaving Bayleef unharmed and free from the deathtrap.
She stared in open-mouthed awe at Latias, who blinked and seemed to come back to herself, looking somewhat startled. "Did…did I just do that?"
"Latias…" Bayleef whispered, stepping out from the small floor space which only moments ago had been her prison. "How…how did you do that?"
Latias blinked, swallowed, and blinked again. "I…I just wanted them to go away," she said, sounded amazed and somewhat frightened. "And just like that, I could…I could tell exactly where the force field projectors were. So I just…willed them to stop. And…and they did."
"That was…incredible," Bayleef breathed. "Latias…you saved me. I was about to die!"
Latias blushed. "Well, like I said…I don't want to lose any more friends." Whether they're ones I remember having in this lifetime or not.
"…Thank you," Bayleef said emphatically, wrapping her vines around Latias and pulling her into a tight hug. "Thank you for not leaving me behind."
"I only wish I could have done the same for the others," Latias said, feeling ashamed at herself for not being able to demonstrate abilities such as what she had just done before.
"Don't worry," Bayleef said reassuringly. "I don't know why, but…somehow, I think they're okay." She smiled. "Come on. We have to go make sure our other friends in danger are okay."
Gardevoir said nothing as she followed the two down the hallway, her mind deep in thought at what she had just seen.
Latias' actions, her temperament just then…for a moment, she had seemed so much like Mewtwo.
She had seen Latias train with Mewtwo in the desert. She had seen Latias defeat that anomalous, foul Mewtwo clone in Battle Pyramid.
But now, for the first time, Gardevoir wondered…just how powerful was Latias anyway?
Could she possibly be a match for Mewtwo himself?
…
Blaziken landed a Phoenix Punch directly to Charizard's chin, causing his head to twist back and his body to nearly topple over.
It was strange.
The Blaze Pokemon rammed his knee into Charizard's gut, gave him an elbow in the sternum, then grabbed him by the arm and threw the dragon to the ground.
He was getting beaten…
Charizard swept his tail at Blaziken's ankles while he was on the ground. The chicken hopped over them easily and drove his feet into Charizard's sides, kicking him off the side of the platform they were on.
He was losing…
Charizard caught the edge of the platform with a claw, flipped himself back up, and spat a Dragon Rage right into Blaziken's face, exploding and knocking the chicken back.
His trainer was on the brink of death from dehydration…
Blaziken recovered almost immediately from the attack and charged forward, fist glowing as he unleashed a Phoenix Punch. Charizard barely managed to leap out of the way in time, his weary and aching wings flying open to help him glide to another platform.
But he had never felt stronger in his life than he did right then.
"Blaziken, this has gone on long enough!" Ford said, glancing with a hint of anxiety at Ash, whose breathing had slowed down tremendously as he sat down on his platform watching the fight, his voice too weak to give any more commands to his Pokemon. And despite all that, the boy couldn't stop smiling, even as his lips cracked and bled, at the sight of his Charizard waging battle, getting the stuffing beaten out of him by Blaziken, and still managing to get back up for more. "We need to finish this! Phoenix Fury!"
Blaziken grinned at the name of the attack. Spreading his arms out, he leaped backwards into the air, his wrists blazing with new fire. Without warning, the air around him ignited, surrounding his body in a flaming aura. He stopped in mid-jump, floating in the air as the flames around him crackled and grew in intensity, taking on the form of an immense phoenix.
Charizard stared into the malevolent eyes of the Blaziken without fear. He had no reason to be afraid, after all.
His Charla had come back to him.
He was going to become a father.
His trainer had absolute faith in him, even as both of them were losing in this hellish cage match.
Nothing else mattered anymore. Not his pride, not his honor, not his desire to redeem himself, only this.
There was no way he could lose.
And so, as the massive fire phoenix launched off of Blaziken's body and shot at him, Charizard practically roared as flames of his own, fueled by his determination, welled up from his chest and out onto the field, manifesting as a tremendous fireball. "BLAST BURN!"
The phoenix didn't stand a chance in hell against the unstoppable flare of destruction rushing towards it. Charizard simply stood there and watched in satisfaction as it struck the shocked and disbelieving Blaziken as Ford yelled something (probably crying out in fear, the wuss) and exploded in a blast which shook the entire tower.
…
May grabbed a railing as the stairs shook. "What was that?" she asked after the tremors stopped.
"I don't know…it felt like something big," Brock said, offering his opinion.
"Then that gives us all the more reason to get to the top as quickly as possible," said Lucy. "Come on, we have to pick up the pace!"
"Right! Continue leading the way, Harrison!" Steven called up to Harrison and Blaziken, who were at the front of the party and using the Blaze Pokemon's flames to light the way.
Harrison nodded and continued up the stairs. Father…whatever comes of this, I have no regrets. I've made the right choice. I only hope you can do the same.
Ash, I'm coming, Misty thought to herself, carrying Corsola under one arm, the luminous Togetic on her head, and her mallet in her other hand. And after we get out of this, I promise I'll never force you to another dance again! Well, except for our wedding. I mean, that one's inevitable after all.
I wonder what awaits us, Steven thought to himself. He smirked and glanced at his levitating Metagross beside him. Whatever it is, I know we can defeat it together.
When I see Ford, I'm gonna shove my spiky boot all the way up his ass and out his mouth for hiding this from us and kidnapping Ash and who knows who else to carry out his stupid plans, Lucy thought, a scowl on her face. And then I'll let Seviper eat him. Well, after everyone else has had a crack at him, of course. He has it coming.
Man, am I glad I got those heels removed, Brock thought as Crobat flapped around just behind him. They were killing my feet! Now if only I could do something about how much this dress chafes my skin…makes me glad I'm not wearing anything underneath it or I'd get such a rash!
How much further is it? May whined to herself, since she knew nobody wanted to hear her complain. My feet hurt! Brock may have mutilated his shoes, but there's no way I'm removing the heels from mine, they're too expensive! And I might want to wear them again. No way will I sacrifice their value just to make them more comfortable!
Why is May climbing this tower wearing a dress? Combusken wondered. Shouldn't she have changed into something more practical? Oy…humans are so weird.
Why is Brock climbing this tower wearing a dress? Crobat wondered. I mean, I know he's hung up on that Venus lady, but…Jeez! He really needs help. Humans are so weird.
I'm hungry, Lucy's Seviper thought, licking her lips. Lucy promised me I'd get to eat something soon. I hope it's something big, fat, and juicy that I can just relax and digest for the next couple of weeks as it's slowly pushed through my bowels and crushed bit by bit into an unrecognizable pulp in my belly.
I hope Dad's all right, Togetic thought anxiously. I mean, I'm sure he is, but…oh, I can't help but worry for him! And for everyone else. I hope they're okay. Little brother, please take care of yourself!
I hope Crawdaunt's all right, Corsola thought anxiously as well. He's probably gotten himself into the middle of a huge fight…or an orgy…knowing his luck, I can't say for sure which it is. Or which one I would prefer. Hmm…
Hope that Charizard doesn't get too beat up before we get to him, Harrison's Blaziken thought to himself. I still want to fight him again. Heh.
Doo de doo de doo de doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo… Metagross sang happily to himself, using his four brains to reconstruct a meaningless song from some stupid children's television show he liked.
In silence, left to their own thoughts, the group continued up the stairs, uncertain of what awaited them.
…
The trio of Pokemon, all that remained of the second rescue group, entered a large cylindrical chamber with an arched ceiling with strip lights on it. The wall on the right side of the room was mostly made up of windows, all of which were covered by metal shutters from the outside. There was a door across the room from them, with a staircase beyond it.
"We're almost there," Latias said abruptly. "I don't know how, but I can feel it."
"I too," Gardevoir said quietly.
"Well, whatever's waiting for us, we can take it on! Nothing's gonna stand in our way, right guys?" Bayleef asked confidently.
"Right!" agreed Latias. Gardevoir nodded as well.
"Wrong," said an unfamiliar voice.
There was a phht noise, and Bayleef and Gardevoir abruptly fell to the ground. Latias gasped in surprise. "Guys? Guys!" She gasped again, seeing a pair of darts lodged in their necks. A pair of very familiar looking darts. "Hey…those are Poke-B-Gone!" she realized in horror.
"Yeah…a shame I only had two shots, but that stuff's so rare and illegal even Mr. Ford has trouble getting his hands on it." The Red Poke Ranger, clad in a black combat vest and leg gear, dropped from the concealed recess in the ceiling where he had been hiding, discarding a small dart gun in one hand while pointing a double-barreled laser gun at Latias with the other. "My aim must not be as good as I thought, because I was aiming specifically for you, seeing as how you've shown yourself to be the biggest threat. Oh well."
"Why did you do that!" Latias asked, enraged. "They were my friends! They haven't done anything to you!"
"True, but they're trespassers on Ford Industry property. My orders are to defeat and capture all intruders. Your other friends have done a good job of doing that to themselves so far, so…" Before she could counter, the Ranger fired two shots from his gun, one at Bayleef and one at Gardevoir, causing the air around them to explode. "All I have to do is take you in, and my job's done."
"Bayleef! Gardevoir!" Latias cried in horror. That horror quickly turned into confusion as the smoke cleared and revealed a pair of metal cards with holographic screens, each of which showed the face of one of her knocked-out friends. "Huh?"
"My gun was on Capture mode," Red Ranger explained, ejecting what looked like a blank version of the metal cards her friends were trapped in from his gun. "It only works on my opponent if they're weakened first, though. So if you don't mind letting me beat you up a bit, we can get this over with quickly."
Latias stared at him appalled. "You actually expect me to let you shoot at me just to get put in a card!"
"It's not much different from how most other Pokemon are captured," Red Ranger said mockingly. "I'd think you'd be used to it by now."
Her eyes flashed in rage. She had only been inside one Pokeball, and that had been Mary Sue's Master Ball near the beginning of her journey. That had been an extremely hellish experience which would have been a lot worse if Mewtwo hadn't saved her. She'd be damned before she let something like that happen to her again. "You've just shot my friends twice and trapped them in little metal cards. My other friends are caught in deathtraps and could be dead by now. And the friends I came here to save may have already lost." She growled as a flame of anger finally ignited in her heart, this false hero the last straw which broke the very exhausted Numel's back. "If you want to capture me, 'hero', you're going to have to fight for it."
"Oh good!" Red Ranger said eagerly. "I was hoping for a good fight!" He whistled. "Come 'ere, BID! Battlizer, activate!"
There was a bark and what looked like a robotic Houndour raced out from the doorway on the other side of the room, just before it (and the other door) was sealed by shutters. It jumped towards Red Ranger, its mechanical parts splitting up as its body unfolded, and landed on the Ranger's body in the form of armor. His lower legs were both covered in angular white metal with black sides, kneecaps, and front. Two side flaps of armor hung down from his belt over his hips, protecting them. The main body of the robot had folded onto his torso and shoulders. Most of it was white metal, but the breastplates of the armor were made up by big red and blue sirens. There were also sirens on his angular shoulder pads, the left one blue, the right one red, matching the lights on his chest. A pair of red and blue thrusters and wings grew from his back, giving him a jet pack, and a pair of cannons attached to the Ranger's shoulders by pivots hung down between them. A pair of white angular gauntlets formed on his hands, and the robot Houndour's head extended a handle from its neck and released a long blade from its mouth, creating a sword which the Red Ranger caught in his right hand and swung about, causing it to glow and ring in the air. "Hyah! What do you think of my Battlizer armor?"
She glared at him. "I don't suppose any of your other Rangers have this armor?" She asked this out of concern for her friends in the other rescue group. After all, if one Ranger was here, who's to say the others weren't present somewhere as well?
"Ha! Of course not! They're largely superfluous. Why else do you think the Red Ranger always gets the best weapons and gear?"
"So you even denigrate your comrades who fight alongside you…" Her eyes narrowed. "You attack a pair of Pokemon who had done nothing to hurt you without provocation or warning, intend to beat me to a pulp to capture me, and are also assisting a madman with his evil plans. You are no hero."
He shrugged. "Hey, as long as the people of Ever Grande City think I am, and I get paid for my work with money and power by Ford, I don't care what you call me! So…we gonna start this?"
"Yes, I do believe we will," Latias said, her eyes glowing. She launched an extremely powerful Psychic attack at the Ranger.
The Ranger's sword glowed and he lashed out at the encroaching wave. "Kiyah!" Amazingly, he slashed it in two (despite it not even being a physical force which could be acted upon) causing it to pass by harmlessly on either side of him. "What, that all you got?"
"Unfortunately for you, no," she growled, floating backwards and powering up. Snarling, she charged at the Ranger, intending to make this pretender pay for all the pain he and his boss had caused her friends.
…
Charizard collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath as the smoke from the explosive blast of his ultimate attack continued to billow about the arena. His heart soared with elation at the knowledge, the sheer and irrefutable fact, that he had done it.
He had beaten Blaziken.
He had won.
It had taken everything he had left…every last ounce of energy…but he had done it. He had won.
He closed his eyes as he caught his breath, every inch of his body in pain, trying to regain his strength. His ears listened intently to the sounds around him, expecting at any moment for Ford's dumbfounded and requisite howl of denial and despair, and Ash's cries of victory and praise, for he, Charizard, had saved his trainer and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, balancing whatever problems and insecurities lingered in his spirit as he did so. He had won, and he felt like a much better and balanced Pokemon for it.
However, he did not hear cries of joy from his trainer. What he heard was most troubling…it sounded like a gasp of horror.
Confused, he forced his heavy eyelids open…and found himself staring at the scorched, burnt, feathery feet of an extremely damaged and heavily pissed off Blaziken standing over him.
The blood drained from his face. No. No, this couldn't be happening. He had hit him. He had hit him with the ultimate fire technique, Blast Burn! He had hit him with everything he had left! According to every law of causality, physics, and reality, he should be an unconscious cinder by now! How could this be!
Blaziken smirked, his cracked beak splintering as he did so, and said only one word. "Endure."
That single word struck Charizard harder than any of the Blaze Pokemon's punches. Of course. Endure. The special technique which allowed you to just barely survive an attack, no matter how powerful, with a slim bit of vitality to keep you going. It was less effective the more times it was used in a fight, but this was clearly the first time Blaziken had used it during the match, and so…and so Blaziken had survived.
And while the Blaze Pokemon looked beaten, weary, and exhausted, he was still able to stand on his own two feet, while Charizard had used up so much energy the mere act of breathing and keeping his eyelids open felt harder than lifting a mountain.
And because of that, because Charizard couldn't move, couldn't get up and fight, he had lost. Completely and utterly, he had lost.
Once again, he had been bested by a Blaziken…only this time the defeat was not as close as it had been last time, and the stakes were so much higher.
He had lost.
"Blaziken, that Charizard has been a hindrance for too long," Ford rumbled. "He's delayed everything immeasurably and brought Mr. Ketchum much too close to the brink of death due to his pigheaded stubbornness to keep fighting. Finish him."
"N-no…" Ash rasped, forcing the air out of his dry and shriveling lungs. "Please…"
Ford shook his head firmly. "No, Ash. I never wanted it to come to this, but you and your Pokemon have fought your fate every step of the way. Now I have no choice but to teach both of you a lesson. Blaziken…"
A sadistic gleam in his eyes, Blaziken set to work.
Ash cried out with what little remained of his voice. He begged Ford and Blaziken to stop, pleaded with Charizard to get up. The corners of his eyes misted up, but he didn't have enough moisture left to generate tears to cry for his Pokemon's suffering.
And despite Ash's pleading, there was nothing Charizard could do. He was defeated. He was powerless. He realized that, in all honesty, he had probably never had a chance to begin with. The businessman and the Blaze Pokemon had been toying with them from the start. He had been a fool to think he could beat them. He had been a fool to think that his life might finally be getting back on track and that he had a second chance for a happy ending. He should have realized that fate would never be so kind to a failure and a child-killer like himself.
And now, in his weakest and most defenseless state, his new self-confidence stripped away, his failure and weakness was bared for the entire world to see, were they but here to look at it. But they probably had more important things to do than waste time looking at a useless, pathetic failure like himself.
There was nothing he could do as Blaziken broke his ribs.
There was nothing he could do as Blaziken shattered his jaw.
There was nothing he could do as Blaziken turned him over, dug his claws into the dragon's back, and with one mighty yank tore his wings out.
…
Shouting a battle cry, Red Ranger swung his sword down at Latias with both hands. The dragon caught the blade between her claws and lashed out with a powerful Psychic blast, flinging the Ranger across the room and tearing the sword from her grasp. She immediately dashed forward, moving fast enough to smash the Ranger's ribs if she made impact.
However, Latias wasn't the only one with speed, and just before she could ram into him the Red Ranger activated his thrusters and rocketed over her in a jet-powered somersault, blasting at her with his laser gun as she braked hard to keep from slamming into the wall.
Her eyes flashed, and the laser bolts were instantly redirected from her and homed in on Red Ranger. He moved his sword in a series of rapid blocks, deflecting and destroying each one of the laser bolts as he landed on the ground and started gliding backward, his thrusters pushing against the ground as he fired his gun repeatedly at Latias.
The bolts swerved away from her with a mental command, and she tore the gun from the Ranger's hand with her telekinesis, crumpling it into a ball of scrap with a Psychic blast.
Undaunted, the Red Ranger ran his free hand down the side of his long sword, causing the blade to light up. "ASS Power Saber! Hah!" He swung his sword…and an incredibly long energy blade shot out from the end of it, slashing out at Latias as the Ranger's real sword cut through the air.
Latias floated above the blade slash with ease, as if the attack had been too slow for her to be concerned about. She charged towards the Ranger, a Dragonbreath building up in her throat.
As she approached, the Ranger pointed his left gauntlet at her, and a bolt of flame shot out from it, forming the head of a slavering Houndoom, which then curled into a fire wheel that rolled towards her, connected to the gauntlet by a thin thread of flames.
Latias exhaled her Dragonbreath at that moment, which took the form of a tremendous white dragon and shot towards the Houndoom fire wheel. The two fire projections collided midway between their masters and exploded violently, flinging both Latias and Red Ranger back from the force of the blast.
Red Ranger's thrusters flared, stopping his backwards momentum, and he rapidly fired red and blue lasers from the sirens on his chest and shoulders into the smoke cloud from the explosion.
All of them missed, however, as Latias used Aerial Ace to not only dodge the attacks, but get right behind Red Ranger and fly into his back, attempting to damage his thrusters. However, the Ranger had expected this, and suddenly rocketed forward, the exhaust from his jets flaring out into Latias' face and blinding her.
She cried in pain and quickly used Recover to heal her face, but that brief pause was all Red Ranger needed to have his double cannons flip onto his shoulders, charge up, and fire along with the lasers from his sirens.
Latias' eyes flashed as she finished recovering, and a green-blue shell of light, formed from a combination of Light Screen, Safeguard, and Protect, formed in front of her. The lasers struck the shield…and smashed right through it, slamming into Latias and burning her flesh, causing her to cry in pain as she flew across the room and slammed into the wall.
The Red Ranger flew over, charging up his cannons for another assault…and Latias' head shot up, eye glowing as she used Psychic to flip the cannons upward just before they fired so they would blast at the ceiling. At the same time, she formed another combination protective shell, which was weaker due to her use of Protect twice in a row, but since the laser blast wasn't as strong without the use of the cannons her shield was able to handle it.
A large chunk of ceiling, dislodged by the powerful cannon blast, fell towards Red Ranger. Acting reflexively, he slashed at it with his sword, cutting it in half, and got rammed hard in the chest by Latias, who had used the Ranger's moment of distraction to heal and get back into the air.
She opened her mouth as the Ranger flew back from her attack and unleashed Dragonbreath before he could get too far, the white fire dragon seeking to engulf the Ranger in its flames. The crimson anti-hero fired the Houndoom flame wheel from his gauntlet just before the dragon could wash over him, causing both fire beasts to explode and send him flying into the windows, shattering them but not even denting the shutters just behind them.
He slid to the ground, groaning in pain. Believing him weakened, Latias swooped in for the kill…
And fell for the Ranger's trap as his cannons swiveled up and blasted her, sending her tumbling away. The Ranger then powered up his sword and with a cry lashed out at her with its energy blade.
Latias twisted out of the blade's swing at the last moment, formed a sphere in her claws, and hurled a Mist Ball at her foe. The Red Ranger pointed his gauntlet at the projectile, calling upon his fire wheel…only for the weapon to spit sparks, and he realized to his horror that the explosion must have damaged it too much to be used again.
The misty orb slammed into his chest and exploded, smashing him back into the shutters he was already leaning against. The red and blue sirens on his chest shattered from the blast, and the wing parts of his thrusters snapped off, falling to the ground uselessly. The Ranger grunted in pain, his ribs feeling the force of that attack.
Latias charged forward, grabbed him by the neck, and reared back her claw, charging up a Dragonclaw to drive right through the Ranger's visor. But before she could strike, the Red Ranger's shoulder cannon swiveled up and fired directly in her face, blowing her away.
As Latias hurtled away, the Red Ranger pulled himself out of the wall and started shooting towards her, the thrusters on his back igniting and propelling him forward along the ground, since his loss of wings kept him from flying. He charged up his sword, causing the extremely long energy blade to extend from its tip as he shot towards the dragon.
Latias regained control of her flight and started flying towards the Red Ranger at top speed, her right wing glowing white with the power of Steel Wing.
Moving almost too fast for the eye to see, the two combatants passed by each other, lashing out with sword and Steel Wing at the same time in the split second before they moved out of range, both braking to a halt on opposite sides of the room.
There was a pause.
One of the fighters collapsed.
A scream of agony echoed throughout the room.
…
Ash stared in disbelief. Every moment he wished that this were all a dream, that he would just wake up and find it was the morning of the Hoenn League finals, and that none of the awful events of this night had happened.
But they had. The proof of that was right before him.
Charizard, his body beaten, broken, and bruised, was curled in a tight orange ball of pain; eyes clenched shut as copious tears ran down his cheeks, too much in agony to utter a cry after his initial scream.
The two stumps on his back had gushed blood at first, but the searing heat of the arena and the Blaziken looming over him quickly cauterized the wounds. That did not make them look any less ugly or just plain wrong, however.
Blaziken chuckled as he tossed the bloody, ragged wings he had ripped off the dragon's back off the side of the platform, watching intently as they fluttered down into the lava pool below and sank beneath the surface. Smiling, he turned around and kicked Charizard in the side, eliciting a whimper. "That was for my sunglasses."
Ash's mouth opened, but nothing came out. His throat and tongue had dried up by now. There was barely any breath left in his lungs. It was just so hot…if only he could have a drink of water…but he knew he wouldn't get one, now. He was going to get something much worse.
He had failed, just as Charizard had. He had put all his faith in the dragon, left his life hanging on the line, and…it wasn't enough. It never had been. And now, due to Ash's desire for a life of his own, Charizard had been dealt a blow so cruel he would probably kill himself rather than go for the rest of his life without flying.
And that blow would never have struck if Ash hadn't wanted his freedom, or if Charizard hadn't been such a good friend that he would have risked anything to protect him. And in the end, it seemed the dragon had risked too much, all because his trainer had asked it of him. Ash fell to his knees, partly from exhaustion and dehydration, but also from utter despair.
"I'm sorry it had to be like this, boy," Ford told him honestly, feeling more than just a twinge of guilt, quickly suppressed. He had not expected Blaziken to do that. He had not expected his Pokemon to take it that far. He realized for the first time that the Blaze Pokemon had been acting a little strange recently, but had never made much note of it…perhaps he should have. It was too late now.
He sighed and rubbed his temples. It had to be done, he told himself. It had been necessary...if more than a little extreme. He would have to be sure to have a long talk with Blaziken after this was over, though. "But you left me no choice. I never wanted it to come to this, but it had to be done."
Had he any voice left, had he any strength left, Ash would have shouted, "If you never wanted it to come to this, then why'd you let it?" But he said nothing. He could say nothing. There was nothing left. He only felt emptiness and despair in place of his usual courage and boundless energy.
And so, he didn't move, didn't even try and protest as Ford pressed the button on his console which sealed Ash's fate.
At the cage's apex, the HERO came to life in an unearthly flash of purplish light. With an almost hungry glow, the crystal 'eye' pulsed, and every spotlight in the room swiveled to point directly at Ash, bathing him in unusually bright white light which grew in intensity as the crystal hummed and crackled with power, causing him to gasp in pain as the very building blocks of his body started rearranging themselves in reaction to the light. He fell backwards, a whoosh of air flying from his deflated lungs. As his body started to glow and transform, his precious cap, and the even more precious handkerchief inside, fell off, skidding to the edge of the platform.
And then Ash Ketchum started to scream.
…
Latias stared dully at her right wing, which was currently unattached from her body, lying a few feet away, covered in blood and gore. Why is my wing over there? She wondered. Shouldn't it be attached to my body?
She glanced down at her right side, where the wing was supposed to be, and saw a huge gaping wound spewing blood out in a puddle around her. Oh, that explains it. Heehee. I lost a wing! She thought giddily, her mind numb from shock. Deep down she knew this was something serious. Even using Recover, all she would be able to do was heal over the wound, she wasn't sure that even Mewtwo could regenerate her wing. This meant she might never be able to fly properly again.
There was a splash. Latias turned her head and saw Red Ranger standing over her, his feet soaked in the blood surrounding her. "Huh," he said. "Nice attack. Actually broke my sword," he said, holding up the jagged stump that had once been his powerful blade. "But I cut your wing off too, so I'd say I won this round." He chuckled coldly.
"So now I guess you're going to stick me in a little card!" Latias said dazedly, her head spinning from blood loss.
"Mmm…no, don't think so," said the Ranger, shaking his head. "You destroyed my gun, remember? Without that, I can't capture anyone. Guess I'll just have to kill you, then."
Her eyes widened, those words cutting through her confusion and funk. "Wh-what?"
"I'll have to kill you," he explained calmly, reversing his grip on what was left of his sword. "Even wounded, you're still dangerous. I'm supposed to incapacitate any intruders, and I think dying is the most effective form of being incapacitated. Mr. Ford will understand. I'll just tell him you tried to claw my eyes out, and he'll give me hazard pay, fix my suit, give me a new gun, and put me back out on the streets in a couple of days. And you'll be dead, forgot about that."
She blinked, a chill raising goosebumps along her spine. "And so, j-just like that, you're going to kill me?"
He shrugged. "My job is to capture criminals and kill monsters. Pokemon is short for Pocket Monsters, and you're a Pokemon, which makes you a monster. So…yeah, pretty much." His arm thrust forward, driving the jagged remnant of his sword into Latias' chest.
She gasped in pain, yellow eyes bulging. She sank to the floor, blood oozing out from around the sword hilt, now firmly imbedded in her chest, while more of that precious liquid dripped from her mouth. She stared up at her murderer in disbelief, shocked that it was all going to end like this.
The Red Ranger stood there and watched her for a few moments. Watched the life draining out of her. Then he chuckled and turned away, walking across the room towards the discarded prisons containing Bayleef and Gardevoir.
She blinked, her eyelids drooping as more blood came out. Is this…is this it? Am I dying? Is this my end?
Tears welled up, a deep sense of shame and loss rising from within her. That's it…I'm going to die here. Not in a battle to save the Earth or my friends, but in a duel with a fake hero. I've let…everybody…down…
She clenched her eyes shut as her breath grew shallow. Bianca…Latios…Lorenzo…Pikachu…Crawdaunt…Sadic…Phanphy…Charla…Annabel…is this what all of the struggle and sacrifices you made for me have amounted to? A lonely death, failing to save my friends? What good was all your hard work, then, if it came to this? To nothing? To failure?
It was all…all for nothing…
Her claw spasmed, brushing against the Dragon Flute and locket dangling from her neck, now soaked in the pool of blood spreading out around her. It was only now she realized that at any moment, she could have summoned Mewtwo, who would have done everything in his power to help her and her friends and save Ash and Charizard. But it had never occurred to her to summon him. Not even when things had seemed their most hopeless. Not even after she had spent bonding time with Mewtwo's amore beneath the fireworks, talking about the all-powerful Psychic! Why hadn't it occurred to her to call him? Why had she forced her friends to suffer and perhaps die when she could have saved them right from the beginning? Had it been pride? A desire to prove herself? Or had she just been too stupid or in a rush to think of it?
Either way, it was too late. She was dead. Her friends were dead, trapped, or doomed. She had come all this way on her journey…and in the end, it was all for nothing.
"My King…" she whispered as the spaces between her heart beats became longer and longer. "I'm sorry…I made you come back…for nothing. If you had waited a little longer, then I would have been able to join you in death. Now…we've switched places. You're alive, and I'm going to be a ghost or just plain dead. How-" She gasped, her body shuddering as it began to shut down. "How ironic fate is, isn't it?"
Her heart stopped.
…
Pain.
Fear.
Sorrow.
That was all he felt. That was all he knew. Nothing else mattered.
He had failed. He had forced a dear friend into losing something precious. And now he was going to be punished for his thoughtlessness.
He was falling. He didn't know where to, or where from, all he knew was that he was falling, and hurting, and becoming something else.
And
He
Kept
On
Falling.
And below, something with three eyes was waiting with open arms.
…
Pain.
Fear.
Sorrow.
That was all she felt. And she knew she deserved it.
She had failed. Her friends had been counting on her. Her dear friends, who had given their lives so she could go on, their sacrifice had been for nothing. Her beloved, who had come back from the edge of death itself to be with her, had returned to life for nothing.
She was dying.
She
Kept
On
Falling.
And there was nobody waiting to catch her.
…
Misty stumbled, nearly falling over. "Mom!" Togetic cried in alarm.
"I-it's nothing. I just thought…" She blinked in confusion. "I think…something's happened to Ash."
…
His yellow eyes flashed as an indescribably awful sensation struck him, nearly causing him to collapse from shock. He instantly knew what this meant.
"NO! LATIAAAAAAS!"
…
"It…it's done," Ford said, his mouth dry, his eyes wide in awe.
Blaziken tilted his head, intrigued.
A new figure, clad in shining white spandex, stood on the platform where Ash had been moments ago.
The far left side of his suit, and left arm, were covered in blue spandex, while the rest was white. A zigzagging gold line, running straight up from his boot to his shoulder, then zipping down towards his waist then back to his other shoulder, split the two colors apart. His belt had a gold buckle with the Astro Squad Sigma emblem on it. Hanging from it in a holster on his right side was a laser pistol, and a dagger hung in a holster on the left. Above his white boots, he had a pair of thick gold greaves which went over his kneecaps. One his left wrist, he wore a strange metal device that had what appeared to be a throttle and gauge. He had a gold vest which projected over his shoulders in the form of large shoulder pads and wrapped around his chest, connecting to a plate with the Latin symbol for Alpha on it. His helmet was white, like most of his bodysuit, with a blank silver faceplate for his lower face and a black visor shaped like a jagged mouth. Above the visor was a small V-shaped crest curved back against the forehead, and there were a pair of red lights on the sides of the helmet. Instead of being spherically oblong, the helmet came to a sharp point in the back, giving it an aerodynamic look.
"I did it! I DID IT!" Ford cried, laughing manically. "The ultimate hero is born! ALPHA RANGER!"
Alpha Ranger stood on the platform, unmoving and indifferent. Behind him, Ash Ketchum's official Pokemon League hat teetered on the edge and fell off, dropping into the lava below. It was incinerated on contact, destroying everything within.
…
High above the world…
He opened his eyes. "It's done," he said with a low chuckle. "He is mine."
As his minions burst into raucous howls and laughs, weeping tears of joy at this splendid news, the evil one sat calmly in his throne, gazing down at the Earth below, pleased with the way events were unfolding.
Everything was going according to plan. And soon, his ultimate victory would at last be obtained.
Earth, and all else, was doomed.
…
It seems as if things have taken a turn for the worse for all our main characters. Whose side is this new figure, the Alpha Ranger, on? Has Latias truly met her demise at the hands of Red Ranger? Will Ash's friends be of any help when they reach the tower's top and find themselves confronted with Ford's creation? And, just as important, will Charizard ever fly again? Find out next time, in the conclusion to Hero!
…
Bet you weren't expecting these twists, were you? Heh. Any opinions on how the actors in this little drama performed are welcome.
