Chapter 26 – The Fourth
Black City – Safe House
The next day I found myself training outside in the yard on a huge boulder, slicing it up with my Razor Shell and pushing it back with my Psychic with Midnight watching from the sides. Last night we spent together getting to know one another; trying to bond in the small time we had left since very soon we would have to leave, to separate for a while until the fighting was over. As much as I wanted to spend the last moments I had there in the safe house, to make up for the six years apart, but I had to be ready for Shiny Latias.
"Is it true?" Midnight asked as I sliced up a large boulder with my Razor Shell.
"Is what true?"
"You travelled through time and been to the past and the future, is it true?"
"Yeah, I have been to ancient times and seen what the planet will look like in hundreds to thousands of years." I nodded, stopping briefly before getting back to practice my attacks. "Who told you about that?"
"Espeon did, she told me how mommy fought so many bad guys and saved the world from an even bigger bad guy!" Midnight giggled. "Was mommy amazing when she fought with you?"
I stopped slashing at the boulder and slowly looked at her. I then thought of Latias, the memory of us fighting against Infinite, our last battle with him as he tried to absorb all life from all timelines as a food source so he could live forever. "Latias was really strong… I couldn't ask for a better Pokemon on my team. Every time we came out victorious in battle, we would celebrate… I miss those days when we did that, I just hope we can do it again." I smiled at the memory, the memory of all of us celebrating after each battle or mission we ever did. I could only imagine the one once all of this was over if things turned out well for us. I looked back at the boulder and tried to once again get back to training.
"Um, dad? Do you think you'll be ready for the battle with all of this training you are doing?" Midnight asked. Feeling a little thirsty and thinking it was the best moment for me to get a drink and a quick break before I got back to training, I walked over to Midnight and sat beside her and shrugged.
"I don't know…" I sighed. "Six years I have trained to fight the enemy I am facing now, I feel as though I need to train harder if I want to come out of this alive. My last opponent… I need to be ready for her. I'm just happy I remembered most of my training to survive all these years."
"When does the battle start between you and your enemies?"
I wanted to get back to training a little more before leaving soon. Looking at Midnight, I felt this could be my last time I ever spend with her not knowing for sure how the final battle will play out; me ending up controlled or dead, hospitalized again and making her worried, or I would come back alive and in one piece with Latias. I found a ball on the ground, one of the many toys Devon and his team gave to Midnight for her to play with and passed it to her, stood up and moved a little bit back with my arms up.
"Midnight, toss the ball over here! Let's play!" She cocked her head in silence. Watching as the ball rolled towards her and coming to a stop inches away. "I have plenty of time, so let's make the most of it."
Midnight's smile grew wider and levitated up before picking up the ball and threw it at me. For a simple game of catch, we were having a lot of fun, moving around the yard throwing the ball just trying to make a game out of to try and throw it the longest without dropping it. I'm not sure how long exactly we threw that ball around for, but we moved on towards other games; hide and seek where Midnight proved to be the better one at hiding than me, finding a tree to hide herself through the branches, on top of the roof of the safe house, or turning invisible whenever I almost got close to finding her.
We played for a while, laughing and just enjoying the time we had left, time that felt as if it had stopped for us to spend perhaps our last moment together before the final battle not knowing the outcome, who would live, who would die. It had been a long time since I last laughed and really enjoyed myself like this.
After a few games we had played mostly involving playing with small toys, Espeon came out of the house carrying an apple each for us. Good timing on her part since we were getting hungry. "Hey guys, you hungry?" Midnight perked her ears up at this and held up her paws shouting.
"Me, me! I'm hungry!" Espeon walked over to us and gave one of the three apples to Midnight using her Psychic who ate it greedily. Espeon smiled and offered me one before sitting down beside us, stretching her back.
"Phew, well work is done inside. Devon and his team are all set for Reversal Mountain. Just give the word and it won't take too long for his team to make their way towards the mountain." I took the apple from Espeon and took a bite.
"That's good. And what about the others who want to help out?" I asked, talking about my Pokemon back in the safe zone; Totodile, Bayleef, Golurk, Lugia, and Gardevoir. They had been contacted by me when we were in Undella Town and asked if they wanted to come and help us fight Team Annihilation Reborn and save Latias, all of them did.
"Yeah, all of them will be there at the mountain in a day or two." She nodded then shrugged. "Although I am not so sure about that idiot Dewott being there since he pretty much bailed on us ever since you became a Dewott. I thought that guy was your friend."
"Me too…" Dewott had said revenge wasn't worth it and that Latias would never have been captured if we never went after Shiny Latias, blaming me for it and endangering the lives of his mate and children. Espeon snapped at him arguing what if his mate had been killed by another Pokemon. Since then we hadn't spoke, disagreeing to go into hiding and running away with his family somewhere within this region.
"I can't believe that guy, after all we have been through he just ups and leave without a word, treating us like garbage after we tried to save Latias, blaming us…" Espeon hissed as she glared at the apple held within her Psychic grasp. "Well, wherever he is I just hope he's living a good life knowing we, his former friends are doing all of the fighting to save Latias."
I looked at Midnight as soon as she had finished eating the apple. "Oh yeah, I had almost forgotten…" Changing the subject now, I wanted to tell Midnight about her brother and sister still living in the safe zone rather than talk about Dewott. "You have a little brother and sister living in the safe zone they are in right now."
"I have a brother and a sister?" She cocked her head. "W-where are they?" She asked looking around, as if to expect to see Kairi and Light.
"They're in a safe place far from here." Espeon replied stroking Midnight's neck with her paw. "You'll meet them soon. Both are Water types called Oshawott's. Your little brother is named Light, and your little sister is named Kairi."
"What's an Oshawott? Do they look like daddy?" She asked as she pointed at me with her claw.
"Not really." Espeon shook her head. "Your father is a Dewott, the second in the line of the… uh, okay, it goes like this; first form is Oshawott, then middle form is Dewott the form your Dewott is right now, and finally the last form is Samurott."
"I can't evolve into a Samurott because of the Doom serum we were injected with prevents us from evolving, so I'm a Dewott until my end of days."
"Mommy told me I had no other brother or sister, did she lie to me?"
"Uh… well uh, you see… during the battle with Team Doom, a group Shiny Latias controlled six years ago, I lost my memory of who I was, where I came from, and those who mattered to me. During that time a female Oshawott named Aqua helped me. But uh, we were taken in by a Pokemon gang in Castelia City, a harsh gang run by a Pokemon named Purrloin. She was evil and she had threatened Aqua once, and sometime after I regained a memory of my home town we decided to travel there. Purrloin refused anyone from leaving her gang, so one night we sneaked out and escaped the hideout and the city. It was a long journey, but my memory was slowly coming back to me, but your mom… her memory didn't come back until uh…" this was awkward to talk about… more like difficult to explain.
"What your dad is trying to say is that he and Aqua fell in love and had children not knowing he and Latias were pretty much a couple already. But that doesn't mean your father doesn't love you mother anymore, she still has a place in his heart for her."
"O-oh… um, but you still love mommy, right?"
"Of course I do"
"Will you and mommy come home after you battle?" She looked me in the eye and levitated closer to me.
I didn't want to get her hopes up or make a promise I couldn't keep, so I just answered and hugged her back with a "I'll do the best I can do."I wish I could've said something better than that at the time, but that was all I could think of at the moment.
"Zackary, it's time." Espeon said after glancing back at the back door of the house to find Devon standing there for a moment looking at us before he nodded and went back inside. What that meant was that Midnight would have to go someplace else until the fighting was over and done with, a safer place where Shiny Latias and her soldiers would never find, neither I if I fell under the control of Shiny Latias controlled to hunt down everyone of my friends and family. We had just met and I wanted to do so much more, but the time we spent, that little time since yesterday and the early morning it was all we had.
So I looked her in the eye and reluctantly said not wanting to be separated, "I want you to go with Devon's team to be taken safely to somewhere a lot safer than here. Maybe you'll meet your brother and sister where they are taking you."
"But I don't want you to go…" she levitated closer to me, grabbing my arm with both of her paws trying to stop me. "Please don't leave me…" I turned to her and touched her cheek.
"I have to do this Midnight, if I don't then we may never see Latias again. They have your mother locked up, and where we are going…" I sighed, finding it hard to do this. "It'll be too dangerous for you; I need you to go with them where you'll be safe." Midnight looked at me sadly slowly understanding that we needed to separate again. She nodded and hugged me again, and I hugged her back. "It'll be okay." Looking at Espeon, she smiled at me and got up to go back into the house to make preparations for Devon's team to take Midnight away to somewhere a lot safer than here.
"Please come back safely, I don't want to be alone again." I didn't want this hug to end, not knowing if it would be my last time I would hold my daughter not knowing if the final battle would be the end for us, but the hug did come to an end before she was taken by Devon's team into a truck to be taken somewhere safe not ever knowing the location in fear should I be controlled by Shiny Latias to hunt down my allies, it was for the best.
Watching Midnight levitate inside the back of the truck, with one last wave the back door of the truck shut and drove down the long road, watching until the truck was no longer seen.
"She'll be safe," Espeon said as she walked up to me. "Devon and his team will take her someplace safe and look after Midnight. Meet up with her little brother and sister maybe. I don't know the location or how long the journey is to the safe zone Aqua and the others are, but they are somewhere that evil bitch won't ever find."
"Five years Aqua, Kairi, Light, and the others have been locked up in there, I don't want them to spend another five years in there." I looked at Espeon and walked off the road. "This fight has gone on long enough, so are you ready to end this?"
"Heh, I was just about to ask you that. A day- nah, not that close, I suppose three or more before our allies come forth and do battle against the evil bitch and her army or controlled puppets."
"I wish I could say the same thing myself." She turned her head and looked at me. "All this training I have been doing all these years, new methods I hope would be the best on fighting Shiny Latias, I'm not sure it'll be enough."
"You're not alone, Zackary. Me, Lisa and Bent, we're all nervous and unsure of ourselves about this. Will this be all for nothing? Will this be an unbeatable opponent and we are just throwing away our lives? Will we somehow come out of this victorious with all of us alive and no one left behind? Who knows… But what we are doing is that we are fighting to save our friend who we love. Shiny Latias isn't invincible, she can be defeated. With all of the training we have had the experience all these years of fighting bad guy after bad guy, if we remember all of that, the reason we are fighting, we may come out of this alive." Espeon chuckled to herself and turned away. "Okay, I'll shut up now. As a pathetic try at a speech, that sure was a pathetic one…"
I chuckled, "I have learnt a lot over the years, well all of us have learnt so much, I hope it'll be enough for the battle with Shiny Latias."
She sighed. "I hope so too…"
Black City – City Exit
It was now sometime a little after one in the afternoon, we had to leave the city to get to Undella Town before the route in between would be flooding with soldiers soon all in search for the ones who had infiltrated the base yesterday. Lucky for us Devon would provide us with a safe passage through the route to reach Undella Town his men had been using. To get through the route we had to travel close to the river. Devon's team had told us the best time to travel safely through the route would be between four and six later that day since soldier's would be patrolling near the main road. They would've offered us a ride to Undella Town but the inspections they had on the road, the amount of soldiers and mechas stationed there all searching for us, we would've be found out.
We didn't encounter many soldiers from the safe house we were staying at to the city gate, just a small group at each street corner we passed without incident, none of them had noticed us or stopped us to ask questions or even looked at us, it was a relief none of them did see us not wanting all soldiers within the city to know we were still in the city and we would be fighting for our lives against the hundreds that were within the city. Maia decided to travel with us to Undella Town to join in on the battle soon, staying invisible the entire time not wanting to draw any attention to people or the soldiers patrolling.
The city gate was near, and all we had to do after passing it was to head in the direction of the river west of the route and if the report was correct and the soldiers would be stationed near the main road soon then the path towards Undella Town would be a safe one. But of course, there was the thing we forgot when leaving the city or ever since we found Midnight here in the city.
We were walking close to the city exit; on the right side of the road was a large cliff that had a construction site set up on top, and the left closed cafes and stores. The road wasn't empty, except for several people walking in and out of the city. With the gate being so close to us, we thought we would leave the city without any problem, but then all of a sudden coming from the construction site a long loud laugh could be heard. It didn't take us long to realize who it was who laughing.
"Well, well, if it isn't the Dewott boy and his travelling circus troupe, such a joke if you think you can simply walk out of here without one of us from knowing." Espeon and I stood in front of Lisa and Brent, ready to combine our moves together and use Protect should he try to attack us, or a Psychic to counter his attack, while Maia stayed behind should anyone try to sneak up on us. Bulldozer was standing mask free on a metal beam with his arms crossed. "I saw you four enter the city, I knew you had defeated Iris back in Route 14 since she is not the kind of gal to simply give up or run away if things get too hairy. You came in this city all beat up…" He pointed at Espeon. "You I mean, you looked beat up, so she must've targeted you for a battle, and you won. After that you somehow found one of our underground bases… how? Whatever you four did in there you surly did a number on us. Today, you face me; Bulldozer in a battle." Bulldozer jumped down from the metal beam and slid down the side of the cliff wall and walked on the road between the city gate and us. "To get past me, you gotta beat me in battle first. A two on two battle will suffice. Two Pokemon against two of mine." He pointed at his wrist. "This wristband I have on me will alert every soldier within the city knowing you the enemy are here. Hundreds of soldiers, controlled Pokemon, drones, tanks, and mechas will all move in on this location within seconds. A button press is all it takes for this area to be crawling with them, and unless you want that from happening you'll stay where you are and behave, battle me and win." Many drones flew down from the construction yard and hovered over us all, aiming their turrets at us.
We would've run at him and attacked if he was in range of our moves. Maia still invisible moved slowly from us to get closer to Bulldozer, she had to move slowly so the drones would not detect her. So until then, we had to fight him and last until Maia got close to get in range.
Espeon stepped forward, "Oh we'll win all right. We'll beat you just like your other three buddies, and then the last member of The Five will wish he never created this pathetic excuse for a team!" Espeon attempted to step forward again to get ready for battle, but Brent stopped her.
"Hold it, guys!" Brent stepped forward, grabbing his Pokeball from his belt. "He's mine! This guy busted up my upper lip the first time he showed up and beat us up. It's pay back! Also, I don't trust this guy. Any minute he could activate them to attack us, we'll be left wide open and gunned down before we can react and try to defend ourselves, gonna need you two as our back up to protect us should they suddenly open fire on us. And Lisa, you got the medical supplies in your bag, gonna need you watching our backs here."
Bulldozer chuckled "I suppose that's fair. Because you can never know if at any second now I will suddenly activate the drones to attack and end this battle, this Shiny Latias will be called and the region will truly belong to Annihilation. But I will not do that yet, since the boss did allow us some fun to watch you, Dewott boy to suffer before then." He held up two of his Pokeball's removed from his belt. "These Pokemon inside the ball's I have trained for many years, so we will not go down easily? You sure you're up for it, Brent Jackson?"
"Brent, are you sure about this?" Lisa said to Brent, only for him to look back at her and smirked.
"I can handle this guy. Like me and Pokemon, we have trained to handle thugs like him!" Brent threw up his Pokeball's and out came Seviper and Muk out onto the field preparing to battle.
Brent wanted me and Espeon to stay back and protect us from the drones if Bulldozer activates during the battle and knowing Annihilation for being tricky and cruel it was a possibility. Lisa would get the medical supplies ready to treat Brent's Pokemon after the battle while Espeon and I shielded the attacks from the drones or Bulldozer so we could try to push through them and maybe defeat them in battle before fleeing through the route before reinforcements came, or perhaps flee first without fighting. "Okay Brent, you got this." I nodded, standing beside Lisa and Espeon while watching the drones and Bulldozer carefully should he try anything.
"Very well then, now let us begin!" He threw his Pokeball's up and out came two Pokemon; a Kabutops and an Onix both controlled and silent as they emerged from their Pokeball's standing still but prepared to battle awaiting their trainer. "The rules then if I must; no healing items, swapping Pokemon around, no assistance from your allies. Should you break the rules the drones will see that as an attack and will open fire on you all."
"What about you? Do these rules apply to you too?" Brent asked as he pointed his finger at him. Bulldozer chuckled and shrugged.
"Depends how this battle plays out. Now if it were a boring one? Well I might and just up the fun in this and activate the drones to attack for laughs. But an exciting one might leave me speechless and grinning from ear to ear amazed at the battle before me, completely forgetting about the drones. How's that sound?"
"Whatever…" He scoffed. "So c'mon then!"
"Good! Onix, head on in there and use Rock Throw on any of his Pokemon!" The Onix roared before slamming its massive tail down on the ground summoning up a huge rock and grabbed it with its tail, throwing right at Muk.
"Get outta the way, Muk! Use Sludge Bomb!" Muk evaded in time before the huge rock had hit him, exploding upon impact on the ground. Muk then used Sludge Bomb, purple sludge formed into a small ball at the hands and threw it at Onix hitting it directly into its body, not reacting even in the slightest to the attack, so Brent tried to use something else. "Alright then Seviper, use Night Slash on 'em!" Seviper did and charged right at the Onix, spinning first as its tail glowed purple and then sharp slashing right into the body of the Pokemon, again this didn't seem to hurt it at all. "What the? Not even a wince?" Bulldozer chuckled as he walked onto the battlefield and patted his Onix.
"Something to make them fight until they drop; pain Inhibitors, they don't nothing at all, so you got to really do some damage before they drop!" Bulldozer quickly stepped back before Onix used Slam with its tail on Muk and Seviper close to one another sending them flying back to the other side of the field.
"You-" Lisa was about to say something to Bulldozer, but one of the drones cut her off and flew in closer, aiming its turret at her head.
"What's that Lisa? I thought I told you and your buddies to hush while the battle is in progress. Wouldn't want these drones thinking you were assisting your friend in the battle now, would we?"
The battle continued, Brent giving his Pokemon commands for them to attack Bulldozer's Pokemon, attacks he didn't know were the best to use against them or not, if the moves he were using had any affect or immune to them. Bulldozer's Pokemon couldn't feel any pain, but Brent's Pokemon did with every attack they received. Bulldozer laughed at his efforts, Brent struggled, but he wasn't fighting to defeat them, he was waiting for Maia to move in close to destroy the wristband controlling the drones and the battle would be done and over with. Brent just had to hold out until then.
"My Pokemon do not give up easily. Thanks to the training they have had; they can last a long time in battle. What about you Mr Jackson, can your Pokemon last as long as mine in order to save your friends?"
Brent didn't answer back, he instead ordered his Pokemon to attack again; Muk using Disable on Onix so it wouldn't attack with another heavy hitting Slam on the both of them, and Seviper using Glare to paralyze the Kabutops, buy some time to inflict as much damage as they could before the moves wore off, only for them to be pushed aside afterwards and be dealt a lot damage.
"Ah, dang it!" Brent grunted, unsure what his next step he would take to do a lot of damage to Bulldozer's Pokemon or even defeat one. They were strong, perhaps the strongest he has ever faced before. He knew he had to keep the fight going until Maia got close enough to get in range, but to keep his Pokemon in the battle until then against those Pokemon proved difficult, not knowing what moves to use and not use. Bulldozer's Pokemon showed no sign of slowing down or that a move was weak or effective against them.
"I gotta keep going." He growled silently to himself. "I gotta stay in the game long enough until we get the chance to strike. He won't see it comin'. He'll be defenceless without his drones, so I just gotta last until then." Brent looked at his Seviper and Muk and nodded. "Okay guys, Seviper move in close to Kabutops and use Night Slash at it. Muk, use Disable on the Onix, we can't let it use Slam on us again. Once your done come back to me, we're gonna try once more on a heavy attack."
Seviper moved in close to the Kabutops, using Night Slash while the Pokemon had used Slash, the two moves colliding soon pushing each other off and returning back to the sides of their trainer. Muk had used Disable on the Onix again to prevent it from using Rock Throw at them.
Muk and Seviper now returning to Brent side awaited their new command. "Okay, let's give 'em everything we got. Hopefully that'll do enough damage to 'em. If not, we need to last long enough!" Brent gave his Pokemon moves to use against Bulldozer's Pokemon who in return used their own move to attack.
"Okay, when they're close we get them" Bulldozer raised his voice, getting ready for Brent's Pokemon to get in close, watching their movements carefully stepping closer and closer to his Pokemon, waiting for the best chance to attack. But the opportunity never came as Maia appeared beside Bulldozer immediately slashing and destroying his wristband with Dragon Claw causing all drones surrounding us to disable and fall.
"W-what the? B-boss?" He stuttered as he looked up at Maia glaring down at him. "N-no, another Latias!" He stumbled back, getting very close to his Onix, not paying attention to when Seviper, Muk, and Onix all three of them used a move exploding upon impact, knocking out Bulldozer's Pokemon as well as Brent's.
Bulldozer was thrown by the blast of the colliding two Pokemon's attack and hit his head against the rock wall briefly knocking him out, regaining conciseness soon after, but not before being impaled on one of the poles from the construction yard above fell down and fatally stabbed him through his chest. Brent ran towards Bulldozer, trying to do all he could to stop the bleeding, calling Devon's team to come and help over the Savior's device. Bulldozer shook his head. "N-no use… there's no use now…"
"Enemy or not, I ain't gonna leave a dyin' man to bleed out like this! So if you think I'll just up and leave, you can forget it, Bulldozer" Brent ignored him and tried again with the device to call for help.
"Bulldozer?" He again shook his head. "That's…. n-not my name, its Hank… I remember now who I was before Shiny Latias took control of me?" Brent and the rest of us looked at him, Espeon asking.
"You were controlled? But, when we first met you guys told us that you weren't controlled."
"We did… she did that wanting you guys to attack us at full force thinking we truly were evil people, people you didn't care if they lived or died, rotted in prison without ever losing control over her, or dead… like I will be soon…"
"You know, I'm not a bad person. Before Shiny Latias took control of me I had a job I always wanted when I was young to help not only myself but all I had cared for, had a family, had children watching them as they grew from babies to fully grown adults… and helplessly watching them die at the hands of that monster." He said weakly as I listened in. He held up his hands to his face looking at them with disgust. "My hands once cradling them in my arms when they were so young at the beginning, only to hold them trying to save them, not knowing it would be the last I would have with them…. Believe it or not, but my dream job was to become a carpenter like my father before his.… promising to build something for them…"
"Bulldozer… it is an insulting name she gave me, to Mr Sad, to Iris, and Cara…" he coughed up some blood. "Shiny Latias, she killed those dear to me by using her Psychic and throwing a bulldozer on top of them. Mr Sad, gave that name to him because he was crying, his family were killed right in front of him, gunned down by soldiers, so she gave him that name. Iris, the name of her sister strangled to death by a controlled soldier. Cara, a nickname of one of her Pokemon Shiny Latias had killed."
"Hank… "
"You know something? I am scared, scared of what may happen after I'm gone. I'm scared of seeing their faces, my wife and ancestors all looking at me… how could I show my face to them after what I did. How could they forgive me. But if there is nothing, I would want them to know that I loved them with all of my heart. They didn't deserve this."
"Shiny Latias did this to you, you weren't in control, but you tried to fight back." I asked as his body began to shake, nodding his head. I placed my paw on his shoulder to comfort him. "I have been under her control a few times, I have felt her power within me, I tried to fight back, but it was too much. I could only watch what she was making me do, making me say. A lot of people and Pokemon have suffered under her control, made them do terrible things, hurt loved ones closest to them. It wasn't you doing this."
Hank smirked as he closed his eyes. "Shiny Latias said you were evil on the first day I wore this suit as a member of The Five. After hearing the stories about you, you didn't sound evil. In a way we have a similar story you and I; dream jobs we both wanted to have, a family, and sorry to say this but forced to fight. The others… the other members of The Five, you defeated them?"
"Yeah, just… one more member left." Brent said, placing his hand on his shoulder.
"Petrov…" Hank grunted, nodding slightly before wincing in pain. "He unlike us, the controlled members of The Five, he is not controlled by Shiny Latias. That bastard, he is dangerous… watch out for him, he's a tricky son of a bitch! A-and that Latias… be careful around her, you hear? One look into her amber eyes and you are as good as dead…."
"We'll be careful." I told him, a smile began to form on his face, a peaceful smile. "The fight with Team Annihilation Reborn soon is almost near; we intend to end this once and for all." only slowly did I notice he wasn't breathing or moving anymore, he was gone. The four of us looked at one another sadly as the death of Hank had got to us. We wanted to save people's lives, not wanting anymore to die. Because of Shiny Latias, too many have suffered because of her, many have died. We wanted to prevent more people and Pokemon from dying, and to do that we had to face Shiny Latias herself within her base located within Reversal Mountain, our final battle.
To be continued…
Trivia:
I wanted every one of Zack's team to individually face a member of The Five, as if they were rivals in a way. The first fight involved all four facing the first member Mr. Sad, then Lisa with Cara, Espeon with Iris, Brent with Bulldozer and the final member the leader of The Five to face Zack.